@Coral reefer - here's hoping we get this Apex all set up and programmed before our vacation! We'll need to make sure you or Erin are around. This is our whole incentive.
Lawrence's first (90g) salt water tank
- Thread starter L/B Block
- Start date
I'm proud to say we have the Apex up & running, with our dimmable Onyx running on a program. (Betsy) I'm feeling spiffy!!! These data geeks love the charts! But mostly, we love the alarm setup and cloud access. We like knowing we can keep check on the parameters while traveling without having to get a house/dog sitter be fluent in tank matters. This weekend we're going to try and set up the DOS for automatic water change. God help us.
Water parameters are all back to normal, and everything in the tank looks happy, including the unfortunate diatom algae which came back.
We started making the "holy crap, what about power outages!" and now are thinking about two things:
1) UPS - the nice thing about the new Apex is being able to look at power consumption, and calculate out the right size UPS. Sounds like we'd only be looking at 2-3 hours, but that might be a lot of time to get something else to happen.
2) Return Pump - we are running a Danner Mag 9.5, and one of the interesting things is that if the return pump goes off, our sump fills up quickly. So we are worried in a power out that we would have an overflow in the sump. BUT, we know we are supposed to get a certain amount of turnover in the tank.
Lots of conversation ahead on if we need to swap out the return pump.
Water parameters are all back to normal, and everything in the tank looks happy, including the unfortunate diatom algae which came back.
We started making the "holy crap, what about power outages!" and now are thinking about two things:
1) UPS - the nice thing about the new Apex is being able to look at power consumption, and calculate out the right size UPS. Sounds like we'd only be looking at 2-3 hours, but that might be a lot of time to get something else to happen.
2) Return Pump - we are running a Danner Mag 9.5, and one of the interesting things is that if the return pump goes off, our sump fills up quickly. So we are worried in a power out that we would have an overflow in the sump. BUT, we know we are supposed to get a certain amount of turnover in the tank.
Lots of conversation ahead on if we need to swap out the return pump.
Flagg37
Guest
You should definitely have the plumbing set up so that if the return pump stops it doesn't overflow your sump. I use a good check valve on the return plumbing but more importantly, I have my return nozzles that feed back into the dt, aimed right at the surface of the water. That way very little of the water actually flows back to the sump if it stops. It also gives a good amount of surface agitation which promotes gas exchange.
@Flagg37 Check Valves! These are your favorite thing. Where would the check valve sit? I want to watch what is happening, because it may be the water coming through the overflow/durso, not water coming back through the return pump itself. We need to watch and see what is happening next time we (bravely) turn off the return pump.
That makes sense now that the water may be flowing back through the plumbing when the return pump is off. I just couldn't figure out why it was dumping all this water back in!
We have the return nozzles right below the water line that adds a nice flow in two directions. But that check valve might just be key. Thanks!
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Coral reefer
Past President
Check valves suck, eventually fail, are not all equally sucky, but should NEVER be counted on. Need to have redundancy to stop back siphon like placement of return nozzles or a antionsiphon hole like Vincent suggested.
Ibn
Guest
Check valves fail over time due to deposits, encrusting critters, and miscellaneous gunk. You have to clean them often and even then I wouldn't trust them. I use a simple elbow on my return at the water surface (bulkhead into a short piece of pvc into the elbow) and even in the event of a power failure the sump will take the excess volume.
Coral reefer
Past President
Never rely on a check valve!
Check valves = crabs. Never trust them!
Check valves = crabs. Never trust them!
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
No check valve here
Keep returns close to surface and drill the hole that Vince suggested
Keep returns close to surface and drill the hole that Vince suggested
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
Check valves also impede flow
Are they still loading? I posted high res. I can see them but maybe they are still uploading.
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Coral reefer
Past President
Me too. Bubble algae