Durso's 180 gallon in wall tank. - Page 14

original-reefland · #**326** 12/27/2006, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LittleBlueGT
I remember reading all about your last tank.

Inspired me to go reef in my set-up. I never thought I could ever have as nice a tank as yours, but now I am getting close!

Long-timers like you are a real bonus to the hobby, especially when they have good record keeping skills, and photo-shooting abilities, unlike me.

Nice to hear your tank is doing well and thanks for the kind words! Getting a thank you once in a while makes the hundreds (thousands?) of hours in web work worth it. Glad you found the site worth following.

hmm, you got me wondering how big the sites have gotten over the years.

Old site: 618 pages, documenting 817 images.

New site: 369 pages, documenting 496 images.

About 12 years worth of reef keeping

original-reefland · #**327** 12/31/2006, 01:16 AM

Over the holiday I had some minor issues with the tank where one of the three dedicated circuits on my electrical cabinet would trip. The only things on this particular circuit were:

One of the two 250w heaters
Three 250w halides
Iwaki MD55RLT return pump

Besides losing a heater in the colder winter days, I lost the return pump which effectually stops all heating in the tank. The lowest I found the tank at was 74*F which is a 5 degree drop of the normal current temperature of 79*F.

I assumed the issue was the heater, killed it power and reset the circuit. Everything ran fine for a few hours and it tripped again. I then turned the heater back on, and left the halides off for 24 hours. Seemed to fixed the problem until Christmas day it tripped again. This left the return pump as the possible source.

Put my hand on the pump and it was very hot to the touch. I could not feel any air flow over it from its cooling fan. I placed my sump fan used in the summer months directly near the return pump to help cool it. I had no further circuit trips on the 25th, 26th or 27th.

On the 28th I took the return pump off the system for service. It showed no signs of calcium deposits and was extremely clean for two years of operation. The thick bio film buildup inside easily came off with a brush. The back of the pump was different. It was clogged with dust preventing air from entering the back fan. Gave the pump a good vacuum and hooked it up again.

Been two days with everything running again, all seems good. Pump is running much cooler now. Just slightly warm to the touch.

I need to work out a notification system for a partial power failure. My UPS units will contact me in a full power outage. The Neptune Aquacontroller Pro has notification abilities as well (not currently used) but I'm not sure if it would have detected this as the controller never lost power. Only one of the switch boxes lost it.

Melev - does the sensaphone device you use detect power status across multiple circuits?

original-reefland · #**328** 12/31/2006, 01:39 AM

Noticed my water level a little low this evening. Went looking around for a cause and found water trickling out of the skimmer with a nice puddle behind it. Seems the o-ring didn't seal properly when I cleaned the skimmer a few days ago. Cleaned up the mess and reseated. Seems to be fine now.

original-reefland · #**329** 12/31/2006, 01:53 AM

Geeze.. figures as soon as I type everything is fine the darn breaker trips again. (notice the time of this post).

melev · #**330** 12/31/2006, 04:16 AM

Rich, I don't have that device. That would be Weatherson. Sorry about your troubles.

RGibson · #**331** 12/31/2006, 07:20 AM

Rich you need to change out the breaker.

JagerEinheit · #**332** 12/31/2006, 09:18 AM

rich forgive me for interjecting now that youve seemingly fixed the problem, but if your pumps are "chattering" they are probably cavitating.

two reasons for this. one the impellers are not running true or they are too loose in the housing ( might be why you had shavings) the second is too much air. if you run into this issue again, try reducing the air inlet a bit with a valve of some sort and see if that fixes the sound issue while you await ER for a true fix.

as for the pump getting too hot, alot of panworld pump owners have strapped P4 intel heatsinks to their pumps along with the 120mm fan that comes with to cool them off even under high load. since they are also externally mounted it is easy to see if dust is gettign in the way or causing issue. might try that with your iwaki and see if it helps. also the fans can be virtually silent over the rest of the tanks ambient noise , require less power, and if the fan is driven by the pump motor, the pump is more efficient since its not handling cooling duties as well.

Ill post the wamas link to the thread, if you cant see it LMK ill get dandy7200 whos also here on RC (the guy who did it) to post here. might save you some headaches down the road as well.

http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=9856

EDIT heres the Rc link

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...=pan+world+mod

staticx · #**333** 12/31/2006, 10:22 AM

Is this the durso of the durso pipe that alot of people have ??

RGibson · #**334** 12/31/2006, 11:11 AM

Yes.

original-reefland · #**335** 12/31/2006, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by staticx
Is this the durso of the durso pipe that alot of people have ??

Yes.

BTW - Cool avatar.

original-reefland · #**336** 12/31/2006, 06:40 PM

melev - oops. Thought you had that fancy new toy. I'll PM him about it.

