Reef nutrition

Peter's Garage Tank

This is the mother colony that the green slimmer came from:
slimmer.jpg
 
Sparky-_Electrical_Safety_for_the_Holidays.gif

WOW! It takes 19 power cords to run our garage reef now! and I guess I overloaded a circuit. The straw that broke the "camel's back" was the light on the new tank. I flipped the switch to turn it on and heard a click on the GFCI and all kinds of stuff shut down. I was in a panic to get the returns from the sump shut down because they lost siphon and the tanks were ready to overflow. With 2 overflow boxes this could be a disaster! I had previously wired 2 dedicated circuits to the reef wall each with a GFCI. I also have one outlet from another circuit that is not GFCI. All of the cords were plugged into any open spot. So I spent a couple hours untangling the mess of wires and got them sorta straitened out. The light fixtures (3) now all plug into the outlet without GFCI and I have split the remaining 16 cords to the 2 GFCI outlets. Still need a couple more power strips to finish the job, but hopefully no breakers will pop and everything underwater has GFCI protection.
Cheers! Mark
 
So are you saying if no one is gone and your house suddenly goes out of power, your sump will be overflowing?


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I would definitely not be comfortable with loss of power = overflowing tanks, even in the garage.


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No, if all power goes out, I'm good. It's just when the aqualifter (for the siphon) loses power and the return pumps have power there is a good chance of an overflow, and a good chance of poisoning the tanks with Kalk from the ATO.
 
Mark B said:
No, if all power goes out, I'm good. It's just when the aqualifter (for the siphon) loses power and the return pumps have power there is a good chance of an overflow, and a good chance of poisoning the tanks with Kalk from the ATO.
Click to expand...
that's a bad overflow. Single point of failure.


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Mark B said:
View attachment 8769
WOW! It takes 19 power cords to run our garage reef now! and I guess I overloaded a circuit. The straw that broke the "camel's back" was the light on the new tank. I flipped the switch to turn it on and heard a click on the GFCI and all kinds of stuff shut down. I was in a panic to get the returns from the sump shut down because they lost siphon and the tanks were ready to overflow. With 2 overflow boxes this could be a disaster! I had previously wired 2 dedicated circuits to the reef wall each with a GFCI. I also have one outlet from another circuit that is not GFCI. All of the cords were plugged into any open spot. So I spent a couple hours untangling the mess of wires and got them sorta straitened out. The light fixtures (3) now all plug into the outlet without GFCI and I have split the remaining 16 cords to the 2 GFCI outlets. Still need a couple more power strips to finish the job, but hopefully no breakers will pop and everything underwater has GFCI protection.
Cheers! Mark
Click to expand...
PG&E must love you as a customer!
 
scuzy said:
that's a bad overflow. Single point of failure.


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Click to expand...
You're right! I have a second float switch for the ATO. I guess I will set it up so if the sump water is depleted the ATO will turn off.

capescuba said:
PG&E must love you as a customer!
Click to expand...
This was the first winter of having a garage reef. I really thought the electricity was going to be a lot worse. Our highest PGE month is always December. Between the xmas lights and all of us home all day for 2 weeks, we use a lot of energy. This year our Dec. electricity was $7/day. I dont what other people average, but it doesnt seem that much??
 
80# of sand arrived today, I dont think the UPS guy likes us anymore. Peter washed all of it while I cleared all the rock and corals from the tank. Unplugged the syphon and sump return and dumped all 80#s in. I forgot how messy new sand was, the tank looks like 58 gallons of milk. Hopefully it wont take forever for the cloud to settle. Also had time to hook up the low water switch for the ATO in the sump. No more worrying about killing with Kalk.
Cheers! Mark
 
The cloudiness has cleared. Put the rock back in, got it skimmin', and put in a couple corals. I think my best bet is to keep my hands out of the system for a couple weeks and let the whole system stabilize. Will be interested to see if the new tank goes through the ugly algae stages?
Cheers!
image.jpeg
 
Starting to get some growth on the sand-bed and even on the rocks that have been underwater for 1 day. I am presumming it bacterial and not algae.
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Tank has be running for less than a week so I am not going to worry about any "uglies". It is plumbed into the other tanks that have about 200 pounds of live rock and good flow so I am hoping with time it will even out. The whole system is getting about 120ml of vinegar a day so I am guessing it is just bacterial slime from the carbon. I do need a little bit of a mess in the new tank so I can shop for a clean up crew and they need to eat sumthin'
Cheers!
 
First water test:
Salinity - 1.0245
Alk. - between 7 & 8
Calcium - 460
Nitrates - less than 5ppm
Phosphates - less than .25ppm
I think I just need to inch up the salinity a bit and I am good.
 
Hopefully diatoms. If so, normal for a new tank, and will go away.
But a bit stringy, so not so sure.

You sure you want a wall like that?
Personal aesthetics aside, it can be a pain for flow, cleaning, and so on.
 
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