My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots of pics

[slief]

My second RD3 230 watt pump showed up today.. This one will be used for my return pump. Unlike the RD3 230 on my closed loop, this one will be a bit more challenging to install as I am going to have to re-do some of the plumbing coming out of the return pump. I'm also going to set this one up so that I only need one spare pump instead of a spare for my closed loop and a separate spare for my return. That way, I can keep my Dart Gold return pump for my spare instead of a Dart Gold and a Hammerhead Gold that I have now for spares. When I get home tonight I will start planning out what will be needed to redo my return side with hopes of getting this new RD3 installed later this week if not this weekend. Once I get it installed, I will be able to compare the power usage to the Superdart Gold that this will replace. What will be more interesting will be the drop in tank temps that I expect to see as these RD3's run cold and produce absolutely no heat to the touch when you feel the motor.

 

[Aquatron]

I see several box's in your pic......HOLDING OUT ON US

 

[pmrossetti]

Your new larger refugium looks great Scott

 

[slief]

I see several box's in your pic......HOLDING OUT ON US

LOL.. Fortunately those boxes aren't tank related..

Your new larger refugium looks great Scott

Thanks.. It's doing well and serves it's purpose. The softies that I put in there have probably quadrupled in size. They all started off as little frags that grew on the bottom of my main display. When I moved them over, they took off. I do get a lot of hair algae in that tank which can be a pain but there is no nuisannce algae in the main display which is the goal anyway. I just preen the algae from the display fuge just like I do the chaeto down below the main display.

 

[slief]

It's been a few days since getting the sump back on line and all is well. No more leaks. My skimmer is kicking butt despite still not being fully broke in after being thoroughly scubbed and cleaned inside and out. Man I love this skimmer! That is 3 days worth of skimmate.. Nearly 1/2 gallon worth.

I have yet to setup the 2nd RD3 230 that will be used in place of my Superdart Gold return pump but I should get that installed this weekend. As I mentioned earlier, that swap will be a task as I need to redo a bunch of the pump exit plumbing due the the outlet height difference and the way I have the return plumbed. I need to redo the lines that connect to the pumps exit, the line that goes to my manifold as well as the line that goes to my chiller loop. It all comes off one 2" PVC line with T fittings and valves. There isn't any room to cut into the line between the fittings so I will have to redo it. Not a huge issue but instead time consuming. While I could eliminate the chiller loop because I don't need the chiller anymore, I will likely keep that loop in place so I can take advantage of the geo thermal cooling that the chiller loop provides. It runs through the wall and 18" underground to the garage and back. A total run of about 50 feet each direction. I figure that cooling benifit during the summer may still be desireable even though the RD3 230 on my return should drop my tank temps during the warmer months. The return plumbing was originally setup for a Reeflo Hammerhead and as such was different than the closed loop that I plumbed for the Dart. When I make the change for the RD3 return pump, I am going to set it up so I only need one spare pump instead of two. To date, I have kept a Hammerhead for my return pump spare and a Dart for my closed loop. When I setup the 2nd RD3, it will match the other RD3 in terms of unions and fittings which matched my Dart Gold. I will then keep the Superdart Gold for my spare pump and sell my Hammerhead Gold along with my Dart Gold. No point in keeping multiple pumps if they are both plumbed the same.

One of the nice things about these pumps is 0-10v controllablity. As such, connecting them to my Apex was high on my list. Not so much for the return pump which will always run at a set speed but the RD3 on my closed loop will present some nice advantages of having 0-10v control. That pump blows out under my live rock to keep detritus from settling under the rock. I really don't need a constant high rate of flow down there. As such, my plan as to create multiple flow profiles that clear out the detritus while also saving power.

Today I made a custom cable to connect the RD3 230 watt pumps to my Apex 0-10v control. The cables produced by Royal Exclusiv aren't in stock in the US at the moment although they should be in stock very soon. None the less, their cables currently only support 1 pump per RJ45 connector. The Apex has two seperate variable speed ports per RJ45. I was able to locate a pair of din cables that match those used on the RD3 230 watt pumps from one of the suppliers who I use for my computer business. They also happen to be a distrubutor for the connector manufacturer. It happened that they had the last two connectors with cable attached and in the US. I guess I got lucky. These cables only have a din on one end. No RJ45 connectors which was fine because I had other plans for them anyway.

