OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

[NexDog]

Not sure how long you've had that rock but after 24 hours my rock stank so bad. If I had had it in the tank I would have been in big trouble. But I just put it in tubs and let it fester too much. I did water changes every 2 days but that is not enough really. On my second batch I hooked up a cannister filter and also siphoned out the crap every morning and evening and it was cured in about 5 days. If I had to do it all again I'd put egg-crate down and put a powerhead under it blowing from one end towards a cannister filter intake at the other end and empty the cannister every 12 hours. I think the trick is just to get the die-off out the system immediately so the ammonia it causes doesn't cause more stuff to die.

But all that algae and stuff - why you want to keep that?

 

[Roland Jacques]

dont you dare scrub that rock. let it stink. it lookss to good. i would be geting some kind of skiimer going right now. maybe a in sump Octpus down draft for $180 untle you get your skimmer finished. high flow skimmer are great for recieving livestock like rock. adjust it to dump 10, 20 gallon a day and replace water and suck scum.

Roland

the egg-crate is a great idea. why do they call it egg crate anyway?

 

[jnarowe]

Nexdog The rock in the tank doesn't smell bad at all. Just the tub of rubble I am sorting through. It is about 75 lbs. so it is taking a while.

The majority of the rock came out of the box, got swished and picked for worms etc. and went straight into the sump or display. A good filter or skimmer would definitely help, but my timing is a bit off. Just call it natural selection!

I am changing out 95g each day and the ammonia has not gone over 1.0 ppm so I consider that good progress. My only real concern are the worms that are dead in the display. They will definitely cause a problem so tomorrow I am going to pick some out. I also need to right an acro that fell over.

Roland No way I am going to scrub any rock. I am of the mind-set that I paid for live rock to get live rock, and I am not really interested in killing it and everything on it just to say "I got live rock".

I thought about an Octopus or even a Prizm but really they just wouldn't put a dent in this system. I have a Prizm on my QT tank and I actually really like that skimmer. But to try to use it for a 1,200g system seems a bit silly. I suppose any skimming is better than none.

 

[jnarowe]

So now I may be in a bit of trouble...the pH is down to 8.0!! Crap!!!

 

[NexDog]

The "Live" part of rock IMO means the bacteria, pods and a few other micro-organisms. But if you want to make such a great effort to keep algae than go for it. Most people go for coraline on their rocks though. I know, they're crazy for thinking it looks better than red and green algae but what can you do, lol.

 

[Roland Jacques]

The Octopus down draft skimmer is nothing like a prizm. The prizm is like a Very small NW (slow flow skimmer). This is 20 prizms or at least 10 of the Pros, donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t get me wrong I like the prizm but on a 30gallon tank. I used a down draft skimmer similar like this one on my live rock holding system for years, I would receive 600 lb at a time regularly. It worked a lot better than my Euro reef NW skimmers for our live rock system. Its not that small the tube is 8"dia check out the link their was a thread but I cant find it now. . You should be able to adjust it to put out 10, 20 gallons a day of stinky stuff. For what it worth.

Roland


http://cgi.ebay.com/OCTOPUS-DD-150-...753222796QQcategoryZ46313QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[jnarowe]

That's funny Roland because that is the exact one I was looking at. I have bought stuff from AquaCave before too. I'll look into it a bit more.

 

[melev]

Don't worry about your pH so much. You are still within range. If you dip below 7.8, you will need to buffer it up. Also, don't expect nitrates while you have ammonia readings. You should expect nitrites at some point, after ammonia hits 0. This could be a very slow process with your water changes - typically during the cycle, water is not changed but you are trying to preserve the live on the rocks and I understand that.

You can buffer up pH by using baked Arm & Hammer baking soda. Simply spread it out on a cookie sheet, put it in the oven at 300 degrees for one hour, then let it cool. Once it is cool, pour it into an airtight container. Mix up a few teaspoons a cup (or jug) of RO/DI water and add it to the system. It will raise pH and alkalinity.

 

[jnarowe]

yeah I know I ma extending the cycle but I think it will be worth it. Down to 7.93 so I will be hitting the store for some A&H tomorrow!

Actually there is a great recipe for low pH tanks just below a fabulous picture of one of your montiporas.

I tossed an entire bottle of buffering agent in today and it did nothing. The advantage of big water is the changes are slower, but it also takes a lot to move the numbers!

 

[richfavinger]

An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System

Rich

 

[jnarowe]

Well last night was as sucky as they get.

I have discovered a couple of issues that I didn't count on.

1. The humidty controlled exhaust fan got into a "loop" last night. It kept turning on for an hour then resting for half an hour. I finally figured it out while staring at the ceiling. It raining like crazy and the air that is replenishing the exhausted air has high humidity as well! My Master Plan has got a hole!! I had to shut off the humidistat part of the exhaust control to get it to behave correctly.

2. I did not count on the excessive sweating from the RO/DI filters and lines. There is constantly a small puddle accumulated from all the dripping and it is annoying the hell out of me. I kept thinking I might have a leak somewhere but between the tanks, the lines, and the filters, there is quite a bit of condensation.

