The inwall 380 starfire reborn

[hahnmeister]

Just checking, but is all the hose on that reactor CO2 grade? You know it should ALL be CO2 grade except for the input, right? Even the output will degrade and yellow over time if its not (not to mention, let the CO2 bleed right through the wall).

 

[spazz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10061027#post10061027 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
Just checking, but is all the hose on that reactor CO2 grade? You know it should ALL be CO2 grade except for the input, right? Even the output will degrade and yellow over time if its not (not to mention, let the CO2 bleed right through the wall).

here is a guide to go by when choosing tubing for a co2 based reactor.

MaterialCompatibilityMetals

Aluminium Satisfactory

Brass Satisfactory

Copper Satisfactory

Ferritic Steels (e.g. Carbon steels)Satisfactory but risk of corrosion in presence of CO and/or moisture. Cold brittleness.

Stainless Steel Satisfactory


Plastics


Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) Satisfactory

Polychlorotrifluoroethylene (PCTFE) Satisfactory

Vinylidene polyfluoride (PVDF) (KYNARâ"žÂ¢) Satisfactory

Polyamide (PA) (NYLONâ"žÂ¢) Satisfactory

Polypropylene (PP) Satisfactory

Elastomers


Buthyl (isobutene - isoprene) rubber (IIR)Non recommended, significant swelling.

Nitrile rubber (NBR)Non recommended, significant swelling and significant loss of mass by extraction or chemical reaction.

Chloroprene (CR)Non recommended, significant swelling and significant loss of mass by extraction or chemical reaction.

Chlorofluorocarbons (FKM) (VITONâ"žÂ¢)Non recommended, significant swelling and significant loss of mass by extraction or chemical reaction.

Silicon (Q)Acceptable but strong rate of permeation.Ethylene - Propylene (EPDM)Acceptable but important swelling and significant loss of mass by extraction or chemical reaction.

 

[Sparkss]

Well, the fittings I used came from Lowes off the rack and US Plastics and the tubing came from HD off the shelf and Marine Depot (for the red colored tubing).

The red tubing is for the water in (I wanted opaque to minimize algae growth) and due to the valves that Scott has on the reactor the inlet line doesn't even come anywhere close to the C02. The clear HD line (polypropylene IIRC) was to extend the C02 inlet line, I used a spare ball valve to connect the two together, and that fitting was from Lowes. The fitting to connect that line to the regulator was from US Plastics and was Kynar, IIRC.

I will just have to watch everything to see how it wears over time.

 

[Sparkss]

redid some of the plumbing and lowered the skimmer as far as I could (by removing some of the foam from underneath it). That combined with some tuning experimentation allows me to get the water level to just below the twist lock now.. not optimal, but a heckuva lot better than it was before.

During the plumbing rework I ended up flooding the garage a bit (luckily I have everything, pumps included, a minimum 4" above grade, so it all just flowed out relatively harmlessly down the driveway ). But when I got it all back together I noticed that our main return pump was making some noise (more than the normal noise that has been building), so I went ahead and swapped it out for the spare Dart that we had (just for this purpose). We definitely lost some flow, but I think that we have enough to suffice (still 2000+ GPH through the tank/skimmer/sump, so at least 5X turnover).

Now here is the question : The new Dart is pretty noisy.. both from the pump itself and possibly the fan on the back of the motor (sounds like a blade hits the housing every once in a while). We picked up 2 Dart's used, but they never saw water, so I had a pretty high level of confidence that they should have been trouble free. I will be swapping out to try the other Dart tomorrow, as time permits. Any advice or suggestions about the pump and noise levels are welcomed.

On an up note, we did tons of trading today and ended up with a nive purple goni, an Oranji frag and some nive zoas. Unfortunately once we got them all dipped and acclimated the lights went off on the main tank, but once they come back on tomorrow, and the corals open up, I will take some pictures

 

[cbui2]

omg but the good things is the fish room is the garage which work out the best. no dart here, the sequence 1000's series is what i have and they are really quiet and infact the ehiem on my skimmer is louder then my return & CL combine. is everything else ok?

 

[spazz]

tom call me tomorrow after noon. i will help you with the dart noise problem. the water level should be fine there if you have the wet neck running.

