Steensj's Deep Blue 34 Shallow. Shutting Down Tank Due To Work...

[Steensj2004]

Some pictures, sorry about the quality, it's late, I have no light, and I'm tired as hell.... Deal with it! Lol.

 

 

I'm am aware that the water level is high in the sump, these were taken during a power off( return and skimmer unplugged) test...

 

[Steensj2004]

Some advice from some pepole would be great on this issue:

 

My return pump makes aweful vibration noise, I am very happy with the turnover rate, however, the PVC seems to be the source of the noise. If I grab two seperate points with my bare hands and squeeze, the vibration noise seems to lesson, seem there is a resonating vibration coming through the plastic? It is a 700GPH pump( had planned on running a reactor or two on it, but that plan changed). If I switch the return plumping to a soft line system, do you think the vibration will go away mosty? Is it possible the pump just needs to break in? need some guidence, it's driving me NUTS.

 

Also,anyone have a Vertex Omega 130? Ive raised it up some, I get it set where want it9 after raining 1.5 ") and then it slowly starts to push faom too fast, then goes back down.....is it breaking in orrrrr?

[NanoFever]

Do you have any flex tubing from the pump to the PVC? That's how I did mine and I can't hear it.

[Steensj2004]

Do you have any flex tubing from the pump to the PVC? That's how I did mine and I can't hear it.

 

Mine is hard plumbed with a quick disconnect....

 

 

Should I used some soft line? Take the quick disconnect out and use soft line. I could even change the fittings from the pump all the way to the first return line ball valve to softline( including the ,"Y" line to the refugium).....

[NanoFever]

I run the Sicce 2.0 with a foot of flex hose and then the rest is hard plumbed. That should take up some of your vibration. Also make sure the pump isnt vibrating against the tank.

[Fnard]

Wow! Slick build right here. That stand is pretty incredible. Really like the idea of running a plenum. I remember watching vids on them awhile back. Wish my sump were setup properly to run it like that. Have been questioning the effectiveness of fuges lately, especially after watching the debate between Sprung and Adams. Anyways....

 

As far as vibration goes, is anything touching the tank or stand? Is it all free standing? If you can do it, possibly try mounting with straps or clips to stand. Also, are you running the pump fully open? You could try closing the ball valve some and see if that helps. Always a bunch of fine tuning when hard plumbed.

 

Good luck with everything. Def scriped.

[RK_tek]

Use a section of flex hose off the pump, then switch to hardline. It helps a ton. I have to run my skimmer on a piece of foam bc the pump vibrates on the bottom glass and makes the entire stand vibrate

[Steensj2004]

 

Wow! Slick build right here. That stand is pretty incredible. Really like the idea of running a plenum. I remember watching vids on them awhile back. Wish my sump were setup properly to run it like that. Have been questioning the effectiveness of fuges lately, especially after watching the debate between Sprung and Adams. Anyways....

 

As far as vibration goes, is anything touching the tank or stand? Is it all free standing? If you can do it, possibly try mounting with straps or clips to stand. Also, are you running the pump fully open? You could try closing the ball valve some and see if that helps. Always a bunch of fine tuning when hard plumbed.

 

Good luck with everything. Def scriped.

Thanks a lot for the compliments! I love how this has turned out, just need to get this APEX programmed, ATO hooked up, And the pump silenced some! I won't ever get away from a Plenum, on my 75 system I ran a huge plenum and ran 0 nitrates from the end of my cycle till I took the tank down. I think they are excellent, I love them. I do a Fuge only for Pods and extra rock/sand filtration. A refugium this small has little nutrient export ability IMHO. I know I am getting a low oxygen low flow area under the plenum. The plenum area took about an half an hour to fill with water with the sand in the refugium area!

 

 

I run the Sicce 2.0 with a foot of flex hose and then the rest is hard plumbed. That should take up some of your vibration. Also make sure the pump isnt vibrating against the tank.

Gotcha, Im going to do just that!

