TVS 75 Gallon Build

[The Velvet Sea]

Thanks very much, Bonta!

I would like to say that CoralVue customer service is great! I contacted them through their website about a week ago and discussed my two problems with the skimmer 1) unreliable pump start up and 2) overflowing.

After some discussion with CoralVue CS, they decided to send me a new pump, which I didn't request but certainly didn't protest either. I'm pretty sure my original pump was made a long time ago. The serial number is in the very low hundreds (225 to be precise). I just got the new pump and put it on the skimmer. Fired right up! Unplugged it and plugged it back in, and it fired right up again! I let it run for a bit and unplugged it, plugged it back in and it fired right up a third time! It has a serial number up in the almost ten thousands. It also has different rubber feet on the mount than my original pump, so there have definitely been some minor but key changes to these pumps over time.

Bad news, the skimmer is overflowing even more with the new pump! But everyone agrees, there is probably something in my water that is making the skimmer go nuts, as well as a need to let my skimmer break in and the tank cycle. I'm sure it will settle down in time, but I'm glad that the pump problem is fixed!

Time for me to go set up my carbon reactor, which will hopefully help with the situation.

 

[zmckenzie]

I am glad to hear that CoralVue customer service took care of you. I debating on the SRO xp2000 or an ATB 840. With your comment I think i leaning towards the SRO.

 

[cwbhawk]

This looks like it will end up being a beautiful tank You're definately doing all the right things! Keep it up, I'll be following along

 

[The Velvet Sea]

Thanks so much cwbhawk!

I am glad to hear that CoralVue customer service took care of you. I debating on the SRO xp2000 or an ATB 840. With your comment I think i leaning towards the SRO.

I would definitely recommend these skimmers. I've never owned a skimmer that produced so much froth in the cone. It is still overflowing but I have no doubt that is not the fault of the skimmer. To try to get it under control, I started running my BRS carbon reactor with a good load of Rox 0.8. I've also plumbed a tube from the skimmer collection cup to a bucket and am in the process of doing an ongoing water change taking this wet skimmate as the waste water:

 

[The Velvet Sea]

I'm fairly certain I've determined the cause of the skimmer overflowing. I took about 7 gallons of the watery skimmate yesterday and dumped it as waste during my water change. The skimmer was actually behaving much better afterward. The filter sock, being about 3-4 days in the tank was ready to be changed, so I put in another one, which was brand new. I have 6 filter socks that are all brand new and apparently I need to break them in. As soon as I put the new sock on, the skimmer went nuts again. I should have thought about this before because I've had fresh polyester filter pads make a skimmer go nuts in the past. Anyhow, a search of RC produced some of the following:

I've noticed that too, any brand new socks or filter pads unrinsed cause skimmer to go nuts right as soon as they hit the water. they must have something on them but i have never seen it effect anything.

That has happened to me as well, but oddly enough it doesn't do it anymore. Same bags, same cleaning routine. I'm guessing they just needed to 'break in'?

New filter socks do this and is completly normal. It usually calms down after a couple washes.

My filter socks do that every time. I soak them in some ro water for a few hours before putting them in the sump, it seems to help quite a bit.

When they are brand new, they have factory... oil / dust / soap / whatever, on them that gets into the water and makes a crazy froth for the skimmer. Potentially true for any new piece of equipment.

So I have all of my filter socks soaking in a bucket of RO at the moment. I'm going to scrub and wring them out by hand and then resoak.

 

[The Velvet Sea]

I took the filter sock out of my tank about a week ago and have done some small wet skimmate water changes but it was still overflowing at 6.5". Yesterday I raised the skimmer back to 5" which was recommended by mojo~ and james404 (big thanks). It is still skimming very wet with the gate valve wide open, but going on 14 hours and it isn't overflowing which is a new record! Here is a 12 hour skimmate shot:

I'm going to let it run like this at 5" until it is no longer skimming wet with the gate valve wide open. Then I will probably try it again at 6.5". If it works, then great, if not I'll set it at 5" permanently.

I had way too much flow in the tank and it had pushed my sandbed to one end. Yesterday I turned the Tunze off and have the MP40 set at random reef crest 100%. I also spread the sandbed back out which clouded the water a bit, which I believe is causing the grey color of the skimmate. I think I'm getting great circulation from the MP40 and the return flow from the eheim. I might have a near new Tunze for sale...

