Dales (HUSKY_1) 92 corner build - Page 3

StashuDave · #51 11/07/2007, 01:48 PM

Just wondering how that Ocean Runner 2500 pump is working out as a return pump for you? I'm setting up a 54 Corner and am debating on what return pump to use. I'll have either a 20 gal tank as a sump ( same as you) or use an oceanic sump (same size as a 20 gal tank). I've been debating over either an Ocean Runner 2500 or 3500 or a Quiet One 3000. I'm only going to have a large filter bag and a EuroReef RC80 skimmer, no refugium, so I wonder if more flow thru the sump would be better, I see that you have pretty slow flow thru the sump and a closed loop for real water movement. Can the Ocean Runner pump thread on to any standard pipe threads? I see you have a hose barb and flex tubing, I'd like to use hard PVC and being able to thread onto either 3/4 or 1" pipe would make life a lot easier for me, the Quiet One I'm looking at has 1" male thread that would be perfect for the check valve and gate valve I'm going to use.

Thanks in advance and I love checking on the progress of your tank.......

Dave

Husky_1 · #52 11/07/2007, 03:20 PM

Hey Dave,
Personally If I were to buy another, I would buy something a little more powerful. I like to have as few pumps as possible and this pump is not cutting it with the Phosban reactor and return. I will be adding a UV soon, so when I do that I will probably go ahead and use an additional pump for just the UV and the Phosban inline. If that is the case, then the 2500 is fine, I am fine with the flow of the 2500 as a return only, but like you said I have a CL for additional movement.

I personally chose not to use a Quiet one pump, I have heard they are not so quiet and the reviews do not seem so good. I would go with a 3500 if the 2500 is not powerful enough. Who knows, maybe I will change out my CL pump, and use my 6500 for UV/Phosban and return

Of course throttling the return will be important.

As far as hooking up the pump, I am not 100% positive, but I am pretty sure this has normal mipt/fipt connections. Worse case give AquaMedic a call, they were really helpful when I called them. I had to call them once about some cavitation that I was getting on my old tank with the 6500, and when I broke the Hose barb fitting on the 2500. If you don't feel like calling them, I know the manual is somewhere online.

BTW, watch out for trusting those valves, I heard they all fail at one point. You may want to use a siphon break hole in conjunction with the valve.

ReefWreak · #53 11/07/2007, 04:23 PM

Dale if you do decide that the flow isn't enough for the UV and for the phosban, I don't know how much flow you're looking to pump through the UV, but I know that a Teed off Maxijet is more than enough for 2 phosban reactors, so it might be fine for a phosban and UV. And they're $12, so you're not talking a whole lot of dedicated resource. And they don't put much heat into the tank.

Husky_1 · #54 11/07/2007, 04:38 PM

Hey Erik, you are right, i will not need more than a MJ, I think a 400 will push it, and I am sure I have a 400 or 1200 sitting around. The water will be pushing serially through the UV then through reactor. The flow will be limited by the reactors input Valve, to a slow roll.

Really It just one of "my things" that I prefer as few pumps as possible.

StashuDave · #55 11/15/2007, 09:50 AM

Husky,

Thanks for the reply. I decided to go with the Ocean Runner 3500, I 'm going to use a SCWD in conjunction with my return pump, and they cut flow by 25% in my experience. Hopefully even with that reduction in flow I'll have more flow than I need, I've got a gate valve to help me adjust flow, I'd rather have too much and adjust it down than to have too little and wish I had made a different choice. And with the low wattage of the Ocean Runner Pumps, how can you blame me for going a little bigger than I may need. I'll continue to follow your thread for more ideas..... I hope my 54 looks half as good as your 92.

Dave

Husky_1 · #56 11/15/2007, 10:21 AM

Steve, I think you made the right decision. Thanks for the compliments.

Bernie21 · #57 11/27/2007, 02:33 AM

Husky, your doing great!! Another full shot would be great!! I'm going to heavily rely on your knowledge when I set mine up, I'm going to set up a 40" stand, maybe use the extra room by using a tall sump. How many gallons is you sump? Gosh, I dont even know where I would start. Either way, great job & thanks for the help in advance!! and by far most important, Congrats on the baby too!!

Husky_1 · #58 11/27/2007, 09:09 AM

Thanks Bernie

For a sump I ended up having to use a 20g standard tank and had some glass cut for the seperate sections and baffles. My return area is very small, but that is ok because my ATO keeps it filled. regardless of how high you go, you will want to make sure that you get a skimmer that will fit your sump, unless of course you are going with an external skimmer. I cannot imagine going with an external skimmer, I do not like water on the floor when something causes my skimmer to go crazy.

