The Rebuild Begins!!! - Page 23

motorslave · 05-03-2006, 07:49 PM

Looking great Geoff! Cant wait to see how the WC system works out!

Robert

VWD · 05-03-2006, 09:48 PM

Nice , You are the only person I heard of using ammonia to cycle a tank. I used to use ammonium chloride to cycle many years ago, it did a better and faster job. I never tried with live rock.

Geoff · 05-28-2006, 10:42 AM

WOW, it has really been this long since my last update!!!

sorry everyone.

for the most part not a lot has been happening. just letting it cruise along. no fish, some snails and corals, but nothing else.

i have been doing a lot on equipment for the tank though. here is a pic of a quick and fairly simple kalk reactor i am working on. i am having a small leaking problem, but i am pretty sure it is user error on my part on the top threads.

i have also been working on an eductor driven skimmer for the tank. i guess this would be a Gen 3. Geoff Skimmer.

here is a pic of Rev. A of the skimmer:

here is the Rev. C in action. Rev. B was actually developed at Tom's BBQ. i took some ideas from that one and a good idea from Jason and come up with Rev. C. i think this one is a keeper. if i could make this a bit taller, the 1/2" eductor makes an insane amount of bubbles!! a fantastic skimmer, micro bubbles were also equally insane.

about the biggest thing to have happened to the system since the last update is the new mod to the coast to coast overflow. i have been having a buildup of organic material on the waters surface. having a durso standpipe will do this. i was playing around with ways of fixing this problem when i bumped my coast to coast a bit hard. well the seam just blew open!! well that was all the excuse i needed to mod it.

i am pretty sure the reason it blew open was that the C to C was an 1/8" to long and the pressure just popped the seam of the overflow. better that than the tank.

i cut the overflow back down to correct size. than added a divider in there. this divider turned the overflow section into a true overflow instead of the durso being used as the overflow.

i then placed a small piece of acrylic over the wiers on the new overflow section to set the water height. as you can see it is only held in by spring clamps for now. in the next couple of days i will permanently affix that piece.

of certain note while doing this. those pieces of acrylic that were painted with Krylon Fusion spray paint the silly cone adhered very well to the acrylic. on the unpainted side the silly cone pretty much came right off, which is what it normally does after about 2 months. i may play around more with this and see just how much stronger the painted acrylic parts bond to glass.

G~

theplatypus · 05-28-2006, 11:25 AM

Looking good. An eductor driven skimmer? You have to share more info on this.

tdwyatt · 05-28-2006, 03:45 PM

I like the auto-waterchanger!

Just curious, it that PH pump in the kalkreactor TOTALLY inside the reactor??? If so, how qre you wiring it so it doesnt leak? I may have something from the boating industry you will be interested in if that is one of your leaks... I may have to test this concept myself, as I am WANTING to use kalk for the calcium and alk supps in the frag systems.

Geoff · 05-28-2006, 09:28 PM

yep, the PH is inclosed in the kalk reactor. i got a waterproof cord strainreleif from Aquatic Ecosystems. it works quite well. it would work even better if was a round cord instead of a flat cord, but if you tighten it enough the rubber fingers wrap around it well. i think the leaks are coming from the screw on cap. i think i did not put enough teflon tape on it. it prolly would not be much of a problem except that it is near house pressure sometimes.

i meant to steal one of your free PH from an IO cannister when i was there to see if that would have worked also. what is in there is an Aqua Clear 101, i think. i think that it is a bit to small. i would like to go up an size.

i had to chop off the plug, to put it through the strain relief, but they are cheap at HD or Lowe's. i think i need to make it taller also. the kalk keeps pilling up on top of the PH. i it were taller i do not think that this would happen.

the auto water changer is pretty cool! all i do is turn on the powerstrip. set a delay timer on the stirring PH and heater and walk away. about 2 hours later the tank is full to whatever level i have the float switch set to. i then just have to get the salinity correct.

to do a water change i have a drain on the sump. i just turn a valve, fill up a couple of IO salt containers, then turn the drain valve on the new water tank to dump it into the sump. done!

gotta thank Robert for this idea!!

G~

Geoff · 05-29-2006, 08:33 AM

Tom- here are those settling tanks i was talking about. i think i found them for a bit cheaper somewhere else, but do not have the link with me, but they are the same tanks.

i think i have enough room for the 15g next to my sump, so i am seriously thinking about adding it right before the sump. that 50g rubbermaid trough is just to big to siphon.

i hope to finalize the kalk reactor soon and use it as the next DIY group project.

