Here's my Big Office System

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

Not too much has gotten done on the system of late. Work has just been crazy. I have been lucky to even look in the display while running by in the wee hours of the morning or late evening and taking a moment to toss in some food and top off water. :

As usual, several small things have ocurred on top of one another that individually would not be a huge issue, but together could have easily crashed the tank.

First, I lost an long spine urchine that I have had since day one. It arrived on my TBS rock in my first tank as 3/8" hitch hiker. It took days for me to see it and react. Hard to say how much damage this caused in terms of organics and toxins in the water.

Then, my Kalk mixer started leaking, took me a day or two to find the source, the MJ was buldged and spewing water when the ATO pump would kick on. No idea how that happened, looks almost like it froze ... IDK? Anyway, it is still off line as I have had no time to clean and replumb it. It's getting a bigger mixing pump as these MJs just don't cut it. I am going to use a Mag 2 I have for now but will probably go with a PanWorld PX-10 in the long run for durability.

The float on my ATO came loose and I was topping off way too much RO water. Being so busy I was just adding top off and not realizing how much. It is a seasonal change and my evap allways changes at these times when I switch from heat to AC or back again. As a result, my SG dropped to 1.021 ... NOT GOOD!

Then, out of the blue, my CO2 regulator just stopped flowing. Then , it was as though I changed the bottle! Took a me a couple of days to get it adjusted again. The only thing I can think of is the drop in average tempurature in the fish room cuased a drop in pressure sufficient o stop the flow ... IDK?

The over all result could have been much worse. Most corals look just fine. Others, particularly the stylos, and select millies are hurting! My once beautiful green millie took the brunt! I was lucky to stop the RTN and have some to work with for fragging! :-\

I have brought the SG back to 1.026 , very slowly, and I am getting the Ca back up, it is still just below 300. And, I hope to have the Kalk mixer back on line this week.

I did manage to pick up a pile of lumber and a Pocket Hole Jig to build the frag tank stand so hopefully that will get done over the next few weeks.

Oh! One more thing, I finally got a Hanna Instruments PO4 (low range) meter! The first one was DOA, the second one seems to work fine, and the delay was probably for the best, as I did not have it in time to watch the super high readings from the urchin incident as that would have freaked my out completely!!! The PO4 is down to 0.04 ( My D-D kit always read zero BTW) and seems to be falling as I skim the crap out of the tank with the MRC MR-4 blazing away at full tilt

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: Here's my 120

Wow that is a lot of crap...better you then me ..but I mean that with all due respect because for sure if all that happened to me I would have a 120 gallons of disaster. Sounds like you pulled back from the brink of disaster. Experience really counts obviously.

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

... and a lot of luck! ;D

I picked up some Turbo Cacium & fittings for the Mag 2 for the Kalk mixer today, so hopefully, I'll have the Ca back up and everything balanced real soon!

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: Here's my 120

a series of events like that would probably cause me to consider whether to stay in the hobby. That's crazy! Glad to see you got it all under control. I remember getting little tiny urchins from TBS - they were no bigger than a pencil eraser - yours must have been huge!

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

Unfortunately, since starting a reef in my office, I have met this sort of "landslide" of set backs a few times. It seems to be the way it goes. What are ya gonna do? :-\

My urchin started out that small. He ... she? was about 4" across tips to tips.

I need a new urchin, unreal how much rock pruning he was responsible for. Worth the occasional bulldozing IMO!

So I got my act together and re-plumbed the Kalk reactor, WOW! I'll never ask a puny little MJ pump to do a manly pumps job again! What a difference!!!

Also pulled the 26 bow front QT out of the fish closet. A TON! more room in there now!!! When the frag tank is done, a new QT will sit underneath it, neither of which will be in the closet.
... I am pleased

 

[jimroth]

Re: Here's my 120

Darn Bax, like they say...It never rains but it pours! Sounds like you've got it under control, but I always think, "What if I had been on vacation???"

That deal with the salinity getting out of whack scares me. I hear the available conductivity meters are fairly crappy, but I would really like to have a digital salinity readout, maybe an alarm. I think the AC-Pro has conductivity, but I didn't think the big extra cost was worth it.

Hey, the Nathans Green Millie is growing for me (sorry no pic). If you need it, I can cut you a frag and we can watch it turn green again in your tank!

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

Darn Bax, like they say...It never rains but it pours! Sounds like you've got it under control, but I always think, "What if I had been on vacation???"

