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#31
03-23-2015, 07:00 PM
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Ugh, that sucks dude. Funny how we can totally explain things away to our loving and patient spouses
 Somehow I have a feeling they (at least my wife) just lets us get away with stuff because she knows just how bad we feel when stuff like that happens and figures there's no use adding to it. Gotta love 'em  
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#32
03-30-2015, 01:21 AM
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#33
03-30-2015, 01:26 AM
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Spent the last few weekend renovating the sump room.
I have a spare tank if anyone is interested in buying it.... 
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#34
03-30-2015, 01:35 AM
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So I found this aluminum stand for sale out in Chilliwack. I could not go wrong for $50.00. Well built and the perfect size for my room. I also found a 135 gal tank for $100.00 bucks and Albert and company at Oceanic helped out by drilling the bottom for me on short notice..Thanks guys, much appreciated!
Anyways, my weekend project begins...again.... I miss dirt biking..  
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#35
03-30-2015, 01:44 AM
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This pump will feed the 3/4" manifold, that feeds my reactors and UV. I did not want them to run of the main return pump. This pump is good for around 1200 GPH. Enough to feed my UV properly and the reactors.
 and these are the Panworld pumps. I decided to run the 250 full time and the 150 as a backup. This way I can always use the Apex to start the backup, should the main one quit while not home. They are plumbed together, but I need to get an electric shut off valve to have the setup work properly.. 
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#36
03-30-2015, 01:48 AM
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Installed my own baffles to suit my needs. Been using SCS 1200 silicone with no issues. Oceanic and concept use it as well as sell it.
 
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#37
03-30-2015, 02:18 AM
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Finished setting up the Apx AFS. The feeder drops into the top funnel and goes down the pipe to the next funnel. The return pump sucks it down from the 2nd funnel and up to the DT. The manifold pump shuts down when the AFS foes on. This way no food gets sent to the reactors etc.
 Finished re-wiring the dosers, ATO and the ATO bucket shut offs This pic shows the AFS funnel set up at the top a little better.  Have not decided if I am going to use the ozone generator or not...My ORP is always low (300), but not sure it it is worthwhile. Last edited by reefwithareefer; 03-30-2015 at 02:22 AM.
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#38
03-30-2015, 02:31 AM
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The mess of wires etc still to deal with....getting better, but man, I can see how this "hobby" consumes so much time, energy and moola...
  I kept the reefkeeper that came with one of the original tanks I bought and use it to run the sump lights etc. Can't get much money for them anymore, so might as well use it for something. I bought a used "cheap" brand LED light and tried it beside my halide/T5 fixture to see how it would do. After 3 weeks, my zoa garden looked pretty bad, softies were so so. I do not have a par/pur meter so not sure if it was set right for the depth or etc etc. I tied a few different settings but to no avail, so down to the sump room it went  Last edited by reefwithareefer; 03-30-2015 at 02:41 AM.
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#39
04-05-2015, 07:48 PM
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Ozone
I have been contemplating to install a Red Sea ozonator for sometime, as my ORP never got higher than 300 and hovers around the 275 mark. I started to do some research and scared the hell out of me... The complexity of what ORP is and how science does not really understand it did not help.. There is a 40 watt UV running, but research has said it does not do as well as ozone and does a different job than ozone.
