Ira Posted October 26, 2004 Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 Once you've got the roof in all you need is a chair, a TV and a beer fridge... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted October 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 Beer fridge? Thats what the chiller is for :lol: I hooked up my Calcium reactor last night. It's more in a temporary place at the moment until I find a better location for it (pending other bits and pieces to be finished first) but, at least it's up and running to provide some calcium carbonate and buffering to my tank - finally! I also removed the small baffle in the sump that sorrounded the outlet to the Iwaki. I now have approximately 35 litres (another 10 litres after baffle was removed) of evaporation before the water level will drop low enough causing the Iwaki to run dry. Note that white "strainer" has been removed from the outlet as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 To continue from the discussion somewhere else about the efficiency of your Iwaki pump... From the picture, you have 2 elbows for the in-water to travel before reaching the pump. I would reccomend that you A. Remove the elbow in the sump itself, or if you feel you need an elbow to control the level of the last baffle, increase the size of the pipe before you reach the baffle. B. Why not rotate the pump 90 Degrees and get rid of the elbow attached to the pump? I think this would make quite a difference to the pumps power (I think your turnover would increase, and may resolve that other issue you are having with the air bubbles. Looking good. Pies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted October 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 coz the pump will stick out over the door entrance! i'll remove the elbow in the sump. the bubbles are caused by a small hole drilled in the sea-swirl, meaning that only small air is drawn into the pipe as it reverse syphons rather than one large amount which would probably fix the problem. but problem without that small hole closer to the water surface is that too much water is drawn out of the main tank when it does reverse syphon. a ups or non-return valve will be the go. i seriously dont believe the sump elbows etc have anything to do with reverse syphoning - only performance of the pump itself. cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 If its the reverse syphon hole sucking air, than its not big enough (so the water is still syphoning, but the 'reverse syphon hole' is acting like a venturi intake. Either make the hole bigger or make another hole at the same level. That will fix it. I've just had another look at the picture. How come there are 2 elbows at the pump (between the pump and the sump)??? Can't you just lift the pump a few inches, turn one of the elboes 90 degrees, taa daaa, 1 less elbow? I am completely obsessed with plumbing at the moment, planning my own. It will be a low elbow , low friction affair. I've looked at non-return valves. They have a negitive effect on the pumps performance. Also, from what i've read on RC, after some time in saltwater they don't work 100% as all the life in the pipes starts to choke the moving part. So the people who do use them put a union on either side so it can be removed and cleaned/replaced at will. Pie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted October 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 The hole size was based on a recommendation from the sea-swirl guys. Any bigger and it has negative affects on the performance of flow coming out the actual sea-swirl nozzle (ie: under normal operation). I have been thinking about adding a one-way air-valve into the sea-swirl nozzle, slightly above the water line. It would be a one-way valve that does not allow anything out but can suck air in. This would stop the water reverse syphoning completely (well, only what is in the pipe at the time will reverse syphon into the sump, water in the main tank wont) I think a push fit with silicon to hold it would be best. Anyone know where I could get such a valve? Pies, re: making two elbows into one, yeah I will look at the feasibility of that also. cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 Not sure if I understand what you trying do but the one-way air valves you want are often sold as 'check' valves about .80c at any petstore. Pies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 Hey talking about check-vavles shouldn't there be one on your CA reactor? (is that the brass looking thing with the clip?). If not, make sure you get a check vavle between the gagues and the reactor. As the bottle empties less pressure will allow the reactor to flood the gagues and bottle. Wrecking them both. I know its not your bottole but them shiney new gagues would be fuxored. Pies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted October 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 yeah the brass thing is a check valve. its got a little arrow on it which I assume is the direction of the CO2 under normal operation. power went off for 8 hours yesterday (planned outage of 5 hours, turned into 8) the main tank temperature dropped from 25 to 23 degree's, sump temperature went to 21 degrees. anyways, the check valve seemed to do the trick although strangely there were small traces of water in the line between the check valve and reg? maybe i dont have the valve around the right way? you'll see what i mean re: check valve on sea-swirl when i do it. i'll post photo's. i guarantee you will notice the same effects on your new tank with your sea-swirls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 You can't have the check valve the wrong way around, or nothing would come through, as they only allow flow in one direction. Sea Swirls - I've been using 1 for ages, I have 'reverse syphon' holes in the back of mine, never had an issue, don't epect there to be an issue with them on the new tank either. Havn't need to add airline hoses with checl valves or anything else. You need to get more air through your by the sounds of it. Pieman T Minus 1 day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted October 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 RE: check valves, i realise that, but I can blow through both ends without a problem?! perhaps it only works with liquids? RE: sea-swirl, how much water gets squirted out through your "reverse syphon" holes and how many/how big are they? have you put your finger over them to see if water increases significantly out the main outlet nozzle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 Mine doesn't allow me to blow through the wrong way, only in one direction. The sea swirls each have 2 holes drilled into the back, from memory (need to go hom and look) I can't recall what size they are, about big as an airhose (from memory). When you put you fingers in the tank to feel the flow 'escaping' from the anti syphon holes its barely noticable. I am driving 1 SeaSwirl with an Iwaki 30RLT at about 1.3m height. I got the instructions on hole size etc from an RC thread but its going back maybee a year ago now. Pie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 Why not just raise the sea swirl up a bit That way instead of needing an extra hole it's the outlet that stops the siphon? Or is that not practical with the mounting on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted October 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 not practical with the mounting, plus the nozzle must be reasonably submerged for optimal efficiency. i will try my check