Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank

[jason2459]

Swapped out my powerheads tonight from a couple tunze controlable pumps to a maxspect gyre xf150.

Posted this in a couple gyre threads and will see how the long term reliability is on it and how any future corals and anemones like it. This will be going in shortly.




I got the pump in today and absolutely love it already. Mine is silent and have it at 70% both forward and reverse. Much better flow then my two tunzes. I posted this in another thread on vertical mount thread.


Got the pump in the tank on the back glass with B on the top and B on the bottom. This put the top paddle pushing the flow toward the front glass and across the front of the tank and bottom paddle wheel give something like turbulence. Then on reverse the top gives something like turbulence and the bottom pushes right along the bottom of the back glass getting under my over flow box and behind my rocks. Theres only one point of contact on one of my rock structures on the glass otherwise the flow goes right through.

I did forward and the flow was great and some debris came up. But when it went reverse and the bottom was going forward...well it was quite amazing, awesome, silly, sad, and impressive.

The amount of debris that came up was embarrassing. Right now my tank is recovering from being nuked by cleaning solvents getting into my sump and had a massive invert and a few fish die off. I had two Tunze controlled pumps going and they didn't do anything for the nooks and crannies like this gyre just did in a matter of seconds. Flow was set to 70% both ways. Mine is silent but I also got the suction grip pads to go with it and will do 6 hour alternating gyre.

So here it is in the back glass corner. Box overflow in the middle and a single rock point against the back glass. The reverse flow blasts through it perfectly.

here's forward flow and kicked up some debris my tunzes didn't get. Flow looks great and fish were readjusting to it.

And here's reverse flow with the bottom going forward under the overflow and through the rocks oh my. Just areas the tunzes couldn't touch and I don't think horizontal position would hit those back areas as well either. It looks even worse in person. lol

 

[muttley000]

Awesome, hoping you have long term success with it!

 

[jason2459]

Awesome, hoping you have long term success with it!

Thanks. I'm really liking it so far and seems like my fish do too. There are areas of really high flow and lower flows depending on the direction its going. They seem to either like getting some exercise in and swim against it right up to the pump or take a ride down the current really fast.

My mandarin ignores it all and doesn't seem effected by it at all even though the pump has moved quite a bit of sand around so I know there's some good flow long the sand bed especially closer to the pump you get.

My Kaudern's cardinal hovers right above it or below it depending on its direction waiting for food to fly by. Same with my yellow watchman goby. He's go two sided to the rock he lives under and alternate sides with the flow just waiting to jump out at food.

My tangs LOVE it. They are constantly picking at the rocks now where ever the highest amount of current is at.

My three wrasses just play around the current. Same with my file fish. The file fish is funny though. He will swim right up to the pump slowly and quickly turns around flying down stream.

And my clown fish is still being hosted by my overflow box even when the reverse flow is blasting under it. The clown just swims around against it and periodically goes higher up the side where there's lower flow as most of it in that direction is lower.

I just love that the flow alternates both ways and get the opportunity to see the fish modify their swimming not to get away from the flow but to work with it. Its completely different kind of flow then anything I've been able to setup before.

 

[jason2459]

This is exiting

Stenner dual head peristaltic pump to perform automatic water changes daily. I want to change out about 2 gallons a day every day. With the 70gpd fixed I have it connected to my reefkeeper to run for 2minutes every hour 21 times a day. That will put me at just a hair over 2gpd. With my 32gallon brute I have to mix my saltwater I'll just have to mix new water every couple weeks just to make sure I don't run out.

I went with the stenner as its a single motor and with this application I don't want redundancy. If the motor failed I want both water from fresh salt mix and from the sump to stop. Also, being dual head on a single drive shaft its already calibrated. Being peristaltic and water incompressible and not much difference in head heights its plug and play. I picked up on this setup from a few different reefers.

I also like the warranty, ease of getting parts, replacement tubing , ease of setup, and great reviews on its reliability.

 

[jason2459]

This is exiting (yeah, this was supposed to say exciting)

Stenner dual head peristaltic pump to perform automatic water changes daily. I want to change out about 2 gallons a day every day. With the 70gpd fixed I have it connected to my reefkeeper to run for 2minutes every hour 21 times a day. That will put me at just a hair over 2gpd. With my 32gallon brute I have to mix my saltwater I'll just have to mix new water every couple weeks just to make sure I don't run out.