 

[The Velvet Sea]

The skimmer is still doing great at 5". Last night I put a filter sock back in (which had been rinsed and soaked in RO/DI repeatedly) and there was no noticeable difference with the skimmer. I rinsed and added some more sand since there wasn't very much in the display and what was in there was getting blown around leaving areas of the tank barren. This clouded the tank a little but the skimmer and filter sock cleaned it up in no time. I'm going to add some seed live rock in the next few days. I've also been tossing some pellet food into the tank every couple of days to feed the bacteria that have begun the cycle. I'm going to do a minor plumbing adjustment so that the drain and filter sock are a bit more accessible. Other than that I'm very pleased with how it has come together, especially now that the skimmer is behaving. :fish1:

 

[Luckedout]

Great build so far. Nice rock work!

It is shame you don't have that far end of the tank open. The great thing about peninsula style tanks imo is the depth view from the end without having to own a cube. Maybe you can switch that up when you become an owner instead of a renter!

 

[OKchris]

Very nice build, following it for inspiration.

 

[The Velvet Sea]

Thanks so much for the compliments you both. Hopefully it lives up to the high praise in the future!

I also wish the MP40 and light support pole didn't get in the way on the exposed end, Luckedout. They do detract from the overall idea a bit, but I'm pleased with the end result since they weren't surprises for me. Maybe once I get my masters I can find a place to call my own and get rid of the light poles once and for all!

Regarding the scape: I'm kind of surprised that people have complimented on it. I've never been a talented scaper. The two articles that shaggss posted on the first page where a huge help and I highly recommend giving them a read. I was planning on two separate structures for a while, but reading those articles gave me ideas on how to go about it. I actively tried to incorporate some of the ideas that they mentioned. Specifically utilizing open space, tension lines and the golden number. I tried to make the rock formations appear somewhat symmetrical but obviously not perfect (golden number). The use of tension lines was a key point that really helped me too. Both rock structures slope towards each other with small rocks at the bottom that provide the tension lines that draw your eye towards the opposite structure. This makes them feel like they belong together even though they are not connected. I think the overall result was positive but the left rock structure needs more work. It feels a little too "rock pile" to me. Considering I didn't even use half of the rock that I bought, I have plenty of other pieces to use to improve it. I just haven't gotten around to it since I have been busy working on the skimmer and other system functions.

Now the skimmer is doing great. I programmed the RKL. The sump plumbing has been adjusted to make routine maintenance items easily accessible. The carbon reactor and auto top off have been set up. It feels like everything is really starting to click. I just need to do some minor re-scaping, monitor my parameters, add some seed rock and let it mature a bit.

More pictures next time after I work on polishing the scape a bit.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

[The Velvet Sea]

Did I mention that I had a full compliment of test kits?
I'm going to run a full set of tests. I hope it doesn't take all night!
This doesn't include the hach phosphate colormeter which I haven't borrowed from work yet.

 

[The Velvet Sea]

In my last post I mentioned how I have Hach phosphate colormeters at work that I've been given permission to borrow. Today we have been doing a big office cleanup event because within the next year we will be moving to a huge new mid county annex office plex. Our water pollution investigators no longer use the phosphate equipment and our ceo and division director told us to get rid of all of the equipment that is no longer used. I got the phosphate colormeters!

A couple other people I work with claimed some old hand held YSI meters that measure pH, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen etc. I passed on those meters because they have extensive calibration solution expenses in order for them to operate properly, and I didn't want to get greedy after getting the phosphate colormeters.

Long story short:
:celeb2: Christmas came early and I have 2 hach phosphate colormeters with about 100 reagent packs (~$400 each colormeter)!!! :celeb1:

 

[The Velvet Sea]

Today got even better when coworkers decided that they didn't want some of the stuff they were given. I ended up with a lot of new toys!

The YSI85 measures DO, Conductivity, Salinity and Temperature. I'm not sure how well it is working. It was tagged out of service and we're unsure why. There are replacement DO membranes and electrolyte solution so I'm hoping I can repair it. Our water investigators have new multi-probe YSI's that measure all of the above and more, so they don't use the YSI85s like this anymore.

