kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

[kien]

Originally Posted by Magickiwi

All I know is that looked incredibly ugly Are they better looking when they are in water? The only things in my overflow right now are coraline and diatom film...

They definitely got to a point where I became too afraid to venture into my overflow.. That was three years ago. 3 more years on that and my overflow was probably harbouring some interesting things under the various strata of detritus, debris, feather dusters, aiptasia..

[Magickiwi]

Originally Posted by kien

They definitely got to a point where I became too afraid to venture into my overflow.. That was three years ago. 3 more years on that and my overflow was probably harbouring some interesting things under the various strata of detritus, debris, feather dusters, aiptasia..

Oh Hulk up and just slam your gloveless hand into your sump; right to the bottom! Come on, prove you're tough

Actually I envy you; you're blessed with an abundance of various marine life that grows wild in your tank. My tank doesn't have anything I didn't deliberately put in other than a chiton and one or possibly two pistol shrimp I hear from time to time. I put some coral in yesterday that had a couple mini-stars tucked away on the bottom so maybe that will increase my bio-diversity.

[lastlight]

this seems like a good time to resurrect this while we look back on your overflow's varied appearances.

[Delphinus]

I need to do the same to my overflow box, it looks much the same. If I could just vacuum up the mud on the bottom and let the featherdusters be I would but they are so delicate that it's impossible.

I've kind of given up on being nice to them in my sump, I take my floor pump and vacuum up the detritus that settles in there. The pump sounds like a blender and it's nasty but I don't know what else to do about it. That amount of mud settling on the bottom has to be harboring the baddie nutrients.

On Saturday I tried to use a turkey baster to clean out the mud from my 65g's sump but the H2S smell it released told me to stop and just empty out the whole thing and clean it at the sink. I didn't even do the skimmer but it needs a powerscrub as well but it was already hours of my life as it was.

I shudder at the thought of eventually doing the same to my big tank's sump. I'm hoping that that water change vacuum trick lets me push that particular task back for a while for the time being..

[kien]

and in case anyone was curious what a leaky 2" gate valve looks like, it looks a lot like this..



In other news, I'm looking for suggestions on how to possibly repair a leaky gate valve. It's leaking at the handle's shaft. I tried to screw in the handle tighter but that didn't seem to help. I did manage to turn it into a position that seemed to stop the leaking but if I move it in any direction from this point it'll start leaking again

[hillegom]

You need to stop water going to the valve. Then unscrew the large nut under the handle. There is a gland usually there that will stop the water from coming out.
If you are lucky, its an O ring and you need to replace, otherwise, might be a proprietary rubber seal.
First try tightening that large nut under the handle. It should be snug, don't overtighten.
After replacing the hopefully, O ring, smear just a little silicone on the rubber. Always makes them last longer.

[kien]

Originally Posted by hillegom

You need to stop water going to the valve. Then unscrew the large nut under the handle. There is a gland usually there that will stop the water from coming out.
If you are lucky, its an O ring and you need to replace, otherwise, might be a proprietary rubber seal.
First try tightening that large nut under the handle. It should be snug, don't overtighten.
After replacing the hopefully, O ring, smear just a little silicone on the rubber. Always makes them last longer.

Thanks for that! I will have to see if I'm brave enough to operate on the valve..