I went with the stenner as its a single motor and with this application I don't want redundancy. If the motor failed I want both water from fresh salt mix and from the sump to stop. Also, being dual head on a single drive shaft its already calibrated. Being peristaltic and water incompressible and not much difference in head heights its plug and play. I picked up on this setup from a few different reefers.

I also like the warranty, ease of getting parts, replacement tubing , ease of setup, and great reviews on its reliability.

Just ran the motor for 30minutes dry as per the instructions. It is not quite but luckily it's in the basement. I may have to turn it off when guests are staying over or adjust the timing so it only runs during the day while they are over. Also, I turned the pump with the heads facing down as per the instructions in case of tube failure it doesn't ruin the motor.

It came with two extra tubes, two 20' 1/4" stiff tubing and everything needed to connect them, and two really handing weighted strainers. Also, it came with two check valves but I didn't have to use them as the pump is higher then the sump and mixing station.

After running for 30minutes dry I ran and hooked up all the tubing with a weighted strainer in the sump to the pump and the out for that head going to a floor drain. Then the other head has a tubing run pulling from a weighted strainer in the bottom of the 32g brute can and going to the sump. In the sump the pulling is from my first chamber where I have the bean animal drain go into and my skimmer. Then the new salt mix is going into the second chamber. This puts them the farthest apart.

Issues I can see happening though is a tube failure or some other kind of failure (like forgetting to create new salt mix in time) and it keeps pumping water out of the sump but doesn't add it back in. This is another reason I want it to do as little as possible at a time to give me more of a chance to catch a failure. That would then add 2 gallons of ATO/Kalk water going in if not caught for the entire day. I'm sure I could calculate it out but I do not think this would cause catastrophic issues to a 180. I'm sure there would be things ****ed off which should also prompt me to check parameters and equipment. But that will also assume my ATO/Kalk doesn't get shutoff as well as it's on a timer to only run for 10 minutes at a time and 20 off until it can run again if it has too. Plus, it won't run if there's a pH spike above 8.6.

Then this would cause another issue, my suction out pacing the ATO and running my pump dry if we don't seen the suction of air blowing bubbles into the display tank. So, I set up a float switch alarm to shut down the AWC for now. But that relies on the float switch to be submerged and cause a greater chance for that float switch to fail.

So, basically, with this convenience does create some risk. What I could do, but not tonight, is setup a run to the main tank and zip tie the output to the return pipe. Then place the weighted suction line in the sump in the last chamber with the return pump just under the water level. This would prevent the pump from running dry but not the continuous running of fresh ATO water.

I did do a measurement of both the out water out and new mix in. Both ran through 8oz of water at 1minute and 42seconds. The milliseconds were off but I don't think I'm that good at measurement and starting and stopping the stopwatch. I did this test run 5 times and got the same time each time. I'll just make sure to still test the salinity daily(or so) for a while until I get a good comfort level that they are pumping at a close enough rate.

 

[jason2459]

]Beautiful job re-finishing the stand! That is a very unique one, with the tank frame and handles. ]

Thanks. I really loved that 55g. I know a lot of people don't like them because of the lack of the front and back room but that tank fit perfectly in the spaces we had for it in the first two houses we had it in. It looked great and really miss the look of that stand. It was like a picture frame or portal into a small chunk of the sea. This current house we moved into the room we had it in just dwarfed the tank and it looked odd. So I picked up my current 180 off Craig's list. Sanded and painted the stand black as it wouldn't stain well and had to strip apart the tank and reseal it due to it had a leak. Also added in an internal overflow box and external bean animal drain. But I got it super cheap and was worth it. I also had more time back then to be able to do it.

 

[muttley000]

You could just put a float switch in your brute, and not let your pump run when the water level is low.

 

[jason2459]

You could just put a float switch in your brute, and not let your pump run when the water level is low.

Yep float switch there would work too and probably better. Still requires the switch to be submerged and anytime that happens its more likely to fail. But being in the mixing container that would be less likely. I'll have to take time to do that at some point.

 

[jason2459]

Note: alternating gyre mode on the maxspect xf150 is awesome. One other benefit I have noticed is self cleaning. It just blasts away the debris its collected over the 6 hour period it was sucking. I'll still pull it and vinager soak it once a month. It will be a first for me to do on an in tank pump too. I'm usually pretty lax on that sort of thing and the powerheads just get over grown with crud. I really want to maintain full performance of this thing as I'm really impressed with its performance as it is right now and have never seen my fish so active with the flow.

 

[jason2459]

I hope these guys like the gyre as much as my fish do.