That deal with the salinity getting out of whack scares me. I hear the available conductivity meters are fairly crappy, but I would really like to have a digital salinity readout, maybe an alarm. I think the AC-Pro has conductivity, but I didn't think the big extra cost was worth it.

Hey, the Nathans Green Millie is growing for me (sorry no pic). If you need it, I can cut you a frag and we can watch it turn green again in your tank!

;D heheheh!

Thanks Jim! At the moment I am nursing a few pieces of the green millie. Hopefully I'll have some success with these frags. : The loss of the colony still stings at this point, but I am pleased that some has survived so far. It is at the very least, a sign to me that I have re-stabilized the system.

As for specific gravity. I am usually a real stickler for checking it often, several times weekly, with a refractometer. IMO that's still the easiest way without expensive and IMO unreliable meters that need maintenace to work correctly. Given the skimming power of my, fair sized, dual becket skimmer, and the variability of what conditions produce wet or dry skim from it, I can slurp 2 gallons of SW out via skimming one day and a cup or 2 the next. So usually, I am very tuned into adding make up SW to keep the SG at 1.026 +/- 0.001. Usually params like Ca & Alk I check weekly at most, I feel the SG is most important.

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

Well another casualty from all the disrupted params is my fromia star. I hadn't seen it since I picked up on the issue, not unusual, I go a week or more without seeing it all the time.

Today I found it fortunately, still in tact to be removed :

Anyway some fun news. I have been here most of the day and for all of that time when I look at the tank, my CB has been surfing the right Tunze, just nonstop. It's really quite a riot! It must look like such fun that the YT has just joined in. I'll attempt a vid, but I am sure they'll stop as soon as I get the camera.

... ungrateful little bast.....! :-X

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

I have a question.

I have pics but, not my cable, of course. So let's just go old school and I try to use the english language.

I have a 29-30ish g PM sump that I have drilled and installed a 2" BH. The sump was intended to flow in one drection. I will have drain water coming from the DT, frag tank (and a possible third small DT) entering the sump at one end, and processed water returning from the chiller, fuge, GFO, UV and skimmer at the other end. As I have plenty of system volume already, this will be a return sump only. Its only purpose to act as the lowest resivior to feed the return pump or pumps, there in lies my question.

I have both a Dart and a Baracuda to use as the main return. Like I said, I just drilled the center section to feed the main pump. The right end section, that the DT & fuge will drain to, has a pair of 1" BHs already. My options are:

Run the Cuda into a manifold the feeds everything: skimmer, DT, fuge, chiller, GFO, UV etc... My concern here is that I can only feed a mix of drained and processed water to the skimmer, not drain water only.

Or

Run the Dart on the manifold to feed everything but the skimmer. In this case, the skimmer would use a smaller PanWorld 50-PX-X (1,100 gph @ 0') pulling off a 1" BH in that drain section, so the skimmer would get fed only drain water from the DT and frag tanks.

My main goal in this whole sump swap are to change all pumps into external. I now use two internal pumps as return and skimmer feed and a couple of PHs to feed UV, GFO etc. I also have to feed my chiller with a CL that runs through my fuge on a the PanWorld 50 PX-X, very inefficient! But remember, I set this tank up on about a weeks notice so I am trying to fix some blunders here that were made on the fly.

I was really hoping to use one pump for all this but, I also want the most out of the skimmer. So, another bonus is to finally feed my skimmer all it can handle, I just fried the QO 4000 I was using to feed the skimmer and at about 875 gph it was close to feeding it all it can use, I'd like to feed the skimmer about 1,000 gph as the MRC MR-4R will certainlly handle it. I am now stuck using a QO 1200 which doesn't come close to feeding this baby what it can handle.

I'll end up with 6-8' of head on the pump the Cuda would easily handle the whole system flow (3,200-3,500 gph @ 6-8') including the skimmer feed, but I have to feed it blended water not JUST drain water.

The Dart (2,160-2,430 gph @ 6-8') is just too small to do it all so it would need the help of the PanWorld feeding the skimmer.

With either option, my total, potential flow in gph, and watts are relativley the same.

So the question: What's better over all, one pump, or two? ???

 

[Phyl]

Re: Here's my 120

It would be best to do with one pump (to reduce your carbon footprint), but we're using 2 (well 3 if you count the recirc pump. Ugh). We have the manifold feeding everything BUT the skimmer. The skimmer feed pump is separate. But the skimmer is fed from combined water in our system. It isn't DT only water.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Re: Here's my 120

So the question: What's better over all, one pump, or two? ???