I used those two cables and wired them up to an RJ45 connector so that I had an Apex compatible 0-10v cable that can control two of these pumps individually. I have yet to install the second pump but I tested the cable with the RD3 230 that is on my closed loop and it worked just as it should from both din connections. After testing, I created a couple Apex profiles for the closed loop pump. One that runs it at 40% during the day which works out to about 2200 gph and another profile that runs it at 20% at night to save power. I will likely create another profile to crank it up to 100% once or twice a day for a very short amount of time with a goal of really blowing things out from under the live rock. I might also create some ramping profiles although I am not sure there is much need let alone benifit to that other than satiisfying my need to tinker.

 

[slief]

I started getting my plumbing together for the return pump swap to the 2nd RD3 230. The plan is to do the swap on Sunday although I may do it Saturday afternoon as I am planning on help LA Fish Guy Jim with some plumbing at a customers on Saturday morning.

As I mentioned earlier, this pump swap will be a more a challenge compared to the first RD3 230 that I installed on my closed loop. The return pump plumbing was originally setup for a Hammerhead where as the closed loop was setup for a Dart. The way I had set my Darts up with the unions, the inlet union further away from the volute and the outlet union was higher up than the Hammerhead return pump. The RD3 with the fittings I needed to adapt it to my system works out perfect for replacing the Darts but is a pain when trying to adapt to the Hammerhead and in my case impossible on the exit side because of the hard plumbing.

As such, I was left with no choice but to change the exit side of the return plumbing. The inlet isn't an issue but on the exit side, it pushes the plumbing back about 1.5" and raises the union about 1.5". Not a huge deal as I was prepared to make this change and tend to be very organized and efficient when it comes to my plumbing. The good thing is that I will be able to keep just one pump for a spare which in this case will be a Super Dart Gold. It will be plug and play for either my return pump or the closed loop and have the unions on it so it can be swapped in with a moments notice should I have a pump failure. Once I get this swap done, that will give me a damn near new Hammerhead Gold and a Dart Gold to sell.

Below is a shot of my return plumbing. It's the plumbing on the right. I need to replace everything going out my existing return pump to just past the upper elbow that leads to the horizontal run. The blue valve leads to my chiller loop. The double union ball valve above that leads to my manifold and the line above that leads to my return in the tank. I will have to make one cut to remove the lines from the pump to the horizontal run above the elbow. I will install a union ball valve in the horizontal section and connect that to the new pump plumbing. The manifold line will be reconnected to a new double union ball valve so no cuts needed there and the chiller loop will likely need a new union ball valve as blue handle one is really old and I can't find another like it. Not a big deal though as I have other 1" union ball valves.

As I said, I really plan things out and in this case, I need to have everything laid out and as much preglued as possible so I can keep down time to a minimum. In this case, I would expect the system to be down no more than an hour. That will give me time to shut the return pump off, break the siphon at the top of the tank, close the valves before the return pump. Cut the line above the return. Remove the return, remove the old section of plumbing, glue the new union ball valve above the new section and finish up the new section. Really, I don't expect it to take more than 30 minutes total since I will only need to glue about 8 joints when all is said and done as I have already glue a bunch of it together. I could glue it all before hand but some of the fittings will need to be glued in place so things line up properly.


Here is a shot of the new RD3 230 return pump with the unions glued in place so they can be connected to the union ball valves on either side. You can also see the new T fitting glued to the double union ball valve that will leads to my manifold. The other T fitting will go to the chiller loop. This was taken with dim light so the colors are kind of funky..

This is how it will go together. Above the upper T will be an elbow leading to the union ball valve that will sit between this plumbing and the tank. If I ever need to mod the plumbing again, the extra union ball valve will make it easy and I won't need to cut things under there.

 

[Klaus Jansen]

Hi slief ...

in my old 4000 gallon tank, i reduce the speed of the closed loop pumps down to 20 % . Corals and fish like this absolutely. Much less stress in the night... and you save a lot of electricity cost. I have had very good experience with the night mode. Thats one of the reasons, why the RD3-Speedys have a 10 Volt control input...

best regards ... Klaus

 

[slief]

Hi slief ...

in my old 4000 gallon tank, i reduce the speed of the closed loop pumps down to 20 % . Corals and fish like this absolutely. Much less stress in the night... and you save a lot of electricity cost. I have had very good experience with the night mode. Thats one of the reasons, why the RD3-Speedys have a 10 Volt control input...

best regards ... Klaus

Yea, I reduce the flow of my Tunze's as well during the night. Part of that is to save power but the other part is to keep it more calm in the tank during the lights off period. I am now doing the same on my RD3 closed loop pump. I wish I could do it on the return pump too but that would raise my sump level which would make my skimmer go nuts. It would also decrease the flow to my display refugium and to my rectors which wouldn't be ideal unfortunately as my reactors need a constant flow rate to maintain consistency.

