8' 125 gal getting started!! - Page 5

UnderwaterExotic · #**101** 01/28/2007, 09:42 PM

Where did you pick up your fans at?

Lunchbucket · #**102** 01/28/2007, 10:20 PM

looking good man!! good seeing you at the LFS on Sat. that rock looks nice.

i personally like the air tap off of my skimmers. never found a use for them IMO.

hope to see more pics soon
Lunchbucket

hoover86 · #**103** 01/29/2007, 09:36 AM

The fans were actually purchased on ebay. They were a pretty good price. The only downside like I said is how loud they are. I've actually ran my MH's for 2 days at about 9 hours and they haven't raised the tank temperature at all so I haven't even been running them. I currently only have 3, however, I do plan on adding at least 2 more, and I'm sure that will most likely add some heat.

Good seeing you at the LFS too Lunch! Always nice to put a face to an avatar!

I messed around with the water level all night last night and it seems to be close to where I want it. It's producing quite a bit of white foam at the top though, and it seems like the bubbles in the neck are very large after it sets in for a while. Not sure if this is a problem, just that there's a lot of white foam at the top, not brown at all. I totally cleaned everything out and tried starting off fresh. It seems like the level in the neck fluctuates by an inch or two, it goes up and down. Then after a few hours there was a lot of large bubbles that pushed up and this is where the white foam is coming from. By this morning, nearly all the bubbles in the neck were pretty large and creating more foam.

Kind of hard to explain, when I get home I will take some pictures to try to give a visual of what it's like. Maybe everything's fine too, my last skimmer was a tiny HOB so this is totally new water for me. Does this sound normal to you guys??

Lunchbucket · #**104** 01/29/2007, 12:26 PM

it will take some time to breakin. couple days to a week or so sometimes. also where do you have your gatevalve at? IIRC it wasn't right out of the skimer it was after the tee? if it was after the tee that can cause fluctuations. i would put it right out of the outlet. also is your drain from the skimmer under water?

Lunchbucket

tangdiver · #**105** 01/29/2007, 12:40 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by hoover86
[B]I have a few updates. I've gotten the tank completely filled, and have everything up and running. I'm seeing a few micro bubbles, not sure if there is too much flow in the sump, or if this is a little breaking-in going on, but hopefully it's not a big issue. I have a few pictures of the progress as well.

Here is the sump up and running

This is a close-up of the skimmer in action. There's already some brown junk rising up the collection cup (dust and what not from setup I'm assuming).

Notice the gate valve....not sure if this is what you mean lunch.

Lunchbucket · #**106** 01/29/2007, 12:55 PM

yeah that is what i mean. the gate valve is after the tee. it should be right out of the skimmer.

that might be part of the surging. also is the exit under water?? that could do it also

Lunchbucket

hoover86 · #**107** 01/29/2007, 03:37 PM

So the gate valve should be facing upward, and then the water should be exiting out of the "T"??

No the exit is around 2-3 inches off the surface of the water. I didn't want to create too much of a waterfall effect by having it any higher up.

JG24 · #**108** 01/29/2007, 03:40 PM

Yeh, It's prfereable to have the gate valve as close to output elbow as possible. It will give you better back pressure control.

hahnmeister · #**109** 01/29/2007, 04:28 PM

Alright, I was trying to take pics of the aragacrete as it is today, but my Nikon 5700 batteries are all dead (no longer hold a charge... all 3 of them), my Canon is on loan with my Mom, and the GF's Sony T5 is full of images from the holidays in the UK (Told her if she keeps the images in there any longer she will lose them all...lol).

So I found some old pics from the setup. Its my 5.5g desktop nano with 12 watts LED lighting (PAR of 300 at the top to 100 at the bottom, perfect for what I want), a MJ900 powering the skimmer and primary circulation, EBO 50w, and of course, the integrated sump and aragacrete 'wall' which disguises the equipment (can you see where there is a closed loop hidden IN the rock? No, didnt think so. The pipes are hidden IN the aragacrete.

