The inwall 380 starfire reborn
- Thread starter Sparkss
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I just posted a new thread on this. I need to either lower some baffles or raise the sump. My only fear is if I raise the sump up that it will over flow the refug if I loose power. I am also limited by the space under the tank. Either way I plan to lower the baffles in the refug. I think the water level is a bit to high for my own comfort.
good luck on getting your answer. I will hunt around later if I have the time and try to read up your post.
On our tank topic
:
test scenario #1 completed and I have to admit that it did not have the results that I was expecting. I am baffled by then results since I was pretty sure that it was the sand (which it might till be, but the likelihood if fast diminishing). After 4 hours with all of the Vortecs off and only the return pump running the tank was just as "cloudy" as before the test started. I also noticed a decent amount of bubbles on the rocks and plumbing, indicating a micro bubble problem. But the bubbles also could have been algae, so I am going to continue with the last 2 test cases before I start tearing out the plumbing to replace all of the return lines.
I also attempted to finish the mesh top, but goofed up and bent/broke one of the screen side rails, so off to HD I go (tomorrow) to get a new one so that I can finish the top and see for myself how it will affect the light getting through to the tank. On Weatherson's thread he had a very nice top, made from metal rod (but all of his DIY equipment looks commercial/professional). He had an animated GIF that showed the differences in light and it looked like his mesh top had a noticeable impact on his lighting making it to his tank. But cameras and photographs are hard to judge sometimes. I will hopefully find out how much impact our mesh has tomorrow.
On our tank topic
:test scenario #1 completed and I have to admit that it did not have the results that I was expecting. I am baffled by then results since I was pretty sure that it was the sand (which it might till be, but the likelihood if fast diminishing). After 4 hours with all of the Vortecs off and only the return pump running the tank was just as "cloudy" as before the test started. I also noticed a decent amount of bubbles on the rocks and plumbing, indicating a micro bubble problem. But the bubbles also could have been algae, so I am going to continue with the last 2 test cases before I start tearing out the plumbing to replace all of the return lines.
I also attempted to finish the mesh top, but goofed up and bent/broke one of the screen side rails, so off to HD I go (tomorrow) to get a new one so that I can finish the top and see for myself how it will affect the light getting through to the tank. On Weatherson's thread he had a very nice top, made from metal rod (but all of his DIY equipment looks commercial/professional). He had an animated GIF that showed the differences in light and it looked like his mesh top had a noticeable impact on his lighting making it to his tank. But cameras and photographs are hard to judge sometimes. I will hopefully find out how much impact our mesh has tomorrow.
I have the parts for the lighting, to adjust the reflectors 1/2" back tilt (just longer mounting screws and spacers for the front brackerts). Also have the new screen frame piece that I need to cut and add to the partially completed mesh top. Those 2 tasks may end up waiting until this weekend, unless something happens to change my schedule around.
We had a very odd occurrence last night. 90 minutes after the halides had gone off (and 30+ minutes after the VHOs had gone off) the halides came on out of the blue. I went out and checked and the Neptunesys controlle showed them as still being off. I had to force the to on and then back off again to get them to shut off. They are running off of an outlet on a DC4HD. The prop and fuge lights are off of the same DC4HD (different outlets of course), but they were not affected at all. The DC4 is only a couple of months old, much newer than our DC8 and controller, which really does not give me an extreme level of comfort about the controller in general.
Other than that everything seems to be going smoothly.. the fish are doing well and the corals are growing and responding well. If time permits I will try for some more pictures by this weekend. I have also held off trying test scenario #2 and #3 for now since the weather has been, and is projected to be, in the mid to upper 90s through this week. I don't want to risk a low, or no, flow situation to prevent the chiller from doing it's job. I may try the 4 hours for test #2 first thing tomorrow morning, before the halides come on, but the assessment needs to happen after the lights come on, to truly be able to assess the impact on the tank clarity.
We had a very odd occurrence last night. 90 minutes after the halides had gone off (and 30+ minutes after the VHOs had gone off) the halides came on out of the blue. I went out and checked and the Neptunesys controlle showed them as still being off. I had to force the to on and then back off again to get them to shut off. They are running off of an outlet on a DC4HD. The prop and fuge lights are off of the same DC4HD (different outlets of course), but they were not affected at all. The DC4 is only a couple of months old, much newer than our DC8 and controller, which really does not give me an extreme level of comfort about the controller in general.
