Mission Impossible: 90AGA

I had a little problem with the bulkheads leaking on Thursday. That was fixed on Friday evening. I added the rest of the water to the tank and turned on the pumps. There was a rushing sound coming from the overflow where the Durso standpipe is. I drilled two 1/8" in the standpipe cap, the noise was a less than it was before. The flushing sound from the pump is gone. I have a Little Giant pump for my return pointed at the left-hand front corner of the tank. There was a 5" DSB before I started the pump. It's about 2" now and slow gettting lower. There is a layer of sand forming in the sump. I'll prpbably have to clean that out later. I'm waiting for an O-Ring from Jeff to hook up the skimmer and get that going. Now the tank is just running and is much more silent than it was this evening. The water level has evened out and things seem to be going well.

I was thinking about getting a Tunze Stream to create better circulation in the tank. After seeing what the return pump did to the sand, I'm not so sure I want to do that. Maybe after I add the LR things will calm down a little, but that won'd be for another week or so.

I'll post more pictures over the weekend if the tank and sump.
 
Pictures of the tank after the water was added and sump was turned on. I didn't have the skimmer on since I lost the O-Ring for the collection cup. I got that today and the skimmer is operating. The cloudy water should clear up in a couple day. I noticed that when I turned on the pump for the skimmer that it changed the amount of water flowing through the sump and the amount of water being pumped back into the tank. The standpipe is making that "sucking" sound again and needs to be adjusted. The water level in the sump dropped about 1/2" and needs to be raised. Didn't know the pump would have such an effect on the rest of the system.

Here is a shot from across the room of the tank. This is a picture from last night with just the sump running.

28609Cloudy01.jpg


Notice in this picture that the righthand side of the DSB in around 2" lower than the rest of the tank. This is where the water return forces the sand out of the corner.

28609Cloudy02.jpg


There is a coating of sand forming in the bottom of the sump. Since I didn't have the skimmer running, I'm not worried about this. I'll clean up a little later this week.

28609SandSump.jpg
 
Notes from 12-Oct-2003

Notes from 12-Oct-2003

The water in the tank is still cloudy but better than yesterday. I was going through some old equipment I packed up when I gor rid of my 55 AGA and I found a PRIZM skimmer. I forgot I had that thing. So I took it out, cleaned it up and plugged it in. It still works! I thought that would help with clearing the water a little faster. BUT! There's is always a but. When I turned on the skimmer, it changed the volume of water flowing into the sump. I didn't think that mattered a whole lot, but the Little Giant pump started that "swishing" and the overflow started its "gushing" sound. I eventually added more water to the sump and tank and the noises went away. I changed the foam blocks in the Lifereef and tweaked the skimmer a little (it was filling up way too fast!). I guess I'll let it run and see how it goes. Clear water shouldn't be that far away, I HOPE. This cloudy water is hard on the senses.
 
the cloudiness goes away after about a week, but if you dont put in any liverock and cycle the tank everytime you put yrou hand in its goign to stir it up and get the same thing, The bacteria will setlle everythign down nicely. Get the LR in tehre
 
Oct 14, 2003

Oct 14, 2003

The water is still cloudy, but not as cloudy as before.

28609Oct_14_03.jpg


I have decided to get my LR from Palmetto Reefs . They have a very good selection and were extremely helpful on the phone. The majority of the rock will be Kaelini and some Fiji to round it out. I'll probably start with 100lbs and see what fits in the tank.

My Salifert test kits arrived today from Island Aquatics . Can't wait to get the LR in the tank. I anxious to see what it will look like :)
 
19-Oct-03

19-Oct-03

The water is pretty clear now with the occasional SD flare-up. The return from the skimmer creates a whirlpool effect and some sand gets stirred up from the sand bed. It usually dies down immediately, but some particles do float around in the tank.

