Project5k and the new 75Gal salt tank

[project5k]

yea, i was sitting here thinking about it and i'd bet that it helps settle some of the bubbles, but i'd also bet that some of the smaller ones would still get swept out the bottom and into the sump just from the swiftness of the flow...

i had another idea, that i think i'm actually gonna try... i'm gonna get like 4 or 5 of the 4-way pvc parts, and put them one after the next, that should slow the flow rate in each pipe down, and thus allow for more of the bubbles to float out..

the other thought that i had was to dump the water into something like a 4" pvc standing vertically in the sump, the water enters at about half height, and the bubbles can go up and out, and the liquid water could go down and out... more of a simi-stagnation pond kinda effect...

 

[project5k]

well i tried the mini stagnation thing made out of pvc, it didnt work very well, but i was also not working or able to put it at the water height that i really thought that it would work at, i just didnt have the room in the sump to try it...

anyway, on to more successfull things, i built my ATO, its made out of a float valve from a pet water traugh, some pvc parts, one of my little harborfreight pumps, and a grounded appliance timer.

The timer is set to turn the pump on for 15 min 2x a day, the pump runs, and if the water level is low enough the float valve lets the water get pumped from the 5gal bucket into the sump, and then when its full it shuts off the water flow, but cause its a simple centrifugal pump, its fine with being pinched off like that...

also while i was doing all of this, i drained the sump and slid it forward in the stand a couple inches to allow for the cords and other junk to drop down and make my drip loops behind the tank.. this ofcourse took so me re-arranging of the plumbing of the overflow, but nothing worth takeing pics of, all i had to do was lengthen the one pipe that comes through the back of the stand from the outside...

 

[yote]

Funny how quick you run outta room under the tank.
Looks good though Project.

 

[project5k]

yea, i can definately see how someone with a normal stand would fill it up pretty fast... fortunately all i have to do is drop in the shelving that i made, and bingo i have a second level i can put stuff on... i made it tall enough that i can stack a couple salt buckets one on the other and still have room to move around in there...

oh, and i checked the ato right before i left the house this morning to see if it worked, and its a thing of beauty, its keeping my return pump section nice and constant now..

oh, and i also re-arranged some of the overflow plumbing, so i'm getting a few less bubbles in the sump now.. so thats good...

i also took the last of the eggcrate that i had, and i made a handy little stand for the skimmer to sit on, rather than the tupperware i had it on before... it worked, but it would trap some of the air bubbles, and eventually tried to float the skimmer in the sump like an empty keg... so i made a new stand out of eggcrate and zipties, and then tied it to the bottom of the skimmer.. now with the eggcrate in the bottom of the sump, this thing kinda locks into place, (i left some of the cut parts of the eggcrate sticking out) so it wont go any where...

oh, and the skimmer is setteling in very nicely, very controlable, is constantly putting out some of the nastiest smelling greenish brown stuff i've ever been that close to. oh, that stuff reaks.. dont spill it...

i dont know about ya'll but i'm dumping my skimmer into the toilet and flushing immediately.. i figure fish poo can go down the potty just fine.. :)

 

[project5k]

the ato is still working beautifully, the timer that i have the pump plugged into is only settable in 15 min increments, meaning that the minimum single state on or off is 15 min, so the ato pump is running longer than it really needs to, and i have it set to run at 6am and 6pm right now, till i get to where i can trust it a bit more, then i may go to say 4 times a day..

I think i'd like to find a timer that can have smaller increments of time, and then set it to run them more often that 2x per day...

or i could just put the ato resivoir up higher, and get rid of the pump all together and just let gravity do the work...

 

[yote]

I don't know that they make a timer in less then 15 minute increments.But you might could rig a float switch to kick the pump on when the water level falls to a certian point.

 

[bobby]

Man I can't believe I missed this thread too! I didn't read it all as there is a lot to read, but wont that eel eat you small fish? Tank and fish look beautiful though. Good job on the tank.

 

[project5k]

yote, yea your right, i could, but then id be right back doing what i was trying to avoid by building it this way. i dont want any kind of electrical contact that close to the salt water... i mean i know i could use a sealed magnetic reed switch, and i MIGHT explore that, but, i'm really trying to not have to rely on it.. i see it as a major weak point in design. (yea i know the commercialy available ones do it, dosent mean i like the design any more)

Thanks bobby, i wonder about the eel and the mandrin all the time, but they act like they dont even know each other is in the tank. feeding time the eel dosent mess with the mandrin, and ofcourse the mandrin dosent bother the eel, and they've been in the tank together for at least a year, survived the move from my buddy's house to mine(the eel went carpet surfing when we tried to catch him the first time), and then survived me learning (this is my first salt tank) and survived a complete teardown from when we lifted the tank up onto the new stand...

 

[bjohanson1234]

You can look into getting a digital timer. They have different incriments than 15 minutes.

