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

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I posted up about the radial bristles in the DIY forum and they made a comment that they may be infused with alluminum(sp?) oxide, makes me nervous lol. Hopefully your threads match up. That would be cool. 3m will wonder why the sales are increasing lol. I have faith that you can rig somethign up to work.
 
The description for the bristle disc says "impregnated" and the MSDS sheet says "cubitron", whatever that is...no mention of aluminum oxide...I think the whole point is that they are plastic but they do have different grits.
 
yeah that is what I thought. Let us know when they come in. I will probably order out some parts tomorrow once I can measure my maxi jets when I get home so I know aht size to get.
 
Well the other lobe of the lobephylia started to STN on me today. I dipped it in Tech D but I don't really think that is the right stuff. I did find what appeared to be some kind of sphaghetti worm inside the lobe and pulled some of it out. I doubt I got the whole thing though so I get to watch another coral bite the dust. :(
 
I hear ya, two of my birdsnest did the same thing, but the other two are doing well. I don't think they liked the new flow they were getting, but by the time I noticed, it was too late. Everything else seems to be doing alright.

Good luck on that NW idea... Looks promising.
 
I doubt a spaghetti worm would do any damage to a Lobophylia. The worm stretches out its tentacles or appendages to trap loose food in the water, which it in turn feeds upon. The Lobo should remain unaffected.
 
Marc,

I don't really think it was a sphaghetti worm, it was just something that looked like one, and I really have no idea if that was the culprit. It just seems strange to me that it would be OK and survive the initial problem, only to die off suddenly a week later.

I can add one little tidbit: I did tear out some grape caulerpa near it yesterday!!!
 
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So the Lobephylia is dust. I pulled it out of the display this morning as it was about half gone. It's a bummer that I have had these coral problems now and I think there are two possible culprits. All STN/RTN events have happened following grape caulerpa removal as well as calcium additions. I have read in more than one place that both of these have been associated with necrosis events. Since I am still using bottled calcium supplements, it may be spiking the dKh and causing coral deaths, but since the deaths seem to happen in proximity to my caulerpa removals, that seems like it may be more likely the problem.

Anyone know of a better way to remove caulerpa?

Also, I now have 2 more Vortech drivers not working. They do not flash any LED signals and I have cross-tested the power supplies and they seem to be fine. This is starting to really torque me since I have already had one replaced and now 2 more are bad. The only thing I can think of is that they really can't be used with a controller and that turning them on and off must somehow damage them.

On a happy note, the two that are still working are running really well and very quiet. They are exactly how I imagined these pumps would and should work. When all four were working, the tank really livened up.
 
What controller are you using them with? I know one of the beta testers had his on a wavemaker, and it worked as planned.
 
Neptune ACIII Pro. It really shouldn't be a problem but to have 3 drivers go bad? Doesn't that seem out of line?
 
Try running off the controller and see if they run without issue. One of mine stops every few days for some reason. The red light comes on or flashes and I have to reset it.
 
If the AC III is anything like x-10 technology, then yes it will probably ruin the VorTech. The reason is x-10 doesn't turn off the power; it reduces it to 67v. A DV converter will burn up in that situation because of the incorrect power going into it. I had a couple of IceCap fans plugged into x-10 modules to turn on the fans only when the tank got too hot. The black wall worts got super hot, and the fans wouldn't turn on after that. Angrily, I tested the x-10 modules to find out the power wasn't off as I'd assumed, and then rewired the fans to a couple of new power supplies I had available. My fans work again, but I won't plug them into the x-10 again.

I think x-10 works fine with AC stuff, but not DC. A $7 fan from Walmart will work perfectly on the x-10, but a $40 IceCap fan won't.

The guy that ran his on a wavemaker powerstrip or device surely had it killing power to the outlet (and VorTech pump) which is why they worked fine for him.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7847586#post7847586 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NexDog
Try running off the controller and see if they run without issue. One of mine stops every few days for some reason. The red light comes on or flashes and I have to reset it.
Click to expand...

