Inherited 90

[redfishbluefish]

Wow! Two quick responses. Thanks.


Pete and Kevin, that's what I wanted to hear. I knew the two 300's were overkill, but originally wasn't sure if two 150's would be enough. I got a pretty good indication when I saw that one 300 was maintaining temperature. And Kevin, I run my heaters through a controller, so no need to calibrate the heaters. I actually turn them up past 78 and let the controller turn them on and off.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I don't get this. I just looked up the specs on both the Eheim Jager and Sera heaters. I prefer Jagers, with Seras as my second choice, but the Jagers are just too long (for the same wattage). Anyway, the 300 W Sera is rated for a 40 - 80 gallon tank, while the 150 W Jager is rated for 53 - 79 gallons. How could this be real! Both rated for approximately the same size tanks, but one half the wattage. Here's a pic of the two, where you can see they are about the same length. The 150 Yager is the one with the blue collar, and the blown 300 Sera is the green one....the one I just pulled out of my tank.






I'm definitely ordering up a bunch of 150 Eheim Yagers!

 

[jgraz]

I used to wonder the same thing. But if you look at the heating coil you will notice the jäger is much longer then the same wattage in any other brand. That 150 watt jäger you have has more heating element touching water then that 300w sera. Hence it rates higher.

I think that makes sense. So I'm sticking with my theory.

 

[Brando457]

I run all jagers on my tanks except my nano I use a cobalt hooked to an apex. Jager makes great heaters!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Rube Goldberg Bubble Trap Number Four

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve seen the Rube Goldberg’s I’ve made to stop micro bubbles / salt creep in my sump. They all had some positives, with the last version not too bad, but I still though there was room for improvement. Well I’m now working on Rube Goldberg IV. But first, here’s the history


Rube Goldberg I was discussed on Page 1 about ¾ of the way down:

Rube Goldberg II was discussed on Page 11, Post 109

And Rube Goldberg III was simply a modified RGI (with an end cap on the bottom and discussed on Page 27, post 269.

This latest version was inspired by someone on another site talking about a reverse durso to quiet down the drain in the sump. The light-bulb popped up above my head and off I went to HD. My drain is 1 ½ inches. So I picked up one DWV street elbow, one schedule 40 tee (I’ll explain later), and an end cap….the pipe I had.

I originally was going with all DWV, but noticed the tee for DWV had the end of the tee out pretty far. Space was tight in the sump area and I felt as is, it wouldn’t fit. The schedule 40 tee was probably out about the same, but the difference was that I could cut some of it away.

Here’s the tee and elbow without being cut:




And here it is cut:




This durso assembly was put together with no glue….just friction fit.




Now here’s the good news…..it stopped the bubbles! Here is my sock area drain with the original drain pipe:




And here it is with the new durso drain….bubble free.




I think tomorrow I'll go buy the parts to make another one for the other drain. I’m happy.

 

[Juano908]

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve seen the Rube Goldberg’s I’ve made to stop micro bubbles / salt creep in my sump. They all had some positives, with the last version not too bad, but I still though there was room for improvement. Well I’m now working on Rube Goldberg IV. But first, here’s the history


Rube Goldberg I was discussed on Page 1 about ¾ of the way down:

Rube Goldberg II was discussed on Page 11, Post 109

And Rube Goldberg III was simply a modified RGI (with an end cap on the bottom and discussed on Page 27, post 269.

This latest version was inspired by someone on another site talking about a reverse durso to quiet down the drain in the sump. The light-bulb popped up above my head and off I went to HD. My drain is 1 ½ inches. So I picked up one DWV street elbow, one schedule 40 tee (I’ll explain later), and an end cap….the pipe I had.

I originally was going with all DWV, but noticed the tee for DWV had the end of the tee out pretty far. Space was tight in the sump area and I felt as is, it wouldn’t fit. The schedule 40 tee was probably out about the same, but the difference was that I could cut some of it away.

