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bph

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Posts posted by bph

    Incorporating a refuge into a sump

    in General Discussion

    I just have a 29g sump with a section partitioned off and the water flows over the top edge into the return section. I do not get any plant material going over. If it close, I just push the mass of plants material down into the fuge further.

     

    By taking Tom's suggestion, the same might work with the second container having water pumped into it and letting if overflow out. Set the height of this fuge just above the sumps water and you would not get much splashing either.

     

    Sounds like that is the way to go... now just to figure out what a good inner tank would be.

    Incorporating a refuge into a sump

    in General Discussion

    I have one... except the whole thing is a refugium... these things are pretty hard to section off. I would say the easiest/best way would be to use eggcrate. Or just don't even bother sectioning it off.

     

    That is what I have now, but my issue is the plants are getting sucked into my external pump. I have installed a T on the bulkhead sticking into the tank, and put some gutterguard material burrito'd into the T to act as a mesh. So far, it seems to block most of the plants from getting chopped and sent to the main display, but flow of water moves the plants to hover over the intake. Just got me thinking on how others might have done it.

    Sikryd's 125g RR tank upgrade

    in Dedicated Tank (Build) Forum

    I guess I should have updated this thread by now since I have it up and runningnow.

    I put 2 ball valves on the returns and adjusted them, but haven't fully looked into quieting it down more yet. Too busy killing fish! :(

     

    Ouch :cry:

     

    I have minimized the noise a lot, but there are still a few bubble gurgles coming from the sump. I deadened these by attaching a T at the end of the pipes from the overflows and have them emptying right at the waters surface. That really lessened the impact as the gurgles now go thru both sides of the T's.

    Auto Top off

    in Do It Yourself

    · Edited by bph

    I don't want to hijack this thread, but it is pretty much the same question I have. What ATO to get, but in my case, I have an additional question. I live in Manassas and am on well water so I have a booster pump to bring the psi up to around 80 for my RO/DI system, but how do I incorporate all of that into a ATO? From what I gather, I need something that will turn on both the booster pump, the flow to the booster pump, and the pump that moves the RO/DI water into my sump. How would I stop the flow of water into the RO/DI system when it isn't in use?

     

    Thanks for any ideas!

     

    Brian

     

    EDIT - Seeing more posts, it seems that having it direct connected to the house water is a potential source of flooding, so that pretty much answers my questions there. Now just to get a good brand of ATO. I noticed BRK had a system, but I wasn't there for that at the time and don't recall what they had. I would much rather purchase locally than online.

    Where to buy sand/rock locally?

    in New to the Hobby

    Sorry if this is a repeat question. I did a search and didn't see an answer (I am not too great on those search engines).

     

    I just finished the plumbing on my 125g tank and now need to start thinking of rock and sand to put into it. Is there any sand sellers locally? With this size tank and 2" depth (good depth?) I am looking at 150lbs of sand! At least according to the sand calculator I found while searching.

     

    Also, any good sources for rock?

     

    Neither has to be "live". I don't mind waiting for a cycle to happen. It allows me to save up the cash to get a decent skimmer :)

     

    Thanks in advance and again I apologize if this is a repeated question

     

    Brian

    Closed loop system

    in New to the Hobby

    My one trip into anemone land and he got sucked up into my power head. I thought I would be clever and put the power head surrounded by liverock so you wouldn't see it, but the anemone sure found it! I am not sure if a closed loop system would help in that regard or not.

    Material between tank and stand - PVC pipe support

    in New to the Hobby

    Howdy all,

     

    It has been a little over a year (lived in a rental so didn't want to set it up, then moved to my new home and it took a while to get unpacked) and I have just bought some pvc pipe to get my tank up and running, but I have a question before I go too far. Is there some sort of cushion material necessary between the tank and the stand? If so what is it and where do I get it?

     

    Another question: The pvc pipe under the tank, how do you support the weight? For my application, I have the pvc pipe going from both sides of the tank (the drains) to the middle, where I will have it go through the wall to the sump in the other room. This is a long horizontal run of pvc pipe hanging from the bulkheads and I want to support it somehow.

     

    Thanks in advance,

    Brian

    Three mystery things popped up

    in New to the Hobby

    You also have a moderate amount of hair algae on your live rock. If you haven't already, I would start looking into ways to combat it before it gets out of control.

     

     

    Ya, I had a huge outbreak, and you are seeing the tail end (I hope) of my fight!

     

    Thanks all for the help!!

    Three mystery things popped up

    in New to the Hobby

    Howdy all,

     

    Some things have been going on in my tank and I took a few pictures this morning and thought I would post them and see if anyone had any insight on if I should get rid of them or not.

     

    Thanks in advance for showing interest and helping out!

     

    The first one is some black bubbles. I know, these can't be good... right? Where the heck did they come from?!!?

    gallery_2631363_482_38452.jpg

    gallery_2631363_482_12493.jpg

     

     

     

     

    The second is a red looking coral (?) I certainly never bought this thing... did it come from the live rock and fall onto the sand? A hitch hiker from some snails?

