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That skimmers design with its placement of its foam bublle trap is problematic. My faverite hang on back has always been the old remora with its bubble trap... always search for one on the forums. I use fine mesh nets in my system for bubbles were needed... they need to be rinsed every 2 weeks. You can most likely get one some were in your system every fish store has different sizes.

My etss downdraft has that color as long as i dose vinager/sugar Dark brown if i dont.

yeah, what Kathryn said is correct. You need a gate valve where the main drain pipe enters the sump and the pipe beyond that valve should extend below the surface of the sump water only a little bit to allow all of the air to get out of the line when the pump starts up. Ball valve is easier to get at Lowes or Home Depot, but you won't like trying to slightly adjust it to get the water level in the external box correct.

The DC pump is convenient because it lets you make more fine adjustments compared to tweaking the valve, but the valve will definitely need to be adding some restriction in the first place to prevent all that noise!

Got it! Thank you! I thought it didn’t need the valve because the pump was DC and can be adjusted but my last tank had a valve as well for water restriction. I’ll give it a try

my first guess would be that the GFO has fine particles and is escaping the reactor and getting pulled out into the skimmate. Second guess (less likely) would be that the GFO has reduced your nutrients enough that now the only micro-fauna that can survive is dinoflagellates and that's what the orange/brown color filling your skimmate is, but I doubt that is the answer because you can see the same color in your reactor. Do you see any signs of brown slime during the bright part of the photo period?

Whoops, yeah, thanks for catching that detail - the second emergency drain is effectively higher up because of the length of PVC pipe that I completely forgot to mention! I see the other photos now - it looks like your overflow box has two drains and can be set up Herbie style if you want. I see you've got the PVC extending the emergency drain, so all you'd need is a valve on the first drain - I'd recommend putting it at the end of the pipe right before the entry into the sump, so the majority of the pipe is completely filled with water and will minimize any trickling noise from after the flow restriction.

I have two, using the herbie style. One is all the way to the bottom of the overflow, and one is higher by way of a bit of PVC pipe in case the first one gets blocked.

How many drains do you have? Just one? There's some different types of plumbing setups folks use to manage noise - I think BRS had a decent discussion of them. The Herbie overflow style is what my tank uses, with two drains. The first drain has a valve on it that you adjust to keep the water high enough that it's not sucking air into the siphon down the pipe. The second one acts as an emergency overflow in case the first one gets clogged. I've struggled with the adjustments, but now that it's dialed in (and my new pump isn't fluctuating the flow randomly any more!), it's totally silent. Only time I'll hear noise is while putting my hands or other things in and out, since that makes the tank water level fluctuate and thus impacts the overflow box water level

A few more pictures

This is my first time drilling and plumbing a tank by myself so bare with me. I put water in the tank and the plumbing/overflow is SUPER loud. I’m afraid that I have somehow drilled it too high or did something fatally wrong. Can anyone give any advice or just tell me I need to scrap it and start again if that is the case 🫣 IMG_1461.mov

