Tucson reef tank
- Thread starter ADVRESOURCE
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ADVRESOURCE
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Well, started off the weekend with a seam failure in the sump. Around 50 gallons of water on the floor. Breached drain, filter sock and rock area of my sump. Heaters were out of water and hot; salinity was 1.02 double to auto top off; return pump overheat protection turned off; gyre in frag tank ran dry till bearing failure; ph probe dried out and got to close to heater and failed; some frags out of water and rtn; sea hare in wrong place of sump and died.
Pulled lr from sump, wet vac'd and dried. Lfs helped with getting acrylic pieces and a table saw. They repaired and reinforced the seam failure with Weldon 16 and 1/2 in acrylic strips to bond seam. I pu extra pieces of acrylic to strengthen further. Filled water Sunday. Increased salinity to 1.023 with 15 gallons of higher salinity mix. Getting to 1.025 through evaporation and topping off with 1.025 water. CA, alk and mg still okay. Reactor recirculated sump water and melted some media.
Leaked for 12 hours before total seam failure.
Ordered ph probe and gyre bushings. Scooped out Dead Sea hare. Back up and monitoring Sunday. Temp for added water got to 68 degrees. No fatalities with four fish in fragtank. Melanarus, blue hippo, chromis and scopas.
Lights and internal circ pumps stayed on cycle throughout repair process.
This hobby takes no prisoners and challenges all involved!
I need to look into the apex water monitors. I have apex jr and don't know if compatible.
Pulled lr from sump, wet vac'd and dried. Lfs helped with getting acrylic pieces and a table saw. They repaired and reinforced the seam failure with Weldon 16 and 1/2 in acrylic strips to bond seam. I pu extra pieces of acrylic to strengthen further. Filled water Sunday. Increased salinity to 1.023 with 15 gallons of higher salinity mix. Getting to 1.025 through evaporation and topping off with 1.025 water. CA, alk and mg still okay. Reactor recirculated sump water and melted some media.
Leaked for 12 hours before total seam failure.
Ordered ph probe and gyre bushings. Scooped out Dead Sea hare. Back up and monitoring Sunday. Temp for added water got to 68 degrees. No fatalities with four fish in fragtank. Melanarus, blue hippo, chromis and scopas.
Lights and internal circ pumps stayed on cycle throughout repair process.
This hobby takes no prisoners and challenges all involved!
I need to look into the apex water monitors. I have apex jr and don't know if compatible.
IMO it sounds like you should upgrade it anyway for all the added benefits of the new features vs the ApexJr.
This page has a good explanation on the differences:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/PIC/Article.cfm?d=158&category=585&articleid=3026
This page has a good explanation on the differences:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/PIC/Article.cfm?d=158&category=585&articleid=3026
ADVRESOURCE
New member
The leak detection system for the Apex is compatible with the Apex JR. I have 4 programmable power plugs with the Apex JR. I can tactically turn off the return pump, skimmer, acclimation return and RO topoff. Lights, recirc pumps, chiller water pump, CA RX pump, phosban & carbon pump and Acclimation skimmer, heaters won't be turned off when there's a leak detected.
Lots of trade offs. Even with all the control to shut things down, the alarm and email alert are the most important. Help needs to be on the way as soon as water hits the floor.
Lots of trade offs. Even with all the control to shut things down, the alarm and email alert are the most important. Help needs to be on the way as soon as water hits the floor.
ADVRESOURCE
New member
New ph probe installed today. 8.23. Apex calibrated. 10 min settling time.
ADVRESOURCE
New member
Gyre 130 parts in. Install tomorrow.
ADVRESOURCE
New member
Well, back to normal. The JBJ frag tank didn't have a bead of silicone on the bottom of the wall between the tank and drain. Thus, when the return didn't pump water from the broken sump, the frag tank drained to the level of the drain. The frags, only 4, were exposed to the air and light for 5 hours and dry for 12. The pink lemonade browned out and now is coming back with PE. The other two small frags of milli made it fine and one milli is RTN.
Instead of glueing with silicone, which BTW bonds under water without hurting livestock, I will be using an elbow and raising the height of the drain so that the water doesn't go below the frag height.
Another good lessons learned...
Instead of glueing with silicone, which BTW bonds under water without hurting livestock, I will be using an elbow and raising the height of the drain so that the water doesn't go below the frag height.
Another good lessons learned...
