RollaJase's Trip Off the Deep End - Custom Rimless 55G

[jedimasterben]

Same here, has the o ring to keep it tight.

[RollaJase]

Mine has an o ring. Its not acrylic to acrylic. Its a very tight fit. Definitely need both hands to remove the cup.

 

Same here, has the o ring to keep it tight.

 

Good to know, if I find it too tight I can always use a bit of mineral oil to lubricate the O-ring, it shouldn't effect the acrylic or the integrity of the o-ring at all.

[RollaJase]

Well, I have a tracking number for the skimmer, now we play the waiting game I guess. The tracking email says 8-12 business days on average, I hope it's not this long as that will be close to 3 working weeks worst case which is a joke considering what I paid for freight.

[joshky]

Things are looking pretty good! I like your little zoa garden going on.

[RollaJase]

Things are looking pretty good! I like your little zoa garden going on.

Thanks for the kind words Josh and thanks for stopping by. The zoa garden is definitely one of my favorite features. Yes they are somewhat of an easy coral but I love the colours and patterns that you can get. That and they help fill a nice gap on the sand bed .

 

 

So, time for a minor tank update, just text for now. So, before I went to Thailand I noticed the start of some cyano on the sand bed, came back and the sand was red with cyano. I put this down to my skimmer just not being able to keep up with the bio load with so much water volume. I ordered a Coral Box D500 skimmer which arrived today (at the post office anyway) so I'm hoping that this helps clear things up. I was also running my GFO at a 50% dose while the tank was new, I recently swapped the media out for a full dose and was able to get it to tumble much better with double the dose of media in the reactor. I also ordered some Red Sea NOPOX as I found it cheap online so I can keep it in the arsenal for future cyano outbreaks.

 

As a result to the higher nutrients some of the SPS have been pissed. I lost 1 piece to high nutrients and low light (wasn't getting good coverage with current light), the tri-coloured acro has lost some flesh on the underside (understandable as there is no light there) and another piece has browned out but still has some PE. I am hoping the new skimmer and the replacement GFO will bring down the nutrients and make the SPS a little happier.

 

I am thinking of replacing my fuge light with a red and blue mix to enhance chaeto growth. I don't want to hack up my current light as it is pretty good but am considering adding some red/blue strip LED grow lights into the mix and terminating them on a separate power connector. This way I can switch between red/blue and white/blue if I ever need to and saves me destroying a perfectly good clip on LED light.

 

Lastly, work on my new LED fixture is progressing well. I spent some time on it over the weekend and it is pretty much sitting at 80% heatsink completion and 80% control box completion. I basically just need to mount the control box to the heatsink, fill holes, paint and wire everything up. I'm well aware that the current light is holding me back so I'm trying to get as much done is the limited time after work that I have. Once it's done I should be able to ramp up my SPS acquisition.

[RollaJase]

Skimmer arrived! Got it installed tonight with not much fuss at all. For someone who has never put a cone skimmer together before, some additional information would have been nice. Currently the skimmer is sitting in roughly 12" of water with the gate almost fully open and the pump at 50% speed. The water level is sitting at the base of the collection cup. I plan on raising the skimmer up a few inches, I would like to have it at roughly 9-10" of depth so I can run the pump harder. One thing I noticed is that the skimmer is significantly quieter than my Tunze 9004. The only thing I can hear through the stand is a slight hiss of the bubbles in the skimmer. I may be able to do away with the timer and run my skimmer 24/7 now.

 

I'll post some pictures of the skimmer when I get around to it. This thing is huge! I couldn't believe how big it was.

[RollaJase]

Less than 10 hours of use and the skimmer is foaming nicely and pulling some weak skimmate already. So far I am really impressed. I left it running overnight and to be honest had the best sleep I have had in a while. Adds just a hint of white noise to the background noise of my room and masks some of the sounds of the two ramping RW-4 pumps. Hoping to see some good things when I get home from work tonight.

[dropped]

Tanks looking good mate! your cabling and plumbing is pretty dam good as well!

[RollaJase]

Tanks looking good mate! your cabling and plumbing is pretty dam good as well!

Thanks buddy . I'm having some cyano issues at the moment also but things seem to be clearing up.

[dropped]

I've just played the same game. Think I narrowed it down to th amino acids I was dosing.

[RollaJase]

I've just played the same game. Think I narrowed it down to th amino acids I was dosing.

To be honest, I used to find the same when dosing aminos. When I dose I make sure I dose less than recommended now. Although, having a better skimmer should help me out now.

