The Dream Tank 400 Gallon Display - IN THE WORKS - Input appreciated!!!!

You are going to have to find the source of the leaking electricity.

First of all, put on socks and rubber souled shoes.

Turn off everything, and unplug everything. Remove the ground probes.

Get a digital voltage meter, set it to 220v AC, put on probe in the ground hole of a nearby outlet, and put the other probe in the water. What does it read? 0 hopefully.

Plug in one item, and watch the meter. If it reads 0, all is well. Plug in the next thing. Read the meter. Continue until you find the piece of equipment that is causing the power leak. To double check, unplug everything except that one item, and measure it again.

You probably have 10 to 20 different plugs being used, so this may take you 15 to 30 minutes. However, once you have everything tested, and removed the faulty item(s), you can reinstall the grounding probes to keep you safe.

Replace any bad equipment. Stray electricity in the tank, passing through the ground probe, will affect corals and fish. You can get this resolved, assuming your outlets were wired correctly in the first place.
 
Ok guys,

the first good jolt I got was from a faulty Maxi Jet That I found by elimination a while back. I went a head and tried melevs way because I was curious if there was anything else. The Voltmeter hung around .5 - 2 volts for everything until I plugged in 3 things. I have 2 of the new coralvue power heads on an extension cord because the cords are so rediculouly short... that bounced my readings up about 3 volts so I unplugged them. and will be doing some power head re aaranging soon. The second source is kinda a maybe maybe not situation that I will have to recheck. My 2 heaters seem to nup the voltage a tad when plugged in, but they are akso the only things plugged into thatparticular circuit. NOW the kicker... my coral vue float switch bounced everything up to about 20 - 30 volts!!! I of coarse have unplugged this piece of equipment and will be sending it back to them for a replacement.

I will be taking all neccesary precautions of tripping all the GFIs before doing any more maintenance work in the tank,... I guess its just a precaution and hinderance that needs to be...

obi
 
I did the melevs way in my old build when I had a stray and found out it was one of the local pumps I used in my sump tank
 
Maxi-jolt

Maxi-jolt

This is not the first thread where I have read that a Maxi-jet pump was the culprit with a voltage leak...

I guess the same could apply to any accessory which doesn't have a separate ground (the 3 conductor type plug)...

Melev's suggestion is a sure fire (pun intended) safeguard... :cool:

LL
 
On good notes....

Magnesium is 1350 now, I was seeing spots of coraline on the acrylic. After fighting coraline growth off the acrylic and glass of past aquariums this would have been a negative thing under good circumstances but the pink and purple spots were welcomed last week as a nice change of negativity. I scraped them off and havnt seen any more.
calcium is 425, KH = 4.0 meq/L, test strips ... nitrate = 0, didnt test phosphate this week but last test was less than a month ago, and was zero. Hair algae still thrives. PH is steadily 7.75 - 7.9ish throught the day/night.

Ive been dosing 3 mL of vodka per day for about 10 days. I guess I should have purchassed a accurate nitrate test to keep track of what is going on, and will be soon to make sure I balance out dosing once I hit the zero mark. (something is feeding my algae so I dont think Im there yet, but will start testing soon)

I have made it a point to keep my hands out of the tank. I tested all equipment with a voltmeter and found my float switch gave a chnage of 20 30 volts. Voltage sat at or below 2 V until I plugged this piece of equipment as well as an extension cord that 2 of the new Coral Vue PH were on. ( I made it a point not to use any extension cords but the Coral Vue power heads have an extremely short cord and wouldnt reach, I will be moving these around soon so they are plugged into a power strip or a receptical.)

Will be releasing the two zebrasomas into the tank soon as I am tired of keeping them in the tub and watching them joust all day. They MAY help with the micro algae problem but wont count on it. :)

OBI
 
Been a while since I updated anything as I as most hobbyist at some point have become completely discouraged. I have evn put the system up for sale. Knowing it will take quite a while to sell this system I am still keeping tabs on it and trying to enjoy it, but with the turns of bad luck I have experianced It seems harder to. I will say that Even if I do sell the big system I will probably eventually set up aanother system, not quite as big. something around 200 225 gallons total.

The two zebrasomas were -placed in the display over the weekend. The algae seemed to have been somewhat subsiding before their addition we will see what happens over the next bit. I have stopped the vodka dosing at the appearance of some brown slime algae in a couple of places on the rock. Calcium also dropped to aboutv 370 since I quit my regimen of adding kalk each night. I turned the reactor off as my alk had reached about 4.25. I will let things settle down while dosing calcium every couple of days till things get back to normal. I lost a pi9ece 0f maricultured bottlebrush abd this may be why, PH is still lower than ideal at around 7.8 - 7.9.

obi
 
Obi,

Sorry to hear about your problems but hang in there, all your diligence will pay off.

Did you fix the reeflo? I have the same skimmer and had a similar leak, but only when the pump was shut off. I tightened the hell out of the bolt at the end of the motor and now the leak is a very slow dribble, but that's the best I can do. I haven't had the desire to drain the whole thing and take it apart to re do completely. I also have the Pro Kit.

Why did you have to drill out the venturi? I never drilled mine out and was wondering if I should have. I think the skimmer is great but it only skims dry for me as I probably don't have much in the tank for it to take out. I can't seem to skim wet at all as I adjust the wedge pipe, it just skims dry or overflows...I guess I need a gate valve.