Other than that everything seems to be going smoothly.. the fish are doing well and the corals are growing and responding well. If time permits I will try for some more pictures by this weekend. I have also held off trying test scenario #2 and #3 for now since the weather has been, and is projected to be, in the mid to upper 90s through this week. I don't want to risk a low, or no, flow situation to prevent the chiller from doing it's job. I may try the 4 hours for test #2 first thing tomorrow morning, before the halides come on, but the assessment needs to happen after the lights come on, to truly be able to assess the impact on the tank clarity.
weatherson
Premium Member
Tom,
I think the biggest cause for the slight decrease in light on that GIF I made with the mesh in place over none at all was camera related. I cannot see, with my eyes, any difference with them in place compared to nothing. But, there is a huge decrease with egg-crate in place instead. Either way, to have a slight decrease in light is easily justified to the other option of a crispy fish/jumper... in my opinion.
Joseph.
I think the biggest cause for the slight decrease in light on that GIF I made with the mesh in place over none at all was camera related. I cannot see, with my eyes, any difference with them in place compared to nothing. But, there is a huge decrease with egg-crate in place instead. Either way, to have a slight decrease in light is easily justified to the other option of a crispy fish/jumper... in my opinion.
Joseph.
Jonathan
The odd thing is that there was nothing on at the time on tha tDC4, outside of the T5 Tek light over the fuge/prop tank. Would the IceCap ballasts cause damage that would result in the instability with the DC4 ? I would hate to think that 2 big players in the reefing equipment arena would have such contention. And while we do have 2 ballasts plugged into 1 outlet, their combined draw is less than 7a, which the DC4HD should handle quite easily on a single outlet (IIRC the documented ratings for those)
Joseph
Ahhh, Thanks for clarifying that for me. I was actually procrastinating our mesh top a bit because of the perceived drop in light over your tank. It is good to know that you believe that perception to have been caused mostly my the camera and not reality *whew* . And yes, a slight decrease in light is justifiable, but if it turned out to be too significant, then I would have had to reconsider our intended stocking list (to rule out the jumpers). I am glad to head that I likely won't have to take such drastic actions . I would also like to get your opinion on the tilt to our reflectors. The front of the LAIIIs are 1/2" - 3/4" higher than the back of the reflectors. I wonder just how much of an impact that little of a tilt is actually having. Once I get the spacers in on the frame itself (where it hangs from the railing) then I guess I will have my answer, but sometimes such things are hard to see with the naked eye.
The odd thing is that there was nothing on at the time on tha tDC4, outside of the T5 Tek light over the fuge/prop tank. Would the IceCap ballasts cause damage that would result in the instability with the DC4 ? I would hate to think that 2 big players in the reefing equipment arena would have such contention. And while we do have 2 ballasts plugged into 1 outlet, their combined draw is less than 7a, which the DC4HD should handle quite easily on a single outlet (IIRC the documented ratings for those)
Joseph
Ahhh, Thanks for clarifying that for me
. I was actually procrastinating our mesh top a bit because of the perceived drop in light over your tank. It is good to know that you believe that perception to have been caused mostly my the camera and not reality *whew* . And yes, a slight decrease in light is justifiable, but if it turned out to be too significant, then I would have had to reconsider our intended stocking list (to rule out the jumpers). I am glad to head that I likely won't have to take such drastic actions . I would also like to get your opinion on the tilt to our reflectors. The front of the LAIIIs are 1/2" - 3/4" higher than the back of the reflectors. I wonder just how much of an impact that little of a tilt is actually having. Once I get the spacers in on the frame itself (where it hangs from the railing) then I guess I will have my answer, but sometimes such things are hard to see with the naked eye.The ballasts are several feet away from our DC4HD. I could see if it turn off unexpectantly, but not turn on like that. I have not updated the firmware since we bought our AC Jr (it is one w/o the serial port connector, so I am honestly unsure if it can be updated by us or not). I am leaning away from FW issues only because the controller had everything reading right, just the DC4 had the one outlet turned on. The phone cable is only 3 months old (give or take) along with the DC4, and is the stock one that came with it. The MHs came on at a time when no other state changes were scheduled to occur, so I would tend to think it is something other than errnat signals from the controller getting crossed, but I suppose anything is possible.
