My 280g Custom upgrade.....
- Thread starter SPotter
- Start date
Rotknee
Member
Steve...all I can say is D-A-A-A-Y-U-U-U-M...you got skills bro. Love the build!
Here is the funny thing. I remember reading your first post a while ago thinking, hmmm, what can I do to create a similar situation and get my wife to agree to a new protein skimmer? Then I thought, it's my money anyway so I'll just buy it. Then common sense kicked in, happy wife, happy life and you know the rest of the story LOL.
I'll be following more closely going forward as I am also interested in your ATS setup. I'm using biopellets now and have been fighting cyano ever since. Should your system work well I might give it a shot.
That light is kinda cool too!:thumbsup:
Here is the funny thing. I remember reading your first post a while ago thinking, hmmm, what can I do to create a similar situation and get my wife to agree to a new protein skimmer? Then I thought, it's my money anyway so I'll just buy it. Then common sense kicked in, happy wife, happy life and you know the rest of the story LOL.
I'll be following more closely going forward as I am also interested in your ATS setup. I'm using biopellets now and have been fighting cyano ever since. Should your system work well I might give it a shot.
That light is kinda cool too!:thumbsup:
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Steve, looking good and keep your head up with those trates. They are going and south and will be down in no time with big changes like that. I'm not sure why the tanks would matter with hard plumbing as long as the bulkheads are not being stressed in any way. I've seen tons of tanks similar to this with hard plumbing and is likely the route I'll go when I get two 165 gallon ones. (That pump looks really similar? Had a few miles on it back and forth from our houses
)
)I'm hoping to incorporate an automatic water change setup to mine as well using my Apex controller.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I'd have to agree with that as float switches/solenoids/pumps are all unreliable. Because I did not trust this method I ended up going with a LiterMeter III setup. I use LiterMeter base module w/ pump attached, remote pump, and water exchange module.
- Base pump used for top off (1 week of dialing in evaporation rate and you don't have to worry about this anymore)
- Remote Pump used for drain to house drain.
- Water exchange module is used for new saltwater and water exchange module will kick it off if it goes above a certain level in sump.
As an additional safe measure my float switches are just a failover and not really used for top off but rather a second preventative measure. Low water alarm will actually kick off return pump and outlet to LiterMeter III and e-mails me so I can access the situation. High water alarm will kick off LiterMeter III outlet and I have a bulkhead installed at top of sump should both of the above failsafes fail which drains to house.
The LiterMeter III pumps have amazing delivery/draw heights so that is not of concern. Each pump can do a total of 99 liters (26) gallons/day so in Steve's 400 gallon system you could do up to 45% water changes in a week
(With my 1000 gallon system it will meet the needs too and is still able to do 18% water changes a week which I doubt will ever be that high) The pumps also take this set amount you want to change water and divides it over 150 times a day so when you talk about stability, this is one of the best things you can do to a system IMO to stabalize parameters. (Ask yourself if doing a 15-25% water change does not change water chemistry outside of the measurable tests we perform?)That being said, this is just my opinion but at retail price of $683 for all three pumps and main module, 5 year warranty, they are the best upgrade I've ever made to my system. I recently rebuilt the pumps with new tubing before putting them back to work but this was just proactive maintenance and I was not having any issues with the pumps. Randy Holmes Farley also does a similar method and recommends this 'continuous water change' method over anything in our reefs.
LM III Manual
***Sorry for any derailment or rant Steve:ape:
SPotter
Active member
Hey Rich,
I started testing a few days after I began the cycle. They showed up pretty quickly. What are you using to start the cycle?
SPotter
Active member
I'd have to agree with that as float switches/solenoids/pumps are all unreliable. Because I did not trust this method I ended up going with a LiterMeter III setup. I use LiterMeter base module w/ pump attached, remote pump, and water exchange module.
- Base pump used for top off (1 week of dialing in evaporation rate and you don't have to worry about this anymore)
- Remote Pump used for drain to house drain.
- Water exchange module is used for new saltwater and water exchange module will kick it off if it goes above a certain level in sump.
As an additional safe measure my float switches are just a failover and not really used for top off but rather a second preventative measure. Low water alarm will actually kick off return pump and outlet to LiterMeter III and e-mails me so I can access the situation. High water alarm will kick off LiterMeter III outlet and I have a bulkhead installed at top of sump should both of the above failsafes fail which drains to house.
The LiterMeter III pumps have amazing delivery/draw heights so that is not of concern. Each pump can do a total of 99 liters (26) gallons/day so in Steve's 400 gallon system you could do up to 45% water changes in a week
That being said, this is just my opinion but at retail price of $683 for all three pumps and main module, 5 year warranty, they are the best upgrade I've ever made to my system. I recently rebuilt the pumps with new tubing before putting them back to work but this was just proactive maintenance and I was not having any issues with the pumps. Randy Holmes Farley also does a similar method and recommends this 'continuous water change' method over anything in our reefs.
LM III Manual
***Sorry for any derailment or rant Steve:ape:
Are you an undercover LiterMiter sales rep?????? Thank you for that information. I had thought about going that route but just didn't want to invest the money.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
No! But if someone has a great product and I can back it I will.
kissman347
New member
I like the water change station. I was looking for some inspiration for a system I'm setting up. Keep up the good work!!
SPotter
Active member
OK...let me start off by saying I love my apex but here's why I would never use it for an automatic water change. I had turned off the outlet that controls the pump on water change tanks and I just went into the fish room and noticed the pump was still running. So something is wrong with that one outlet and it won't turn off. Fortunately the pump was just recirculating the water in the tank but if I had it pumping into the tank....well lets just say it wouldn't be pretty.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
That's why you need redundancy. Electronics will fail, it's just a matter of WHEN!? I've had a tank crash because of something I should have had more redundancy in place for and is where my OCD comes from now
SPotter
Active member
That's why you need redundancy. Electronics will fail, it's just a matter of WHEN!? I've had a tank crash because of something I should have had more redundancy in place for and is where my OCD comes from now
You have OCD....no way :spin3:
That's why you need redundancy. Electronics will fail, it's just a matter of WHEN!? I've had a tank crash because of something I should have had more redundancy in place for and is where my OCD comes from now
Agreed. I have the Same concerns and will only put it in place with layers of redundancy. That said I really like the idea of daily, low volume, water changes.