 

Another SPS casualty, my tri-colour acro faded really fast. Again, this was another case of high nutrients and not enough light. I managed to trim off a few branches that weren't losing flesh in the hope that I may be able to save a piece of it. The SPS that seem to be really thriving are all the green ones lol. Stag still looks amazing, the mille, random green acro and monti are all doing great.

 

So far so good in regards to the skimmer. It's starting to work really well now and I'm getting some pretty good skimmate. I still need to raise it up a little though. I'm hoping that I may be able to attempt that over the weekend. My NOPOX came in also and I am going to trial dosing 5ml a day for a week and see if I notice any difference with the cyano. The stuff smells just like vinegar so I wouldn't be surprised if Red Sea are bottling up straight white vinegar and selling it for $20 per 100ml.

[jedimasterben]

Nopox is a mixture of ethanol, acetic acid, with a small bit of methanol and whatever impurities come with those. You would have the same results just using acetic acid

[RollaJase]

Nopox is a mixture of ethanol, acetic acid, with a small bit of methanol and whatever impurities come with those. You would have the same results just using acetic acid

Yeah figured as much lol. It was on sale so figured I'd just give it a try. If it helps me get rid of the remaining cyano then its $20 well spent IMO.

[jedimasterben]

Yeah figured as much lol. It was on sale so figured I'd just give it a try. If it helps me get rid of the remaining cyano then its $20 well spent IMO.

IMHO it's more likely to fuel it, as most cyanobacteria species can be carbon limited as well as the 'good' bacteria

[RollaJase]

IMHO it's more likely to fuel it, as most cyanobacteria species can be carbon limited as well as the 'good' bacteria

Hmmm, I'll continue the program for 7 days. If I see it getting worse I'll stop immediately. Thanks Ben!

[RollaJase]

Decided I'll post a bit of an update around my new skimmer. I didn't really take any un-boxing or assembly pics but snapped a few once it was together and a few more post install.

 

The Coral Box D500 in all it's glory:

From an assembly point of view, everything was built solid and went together really easily. Even for someone who had never assembled a cone skimmer before the assembly was pretty straight forward and I found it pretty easy. It would have been nice to have some better instructions though. Coral Box provide you with a picture of what things should look like once together but no step by step assembly instructions. Coral Box also don't publish anywhere in the instructions their recommended water depth for the skimmer, this would be handy for some while trying to dial the skimmer in initially or to see if their sump can even cater for it. Over all, from a build and design perspective I am really happy with the skimmer. It looks solid enough to handle multiple tear downs for cleaning and the acrylic is nice and thick so you can tell they used quality materials. This thing is a lot larger than what I was expecting though. Not necessarily a bad thing but reading the dimensions on paper didn't prepare me for it's actual size.

 

Skimmer Installed:

Installation was dead easy. Pretty much just dropped it in my skimmer chamber and shook it a little to get rid of some of the larger air bubbles. It's currently sitting in 12" of water but I would like to raise it up a little so that it is sitting in roughly 9" of water. Raising the height will allow me to run the pump at a higher speed which should increase the efficiency.

 

The Results:

After about 12 hours the skimmer had built a nice head and the foam and neck was starting to colour up.

 

48 hours after install and the skimmate is getting darker and collecting quicker.

 

96 hours in and the skimmer is pulling some nasty gunk from the water.

Overall I am really happy with my choice to go with the Coral Box over a Bubble Magus or Reef Octopus. I don't have anything against these other brands but to be honest it came down to the DC pump, the price and availability. The D500 was by no means the cheapest option I looked at but when you factor in the build quality, the pump and the price it is hard to beat. The Reef Octopus options were a close second but I was concerned about their fitment in the space I had and for a brand that used to be really strong in Australia I heard constant reports of parts being very hard to source and warranty work taking forever. Bubble Magus have no real local support in Australia and wile the Curve 5 would have suited my needs, when looking at a DC model the price jump was quite substantial over other options I had to consider.

 

So far the skimmer is working really well, it is quiet (quiet enough that I can run it 24/7 in my bedroom), easy to dial in and the overall build quality is better than I was expecting. Would I recommend the Coral Box skimmers to others? Definitely! If you are looking for your first skimmer or even for an upgrade to an existing skimmer I highly recommend considering Coral Box as an option. For the price point these options are really competitive to larger brands and if you are looking for a DC pump option these are probably one of the best bang for buck options out there.

[vlangel]

Looks like a great skimmer. I have a SCA 302 that looks very similar to your Coral box. Like yours, mine did not come with assembly directions so I relied on the picture on the box, ha ha. The big difference is probably the pump. I think SCA scimps on the pumps, (mag pump) as I needed to replace mine after only 6 months. Now I am afraid to turn it off so I leave it run when I am doing a WC. It does do an excellant job, however some folks complain of micro bubbles.

