DurocShark Posted June 7, 2015 Author Share Posted June 7, 2015 I'll pull it apart this afternoon and see if anything's wonky. Otherwise... It's REALLY bad when the house is all buttoned up for the night. We can hear it upstairs in the bedrooms. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Yeah annoying buzzing goes right through me. I walk in the front door and I know immediately if there's a pump rattling. Hope you can get it sorted. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 I took it apart and it was fine. It's just processing fresh water, so I didn't expect anything. I find it's quieter if it's weight is somewhat supported by the return hose. So it's resonating through the stand. Grrr... I did discover during the process that I really need a check valve on the return line. "Honey, why is there water all over the floor?" "What?!?! Oh shit oh shit oh shit!!!" I can't find one that has 1" barbs. So I'm going to have to finagle something. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Wow my other half would have been screaming at me lol. Try lifting your return pipe higher so less water can back syphon. Also add a syphon break hole at the surface of the water. That way the pipe will instantly draw air breaking the syphon when the return pump stops. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 Yeah. My short term solution is to have the pump on a UPS. The battery in that thing should run my 40w pump for a good hour or so. I still need a return output of some kind, so whatever I get will have a near water level siphon break. Good idea. I still think a check valve would be desirable even with that break. Redundancy! I'm trying to find a 1" barb adapter to 1" or bigger PVC. Then I can include a check valve. The other option is to hard plumb the return, and it's not off the table. I was just hoping to stay flexible. I can still use my clear tubing from the pump to the hard pipes if I want, I suppose. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Yeah I'm PVC return with a flexy hose to the pump to stop vibration. Check valves have their own draw backs. Reduced flow due to greater head pressure generated, sticking open, the hammer effect (where the valve bounces due to the weight of water hitting it and keeps bouncing letting water by anyway). A simple syphon break or outlet pretty much at the surface should solve all the issues. Can't you just lift that bit of temporary pipe closer to the surface for now? Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 Can't you just lift that bit of temporary pipe closer to the surface for now? Not easily. The hose is wedged between a wood clamp and the cross brace, and it's as high up as it can go. I'm not too worried at the moment with the pump on the UPS. But I will address when the return outlet gets here. One thing I've noticed... I have the CPR overflow with the aqualifter pump to maintain siphon. I did an experiment to see if the siphon ever looked like it would break without the pump. I pinched off the line and turned the pump off. Over 2 days there were a few bubbles in the highest point of the siphon. I dunno if there will ever be enough to break siphon or if it will pass through if the air gap gets large enough. But I decided to leave the aqualifter powered on. It's silent, so doesn't bother me. But it was an interesting experiment. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 13, 2015 Author Share Posted June 13, 2015 Did a quick comparison of the two different lights I have for this tank: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/362201-quick-comparison-orbit-marine-led-vs-odyssea-adv-plus/ I'll TLDR it for you: Link to comment
Steensj2004 Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 The Sicce Syncra Pro 800GPH return pump is droning like mad. Ugh. I REALLY hope it quiets down. I'm guessing it's loud from too much head pressure, but come on. 1" ID vinyl hose, a sponge underneath, and the droning is still loud enough to be annoying in the kitchen. Mine never has, I'm using the 3.0. I found that when I hardlined the whole thing, it was loud as heck. I changed the connections up with some soft line and it quieted down. About to go 100% soft line here soon. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 13, 2015 Author Share Posted June 13, 2015 The MH bulb is about 4" off the glass center brace. I'm nervous, so I installed a bar clamp to back up the brace and am running the light. That way if it cracks, the bar clamp will protect the house. The glass is too hot to hold, but not so hot I can't touch it. I'm going to do some splash tests too. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 14, 2015 Author Share Posted June 14, 2015 Welp, the hear from the MH bulb caused the adhesive on the cross brace to fail. The brace didn't break, but it's loose and not doing any good. I'm glad I had the bar clamp on there. Now to figure out how best to deal with it. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 14, 2015 Author Share Posted June 14, 2015 Hmmm... Maybe it's an excuse to go frameless on the top. