my re-build thread

[Joel A]

I feel pretty confident that if I tweaked with it I could make it quiet. The main problem is it is gurgling and I have been to lazy/busy to play around with it.

couple more questions since i've got someone who owns one .


How exactly do you tweak it.. seemed pretty straight forward from what i saw?

Was the install as painless and easy as it looks?

 

[Miller]

I had Jeremy drill the hole....so that was painless. Other then drilling a hole for it is just installing a bulk head with plumbing, so yes it is as easy as it looks.

I didn't use the 90 degree elbow they sent, I used a T so that I could play with different size holes in the cap for the right ventilation.

 

[Joel A]

so, despite what some of you recommended.. (lol I'm stubborn sorry.) I just sold my CA reactor set-up and used the money to buy a 3 pump Profilux 3 pump Stand Alone doser. I'm pumped (no pun intended).

Should probably be here this coming week, or maybe the following (international shipping, not sure what to expect).

I'll be sure to post some nice pictures and a nice review once it gets here. I can't wait.

 

[KJB]

That's AWESOME Joel!!!!

I'll have to come over and see it when you get set up. I think I'm strong enough to not have to run out and buy one.....we'll see.

When you get going with the over flow, let me know. I have learned a TON about tweaking them during my efforts. Maybe come by and see mine. It's a U tube type, but I believe setting the actual drain is what makes the difference noise wise.

 

[Joel A]

Heh, the overflow might be a while... i'm going to put that off until this summer when i buy a whole new tank, then install that style overflow on a new tank myself. (or maybe buy it reefready, haven't decided yet) for now i'm going to stick with the one i have because as long as the pump doesn't crap out again (shouldn't for a while) it's working fine.

But anytime you want to come over and check it out, let me know.. i'd love to show it off . I can also show you my RODI unit too...

 

[Miller]

Joel I have what you need to stop a flood if your overflow box craps out again.

The flood preventor that Jennifer built. I picked it up off Mark while we were still using an overflow box. It work prefectly when I had it setup and I would test it by blocking the overflow box with my hand.
http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showpost.php?p=714107&postcount=2

Some piece of mind if your interested in it.

 

[maxxattk]

I'm kinda psyched to see someone rebuilding.

In january, I started my first ever saltwater tank... and I'm an idiot so I went straight past a FOWLR tank, or a nice 14g biocube, or any sort of beginner set up and bought a 75 gallon tank that I've built a into what someone may attempt to call a reef tank.

Most people would call it a cloudy green mess. That's what my wife calls it anyway..

I know that, someday, I will follow in your footsteps Joel.

 

[Joel A]

I'm kinda psyched to see someone rebuilding.

In january, I started my first ever saltwater tank... and I'm an idiot so I went straight past a FOWLR tank, or a nice 14g biocube, or any sort of beginner set up and bought a 75 gallon tank that I've built a into what someone may attempt to call a reef tank.

Most people would call it a cloudy green mess. That's what my wife calls it anyway..

I know that, someday, I will follow in your footsteps Joel.

hehe... all it takes is money and patience my friend... money and patience go a long way in this hobby. Along with lots of reading and research too of course.


Barry- thanks for the offer.. i'll think about it, but leaning towards no only because i'm probably ditching the whole thing in 2-3 months anyways.. it took the last aqualifter over a year to crap out on me.. not a bad little contraption though, even if you aren't using a HOB overflow..

 

[Joel A]

jeesh, shipping from Canada is slow... should be here next week.

I'm going to use the 3 pumps for calcium, alkalinity, and topoff... maybe eventually kalk in the top off as well... but for the time being that doesn't seem necessary as the ca/alk demand in my tank isn't that high at the moment.

i think i will use these for calcium and alkalinity containers
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Jugs-...05-gallon)-Space-Saving-Jug/product_info.html

for the fresh RODI container i'm not sure yet...don't have a ton of space to work with, but i want to be able to hold like 15 or so gallons of RO... still on the look out for what to do with that situation...


a few updates about the tank in general...

well i guess this is what i get for changing a lot of things over a relatively short period of time... HUGE algae outbreak. What started off looking like light diatoms, turned into looking like i was going to have a bit of cyano outbreak... to what now looks very much like dino (first time for me... )

I think i fueled it more by doing constant water changes when i thought it was diatoms/cyano. Now it's just getting worse and worse.