RGibson - It's definitely an option. I'm going to put on the Kill-o-Watt to check load if I'm no where close to the circuit rating I'll look at swapping it out.

JagerEinheit - Thanks for the links I'll check it out.

original-reefland · #**337** 01/01/2007, 11:55 AM

I put on the kill-o-watt meter last night and its 1.4 amps with just the pump, and jumped to 13.98 to 14.05 amps when the halides came on. That doesn't leave much room for the heater.

I moved the heater to another circuit.... and it still tripped overnight. Later today I'll move the return pump to a different circuit to see if that one trips instead or perhaps the same one trips.

original-reefland · #**338** 01/08/2007, 07:40 AM

Issue seems to be solved. Moving the halides to another circuit seemed to stop it from tripping. The original circuit is no longer tripping and the new location is not tripping either.

original-reefland · #**339** 01/08/2007, 08:00 AM

I posted these images in the EuroReef thread, I'll include them here as well.

This is the amount of skimmate my EuroReef RC-500 skimmer after 1 week. I typically have to clean the skimmer at least twice a week. This is the sludge just from the collection cup cap (seen in background).

This is a swipe from the skimmer neck:

And this is the collection cup before being dumped:

melev · #**340** 01/09/2007, 12:00 AM

Looks good Rich. It's definitely doing its job.

tedu · #**341** 01/09/2007, 12:04 AM

re: Sensaphone devices, the standard ones just detect a power outage on the circuit they are plugged into, not sure if you could use an external interface to monitor more circuits.

sjm817 · #**342** 01/09/2007, 12:09 AM

Skimmer is working well. Did the new impellers make a substantial difference?

GSchiemer · #**343** 01/09/2007, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tedu
re: Sensaphone devices, the standard ones just detect a power outage on the circuit they are plugged into, not sure if you could use an external interface to monitor more circuits.

In addition to power outages, the Sensaphone devices can be used to monitor temperature, water leaks, sound levels, and more.

Greg

original-reefland · #**344** 01/09/2007, 06:26 PM

melev - yeah, ahhh the smell. Brings the whole family to the tank room to yell at me.

tedu - I need something that will monitor 3 or 4 power circuits as that is how the tank load is divided. As posted earlier I had a problem with the return pump circuit being tripped but lighting, heaters and skimmer will all happy... as was the Neptune controller which would have noticed.

Wetherson suggested making something with relays that would trip if anything failed.

tedu · #**345** 01/09/2007, 06:53 PM

Does look like they make an accessory that could be used with the dry contacts on the device to monitor additional power connections:
(PowerOut Alert MODEL PS-110)
http://www.sensaphone.com/accessories-and-sensors.html

original-reefland · #**346** 01/09/2007, 07:52 PM

sjm817 - yes they helped. The new impellers draw in more air. I had to back off the gate and lower the water level in the skimmer.

GSchiemer - it looks like a pretty nice device. Gonna try to save up for one. Even on eBay they are still going for several hundreds bucks.

original-reefland · #**347** 01/09/2007, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by tedu
Does look like they make an accessory that could be used with the dry contacts on the device to monitor additional power connections:
(PowerOut Alert MODEL PS-110)
http://www.sensaphone.com/accessories-and-sensors.html

That looks promising. Thanks for the link.

original-reefland · #**348** 01/16/2007, 01:08 AM

Completed my first red bug treatment today. Seems to be conflicting suggestions in treatment these days. I used 1/2 of a interceptor tablet (full one is suggested for 400 gallons). I turned off the skimmer recirculation pumps but left the skimmer in circulation to make sure everything gets treatment. I removed the carbon reactor.

Smashed and grinded the 1/2 tablet until it was a fine power and mixed with glass of RO/DI water. Added it directly to the display tank. I let the water circulate for 7 hours before doing a 25% water change. Turned the skimmer back on.

Not sure if I should add some carbon tonight or wait a little.

I removed the hermit crabs, I couldn't get the peppermint shrimps. Two confirmed DOA, three seem unaffected so far. Nothing else seems affected yet. Sea stars and snails seem fine. Sand cukes are unaccounted for so far.

original-reefland · #**349** 01/16/2007, 02:22 AM

I've added some carbon for the night. Filled the Phosban reactor and Magnum 350 hang-on filters with two-little fishes hydrocarbon.

original-reefland · #**350** 01/17/2007, 01:03 AM

Everything is looking pretty good today. No significant issue to report on the first red bug treatment. Polyp extension is fantastic on all acroporas tonight. I have to clean the glass and do a round of macro photograph to see if I can still spot any live ones.

I expect to do the second treatment this weekend. RO/DI is working overtime this week.