The Hach ammonia colormeter has no reagents and I've never seen anyone use it, so I have no clue if it works.

The original blue Phosphate colormeter works great. I've used it several times when I did water investigator cross training. Our department just doesn't measure for phosphates anymore in our sampling program. The newer black Phosphate colormeter II was tagged out of service and I've never used it so it might not work at all.

I know I got 1 fully functional phosphate meter out of the deal though! :beer:

 

[afernandez]

Haha ..good thing u figured out the skimmer thing. I have the same skimmer and had the same problem with the overflowing .. Not the pump. Now it's working like a champ earning my respect lol. Nice lights .. Tank is coming along .I love peninsulas

 

[The Velvet Sea]

Haha ..good thing u figured out the skimmer thing. I have the same skimmer and had the same problem with the overflowing .. Not the pump. Now it's working like a champ earning my respect lol. Nice lights .. Tank is coming along .I love peninsulas

Thanks very much! As far as the skimmer goes, it isn't overflowing but it is skimming way too wet for my liking. I get a full collection cup of watery brown/yellow skimmate in just about 3 days. This is with the gate valve wide open and unrestricted, and the skimmer in about 5 inches of water. I'm emptying the cup regularly and hoping that it starts producing dryer skimmate in due time.

Everything else is doing great. I've been busy with normal holiday hustle and bustle so I haven't gotten around to improving the aquascape. I did add a small piece of established live rock to seed the dry rock. This got a minor diatom bloom going but it is very minor. Just small little spots of brown diatom algae here and there on the sand.

Things are going well and I'm just taking my time with it. Once we get passed new years, I'll be able to spend more time on it and will begin to think about introducing some life to the build.

Happy Holidays everyone and thanks for looking!

 

[Dustin1300]

Nice build Velvet. I have a similar setup but run a MH/T5 combo along with an SRO 3000-Internal. Only reason I have 3000 Internal is because I'm planning a ~200 gallon upgrade. It took me a couple weeks for skimmer to produce and I dialed back to lowest setting for break in. With the tank just cycling it was no large worry for me.

 

[The Velvet Sea]

Hey thanks Dustin. Was your 75 an established tank when you got the SRO3000? You mentioned that it took yours a few weeks to produce then you dialed it down to break in. Mine was producing instantly but overflowing and now excessively wet and dialed all the way back. I'm attributing that to the fact that my system is brand new and still maturing. (fingers crossed)

Bad news on the YSI... the conductivity probe is totally shot so it is a glorified DO meter and thermometer meter (now I know why it was tagged out of service). Considering there isn't much need to measure DO in a reef aquarium due to constant water turnover and gas exchange via surface skimming, turbulence and protein skimming, the YSI is effectively a temperature probe.

I haven't tried the phosphate colormeters yet, but I know one works so that is plus.

 

[Dustin1300]

Tank had just finished its cycle when I put my SRO 3000 in. I dialed it back so it did not randomly overflow. Now the skimmer is highly reliable and has dark skimmate I clean out every three days. I could not be more happy with the skimmer.

 

[The Velvet Sea]

The skimmer has stopped overflowing! It was strange how it happened too. I had mentioned previously how my aquarium was going through the normal minor brown diatom algae growth stage. The growth had slowed so I cleaned my glass which had spots of diatoms here and there. Before cleaning the glass, the skimmer had been skimming excessively wet requiring the collection cup to be emptied at most every three days. This was with the gate valve wide open so it was skimming as dry as I could get it and it was still way too wet.

Well after I cleaned the glass, the foam head in the skimmer completely collapsed. I figured it would rebuild and start skimming wet again after a little time but it never did. The foam head reestablished but the skimmer started skimming dry. I even had to close the gate valve a bit to raise the level in the skimmer to get it to push anything into the collection cup.

So the skimmer is skimming much drier! I don't get crazy black funk yet just because I don't have much bioload, which brings me to my next topic. The first residents have been introduced. I have a juvenile pair of clarkii, 4 trochus and 2 nassarius snails and everyone seems very happy!

 

[Shawno]

nice! im anxious to see some new pics of the tank with the fish in it