Anyone have any advice? I've read a higher PH helps... but mine is usually pretty high already (although maybe the swing to about 7.9 at night time doesn't help?)

 

[marine mike]

Try to keep it with Kalk to 8.4 to 8.5 all the time if you can. Reduce your light cycle drastically for about a week or so and that should wipe them out.

 

[Joel A]

thanks for the advice mike. How low is to low on the lighting duration... like 3-4 hours of daylight maybe an extra hour or two of actinic, or maybe even less?

They def. feed off the light, they seem to recede at night time and i think they are headed out the door, then the next morning it still looks as if they are vanishing... but then the daylight bulbs come on and they are back in full force.

 

[Joel A]

is it normal to have naturally higher PH with dinos? I'm starting to get worried my ph reading may be a bit off... because i'm getting abnormally high readings during the day (for my tank at least).

Daylights just shut off and it was 8.4 ... now granted the windows all open in the room helps.. but i'm usually (or used to be) 8.2 max, even with the windows open... i'm a bit worried that dripping kalk will cause it to go to high (unless the probe is giving me a false reading of course... about to re-calibrate it.)

 

[Joel A]

err nope... PH probe was spot on, i'm sitting at 8.4 . Maybe that's part of the issue though, 8.4 during the day, and then 7.8-7.9 at night is a large swing (probably because my CA reactor is offline now, thus making my ALK low and inconsistent).

 

[Joel A]

dosing pump is here.

I'm happy with the way it seems to work so far. I don't have it fully hooked up yet because i need to find a place to put it as well as the dosing containers. I'll probably just end up making a wood platform for it and having the dosing jugs underneath it.

I played around with it a bit though, and familiarized myself with the interface. Once i learned how to switch the language from German to English it was a breeze... set-up should be just as easy once i build it a platform and fine appropriate dosing containers... i'll get some pics up when i do all of that (should be soon as i don't like to have equipment lying around not in use).


On a livestock note... i've got a pretty sweet package of corals lined up for purchase in the next month or two from a buddy of mine. I'm going to grab the following frags:
Rommel's Original Rainbow Acro
ORA Roscoe's Blue Acro
ATL Strawberry Prostrata.

All of which are healthy sized and reasonably priced..

 

[KJB]

OOOOHHH YEEEHH the doser is in!!!! Very cool man!!

 

[Joel A]

OOOOHHH YEEEHH the doser is in!!!! Very cool man!!

haha... glad to see someone is as excited about it as i am. .

I'm installing a small little shelf in the stand to hold it on as we speak.

 

[Joel A]

so err.. i did take pics of the pump set-up, but just haven't loaded them up yet... i'll throw them on later today.

As for the Dino's in my tank... i don't want to speak too soon, but they seem to be completely eradicated already? I'm not seeing any signs of them.. all i did was reduce the light cycle a lot (now i've started bringing it up again) and kept the PH good and high too...

when would it be ok to add carbon again and do a water change? anyone got an idea?

 

[Joel A]

Just ordered up some zeovit products to get my feet wet too. Nothing major, the base 3 products minus the stones/reactor. I do plan to grab the stones/reactor this summer and go full blown zeovit as long as i see some decent results with the other base 3 products.

So they should be here tuesday/wednesday... i also might add changing the sandbed to the agenda for this week, but i don't want to stir up to much crap with the dino issue i just had... so maybe the week after makes more sense. Who knows.

 

[Joel A]

today i grabbed a 40lb bag of caribsea seaflor special grade reef sand. Stuff is really nice.

I started by tanking out probably 30 or so lbs of my old sand out... and did a 10 gallon water change while i was at it. Then i waited for it to settle a bit and rinsed the crap out of the new sand... added a few cupfuls of that maybe ~5 lbs or so to the surface of what was left of the old sand (maybe 20 lbs) just to see what it looks like. Tank is pretty cloudy now, but the new stuff will look nice... it's nice and bright white.

I also got my 3 zeovit products in the mail today... i'm going to start dosing tonight as long as my levels check out ok.

 

[Joel A]

hmmm this is a tough one guys... (been contemplating a lot lately)

what would be better for water flow:
1 x MP40 with a moded maxi-jet and maybe a tunze 6025 for additional flow
OR
2x tunze 6055 nano streams on a multi controller, possibly with a moded maxi if more flow was needed.

Priced it out, and getting 2 used 6055's with a multi controller is very close to the price of getting one new vortech mp40.