Randy's 180G Reef-Photo Journal

[rdmpe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7367677#post7367677 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Randy, please don't run the RO/DI directly to your sump/system. Have it run to a resevoir, so that you can turn off the RO/DI once it is full. That way, if something goes wrong, you limit how much water (the resevoir's worth) is added without risking the health of your reeflings.

I am a little bit concerned about this as well. The system runs off of a pressure transducer that controls an electrically actuated valve. The way it is set up, I think it is pretty much snail proof. But you can never imagine every scenario I know. It also comes with a float valve to be used as the "water spigot" that serves as a backup flood control. So I think that it is pretty reliable system. The electric valve also gives me the ability to put the system on a timer to further limit the flood risk.

Another thing I'm thinking of doing - if I set this up directly off the rodi filter, I may remove the pressure tank from my rodi system. That way the fill rate will be limited to the flow rate through the membrane, which is relatively slow.

I was originally planning to do a resevoir and use a medical dosing pump to dose the topoff - I see this as a very low flood risk. But I just don't have any way to hide a significant volume of water next to the tank right now. I guess if I use an ATO to the resevoir and then pump from there to the tank, then the resevoir could actually be relatively small. Then I still have the risk of flooding the house but no risk of putting my tank in hyposalinity.

I could even go with something like a 5 gallon bucket and put kalk in it. hmmm this deserves some more consideration...

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7368496#post7368496 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cerreta
.................Since I know you are waiting to get some nice sps, I have to say, haha, too bad, so sad I got them you don't


:lol:

Here is the link to my project. Thanks again for the inspiration

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=7368475#post7368475

I don't know why I haven't started trying sps yet. I guess I just feel like the hardware isn't quite ready yet. My main three concerns are

- ATO setup
- Auto dosing of alk/calcium
- get the lights hung from the ceiling

Right now when I dose two part, my PH goes up by 0.3 which I think is a little more of a swing than I like. My PH normally runs around 8.2 during the day and 8.0 at night. So when I dose, the PH jumps from around 8.0 right up to 8.3 or sometimes it starts at 8.1 and dosing pops it to 8.4. I want to try to automate the alk/calc either with a reefdoser pump or kalk so that it is more steady.

Getting the lights hung up will allow me to put one of those 12V clip on strips of fans (seen those? four fans side by side in one housing, very slick) blowing across the tank surface between the water and the light. I think this well help reduce my temperature swings and keep it a little cooler. Right now the tank is running approx. 80-83 some days and 81-84 other days.

So once I feel comfortable with all of that, I'll start working on the sps stocking....

 

[tgunn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7369011#post7369011 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe
I am a little bit concerned about this as well. The system runs off of a pressure transducer that controls an electrically actuated valve. The way it is set up, I think it is pretty much snail proof. But you can never imagine every scenario I know. It also comes with a float valve to be used as the "water spigot" that serves as a backup flood control. So I think that it is pretty reliable system. The electric valve also gives me the ability to put the system on a timer to further limit the flood risk.

Another thing I'm thinking of doing - if I set this up directly off the rodi filter, I may remove the pressure tank from my rodi system. That way the fill rate will be limited to the flow rate through the membrane, which is relatively slow.

I was originally planning to do a resevoir and use a medical dosing pump to dose the topoff - I see this as a very low flood risk. But I just don't have any way to hide a significant volume of water next to the tank right now. I guess if I use an ATO to the resevoir and then pump from there to the tank, then the resevoir could actually be relatively small. Then I still have the risk of flooding the house but no risk of putting my tank in hyposalinity.

I could even go with something like a 5 gallon bucket and put kalk in it. hmmm this deserves some more consideration...

I don't know why I haven't started trying sps yet. I guess I just feel like the hardware isn't quite ready yet. My main three concerns are

- ATO setup
- Auto dosing of alk/calcium
- get the lights hung from the ceiling

Right now when I dose two part, my PH goes up by 0.3 which I think is a little more of a swing than I like. My PH normally runs around 8.2 during the day and 8.0 at night. So when I dose, the PH jumps from around 8.0 right up to 8.3 or sometimes it starts at 8.1 and dosing pops it to 8.4. I want to try to automate the alk/calc either with a reefdoser pump or kalk so that it is more steady.