 

Use a section of flex hose off the pump, then switch to hardline. It helps a ton. I have to run my skimmer on a piece of foam bc the pump vibrates on the bottom glass and makes the entire stand vibrate

As NanoFever said, I am going to pick the stuff up to do just that after work. the pump isnt touching the sides, unfortunately. My skimmer is silent as heck, I am impressed

 

 

Updates on modifications to come this afternoon!

[Steensj2004]

Soft line added, much less noise. skimmer and overflow issues.... Overflow( due to the teeth and the stupid adjustible surface skimmer plate causes a constant trickle noise, it's loud and annoying. Sound like I'm slowly pouring water from 5 feet into the overflow box. The skimmer is in 6.5" of water and no matter what I do it does this:

 

 

Ideas? Raising it anymore means the outlet is practically above water.......

[Lawnman]

Don't gotta tell me. I'm kind of just gonna ease off posting in my build. If you don't have tits and not a post whore no one looks at anyways.

I love your build .

Anyone know how to quiet down a single 1" overflow? I get a pretty decent gurgle....

Did you get it fixed?

Everything hooked up, skimmer running, everything is pretty good. I will have to fine tune the apex tomorrow. Two major things:

 

1. Need to figure out how the F@#K to quiet down the return pump.....loud as HELL! No idea why, if this thing was quiet, the system would be barely noticeable.

2. Overflow, need to slow water down on impact in the sump...... loud, but if the return pump was working quietly, with the doors on it would be negligible noise.

Sicce 2.0?

Soft line added, much less noise. skimmer and overflow issues.... Overflow( due to the teeth and the stupid adjustible surface skimmer plate causes a constant trickle noise, it's loud and annoying. Sound like I'm slowly pouring water from 5 feet into the overflow box. The skimmer is in 6.5" of water and no matter what I do it does this:

Ideas? Raising it anymore means the outlet is practically above water.......

Yes a hard lined 2.0 will give you some vibration. I have hard plumbed and it vibrates. I am half deaf though

[Steensj2004]

I love your build .

Did you get it fixed?

Sicce 2.0?

Yes a hard lined 2.0 will give you some vibration. I have hard plumbed and it vibrates. I am half deaf though

Most everything is fixed, fighting the skimmer and loud surface skimmer now. Sicce 3.0, lol.

[RK_tek]

Can you post a pic of the overflow box and skimmer plate, there may be some options to reduce noise. How long has your skimmer been running? A few times mine has gone crazy and would fill the cup in 30-45 mins. I had to hook the drain line to a bigger container and after skimming about a gallon, it settled back down.

[NorthGaHillbilly]

If it's the standard deep blue dorso that's causing the problem, you'll prob end up wanting to add some leng th to the pipe so the water dosent fall as far in the box

[Fnard]

Glad you got that problem conquered. As sadistic as it may sound, I swear that aspect of the hobby is part of the fun. Not that I want problems, but all part of the game. Spent half the day today trying to see if I could incorporate a benthic/cryptic area in my fuge, but just doesn't seem to be in the cards. Now let's see some picts of that overflow and see if we can get that noisy bitch quieted down.

[Steensj2004]

Glad you got that problem conquered. As sadistic as it may sound, I swear that aspect of the hobby is part of the fun. Not that I want problems, but all part of the game. Spent half the day today trying to see if I could incorporate a benthic/cryptic area in my fuge, but just doesn't seem to be in the cards. Now let's see some picts of that overflow and see if we can get that noisy bitch quieted down.

If it's the standard deep blue dorso that's causing the problem, you'll prob end up wanting to add some leng th to the pipe so the water dosent fall as far in the box

Can you post a pic of the overflow box and skimmer plate, there may be some options to reduce noise. How long has your skimmer been running? A few times mine has gone crazy and would fill the cup in 30-45 mins. I had to hook the drain line to a bigger container and after skimming about a gallon, it settled back down.

The overflow piping isn't the noise issue. Deep blue added a adjustible plate behind the surface skimmer teeth to adjust after height. Somehow, the water coming through is ,"trickling" on the little finger bolts that hold the plate or something, it's nerve-racking noise. Sounds like someone is peeing next to the couch, hahahaha!