Here’s the tee and elbow without being cut:




And here it is cut:




This durso assembly was put together with no glue….just friction fit.




Now here’s the good news…..it stopped the bubbles! Here is my sock area drain with the original drain pipe:




And here it is with the new durso drain….bubble free.




I think tomorrow I'll go buy the parts to make another one for the other drain. I’m happy.

Very nice Paul, are you going to keep using a filter sock?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Well that didn't last long!




I couldn't fit the sock on with this durso drain. So what I did was move this over to the right drain and I was now getting small micro bubbles coming out. I can only guess that the flow coming out of the right is slightly higher than the left. So I went back to the Rube III on the right.



However, I wasn't done with the sock side. Here's my next try....I think you can figure it out while I let the epoxy cure. That 1 1/2, 45 elbow will flow directly down into the sock. Now that I'll be back to a single pipe, this will fit in the sock. Just don't know if it will act like the durso with a 3/4 breather pipe.

Very nice Paul, are you going to keep using a filter sock?

And Juan, yes, I will continue to use socks.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Well this latest lame brain idea of mine didn't work!


Here's the quasi reverse durso (without the end cap):




And here it is not stopping the bubbling:





I'm guessing that 90 degree turn in the original reverse durso was instrumental in allowing the air to escape.


Oh well! Back to the drawing board.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Skimmate Change - Biopellet Effect???

Pre biopellets my skimmate is what I would call normal. The bubbles would form and climb over the top edge of the collection cup and then collapse into a liquid. I had to dig to find a photo, but here's an old one prior to installing a collection container for the skimmate.

I've been running biopellets since June, 2013. About a year ago I started to notice the bubbles were not collapsing and would fill the cup and start to push out through the holes on the cover of the collection cup. In addition, the skimmate would now leave blotches on the side of the collection cup.








I was still getting skimate in the collection containers, but now had a very strong odor of sulfur (rotten eggs).


Has anyone else experienced this? And do you think it's from running biopellets (sloughed off bacteria)?

 

[dirtycontour]

I'm not running biopellets but have been dosing vinegar for some time now. I definitely noticed the change in skimmate you are talking about. Smells worse and is much more foamy and chunky.

 

[mnat]

With the nature reef reactor I get similiar issues with is bubbling out of the top of the skimmer. Also very gross and nasty, but that is the point of the skimmer.

 

[downbeach]

If memory serves, I backed off the flow through the reactor a bit, and ran the skimmer a little more on the wet side.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I was fortunate enough to be a big winner at this month's NJRC meeting. Here are the pieces I picked up. Sorry for the quality, it's my little point-n-shoot camera, and this is right after a dip in Bayer and fresh water.


1. Unknow Zoa from Ultimate Corals....sorry, it's so PO'ed from being dipped, can't begin to tell what it is.






2. Favia from Ultimate Corals






3. Montipora (Jedi Mind Trick) from Ultimate Corals






4. Chili Pepper Montipora from Matte






5. War Coral form Matte






6. Lime Pocillopora form unknown donator.






Now I need to find a spot to put these guys in my tank.

 

[kschweer]

Congrats on the raffle wins Paul!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Karenvas2]

Big winner is an understatement! We just kept looking to him to see if he'd claim the next raffle.

 

[Zippy69]

Well done Paul!

 

[JRWOHLER]

Good job glad to see us central people win vs those darn southerners. Dance

 

[Mark...]

War coral is sweet looking...

 

[redfishbluefish]

Thanks for the kind comments everyone, but with the recent issues over "what color is the dress,"

I just wanted to clarify that the above corals are in my tank. Don't let your eye-to-brain connection fool you with corals as well. I know that they look exactly like recent pictures Darren (dnov99) posted, but I want to assure you that I didn't steal these from Darren.........these beauties are mine, and I won them fair and square. If you see them differently, then there is something wrong with your brain. It's amazing how the brain processes information....especially mine!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Zoas finally opened. Anyone know if they are named zoas?