The inwall 380 starfire reborn

[Sparkss]

Easier to answer your second question first : Yes, the O3 gets chopped up by the NW.

As for the skimmer, initially we were pushing 1000 to 1500 gph through. Now I calculate that to be upwards of 2000, probably closer to 2300. My goal is that crystal clear water that we all strive for . A higher turnover rate and effective skimmer are the main parts to that. I also see the new WWDs as part of the puzzle in that they will help keep the detrius, etc suspended (so that the extra flow can carry it into the overflow). At least that is our plan/hope

Once I feel that the skimmer is sufficiently broken in and tuned I will turn on the ozone, starting it low to gauge the system and skimmers' reaction to it. If all goes well I hope to be able to start tweaking the O3 by the start of next week.

 

[jnarowe]

did you research the impeller material to see if it will react to the O3? It's Noryl right? I know that reacts with petroleum products but I have never seen any O3 data on it.

 

[Sparkss]

the impellor is the NW from Scott. He is the one who basically talked me into hooking up the O3 to it . He told me that all fittings, connectors and components of his skimmers are of materials that are the most ozone resistant for their purpose IE: type of acrylic used is more resistant than other types commonly used by skimmer manufacturers, the types of O-Rings used are of the most resistant type (that also meet the other design requirements), etc. So we should be fine with the impellor and skimmer itself.

But maybe Scott will check in later and chime in himself on the impellor and it's O3 resistant properties.

 

[spazz]

the needle wheel that tom has is made with cast acrylic, delrin, and carbon fiber. there is no noryl in the needle wheel. the factory ones may have noryl in them but mine dont.

 

[jnarowe]

Oh, I got it. So many different Delrin blends, it's hard to even know what you got. That's all very stable tough stuff though.

 

[polywise]

jnarowe,
Noryl has great chemical resistance, but it is easy to scratch. Noryl is a hybred polycarbonate blend. I buy 50-60,000 pounds of it each year. Do you want me to contact our GE sales rep to find out about the O3 resistance? Do you know if the item in discussion is glass filled?

 

[jnarowe]

Hey Jim, thanks for the post. I don't know what blend the Sequence impellers are, but it would be interesting to find out. Rather than take up more of Tom's thread, you can PM me if you find out anything. I have made my own "anti-needle wheel" using the stock noryl impeller, and it will come into contact with O3.

 

[Sparkss]

I believe that I did read somewhere that they were glass filled, just thought I would mention that


On a separate note I think I am going to order a pair of the Current USA PowerBrite LED bars for the front corners of our tank and take out the VHOs that we have across the front. Marine Depot has them so as long as I get my order in before 2 PM tomorrow we will have them before the weekend . According to their documentation they recommend 1 bar for each 20" of tank, that would put our requirement at 4 ($200 worth), but I want to just get two and try them out (you only need 1 power module for each 2 strips). Getting just one doesn't seem like enough to see if it will do anything for our setup, so biting the bullet to try out two of them *sigh*. Although if this works out I can see adding several more around the perimeter of our tank (as time and budget permit) to fill in the dark corners, etc. But it will be a while of testing before I call it "good" and buy more than those initial two.

Ok, so all of you anti-LED peeps are free to flame away now

 

[thor32766]

that skimmer is huge!!

 

[jnarowe]

I like my corners to be dark, but since I am using the lamps that I am...there's really no dark areas.

 

[Sparkss]

I don't so much mind most of the dark corners, but there are a couple of corals in the front left corner that are only colored up and growing on their back side. I weighed the options of the light mover, which I will still likely do, but also wanted to be able to view those corals whenever I happened to have the time to actually look at our tank. And I did change my mind about the LEDs (after much reading and research about lumen output, etc). I placed an order for T5 retro-fit parts and bulbs. Hopefully I will have time this weekend to swap out the VHO for the T5s and see how it all works out .

 

[Sparkss]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10944040#post10944040 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thor32766
that skimmer is huge!!

Thanks. It was custom built (and more or less maintained) by Scott (spazz) at http://aquaticacrylics.com/

There are a growing number of us on RC that have his skimmers, and other reefing equipment . Give him a shout for your upcoming 450 (from your sig ) if you don't already have a skimmer for it.

All I can say is that we have absolutely 0 regrets from having him build our skimmer . I am still overwhelmed by how willing he was to help us modify the skimmer to exactly meet our tanks needs. If I have been more forthcoming with him about our setup then he would have built it that way originally. But being typical I wanted the biggest that we could get (without any thought for fluid dynamics, if it would fit, etc). I don't really regret that either since we now have so many options for this skimmer it is really cool . If we ever move into a house with a basement (or decide to feed the skimmer with a pump) we will put both bodies on it for a seriously big skimmer (yes, it is designed so that we could use them as extensions also).

 

[jnarowe]

now that would be cool!

 

[Sparkss]

Hehehe. We actually have everything we would need to make it happen except would need to upgrade the alita (which isn't that expensive in the first place ). And figure a way to feed it if we were to try to do it here. But that was why we went for the shorter body in the first place, since it better fit our current setup. But yea, if we ever move and/or upgrade tanks, I feel supremely confident that this skimmer will be able to handle darn near anything we could throw at it (at least anything that we personally could afford ). That expandability is nice to have in our back pocket .

Can you imagine cleaning the collection cup on an 8' tall skimmer ? (wait, isn't yours pretty tall now ?) I just envision have a 6' step ladder in the fish room just for cleaning the collection cup . Glad all Scott's are already plumbed to drain . Ok, now I am getting way off track, daydreaming about that huge tank we want to have someday before we pass

 

[jnarowe]

<gurgle>

Yeah mine is 7.5 feet tall but plumbed to drain. Still have to clean the neck though which is easy but still takes time and I end up with funky jam in my armpit.

 

[GreshamH]

:lol: now that's something I don't miss 10 years of that and I'm done for the next 10

 

[Sparkss]

on a fish stocking note I have an opportunity to pick up a harem of bartletts, 10 in total, 9 females and 1 male (i wholy expect at least one more female to turn male). Any thoughts on such a harem in our sized tank ? Here is our current stocking list :


1 purple tang
1 sailfin tang
1 orange shoulder tang
1 tomini tang
1 powder brown tang
1 magnificent rabitfish
1 golden angel
1 cleaner wrasse
1 ornate wrasse (aka christmas wrasse)
1 yellow wrasse
3 blue sided fairy wrasses
1 red tailed tamarin
2 orchid dottybacks
1 indigo dottyback
pair of ocellaris (hosted in an RBTA)
1 percula
pair of spotted mandarins
1 banggai cardnial fish
1 purple firefish
1 geometric hawkfish
pair of blue neon gobies

 

[jnarowe]

Ask Chuck! :lol:

 

[Sparkss]

which one is Chuck ?

 

[chris wright]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10947857#post10947857 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
which one is Chuck ?

Goodwin9, prepare for a variety of some of the most beautiful fish you will ever see. Heres a link to his thread, it starts at a split, but theres alot of pics.

goodwin9 600 gallon

Enjoy.

Cheers

Chris