Your story sounds like mine; from the micro bubbles (I use tubs and still have them - at least I'm oxygenating tank :-)), exposed wire on a heater getting shocked, to the algae, leaking skimmer, leaking pipes from trying to fix skimmer, bulk head leak due to me shifting pipes, water changing/mixing station leak from a cracked holding tank (30 gallons on the floor!), fried surge protector from leak and NO GFCI on that circuit as it should never have been able to have gotten wet, aquascape collapses, and trying to get the dosing pump to dispense the right amount for calc and alk - shocking and bleaching corals. It has taken me almost two months of fiddling to get things to where they almost need to be. I still have plenty of tinkering to do but my hands are not in the tank as much anymore, but I sure wanted to throw everything out on several occasions. We need the bad sometimes to remind us what good really is.

I'm still not happy with everything but I do enjoy watching the growth in SPS and the fish swim in a less than utopian set up. It still relaxes me at the end of the day and if its not perfect so what, TOTMs weren't created overnight. I hope you stick with it, sometimes getting a friend to help with some beer and tall stories really helps. I'm lucky to have friends locally that are reefers that were able to give a hand and keep me company while I cursed the hobby. The fustration turned into a funny memory. Take care and all the best.
 
Sorry

Sorry

Sorry you are so discouraged...

I hope things will turn around for you... I have really enjoyed your thread and the happier days...

LL
 
Although the tank is up for sale, part of me doubts it will sale, or at least for a long while. Due to this I am still putting effort into it...which means I may decide not to sell it ... ;). Im having a tough time with it,... so it may end up staying put in the basement.

A few things will have to change though. I will have to find a way to exhaust the humidity in the room year round, i will prrobably step down from 400 watters to 250's. I think the 400s are too much, most of my coral have reacted negatively to being moved higher even after slowly moving them up over a couple of months. Id also like to change my plumbing around on the returns.

My fish list will also change,... anthias and fairy/flasher wrasses do not like their 400 gallon home. of the bartlett/dispars i had 1 is still in the tank the rest have ejected themselves hara kiri style or died from stress. The flasher I had also rocketed out of the tank. The list will change to more aggressive reef fish. Tangs, dottybacks, a dwarf angel, clowns, some aleni damsels or saphire chromis, a couple of heni butterflys and maybe a full size angel (blue face or imperator). Maybe this will save me some stress/money/headache.

I dont know what the future holds for the reef in my basement, hopefully ill figure it out soon and will enjoy whichever path is best for me at this time. Thanks for the support LL and vchin.

Vchin there is a link ill have to find on how to drill out the venturi and to what size, reason to do it is that the new impellar needs more air to work to its full capacity (the taller neck also dictates this.) Ill try to find it and PM it to you.

OBi
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15747034#post15747034 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by obiwanthegoby
A few things will have to change though. I will have to find a way to exhaust the humidity in the room year round
Click to expand...

Have you considered adding a bathroom fan that vents to the outside? That's what we did for our basement fish room. Our display tank is upstairs, but the sump and all equipment is in a dedicated basement fishroom. The humidity was pretty high. The fan helps quite a bit.

I'd urge you NOT to sell the tank for a couple of reasons. First, you said you were thinking about a 200-225 gallon tank. If you were to sell your 400, my guess is you might make enough to cover the cost of a new 200. So why would you bother? You already have the 400, in a nice custom built-in setup. You'd have to move it out (think how much of a pain THAT would be), and move in a 200. And your custom setup would be wasted. Economically it just doesn't make sense.

I agree, 250 W's should be fine. There are plenty of 30 inch tall tanks running 250's. You've got some kick-butt reflectors, so Par shouldn't be an issue.

What you're experiencing sounds to me like normal setup issues. Yeah, it stinks, but it will pass. I'm sure that you didn't expect everything to be perfect immediately. Why is it that all our tanks don't look like tank of the month: because it isn't simple or easy.

Stick with it. You'll get through this. And then you'll be so glad that you did. :)
 
sorry to hear of your misfortune. If you decide to down size are you gonna sell the hole system and start from scratch or are you gonna sell just the tank? Have you thought about the price you want to get
 
If I can get the right amount of money I was planning to sell the whole system as a packaged deal...Unless someone wanted the tank by itself... I dont want to part everything out unless I can get rid of the livestock first. Its posted on craigs list as well as the Kentucky Reef Society Forum.

You interested? lol
 
For those of you interested the tank has been saved...lol. I have decided to continue with my saltwater journey but to treat at as a hobby and not a job. In other words Im not going to stress over all the little things that have made me grow to disgust my tank. I do have plans to modify those things listed in above conversations, save the 400 watters. I am going to give these new reefbrite twin arc lamps a try though. I will keep everyone posted on the progress, it may be much slower than before though. Thanks for the support.

Obi Woo hoo1
 
Git 'er dun. Keep posting pictures too.

There's nothing wrong with taking a breath, and thinking out loud on RC to see if you have a good plan in mind when the tank isn't quite reaching the goals you have set. One of the best things we can usually do is leave it alone, but sometimes you have to act.
 
ok lets stop talking about selling ...........................post some pics ok ............don't add anymore fish for awile and enjoy what you have for a min..........look how fast you built this tank . try to work out some of the kinks before you progress . was your other tank upstairs or in the basement ? if the tank is the only thing in the basement it probably feels like a job . out of sight out of mind .try to grow into your basement for example music,tv, kids toys and it will become more of a hobby than a job . good luck lets see futur TOTM ...........and post some pics good luck.
 
Thanks

Thanks

Just a note to let you know I have enjoyed this thread and your large build of this tank system.
I haven't got my tank yet but plan to get a 125 gallon display tank on the first floor and the basement will be the location of the sump, refug, and water treatment area. Like your start, I plan on using large stock tanks, but my stock tanks will be in different levels ("the plan").
Please keep on going with this system. I and others are hoping you continue with your dream of this great tank system.

Ron:)
 
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