The inwall 380 starfire reborn

[Sparkss]

well, we aren't even on the "first wave" list so it will be several weeks before we get ours

Depending on how shipping works out you should have yours by the end of next week, in time for the weekend (to play with it ).

I saw that they put a warning/disclaimer in their MP40w manual about the affects of wavemaking on a tanks seams and overall lifespan. (and that EcoTech was not responsible for any failures or damage caused by same said waves). Typically boiler plate sutff, same as what Tunze says about their wavebox.

 

[raddogz]

Exactly.

I will be out of town when it arrives, so I won't get to play with it for another week and a half more

 

[Sparkss]

Well, an unwell infant took priority over the tank yesterday. She is sleeping soundly now so I am slipping off to the store to pick up plumbing and hardware to plumb the new body in (and also set the stage for the O3).

I also am firming up the acquisition of the pyramids. The vendor has a male rhomboid that I am really interested in, but he currently only has a single male (no females). I know that some male fairy wrasses can lose their colors without a mate to "show off" for. Does anyone have any experiences with a single rhomboid ? I know that Jonathan had one, if not for the "fish stick" move that it pulled, did you regret buying it ? I mean did you feel that it was worth the money ? (if it hadn't jumped).

Hopefully by end of day today I will have some pictures (meaning that the work is done at that time ).

 

[jnarowe]

Actually I had a "pair" and one tried to kill the other one in QT. It was my personal observation that they were both the same sex, although I don't have any scientific proof of that.

So I put one in the display to keep the peace, and while on a fishing trip, the one in QT did a fish stick. I still have one, and it is a fun member of our reef community.

BUT, these fish maintain a verticle awareness like no other. They are always looking up and out, so unless you have a deep tank like mine, or have somehow sealed the top, I do not recommend the Golden Rhomboid.

As far as price goes, I got the pair for about $400 and at the time that was fairly reasonable. So that makes the one remaining fish a $400 dollar fish, which is probably a bit overkill! It is a cool looking fish with its googly-eyed bright orange eyeballs...

 

[CAreefer]

Invincible keeps 2 of the pyramids. You might shoot him a PM and see how they're doing together.

From this thread

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1131379&perpage=25&pagenumber=11

Invincible569-They definitely dont act like the copperbands. BUT.. yesterday I saw one of them pick at my xenia. Im not sure if this was an accident or if he likes that coral. Im going to keep an eye on him. They havent toucned anything else in the tank.

CAReefer

 

[pmjfuture]

nice tank

 

[spazz]

So did you get the skimmer changed around or did you spend the day watching the baby? Hope the youngster is feeling better....

we are awaiting a full report with tons of pictures.......

He he he he

 

[jnarowe]

AM I the only one that thinks that fish is ugly?

 

[chris wright]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10924552#post10924552 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
AM I the only one that thinks that fish is ugly?

Yep! :lol:

 

[Sparkss]

I have been trying ti post this response since last night. Hopefully RC will get their bugs worked out so that one can actually post *sigh*. So frsuatrating.

-----------------

hehehe, guess so Jonathan We are looking to finalize an order for a trio of them for our tank

Thanks pmjfuture. Hopefully all of our hard work will eventually make it that much better

Scott, got the new body into place yesterday and had to redo some of the plumbing today. That while juggling the family responsibilities. I changed the feed plumbing and all of the plumbing going to the sump (I ended up with that bulkhead fitting that we had talked about). I still need to tune the skimmer though. But right now I basically have the return pump valve opened all of the way and still needed to use the gate valve on the skimmer output pipe to bring the level in the skimmer up. So we have probably gone up 50% or more in our flow through rates, which makes me very happy .

I had to relocate our DC8 power strip due to the relocated drain pipe to the skimmer running right through where the DC8 used to be. I also connected the kalk reactor to the ATO line, although there isn't much kalk in it. I can't seem to find any kalk around here so we are either out or it is buried in a box. I will either find the kalk or an empty container (in which case I will order some more).