 

[Sparkss]

Everything else OK so far. Our old pump was from the Sequence 1000 series also (4300). The Dart on the skimmer is a whole lot quieter, even with the air going through it. I am letting the Dart run overnight to see if it just needs to "break in". I seemed to recall that it took a couple of hours for the 4300 to quiet down also, but I am not 100% sure on that. Tomorrow will be the test, to see if it is still noisy.

 

[Sparkss]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10066740#post10066740 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by spazz
tom call me tomorrow after noon. i will help you with the dart noise problem. the water level should be fine there if you have the wet neck running.

Thanks Scott, will do.

 

[Sparkss]

Things were quieter today, but not by much. It has set up quite the "hum" now, which is odd because it is pretty much isolated by spa flex on both connections and foam underneath.

Other than that I played around a little more with the drain configuration.. and while I couldn't get the water level really any higher, I was able to set it up for 100% skimming, where no water went through the bypass/overflow pipe (which also entailed putting a valve on that overflow pipe, which was nerveraacking in it's own right because I took out one of our insurance safe guards). But for now it is running well with specs (water level in the tank overflows, etc). When I turn off the alita and the neddlewheel the water level in the tank overflows drops significantly (a little for each pump), so there is definitely back pressure at play with our tuning efforts (just confirming what we suspected).

More pictures of our new corals this afternoon after the lights come on (and we get back from some errands).

NOTE " One of those errands also involves picking up some frags in trade from a fellow Bay Area reefer.

 

[Sparkss]

After the tuning and what not we let the skimmer run over night. I cleaned out the collection cup this morning (it had a fair amount in it) and then let it run for a little under 7 hours (with the collection cup drain shut off). Here is how much skimmate collected in that time :

I am still working on tuning the drains and flow within the tank. I think that the "cloudiness" that I keep complaining about is a combination of very fine sand and micro bubbles. the sand was because we got almost all of our sand 2nd hand from someone taking down 2 separate tanks, so there was a variety of sand sizes, and I think that one was just too fine for a reef tank *sigh*. The micro bubbles I think are coming from the Vortec pumps being set too high and pulling vortex in the water and blowing bubbles around just often enough to make it persistent.

There is little that I can do about the sand, aside from trying to replace it all (uugghhh, I don't even want to think about that), not to mention that I have not been able to confirm that is part of the cause yet.

I have been slowing throttling back the Vortec pumps to try to find a happy medium between micro bubbles/vortexes and adequate flow. I think that once the single controllers come out that they will provide the solution I am hoping form and of course the multi-controllers the end of this year (of course I could lower the Vortecs in the tank, but then I face the possibilty of stirring up more sand.. so I can't win going that route ).

On the topic of Vortecs, ours have gotten a bit louder lately, so I think that they are due for a cleaning

 

[Sparkss]

Here are the frags that we picked up today (before dipping and placing in the tank on the bottom to light acclimate)

If I recall, they are (in no particular order) Green w/ Blue tips A. Tenuis, ATL Crayola Plana Table, A. Loripes (similar to Upscales), Yellow Tort and .. grrr, I completely forgot what the last, largest, piece is.. but it is a real looker and a tabling species, IIRC . All are cooling their heels on the sandbed of our tank.

Here are a couple of frags, some that are new (as of yesterday) and some that have been with us for a while

From front to back they are the Bazooka Joe Chalice, Orenji and Rastafari Echino (the echino is taking it's time coloring up, but otherwise is doing well )

 

[Sparkss]

We also picked up some new fish, both yesterday and today.

We finally got the A. Japonicus that we had been looking for :

Trouble is that our Purple Tang is being a real PITA. We turned the lights out to see if they settle down, if not, then the vote has been cast and the Purple will have to go (which is a shame as he is a beautiful specimen). I already started building the trap to catch him, just in case (he is too big to fit into any of our current traps *sigh*). I really hope that when the lights come on tomorrow he will start behaving, but only time will tell. I expected any number of other tangs to have issues, but not like the purple it currently behaving (way over the top obnoxious) . He ignored the other tangs we added, and they had similar body shapes are were from the same genus.. but who knows what goes on in that little brain of his

The other one we picked up is this guy :

Another fish that we have been on the prowl for. I have yet to see him eat from the water column (our old one would eat pellets, albeit only the small ones, but he would eat dry food). But we have seen the new guy nipping at the rocks aparently getting pods here and there. He raises a good amount of rock dust when he "makes his strike" and he is pretty much constantly hunting. He is looking a bit thin, hopefully we can nurse him back to health. Our old one was killed by a hitchiker gorrilla crab in our old tank after almost 9 months with us.. I am hoping to have better luck with this one (not to mention that we started this tank with 100% base rock ).

