JackandJill
New member
Look forward to the aquascape, love those rocks
Mike's 240 Peninsula Build
- Thread starter mike810
- Start date
Been very busy with work lately! I managed to find some time to get some plumbing done on the water changing station. The tanks came in last week but haven't had time to do the plumbing. Tonight I finished about half of the plumbing, I hooked up the rodi and it is currently making water.
The water source is coming from a hose bib I had my landscaper install on the side of my house. The water pressure in my house is garbage! It use to take me two and half hour to make five gallons of water inside my house. Now it is making water much much faster connected to the hose bib outside.
The tank should be here on sunday!! Anyways, here are some pics of the water changing station. Will update with tank photos once it arrives.
The water source is coming from a hose bib I had my landscaper install on the side of my house. The water pressure in my house is garbage! It use to take me two and half hour to make five gallons of water inside my house. Now it is making water much much faster connected to the hose bib outside.
The tank should be here on sunday!! Anyways, here are some pics of the water changing station. Will update with tank photos once it arrives.
Tank is on the stand and got most of the plumbing roughed in. Need to grab a few more parts to complete the drains, primer and glue everything together. Once the glue dries, I will do a leak test. Once that is done, I'll fill it up with RO water and mix the salt in the tank. I currently have 120G of RO water waiting to fill up the tank. Will take some time to completely fill up the tank but hopefully I can get the cycle going next week.
Tank looks good. Silicone job is nice and clean. I did find a small blemish in the glass which shows a little distortion in that area but you have to spot it at a certain angle. No big deal the wife says but I KNOW IT'S THERE. lol
Manifold with 3 gate vales. 2 will be used to run the gfo/carbon reactors.
Unfinished drains
Bean Animal Drains and two return lines
Tank looks good. Silicone job is nice and clean. I did find a small blemish in the glass which shows a little distortion in that area but you have to spot it at a certain angle. No big deal the wife says but I KNOW IT'S THERE. lol
Manifold with 3 gate vales. 2 will be used to run the gfo/carbon reactors.
Unfinished drains
Bean Animal Drains and two return lines
Finished the plumbing on the tank today! performed a leak test, all the plumbing checked out fine, no leaks. However, I discovered a tiny leak in the sump. The last baffle separating the skimmer section from the return has a tiny leak at the bottom. It is very slowly letting water into the return section, I will have to give John at AA a call to see what he can do about it.
So this tank has the bean animal drains and I must say they are definitely dead silent! It was so quiet, the only thing you could hear was the durso drain on my 65G! Also the bk skimmer wow! That thing is completely silent, the slight hum from the return pump was much louder than the skimmer. I am impressed, can't wait to see what gunk it can pull.
Leak testing, I let it run all day. No leaks!
Bean Animal Drains. If you plan to build a new tank in the future, I highly recommend this drain system.
No Bubble from the drain lines at all! The bubbles you see on the sump walls are from the drain purging itself of air to create a full siphon.
Filling the tank back up with RO water, don't mind the bowl. It was placed there so the incoming water doesn't stir up the sand.
So this tank has the bean animal drains and I must say they are definitely dead silent! It was so quiet, the only thing you could hear was the durso drain on my 65G! Also the bk skimmer wow! That thing is completely silent, the slight hum from the return pump was much louder than the skimmer. I am impressed, can't wait to see what gunk it can pull.
Leak testing, I let it run all day. No leaks!
Bean Animal Drains. If you plan to build a new tank in the future, I highly recommend this drain system.
No Bubble from the drain lines at all! The bubbles you see on the sump walls are from the drain purging itself of air to create a full siphon.
Filling the tank back up with RO water, don't mind the bowl. It was placed there so the incoming water doesn't stir up the sand.
Loving the bean animal drains already. Completely dead silent, no joke. Threw in a few shrimps and waiting for the ammonia to climb. Finalizing a few things with the carpenter. Things are going smoothly. Need to finish plumbing the water changing station. That's all for now folks, stay tuned.
Very glad I took the time to learn the system and install it. Didn't take much to fine tune it. A few twist of the gate valve and I was good. Wish I knew about this when I had my 65g built. The durso on that tank is loud..
About 10 shrimps has been in the tank since last Friday. I just tested for ammonia and got a reading of 1ppm. I added Dr Tim's one and only. Let's see how fast that ammonia is reduced. I will continue to feed the tank until ammonia and nitrites read zero. All the reviews for Dr Tim's says 1-2-3 week cycles. We shall see.
Quick update
Quick update
So dr Tim's one and only has been in my tank for a little over a week. Ammonia has been hovering around 2-3ppm and no signs of dropping. Nitrite never registered. We decided to try another product since dr Tim's wasn't getting the job done fast enough.