     

    gallery_2631363_482_97098.jpg

    gallery_2631363_482_5555.jpg

     

     

     

    Lastly is some green stalks that are growing out of one of my live rocks. Good? Bad?

     

    gallery_2631363_482_37797.jpg

    gallery_2631363_482_71062.jpg

    I need help or perhaps can someone verify my plumbing

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by bph

    What that link does not talk about is a hole in the end cap which is needed to vent the system.

     

    This guy has a wonderful write up on how it is designed, but his website crashed and he is in the process up recreating it.

    http://www.dursostandpipes.com/

     

    and this guy (Ken Stockman with a aqua-silencer) claims his design is even better than the Durso stand pipe:

    http://stockmanreef.com/aqua-silencer_standpipe.htm

     

    Bph, This link is great I was trying to understand how it's design and setup and the link just made it easy for me. I guess I know what I'll working on this weekend :)..

    Thanks again

    Sid

    I need help or perhaps can someone verify my plumbing

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by bph

    Do you have a durso type overflow set up? Not that my tank is full of water, so I can't speak from experience, but from what I understand, this is the way to go.

    gallery_2631363_456_13977.jpg

     

    or check out this website (just did a google search for durso overflow:

    http://www.the3wisemen.net/durso.jpg

     

     

    Yes the gargle sound is coming from my overflows. I adjusted the hight of pipe/tupe for the drain inside the overflows and have sponge on the top of it but sound is annoying. PM is on your way

    Thanks

    Sid

    Overflow to sump plumbing

    in New to the Hobby

    · Edited by bph

    So, here is a pic of my soon to be sump in the back room (blue plastic line is from my RO system sitting above):

    gallery_2631363_456_3512.jpg

    gallery_2631363_456_1295.jpg

     

    Here is a pic stand and where the pvc will be going through the wall:

    gallery_2631363_456_9698.jpg

     

    So, drill some holes in the sump or go for the slight incline and go over the lip? I guess I could just go for the slight incline and if it fails to perform adequately, I can always drill the holes later...

    Closed Recirculating Loop Design

    in New to the Hobby

    · Edited by bph

    So, here are some pics on my attempt at a closed loop system. Big thanks to FishWife for their build thread!

     

    Look good? Anywhere it could be improved?

     

    gallery_2631363_456_20783.jpg

     

    You can see my loc-lines just sitting on the bottom of the tank. Nothing is glued or screwed down yet.

    gallery_2631363_456_14394.jpg

     

    Loc-Line is resting on the overflow. Kind of give myself an idea of what the final look will be.

    gallery_2631363_456_19293.jpg

    Overflow to sump plumbing

    in New to the Hobby

    Okay, still working on my AGA 125 tank. Has two 1.75 inch and two 1.5 inch holes pre-drilled overflows in the back. I have two 1.5 inch bulkheads for the feed to the sump and two 1 inch bulkheads for the returns.

     

    Question one: can I tee the two overflows together and have one pipe emptying into the sump? Should I use 1.5" pvc pipe the whole length or smaller/larger? I have a lot of room to work with.

     

    Question two: The tank's bottom is at 28 inches off the ground, but so is the wall of the sump (its behind the wall in another room). How does this work? I will be having the water come out the bottom of the tank, across about a foot or so horizontal length then go up to get into the sump.... that an issue? The top of the tank is at 51 inches above the floor(overflow is about 48 inches high), so gravity fed, there is a decent delta in height, but I am not a mechanical engineer and don't claim to know fluid dynamics or anything :)

     

    That is about all I can think of for now... hope the description makes sense. I appreciate any help :)

     

    Thanks in advance,

    Brian

    Closed Recirculating Loop Design

    in New to the Hobby

    When planning on water movement, no matter what you use, try to plan it so it takes the water from the bottom and moves it towards the top and the overflow(s). This keeps stuff from settling on the bottom and keeps the water clean. Both of our tanks has the water moving in a circular pattern from the bottom back to the middle front, then bounces back towards the top back.

     

    So, placing the overflow pvc in the sand, and the outlets shooting up at a 45 degree angle is a good design? I was told that some corals/mushrooms that live near the bottom of tanks (due to lesser light) like less waterflow. I am currently not sure what I am going to be putting in my tank, but don't want to limit what I can do by the way I am setting it up...

    Closed Recirculating Loop Design

    in New to the Hobby

    · Edited by bph

    Based off of water movement, is there a reason to have a closed loop at the top of an aquarium as opposed to being at the bottom of it? (Taking into account the various corals that one could have in the system. I haven't gotten that far in my thought process, so don't want to hamper my options at a later date by messing this up).

     

    How do you get the water into the closed loop system? Of course you have an intake, but do you just have a screened off opening that the water goes through? What about keeping snails/fish/etc. away from the intake? I assume that you have a lot of flow, so this intake would be sucking a LOT of water... right? Or do you have multiple intakes to cut the flow from one down? Should this intake be near the top/middle/bottom?

    Closed Recirculating Loop Design

    in New to the Hobby

    Is there a reason you did not go that route? I know it would certainly be easier for me to not have a closed loop... but if it is the right thing to do, then I don't mind working one into my setup before adding water to the tank (I have had my tank set up and empty since December :eek: )

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