I will be waryily watching everything to see if it occurs again, or if it was just some fluke voltage spike/fluctuation that caused the DC4 to switch that outlet on. But either way my faith in Neptune is waning with this incident (what if it had been our C02 line stuck open ? Or the heater ? or chiller ?)
I will be waryily watching everything to see if it occurs again, or if it was just some fluke voltage spike/fluctuation that caused the DC4 to switch that outlet on. But either way my faith in Neptune is waning with this incident (what if it had been our C02 line stuck open ? Or the heater ? or chiller ?)
weatherson
Premium Member
Tom,
With all the different facets and angles that the reflector creates, I doubt that little angle would make a difference at all. Especially when you consider each panel of the reflector, and how each will have multiple, varrying angles or reflectivity, I wouldn't think it would make much difference at all. The goal, of course, would be perpendicular to the surface with a properly designed reflector but probably not that critical. But that's just my guess with no concrete data to back it up.
Joseph.
With all the different facets and angles that the reflector creates, I doubt that little angle would make a difference at all. Especially when you consider each panel of the reflector, and how each will have multiple, varrying angles or reflectivity, I wouldn't think it would make much difference at all. The goal, of course, would be perpendicular to the surface with a properly designed reflector but probably not that critical. But that's just my guess with no concrete data to back it up.
Joseph.
I just started thinking about how the light would be passing through the water at an angle versus straight down (or more of an angle than normal). That would mean thnat the light would have to travel more distance through the water to reach the corals, maybe not a lot, but maybe enough to make a difference ?
I also noticed that the back of the tank looked a bit darker than I would have expected for the placement of the reflectors, so I theorized that the tilt may be playing a role in that.
I also noticed that the back of the tank looked a bit darker than I would have expected for the placement of the reflectors, so I theorized that the tilt may be playing a role in that.
Elite
New member
Mine turned on the light like yours. The controller showed the light is off. I used the cable that came with the controller and Curt had to send me another one.
Here is an email I got from Curt:
..... Most likely the coralvue ballasts are generating a significant amount of electrical noise and that is causing communications problems between the AquaController and DC8. The black telephone cord I’m going to send you uses twisted pairs, and has much higher noise immunity than a standard telephone cord. Physically separate the telephone cord from any of the ballast cords â€"œ do not route them in parallel with each other.....
Here is an email I got from Curt:
..... Most likely the coralvue ballasts are generating a significant amount of electrical noise and that is causing communications problems between the AquaController and DC8. The black telephone cord I’m going to send you uses twisted pairs, and has much higher noise immunity than a standard telephone cord. Physically separate the telephone cord from any of the ballast cords â€"œ do not route them in parallel with each other.....
xinumaster
reef addict
I had the same problem with my acpro too. But works fine if my PC lighting is disconnected from the DC8. You did add the VHO recently, right. Maybe try disconnecting the VHO for now and see what happens.
jnarowe
New member
as I said, definitely give him a call...
Unfortunately it is not always in their best interest to work together. I ran into this with the Vortechs in a major way. Eco-Tech/Ice Cap were insisting for quite a while that the Neptune controller was the source of my problems, and we later found out that was not the case. I tried to get them to work together but Ice Cap wants to sell their own controller so they are not too concerned about compatability with Neptune.
Personally, I think that's a mistake, but, I will be buying their controller when it comes out, so mistake or not, they get more of my money. I would hope that in the upper-end segment, companies would work together more to achieve cross-marketing success, but that still hasn't manifested itself in the aquarium hobby IMO.
I have 1000W lamps on 3 of my DC4HDs plus other small items so you are not out-of-line there. One thing for sure, Curt will figure it out and make it right. He is the BEST in the business.
One thing to pay close attention to is the phone line connectors. They can be damaged/bent very easily, as well as corode. I inspect mine on a monthly basis.
