some more questions for my 180

[shaneh]

Got some more questions for the 180 bow. The total gallons will be 180 bow + 30 gal fuge + 40 gallon sump= around 200 gallons with rock, sand and the sump only half full.

How many heaters will i need? I'm thinking a 250 and a 500, with the 500 set half a degree lower than the 250. This way the 250 will be the only heater on if the tank gets a little cold to save watts. One heater will be controlled by my reefkeeper and the other by my chiller that has a built in heater controller plug in with an LCD display. I love my chiller! =)

I want to use titanium heaters to avoid glass breaking. Can i just plug them into the reef keeper or chiller w/heater? I have never had a titanium heater and didn't know if they come with a plug in that will only work with each brands controller. I see that all the tritium heaters have a controller sold with them.

What is the best brand of titanium heaters? Woo brothers?

Do I need to have a heater protecting sleeve on the heaters to make sure my acrylic sump doesn't melt?

I know I need to show you guys my work so far but I think I may wait till the end and do a full build thread with all the pictures and combine all these small threads.

Anyone have a 3/4 lock line seperater? Or can i just pull it apart? I don't wanna break it. I need to take out 3 links on the 3/4 link.

I need a few 6-8 ft extension cords to make all the equipment connect to the controller and electrical on/off switches. My plan is to electrical tape the two together at the joint of the cords to make sure water stays out. You guys have another idea? Also the cords will all be off the ground with it zip ties screwed to the inside of the tank stand. The way it is set up is water all on one side of the tank and electrical on the other.

I wish I could take a day off work and finish this thing....I can see the finish line!!!....well at least for the plumbing, electrical, building sump area, stand...still need to do the lights and the "Bonsai" rock. I love bonsai and I’m jumping on the band wagon.

What i still need to get....the rest of the plumbing (of course I got 4 of the wrong sizes the other night), lumenarc reflector for MH, t5 bulbs, VHO bulb, end caps, titanium heaters, vortex mp40, build the canopy/ light rail. gotta wait for more funds and christmas is comin....just bought new couch, love seat, coffee table, side table and chair....the lady loves it but my bank account got alot smaller, that stuff is expensive! now that i think about it...it cost more than my tank......hummm. :sad2:

 

[northbay-reefer]

Shane use multiple 250 watt heaters through out your system for redundancy, I mount my heaters horizontally with the provided suction cups inside my acrylic sump with no problem. Make sure your heaters are on a controller so they don't over heat your tank. I like the zipties idea, but don't do it too soon or you will have to unzip ... LOL

It is looking like you really enjoy creating a great system, you got this far "why RUSH" ? take your time and enjoy the journey.

If you need help with the Bonsai rocks let me know ... LOL... I have easy ways of creating stable rock works.

 

[shaneh]

Tom, when you say "use 250 through out your system for redundancy" should i put one in the fuge and two in the sump? Other than that I don't have a body of water except my tank.

I may bring my rock over to your house some time to make some bonsai creations

your right I want it done, but to make it right and take my time I need to do it slow.

I even plan to put my blue accent LEDs around the skimmer on a remote controller with a dimmer! Just another project to make this thing kickin!

Oh what brand of titanium heats do you guys use?

 

[northbay-reefer]

Use one in the fuge and maybe one in the sump to start with, I use Ebojager they tend to last the longest. I've heard bad stories about the titanium one so am not sure about those.

You are more than welcome to bring by the rocks, I'll help you. Bring some zip ties and epoxy, I have some concrete on hand and some fiberglass rod already.

Your tank is going to be rocking alright!!! Members from our club and the Bar club set me up with a bunch of sps corals recently so hopefully I'll be able to frags the corals for you and others down the road.

 

[winereef]

I mount my heaters horizontally with the provided suction cups inside my acrylic sump with no problem.

Make sure you get the fully submersible type. on some heaters you have to leave the dial nob out of the water. With this kind, it's easy to blow them up when you are doing water changes.

during water change:
water level goes down,
heater stick out of water
heater tries to heat up (and that's when it starts frying).
If you get into this situation, do NOT touch heater or dip it in water.

ya, I burned myself once and blew up 2 heaters.:sad2:

 

[shaneh]

will do, I'll keep the glass heaters. Maybe at the next meeting i will bring my rock and we can play with some ideas. By then I'm sure I'll be ready for the rock work. The rock is in my fuge now so i will have tons of life on it...will this be a problem? I have tons of mighty putty and zip ties

 

[northbay-reefer]

Well, some of the rocks will be dead by the time we are done with them so it is best to take those out and let them dry so they will be easy to work with They will be live again when we put them back in the tank for a while. I kept 60% of my old rocks in the fuge tank gave away 20% ; dried 20% and mixed in some lace rocks to create the bonsai rock works.

Choose the large, long, curvy, and flat pieces of rocks to create the look. You might want to come over before the meeting to get an idea before tackling this.

 

[shaneh]

Another Question:

A guy in the Bay Area broke down his 190 tank and will sell me all his Aragonite Reef Sand for $50, I think it is less than a year old. It is still live right now, if i put it in buckets and store it till I'm ready for water which will be soon do i need to be concerned for anything? I'm going to sift it to put all the crabs and snails and add them to my current tank.

I'm sure there will be some die off in the sand...just wondering if this is a bad idea and should just buy new. I can't tell if he had any pests that could live in the sad but it is saving a bit of money.

TOM: I'll give you a call to stop by your house some time to check out your rock and shape mine....just trying to think of some time on the weekend....this weekend Santa Cruz...next weekend pig hunting....the following is the last one for abb....the next one is in DEC...haha my schedule is nuts....I'll find some time. thanks for all your help.