I kept up the research and 8 months later I have decided to set it up ...Mainly because I got bored and wanted something to do. Buying an ozone reactor was out of the question as the Missus had her eye on the bank acct, so a DIY solution was in order... It was decided to run the ozone thru my newly acquired BK 250. Research said the ozone would not damage the plastic, so all good. I took the silica from the air dryers and baked them in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes and they turned to a dark blue just like the articles said they would.  Since my BK is external, I assumed this is why it did not have anything for an ozone tube at the venturi. The only thing that made sense was to drill into the top of the silencer and shove the norprene tubing down the silencer tube that is inside the silencer, which is what the air intake tubing attached to. A test hole was drilled in some old piece of acrylic laying around, to make sure the tube would fit very tightly. I want to be able to take the tube out when doing maintenance, so silicone was not an option. I shoved the norprene thru thru the silencer and down the intake tubing, to the venturi.  The research I saw said that it was wise to have the skimmer "gasses" run thru carbon as this is where the leftover ozone will go. I saw a video of some guy who made a carbon reactor/container from a Zip Loc food container. He drilled holes in it , ran tubes from the holes in the skimmer lid to container. The idea was to fill the container full of carbon, and the gasses from the skimmer would then filter thru the carbon and out.  I began making the container, when it dawned on me that there was a tube coming from outside to where I had it hooked up to my old BK 180 venturi. It made sense to just vent the gasses to the outside instead of having one more container to change (it did look something ugly..) or take the chances of the ozone being released into the house I siliconed all the holes in the skimmer lid, put the existing tube thru the last one, and velcroed the lid to keep it shut tightly. All done for the skimmer and generator They say you are suppose to ran the exhausted skimmer water thru carbon to make sure there is no OPOs that will kill your critters before it goes back into the tank. Out of all my research, not one article told you how much carbon you should run it thru. No minimum or maximum amounts were ever spoken about. Anyone know how much carbon to use? The idea of running it thru my vertex reactor was short lived as the back pressure would mess with the skimmer, I went with my own design of using a 2 ft long piece of 2" ABS pipe, with a cap at one end, drilled full of 1/4" holes. At the other end I would put a 90 with a 3" to 2" reducer to act like a funnel. My outlet pipe would drop the skimmed water into the 3" "funnel", The pipe would be filled 1/2 way with caron and there would be a filter pad at the cap to make sure the carbon did not plug the holes or escape... I went to Home Depot, bought the stuff at a cost of 40 bucks, made it, and installed it with an hour..I was pretty proud of myself until I turned the skimmer on and instantly the water backed up and into the sump. I drilled more holes, then larger ones in the cap and no change. I ran to J&L and bought the pellet type carbon, figuring it would allow the water to flow thru it better...Waste of a trip that was, as it did not help...Ugh, back the the drawing board.  Alot of guys said they just dropped the skimmed water over a bag of carbon. I could do this, but felt I had too much money invested to take a chance on ANY OPOs getting into the tank and killing everything. Man I love my Apex. As I sit here and write this long winded account of events, the alarm goes off. I ignore it, as I have it set to go off when my feeder goes on, so I can monitor how it works for a few days, and I think this is why the alarm is going off. The Apex then sends an email to me and BAM...Oh crap...The Apex has sent me an IDIOT reminder. I forgot my float valve for my salt mix barrel was broken. I had turned on the water to fill it before writing this and it started to flood the basement, it set the leak detector off and is why the alarm is going...Note to self....PAY ATTENTION TO ALARMS..... Anyways.... I thought maybe a bigger pipe would work, but realized that the carbon, compacting itself and not allowing enough water to flow thu it was the issue. I either had to pump the skimmed water thru a reactor or??? Pumping it was to much work and could I ever precisely pump the same amount coming out of pipe, as going in without running pump dry or tempting a flood etc etc... I came up with this....  I had had acrylic pieces laying around and it only took 2 hours to makes. The idea is to have the water drain thru the perforated sheets of acrylic, over the carbon and thru another perforated sheet of acrylic, then out the one end. I put an old cap, upside down at the outlet pipe so that the water was dispersed evenly over the acrylic and not straight down thru one area. If done right, the carbon would not compact itself, thereby allowing a great flow rate 1" from the bottom of the acrylic box is a sheet of perforated acrylic, on top of that is a sheet of filter pad to support the carbon, so it does not run thru holes or plug them. I put egg crate on top of filter pad to keep carbon from moving to one end of box or another, added about 6 cups (1.5 inches) of carbon, and finally the top sheet of perf acrylic. The egg crate helped keep the top sheet from crushing the carbon and compacting it with the weight of the water on top of it. The sides of the box are 3' above the top sheet of acrylic, in case the carbon gets plugged/compacted over time and does not allow water to flow thru it as quickly. There is also a float switch to shut down the ozonator in case the water overflows the sides, without going thru the carbon first... I put a plastic cap under the outlet to allow water to be dispersed more even over the acrylic sheet and not straight down one area.  I set it all up and voila' , works like a charm. The water flows thru without filling the box at all, the carbon does not compact, skimmer works great and no ozone smell. etc etc.. My ORP was 279 at 9PM last night when I got the ozone running. I set the apex to shut down the ozonator at 385 and send an alarm. Woke up this morning and all was good. No issues with any of the equipment. The orp had climbed steadily all night and at 12 today it is at 320. Not sure if it is just me or...but the water certainly looks cleare. It could be that it is also running thru carbon and the ozone is doing nothing...Time will tell I suppose.  I do wonder though... If ozone is heavier than air, will it actually vent outside? Can the air pressure from the skimmer be enough to force it out or is it sitting in the cup and draining down the tube that goes to the bucket that holds my skimmate? The bucket has a lid on it and the tubing going into it is very tight, but I do have a small pressure relief hole in the lid..Should I be worried?
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#40
04-05-2015, 09:19 PM
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Linear Mode
