SPotter
Active member
Its not what was originally planned and I don't think its 100% a beananimal but tge guy that did my plumbing install said its very close to it.
My 280g Custom upgrade.....
- Thread starter SPotter
- Start date
Its not what was originally planned and I don't think its 100% a beananimal but tge guy that did my plumbing install said its very close to it.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Steve, just made it to the computer and looks good! I'm patiently awaiting my system to fill up too....I've still got at least another day to go before my system is full of full RO/DI!
SPotter
Active member
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Yeah you're 2 elbows, one tee, and one cap with a john guest fitting away from a BeanAnimal overflow. You could add it anytime and quite honestly I wouldn't hesitate. The only thing you would want to change is the location of the gate valve - as close to the sump as possible...
SPotter
Active member
Finally.....flipped the switch and watched the water flow
Finally.....flipped the switch and watched the water flow
I finally had enough water around 7pm last night to turn the pump on and get things started! I checked everything before turning the pump except for one thing....the loc-lines with penductors in the tank. Unfortunately they were angled up a little bit and all of the ball valves were wide open. Needless to say the pump didnt stay on very long as water shot 10ft across the room onto the brand new hardwood floor and brand new couch :eek1: Thank god my wife wasnt down there when this all happened. After a 30 min cleanup delay I was able to get back to getting this running. Once the water got flowing the drains were very noisy so I made some adjustments to the height of the pipes and added a double elbow to the drain with the gate valve and then dialed that back to the point where the only thing you hear in my fish room is the durso drain on my 80.
Water temp was 66 degrees at start up but by this morning the 1000w heater had it up 78 degrees so I will start adding salt tonight. I will try to take a video of the whole set up later on and post it.
Finally.....flipped the switch and watched the water flow
I finally had enough water around 7pm last night to turn the pump on and get things started! I checked everything before turning the pump except for one thing....the loc-lines with penductors in the tank. Unfortunately they were angled up a little bit and all of the ball valves were wide open. Needless to say the pump didnt stay on very long as water shot 10ft across the room onto the brand new hardwood floor and brand new couch :eek1: Thank god my wife wasnt down there when this all happened. After a 30 min cleanup delay I was able to get back to getting this running. Once the water got flowing the drains were very noisy so I made some adjustments to the height of the pipes and added a double elbow to the drain with the gate valve and then dialed that back to the point where the only thing you hear in my fish room is the durso drain on my 80.
Water temp was 66 degrees at start up but by this morning the 1000w heater had it up 78 degrees so I will start adding salt tonight. I will try to take a video of the whole set up later on and post it.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Looks great Steve. Your not supposed to shoot the water across the room that you just 'patiently' waited on
SPotter
Active member
Looks great Steve. Your not supposed to shoot the water across the room that you just 'patiently' waited on
It was like slow motion!!
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Location should not matter honestly as long as it has good flow. I'd just make sure and put them in a filter sock/media bag so you don't have dead shrimp floating around the system. I've not used the method before but seen plenty do it.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I have 6-7 inches of live sand bed in fuge but I'm still going to throw some shrimp in my filter sock so I'm sure that I'm not getting Ammonia registered on the test kits. I did not test the refugium with test kits but I'll start testing Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate daily after tonight. Not worried about any of the parameters at this point.
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
I had excellent results by dosing ammonia, used the janitorial strength stuff from Ace Hardware, which has no surfactants. I cycled a 225 FW tank in 2 weeks by doing that, granted I somewhat seeded the tank with a handful of ceramic bio-media from another tank, but still it was pretty quick and effective. I think I was dosing 1/4 cup per day to keep ammonia between 1.0 and 4.0 ppm.
SPotter
Active member
Seriously? how did you think of doing that? You are one creative person!!!!
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
People have been doing it that way for years. Google "ammonia surfactants" and you'll find threads all over the place where people panic because they used the wrong ammonia and had to tear down their tank and scrub it down. You'll find a few threads of mine in there as well.
Just to cover all of that, all soaps are surfactants. Not all surfactants are soaps. Surfactants cause a liquid to spread out, basically breaking the surface tension. Think of a drop of water on glass, it beads up. Surfactants reduce this effect.
If you buy the Target or Wal-Mart brand of ammonia, it will say "pure ammonia" or something like that, then the label will list "surfactant". When you shake that stuff up, it will get a little foamy at the top but the bubbles will break right away. This is not a soap-based surfactant and is generally safe to use (and I did, at first). Find another bottle and shake it up and if it stays foamy at the top, like you would expect would happen if you shake soapy water in a bottle, then that stuff will ruin everything in your tank, and you will have to throw out all decor and plumbing, and bleach the tank down. Don't use that stuff
The Ace Hardware brand is slightly more expensive but is also 2x the strength and does not list surfactant as an ingredient, so you can be assured that it is 100% safe. I would not buy anything but that stuff. Seed your tank with bio-media, dose about 1/8 cup and test it an hour later. Keep dosing until you get your ammonia above 1.0ppm and keep in there, but don't go over 4ppm or the biological process can stop. I tried to keep it right around 1.0 or maybe 2.0, testing before and after dosing and keeping a log book.
Just to cover all of that, all soaps are surfactants. Not all surfactants are soaps. Surfactants cause a liquid to spread out, basically breaking the surface tension. Think of a drop of water on glass, it beads up. Surfactants reduce this effect.
If you buy the Target or Wal-Mart brand of ammonia, it will say "pure ammonia" or something like that, then the label will list "surfactant". When you shake that stuff up, it will get a little foamy at the top but the bubbles will break right away. This is not a soap-based surfactant and is generally safe to use (and I did, at first). Find another bottle and shake it up and if it stays foamy at the top, like you would expect would happen if you shake soapy water in a bottle, then that stuff will ruin everything in your tank, and you will have to throw out all decor and plumbing, and bleach the tank down. Don't use that stuff
The Ace Hardware brand is slightly more expensive but is also 2x the strength and does not list surfactant as an ingredient, so you can be assured that it is 100% safe. I would not buy anything but that stuff. Seed your tank with bio-media, dose about 1/8 cup and test it an hour later. Keep dosing until you get your ammonia above 1.0ppm and keep in there, but don't go over 4ppm or the biological process can stop. I tried to keep it right around 1.0 or maybe 2.0, testing before and after dosing and keeping a log book.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
The cycle will begin and turn ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrate. You then do water changes to remove Nitrate in a traditional sense. Once cycle is complete you should never pick up ammonia on your test kits and should not need to test for it.
Floyd, how long do you keep the ammonia between 1-4 ppm? I'm going to grab some of this ammonia at Ace on lunch if the store by my work carries it Need an excuse to leave the office too!
Floyd, how long do you keep the ammonia between 1-4 ppm? I'm going to grab some of this ammonia at Ace on lunch if the store by my work carries it
Need an excuse to leave the office too!
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