And I also got the line run for the ozone. All I need to do it hook the air pump up to the ozone reactor and turn the reactor and pump on. But this won't happen until after the new body has slimed up and broken in.
All in all I am pretty happy with how it all turned out so far. I am thinking of adding 1 VHO across the front of the tank for fill, but I just have not made my mind up about that yet. I have the endcaps and plenty of umph on our IC 660 to add a bulb, I just need to settle on (and buy) one to put up there, if I decide to go that route

I will try to get some picts tomorrow, if time (and youngin) permit . Sorry for not following through with those picts yet this weekend

 

[mrcrab]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10927306#post10927306 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
I have been trying ti post this response since last night. Hopefully RC will get their bugs worked out so that one can actually post *sigh*. So frsuatrating.

Funny, I kept getting notices that there was a new response by you but everytime I'd come to the page...nothing.

 

[jnarowe]

it's been going on for a couple of days. talk about a strange glitch!

Tom, when you get freed up, I would really like to see pics of the ozone install and maybe a before and after of the skimmer body. Hope the little one is doing better.

 

[Sparkss]

ironically that was what I had planned -- a before and after pictorial.

Pictures are taken now, but I need to run some errands with the family. When we get back I will dump them to the computer and post them here. And I did take a few shots of the ozone injection site for ya

 

[Sparkss]

I only have time for a couple of pictures, I will do my best to finish up tomorrow. But for now here are a few shots of the skimmer now :

compared to how it was originally.

Here is the new inlet

and the old one

And we also had to change the output pipe going to the sump. Here is the new

and here is the old (you can see it coming into the top of the sump in the upper left corner)

 

[mrcrab]

skimmer got shorter?

 

[jnarowe]

shorter and much fatter?

 

[Sparkss]

same diameter, but yes, shorter. The lens may be making it look fatter. In a nutshell it was too tall and there was not sufficient water pressure coming from the tank to force the water through the skimmer. Once we raised the water level in the skimmer it would flood the tank out since it would raise the water level in there 6 - 10 inches higher than the leve in the skimmer. I expected there to be a little difference, but not that much. So to counter act that we had a gate valve on the return pump that throttled back the return significantly. Now that we have shortened the body and output pipe we can run the super dart at full steam ahead without any worries for overloading the tank overflows, etc.

If we had been using a feed pump instead of gravity feeding it then the old body would have been fine (or better than fine ). But since we were trying to keep our electrical costs down and using gravtiy feed we ran into that problem. I know only a very little about fluid dynamics and not enough to have calculated out the level differences between the tank and skimmer. But Scott was right there to help out with a shorter body. The swap out took about 2 hours... less than an hour of that was the skimmer itself, the rest was redoing the plumbing, drilling holes in the sump, etc.

Right now I am very happy with how it all turned out. We have probably 50% more flow through the tank and skimmer combined with the ability to tune the skimmer exactly how we want to with a full range of water levels at our disposal, making it more effective and efficient . So all in all yea, shorter, but better suited for our tank setup.

 

[Sparkss]

I ended up reusing an ozone safe nipple that I "borrowed" from the red sea skimmer ozone reactor conversion kit. It had a 3/8" thread so I had to make my own fitting. I took a 3/4" slip pipe plug and drilled/tapped it for the 3/8 pipe thread. The picture here sort of masks that because I used silicone glue in the threads (instead of teflon tape).

I then just put that plug into a thr/slp 90 that I screwed onto a 3/4" male end PVC pipe that I have coming out of the drain valve on the recirc pump inlet plumbing

Not much more to it than that . I just need to hook up the air pump on the other side of the ozone generator, the tubing it already connected all the way up to the generator.

 

[jnarowe]

hmmm...that's interesting... check out how tall my skimmer is to my tank level. I have the gravity feed just below the overflow.

Either I am missing something in the way yours feeds, or perhaps I am just getting a lot less flow. I know it's not "optimal" but I have measured it at about 600 gph and pull 1 - 5+ gal. of nog per day depending on how I have it set.

 

[jnarowe]

so the O3 is entering before the pump and getting chopped up by the NW?