G~

tdwyatt · 05-29-2006, 03:42 PM

Geoff, have you bought yours yet? I think we could go together and buy two for a price break... I'd like to run my overflows directly into the top level, then have the return to the sump maybe an inch lower out of the side, that will allow for a good bit of settling without any flow restriction. Do these come with a valve already at the base of the cone? (ouch on the stand price, I may have to make a stand myself...).

I am going to build one of those reactors this week to go between my auto-top off pump and the sump for the prop systems (yes, I am finally replacing the thin walled tank with the monster from andy, and moving indoors the prop tank we used for the BBQ frag meet). I have several of those little pumps, so even if they self-destruct, the effort will be worthwhile. PM me your mailing addy, I'll drop one in the mail for you this week.

three90s&125sump · 05-29-2006, 07:24 PM

I think it would be better to build one of those settling tanks out of lexon. You could make it long and narrow with an input on one side and an output on the other side. You could make the dimensions around 36 inches long 24 inches tall and 6 inches wide. I think the object would be to make it as high volume as possible with the lowest turbulence with in the tank possible. I would also try to have the out put significantly higher up than the in put. Draining the tank would be as simple as having a bulkhead fitting in the bottom with a 1 in ball valve on it. You may spend a little more money on the completed DIY but I think it is better to have something that is purpose built and it will out perform the other option.

Sorry, if this is painfully obvious.

three90s&125sump · 05-29-2006, 07:27 PM

To take this a step further you could hook up the out put of your skimmer directly to the in put of the settling tank prior to going into your sump, if thats possible with your set up. It wouldn't be possible with mine due to the ASM.

Geoff · 05-29-2006, 10:56 PM

having it round like they are helps. i was thinking of having the drain go directly into the settling tank with an elbow facing along the side so that it would create a vortex in the entire settling tank. i would then put the drain dead center up high.

you could make one out of anything, it is just difficult to get something that long able to drain nicely to a single outlet. i have tried a couple of times, but it takes a pretty steep angle to get detritus to actually go downhill.

Tom- if you plan on doing a kalk reactor like this, do not use the threaded cap. it is very difficult to keep from leaking, yet able to get it off easily enough to make it usefull. use a rubber quick cap instead. i am going to incorporate that into rev 2. i had a rubber quick cap on my other kalk reactor. i though this screw cap would be better, NOT. i am going back to the quick cap.

just save a pump for me. gives me an excuse to head down there again!

G~

tdwyatt · 05-29-2006, 11:32 PM

how about installing a quick release true union with a cap on the top instead of a piece of pipe???

three90s&125sump · 05-29-2006, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geoff

having it round like they are helps. i was thinking of having the drain go directly into the settling tank with an elbow facing along the side so that it would create a vortex in the entire settling tank. i would then put the drain dead center up high.

you could make one out of anything, it is just difficult to get something that long able to drain nicely to a single outlet. i have tried a couple of times, but it takes a pretty steep angle to get detritus to actually go downhill.

G~

I think the vortex would defeat the purpose of the settling tank. The water should be as still and calm as possible (like a marsh) to keep the particulates from being suspended. (Sorry, I am being Mr. Obvious again.) I also think that the container should be as long as possible to facilitate the "settling" of the particles. The more time they spend in "dead" water the fewer that will escape the force of gravity. I think it would just make sense to go from overflow to skimmer to settling tank to bio-filter. And as you know Geoff, if you are making and designing it you can make the sides as steep as you want. If the sides on those settling tanks are 60 degrees, make yours 75 degrees. This picture is very crappy and may not even work I would have to think about it more to see if the numbers are really feasable.

Geoff · 05-30-2006, 10:16 AM

Jason- you are right on all counts. the problem being is that i only have about a 2' cube of space to work in.

when you start getting that big the acrylic costs rise pretty dramatically. it becomes really close on whether to buy the settling tank or make one.

length really does not matter. volume does. the larger the volume the slower the velocity of the water will be. this will cause detritus to fall out of suspension. creating a vortex in the tank will help in creating a very slow velocity area in the middle of the tank. this works best if you are working within a small space. if you have the room just going bigger will give the same effect.

G~

Geoff · 05-30-2006, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdwyatt

how about installing a quick release true union with a cap on the top instead of a piece of pipe???

4" unions are wicked expensive!!!

i would like to be able to get my hand in there to replace the pump if necessary. if i did not care about replacing the pump, than i would definately do that!!

G~