Durso's 180 gallon in wall tank. - Page 20

original-reefland · #**476** 06/04/2007, 07:53 PM

Participated in American Cancer Society's Relay for Life over the weekend. Had one heck of a thunderstorm roll in. Two lightning strikes right on the field we were in - one to a tree and one to a pump house.

Someone in our tent yelled "is that all you got!" which was rapid followed by massive winds. All of our tables under our tent got lifted up and flew away, food, plates, forks, knives... we got hit by contents of other tents and even other tents themselves. We grabbed the tent poles and cloth trying to hold it down.

The moron again yelled "is that all you got!".... before we could yell shut up another blast of wind came. This time really intense, the tent vibrated intensely and just ripped apart. The aluminum polls just bent and twisted. One of the guys holding the tent went in the air, I only saw sneakers flying over me.

I grabbed my kids and pushed them to floor and jumped on top and while the rest of the poles came crashing down around us. A white wall of water was falling so fast I could not see another tent or any other land mark near me.... not even a tree.

BAM, BAM, BAM more lighting strikes. I grabbed the kids and ran towards a near by middle school for cover just trying to remember the direction. I just followed the screams at it seems many people had the same thing in mind.

It's funny how time slows down at moments like this. I could hear an old lady yelling at her daughter about how she was ready to die and she should run for cover to save herself. You can hear little kids yelling for Mom or Dad. I could hear my kids yelling "I want to go home" as I carry them through the maze of objects in front of me. The crackling of branches overhead was quite memorable.

Luckily nobody was seriously hurt, just a few stitches needed for someone who got hit in the head by a pole. We spent a few hours cleaning up the mess and recovered what we could.

Luckily we had enough beer to keep the coolers in place. Got the BBQs going and enough tents repaired to finish the overnight event.

Another thunderstorm rolled in later in the night. The moron was repeatedly told to keep his mouth shut.

original-reefland · #**477** 06/04/2007, 08:05 PM

On the tank... have a halide that won't fire, the bubble counter on the calcium reactor sprung a leak, had to take it off-line for now, and came home to find the return pump stopped and its GFI tripped. (not related to leak).

Moved the pump to another circuit for now. Again, enough redundancy and planning in the setup kept everything fine.

I don't know if this was all related to the storm or just a bad weekend.

Dudester · #**478** 06/06/2007, 11:41 AM

Ever consider writing action novels? I got a wonderful visual reading your account. Glad you and your family stayed safe.

original-reefland · #**479** 06/06/2007, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dudester
Ever consider writing action novels? I got a wonderful visual reading your account. Glad you and your family stayed safe.

Heh. I actually used to do something like that in college. Glad you enjoyed it. Scared the bo-jeepers out of me when it was happening. If it was just me and the guys that's one thing. When it comes to protecting young children during moments of madness it gets scary.

It really was amazing nobody got seriously hurt.

melev · #**480** 06/07/2007, 08:36 PM

That is quite the story, Rich. I'm glad you and your loved ones were able to stay safe.

original-reefland · #**481** 06/07/2007, 10:39 PM

Last night at about 9:30pm power went out... nice calm, clear night.

Turns out they had a fire in the substation, power was out for about 22 hours. My UPS with Vortech pump lastest about 7 hours. The rest of the time I had the battery operated air pumps on.

Everything is fine. Water level is a bit low, perhaps large rolling bubbles increased evaporation.

melev · #**482** 06/07/2007, 10:42 PM

I've never timed my VorTech during the past two power outages. Today the power was out for at least 7 hours and it worked the entire time. Last time when the power was out for 17 hours, I had a generator going and plugged the VorTechs into those. That recharged the VorTech Battery Backup at the same time.

I'm glad everything was fine with your tank. It's always something!

original-reefland · #**483** 06/08/2007, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev
I've never timed my VorTech during the past two power outages. Today the power was out for at least 7 hours and it worked the entire time. Last time when the power was out for 17 hours, I had a generator going and plugged the VorTechs into those. That recharged the VorTech Battery Backup at the same time.

I'm glad everything was fine with your tank. It's always something!