I had both MH lights on today for the first time. The temp without the lights in around 78 degrees. The lights were on for about 9 hours and the temp was 80.6 degrees around 7:00 PM. I ordered 2 Icecap fans to circulate some air in the canopy but I'm not sure how much that will help.

Still tweaking my protein skimmer in my sump. Just when I think its set correctly at night; I get up in the morning and the collection cup is filled. I unplugged the PRIZM protein since I didn't need it anymore and it's noisy to be a skimmer. I probably didn't assemble something correctly.

I haven't started taking any water reading so nothing to report there. I'm waiting for the LR shipment, then I'll start logging those readings. Hopefully the LR will clear up the SD swirls for the water return.
 
I've been tagging along for some time now - always fun to see a system come together. Especially one that's the same as your own.



On the Liverock - I think 100 lbs will be okay - depending on what look you're going for. I have 150 - a mix of Vanisi and Marshall Islands and sometimes wish I had used a little less. Seeing as my rocks are about 20 - 40 lbs each - it's kinda tough to do anything about it at this point.

From what I hear - you made the right choice going with Palmetto...

Good work.
 
corners

corners

get some nice trim for those corners and trim out the hood with the stand make it look like one unit ive done it on all my stands and it looks great! Really frames out a tank.... something to consider while you wait...
 
20-Oct-03

20-Oct-03

The tank has cleared up nicely.

2860920_Oct_03.jpg


I'm happy with the progress so far, except for the microbubbles. I can't figure out how to get rid of them. I thought my Little Giant return pump was causing the problem. I unplugged the pump, let it sit for a while, then plugged it back in - NO BUBBLES. I got up in the morning and the bubbles were back. I can't see any air in the line from the sump to the pump or the pump to the return line. I have no idea what is causing this.

Anyone know how to stop micro bubbles? More research...

Jamesurq - Thanks for the input.

prime8man - I thought about that. If you look closely the tank sits about 1/16" above the molding for the stand. Not that its a problem, but I wanted to get a piece of wood cut to hide that little oversight. The "lip" from the molding is an odd length. I agree that would nice with the tank trimmed out as well.
 
Came along way from that metal from :)

Forgive me for jumping in at the end here, but what are the PVC braces in the tank? Are you using them to place rock formations on? I'm somewhat confused as to their purpose. Im sure it's in these three pages of posts somewhere, but I don't want to go back through it all again. : þ

Erik
 
Forgive me for jumping in at the end here, but what are the PVC braces in the tank? Are you using them to place rock formations on? I'm somewhat confused as to their purpose. Im sure it's in these three pages of posts somewhere, but I don't want to go back through it all again. : þ
Click to expand...

The idea behind the rock structures was to keep the rock off the sand and back/sides of the tank. Since I (planned) have a 5" DSB, I made the bottom structure 5 1/2" high to allow for water to move under the rock formation. The backs of the stuctures allow me to create some diiferent rock formations and change it "on the fly" without seriously disturbing the rest of the tank. At least that was the plan when I started...:)
 
1-Nov-03

1-Nov-03

I added a 20lb bag of live sand overtop the Southdown and rearranged a few things. The stirred up the sand bed pretty good and the tank was cloudy for a few more days. It cleared up again after 2 days.

2860929_Oct-03.jpg


I measured the tap water. It was 173ppm. Not sure if that is good, but after going through the RO/DI unit, it measures 10ppm.

Still saving for my LR purchase. I can't wait to get something else in there besides water and sand.
 
How old are your cartridges? You should be getting zero or single digits ppm. Ten seems a little high for RO/DI output.
 
14-Nov-03 8:30 PM

14-Nov-03 8:30 PM

The tank has been running about 5 wks. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the tank except water, SD Sand and 20lbs live sand. I thought I'd post some pictures of the live sand so far.

28609Right.jpg


28609Left.jpg


28609Middle.jpg
 
I like your set up the stand is perfect. Did the sump fit through the doors? With my tank I had to remove a top brace and drop it in through the top. I hope I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t ever have to take it out if it leaks or something.
 
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