Third Time's A Charm!
- Thread starter dascharisma
- Start date
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12973212#post12973212 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ZLTFUL
Th next step is Brad has the chef frm miyab 9 cater his tank warming party...
I still haven't eaten there! One time we went there too late in the afternoon and they were already closed so we ended up going to the greek restaurant next door.
dascharisma
New member
Well, at this point I am broke, so it will be a while before I do much to the tank. Eventually I need to get a calcium reactor. My ph has never gone down where I want it. With nothing but kalk topoff, I am running a ph of 8.6 with an alk of 6. I would like to get the ph down to 8.3 and the alk up to 8-9.
What's crazy is that I actually wasted a lot of much needed money on my chiller. Even in 90 degree heat I haven't needed to run the chiller yet! It isn't even plugged in right now. I don't have any cooling on the tank besides the 2 exhaust fans hooked up to to the reflector. I do also have a bathroom exhaust fan hooked up to a humidistat, but it pretty much never runs.
Brad
dascharisma
New member
Nielsen and I made the trip up to Minnesota today to pick up my skimmer. It was a fun trip (minus the ridiculous traffic in Minneapolis). Spazz was very cool, and he gave us a full tour of his shop and was very helpful. Here are some pics.
Here is the infamous "big ugly"
Here is the CNC machine Spazz uses.
Here is a monster for some lucky forumite.
Here is my skimmer being loaded.
Here is my skimmer in my living room.
Here it is with a bucket of salt for reference.
I will probably start hooking it up tomorrow. I think I'll just spend tonight staring at it.
Brad
Here is the infamous "big ugly"
Here is the CNC machine Spazz uses.
Here is a monster for some lucky forumite.
Here is my skimmer being loaded.
Here is my skimmer in my living room.
Here it is with a bucket of salt for reference.
I will probably start hooking it up tomorrow. I think I'll just spend tonight staring at it.
Brad
dascharisma
New member
The "feed" pump is the pump that runs my whole system (Baldor Baracuda). The skimmer will be gravity fed off my tank's overflow, but the display only gets a portion of the flow. I would guess somewhere aroung 1000gph.
The recirculating pump on the skimmer is a Sequence Reeflo Orca Gold.
Brad
RobynT
In Memoriam
I thought that skimmer pump looked familar although mine is still in the box (Reeflo Orca 200 with that Dart Gold pump. ) Having a 5 year guarantee on a pump is pretty amazing in my book.
I have done alot of reading on return pumps and also decided to go with the Barracuda pump. Most Sequence owners are happy with the product. Let me know what you think and more pictures as you get that bad boy skimming please!!
I have done alot of reading on return pumps and also decided to go with the Barracuda pump. Most Sequence owners are happy with the product. Let me know what you think and more pictures as you get that bad boy skimming please!!
dascharisma
New member
Alright I finally got it running. I had a bit of trouble with a leaking threaded joint on the input of the pump. It was siliconed on, but it still leaked. After some fiddling I redid the joint with teflon paste. It worked on the first try. My other issue was with the pipe that brings air to the pump. Once all that was worked out, I fired up the skimmer and voila!
Here it is plumbed in place. Don't look at the mess. I have some major clean up/rewiring to do in the fish room (as JJ pointed out :mad2: ).
Here is a shot of the bubble density in the body.
Here is where I am running the water level for now. It will probably take a few days to get a good head on it.
As a bonus shot, check out the skull in my tank. Nielsen pointed it out, and now I am afraid to put my hands in the tank!
Brad
Here it is plumbed in place. Don't look at the mess. I have some major clean up/rewiring to do in the fish room (as JJ pointed out :mad2: ).
Here is a shot of the bubble density in the body.
Here is where I am running the water level for now. It will probably take a few days to get a good head on it.
As a bonus shot, check out the skull in my tank. Nielsen pointed it out, and now I am afraid to put my hands in the tank!
Brad
dascharisma
New member
Here are a few quick and easy full tank shots. I am going to start taking a 3 pic set at the beginning of each month. From now on I'll actually use my tripod.
Brad
Brad
dascharisma
New member
Thanks for the compliments. I spent a lot of time getting the rock structure exactly how I wanted it. I practiced building a few times, and I drew out the structure a bunch of times. It took me around 3 weeks to stack the rocks. It was done with the tank dry.
I used a small amount of concrete between the joints. The rock actually balanced in place when I set it up. The concrete is just there for stability in the high flow areas.
Brad
Mr. Brooks
MASVC Member
Wow, amazing setup. I just spent the whole mornig reading your thread after it came up on a Barracuda search. I bought a Barracuda for my 225, I'm starting to think it may be overkill after seeing how much water you're pushing in your system. Beautiful skimmer btw.
dascharisma
New member
Thanks Chad. I have been very happy with the Barraduda. As a return pump it is probably overkill on a 225. I run mine through 3 different loops, and it is plenty of flow.
Brad
dascharisma
New member
The skimmer is broken in now, and is starting to produce a bit. Here are some pics.
Here is the foam head
Here you can see the water line.
The skimmer is very quiet, and seems to be doing pretty well. My tank currently has 0 nitrates according to a LaMotte test kit. My only concern is how high the water level is in the neck. I feel like the water level should be lower (more toward the top of the cone and base of the neck). However, if I run it that low, the head doesn't come close to the top of the cup.
It actually makes me think that the skimmer could use more air. The 6ft Volcanoes use an air pump to force feed the pump. Spazz doesn't normally use one with the 4ft models though. It might just be that the tank needs more organics in order to keep the bubbles rising in the neck without bursting. The fact that my nitrates are undetectable might not be a good thing. I would start feeding more to test the theory, but I am currently dealing with a lot of HA that would only be made worse by the incidental addition of phosphates in feedings.
Brad
Here is the foam head
Here you can see the water line.
The skimmer is very quiet, and seems to be doing pretty well. My tank currently has 0 nitrates according to a LaMotte test kit. My only concern is how high the water level is in the neck. I feel like the water level should be lower (more toward the top of the cone and base of the neck). However, if I run it that low, the head doesn't come close to the top of the cup.
It actually makes me think that the skimmer could use more air. The 6ft Volcanoes use an air pump to force feed the pump. Spazz doesn't normally use one with the 4ft models though. It might just be that the tank needs more organics in order to keep the bubbles rising in the neck without bursting. The fact that my nitrates are undetectable might not be a good thing. I would start feeding more to test the theory, but I am currently dealing with a lot of HA that would only be made worse by the incidental addition of phosphates in feedings.
Brad
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