I feel slighted.

You left out one other important question:

Should it be the red pump or blue pump? ;D

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

So the question: What's better over all, one pump, or two? ???

They are both grey pumps actually!
So please don't feel slighted!!! ;D


I feel slighted.

You left out one other important question:

Should it be the red pump or blue pump? ;D

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

It would be best to do with one pump (to reduce your carbon footprint), but we're using 2 (well 3 if you count the recirc pump. Ugh). We have the manifold feeding everything BUT the skimmer. The skimmer feed pump is separate. But the skimmer is fed from combined water in our system. It isn't DT only water.

Yup me too, I was definitly hoping to stay with one pump.

But the Dart will draw 150 watt (at worst)+ the 90 watts on the 50 PX-X = about 240 watts for about 3,500 gph

The single Cuda would be about 250 watts for about 3,500 gph

So, that's a push IMO.

I think then I need to look at the benfits of getting the raw drain water into that insane watt sucking skimmer (Talk about a carbon foot print!) I'll rest easy knowing that the foot prints to get the water there was the same wattage! ;D

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

Well I have good and bad news to report. Some of my corals are still struggling since the imbalance of a few weeks back, while others are just fine. My green millie is all but gone with just a splash of a puddle still looking good, all the frags are toast. My cat's paw stylo is really hurting and odd neusance algeas are at the root. Things do seem to be turning back to the good side of the force.

Here's the once sweet stylo

It is looking better, but this is not a good situation for it at all. I can't even post picks of the empty spot where my green millie once stood ... sniff .... sniff

My RBTA is staying put as it has for nearly four years now, but it is inflating to giagantic proportions and has nuked everything acro around it.

As I mentioned before, I pulled my QT, a 26 g bow and its stand out of the closet. That makes for a ton more room in there!

I also refit the GEO Kalk mixer with the Mag 2, SWEET! 8)

Works great!

I drilled the PM sump for the 2" bulk head to feed the Cuda.

I've decided to use the Cuda to run everything but the skimmer and the 55 PX-X to feed the skimmer with the 200 PX running the skimmer. What's a watt or two amongst buds ey? ;D I've got the manifold almost all glued up, just need another fitting or two and I should have done on Monday.

Then I can focus on installing the sump. The skimmer and return will run first and I'll add the periferals (GFO, UV etc) as I can. That ought to help in tiding up this mess a bit.

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

Just so you know, it's not all bad news and hard work ...

The a. valida ....

Not all the millies were effected, here's the pink & purple ...

The a. nana seems happy ...

The hawkins frag I scored back in October look'n good ...

Here's the new urchin I picked up ...

 

[ds4x4]

Re: Here's my 120

wow you weren't kidding about making room in that closet..

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

Hey Brandon!

Yup, it's night and day in there without the 26 bow, it really filled up that whole coner and just made an already tight space just way too cramped.

One more odd note, my female orchid dottyback of my mated pair has gone MIA for over a week now, not a clue as to what could have happened????

Of course, the QT is down until I get the frag tank up and can re-establish a QT underneath it as there will be no more tanks in the closet .... ever! :

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: Here's my 120

I didn't know you could run a mag drive external like that. How is the GEO set up? It looks like you daisy-chained it to another reactor? Or does the black line go back into the sump?

Maybe the dottybacks are guarding a nest?

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

Phil

I am pushing two weeks without seeing the female. Maybe she's in hiding. but normally he guards the eggs

The black line going into the mixer is the feed from the ATO.

You can run Mags external, some will always leak though.

With the kids being home from school & a nasty cold, I have made only limited progress, but I did finish the manifiold and sump plumbing. Even did a quick wet test to check the glued fittings.

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: Here's my 120

Here are some pics of the Sump, Baracuda, and manifold during assembly. I hope to swap it all into use next week.

Here's the whole unit, the sump will sit in the closet under the 75 g fuge. The cuda right next to it on the stand. The manifold will wrap around the corner of the entrance to the closet.

The manifold. From right to left the outlets will feed: fuge; chiller; GFO/UV; & eventually frag tank.

From the front, all the drains will come in from the right section. The skimmer will feed the filter sock on the right.

The sock on the left will be an excess return for the pump, if needed. The chiller and fuge will return on the left.

From above, set up for the wet test

8)