new tank questions -evaporation & lighting

A

Ann1214

New member
OK, I am 2 months in, and it seems I can't do anything right. I know everyone said get a large tank - it is more stable, but It would have been a lot easier to start small.

1) I have a 90 Gal that is 48" by 13" of surface area. I am running 8 T-5 lights, 6 inches off the surface. I am not used to a sump & can't figure out how much water to add to make up for evaporation. I also don't know how to calculate how much water to add to make up for an increase in salinity. There has to be an easy way to figure this out.

How long should I be running my T-5 each day? This is a sunlight system. I can have a timer for the four inside bulbs and a 2nd timer for the 4 outside bulbs.

I am sorry to ask so many questions - I just hate feeling like I don't know anything. I am asking the light question for several reasons:

1) My electricity bill was very high last month
2) I am fighting an algae problem
3) The lights do heat the water up.

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.
 
once your tank is full to the optimum level your salinity should be around .25
when the water evaporates the salinity will increase. your makeup water should be ro water only i run my lights for 8 hours a day.
i have fans on my canopy but i never need them because my tank is in a air cond. room
 
How much water to you add each day?
Would you suggest I run the full 8 bulbs for 8 hours?

Thank you for your time.
 
thats a personal opinon on lights as far as water i have a water top off system tunze. its about 160 bucks on marine depot. but i only have to fill my water top off bucket once a week. its called a osmolator. i would guess about a gallon a day maybe more. some only keep it on for 4 hours. are you getting good growth with the 8 hours.? i personally like my 8 hour schedule it works for me. i have halides as well as vho.
my halides come on first for 2 hours. then my vhos come on 30 minutes later the halides turn off. vhos stay on then 4 hours later the halides come back on which gives me a total of 760 watts. the two stay on for about 2 hours then the vhos turn off and the halides stay on for a little while then the day is over. that gives me a dusk and dawn affect
 
My tank goes from 76 at night to 85 in the afternoon while the lights have been on for some time. We are not running air conditioning now. Its January!
 
You have to figure the highest level that the water in the sump can reach. fill the sump to at least the level the protein skimmer mfg. suggest. then turn off the return pump and see what level the sump reaches before the siphon breaks and water stops draining from the display. Be CAREFUL stay ready to restart the return pump if the sump overflows. You may have to drill siphon breaks in the plumbing to keep the display from overflowing the sump. What you get this sump level determined mark it with masking tape on the sump. This will be your normal fill level. now remove or let the water evaporate until just before the return pump starts sucking air. mark this spot as the lowest working level. Now just fill to the top tape each day, some days may require more water than others due to humidity etc.. When the water is at the normal level your sg should be .0025. I am having a hard time putting this into words someone else may need to help if you are still having trouble with my explanation.
I hope you can make some sense of my ranblings. It is important that your sump be able to survive a electrical outage without flooding.
Fred
 
I think you need to do something about the temperature swing. Ideally a heater should raise the nighttime temperature and a cheap clip-on fan running inside the stand blowing air across the sump.
You could reduce the photo period by a couple hours to see if it helps the algae problem, which is perfectly normal in a new setup.
Fred
 
Thanks Fred. I think I am getting somewere. Let me see if I have this right: I turn the power off and measure the level in the sump. I add water to this mark each day. I had not realized this was a constant level.

My water doesn't go very high in the sump when the power is off. With the power off, the sump si about 1/3 filled. The sump is about the same volume as a 20 gallon tank. I am not running a protien skimmer yet.

(I turn the power off when I am doing water changes - right now I am doing 20 gallons a week).

What determines the highest level the sump can reach? If I add more water will it go higher (sorry I really am this ignorant).
 
Thank you so much - you are the first person to suggest a fan in the sump region (I have been killing mysefl trying to rig something to go across the top of the tank. Nothing fits!). I am very concerned about the temperature swing. I do not have the heater plugged in, because I have been worried about the excess heat. I will set up the fan for tommorow. The water temperature right now is 80. Would you really suggest I put the heater on?
 