Now it holds porcelain crabs, sexy shrimp, frilly arrow crabs, a clown goby, and a neon goby... oh, and a couple hermits and snails. It works perfectly because other than the rock wall, the tank is bare (okay, I put a small rock in the front for the BTA anemone to attach to), yet because of the wall, it looks furnished. And there is more open swimming space and flow than some 10g tanks I have had.

I also did this on a 96"x8"x9"h 'railing' reef, but just a solid wall down the center of the tank. This way I have coral mounting holes and nooks built in to the rock, as well as a 3/4" PVC line that carries flow from one end of the tank to the other.

You might consider something like this for a long and narrow tank like this.

You can also make the walls free-standing of course. Ill dig up pics of the ones I did for 40Bs.

hoover86 · #**110** 01/29/2007, 07:45 PM

That's a pretty cool idea!! I've definitely never seen anything like that before.

Well I think I might finally have the skimmer heading in the right direction. I changed my setup so the gate valve is actually under water right after the output elbow, and the "T" is above this. Right off the bat I noticed how much better the water was flowing out. It doesn't seem to be surging quite as much, but still does fluctuate after sometime. It seems like the bubbles are very small at the top right away, and then larger ones start to form and it overflows if it's too close to the top. I've set the bubbles just above where the neck first meets the bottom of the collection cup, and all seems good so far *crosses fingers*

Here's a picture of how high I have the water level..

It seems as though there are many more smaller bubbles down in the neck versus before as well.

Here's a quick shot of the neck..

Then there's some good news and bad news. Good news is the Sea Swirls came in today! Bad news is I didn't plan for them at all when I originally built my canopy, so it's back to the drawing board with that one. This is actually probably going to be a good thing, so I can lower the canopy a little and make new fan plans so I can incorporate smaller quieter ones. I wasn't really happy with the way this canopy operates either, it has a tendency to want to tip forward on me. Looks like it will be a while before the Sea Swirls are operational, but otherwise everything seems fine so far.

JG24 · #**111** 01/29/2007, 07:54 PM

There ya go. Now your cookin with bottle gas! LOL

hoover86 · #**112** 01/30/2007, 12:40 PM

Well after 4 hours of consistent level last night I thought I had this thing figured out. I had it about 3" - 4" from the top of the tube in the cup... Then I woke up this morning to a collection cup overflowing with water!! I'm thinking we can factor out break-in time as it's been up and running for about a week now. I just can't figure out what else would be the problem. Is the level I set it at too high?? I thought after 4 hours of steady pace there was no way it could possibly get off track again.

The only thing I can think might have a slight effect is the level of water in the sump. It maybe fluctuated by 1/4" - 1/2" overnight. My return pump is a little overpowered, and I'm still adjusting the ball valve to get it right on target. This isn't a huge shift in water level so I can't see how it would have so much of an effect, but I'm running out of ideas here. Anyone else know what might be the cause??

Travis · #**113** 01/30/2007, 12:52 PM

Skimmers can be finnicky beasts. It is not really the skimmer's fault though, there are a lot of factors that come into play. Yes, a sump water level fluctation of 1/2" will make a difference. Other things that will make a difference are feeding the tank, sticking your hand in the tank, extreme temperature swings, and barometric pressure. Sometimes there are just plain old unexplained events that happen in a tank that cause a skimmer to overflow. You need to adjust the skimmer so it does not overflow for 24 hours and also so that it is not collecting too dry of a skimmate and you will have found the sweet spot. It is a tuff spot to find, that's for sure. Even with my Bubble King, I am frequently having overflow issues. I like to try to skim on the wet side so I am always right on that fine line of where it is very easy for the skimmer to overflow.