Here is another picture of the newbies together

We also picked up a trio of blue side fairy wrasses, but they don't leave their burrow/cave in the rocks much, except to eat.. hopefully they will come out more often eventually, and we can get some good pictures.. they are really colorful and playful fish

 

[jnarowe]

my blue sided has been taking after the mysteri lately...

 

[Sparkss]

really ? that aggressive ? We looked them up and I didn't find anything to indicate that they could be that nasty... that is distressing .

 

[jnarowe]

not too worry. mine is well behaved but has a "thing" for the mysteri, just like the maroon clown has a thing fo r the blue sided. The mysteri is a very cautious and smart fish that always knows its escape route.

 

[Sparkss]

Well, the lights are far from coming on yet, and the purple tang is still all in a titter over the powder brown (almost makes me wish I had gotten a goldrim or powder blue instead, so that they could put the purple in it's place). Looks like we will be trapping out the purple today.. which is really too bad as he is a magnificent specimen and a truly beautiful fish.. but the household has voted and the powder brown won. Maybe we will try a smaller purple later one, I am sure it is just because he is so entrenched in thie tank (he basically rules the roost). But he didn't even blink at the last couple of tangs we added (orange shoulder and tomini.. dif shapes and genus.. but then again so is the powder brown.. guess he just looked at the purple "wrong" after we added him *sigh*)

Other than that the skimmer is pulling out skimmate on a pretty regular basis now... an inch or so (in that huge collection cup) every couple of hours. I also IDed one of the Vortecs that pulls a vortex more often than I though and throttled it back a bit.. we will see how that helps things overall.

Hopefully more pictures this afternoon, after lights on and everything clears up.. but that all depends on how the trapping goes with the purple.

 

[xinumaster]

Tank looks neat inside without cables. I wished vortech will work on 1" thick acrylic.

 

[Sparkss]

Then again closed loops work good without cables, but the long term power comsumption combined with the lack of flow flexibility (both with PH placement and flow patterns) make them far from our first choice . The Vortecs are working good... hopefully they will get one that will work on your tank Perry.

 

[raddogz]

Tom - sorry for the troubles with the micro-bubbles.

The covered part of the Vortec needs to point up at the 12:00 position for it to not dramatically pull a vortex.

 

[Sparkss]

Thanks Eileen, all of ours are already oriented that way . I am still not convinced that they are the culprit.. or at least they are not alone in this

Well, I slapped a new trap together on my lunch break today, since our old trap was too small for our larger fish (specifically the misbehaving purple tang). Our old trap was basically 4" X 4" X 10", the new one is approximately 6" X 6" X 13". I figured if it was to be used to catch a large fish it would ever only be in a large tank

Both of our traps were made using the design that we got here :

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=6200425#post6200425

Our first trap was amazingly successful at catching just about anything we wanted out of the tank. I expect the same results from the new trap . The feed tube is the key, IME.

here is our new trap :

I keep saying I am going to get the right weldon and install a bulkhead fitting like the one in the thread, so get the bottom of the threaded connector out of the trap.. but I have been saying that for over a year+ now, and it hasn't happened yet . I guess once the trap stops being effective I will fiddle with it

The purple tang is starting to ignore the powder brown a little more as tie wears on. To the point that now I am going to give it another day before deploying the trap into the tank. The powder brown has started exploring more of the tank and comes out to eat when we feed everyone (but still is a bit leery of the purple while eating.. you can just see him with 1 eye on the food and 1 eye on the purple tang as they all eat). But they are getting along better now than yesterday.. but not well enough for me to give the purple a free pass just yet. Either way we have the trap ready in case we need it. That was mostly my goal for today