Faithbleed

UPDATE: Lots of progress made.. Firstly the tank is now covered in algae (taking steps to correct that): My first additions were 2x baby clowns. My second additions are 3x Chromis My first coral is 1x Zoo Frag Water params are all good, fish are feeding and seem happy. Zoo has opened and also seems to be doing well. Waiting at least 4 weeks until consider adding anything else.

Look forward to seeing the end result. :spop:

*phew* 900L... !drool:

Yeah, I got that feeling from the research I've done. I appreciate the advice, hopefully not long now. It's definitely been a waiting game, staring at rock for 2 months has been hard, but I don't want to rush it just when it's getting close.

Cheers LA. Whats the verdict on the 1/3 water change?

Sorry, probably should have clarified. Marine tank - 2 months into very first cycle (no fish). Cycle started with dead uncured rock and a muscle which I added in there. Lots of algae activity, green mainly, bit of brown and beige too. Added carbon as the water had a distinct yellow tinge and it was advised. Readings 1 week ago were: PH: 8.3 Salinity: 1.023 Ammonia: 0.25 Nitrite: 2 Nitrate: 100 Current readings are: PH: 8.3 Salinity: 1.024 (I've been deliberately raising it slowly) Ammonia: <0.25 Nitrite: 0.1 Nitrate: 25

Hi All I've been cycling for about 8 weeks now and my levels were still quite high. I was advised to put carbon in to clean the water and do a water change around this mark. I've put the carbon in a couple of days ago and the nitrite and nitrate have dropped dramatically. Ammonia has gone down too, but the ready is still cloudy, so under .25. I would of expected ammonia to drop to 0 before the nitrites/nitrates started to drop? Would it be the carbon doing this? Is this normal cycling process or have I wrecked things with the carbon? :dunno: Should I still do a water change (was aiming for 30%)? Cheers Dave

David, I think it may be a problem inherent in Eheim Jager heaters. I have a 300L tank + 50L sump, and run 2x 150W Jagers and they seems to do some strange things like turn on when the temps already over 27 degrees (it's set for 26) and can't seem to keep the temp at a consistent temp. Also, calibrating them is a nightmare - it took me around 2 weeks of fiddling to finally get them calibrated correctly. They seem to need to be run in a bit, because they're getting better, but for a while there I considered returning them.

DETAILS: Tank: 300L (1000W x 600D x 500H) Sump: 100L when full (runs at about 50L) Return Pump: Eheim 1260 Heaters: 2 x Eheim 150W Lights: Maxspext RAZOR 160W 16K LED Unit. Skimmer: Reef Octopus NW-150 Powerheads: 1x Tunze 6055, 1x Tunze 6095 (Wide flow) Controller:1x Tunze 7095 Stand: DIY'd it myself. CURRENT STOCK: FISH - 2 Baby Ocellaris Clowns - 3 Blue/Green Chromis - 1 Bangai Cardinal - 1 Foxface Fish - 1 Sixline Wrasse INVERTS - 1 Cleaner Shrimp - 1 Blue Linckia Star Corals - 3 Zoas - 1 Xenia - 1 Hairy Mushroom - 10 Ricordia Yuma - 1 Frogspawn - 1 Bubble Coral So, here it is so far: 4 weeks in and algae is only just starting to grow. :bounce:

Thanks, that's helpful to know.

Hey All, Just cycling my 300L marine tank and have my skimmer in my sump. :happy2: I noticed after a few hours of operation that the skimmer pump became really noisy. It sounded like there was something vibrating inside it. I turned it off and took the bits i could apart, cleaned, tightened and reassembled. Worked good for about 30 mins then went noisy again. Skimmer is a new Reef Octopus NW150. Been running for about 6-8 hours in total so far. Cheers Dave

Cheers LA, I'll look into that. How often do you top up usually?