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 So I took the glass all the way off and replaced it with a couple strips of wood: I'm surprised how strong that is. So I'm going to get some aluminum bar stock and clad it with this wood, then varnish with poly spar varnish. Should be even tougher. But this works nicely for now. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 16, 2015 Author Share Posted June 16, 2015 There's stuff! The pics below are after moving the stuff from my 9g to the 70. Actinics only. I had a minor disaster while moving everything. I was acclimating in buckets. First bucket no problem. Second bucket, I got the live rock out and just had some corals and fish and shrimp left. It seemed easier, standing on a step ladder, to hold the bucket in one hand (only 3 gallons or so of water in it) while retrieving the last critters. You know what just had to happen next, right? My knee twinged, and I dropped the bucket. Water and critters all over my shitty laminate floor. After a mad dash around the house to get enough towels and such to soak up the water, my wife was helping and threw the towels in the washing machine. She didn't look for critters in the towels. I for sure lost one PJ cardinal, one sexy shrimp, and the cleaner shrimp. Probably more. I retrieved one PJ, one sexy shrimp, and the goby off the floor. I hope they make it. They seemed to be doing ok as of this morning. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 17, 2015 Author Share Posted June 17, 2015 Fired up the MH today. Amazing how much easier it is to take photos with that much light compared to the LEDs on the 9g. Wow. So here we go: Duncan: Xenia (with some weird black tips I've never noticed before): Crappy FTS taken with my Crappy phone: Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 18, 2015 Author Share Posted June 18, 2015 Nutrients are so low, the caulerpa is starting to fade. Yikes. heh Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 19, 2015 Author Share Posted June 19, 2015 So I stopped to pick up some chromis. My LFS had 5 small greens, so I grabbed them. While I was there I saw a fish that I didn't recognize. I asked the owner, "Safe for my reef tank?" "Sure." "How big does it get?" "5 or 6 inches." I had him feed it flakes, and it accepted them with gusto. Ok, I'll take it. I figured it was some weird dwarf angel I'd never seen before. So I get home... WHOOPS! Klein's Butterfly. Well, shit. If he continues to eat prepared food instead of corals, I'll keep it. The minute I catch him nibbling on a polyp he goes back to the store. Link to comment
Nanofreak79 Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 The MH bulb is about 4" off the glass center brace. I'm nervous, so I installed a bar clamp to back up the brace and am running the light. That way if it cracks, the bar clamp will protect the house. The glass is too hot to hold, but not so hot I can't touch it. I'm going to do some splash tests too. Some people use acrylic and get rid of the center brace. Using thick acrylic and nylon screws and nuts. Then you have no shadow and a more stable center brace, assuming you use thicker acrylic. Link to comment
Orangutran Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 love the black sand, but i'm too chicken to add it to my own… Awesome fish pics! Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 19, 2015 Author Share Posted June 19, 2015 It's the Arag-alive stuff. All they had in black. It's got some white mixed in too. No magnetic particles or anything, but the grains are lighter than I expected. They get blown around easily. Link to comment
Orangutran Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 It's the Arag-alive stuff. All they had in black. It's got some white mixed in too. No magnetic particles or anything, but the grains are lighter than I expected. They get blown around easily. It goes well with your scape, nice contrast to the tall pillars! What other fish will you add? Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 19, 2015 Author Share Posted June 19, 2015 Dunno yet. I need to let these guys settle in for a few weeks first. I'm still pushing for clowns. SharkDaughter wants more big. So foxface and filefish or something probably. A dwarf angel and we'll probably be done. Link to comment
Steensj2004 Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Love the fish, wish my chromis hadn't perished in the great," Tap water Top-off" incident of 2015, wife nuked the tank while I wasout of town for work, lol. Link to comment
DurocShark Posted June 22, 2015 Author Share Posted June 22, 2015 I spent a lot of time watching the tank this weekend. I've got to say, I'm *VERY* happy I scaped it the way I did. The fish move around and along the columns wonderfully. There's enough flow that they like to play in the current, while there are quieter spots they can go hang out if they get tired. The column design really works. I can't wait to get more corals in there. You can watch the fish in my public DropCam: https://video.nest.com/live/DurocShark(Yes, they changed the URL.) The angle is kinda weird, but you can still see the fish when they're playing and hunting. Link to comment
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