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NanoCrazed's Lazy Tank(s) Journal

ashburn2k said:
Would it be easy for you to lift the egg crate at bottom for cleaning once in a while?


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Yup. Everything just rests loosely. But being so shallow, i can easily blow things off too.

Had thought about running a pipe from return to exit under the eggcrate to keep debris suspended
 
AquaJapan85
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New frag tank has been going well but seem to have trouble dialing in the input and output flow rates to match. Perhaps my return pump is misbehaving... i get it dialed in to quiet the flow, everything runs fine for most of the day then suddenly, the flow chokes and i get 2 spills and a few almost spills.

Despite not wanting to add an ugly white PVC elbow to serve as a standpipe, i had to add one to quiet things down while keeping the port open. Baffled as to what is causing the issue.

I now regret not making a 3rd emergency overflow port... figured for my purposes, i should have thing pretty balanced with no risk of clogs.

I might still tap that 3rd port or reuse the retun port for emergency draining, and run the return over the top.

For now, the street elbow is my friend. Maybe I'll paint it black to minimize visual clutter... also added a Aqamai KPS for extra flow... running it at 50G setting speed. Hah. .. but without the cage...

20200803_165311.jpg


On another note, I've been frustrated on why i couldn't get a siphon going after installing a hard tube into my dosing containers and quick connect up top...turned out the tubing is too soft. So quick fix was a $2 3/16" barb junction to splice the soft tubing with an ro line section. Works perfectly.

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AquaJapan85
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Forgot to mention... my primary Apex EB832 had it's 1Link module go dead last night. nothing I do is making it come to life again so have a ticket with Support. Also showing an AMP error on outlet 1.

Thankfully, I have a secondary EB832 hooked up so moved the trident over to get back to biz. Trying to decided if I want to move the rest of my plugs over to the fully functioning EB832 but then again, how many 1Links do I really need? I might just used the set up as is and just rely on my backup EB832 for 1LInk functionality... hat to rewire everything again. Ugh.
 
NanoCrazed said:
AquaJapan85
===

Forgot to mention... my primary Apex EB832 had it's 1Link module go dead last night. nothing I do is making it come to life again so have a ticket with Support. Also showing an AMP error on outlet 1.

Thankfully, I have a secondary EB832 hooked up so moved the trident over to get back to biz. Trying to decided if I want to move the rest of my plugs over to the fully functioning EB832 but then again, how many 1Links do I really need? I might just used the set up as is and just rely on my backup EB832 for 1LInk functionality... hat to rewire everything again. Ugh.
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Dude just move to ghl and get a peac of mind.
Its like a snake wrapped around you apex stuff lol..
If you need 1link I might have one somewhere
 
AquaJapan85 (...ish)
====

I was hoping i could get away with a straight 90 elbow for my drain on my frag box but found that when tuned to be silent, there's not enough room for air to escape, preventing siphoning to kick in. It worked on my other frag tank but that one has 3 drain lines with emergency. Was thinking with such a simple and small tank, an open drain port with matched minimal return flow would be enough. Seems not.

Looks like i need to drill the top of my elbow and insert a vent to essentially create a durso. Rather than a cap, I'll probably install a john guest FIPxMNPT piece and call it a day. would like to keep the profile as low as possible.
 
AquaJapan85 (...ish)
====

While I am tweaking the plumbing, I am think of switching out the return setup as well. Currently, I am driving the return line using a Tunze 1073.008 with max flow of 210 GPH so probably giving 150GPH or less with head pressure. But feeling the turn over back to the sump may not be as ideal since starting to build up gunk on the surfaces. Tempted to split the main return from the Vectra and tee it it off with a reducer to 1/2" pipe, and tune it via the throttle valve on the tank.

Pro of doing this is one less pump and greater flow access... down side is I can't quickly turn off the return flow into the frag area with a swipe of my apex screen. Will have to rely on good ol' fashion cranking of the knob... but with greater flow available, I can open up my drain wider...
 
AquaJapan85 (...ish)
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Took a few minutes between meeting to slap together a new manifold quickly to split the return line from the vectra to go into the frag tank.

20200806_101010.jpg
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Worked like a charm as I now have enough flow to keep my drain port wide open, avoiding a no-spihon situation.