Next I have to get the notifications working. Being that I switched to vonage, phones go dead when the power goes out. Need yet another UPS to power the routers & hubs upstairs. Low priority.

"240-Reefer" has a supply of generators and hooks me up when its critical. I'm comfortable with 24 hour outages during the summer months as long as the battery powered air pumps are on. He was set to bring up the generators but the power came back.

Keeping the tank warm in the winter is the only time I'm in a rush to get the generator going (powers the pellet stove too).

melev · #**484** 06/08/2007, 01:32 AM

I know what you mean about telephones. That is why I keep one regular phone in the house with a cord, because cordless phones tend to not work during power outages. Having a cellphone is fine, but in emergencies we all know how their network is suddenly "busy, try back later."

original-reefland · #**485** 06/12/2007, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev
I've never timed my VorTech during the past two power outages. Today the power was out for at least 7 hours and it worked the entire time. Last time when the power was out for 17 hours, I had a generator going and plugged the VorTechs into those. That recharged the VorTech Battery Backup at the same time.

You have the beta Vortech battery pack right? i was talking to one of the Echotech guys tonight and they were saying the Vortech drops to a reduce flow mode during a power outage and 30 to 36 hours is expected from the battery backup module and two of the modules can be linked to provide twice the runtime.

That's pretty sweet. Have that on my shopping list.

original-reefland · #**486** 06/12/2007, 11:31 PM

This is another one of the baby snails I have growing in the tank. This one was plucked from the skimmer body. It was feeding on a thin algae growth on the skimmer side facing the halide lighting.

Placed the baby snail into the display.

frederickk · #**487** 06/14/2007, 03:49 PM

Getting big! What are they eating?

original-reefland · #**488** 06/14/2007, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by frederickk
Getting big! What are they eating?

Dunno. This one was eating whatever it could find inside the skimmer body. Found another one in the sump. I have strainers on my standpipes so they don't get down that way. I'm pretty sure these snails settle out of the the "plankton" in these odd spots and grow.

melev · #**489** 06/17/2007, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by original-reefland
You have the beta Vortech battery pack right? i was talking to one of the Echotech guys tonight and they were saying the Vortech drops to a reduce flow mode during a power outage and 30 to 36 hours is expected from the battery backup module and two of the modules can be linked to provide twice the runtime.

That's pretty sweet. Have that on my shopping list.

Yes, that's what I have. It reduces the flow to 50% for the battery-only period. One battery can keep two VorTechs running, but obviously the time period would shorten (possibly by half?).

original-reefland · #**490** 06/17/2007, 09:47 PM

I've had a halide that would not light for about 2 weeks now. Finally got around to taking the light hood down to check out the issue. Had my father bring over a multi-meter and showed the ballast, transformer and starters were fine. Upon closer inspection of the bulb the porcelain was cracked - the bulb would not come out. Turns out it must have arced over the metal tab and socket fitting is destroyed burnt crisp. All the metal inside it is melted.

So at minimum I need new socket and bulb. I'm considering ripping out all the guts of the AB Aquaspace light hood and rebuild it with electronic ballasts.

original-reefland · #**491** 07/01/2007, 04:21 PM

Just got back from another trip, another week away from the tank and all is well. Even with a GFI trip taking the return pump off-line for a while. 240-Reefer keep an eye on my tank and fixed the return pump issue. Even found a new coral in the tank - thanks Pete! I'll get some pictures of it soon.

I still can not get the halide to fire over the right side of the tank. It's been out close to a month now. I've purchased three new electronic ballasts and sockets which should arrive in a day or so. I'm yanking out the old ballasts, transformers and capacitors. Should be a simpler installation with less to go wrong and produce much less heat.

original-reefland · #**492** 07/06/2007, 10:20 PM

Took down my AB Aquaspace lighting hood. I'm gutting it, removing all the electronics -- so far I have removed three HID ballasts, six transformers, three capacitors, three Tridonic ignitors, and about 50 feet of wire. It's just way to complicated and to many items that can fail, its a lot of weight and everything generates a lot of heat.