If it's the standard deep blue dorso that's causing the problem, you'll prob end up wanting to add some leng th to the pipe so the water dosent fall as far in the box

That's actuall a really good idea........

[RK_tek]

The overflow piping isn't the noise issue. Deep blue added a adjustible plate behind the surface skimmer teeth to adjust after height. Somehow, the water coming through is ,"trickling" on the little finger bolts that hold the plate or something, it's nerve-racking noise. Sounds like someone is peeing next to the couch, hahahaha.....

I understand completely what you mean. My return section is about 3" lower than the previous section and if a snail or algae or power cord interrupts the sheet of water coming down, it annoys me to no end.

 

I don't know exactly how your adjusting plate is configured, but if there's any way to redrill the holes or somehow get the mounting hardware under water instead of in the path of falling water, that should fix it.

 

Or like NGAHillbillysaid, raise the plumbing so the water doesn't fall as far. That may get it above the screw heads

[NorthGaHillbilly]

The overflow piping isn't the noise issue. Deep blue added a adjustible plate behind the surface skimmer teeth to adjust after height. Somehow, the water coming through is ,"trickling" on the little finger bolts that hold the plate or something, it's nerve-racking noise. Sounds like someone is peeing next to the couch, hahahaha!

 

That's actuall a really good idea........

 

A good buddy had the same problem, thats how we fixed his.

[Steensj2004]

I understand completely what you mean. My return section is about 3" lower than the previous section and if a snail or algae or power cord interrupts the sheet of water coming down, it annoys me to no end.

I don't know exactly how your adjusting plate is configured, but if there's any way to redrill the holes or somehow get the mounting hardware under water instead of in the path of falling water, that should fix it.

Or like NGAHillbillysaid, raise the plumbing so the water doesn't fall as far. That may get it above the screw heads

A good buddy had the same problem, thats how we fixed his.

Gonna try this out tomorrow, having a drink and games with friends! Happy Saturday!

[Steensj2004]

Ok, got a stand cut out of eggcrate for the skimmer, I made it to tall intentionally, this way I can always take more material off to make it shorter, much harder to add material the take it off. I hate cutting eggcrate sooooo much,lol:

 

Headed to do some errands, need more zip ties:

 

Tank has finally cleared up, I'll mess with the aquascape later, pretty happy with everything so far.... Can't wait for my light to get here......

 

[plainrt]

On mine I removed the grate and used a bead of silicone to raise water level lol.

[Steensj2004]

Updates!

 

I built the stand, it was waaaay to tall,lol. I ended up cutting it down so low that I ended up right where I started, but now the skimmer works great? I suppose it's all level and not on Tupperware now, guess that helped?

 

 

Once I got the height right, I started to be concerned about the noise. The eggcrate stand was transferring vibration to the tank, and was pretty loud. Cut 4 pieces of tubbing....

Split down the middle.....

 

Boom, ghetto ass shock/vibration absorbers....word.

 

Zero vibration and noise increase, happy with that!

 

This is the abortion from having to pull the stand in and out 5 times to adjust the height..... Shoulda planned and thought it through better,hehe:

 

 

The skimmer outlet was splashing water, nothing a 1" elbow couldn't fix!

 

[Steensj2004]

A little video of the skimmer in action after the mod!

 

[Steensj2004]

I wanted to calibrate my temp probe, as well as calibrate my Ph probe and get it installed. Problem was, my PH probe isn't supposed to be completely submerged according to the Apex manual..... I haz no prob holder. How to fix this? Looking at 30.00 probe holders, I couldn't bring myself to buy one( outside fish stuff, I'm cheap as hell, my buddies say I,"Sqeak when I walk"). Started looking around....

 

On a cold and grey Virginia morn,

a rack to hold my probe is born,

In the Ghettooooo....... Getthooo

 

 

 

Merica.....

 

On mine I removed the grate and used a bead of silicone to raise water level lol.

How exactly? Lol

[Spiderguardnano]

Beautiful man

How much water is the skimmer in now?

[RK_tek]

Glad you got the skimmer running right