The inwall 380 starfire reborn
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clekchau
Premium Member
Jonathan, if you look on the top of page 9 there is a detailed drawing:
http://www.spectrapure.com/manuals/LiterMeter3f.pdf
I will finish my plumbing of the entire system hopefully this week and take pictures of how I did it. Basically there are 2 rubbermaid stock tanks, one is plumbed directly into the system and it will be my remote deep sand bed. The other is the saltwater mixing tank that will always contain premixed saltwater and covered to avoid evaporation. The litermeter III will take an equal amount out of the rdsb and run it into a drain and at the same time will take the same equal amount from the saltwater mix and put it into the system. You can program it to do this at a certain level, for me it is 7 gallons a day. I got the idea on reef central and Randall Holmes Farley's article advocating small, daily water changes:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php
xinumaster
reef addict
I haven't thought about how I'm going to setup my water change system. Thanks for bringing this up. I need to review all those literatures you posted for my tank.
Tom, any new pictures?
Tom, any new pictures?
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jnarowe
New member
so you are setting it up just like they want? I would love to see pics if you get the chance. My only issue with this method is figuring out how to replenish teh water in the SW holding tank. I fill mine with RO/DI and then mix in salt to age. If you are constantly changing water out of it, then at some point there would be a salinity change right?
That setup is great...unfortunately I don't think that I will have the room, unless I change a few things around (which is always a possibility
). His tank is also almost a duplicate of our dimension.. that one is 7' X 4' X 2.5', ours is 6.5' X 4' X 2'. Taking his 6"+ DSB into account, the viewing dimensions are almost identical. Looking at his setup I have a long ways to go to even begin to compare tanks on anything other than pure dimensions 
. His rockwork has me rethinking ours (but then again the wind changes direction at our house and it gets me to rethinking our aquascaping... ).Thanks for the great link Hector
clekchau
What sort of a container do you use for your ATO reservoir ? The reason I ask is that I recall reading here on RC some time ago about people having ussues with algea/bacteria growing in their RO/DI reservoir. I ran our ATO for well over a year using a brute can for the reservoir and never noticed any problems at all with it., even now, sitting idle and almost empy, I didn't detect any issue with it the last time I looked inside (which was a couple of weeks ago when I was filling the sumps with RO/DI I dumped most of what what I had in the reservoir into the sumps). I am still on the fence about what and where to setup our new RO/DI reservoir. I suspected that the algae was occurring in clear or partially opaque containers, versus the completely opaque gray Brute can (that I kept covered just about 100% of the time, except to periodically check on it). Any thoughts or info on any issues with RO/DI reservoirs ?
I also had thought that there wasn't much of anything in RO/DI for any critters like algae, etc to grown and thrive on.
Perry
Nope, no new pictures yet. Mainly becasue we are rethinking some of the arrangement of our tank and the new corals are still settling in and are not back to full size (for LPS) or decently colored (for the SPS). Most of it is still stressed from the dips and what not. And another reason for a lack of picts is that the tank is going through a mild cyano bloom (that hopefully will stay mild and go away soon). If it doesn't subside shortly I will look into dosing some sugar (about 50% of the recommended dosage is our current plan, if nothing improves by the end of the week).
Our next goal is the ATO, to re-route the temporary skimmer plumbing and to build the mesh top for the tank (so that we can start looking into adding some fairy wrasses and other fish that are known to jump)
I may hold off on the skimmer plumbing since it looks like we may have our new skimmer within the next couple of weeks, so I don't want to spend too much time and materials on rerunning this skimmers plumbing only to tear it out a week later.
What sort of a container do you use for your ATO reservoir ? The reason I ask is that I recall reading here on RC some time ago about people having ussues with algea/bacteria growing in their RO/DI reservoir. I ran our ATO for well over a year using a brute can for the reservoir and never noticed any problems at all with it., even now, sitting idle and almost empy, I didn't detect any issue with it the last time I looked inside (which was a couple of weeks ago when I was filling the sumps with RO/DI I dumped most of what what I had in the reservoir into the sumps). I am still on the fence about what and where to setup our new RO/DI reservoir. I suspected that the algae was occurring in clear or partially opaque containers, versus the completely opaque gray Brute can (that I kept covered just about 100% of the time, except to periodically check on it). Any thoughts or info on any issues with RO/DI reservoirs ?
I also had thought that there wasn't much of anything in RO/DI for any critters like algae, etc to grown and thrive on.
Perry
Nope, no new pictures yet. Mainly becasue we are rethinking some of the arrangement of our tank and the new corals are still settling in and are not back to full size (for LPS) or decently colored (for the SPS). Most of it is still stressed from the dips and what not. And another reason for a lack of picts is that the tank is going through a mild cyano bloom (that hopefully will stay mild and go away soon). If it doesn't subside shortly I will look into dosing some sugar (about 50% of the recommended dosage is our current plan, if nothing improves by the end of the week).