Yeah, new sump solved all the issues:

Thanks everyone for their help , the problem is now solved and the tank is happily cycling between the tank and sump. First set of tests rendered these results: PH: 8 Ammonia: 1.5 Nitrite: 0.5 Nitrate: 50 Salinity: 1.0225 A tank diary will be started soon. Thanks again. :bounce:

The reason was 2 fold. I was unsure how much flow would come through the two drains, so I wanted to be able to control them in case it was too much and it allows me to close off the drains in case things go pear shaped. They are in fact the only reason my carpet didn't take a bath the other day. That would be another benefit, and I'll consider bio-media or liverock later down the track. You're not kidding those things were damn pricey even after he gave me trade prices. Gotta say Mico was the most helpful of all the places I went, some trade stores simply told me they couldn't help me because it's not plumbing related... most frustrating!

Yeah, I think I get what you mean, that's why there's a a ball valve on the split, to control how much gets returned into the sump. At max it'll be 50% reduced, at most I can put 100% back into the tank. Like this: If the case is that there'll be no stress on the pump if I put a valve straight on the return line, then the split may not be neccessary. I'll see how the new sump runs, I can do either option easily enough.

Aaaah, this I did not know. Thanks Ira. When the new sump arrives I'll give both options a try. Also, does anyone have any ideas/uses for the old sump? I was thinking about keeping it and using it as a quarantine tank or to breed live food?

Cheers RUNAS, that does seem like a simple enough solution. My concern is that it will have a negative effect on the pump (pressure/stress). My solution (with the help of the forum dwellers) was to split the line, thus no pressure on the pump and the sump fills quicker, reducing the risk of the end section draining.

I took the sump out and ran an experiment. :smln: I filled it and put the pump in the end section and the return line back into the first section and turn it on. The flow was fine, it stabilized immediately. So that rules out the baffles. - Problem 1: Not enough flow from the overflow coupled with a powerful pump causing the last section of the sump to drain too quickly (Solved by sectioning off part of the return line back into the sump.) - Problem 2: Height of the baffles puts the water above the skimmers operating level (Solved by getting a new sump built with lower baffles - no way around that.) - Problem 3: Kinks in return line caused by the height of the baffles (Solved by #2 or getting elbow fittings.) - Problem 4: In even of a pump failure, flooding will occur (Solved by #2.) Thanks for all the assistance guys , looks like I'll be commissioning a new sump regardless. And here I was thinking I did enough research - :oops:. Lesson learned, moving on. :bounce:

I did give that a thought, but my concern is if the pump fails that my carpet will end up swimming with the current sump and the skimmer won't function with the current water level in the first section (and I can't raise the skimmer without hitting the stand's roof).

Hows about this then: 400H x 400W x 700L (slightly shorter in height than the previous sump to allow for easier hand access) Baffles are all 250H, except for the middle of the bubble traps baffles which is raised 40mm off the bottom. Baffles are now 40mm apart, instead of the previous 25mm. The space above the baffles will more than allow for pump failure and it's set at an ideal height for the skimmer and return pump (provided the last section doesn't drain to quickly) Any comments or suggestions would be most appreciated.

Sorry Ira, I assume a few things: - That a refugium needs sand. - Protein skimmers cant sit in sand - That middle section didn't have sand in it and was just water/equipment Either you ran the skimmer in sand or the there was no sand and it's still classed as a refugium.

They will be, but for now theyre t5's (2.x12k, 2x ascintic blue).

Ok, I'll try put this in picture form as best I can: Full Setup - Water level sitting just below the return line (any higher and it drains back into the sump) Tank Overflow Sump

Thanks for that. Mine is about half the length of yours (700L x 400W x 450H). I want to do a skimmer/fuge/return type setup w/ a bubble trap and I think it's still possible, I just need to reduce the height of the baffles and widen the bubble trap. I like your design Ira, but I would loose the refugium option if I were to go that direction. I read the following website (http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html) which stated the bubble trap gaps need to be 1". If that's too small for my setup, what size gap would you recommend?