Also, I only have about 10-12g of water volume in my sump because I wanted enough room for the 5g of ATO and back siphon from the tank if the worse case scenario were to happen, that is my float valves and return pump all stopped working at the same time.

Husky_1 · #59 12/04/2007, 03:58 PM

Some updates:
Well I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to start running UV. The main reason for this is because I want to keep a tang or two, and hope this will help ward off any ICH. I ended up plumbing the UVB sterilizer and Phosban reactor serially, using a MJ400 to run them both. I decided to not T-off the return any more; this was so that I could get more flow through the sump. Some people say that they see great water clarity differences with the addition of the sterilizers, but I have not noticed that as much. There was some difference but I think this has more to do with the increased volume of water flowing through my filter sock.

Unfortunately, when I was doing this, I also changed out my phosban, but used a bit more than last time. Well my acro's did not seem to like it. I did not get bleaching or RTN but did get color loss. The colors are starting to come back; hopefully there are no long term issues. In the future I am going to use about 1/2 of the recommended dosage. I would prefer to not have to use this at all, but I continue to have elevated P04. I really think that this is because of the rock for the following reasons:
1st - Before any live stock was in the tank, i was testing high P04 with about .5 ppm. Of course I did not test the new NSW going in, which I should have and will start doing.
2nd - I do not feed a lot. Until recently I was feeding lightly every other day. I started feeding more now that I have more fish in the tank. By feeding more, I would say that I normally feed about the quantity of ½ of a cube of mysis or prime reef. I do rotate feedings with Spectra Pellets, frozen Cyclopeeze etc. but you get the idea of my volume of feeding. Basically I follow the 1-2 minute rule with pumps turned off.
3rd - I use RO/DI @ 0 TDS for top off.
4th - My Nitrates are not detectable. If I was overfeeding, I think I would be registering high amounts. I have used the reference solutions and LFS tests to verify my test accuracy.

So basically there can only be two sources that are contributing, my water change water or my rock. Since I think it’s the rock, I have faith that patience will win the race. If I export more than I import the P04 will eventually go away so I skim wet, use Phosban, have chaeto growing well, feed light and blow off the rocks. I do need to perform more water changes, right now I only do 10% per month, but I am going to go to every other week. Also, I blow off the rocks about once a week, I want to start doing this everyday and changing out my filter sock every other day. I do change this out about every third day right now. If there is anything else I can do, please let me know.

On to the good stuff, here are a couple pictures of the newer fish. (The clown is not new, but he happens to be in the first photo)
Here are a couple of pictures of newer wrasses:
The solorensis, the male flasher and the clown.

Sold as a filament, but I think this is a line spot, what do you think? BTW, he is darkeer than the picture shows. In person he looks more like a magenta red than pink/peach.

mg426 · #60 12/04/2007, 04:49 PM

You are looking mighty good to me, Nice job !!

Husky_1 · #61 12/04/2007, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mg426
You are looking mighty good to me, Nice job !!

Thanks MG, I am very happy to date with everything.

marciemp · #62 12/05/2007, 03:45 AM

Thanks for your reply to my ???'s on sirjohns build. I like the new pic of your son, he is very cute. I can't believe you find the time to build your tank with a newborn, good for you for keeping up with your hobby's it will make you a better Dad, and your boy will love the tank as he grows. I have a 4 year old girl and 2 year old girl/boy twins, and the boy loves the fish. They are way to attached to me (the mommy) so I have a hard time finding time to research for our tank upgrades, I hope it is OK if I ask some ??'s

What do you use to provide flow in the tank? Do you find your tank gets hot with the MH? Right now we are looking to upgrade our pc lights, as they are not very good. I am not sure if they are why, but in the summer the tank was very hot, and we don't live in an extremely hot area. Now the tank is not as hot, but it has been as cold as 30 below and one side of the tank is along an outside wall. Did you have to saw a hole in the top of the canopy for the light fixture? What are the other lights attached to? How many fans do you have in the canopy, and does this cause huge problems with evaporation? Thanks for any help,
Marcie
p.s. enjoy your new baby they grow way too fast!

Husky_1 · #63 12/05/2007, 11:31 AM

Hey Marcie, it is my pleasure to help.

Quote:

What do you use to provide flow in the tank?

Right now my return is about 600gph, and I have a closed loop running 4 outlets on an 0R6500. 2 of the outlets are run to the bottom of the tank, and two are run to a SWCD then to the top of the tank. I use eductors to get more flow from the top two CL returns. The OR 6500 pushes 1700gph, but with the eductors i probably get around 2000+. Right now my flow is pretty decent throughout the tank, but i could use a little more.