I did pick up a Kill A Watt Meter yesterday and plan on comparing the power consumption on the Superdart Gold pump (currently running my return) to that of the RD3 230 pump that will soon replace that Superdart. I know I will be dialing the RD230 down a bit to match the flow of the dart which I already restrict a bit through a valve. The big question is how much will I need to reduce the RD3 230 to match my current flow.. The Dart is rated at around 4300 GPH at 0' head and draws about 170 watts. The RD3 is rated closer to 5400 GPH or 5200 at a 6' head and draws about 60 watts more at full power.. As such, it will be interesting to compare flow vs watts. Even if the RD3 draws a bit more power at similar flow rate when dialed back which I doubt will be the case, the fact that the RD3 has virtually no heat transfer will be a huge benefit during the summer months. I'm just hoping it doesn't drop my temps too much during the winter as I refuse to run a heater on my system. Worst case I run an incandescent light under my tank and keep the doors closed when the temps are getting too low. That would in theory raise the ambient temps under the tank enough to help keep the tank warmer. I could also swap in my backup Dart for a winder pump on either my closed loop or my return..

Either way, I can't wait to get this 2nd pump in. :bounce3:

By the way, how did you like my custom dual RD3 to Apex cable?? Not a bad idea if you ask me!

 

[slief]

Time for an update. I decided to put off the install of the new RD3 230 return pump to today since Jim was scheduled to be here today and I wanted to film the install for an upcoming LA Fish Guys Tech Talk episode. Since DC pumps seem to be all the rage right now, I thought discussing the merits of DC style pumps and most particularly these RD3 pumps would be a good subject.

Since my return plumbing was originally setup for a Hammerhead, there are plumbing differences between my closed loop pump which was setup for a Dart and the return pump. When I swapped in the first RD3, I modeled that plumbing to match the Dart. When I do this swap, I am also modeling it after the Dart setup so I don't need to keep two spare pumps. My spares inventory is kind of out of hand so having one spare pump instead of two free's up some shelf space. The good thing is that my spares are setup with unions preinstalled and there ball valves that they connect to which allows me the ability to swap pumps in less than 5 minutes. This new pump will be no different and it's already prepped with the unions installed. I just need to redo the exit plumbing which I am well prepared for.

Over the last several days, I had plenty of time to plan the swap and get the fittings I needed and even glue a bunch of them together so I was well prepared for the swap and could limit the tanks down time as much as humanly possible. I figure the entire swap will take an hour or less. That includes temporarily removing the RD3 230 closed loop pump, the 114 watt Aqua UV filter that's attached to it, removing the return pump, cutting one pipe and doing the rest of the new plumbing. I plan these things really well so I expect it to go very smooth.

While I was prepping for this, I decided to take some comparitive photos of my pumps. This shots shows my original Hammerhead Gold return pump on the right, a Dart Gold in the middle and the RD3 230 on the left. What's interesting is that this RD3 has as much if not more flow than that massive Hammerhead Gold. The RD3 230 is rated at just under 5500 gallons per hour and the Hammerhead is rated at about 5500 GPH is memory serves me. Unlike the Hammerhead, these RD3's are dead silent and have absolutely no heat transfer. I'm hoping that I don't need to put a Dart Gold in my closed loop during the winter just to keep my temps warm enough.. On the other hand, I expect my summer temps in the tank to drop by a couple degrees which would be nice. More to come in a few hours when the swap is complete.

Another shot of the pump trio.

One final shot.

 

[slief]

Pump is in.... That turned into a bit of a project. I knew I needed to redo my return side of the pumps plumbing which entailed a pretty substantial amount of work. I thought I was well prepared with everything I needed but it turned out that I needed a different union and an additional 2" elbow. That caused me to have to run to Lowes in the middle of the install. Fortunately, Lowes was only a couple miles from my house.