Getting the lights hung up will allow me to put one of those 12V clip on strips of fans (seen those? four fans side by side in one housing, very slick) blowing across the tank surface between the water and the light. I think this well help reduce my temperature swings and keep it a little cooler. Right now the tank is running approx. 80-83 some days and 81-84 other days.

So once I feel comfortable with all of that, I'll start working on the sps stocking....

Randy,
You can also throw a john-guest ball valve in before the RO/DI feed to your ATO system; I have one on my float valve only setup and I just dialed it back so that it's a slow trickle; that way if something got stuck it would take a LONG time to cause a problem. I check the sump daily so no problems there. Admittedly I need to work on making it more redundant for vacation, etc.

I'd hold back on the SPS if I were you personally. Not that you won't succeed, but I regret jumping into SPS as fast as I did. My frogspawn is doing amazingly with awesome color, but all but 1 of my SPS have really dull colors. I attribute that to thinks not being mature and stable enough to have the super-pristine water conditions required. I'd have waited to 1 year to do SPS if I was doing it all over again.

BTW, we need another full tank "rotator" shot.

Tyler

 

[mslade1979]

just read through yr whole post, it was like a doing a degree lol, i must say though there was more info and inspiration in yr thred then ive read in any of the books ive bought, keep up the gd work,, it would be great if u could post a pic of the whole tank to see how its looking now!!!!

 

[rdmpe]

Hey guys - thanks! OK, I'll post some whole tank shots soon, tonight if I can manage to get home from work while the lights are still on :crazy1:

 

[GoldStripe]

You should change the times that your lights are on Randy. That way you can view it when you get home from work. Mine runs from 1:00pm to 12:00am and I love the amount of viewing time I usually get (unless I go out at night).

 

[Stile2]

I run mine from 11 am to 7 pm, that way I get at least 3 hours of viewing time with MH on. And another 2 1/2 hours with actinic.

Keith

 

[rdmpe]

But the fishies wake up from the ambient room light and then you keep them up very late with your bright metal halides!

 

[GoldStripe]

my fish are always out drinkin and partyin all hours of the night so when they go to sleep they just pass out and it doesn't bother them. :beer: :dance: :fun1:

 

[rdmpe]

:lmao:

So those fish are keeping YOU awake!

I am changing my lighting times by a half hour every so often to make them come on later in the day.

I have my three MH come on and go off in a stagger from one end to the other. Each time is 1 hour later than the prev. Sort of like the sun going across the sky. So I'll probably work it to where they turn off in order at 8 PM, 9 PM, 10 PM then the actinics will turn off at 11 PM.

 

[rdmpe]

I bought a really nice ~5" Sailfin Tang. Picked it up yesterday (Sat. 5/27). So far it is doing really well. It will eat all kinds of pellets. I tried to get it to eat some nori, but it didn't really take to the pieces floating around in the water. I think it will go after some nori rubberbanded to a rock though, will try that tomorrow.

I also did a ~25 gallon water change. This is only the second water change I've done since first setting the tank up on 12/3/06. I'm going to start doing them a little bit more regularly but probably not too often...

I made a really stupid mistake during the water changing. I checked the PH and Alk of the cw, but forgot to bring the temperature up. So the tank was at 83 and the cw was at 77 and I've already drained 25 gal from the tank. I fired up the 300w heater and got it up to about 80 and then just refilled it slowly, adding the water near a closed loop outlet. I don't think it had much impact on the overall tank temp at all. But I was annoyed.

It's actually a pretty quick and easy process, so after I've done it a few times I should be able to do it pretty fast.

Hopefully I'll get some decent pictures of the sailfin tang tomorrow to post...

Still no new corals though I'm still trying to find time to hang my light over the tank first, it's still sitting on 2x4s. Can't do it tomorrow though, I'll be filling in all of the ditches I dug around the swimming pool. Did I mention I had to replumb it? I put three runs of 1.5" at 90' each, and a 90' run of 1", and a 90' run of electric wire to rewire the pool light. The pool was built in the early 70's and had recently developed an air leak on the suction side that was annoying me. Then it developed a water leak (small) on the pressure side underneath my wooden deck where I couldn't get at the pipes. So out came the shovels... This has eaten up the last three weekends prettymuch. Maybe I'll post some pictures of that project too...