Quote:

Do you find your tank gets hot with the MH? Right now we are looking to upgrade our pc lights, as they are not very good. I am not sure if they are why, but in the summer the tank was very hot, and we don't live in an extremely hot area. Now the tank is not as hot, but it has been as cold as 30 below and one side of the tank is along an outside wall.

We keep our house at 74, the tank runs at a constant 79, with or without the lights on (Actually there maybe a .5 degree fluctuation)

Quote:

Did you have to saw a hole in the top of the canopy for the light fixture?

Yes, I the big hole that the light sits in, and I have 2 additional round holes for heat escape. If you look on page 1 of the thread you will see what I am talking about. I used my jib saw for the square Hole, and a hole saw for the smaller ones.

Quote:

What are the other lights attached to?

They are drilled directly into the canopy.

Quote:

How many fans do you have in the canopy, and does this cause huge problems with evaporation?

I have 2 zalman 120mm fans, running at 9v. My evaporation is 1 -1.5 gallons day. But I run an ATO reservoir and float valves so the salinity stays stable.

Quote:

Thanks for any help,
Marcie
p.s. enjoy your new baby they grow way too fast!

You are welcome. We are definitely enjoying the baby, and yes it is sometimes hard to balance time.

ylchik · #64 12/17/2007, 04:53 PM

awesome build husky!!! and cute littel guy too, it was fun to come read the whole things finally!

Husky_1 · #65 12/17/2007, 05:17 PM

Thanks YLchik

mkarston · #66 12/17/2007, 09:13 PM

Yup... cute.... any updates on the tank?

Husky_1 · #67 12/17/2007, 10:51 PM

Hey Craig, nope not too many updates on the tank. I had an alk drop about 2 weeks ago that caused some things to fade, but the coral all seem to be fine now. I am 95% sure that the Alk drop was because of using too much GFO.

Other than that I am just waiting on the right frags at the right price, and the fish to come in. I am definitely looking for one or two Japanese swallow tails. As for the tang, I think I will end up with the Achilles, I was at coralfraggers place today, he has one and they are just gorgeous.

Everything else seems to be fine, I was happy because I finally measured 0 on phosphates, but I know that is because of algae using it up...

I should have some updated shots soon, my dad will be here this week and his camera is better than mine...Hope you guys have a good holiday in NY...

Husky_1 · #68 12/28/2007, 09:59 AM

Hey everyone,
I was playing around with a different camera, the one that is on my video camera. Anyway here are a couple new photo's. I cannot wait until we get a camera that I can take good macro shots with. Unfortunately some of the pictures that showed nice coloring, were also blurry, so here are a few of the better looking pictures

I thought this was a nice shroom shot

Not a great picture, but here is Blue/Green tort:

German Blue

I have always like candy cane's, actually this guy had about 10 heads, so I fragged it after the pic was taken for my wifes new nano that we will be building soon:

Not the clearest pic in the world, but I think the color is pretty close for this froggy which was also fragged:

Probably one of the better pictures I have taken of this guy, this was also fragged:

This guys is newer in the tank, but has shown some nice growth.

Finally here is a FTS:

Husky_1 · #69 12/28/2007, 10:13 AM

Oh, here is a FTS with labels, a few things were left out like some peach palys, some zoos, and the orange with green mouthed Ric's.

zach0660 · #70 12/28/2007, 12:09 PM

Nice setup you got there.

Is your german blue coral a montipora digitata? I recieved one from a fellow reefer and i dont know what it is for sure but it looks just like that.

yellowwatchmen · #71 12/28/2007, 12:19 PM

yes the german blue is a kind of montipora.

gawf4fun · #72 12/28/2007, 03:44 PM

UV Sterilizer

Nice job Husky. Enjoyed reading the thread and watching your tank develop. I've had a 180 corner pentagon running now for about a year and a half. Starting to see opportunities for improvement.

Which UV sterilizer did you set up? Any comments or recommendations about it yet.

Thanks,

Mark

Husky_1 · #73 12/28/2007, 07:50 PM

Zach, as Yellowatchman said, it is a Digitata. Its cool watching it now in this tank as opposed to when they were not happy in my 38, because as the base is encrusting new little nubs are forming on the base.

Mark,
Really not much research was done on the UV sterilizer, I picked The 9w turbo twist because it was recommended to me in the past and the small footprint. I did not go with a higher wattage because I am running below the suggested flow rate. It is hooked up serially to my Phosban reactor which is getting about 100gph or less through it.