16 gallon bow reef wall biotype - dialup beware - Page 3

Rurouni Kenshin · #51 01/03/2006, 06:24 PM

I too will be trying thin rock wall, but I will probably slowly lower the rock wall at one side to about half the height of the tank, amd have a little rock on the bottom of the tank to place some Zoas and whatnot.

cmondo · #52 01/03/2006, 10:18 PM

Thanks swimmer, i can't wait to see the frags grow out. That cap should look really nice on the wall. And I know that your tank looks a lot better in person, because I can picture the corals you are talking about in my head as i look at the pics. Nice job, still thinking of doing that lion?

TippyToeX · #53 01/03/2006, 10:42 PM

Loving the new additons Russ!

masterswimmer · #54 01/03/2006, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shouldabenacowboy
Everytime I see your tank I like it more and more....I can't wait to see how it grows....keep up the good work

SBC

SBC,
Thank you. You and me both. I'm trying to be patient for grow out, but it gets more and more difficult as the days go by.

Rurouni Kenshin, that sounds like a nice plan. This design is just one of an infinite number to be made. All we have to do is think outside the box.

cmondo, actually thank you for getting me to post the pix. It doesn't look all that good at the moment. However, it shows the progression nicely. I'm hoping that when the cap grows out and the challice fills in the whole appearance of the tank will change. And yes, the lion is still my #1 choice. I'm trying to add as much coral as I can before adding him so that I am 'in' the tank that much less when he is in there. Those venemous spines can get across a tiny 16 gallon pretty quick!

Thanks again everybody. Your encouragement is just that, encouraging.

Russ

geonator · #55 01/03/2006, 11:23 PM

yo great looking wall i have thhe same 16 it is a new way to do it..... keep it up

geonator · #56 01/03/2006, 11:23 PM

yo great looking wall i have thhe same 16 it is a new way to do it..... keep it up

geonator · #57 01/03/2006, 11:23 PM

ahhhh sorry about the double post

cmondo · #58 01/03/2006, 11:24 PM

good choice on adding the corals first. Ever think of sticking a gorgonian on "the wall". I think it would look nice branching horizontally, possibly a yellow one. Just a suggestion. Keep the updates coming. nice job

masterswimmer · #59 01/04/2006, 12:07 AM

geonator, thanks for the thumbs up.

cmondo, a gorgonian is definitely in the plans. You're on a very similar page as I am. The yellow ones are non photosynthetic though. I am hoping to find a nice blueberry one!

Russ

mr9iron · #60 01/04/2006, 12:35 AM

Being a bowfront nano fan I am totally impressed with this tank. You have done one heck of a job constructing this tank.

How is the Coralife Super skimmer working out and do you have any pictures of it in action? I can't wait to see the wall covered in sps. If I may suggest a fungia may look pretty good sitting on the bottom.

masterswimmer · #61 01/04/2006, 01:14 AM

mr9iron, thank you. The skimmer is working out great. I've made a few mods to it so that it is more versatile and efficient and it has made it workable. The fungia actually sounds like a good idea. There will be a crocea or two in there as well, so it won't look quite so barren.

Hope this helps:

Russ

cmondo · #62 01/04/2006, 01:26 AM

Yeah, I like the blueberry ones also, my friend just got one in his 30 and it looks real nice. Not a fan of the non photosynthetics? I think the yellow gorgonian would look real nice around a purple cap. They are easy to spot feed with a baister and u don't have to get stung by the lion.

masterswimmer · #63 01/04/2006, 02:53 AM

You're right about the contrast in color. It would look sweet. I've already had a yellow one in my 75 and it didn't fair well. I fed it every night and it still didn't survive. When it comes to an animals life, I'm not one to subscribe to the old addage of try, try and try again.

mr9iron · #64 01/04/2006, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by masterswimmer
mr9iron, thank you. The skimmer is working out great. I've made a few mods to it so that it is more versatile and efficient and it has made it workable. The fungia actually sounds like a good idea. There will be a crocea or two in there as well, so it won't look quite so barren.

Hope this helps:

Russ

A crocea would look really good in there. What were the mods you did on the skimmer?

Vince

masterswimmer · #65 01/04/2006, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mr9iron
What were the mods you did on the skimmer?

Vince

The skimmer cup is much too small for this skimmer. I drilled and tapped the cup and added a quick connect ball valve:

Then added a quick connect '90' to reduce stress on the plastic collection cup:

I then ran the vinyl tubing into a one gallon 'collection cup' with a vent tube sticking out:

That was the first mod.

The next few mods I'll detail in my next post. RC won't let me post too many pix in the same post.

Russ

masterswimmer · #66 01/04/2006, 01:30 PM

Another mod I did, which is not in picture detail was raising the skimmer pump. I believe Coralife's new instruction manual addresses this as well. I put the included 'ball valve' so that it is touching the pump discharge on one side and touching the skimmer inlet on the other side. This effectively raises the pump as high in the water column as possible creating less head pressure on this small pump.

The next mod was key to eliminating any micro bubbles in the tank. Unfortunately I did not take pix during the mod I just have a few pix of it in operation. With my detailed description and the few pix, hopefully you'll get the idea.

I totally discarded the Coralife 'bubble trap' they include. As far as I'm concerned it's not worth the effort to install it. I also did not use their corrugated flexible discharge tube. It was much too long and created too much backpressure on the skimmer and the skimmate was very hard to regulate and produced very watery skimmate.