I am fine tuning the flow on the return line to the fragvtank with a throttle valve right before the tank.

Took a little bit of time to get the right sweet spot but works perfectly now. Only thing is I had to bump my vectra to 90% from 85% speed, and choke the main DT drain a bit to get to the waterline i wanted in the main tank.

As a quick estimate using the 1/2" drain as proxy, I'm probably right around 200GPH flow when perfectly matched on the return. 40X water turnover for a 5G sps frag is not bad.

With the powerhead running, i am definitely north of this... despite that, with the ph and return deliver soft, spreaded out flow, i am not seeing as much detritus split as I would have expected. Might have to add another PH or change to something bigger?

I measured my deathstar's PAR and looks like 160-150 range at 100% all channels, 77% PUR. At the moment, I've decided to only run blues -- was running 100% all channels but wasn't liking how the frags seem to respond.

I might just cave and swap in a XR15 from my WB20, and throw a XR30 over that... we'll see.
 
AquaJapan85 (...ish)
====

Thinking I might have to rethink my frag plumbing strategy...

Just occur to me that the feed to the frag tank comes from the return chamber ultimately, which is down stream from the dose lines. I dose into the first chamber and assume the drain from the main area would be diluting at a high enough rate that the impact to the frag ta k is negligible. But now wonder if in fact, i am subjecting the frag to elevated alk and calcium swings, albeit briefly, until the water fully tuns over and normalizes across the full system.

Hmmm...

I suppose i can manually test the frag watwr before and after a dose is applied but feeling pretty lazy. Though it would be less work than a full replumb

Maybe i can just put the alk line to feed directly under the drain to increase mixing. Hmm...
 
NanoCrazed said:
AquaJapan85 (...ish)
====

Thinking I might have to rethink my frag plumbing strategy...

Just occur to me that the feed to the frag tank comes from the return chamber ultimately, which is down stream from the dose lines. I dose into the first chamber and assume the drain from the main area would be diluting at a high enough rate that the impact to the frag ta k is negligible. But now wonder if in fact, i am subjecting the frag to elevated alk and calcium swings, albeit briefly, until the water fully tuns over and normalizes across the full system.

Hmmm...

I suppose i can manually test the frag watwr before and after a dose is applied but feeling pretty lazy. Though it would be less work than a full replumb

Maybe i can just put the alk line to feed directly under the drain to increase mixing. Hmm...
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Or throw an AC powerhead in the sump to increase agitation? I watched a ReefDudes stream recently where Devin said he does that so his auto feeder can dump pellets and have the return shoot them into the display, I’d imagine it would also help somewhat in preventing any concentrated alk heading to you frag tank
 
max_nano said:
Or throw an AC powerhead in the sump to increase agitation? I watched a ReefDudes stream recently where Devin said he does that so his auto feeder can dump pellets and have the return shoot them into the display, I’d imagine it would also help somewhat in preventing any concentrated alk heading to you frag tank
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max_nano said:
Or throw an AC powerhead in the sump to increase agitation? I watched a ReefDudes stream recently where Devin said he does that so his auto feeder can dump pellets and have the return shoot them into the display, I’d imagine it would also help somewhat in preventing any concentrated alk heading to you frag tank
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Worried the PH will kick up too much detritus...

That said I think the mixing is decent but problem is the volume of water in the sump is still more concentrated than the dose across the whole tank volume

So regardless of mixing, if i draw the water from downstream of the dose lines, it'll always be elevated for a short period of time. Question is how long does it remain elevated for, and if it's to much for the corals in the frag tank to handle. Or because uptake is slow, it's irrelevant. What probably worries me most is the pH changes since I am using soda ash solution (which btw duebto poor mixing is probably more concentrated when drawing from the bottom of the container than when i started out -- my alk spiked to 13 dkh! Gah!)
 
Coral reefer said:
I’m confused. I thought you meant when you mixed up your soda ash solution?
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That's whatvi meant. Mixed it up... was a bit cloudy but didn't think much of it so loaded it up and forgot about it.

Just noticed last night that there's a fair amount of undissolved material at the bottom of the dosing containers
 
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