valve idea (if i can get one big enough) and keep you all posted! I bought 25mm pressure piping to replace the current 20mm pressure pipe heading upstairs. When you actually measure the inside diameter of the pipe its not actually 25mm, more like about 22mm. The 20mm is more like about 16mm. I guess its rated to the outside of the pipe. Its going to be an increase in inside diameter nonetheless so we'll see if it actually makes a difference. Will post results when done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted November 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2004 as recommended from pies and others, i upgraded the plumbing from 15mm to 20mm heading upstairs from the iwaki. unfortunately its still reduced to 15mm about a foot from the sea-swirl (as shown in the 2nd pic) but this is a temporary measure (want to work out the best way to do this piping - later though!) here's the new pressure piping from the Iwaki. it goes into a union ball valve then into a 45 degree bend, about a foot of pipe, another 45, about 4 feet of straight pipe, another 45 (to get around the floor beam!), another foot or so then another 45 then straight upstairs! the reflection in the sump glass probably gives a better view! compare this pic to the one near the top of this page... here's the pipe heading upstairs and into the seaswirl. it goes back into a 15mm reducer here then a 90 degree and into the swirl. if anyone has some good ideas about what i can do from the pressure pipe into the swirl, let me know! (patiently awaits pies reply ) and just for the hell of it, an updated pic of the left side of the tank (plenty of acro frags all over the rocks, they're just too small/hard to see ) unfortunately the pic's not the best coz i got some reflection off the glass, will get a better one later! oh, and i added another 20kg of live rock to the refugium (at $5 a kg i couldn't resist), I'd guesstimate the total LR to be around 120-150kg now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted November 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2004 I finally bought a barrel for topup water. Got sick of looking around for 2nd hand cheap. Paid $82 + gst for it - still, thats about half of what I got quoted for a similar size by two other companies. I made a stand tonight for it, polyurethaned it up and installed it next to the refugium. the plastic barrel itself holds around 180 litres from memory (maybe a little less) I opted for the largest I could get - got the room so why not. I bought it from rotational plastics in glenfield, north shore, auckland (I'll throw in a free plug because the lady was extremely helpful!) http://www.rotationalplastics.co.nz It covered all the area's I was looking for - material being plastic, width being less than 550mm, volume being as large as possible and "colour" being opaque so I can check the water level easily. Im in the stage of filling it up, RODI filter has been going for several hours and its only 1/4 full!!! The hose going into it is only a temporary measure until I hook something up properly. Sorry, not the best photo: Also, heres a shot of the refugium with extra LR. Photo taken at about 11pm so fuge lights are on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted November 15, 2004 Report Share Posted November 15, 2004 Looks more translucent than opaque. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted November 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2004 bollocks, i did it again TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT TRANSLUCENT... BTW, believe it or not but the dosing pump shown in the picture above quite easily 'sucks' water from the barrel over a metre up first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted November 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 here's a modification to my sump room i will be doing soon. basically the bits painted in red are new. currently all water goes into the refugium then from fuge to sump and back up to the main tank. the new design (which should be easy to do) will T (or Y) the water off into two paths, most of it will go straight through the sump and a smaller portion via the refugium. both exits will go through a 3-way ball valve which i can turn to empty water out when doing water changes (without the need to turn off pumps etc) let me know what you think. the 80%/20% is a guesstimate, what would be recommended here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 looks quite good, although if you only have 20% going through your fuge wont that give to little flow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted November 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 apparently the fuge is supposed to have lesser flow. i could even separate it 50/50. just need a figure that is recommended for my setup. the overall flow will remain the same (its all dependant on the rate of the return pump), it just means the water in the main tank is turned over at a higher rate because a greater percentage bypasses the fuge and goes straight to the sump and back up. it should be relatively easy to do all this as the only difference is tapping into the current "downpipe" and t'ing it off. i can pretty much do that last once the other plumbing is changed over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 Chimera - Personally I think you should just leave it the way it is. Lots of theorys about how much flow is best for the refugium, but lots of people I know including myself just have the water roaring through there and it makes NO difference at all. You can use clever baffles and dividers to seperate off smaller sections if you want some low flow areas. My refugium is a 4 foot fishtank, cut in half (long ways) with about 6,000 litres and hr moving through it. Its LOADED with copepods, mysiids, worms and other critters. There is rock in there to provide some dead spots as shelter. I don't see any advantage to doing this as all. Why do you need to turn off your pumps to do a water change? Can't you just bleed off a little water until you have dumped as much as you want? Pieman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted November 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 i dont need to turn my pumps off to do a water change, in fact i dont do it now without the above setup. was just stating that i still dont need too do it even if i went with the new setup. i've read a few articles about refugium flow rates, one article will contradict the other. some say 3 to 15 times per hour, some say the same as your main tank, 15+ or more. i necessarily want to do it if it achieves no added benefit. just putting the question up for debate. cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 Yeah man, I would just leave it. Make sure you have some rock or whatever in there to provide some still spots but I really don't think its all that important. I mean lots of people run there tanks without a refugium at all with great results. In fact I think unless its big (50% the size of the display or larger) it probably doesn't make different anyway? If it was me, i'd just leave it as it. Pie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted November 20, 2004 Report Share Posted November 20, 2004 Chimera - Wanna do me a favor? How about snapping some pics of the sump room, all the plumbing etc for me? Just email it though if you like, need some ideas before I start mine. Please include how you ended up with the skimmer and ca reactor etc. Cheer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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