Unfortunately it is not always in their best interest to work together. I ran into this with the Vortechs in a major way. Eco-Tech/Ice Cap were insisting for quite a while that the Neptune controller was the source of my problems, and we later found out that was not the case. I tried to get them to work together but Ice Cap wants to sell their own controller so they are not too concerned about compatability with Neptune.
Personally, I think that's a mistake, but, I will be buying their controller when it comes out, so mistake or not, they get more of my money. I would hope that in the upper-end segment, companies would work together more to achieve cross-marketing success, but that still hasn't manifested itself in the aquarium hobby IMO.
I have 1000W lamps on 3 of my DC4HDs plus other small items so you are not out-of-line there. One thing for sure, Curt will figure it out and make it right. He is the BEST in the business.
One thing to pay close attention to is the phone line connectors. They can be damaged/bent very easily, as well as corode. I inspect mine on a monthly basis.
Perry,
Yes, we did add the VHOs very recently, but that IC ballast was not on at the time of the "incident". The T5 Tek light was on, running both ballasts, one of off each outlet, and both were on, but that part of the setup has not changed pretty much since it was all installed, so nothing new there, but good catch that we recently added the VHOs.
I sent a PM to Curt so we will see what his response is. I sent it after hours so I don't expect a response until tomorrow sometime at the earliest
Thanks to everyone for all of the support and great ideas on where to look for the cause, and solution, or this issue
Finished and installed the mesh top last night. I had issues getting the 6.5' X 4' screen onto the tank w/o having one corner or the other dip into the tank, until I finally got it up onto the frame/eurobracing. Due to it's size and becuase I tried to keep the screen taunt, the frame didn't lay flat. So I got some screen hold downs and installed them into the black plastic rim/frame around the tank. They serve to hold the screen flat and in place. They swivel to allow the screen to easily be removed, or lifted, for inevitable in-tank service needs. So far we are really happy with it (I will work on pictures of it in place later on tonight or this weekend).
I also installed the spacers into the lighting frame so that they are now sitting level to the tank. I will assess any improvments to the lighting later on today, as time permits, but at least I can check that 1 item off of my to-do list
Everything else seems to be rolling along just fine. The Ca reactor is dialed in and a quick check last night showed that it is mantaining the alk levels just fine with the current settings. I opened the skimmer collection cup drain to now drain permanently to the sewer drain that we had installed. Up until now I had been closing off the valve on the collection cup so that I could monitor the daily skimmate collection. I am comfortable enough with ht's production to just leave the drain valve open now. If left closed it would fill the collection cup within 3 days (72 hours). That also leads to another issue, maintaining salinity. When topping off for evaporation, it is simple enough.. water for water, but when topping off for skimmate there is a portion of salinity beign removed. I noticed a slight drop in salinity over the last month's time that I attribute to the skimmer. So I will be monitoring that more closely and adding saline top off water to my regime, although that will be a manual, as needed, process.
We have not seen a recurrence of the controller flakiness, nor have we heard back from Curt at Neptune yet either. I will be taking a more aggressive approach to contacting him if we have not heard back from him by the first of next week.
I also installed the spacers into the lighting frame so that they are now sitting level to the tank. I will assess any improvments to the lighting later on today, as time permits, but at least I can check that 1 item off of my to-do list
Everything else seems to be rolling along just fine. The Ca reactor is dialed in and a quick check last night showed that it is mantaining the alk levels just fine with the current settings. I opened the skimmer collection cup drain to now drain permanently to the sewer drain that we had installed. Up until now I had been closing off the valve on the collection cup so that I could monitor the daily skimmate collection. I am comfortable enough with ht's production to just leave the drain valve open now. If left closed it would fill the collection cup within 3 days (72 hours). That also leads to another issue, maintaining salinity. When topping off for evaporation, it is simple enough.. water for water, but when topping off for skimmate there is a portion of salinity beign removed. I noticed a slight drop in salinity over the last month's time that I attribute to the skimmer. So I will be monitoring that more closely and adding saline top off water to my regime, although that will be a manual, as needed, process.
We have not seen a recurrence of the controller flakiness, nor have we heard back from Curt at Neptune yet either. I will be taking a more aggressive approach to contacting him if we have not heard back from him by the first of next week.
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