I did a Kill A Watt reading on the Super Dart Gold and it read 164 watts. I have the new RD3 running at 150 watts and the I can tell from the level of the tank that there is still a tad more flow than the Superdart Gold that it replaced. So it looks like there is definately a power savings which in all honesty, I wasn't really expecting since the Darts are pretty darn efficient. There is no longer any noise from my pumps. These RD3's are dead quiet. What I will be really curious about is my tanks temps. These pumps as I mentioned before run cold to the touch. This will be really nice during the heat of the summer when my tank normally hits 82*.. I'm not sure so sure how that will work in the winter but I can always swap in a Dart on my closed loop if I need to during the winter. I still have some cleanup to do but here is a quick shot. This was also filmed for a future episode of LA Fish Guys Tech Talk where will be discussing the merits of DC pumps and most particularly the RD3's.

 

[pmrossetti]

Snazzy lookin' Scott.

 

[scubadan206]

There is some merit to running a pump in the tank that heats up the water. Running your Hammerhead that takes up just 10-15 watts more than the new DC pump seems to be a much more efficient way to keep the water warm than dropping in a 500 watt heater. If you have trouble keeping the tank temps up during winter you might actually find the Hammerhead to be more beneficial than the RD3.
Maybe you could just switch your refugium lights to 175 watt MH.:headwallblue: That would make sense. Who cares if the spectrum goes away after 12 months, you're trying to grow algae with them anyway!
:deadhorse:

Daniel. :spin2:

 

[slief]

There is some merit to running a pump in the tank that heats up the water. Running your Hammerhead that takes up just 10-15 watts more than the new DC pump seems to be a much more efficient way to keep the water warm than dropping in a 500 watt heater. If you have trouble keeping the tank temps up during winter you might actually find the Hammerhead to be more beneficial than the RD3.
Maybe you could just switch your refugium lights to 175 watt MH.:headwallblue: That would make sense. Who cares if the spectrum goes away after 12 months, you're trying to grow algae with them anyway!
:deadhorse:

Daniel. :spin2:

I hear ya and agree 1000%.. I will NEVER run a heater on this system. Never ever. Never have and never will. It's not worth the risk to me when you can accomplish the same thing with a pump and do so much more reliably and safer. I don't like heaters at all and will avoid them at all costs. Actually though, the Hammerhead was long since removed and swapped for a much more efficient Superdart Gold relegating the HH to being a spare. That said, if my tank temps drop too much in the winter, I will swap my RD3 230 recirc pump out for my spare Dart Gold. Fortunately I can also slow my recirc flow down and have a 114 watt UV filter. I figure the longer contact time may be enough to keep an OK tank temp. If not, it only takes minutes to swap a pump the way I have everything setup and my spares are ready to go with the unions installed. And no, I am not switching my refugium lights to halides! LMAO! There is no going back to those! I'd sooner put a small space heater below my tank that to put halides down there. No reason for that. My fuge is doing just fine with the 6500k LED flood lights! Nice try though!

Having said that, the new RD3 return pump is set 150 watts and it's putting out more flow than the Superdart was at a 164 watts. I also verified the watts displayed on the RD vs with the Kill A Watt and the RD3 wattage displayed is spot on. Not a huge power savings but my tank temp is 1 over degree cooler and the sound level night and day as the Dart made a bit of noise where as the RD3 sounds like it's dead or turned off. You can't hear it at all but the flow these pumps put out is very impressive. I have the RD3 recirc pump running at 120 watts during the day and 30 watts at night. Unlike the return pump, the recirc is controlled by my Apex. I will likely add some more profiles for day time running to create some shorter ramp up/bursts of flow from under the rocks just to make sure nothing settles down there not that I think that's an issue. Even at 120 watts, there is substantial flow from these pumps.

 

[scubadan206]

My DC pump runs super quiet also. The noisiest thing by far is the skimmer.
I seem to remember a few months ago when you posted that you would never, ever run a DC pump for a return.:hammer:
On July 18, I posted that Scott Slief would be putting a heater in his fishtank sometime in the near future.
Remember, I called it!

 

[slief]

My DC pump runs super quiet also. The noisiest thing by far is the skimmer.
I seem to remember a few months ago when you posted that you would never, ever run a DC pump for a return.:hammer:
On July 18, I posted that Scott Slief would be putting a heater in his fishtank sometime in the near future.
Remember, I called it!