 

[northbay-reefer]

New sand is better, live sand is very dirty.

Those weekends looks wicked, what ever you do try not to miss the abb weekend lol ... I am usually free on Sat and some Sundays, week day evening is ok too. LMK

 

[shaneh]

can i rinse the sand with a hose for a while then do a final rinse with RO/DI? I think i read that somewhere.

Winereef: thanks for the heater info.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Shane, you could but believe me its a lot of work. I am thinking about getting some more sand for my sand bed soon, do you know of a local place that have it cheap? I need the real fine stuff.

 

[shaneh]

6th Ave in SF has the cheapest dry goods i have found. Sand is heavy so shipping would be killer. I buy my salt from them $33 a tub for oceanic, reef crystals, coral life, and a few others you can't beat that. I heard they actually sell it at cost thinking you will spend money on fish....i don't buy fish from them. Not sure on the sand they have but i know they have alot even black sand...maybe give them a call and ask.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Shane I've been there many time bro, yeah they do have the best price. Its too bad they don't take very good care of their live stock. I think I will pick up a 50lb bag next time am there

 

[carne.espada]

Shane, Like I have said before, everyone is an expert. Having said that.... my two cents, and this is based upon fact and experience:
Buy new sand. The "live sand" bullshit is great if you are doing a tank w/o live rock. Live rock, properly cured, will have more than enough aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to "seed" your sand very fast. If you are going for a sand bed look like my aquarium, use about6-8 20lb bags of oolitic sand. Put rock in first, then sand. There will be quite a bit of foam from the sand but you can skim it out manually.
As far as the heaters. There is no logic to smaller heaters to save $$. A 1000 watt heater will just run less to keep the tank the same temp. I suggest that you just put a 300 watt (or two if you prefer) in the sump and hook them to the controller. I set my heaters at 80 deg. F and then set the controller at the temp desired. This is double protection. The heaters can be placed directly in the sump. the water flow will prevent any contact melting of the acrylic. Ebo Jaegers are great heaters but are not rated for submerged use. Having said that, I have never had a problem. Use whatever type heater that you are comfortable with. All are acceptable IF you use a controller to protect the tank from overtemp.
Good luck. You really should come over to view my system.
Rob

 

[Reef Bass]

Shane your tank is going to be awesome! Let me through in my two cents just for grins.

I agree that you can skip the "live sand" if you have some source of bacteria to seed your sand. If some of your rocks make it into the tank "live", then that'll probably work. A couple handfuls of sand from an established tank scattered about would work too. I'd also go new v. someone else's "used" sand. You never know what was going on in their tank.

Jager heaters are the best I've used in my 40 years of keeping aquariums. They are fully submersible and I have three completely underwater currently. The general guideline for heating is 5w per gallon. Myself, now that it's cold, I'm running more like 6-7w / gal because I have two 20' runs of pvc under my floor to my lps tank. Even though I insulated those pipes (thank goodness I thought of that!), the water cools some one the way out to the tank and back to the sump. 5w / gal should be sufficient for your entirely in the warm house setup.

+1 for setting the heaters at like 80 and letting a controller control their power. I am running 200w heaters because of space considerations in the sump (the longer tubes make a difficult fit). One 1000w heater would cycle less often and use the same amount of power and you'd have fewer cords to run and plug in. I haven't seen any of those for sale, so I'd probably go with 3 300w to start if the longer tubes aren't a problem. I'd avoid piling them on top of each other and make sure there is good flow over them.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Carn and reef bass explain it better than I can lol

 

[shaneh]

Thanks guys for the input, I think I will use (3) 300 or 250's. One will be controlled off my chiller/ heater one off my reef keeper and the other on it's own. That way they will all keep each other in check. If I used a 1000 and it went out my tank my crash...so i think multiple heaters are better.

I need to see more tanks, i was getting my tires during the RP, Cotati, Petaluma tank tour so i missed you tank Rob. I'll have to check it out soon.

As for the sand i guess it would be smart to go with new and i can use the sand that i have in my current system as well.

As a side note i have been on edge for the last few months, i may be getting a new job and have to leave for training for a while so i will have to break down everything i have done. At least i will be able to "plug" everything back into where it was. But this job deal isn't promised to me and i won't find out till 30 days of less than i have to leave. And to add to it I have no idea when it may be, the phone may just ring one day and i have to go.....very frustrating. Anyways....back to the tank! I have been taking some pics and plan to update my thread soon to keep the interest going and show you guys some work. I discounted the computer at home casue it went where the tank is now. Gotta plug everything back in...thinking I may just get a laptop. I don’t need a full desk for a computer. I'll try and get the pics up this weekend, leaving tom for Santa Cruz.

thanks guys

 

[kokaneejr]

Shane,
Good luck with all that. I cant wait to see the tank but I want you to get the job as well buttt we don't want you to leave either.
Well keep us updated and as I said before good luck.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Shane best of luck with the job man, I hope everything works out fine in the end job wise. After that you can get the tank in order. If you need my help please let me know.

 

[Steve Ruddy]

want to use titanium heaters to avoid glass breaking. Can i just plug them into the reef keeper or chiller w/heater? I have never had a titanium heater and didn't know if they come with a plug in that will only work with each brands controller. I see that all the tritium heaters have a controller sold with them.

Shane I like and use EBO heaters as well. I have one 250W on my 180 and it's fine. I also like the Titanium heater elements and use them with Neptune Systems Aqua Controllers. Blue Line sells the previously Bio Therm Titanium controllers and heater elements. The controllers aren't that great but you don't need them anyway I have been using the titanium heating elements for years and they are fine. They are available in 250W, 500W, and 1000W.