 

[tgunn]

Hey Randy,
I wouldn't sweat it too much for the water changes. I sometimes forget to preheat my change water. 20 gallons in a 200+ body of water isn't going to make for that much of a temp swing..

Wow sounds like quite the job fixing up the swimming pool! Just think all that plumbing in the tank probably paid off making it easier to plumb the pool. See, reefkeeping is a very practical hobby!

Tyler

 

[rdmpe]

Yeah, but the plumbing lessons are kinda pricey :lol: :eek2:

 

[rdmpe]

Well, one of my darts is having a seal problem. I emailed MDM this morning and they got right back to me and are sending out a new seal kit to me. I should have replaced the seals a while ago. The pump was building up a pretty big mass of salt creep so I knew it needed to be done.

Anyway, now it is making some not-so-nice sounds. I'm pretty nervous - I don't want any major leaks!!! So hopefully the seals will get here soon.

The pump with the bad seal is the sump return. I could swap it out with the dart that is running my closed loop and just leave the CL off until I get the seals replaced. But I don't really want to deal with swapping the pump connections etc. so I'm going to wait for the new seals and hope things don't go downhill too fast...

 

[rdmpe]

Here are some pictures of the new fishy. When she lifts up the sails it is really amazing...

And a cool picture of the Elegant Coris Wrasse

 

[Me No Nemo]

Wow, Randy...she looks GREAT! So does Kate and all your fish. You are doing a great job keeping them all very healthy and happy....and you know how I feel about that!!! I know, I take it all too personally. Try feeding the herbivore foods first, pretty much all fish need some in their diet anyway. In the store, I feed the herbs in the am and the meaty stuff at night. Good job! Marcye

 

[rdmpe]

Thanks Marcye!

I've been feeding lots of veggie foods. I have some Forumla herbivore pellets and some Kent herbivore pellets. I like the Kent because they sink slower, so the fish have a little more time to catch them. The Forumla pellets really sink fast so I have to be a little more careful with them so that I make sure they all get eaten.

I have also been feeding nori soaked in Kent Zoa and with a drop of Garlic Extreme mixed in. They all love that stuff too.

The most recent thing I've tried is small pieces of spinach and romaine lettuce. I soak it in very hot water for a couple of minutes to soften it up, then put it on a clip. They all go after that too.

If anything, I probably need to start feeding a little more meaty food, especially for the wrasses, clown and royal gramma...

I fed some of those nice mysis from SITC yesterday, that went over very well too...

With the increase in bioload, I'm not really seeing any microalgae problems - hopefully that will continue. I had some small patches if you remember - I think the sailfin is picking at it. It seems to be decreasing. But I have seen tons of cheato growth!

 

[tgunn]

Wow, love the sailfin! What a gorgeous specimen!

Too bad about the Dart seals starting to go on you already. I had a similar problem with my Sequence 1000 5000Seq22. After a month of use the saltcreep had already begun. So far I haven't had any leaks after 5 months on the new seals.

Hint: When reseating the new seal, they mention to use some kind of gasket sealer stuff (which isn't included); I just used standard GE Silicone I instead... It seems to have worked great; no leaks at all so far.

I realize the Sequence seals need replacing every now and then but I'm starting to wonder about the design. It seems there's a lot of reefers who end up having premature seal failure....

Tyler

 

[rdmpe]

Yeah, I should have done mine a month or two earlier. I knew they were leaking from the significant salt creep. Now just in the last day they have started making LOTS of noise, and may eventually sieze up I'm a little worried. The motor will get hot and shut down if that happens, hopefully will not fry on me, but if so it is still under warranty. It's the older Baldor motor which I really like. I unplugged my halides today since I didn't want to have them overheat the tank if the sump pump shuts down. My cooling fans are blowing on the sump/fuge. It's a cloudy day on the reef Hopefully the seals arrive soon.

Thanks for the silicone hint - I'll have some of that on hand...

 

[rdmpe]

Well, the bad seals were really sounding scary this evening and I didn't think I could risk letting it go. So I went through the hassle of taking the dart from my closed loop and put it on the sump return instead. The closed loop will be off until I get the new pump seals installed. What a PITA, of course after I pulled the CL pump I had to tear it apart and clean it up a bit. I found it had two small shells lodged in the impeller!

 

[fishbaiter]

Man oh man, nice work..