Do you have the new plastic shaft for the pump? I read Icecap's thread on the Vortec and they are replacing the plastic shafts that first came with the pumps because they cause the pumps to stop.

Brian
 
Marc,

Mine is not X-10. I am using DC4HDs and DC8s which are directly controlled power strips. They turn the Vortech power supply on and off as programmed and the power supply has a light that shows what state it is in. I would assume because the Vortech has its own transformer that would buffer any kind of screwy current issue but perhaps you are right.

It just seems to me that if I am using a controller that turns them on and off, that should work fine. The 2 that are still running are running really nice, but maybe I should put them on straight current. Of course, that erases much of the value of the Vortech, if in fact it can't be controlled by a simple on/off controller.

I can't imagine that I am the only one using them on a Neptune controller either, but I have not seen any other posts about that yet.

Brian, I actually have ceramic shafts. However, to be clear, it's not the motors that are stopped. It's the drivers. They are "dead" in that they do not have any error lights at all and are not producing any power. I can plug the same motor into one of the working drivers and it will run fine.
 
Do me a favor and put a meter on those outlets. Let's see if they are truly off or not.

A simple on off controller would be fine if the outlets are actually off. Those wavemaker power strips and the devices that look like a switch box probably are what were used by those that did try this out earlier this year.

I'm reasonably sure the DC-4 and DC-8 are basically x-10's even if they are hardwired within the casing.

Or perhaps you got a couple of drivers that didn't pass the mustard.
 
So I put a meter on the outlet in the "OFF" mode and didn't get any reading but I must qualify that by mentioning that I am not very experienced with meters and don't really know what setting to put it on. I tried all different settings and didn't get any reading.

I also found one more dead driver. This driver was plugged into a DC8 that has NO halide on it or any high current drawing item.

I mentioned to Tim that I had a strange problem in my store after I purchased a lazer printer. What would happen is when the printer powered on, it would draw so much current that the PC on the same circuit would sometimes restart. (and this is with the PC being connected to a UPS!) I may be experiencing something similar in that when my halides turn on, they may be drawing enough current to scramble the Vortech but not enough to trip the fuse in the DC4HD.

Also, each DC4HD and DC8 in my system is connected to its own dedicated 20 amp circuit. There are 5 of them running my system. This is quite perplexing to me especially since I did some due dilegence and asked about running these pumps in this manner. I guess I have a way of testing equipment that is out of the ordinary...which is par for the course in my life. I'll never buy another Crapsman Lawn Tractor, that's for sure! :D
 
Is your meter digital or analog?

As far as I understand it, the DC-4 is Heavy Duty (for Metal Halides and such), and the DC-8 is for lighter duty. Since the VorTech only pulls around 50w max, I don't see the need for it to be on the DC-4 whatsoever.

You'll need your meter set on 250v, which would be able to measure anything under 250v. If you have an analog meter, the needle would swing to the middle of the scale, showing you have 110v of power basically. Digital, you should get some numbers.

If you are looking at the outlet with the round hole at the bottom, you'd put your red probe in the smaller (right hole) and the black probe in the larger (left hole). You can also move the black probe to the bottom (round) hole. If your meter registers anything, it isn't off.
 
Meter is digital. On the 200V setting I get a reading of zero.

It's not a question of heavy duty or not. I have my equipment spread out so that no circuit gets too high of a draw both during normal operation and start up.

Here is the schematic:

1. DC4HD: 1000w MH, light mover, Vortech, Vortech
2. DC4HD: 1000W MH, LED Moonlights, Vortech
3. DC8: Hammerhead, Vortech, 6" fan, 6" fan, refugium lamp, 800w heater
4. DC4HD: 1000W MH, Light mover
5. DC4HD: Altia 100 Air pump, heater, DC piezo alarm
 
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