Lunchbucket · #**114** 01/30/2007, 12:58 PM

once you clean the cup or riser adn set the skimmer they actually break in again and it will climb higher then you set it at. notice how the foam doesn't even form when you 1st start it up...but then 2-5hrs later it is way higher??? well the foam forms and it "slimes" up a bit. you just need to figure out where to set it so it doesn't overflow.

also w/ all the new LR and sand it will act more finiky then usual. all the sand dust and LR die off (there will be some no matter what) will also make the skimmer inconsistent. set it low to be safe leave it for 12-24hrs then check and adjust very very slightly and leave it for 12-24hrs.

also it is me or is it the pics but the neck doesn't look very dense w/ white bubbles.? i know ive taken pics before and it doesn't look like it does in real life. is the whole skimmer and neck white w/ bubbles??

Lunchbucket

hoover86 · #**115** 01/30/2007, 01:03 PM

Ok, thanks for the advice. It's definitely getting a little frustrating, but I love tinkering with things too since all I can do at this point is stare at empty rocks!!

Lunchbucket · #**116** 01/30/2007, 01:05 PM

i know how you feel man. i think i spend more time staring at my skimmer and other equipemtn then i do the tank sometimes.

i'm sure its the new tank thing and new skimmer thing. it will settle out.

what are you feeding the skimmer w/ again?

Lunchbucket

hoover86 · #**117** 01/30/2007, 01:12 PM

It's fed by a Maxijet 1200. Were you referring to the last picture I posted? It's pretty dead on to what it looks like. I thought it was pretty loaded with white bubbles, I dunno....

Travis · #**118** 01/30/2007, 01:35 PM

I see what lunch is saying about the pic. I think the water level is too high. The pic is showing the water air mixture in the neck that should be happening in the body. What you should be getting in the neck is very dense bubbles building into foam. It should almost look like shaving cream in there. I would lower your water level a few inches and leave it for a day and see what happens.

hoover86 · #**119** 01/30/2007, 03:19 PM

AHHHHH *light bulb goes off* That's what I meant in one of my earlier posts about how it would be fine and then I would get many larger bubbles that would significantly raise the level. I see what you're saying now. It wasn't anywhere near the consistency of shaving cream, but that might be because it wasn't that way for long because I had to lower the level because it began to overflow at around that point. I will have to make that adjustment when I get home!

hoover86 · #**120** 01/30/2007, 06:18 PM

I had a quick question about muffin fans. I've seen a ton of these Comair 4" fans on e-Bay for pretty cheap (found a lot of 10 for $30). Is really any muffin fan going to be sufficient for what I'm using it for? I believe they save 110 CFM and around 50db for loudness in the specs. Anyone with much experience with fans at all?

hoover86 · #**121** 02/01/2007, 04:06 PM

Ok, so I have another question quick about reflectors. 2 of the MH setups I have were used and the relectors are not in the best shape. The third I got new but the reflector is huge and barely fits in my hood. I've found some Lumen Max (I think they were called) on a website but I won't be able to make them fit because they are pretty big. Does anyone know of any reflectors that are suppost to be good, or a site with many to choose from? Thanks.

Travis · #**122** 02/01/2007, 07:10 PM

Really can't go wrong with the spider reflectors for the money. Best price on those is at DIYreef.com. For high end reflectors, then it would be LumenArc III's or LumenMax II's. I just ordered 3 LumenMaxII's to swap out my spiders.

hoover86 · #**123** 02/01/2007, 07:20 PM

Yea it took me a while to find a site that had the high end reflectors, but I did see those LumenArc's and they make a "mini" version that's 14.5" that would fit about perfectly. I didn't think there was quite that big of a difference in price though! $100 more per reflector is deffinitely a jump. Is there that big of a difference in performance? From what I read it's more about the spread acheived from the reflector, and with my depth that's deffinetly not a concern.

hoover86 · #**124** 02/01/2007, 07:20 PM

STsONpERs · #**125** 02/01/2007, 07:37 PM

http://www.reefexotics.com/lumenarc.htm

They have some lumenarcs, and the mini's from what i have read they give alot more spread....i the long run the extra $50 isnt that much per reflector since a reflector is something you dont hvave to replace that often....

I am not sure about any other websites, the one that the link is to above i found looking for the minis for my tank a couple days ago

I just read over the read though, tank look sweet!