Our next goal is the ATO, to re-route the temporary skimmer plumbing and to build the mesh top for the tank (so that we can start looking into adding some fairy wrasses and other fish that are known to jump)
I may hold off on the skimmer plumbing since it looks like we may have our new skimmer within the next couple of weeks, so I don't want to spend too much time and materials on rerunning this skimmers plumbing only to tear it out a week later.
clekchau
Premium Member
jonathon, the plan is to turn off the litermeter while i mix approximately 100 gallons of saltwater every 14 days in the same container. or i might add 50 gallons a week, not sure yet but after a few iterations it should be pretty routine.
tom, i have a 150 gallon rubbermaid stock tank that i am using for my ro/di resovior that the litermeter III will be topping off the main tank from directly. i used this on my 200 for years with no algae/bacteria problems. i keep it covered. i built a stand that has the ro/di resovior on top and the mixed saltwater for continuous water changes on the bottom. the stand is located very close to my rdsb.
i will take pictures at the end of the week once the litermeter is all set up.
tom, i have a 150 gallon rubbermaid stock tank that i am using for my ro/di resovior that the litermeter III will be topping off the main tank from directly. i used this on my 200 for years with no algae/bacteria problems. i keep it covered. i built a stand that has the ro/di resovior on top and the mixed saltwater for continuous water changes on the bottom. the stand is located very close to my rdsb.
i will take pictures at the end of the week once the litermeter is all set up.
I think it is a matter of 7 g per day changed out versus 100 gallons in an hour. IIRC the aeration helps to balance the PH and obviously the oxygen levels, and most of us also heat the water during the "aging" process. All of these could have a significant impact on your tank depending on the amount of water being replaced.
But that is just my theory/opinion on the topic
But that is just my theory/opinion on the topic
typically they recommend aerating to stablize PH, etc. But at 7g per day I think you should be ok.
A little update on our tank (sorry to hijack the thread to talk about our tank again...) :
More Vortec woes... More stalls (but not the same scenario as before) and now power supply failures as well.
I am beginning to question the reliability of these as now it seems to be just flat out poor material causing failures. I knwo that IC/ETM address their QC issues with the manufacturing processes, and I applaud their efforts and was extremely encouraged to hear that they had done so. But... well, I will just relay what happened today :
As we reported a while back we bought 2 battery backups since IC/ETM stated that was the only way to use the Vortecs "safely" on a wavemaker. So I put 2 of the 4 pumps on a wavemaker, each with it's own BB. (We had originally tried using 1 BB per 2 pumps, since the BBs have connectors to hook them to 2 different pumps.. but that did not work when used with a wavemaker and evenaully completely drained the battery. IC/ETM came back that the BBs for use with a wavemaker must be 1 for 1 with the pumps). We had received new parts for our ailing Vortecs some time back and everything was running fine. We let them "break in" for a couple of weeks before putting them on the wavemaker, since I thought I had read somewhere that they were more inclined to stall when they were new (beofre they were broken in). We did run them @ 100% during that break in period, again based on a recommendation that we read somewhere. We also put the wavemaker cycle @ 15 minutes (again as per recommendation, and also the longest duration that our wavemaker could do). Not more than a couple of hours later I checked and noticed that one of the pumps was rattling horribly, I checked and it was on battery power (during it's "down" cycle on the wavemaker I surmised). I tried readjusting the motor until the rattling quieted to a dull roar and then left it alone. Later I checked it again and noticed that it was stalled, I checked the driver and it was a solid red light. It was also on BB power when I found it. I unplugged the battery cable and then plugged it back in and the pump restarted and I went on about my day. An hour or so later I checked it again and it was again stalled.. a check of the driver confirmed this. I noticed that BOTH pumps were on battery power, so I started looking more closely at the stalled one and found that the power brick was now literally a brick.. dead as far as I could tell. I unplugged it from both the wavemaker and driver and plugged it into an unswitched wall outlet... and still had no lit green LED on the power supply.. I sent an Email off to IC/ETM and also posted over in the IC forum (right under someone gushing about how great these pumps were... their thread got tons of views.. last I checked mine only had 2.. *sigh*).
So now it appears that the power supplies (At least ours) has issues and also that the pumps (even the new updated ones) can and will stall when on battery backup. To me this is almost worse than the stalling issue before, although since only a portion of the Vortec owners bought into the BBs, they rely on them for the flow when they are needed the most, during a power outage, and that is where ours appears to fail and stall.