All that is being replaced with three PFO Electronic Ballasts which I'll use remotely -- thats is, three simple ballasts replace all that. Hood should be much lighter and perhaps run a little cooler.

While I have the lighting hood down, I added an additional 22,000 MCE of LED moon lighting giving me about 44,000 MCE in total now. They are R2 Wide Angle Extreme LEDs, 20 individual LEDs in the setup.

melev · #**493** 07/07/2007, 01:42 AM

Pictures of the before and after, please. We wanna see the guts!

original-reefland · #**494** 07/07/2007, 01:53 AM

I took some pictures of the guts. Starting putting the new stuff together. Changed out the fried HQI socket, ran the wires for one of the halides and two of the four power compact actinics. All three bulbs are working.

Got the extension wires which will link the ballast to the bulbs attached to the other two ballast. Still need to attach the plug and connect to the HQI sockets.

Thus, I have two more halides and two more power compacts to work on. Hopefully I'll have it done tomorrow.

original-reefland · #**495** 07/07/2007, 10:07 AM

Lost my little copperbanded butterfly last night. Saw it swimming oddly and making frequent rests lower in the tank. I was able to capture it and place it in my overflow chamber for observations -- not as bad as it sounds as my overflow chambers are 8x11 inches -- loaded with pods and plenty of aiptasias to snack on. Not very turbulent either.

When I went to bed it was feeding on critters and swimming better.

This morning he was a goner.

On the plus side, I noticed my two engineer gobies sharing a tunnel last night which I haven't seen before. Based on the size difference in girth it looks like they may become a mater pair.

original-reefland · #**496** 07/08/2007, 12:26 AM

Completed the light hood tonight. It's hanging up again with all lights on. Being that one of the bulbs is new, its a different color than the rest of them. Oddly, the new one is a nice white color and my older two seem to be a little on the pink side.

One thing I didn't think of was the German engineering in the AB Aquaspace. The fact that I removed some of the ballasts, etc inside it made it unbalanced as one side still has ballast for the four power compacts.

This slight tilt in the hood now blocks the LEDs I jut hung up.

melev · #**497** 07/08/2007, 12:55 AM

So what will you do? Counterweights in the opposing side, or will you relocate those ballasts to the mid point?

Where are your pictures, Dursoman?

Sorry about your CBB. I just bought a new one today and it is in quarantine for now.

Tagareef · #**498** 07/08/2007, 01:01 AM

Rich,

The same thing happened to mine when I removed the PC's and their ballasts. (Retrofitted two 150 DE bulbs in their place) I ended up adding "ballast" to the high side of the fixture to balance it out. I used lengths of 1/2" copper ground rod that I had laying around and inserted them in the empty tubular pockets that can be found on the front and back of the fixture.

Luis

original-reefland · #**499** 07/09/2007, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tagareef
Rich,

The same thing happened to mine when I removed the PC's and their ballasts. (Retrofitted two 150 DE bulbs in their place) I ended up adding "ballast" to the high side of the fixture to balance it out. I used lengths of 1/2" copper ground rod that I had laying around and inserted them in the empty tubular pockets that can be found on the front and back of the fixture.

Interesting idea! I'll have to look around.

When money allows I think I'll just yank the four PC ballasts and make them remote on an icecap 440 ballast.

I didn't hook up the hood vent (have a fan that draws out the heat from the lighting hood directly to the outside of the house) to see if the new configuration was any cooler. Venting the hood draws in dust which fog up the glass covers as well. Overnight the tank hit 85 because the room hit 85. I'll have to hook up the venting again. As expecting the Aquacontroller kicked in and turned off the halides to prevent the temperature from going any higher.

original-reefland · #**500** 07/09/2007, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev
Where are your pictures, Dursoman?

I've decided I need to bring my pictures up to the next level. I'm going to try to take everything on manual mode and get used to ambient room light sampling and adjusting f-stop and shutter speed manually.

These were the first round of pictures taken using this - no flash. Reviewed the pictures this morning and they came out great! So I'll get the pictures posted shortly.