What I did was add a pvc discharge. At the final Coralife skimmer discharge point I added a pvc 'T'. The 'T' as you can see in the pic is in the upright position. I'll explain the top piece first. I just cut a 3" piece of 1" pvc and capped it. I drilled a 1/32" hole in the top of the cap:

The bottom half of the 'T' is a bit more difficult to explain, I'll do my best. Coming out of the bottom part of the 'T' is a VERY short piece of 1" pvc. Just enough so that the bottom of the 'T' is touching a 90 degree pvc elbow underneath it. Now the object here is to get the elbow as high in the water as possible. The problem was that the bottom part of the 'T' was too long and the top of the elbow was too long. I took my pvc cutter and shortened both the bottom of the 'T' and the top of the elbow. In the above picture, if you examine it real close, you can see that the top part of the 'T' is just a bit longer than the bottom part. The same is true for the elbow.

On the horizontal part of the elbow I added a piece of 1" straight pvc. I drilled countless holes all over this piece of pvc, all the way around it. I did NOT cap this straight piece of pvc. I left it open. What I did do was add a Mag 3 foam prefilter onto it as a bubble trap. This mod now allows me to run my CSS 65 open full bore and it produces great skimmate and NO MICROBUBBLES whatsoever.

A very important note to mention >>> over time the foam prefilter will begin to clog. I found this time to be about two - three weeks. This will obviously depend upon your bioload. As the filter clogs it creates some backpressure on the skimmer discharge. Not knowing this was the reason, I suddenly found the little nipple vent hole on the discharge side of the skimmer releasing water, causing a minor leak. I couldn't understand why. Then the leak became more pronounced and I noticed it starting to come out of the hole I drilled on the top of the cap.

After all this is when I figured it was increased backpressure from the foam filter. I cleaned it and everything returned to normal.

However, I also figured out a way to give me a bit of a foam filter clog warning. I added a piece of vinyl tubing to the nipple vent on the skimmer. This in effect raised the level of acceptable backpressure without any leak. Now when I see water in the vinyl tube I just clean the foam filter.

If you refer back to the first picture in this post you'll see the vinyl tube sticking up from the vent nipple.

I know this was very detailed and cryptic, but I hope it helped you. You also got to see the pic of the skimmer in operation and the foam and color of the skimmate.

Russ

cmondo · #67 01/04/2006, 03:56 PM

Nice job with the skimmer. Just to get this strait you put the foam prefilter over the pvc right? Makes a lot of sense, i never would have thought to put the T there with the hole in the top.

mr9iron · #68 01/04/2006, 04:12 PM

Russ, thanks for the explanation and the pics of the skimmer in action. I think you have a unique setup there and it will be neat to watch progress. I have one more question though. About how much skimmate does that sucker produce daily?

Vince

masterswimmer · #69 01/04/2006, 06:38 PM

cmondo, thanks again. Yes, the hole in the prefilter actually seems like it is made for 1" pvc to fit in it perfectly. Holds on to it nice and tight and doesn't restrict flow, just eliminates microbubbles. When I put the elbow on the bottom of the 'T', I slid the prefilter over the straight pvc and onto the wider diameter piece of pvc elbow as well. The only reason I did that was to save space. 16 gallon tanks don't have much room to begin with.

mr9iron, You're welcome. That's what RC is supposed to be about, sharing info, whether it be success stories, failures or mishaps, so we all can learn. As far as skimmer production, it varies a bit right now because my bioload is basically a coral banded shrimp, some snails and the bits of food I put in there for them. I also add some DT's Oyster eggs and Cyclopeeze for pod production. However, with no fish in there, the waste is very minimal. And yet it still pulls out some decent gunk.

Russ

pimpskinny · #70 01/04/2006, 07:45 PM

thats cute

fambrough · #71 01/04/2006, 09:22 PM

swimmer,

Nice job all around! I've been following your thread and can't wait to see the progression. I wanted to thank you for the skimmer modification explication. You were very clear, it was easy to understand. I don't have the same skimmer at all, but plan a similar approach to micro bubble elimination. I think the key will be finding the right filter material: one that will "trap/release" the micro bubbles without creating excess back pressure. My current mod is bulky and unattractive. Of course, I don't have mine hidden behind a wall of live rock.

Yeah, gotta love RC for the information sharing!

Cheers,
Ben

masterswimmer · #72 01/04/2006, 10:53 PM

Ben, thanks for all the compliments. If there is any type of info I might be able to provide to help you out, please let me know. I also appreciate the 'de-lurking'

and coming forward. Always nice to meet new folks in the hobby.

BTW, when trying to explain a modification like that without all the pix and just doing it in the written form, you never know how it will read or be understood. Thanks for letting me know it was relatively clear.

pimpskinny, thanks?

Great day all,
Russ

cmondo · #73 01/04/2006, 11:45 PM

Russ, its not just pimpskinny that thinks your tank is uhhhhhh cute. And thanks for keeping up with the thread and all of my questions/suggestions, so threads have no point anymore, because the "owner" never replies. So thanks. Another one of those suggestions...feather dusters coming out of the bottom, and u could prob easily feed them through the egg crate stuff.

masterswimmer · #74 01/05/2006, 12:01 AM

cmondo, Interesting about the featherduster. Unfortunately I'd have to read up a bit more on that. With a Fu Manchu in there I don't know if the worm would be dinner for him. Besides, for some reason I haven't been able to keep feather dusters. I keep clams, SPS, LPS, basically anything else, but featherdusters for some reason don't last.

Russ

cmondo · #75 01/05/2006, 12:11 AM

Ahh gotcha, I haven't read too much on the lions, but i know that the dusters live inside a tube (as i am sure u already know) and they might not be able to get to them cuz of that. But like I said I don't know much about the lions.