Equipment Room, or not?

Discussion in 'Filters, Pumps, etc..' started by grubbsj, May 20, 2008.

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  1. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2006
    Messages:
    856
    Location:
    Outside of Seattle, WA
    Friday, in the LFS, one of the coral tanks (acrylic) has 4 clamps across the top... Turns out, the tank was made without a center brace and bowed enough that it broke...They will have there hands full to get it changed out with a new tank...

    But this got me thinking, my acrylic refugium has visually bowed out along the front, back, and center line divider...

    You can see the bow in this pic:
    [​IMG]


    So, as a precaution, I added 2 - 3/4 inch plywood boards and bar clamps to the refugium...at the max bow, this removed about 1/2 inch of width, or about a 1/4 inch per side...
    [​IMG]

    This tank is 12" wide by 30" long and 20" deep...

    I do have a 20 gal glass tank which could become a refugium...
     
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  3. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

    Joined:
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    856
    Location:
    Outside of Seattle, WA
    The Ca reactor seems to be controlling CO2 to maintain pH within the reactor. Since this weekend's checks showed Ca back up at 350, Mg at 1200, and Alk at 13.5.....

    I'm not going to dose or test again until this coming Saturday...After testing and dosing every day for two weeks...I'm feeling a bit of withdraw pains....
     
  4. Otty

    Otty Giant Squid

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    Nov 20, 2006
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    6,467
    Location:
    Elizabethtown, IN
    What is your CO2 bubble to effluent rate??? Plus what is the reactors pH staying at???
     
  5. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Outside of Seattle, WA
    Frustration!!

    Well, the bubble rate is difficult...who ever manufactured this Ca Reactor tapped the gas outlet from the bubble chamber a bit too deep and I can not get any 1/4" JG - 1/8 " NPT fitting to seal...not with many wraps of Teflon tape, very generous application of pipe dope for plastic threads, clear silicon calk, and 2-Part Marine epoxy! With out exception, I still have a leak...

    As long as there is a leak on the gas outlet of the bubblier, pH will only drop to about 6.6 and tends to hang closer to 6.8.

    As you can see in earlier pics, the reactor sits on a shelf, well above the sump. So the effluent really needs to be throttled well down to prevent/minimize siphoning. So, this results in the HammerHead return pump providing a slight pressure in the Reactor which makes the gas leak worst. I have tried running with the supply well throttled, and the effluent open...only to learn that a significant gas bubble builds up in the reactor and vents through the effluent. So, pH then runs closer to 7...

    - - - - - - - - - -
    The current configuration...I put a 1/4" JG T in the Ca reactor top vent return to the suction of the Ca reactor pump and connected the CO2 directly (no bubblier).

    Before starting in this configuration, (with the bubblier in service) I set the CO2 rate to be ~2 BPS with the reactor "pressurized" and the effluent throttled to a stream about 0.2mm dia or less....as close to just past "drip, drip, drip" as I could get.

    With the bubble rate set, I then re-configure the Ca Reactor to run without the bubblier. Now, pH within the reactor is being controlled to 6.4 (gas off) to 6.6 (gas on).


    Enhancements
    To make this a longer term solution, I have ordered a SS, gas flow meter from Dewer which will arrive the middle of next week. As well, I went ahead and ordered a 4 to 8 gal/Hr flow meter to go on the effluent.

    Sorry, not a short answer...
     
  6. bje

    bje Long-fin Bannerfish

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    Apr 12, 2009
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    1,628
    Location:
    Illinois
    nice safety precaution with the plywood. that would totally suck to come home to a empty tank
     
  7. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2006
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    856
    Location:
    Outside of Seattle, WA
    Yes it would...
     
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  9. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Outside of Seattle, WA
    From this weekend's chemistry testing, I see that Ca has droped 25 over the course of the week, so I dosed it back up to 350...

    Because of this, I'm going to continue dosing in 25 ppm steps till I reach 450 this week.

    Mg was still at 1200, Alk has drop just a bit from 15 to 14. pH has a small "float" between 8.07 and 8.12, average is 8.1. Sg also dropped a bit from 1.026 to 1.025...and the salt creep is evident around the sump return point...

    NO3 & PO4 are both still 0 when running the test kits as directed for "normal" resolution. When running them through a "high resolution" there is just a touch of detectable color.... So, NO3 is ~ 0.2 and PO4 is ~0.015.

    The GFO was refreshed at the first of Feb. and should be "good" through the end of June. And if the macro algae keeps growing...maybe even longer...

    The flow meters for water and CO2 should arrive this week and I'll be adding them to the Ca Reactor to finish geting it dialed in to handle the daily dosing requirements...
     
  10. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2006
    Messages:
    856
    Location:
    Outside of Seattle, WA
    Spring Weather is upon us!!

    With the approach of summer, the new chiller is starting to run...

    In the first attachment, the temp drop is 2 degrees over about 45 minutes...

    In the second pic is a 6 day summary of tank temp. There is a 4 degree change in the temp through out the day.

    Right now, the chiller has run only two times (once a day for the last 2 days), outside of testing/setup during the winter.

    So, now that we can see the performance of this 1/3 hp chiller on a 180 gallon system...what are your thoughts?

    My first concern is that a 2 degree drop in temp over 45 minutes is a bit steep...considering the temp increase is about 2 degrees over 6 hours...but it is yet, just spring....
     

    Attached Files:

  11. Nealio

    Nealio Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Nov 2, 2009
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    Location:
    Bradenton/Tampa, Fl
    How is the water fed through the chiller?
     
  12. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2006
    Messages:
    856
    Location:
    Outside of Seattle, WA
    This diagram shows the basic flow paths:

    [​IMG]