And of course our tank is jsut now going through the cyano "phase" growing pains.. so the absolute worst time to have faulty flow devices and low flow issues
Ok, enough of my woes, I will post what comes of this as soon as I can get IC/ETMs attention again
Now back to our regularly scheduled ATO/WC conversation
A little update on our tank (sorry to hijack the thread to talk about our tank again...
) : More Vortec woes... More stalls (but not the same scenario as before) and now power supply failures as well.
I am beginning to question the reliability of these as now it seems to be just flat out poor material causing failures. I knwo that IC/ETM address their QC issues with the manufacturing processes, and I applaud their efforts and was extremely encouraged to hear that they had done so. But... well, I will just relay what happened today :
As we reported a while back we bought 2 battery backups since IC/ETM stated that was the only way to use the Vortecs "safely" on a wavemaker. So I put 2 of the 4 pumps on a wavemaker, each with it's own BB. (We had originally tried using 1 BB per 2 pumps, since the BBs have connectors to hook them to 2 different pumps.. but that did not work when used with a wavemaker and evenaully completely drained the battery. IC/ETM came back that the BBs for use with a wavemaker must be 1 for 1 with the pumps). We had received new parts for our ailing Vortecs some time back and everything was running fine. We let them "break in" for a couple of weeks before putting them on the wavemaker, since I thought I had read somewhere that they were more inclined to stall when they were new (beofre they were broken in). We did run them @ 100% during that break in period, again based on a recommendation that we read somewhere. We also put the wavemaker cycle @ 15 minutes (again as per recommendation, and also the longest duration that our wavemaker could do). Not more than a couple of hours later I checked and noticed that one of the pumps was rattling horribly, I checked and it was on battery power (during it's "down" cycle on the wavemaker I surmised). I tried readjusting the motor until the rattling quieted to a dull roar and then left it alone. Later I checked it again and noticed that it was stalled, I checked the driver and it was a solid red light. It was also on BB power when I found it. I unplugged the battery cable and then plugged it back in and the pump restarted and I went on about my day. An hour or so later I checked it again and it was again stalled.. a check of the driver confirmed this. I noticed that BOTH pumps were on battery power, so I started looking more closely at the stalled one and found that the power brick was now literally a brick.. dead as far as I could tell. I unplugged it from both the wavemaker and driver and plugged it into an unswitched wall outlet... and still had no lit green LED on the power supply.. I sent an Email off to IC/ETM and also posted over in the IC forum (right under someone gushing about how great these pumps were... their thread got tons of views.. last I checked mine only had 2.. *sigh*).
So now it appears that the power supplies (At least ours) has issues and also that the pumps (even the new updated ones) can and will stall when on battery backup. To me this is almost worse than the stalling issue before, although since only a portion of the Vortec owners bought into the BBs, they rely on them for the flow when they are needed the most, during a power outage, and that is where ours appears to fail and stall.
And of course our tank is jsut now going through the cyano "phase" growing pains.. so the absolute worst time to have faulty flow devices and low flow issues
Ok, enough of my woes, I will post what comes of this as soon as I can get IC/ETMs attention again
Now back to our regularly scheduled ATO/WC conversation
jnarowe
New member
Well Tom, I feel your pain. I just recently got one of mine refurbished and it is really running well. Something to note: The latest version has a serial number that starts with "0701". I would check that out just as a reference point.
I also got 2 BB units to use as an interim "controller" and found out rather quick that all I have read about using them that way is BS. IC has now told me that they can only be used for short ON/OFF cycles or it will degrade the battery. So here we have a driver that needs 20 min. minimum cycles and a BB that needs short cycles to be used as a wavemaker? It is indeed making my want to pull my hair out!
I also got 2 BB units to use as an interim "controller" and found out rather quick that all I have read about using them that way is BS. IC has now told me that they can only be used for short ON/OFF cycles or it will degrade the battery. So here we have a driver that needs 20 min. minimum cycles and a BB that needs short cycles to be used as a wavemaker? It is indeed making my want to pull my hair out!
clekchau
Well, hard to answer... you mean since we bought them or since the last replacement occurred ? That answer can span weeks to months
Jonathan
Yea, I should have just left well enough alone.. what a frustrating mess it has all turned into. The sad part is that my post about the power supply issue only has 9 views, but Melev's post gushing about the flow has gotten tons of views and even an offer from IC for more equiptment.
EDIT : And they are the latest drivers and wet end parts from IC/ETM
Well, hard to answer... you mean since we bought them or since the last replacement occurred ? That answer can span weeks to months
Jonathan
Yea, I should have just left well enough alone.. what a frustrating mess it has all turned into. The sad part is that my post about the power supply issue only has 9 views, but Melev's post gushing about the flow has gotten tons of views and even an offer from IC for more equiptment.
EDIT : And they are the latest drivers and wet end parts from IC/ETM
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