Pics of my weird plumbing

[Cozen89]

I just added the hydor 4 which is giving it huge surface tension and increasing gas exchange. I guess I can put my frozen bottle of water in there to try and cool it down faster. Can't take my fan off my existing 50 to cool my new tank yet.

 

[raddogz]

For now my Corallife digital reads the same as my drop in floating thermometer. I trust my drop in thermometer way more than a stick one.

Methinks that the stick on may also be reading ambient temperture as well.

 

[Cozen89]

Update. My tank's temp is now 75 after the night with a bit of ice to cool it down. Wondering if I should still leave my return pump off still or turn it on and see how much the temp goes up.

 

[Elite]

75 with the return pump off and ice to cool off??
You better replace that temp meter. Go get the thermometer like Eileen suggested.

 

[fishnfst]

I'd give it till tonite.. See what the temp is.. They turn on teh return pump and see if the temp rises...

 

[Cozen89]

ok I just got home and the temp is 75.7 at 12am. Gonna turn the return pump back on and see what the temp is in the morning. If it's about 77 adios Mag 9.

Could my skimmer be raising the temp a lot as well? That pump is only 38 watts tho.

 

[fishnfst]

At this point any thing is possible

 

[Cozen89]

yup it's gotta be the pump. Or both the pumps. Temp is now 79.8

What is a good pump that won't raise my temperature? I liked the Mag because it was relatively inexpensive. I need a pump with .75" outlet.

 

[fishnfst]

save the mag 9 for water changes I'm not sure about a cooler pump.. I hear alot of peole recommend the eheim's.. YOu could always adapt from 1/2 to 3/4.. I'm not sure what size outlet the eheims have..

 

[troutonmyline]

Kinda off subject, but what do you think of your skimmer so far? Maybe looking for a new one.

 

[Cozen89]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10253301#post10253301 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by troutonmyline
Kinda off subject, but what do you think of your skimmer so far? Maybe looking for a new one.

I'm having issues with it bubbling over and spilling out of the collection cup. I'm sure that isn't an accurate behavior of this skimmer, I have many other issues that could be causing this to happen.

First off my skimmer is in about 12 inches of water which is probably way too much. Need to get around to building a stand for it, but dealing with heat issues first. Also the skimmer is still pretty new, once it breaks in and slimes over I'm sure it will be fine. I'll keep you updated on that if I remember.

at this point it's one probelm at a time. Patience is wearing thin and I just wanna dump everything from my 50 in to my 75 but I know that will be a disaster. Hopefully I'll get a new return pump in the next 2 days then I'll see how the temperature stabilizes with no lights, then with lights. Then I'll tend to the skimmer. =/

 

[Cozen89]

Update on everything:

I still have a mag 9 as my return pump. It did raise the temp quite a bit. About 4-5 degrees but the temp never went over 81.7 Going to ride it out for a bit and see how things do during the day with my lights and canopy fans on. Afterall it is summer.

I did go buy one of those tube in tank thermometers and my digital and the stick on were both accurate. So now I have 3 thermometers haha.

I added 2 icecap fans on either end of my canopy blowing inward. The back of the canopy is open so hopefully the hot air will escape through there.

I also added a 2 inch skimmer stand and the skimmer is in 10 inches of water. It doesn't bubble over like crazy anymore, but it does fill the collection cup to the top and very slowly overflows it. Will this change after the break in or is 10 inches still too much? Would suck to have to make another stand.

Also added a few LR pieces and I'm hoping to do my transfer in 2-3 days.


Here are a few pics of my set up as is:

tank shot

Fan and durso

Left side of sump

Right side of sump

Thanks to everyone that has helped me. I'm sure my problems are just beginning, but thanks for helping me get this going.

 

[fishnfst]

Hey dude I just noticed something.. Where your Y is off your mag 9 is the return line going to the tank 1/2" It looks smaller than the tubing connected to the mag? If so that would definitely be one of the issues with the heat.. Or is it just distortion through the water? If it is 1/2" you are cutting down the flow by almost 60%.... You should make sur ethe Y you are using is full bore as well.. If it isn't that will also cause a restriction...

 

[Mr. Ugly]

I've seen recommendations to double the piping/hose size over the pump outlet size in order not to add restriction.

 

[fishnfst]

Would make sense... For general piping we have always been told that 1 pipe size larger makes for 4x more volume.. What outlet size does a mag9 have? is it .75"? I don't think you would have to go to 1.5 neccesarily.. 1" would be plenty I think.. I use 1" on my rio 3100 and my mag 18's..

 

[Cozen89]

It's the picture distorting. The mag 9 has an outlet of .75. And all my hose is .75. Should I be using 1 inch? If so damn that's gonna be a pain now haha. Or I could just downgrade to the mag 7(which is a .5 outlet) and get an adaptor which was my original plan, but I had trouble getting that adaptor. Couldn't even find it at home depot.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Going up to 1" would be good.

 

[Cozen89]

seeing as most of my plumbing is near permanent at this point going to 1" would be that last thing I would want to do right now. Are you suggesting this as a heat issue that the pump is being restricted therefore producing more heat?

I have too strong of a pump as it is, so I could change out to a mag 7 or a eheim 1260 which are about 300 gph less. The mag 7 has a .5 outlet and the eheim 1260 is .75.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

If you restrict your pump, you can make it work harder and heat up more.

Eheims are supposed to be more efficient, and less heat producing for a given flow.

 

[fishnfst]

If you are really stuck on the adapters let me know.. I have tons of different kinds.. The one for your mag 7 I have a bunch of them laying around.. I think I might even have some 1/2" fip x 3/4" hose barb 90 degree fittings... all you would need is a 1/2" nipple....