I finally bought a house so no more stupid apartment rules about aquariums. I do have to worry about the floors being wood instead of concrete. It's an old house (1945) with the original wood floors. I bought it "as is" so I have a lot of work to do in it before I can put up the tank, but the tank setup is part of the work I need to do in the living room. It's going to be a couple of months before I can physically start on the tank project, but I have to do a lot of planning. I can't do an in-wall tank, so I want to build a large unit that the tank can be set into with a couple inches in front of it so water doesn't drip onto my wood floor (the sides and back of the unit will keep water off the floor). The tank section would be 6 ft and then on each end a tall 12" cabinet, so the unit would be about 8 ft long. There will be a top going all the across and a back, and I can hang lights from that structure, plus a front flip-open panel to hide everything above the tank. On the outer ends I'll still have a couple of feet of space, so I'll possibly put a flip-down counter space to put stuff on when I'm working on the tank. This will be along the lengths of the beams under the floor and those look to be a max of 2 ft apart (didn't actually measure), so the thing needs to be at least 24" wide but I'm getting a 72x18. I'll build the stand with supports in the right places to be able to put a smaller tank on it if needed. I don't want the weight of a sump on the floor. I was thinking I'd drill the floor to put a sump in the basement, but in this house that part of the basement is a finished room that I don't want to become a tank equipment room. So I'm just going to make the tank into an AIO using the ends of it, and I'll still have enough room for my favorite fish. Years ago before my 38g was used for drill practice at frag fest, I had made it into an AIO with both ends having a section of macros - the contrast of the macros on the ends with the display section in the middle framed by the macros was really cool looking, so I would kind of like having that design (maybe I can put a little hole in the macro section dividing wall for fish to nibble at any bits or pods that wander through). Hopefully the costs to fix up the house won't mess up my tank plans. Most of the expense is stuff like a parking pad that is costing almost 7k, taking out the oil boiler system and installing a mini split for heat and AC which is gonna be at least 7k. I haven't found an electrician yet and have no idea what it will cost. The plumber is at 3k just for a few initial things. Curses to metal pipes that keep me from doing plumbing stuff myself - after all the years with saltwater tanks I know basic plumbing by now as long as the pipes aren't metal. Eventually I'll have to replace entire runs because there are still galvanized metal pipes mixed in with copper pipes - hopefully I can get them replaced with pex. If anyone has an empty 72" 125 tank FS let me know. I'll also be looking for lights and gyre pumps. I should have enough LR already. But I lost what was left of my corals because of 2 heat incidents that happened a couple of months ago when I wasn't home - call them the casualty of living in an apartment where you have no control of heat and AC.

Wondering if anyone know what the issue maybe? My sump reactor which has GFO and skimmer is producing a red/brownish color any suggestions what this maybe ? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We have started another Facebook auction for our corals. Same rules as normal but this time we are shipping. Click on the link below and happy bidding. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/jszvBb2oh1GPcNY7/?mibextid=WC7FNe

No, we treat as we see issues. Quarantine only properly works if everything has been QT since the start of the aquarium. If you see something you like, we will be happy to QT it for you for additional price.

Diamond back goby for sale $40

Engineered goby has tons of personality is roughly 12 inches long. Looking to get $50 but offers are welcome

Engineered goby has tons of personality is roughly 12 inches long. Looking to get $50 but offers are welcome

Thanks. It's a work in progress. Still trying to figure out the feeding regime. I try to get in on Saturdays, but no building access on Sundays. I can get it, but we rent from Mary Washington and trying to get two bureaucracies to work together is...challenging.

Note: Our guest speaker had a schedule conflict, and we moved the date of the Summer Meeting to accommodate his schedule. New date - Sunday July 14, 2024

I am already at 8.34 PH! Crazy how fast the scrubber worked. I may get a PH controller wired to a valve on a tee after the CO2 scrubber to lock in the PH at whatever level I want. I will see where things settle after a few days and go from there. Should be about $200 to set up: Milwaukee Instruments MC122US pH Controller Normally Closed 110VAC-230VAC Motorized Ball Valve,3/8" Stainless steel

It is worth checking the pH at least daily to give you an idea of when the media is exhausted. You may find that it works great but not for as long as one may like, so maybe adding a smaller (adjustable) hole in the line between the scrubber and skimmer and taking in ambient air as well, that portion bypassing the scrubber, could slow the rate of media consumption and still give you a bit of a pH boost.

I hooked up the new CO2 scrubber on a closed loop from the skimmer lid. After running it for about two hours the PH is already up to 8.03. I was hitting about 7.01 before I hooked it up, with both readings taken near the skimmer outlet in the refugium.

Ok - good plan. I will work on keeping the workshop as CO2 free as I can and hope the reef water off gasses much of the CO2 and the PH comes down to the point where the coralline comes back. Hopefully the new CO2 scrubber helps speed up that process. Thanks again for the help.