You should still put a heater in if the temperature swings low. Remember, it won't kick on unless it's cold. :-) Set it to go off at 78-80 degrees and it should only come on if it dips below that.
 
You can pick any level you want as your normal level as long as it 1) is not so high that sump overflows with the return pump is off. 2) is not so low that a days evaporation does not drop so low that the return pump is in danger of running out of water after a days evaporation. Once your tank is at this arbitrary normal level the specific gravity should be set at 1.0025. Now just add ro/di water each day to bring the sump up to this normal level.
This keeps you from having to measure the salinity every day when you add the top off water. Remember salt does not evaporate, only the water does. When you get your skimmer it will have a recommended operating level probably 8 to 9 inches. this will then be your normal fill level. You will have to readjust your specific gravity to 1.0025 at this new level.
All this tape mark does is save you from doing all kinds of calculations to see what amount of water needs to be added. Just fill to the mark each day and everything will be fine.
There is no real need to find the max amount of water the sump should have as in your case you have plenty of leeway.
Once you mark a safe normal sump level you do not have to turn the pumps off or measure the salinity each day when you add the top off water.
Fred
I'm unable to word this properly because it is really simple pick any arbitrary level to constantly fill the sump to each day.
 
kappaknight is right about te heater. Don't over analyse this system. Aside from my wordy explanations we have lots of reefkeepers who have gone before us and created some simple guidelines and solutions for us.
Fred
 
I can't do anything right. I put tape on the sump to mark the level last night. It was down tonight, so I added about a gallon - bringing the sump level back to the tape.

A few minutes later I looked at the tank, and the water level was up in the tank & above the tape in the sump. The salinity still looks ok (No different than befor I added the water, but this is what I would expect in adding 1 gallon to about a 100 gallon system).

What did I do wrong. The water level really is quite high in the tank now.

Oh - the fan in the sum works great - Max temperature today appears to have been 80.
 
I hope you didn't turn anything off while adding the water. I don't see how the display can have too much water, the overflow is stationary so if you overfill the sump all that could go wrong is change in salinity and possibility of flooding if electricity goes off. Now when the water is added to the display tank it may raise the level until the overflow catches up in 1 or 2 minutes.
Fred
 
Sounds too me like your return pump is out flowing your overflow to the sump. Do You have ball valves to have the ability to control the flow of the over flow and the return? If so turn the pump valve back a tad bit.
 
once your tank is full to the optimum level your salinity should be around .25
when the water evaporates the salinity will increase. your makeup water should be ro water only
Click to expand...

Once your tank has the right level of salinity (and this depends on the occupants, ie is it a reef tank, FOWLR, etc) then you should top-off with RO/DI water to the level the water was at when you tested it. I keep mine at a level just below the piece of glass that sits across the top of the tank, but above the point where i can see the top of the water when looking at the tank - the "I can tell I need to top-off" point. I hate it when you cna see the top of the water level when looking straight on the tank.

Best thing is to top off frequently with small amounts, so that the salinity doesn't vary much. I buy bottled water, so I keep the 5-gal jug near the tank and just pour some in whenever I think of it, but at least daily.

Cheers,
Rob
 
Also you need to let your tank sit for a few minutes to allow it to drain fully into your sump prior to adding to your high level. I set a high level and a normal operating level on my sump. This way I can add water while the return pump is operating. I also let my tank run for a few days and measured my evaporation just to have a feel for how much I lost in a day. I have a 90 gal and I lose 1/2 gal per day.
 
I think crny1 has it - I have a fairly powerful pump & have not added a skimmer yet. I guess I need to look into how to add a ball valve.

Thanks everyone.
 
does your sump have a marked maxium level? If not get the level of water in your sump to the correct level and mark it. This way you know the level you start from and that you need to be at. If your tank isn't a reef tank you shouldn't need the amount of lighting you are currently putting out might be more than you need for just fish. I only run my lights 8 hours per day. I only run my halides 6 hours per day. Also as you only currently have fish, raise the lights up, that will help with the heat. Also reducing the light period and raising the lights can help with the algea problem as well
 
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