Return pump embedded in rock!

[scolley]

Yesterday I got a NASTY surprise.

The return in my sump is in a back corner, and I can't really see into it. To this point it's been no real problem. 'cuz could still get the return pump out for cleaning, which was about all I needed. Until I tried to remove it yesterday. Stuck! Solid.

With a mirror I saw, to my shock, that there is about an inch of calcium at the bottom of that section. The pump is anchored in rock! I think I'm going to have to break down my whole sump to put a vinegar bath in there. Bummer!

Through out the day I pump 2 part into the return section of my sump with peristaltic pumps on an Aquacontroller. Obviously this happened due to pumping calcium in there.

Does anyone know why I made rock thought? Maybe the water in that section is not agitated enough where I'm pumping the calcium in? And it's settling?

Thoughts?

This is going to be one massive PITA to fix.

 

[Sk8r]

For starters, crosscheck your alkalinity test. I don't know spit about dosing 2-part---I use kalk, and know you can have troubles with pumps and hoses if you have a bad test and keep chasing the alk reading with more dosing ( trying to set your levels before going back to kalk.)

 

[scolley]

Thanks for the help. But not sure what you are suggesting beyond making sure my alk is OK, and not chasing levels. And I very recently did validate that my Alk levels are correct, and test kit OK...

Because I dose the 2-part with an aquacontroller my alk and cal readings stay pretty solid. The aquacontroller injects a few ml of alk, or a little calcium, every 20 to 60 minutes, through out the day. And as long as I have the frequency set correctly (as in how many minutes between a 1 minute dose) my alk and cal stay quite level. I do have tiny drifts as my corals continue to grow in size (and uptake rates), but that is accommodated by tiny tweaks over time. No big swings in either levels (Alk or calcium) or 2 part doses.

It IS worth mentioning that I do not perform the "recommended for newbies too stupid to test correctly" equal parts Part 1 and Part 2 dosing. I dose each independently to keep my levels set where I want them. Works great. All except for the rock on the base of my return pump.

But recently my Salifert alk kit went wacko. Don't know why. But got readings all over the chart. Before my kit went nuts, I thought I was keeping the alk at about 7.75 dKH. I took some water to my LFS. They got 7.8. And I got a new kit, which tested 0.1 dKH higher than its reference fluid, and tested my water at 7.9. So my kit appears good, and I have not been chasing my readings around . Things have been solid except for ONE thing...

Six months ago I did give away a large (relative to my tiny nano) piece of monti cap. And my readings spiked immediately afterward. Clearly it was a big consumer, when I got things stabilized a couple of weeks later I was injecting a good bit less 2 part. However, even then that spike did not get my alk up over 10.3 dKH.

Did that answer what you were asking?

Thanks.

 

[James404]

I would relocate your dosing lines to an area of higher flow so you do not get so much precipitate. I dose directly where my output to my skimmer and my overflow come into the sump.

 

[scolley]

I would relocate your dosing lines to an area of higher flow so you do not get so much precipitate. I dose directly where my output to my skimmer and my overflow come into the sump.

Thanks. So you believe - as I am suspecting - that the problem is an issue with the water flow where the calcium discharges from the tube?

I can't do what you are suggesting, because my overflow discharges into an area that flows straight into my skimmer section. So I risk gumming up my skimmer. Or so it would appear.

What if I put a small pico pump in my return section, just to keep that water churned up?

My sump is custom made, and truly nano-sized to go with my 29g DT. The return section is only 6" x 9". Small.

But I do have your typical bubble trap exiting the skimmer section, feeding the return section. Maybe putting the tubing into the bubble trap? The water is moving reasonable briskly there.

 

[James404]

Where I described I am dosing is basically the same, I have the pump for my skimmer right there, the outlet pipe and the overflow line. I have never had a problem with my pump. One other thing that may help is spread out the dosing schedule more if possible.

 

[scolley]

Where I described I am dosing is basically the same, I have the pump for my skimmer right there, the outlet pipe and the overflow line. I have never had a problem with my pump.

Oh, OK. Cool. Thanks, I might try that!

One other thing that may help is spread out the dosing schedule more if possible.

Yeah, I thought about that. Currently I'm dosing Alk for 1 minute out of every 50. Since I'm using an AC Jr, increments less than a minute are not possible. Such as 15 seconds every 12.5 minutes. But I've got an Apex waiting to be installed. And it will carve out period in minutes and seconds. So that's starting to sound like one more reason to get off my tuchus and install that Apex.

But it's gonna have to wait until i get the return pump out of the rock! That thing needs a good cleaning. Bummer.

Thanks for the help.

 

[TheH]

Try temporarily dosing in an area where you can easily see if precipitate is forming.

 

[Fish4Me2]

I've had similar issues with the output of my Litermeter. To address, I've made sure that both output tubes are somewhere I can easily see them, and next to the output of my skimmer. That helps a great deal.

 

[scolley]

Try temporarily dosing in an area where you can easily see if precipitate is forming.

Yea... that's a good idea. Thanks! I guess if I do that in an area that also has high flow, then I know that either the problem was temporary, or that it's flow based. Thank you.

I've had similar issues with the output of my Litermeter. To address, I've made sure that both output tubes are somewhere I can easily see them, and next to the output of my skimmer. That helps a great deal.

Yea. Lesson learned there. This is my first reef tank, and even thought it's only a 29g nano, I went whole hog on all the systems. It's got the whole enchelada... sump w/DSB, refugium/algae scrubber, in-sump skimmer, carbon, GFO, controller, auto dosing, auto-top off, auto water change. Most every common automation/system except bio-pellets.

The whole idea for me was get familiar with everything on a small scale before I converted my 180g to a reef. Not only is that supposedly more difficult (a good proving ground), but it's also somewhat cheaper. But the downside has been that nano's generally have very small stands. And it's REAL hard to cram a lot of automation into a little area.

So I made the HUGE mistake of putting some things in places where I thought, "It does not matter that I can't see it. All I really need is to be able to reach it". Wrong.

But then again... that's exactly why I started small. I knew I'd learn really important lessons. And making sure you can actually see everything is a good one!

 

[scolley]

Thanks for the help folks. With this feedback think I can get this corrected now. But that rock removal is going to be a PITA. Lessons learned...

Any body need a few big chunks of solid calcium? :clown:

 

[scolley]

I just had a BFO (a Blinding Flash of the Obvious)! I know how this problem of getting my return pump embedded in calcium happened. Or at least a highly likely explanation IMO...

I use a Neptune Systems Aquacontroller Jr. on this tank. That has a "Feed" mode that I use to turn off the return pump while I'm feeding. I've got the feed cycle duration at 15 minutes. I also use the controller's OSC function to dose the tank with calcium 1 minute out of every 50 (roughly). So that means that almost 1/3 of the time that I feed my tank the return pump is off. And my dosing tube dispenses into my return. So...

One in every three times I "feed" my tank - on average -calcium is being pumped into the return with ZERO flow, ZERO dilution. Duh! I suppose that could grow a little rock.

So, now I've taken the rather obvious step of programming the AC Jr. to turn off the calcium dosing pump - along with the return - for the 15 minutes it's in the feed cycle.

Shared for the edification of the community.



Now to just get my return pump out of the rock in my sump...