Brian

 

[project5k]

i was wondering about a digital one, thats good to know.

i'll have to find me one and try that out...

i really only need like 3 min 4 times a day...

thanks bj

 

[dcantucson]

They have them at Petsmart, I think.

 

[project5k]

the only one i see is the aqualite and it only says that it has 7 set times, but dosent say anything about how long each event is...or can be.

 

[project5k]

so.. my skimmer overflowed last night, just random, i cant find a cause for it anywhere, all i know is that i was in the other end of the house for a while, and all of a sudden i started hearing water falling.. so i went to look around and the fill cup was just a total waterfall, so i unplugged it, went and emptied the cup(there was some stuff in it, but it was mostely clear water, and started it back up, and it started working just like a champ again, didnt miss a beat.. the water level in the sump was the same, there wasnt any power outages or anything, so i'm just stumped...
its an octopus 110 if you were wondering...

 

[dcantucson]

Maybe that was the noise you hearing in your sleep?

 

[project5k]

naw, cause it hadnt overflowed before that, and i was fully awake when it started doing the overflow thing, so i dunno..

anyway..
SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!!!

This is the super spiffy little timer i got from Harbor Freight today, while i was there lookn around for powerheads, and glass hole saws, yea they have em... but they only go up to 1"

Anyway, the timer, digital, military time, 8 events with totally independant on and off times,(that means you can set it for any duration you want) and programmable by day individually. its a thing of beauty, 15 amps, GROUNDED PLUGS, yea, it has 2 plugs.. one on each side.. i havent tested it, but i think that they are tied together...

oh, and this timer has a battery inside, so that if the power goes out, you dont loose the current time setting like you do with the mechanical timers...

found my new timers, out with the mechanical ones....
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

oh, and just a couple pictures of the tank, for no good reason.

 

[dcantucson]

That's a great price for timers. I got something like that at Petsmart for around $15

 

[project5k]

yea, this was $9.99.
found it online for 8.99, so if you go into the store to get them, print out thier webpage, and they will change the price in the store for ya.. if you order online, then your good to go..

so, spent the weekend puttering around the house, workin on the freshwater tank a little(i've been neglecting it since the 5+year old, last remaining zebra danio finally died), so yesterday, while i was in austin running errands after having to work oncall, i picked up some new fresh water fish, and looked real close at the aqua dome's tanks, lookn much better, thier really throwing the shrinps at the aips, and its working...

so i got motivated today, and finally cleaned up the refugium that i had abandoned when i switched to the new 29gal sump. well, i had gotten my calurpa out of it, and the snail and the crab, and put them in the new sump... so i drained the water, and then i took it outside and really hosed it out good, it had been sitting fallow for maybe a month now i guess, i'd have to go back and look at my posts and figure it out.. but anyway.. i found living baby snails, and a hermit crab in there, living in that FOUL smelling water.. so, i'm sure that they are much happier now that they are back in the flow of cleaner water...

just pieced together a basic overflow from parts i had laying around from other projects.. and i didnt have an inner box for the overflow, so i just used a plastic cup, filled part way with sand to keep it from floating up..

I'm feeding the fuge with the "T" that is inline on one of the return pumps for now, but i'm thinking about other ideas, like one of the 250 something gph harborfreight pumps... or maybe just using one of the return pumps all together to the fuge, but thats gonna be a lot of flow... i dunno, i'll think on it some...

oh, the lights, are these 14" t5 fixtures that they had at homedepot, that are linkable, so you only have to have one plug, but you can link up to 10 of the lights... i used 4 of them, and of thoes 4 i changed 2 of the bulbs from the stock installed "warm white" bulbs to a 3000K soft white and a 4100k cool white bulbs also from HD... The thinking is that by spreading out the spectrum, i'm more likely to get more things to grow in the fuge, plant wise... dunno if it'll work, but i'm gonna try it...

heres the pics i took this evening...

 

[Ted]

looking good. I still cant believe we didnt kill anything when we moved the tank. Guess luck favors fools.

 

[project5k]

yea, i think we done good... i'm definately much happier now that the tank is up higher... more room for toys underneeth, and i can stand comfortably to stair into the tank...

it being higher hasnt been as big of a problem to work on it as i thought it would have been... yea i have to use a steppy stool, but i had to do that anyway, just cause the original designer built the floor too close to my rear end!!

now i gotta build the front doors for the stand...

 

[project5k]

I don't know if ya'll remember about 4 weeks back when i posted some pictures of these little white "trumpet" looking things that i found in my tank, well, over the last couple days, i've found more of them, maybe another 4 or 5 groups of them on different rocks in the tank.. and i think that thoes original ones have grown... i'll try and get some pics, but they are so small i have a really hard time getting descent pics...

i'm also finding this white furry/slimey stuff on one of the rocks, i dont knwo what it is but its simi transluscent, and stuk to a rock, and from what i can tell its gotten larger over the last couple weeks as well... i'll try and remember to get pics of that too....