[RollaJase]

Looks like a great skimmer. I have a SCA 302 that looks very similar to your Coral box. Like yours, mine did not come with assembly directions so I relied on the picture on the box, ha ha. The big difference is probably the pump. I think SCA scimps on the pumps, (mag pump) as I needed to replace mine after only 6 months. Now I am afraid to turn it off so I leave it run when I am doing a WC. It does do an excellant job, however some folks complain of micro bubbles.

I think most cheaper brands skimp out on pumps, that's part of the reason why the higher end brands charge a lot more for their skimmers. As Sancho mentioned in this thread previously it looks like a lot of skimmers come from the same OEM's with different colour options and pump choices. This doesn't really surprise me considering most of the manufacturing for stuff like this comes from China. Luckily I have had no issues with micro bubbles so far. There were some during the initial break in period but the baffle between the skimmer and refugium chambers in my sump blocked most of them.

[RollaJase]

1 full week in and the skimmer is pulling almost black skimmate, this thing is a beast. Pics were taken yesterday before I made some tweaks, it is now pulling skimmate at a higher rate while still maintaining the same colour, all in 12" of water. I tried to find a suitable container/stand to mount the skimmer on to raise it a little, I had no success here. I may order some 10mm thick acrylic and just make my own, or go the cheap way and use some PVC bits and some acrylic that I have laying around.

[markalot]

Glad to hear the skimmer is working well. I'll be interested in hearing how the DC pump holds up as well. My RO Cone using a bubble blaster pump and produce some massive foam but also uses a lot of electricity.

[ninjamyst]

Glad you are liking the D500 and that it is already producing nasty skimmate. My D700 finally started to behave. What setting are you running the D500? I am still running on one dot for the pump and the air about half way open.

[RollaJase]

Glad to hear the skimmer is working well. I'll be interested in hearing how the DC pump holds up as well. My RO Cone using a bubble blaster pump and produce some massive foam but also uses a lot of electricity.

I'll be interested to see how the DC pump holds up also. I've been really happy with my Jebao DC return pump and the pump in this skimmer is the little brother to the one I have with a needle wheel impeller in it. My return is starting to lose some output though, may be time for a clean.

 

Glad you are liking the D500 and that it is already producing nasty skimmate. My D700 finally started to behave. What setting are you running the D500? I am still running on one dot for the pump and the air about half way open.

I'm running mine in 12" or water with the pump on level 7/8. The gate is opened about 3/4 of the way and it puts the base of the foaming head in the collection cup about 1" up the cup. Initially I was running the pump at a lower speed and had the gate closed more, trying to keep the foam at the base of the collection cup but found this wasn't as effective. I'm surprised that you are still having issues running the pump on the lowest setting. When you assembled the skimmer did you make sure the part of the diffuser plate that is solid cover the outlet of the pump? I could see that drastically effecting how the pump behaves.

[ninjamyst]

When you assembled the skimmer did you make sure the part of the diffuser plate that is solid cover the outlet of the pump? I could see that drastically effecting how the pump behaves.

.....what's that...i will disassemble the skimmer this weekend to check...hahahah.

[RollaJase]

.....what's that...i will disassemble the skimmer this weekend to check...hahahah.

http://www.fish-street.com/coral_box_d700_dc_skimmer

If you maximise the picture you can see the two orange disks in the body of the skimmer, you would have to have fixed these directly to the pump. With the acrylic tube sandwiched between them they basically create a channel for the bubbles from the pump to pass through. The top diffusor with the holes in it has a solid portion which is supposed to deflect and diffuse the bubbles coming directly from the skimmer pump. If the solid portion is not over the pump outlet then the pump is basically pushing water directly up the neck of the skimmer with no resistance. You shouldn't have to pull the skimmer apart to check this, turning the skimmer off should allow you to see the plate .

[ninjamyst]

http://www.fish-street.com/coral_box_d700_dc_skimmer

If you maximise the picture you can see the two orange disks in the body of the skimmer, you would have to have fixed these directly to the pump. With the acrylic tube sandwiched between them they basically create a channel for the bubbles from the pump to pass through. The top diffusor with the holes in it has a solid portion which is supposed to deflect and diffuse the bubbles coming directly from the skimmer pump. If the solid portion is not over the pump outlet then the pump is basically pushing water directly up the neck of the skimmer with no resistance. You shouldn't have to pull the skimmer apart to check this, turning the skimmer off should allow you to see the plate .

Mine is wrong. Will fix this weekend.