LMAO!! You got me there! I do remember saying that! In my defense, this isn't your average DC pump. Most of those other DC pumps have had reliability issues as well as leaks that only show up when run externally. Given my new affiliation with Royal Exclsuiv, it presented an opportunity that I might not otherwise been afforded. Plus, unlike my recirc/closed loop pump, I can really compare efficiency and flow with the return pump so it gives me an chance to get even more familiar with this pump that inevitably I will be providing support and insight on. I've been a long time Bubble King user and am intimately familiar with those skimmers and know exactly how to set them up. As such having hands on experience makes it much easier to help others. Same goes with these pumps. First thing I did when I got the first one was take it apart and check the guts so I knew what I had. So, yes it's true, I'm a hypocrite, but wouldn't you be if you were in my shoes? :thumbsup:

That said, I will not run a heater. You can take that one to the bank. Been there, done that, had too many fail over the years and even had one burn up in my mxing tank. I also won't run any of those other DC pumps that are all the rage. I just don't trust them for anything critical which includes anything on my display. I travel too much and pump failures are intolerable to me. In fact, in 20 years of having this tank particular tank, I don't recall ever having one of my external pumps fail but that was never an area that I would compromise on. On the other hand, I wouldn't hesitate to run an Abyzz or probably even the new Ecotech pump when it comes out and assuming it's a good quality pump which I would expect. Fortunately, I am now all set on my pumps so I don't expect to be making any changes there for years to come.

 

[robbous]

Today I went to our local annual frag swap called FRAG and did something I swore to myself I would never do.. I got 3 SPS frags. I don't dose anything and I don't plan to either. I do 5 gallon a day automated water changes for my 650g volume with my cheap instant ocean salt and my tank does really well. I was looking at pictures of my tank from 9/2013, 3/2014 and 5/2014 and shocked to see how my hammers have grown over the last several months. Like tripled in size and heads. My soft coral colonies have tripled in size too and new sprouts are growing all over the bottom of the tank and the rocks. I will post some comparative photos in the next day or two.

It's been a long time since I haven't tested alk and ca in about a year because my numbers were always good when I tested and my tanks health and coraline growth was a good barometer. I might run some tests tomorrow just to see and will post the results. Anyways, these SPS frags are just an experiment. I don't have high hopes but on the other hand, I have good reason to be optimistic as my tank is doing better than it ever has in the last 20 years. It will be interesting none the less. If they do well.... Well, it's a can of worms that I don't really want to think about.

I also got this 5" Fungia.

What are you using for your automatic water changes i to have a newly setup 500 gallon display tank with about 180 gallon total sump system

 

[slief]

What are you using for your automatic water changes i to have a newly setup 500 gallon display tank with about 180 gallon total sump system

I use a Genesis Renew. It's by far the best auto water change device on the market. I have it change out 5 gallons a day but you can set it to do anywhere from 1-99 gallons a day, a week or in one continuous water change. It can change out up to 1 gallon every 2 to 3 minutes. Also, because of it's pair of 1 gallon metering bins, there is no other solution on the market with that level of maintenance free accuracy. It uses 1 metering bin for new salt water and another for waste water to insure that the same amount is added & removed every time.

You can see more on the Renew here:
http://genesisreefsystems.com/products/automatic-water-change-systems/

 

[Kaidman]

What wiper are you using on your skimmer?

 

[slief]

What wiper are you using on your skimmer?

Aqua Driver Skim Clean. They aren't cheap like the Vertex Vectra's or Avast Swabbie's either but they are also much much better quality and have the option of a collection cup wash down which I have. The other unique feature is that they have a peristaltic roller setup that draws water from inside the skimmer and sparys it over the wiper blade when it's cleaning to insure that the wiper is wet. This is usefull for dry skimming as it keeps the neck wet when the wiper is in action. They are made in Germany and are the same ones that were offered as OEM options with the Bubble King skimmers. They used to be sold here in the states but you can only get them direct Aqua Driver in Germany now.

This is a picture of my SCH when I had it setup for my Alpha 300. That long tube goes into the water inside the skimmer. When the motor is spinning, water is drawn up through the tube and sprayed over the wiper and onto the inside of the neck. The washdown that runs around the perimeter of the lid is fed by a seperate water source which in my case is from a tap water spigot with a solenoid valve for control. I only use the washdown every couple months to rinse the inside of the collection cup.

 

[scubadan206]

Sorry Scott. I misspelled your name. :frog:

Will you be doing some independent vids on your new circulation for us?
Should we just wait for [Sonny] Jim's next update?
Tell him thanks for us. His new [old] vid style is much more enjoyable to watch. We're looking forward to your new collaboration of TECH TALK....

Daniel.