Wife found a lab test regarding Fritz Zyme #9 on the net stating they are one of the best on the market. Supposedly this company was the first to culture nitrifying bacteria for commercial use and has been around for about 30 years. Reviews on the net about fritz zyme were slim to none. Dr Tim's on the other hand had a lot of great reviews that's why we tried his product first.
Well this morning the fritz zyme was delivered. A one gallon bottle which treats 320g and half the cost of dr Tim's. I tested for ammonia and nitrite before adding fritz zyme. Ammonia read 3ppm and nitrites were zero today at 11am. I poured in the whole one gallon bottle of fritz zyme. Just tested again today. Ammonia reads 2ppm and nitrites are .25. Finally a reading. I will test again tomorrow morning but it seems to me fritz zyme has already gone to work on my tank and it's only been a few hours. Dr Tim's been in my tank for a week and hasn't done anything. Not sure why fritz zyme isn't more popular.
Quick update
So dr Tim's one and only has been in my tank for a little over a week. Ammonia has been hovering around 2-3ppm and no signs of dropping. Nitrite never registered. We decided to try another product since dr Tim's wasn't getting the job done fast enough.
Wife found a lab test regarding Fritz Zyme #9 on the net stating they are one of the best on the market. Supposedly this company was the first to culture nitrifying bacteria for commercial use and has been around for about 30 years. Reviews on the net about fritz zyme were slim to none. Dr Tim's on the other hand had a lot of great reviews that's why we tried his product first.
Well this morning the fritz zyme was delivered. A one gallon bottle which treats 320g and half the cost of dr Tim's. I tested for ammonia and nitrite before adding fritz zyme. Ammonia read 3ppm and nitrites were zero today at 11am. I poured in the whole one gallon bottle of fritz zyme. Just tested again today. Ammonia reads 2ppm and nitrites are .25. Finally a reading. I will test again tomorrow morning but it seems to me fritz zyme has already gone to work on my tank and it's only been a few hours. Dr Tim's been in my tank for a week and hasn't done anything. Not sure why fritz zyme isn't more popular.
Do not rush it... make it correct.
If you rush it and it swings around, then it might just swing back and cause issues.
You are waiting on the bacteria to populate and be sustainable.
It might take it a bit of time. I mean not over a year, at least.
Ammonia is still about 2.x ...
Did you put raw shrimp in it?
If you rush it and it swings around, then it might just swing back and cause issues.
You are waiting on the bacteria to populate and be sustainable.
It might take it a bit of time. I mean not over a year, at least.
Ammonia is still about 2.x ...
Did you put raw shrimp in it?
Finally got around to cleaning up the RODI unit. Hanged it on the wall, added a pressure gauge so I know when to change filters. I also upgrade my 75GPD unit to a 150GPD using BRS upgrade kit. Essentially adding a second membrane for. This is a no brainer if you have an RO unit. Twice the water production and 50% less waste water. You can only upgrade if you have 65psi from your source water otherwise you'll need a booster pump. Lucky for me, I have almost 100psi from the hose bib I connected the unit to. I also added a second DI canister so I can rotate the resin as it gets exhausted.
When the first canister is exhausted, I'll rotate the second canister to the first canister's position and the freshly changed DI to the second canister. Before I added the second DI canister, my DI would be almost exhausted and I would see TDS start to creep up forcing me to change it out before it was completely exhausted.
I also cleaned up the mess of wires from the led lights. The cycle is moving along. Just tested for ammonia tonight and it reads zero. Nitrite is thru the roof 5ppm+. I wonder how long it will take for it to drop. Nitrate is 160+ according to api test. I see massive water changes in my near future. Good thing I upgraded my ro unit! 5 gallons of pure water in 30 minutes. Use to take me 2 1/2 hour to make 5 gallons when the unit was hooked up instead my house lol.
When the first canister is exhausted, I'll rotate the second canister to the first canister's position and the freshly changed DI to the second canister. Before I added the second DI canister, my DI would be almost exhausted and I would see TDS start to creep up forcing me to change it out before it was completely exhausted.
I also cleaned up the mess of wires from the led lights. The cycle is moving along. Just tested for ammonia tonight and it reads zero. Nitrite is thru the roof 5ppm+. I wonder how long it will take for it to drop. Nitrate is 160+ according to api test. I see massive water changes in my near future. Good thing I upgraded my ro unit! 5 gallons of pure water in 30 minutes. Use to take me 2 1/2 hour to make 5 gallons when the unit was hooked up instead my house lol.
SchnitzelReef
Active member
Man what's taking so long? I used microbactet7, and already have 5 fish in my 250.