Maxi mini

Speckled RBTA with some green at the oral disk area

Green BTA with purple tips

 

[jason2459]

They are still right where I left them. The GBTA is really filled out tonight. Got a shot down to the oral disk on the RBTA and can see a bit more of the green.

 

[jason2459]

Swapped out my ro membranes tonight as its about that time. That should help my production rate again.

Checked the salinity and other parameters since the daily water changes have been happening none of the levels have changed or out of the ordinary. Which is good with me.

Calcium 420
Alk 10
Mg 1350
Salinity 35ppt
Temp 76
pH 8.25

That was all I checked.

 

[jason2459]

Swapped out my ro membranes tonight as its about that time. That should help my production rate again.

Checked the salinity and other parameters since the daily water changes have been happening none of the levels have changed or out of the ordinary. Which is good with me.

Calcium 420
Alk 10
Mg 1350
Salinity 35ppt
Temp 76
pH 8.25

That was all I checked. Its so weird that water changes are happening all day long. Well at least 2 minutes every hour for 21 hours. Its awesome.

 

[jason2459]

I love these anemones. Ordered a book Sea Anemones ... As a Hobby as it was recommended as a good book on them by theracersomethingsomething. They are still staying put. I went to feed them a small piece of jumbo mysis. I just poked on a wooden skewer and touched a tentacle. All three instantly grabbed and stuck to the mysis easily taking it off the stick.

Here's the little maxi mini eating one of those jumbo mysis

 

[muttley000]

Can't wait until I have enough tank for some anemones!

 

[jason2459]

Can't wait until I have enough tank for some anemones!

They are beautiful and nerve wracking at the same time. I'm constantly paranoid they will just implode on me or float off and die somewhere. But they are one of the reasons I set up the automatic water changes with small amount through out the day as just one more thing to keep everything as stable as possible.

ATO and AWC keeping the salinity in check and help maintain nutrient levels.

Vinegar dosing to help keep nitrates and phosphates down along with the AWC, skimming, ozone, and GAC.

Skimming and Ozone to break down organics and export them including the bacteria from vinegar dosing with a side of some more oxygen in the tank.

GAC added back in at the skimmers exit to remove any residual ozone, polish the water for more light for the nems, remove even more organic that could break down to nitrates, and reduce any toxins from softies now or later as more are added.

Kalk in the ATO has been great to keep my pH and alk stable.

 

[jason2459]

Oh and my overflow is covered and I had the gyre in mind as well with its alternating mode and only one pump in the tank. With the alternating gyre its pushing and pulling at the same time. The pulling is also with a rather large opening and doesn't feel that strong at all. Definitely not like a normal power head where the suction feels just as strong as the water its pushing. The flow coming out is incredible and the suction for the water going in can't even be felt. But then the flipped paddle wheel thats in reverse is pushing out water and can be felt but not very strong but hopefully enough to push away any floating anemone coming it's way or at least reduce the chance. Its still a risk I'm scared of.

 

[jason2459]

Totally freaked out tonight when i got home from work. My GBTA was gone. No where to be seen. I'm checking everywhere and even down in the sump in case he some how got through my over flow teeth that are covered. I gave up looking and figured he's melted completely away some how. Well, about 30 minutes ago he started poking his tentacles out and he's right where he has been. He was sucked so far up into this little cave at the bottom of my rock work I couldn't see him. He's fully back out again.

 

[jason2459]

The mini max is moving around a little on the same rock though so not jumping ship yet. The GBTA was hiding again in its cave so I hope it doesn't keep doing that. The RBTA is out all the time and looking awesome.

Pods are bouncing back nicely as I ticked off a couple million of them tonight. I took out my large mag float where the seem to like living. I put in a magnavor. That thing is amazing and so much stronger then the mag float. The magnavor doesn't v fly off no matter how fast I go across the glass. I have 1/2" glass and went with the 4er and it moves pretty easy but the magnets stick good and have to give a little force when transferring across the corners to take the magnet of the glass and snaps back together quickly on the other side. The mag float would sometimes float off.


Also like it has replacement pads for both sides.

 

[jason2459]

Found something for my brute mixing can for the new saltwater.

http://www.buckeyehydro.com/tether-float-switch/

That should work out great to make sure in case I don't get to filling back up the brute and making new saltwater in time the Stenner wont continue with the AWC and pump water out of my sump draining it out or causing it to keep filling with Top off lime water. Looks pretty much plug and play. Drop it in and plug it in.


Also, I notice that ReefCentral doesn't like ******* and is **** out the url. So most all my old pictures are no longer working.