Also, I cannot get the booster pump adjusted to shut off when the flow is stopped. I can adjust the switch to get it to turn off, but then it starts cycling on and off. So I pulled out the pump and just ran the system off the feed and discovered that when all valves are shut and there is no flow to anything, the RO/DI filters still are processing waste water. The water never stops! So how do I fix that??

And the BAD NEWS: I was up at 4 am trying to deal with the exhaust fan issue and doing a transfer from the RO/DI to the SW mixing tank when I accidently left the valve open to the sump. That filled the sump with cold low salt water and overflowed. I actually did it twice so I don't really have a water change but more of a dilution.

Everything was working fine when I left the tank room and when I got up at 6:30 am and checked on the tank, the return pump and everything else attached to the DC8 was not running!! That includes the heaters as well. Temp was down to 74.5F...

Panic time. I have routed everything to get power but now I apparently have a dead DC8, and right in the middle of a tank cycle!! That's not fun!

 

[melev]

Argh.

1) Humidity - this will vary as the weather does. You'll be making adjustments as necessary in those specific situations, and unfortunatley you'll have to learn what works best for your particular application.

2)Sweating RO/DI connections. This is because the water is so cold coming in, and mine does the same in the winter when my house is near 80F. Put a couple of towels under the unit to catch those drips. It isn't something year-round, fortunately.

3)Your RO/DI unit should shut off when it is pressurized. It sounds like it never achieves the pressure required. Contact your vendor about the unit to get that resolved.

4)Multi-tasking around a reeftank at 4am. Not a good idea.

5)Did you plug too much stuff in the DC-8? It has an internal fuse that you may have a little trouble finding a replacement for, but check with auto part stores and electronics suppliers. That should get it running again. I've been told it is tough getting at this fuse, but not impossible.

 

[Travis]

Bummer about the problems. The good thing is that they are surfacing while you are curing rock rather than popping up later when you have a tank full of sensitive corals and fish.

I'm assuming your booster pump came with a cut-off switch or that you bought one separately. The switch has a little screw in it that you turn. This screw adjusts how much pressure in the line will turn off the booster pump. Your RO unit also has a auto-shut-off that operates similarly. It senses a certain pressure build-up and then shuts the water off to the unit. You need to turn the screw in the cut-off switch until you get it to shut off merely a couple seconds right before your auto-shut-off kicks in. It is a pain to get it set right and may take a lot of experimenting but once it is set, you never have to set it again.

If your auto-shut-off used to work properly, then the current problem is most likely a lack of pressure inside the unit caused by a dirty sediment filter. The same thing happens with mine every time the sediment filter starts getting dirty. I just switch out the filter and everything works fine again.

Let us know if these suggestions don't work.

 

[jnarowe]

Ok where do I start?? I am totally ****ed that the DC8 doesn't have a circuit breaker/reset button. For that kind of coin I am not impressed. Curt is such a nice helpful guy but the product is not up to snuff IMO.

I re-routed the communication cable so that at least the other DC4HDs will all work. I have the return pump plugged into an outlet and the heaters and cooling fans are in a power strip.

As far as plugging in too much stuff, I don't think so. But perhaps the heaters kicked on at the same time and that did it. I don't know.

As far as putting towels under the RO drips, let me tell you it's a lot of dripping in several locations. Total PITA. I also just found a leaking BH in the 96g RO/DI holding tank! Drove around looking for that fuse and couldn't find it. I am thinking about rigging up a 15A breaker to the unit just to get me by. I can probably order the fuse through the marine suppliers I deal with. Not at any auto store, radio shack, HD etc.

About the booster pump: I have been working on adjusting it for weeks. That's why I tried running without the pump to see what happened and there was still waste water coming out even though all output valves were off. I am going to call the supplier and see if we can't get it fixed.

Not a fun day! but as Travis puts it, at least there aren't any corals r fish in the tank.

 

[jnarowe]

BTW Marc, I couldn't find any Calcium chloride (DowFlake) anywhere. Any suggestions?

What about dolomite lime? That has calcium carbonate, magnesium, etc. Does anyone use that or no because it's not food grade?

 

[melev]

Our club did a group buy, but I wasn't in charge of it and don't have the facts. I'll get the name of the company for you.

 

[tinygiants]

You have to install the solenoid valve kit in the RODI to get the waste water to shut off. In my system i have a T in the di line to the tank. When the tank valve is full, all the water pressure is sent to the T. The T is routed to the solenoid valve. When the pressure builds high enough, it shuts down the water supply to the RODI unit. In essence the solenoid is a pressure operated supply valve.

Dale

 

[jnarowe]

Dale,

I have that solenoid valve installed. I just can't get it to wiork right. The issue may lie in one of the filter units. I have to do more testing.

Marc,

The baking soda really did the trick! Very easy and cheap. I didn't follow anything other than baking it for an hour and I mixed it with RO/DI water. Just poured some in and waited for it to stabilize. Then added more as needed. I picked up the mondo bags at Costco, along with the super bags of epsom salts...

 

[melev]

Good!

 

[tinygiants]

The solenoid goes before the filters. When pressurized, it will shut down all water feeding the filters. It is the pressure trapped between the float valve and the solenoid that keeps the water shut off. If the float valve is activated, the pressure is lost and water flow is allowed to pass.