Oprah Wrangler March 5, 2014 Author March 5, 2014 Question? for all those following along. Do you guys want water quality parameters before the unit is used and then I can post them as the unit plugs along on its program? My system is a 58 gallon oceanic with a 30 gallon breeder for a sump. The sump has a 10 gallon refugium in the center. I estimate the full volume at around 70 or 80 gallons with water displacement from aquascaping. I am good with posting my pre-water change parameters but I have to ask that there be no judgement. I am pretty sure that things are bad enough in the tank to choke a horse. (I really am a responsible reefer, I promise) My plan is to do three 30 gallon water changes this week (every other day) to get things back to a good place. Then I think I will set the unit to change a gallon a day until there is a need for more. Essentially, what would you all like me to include on this thread, besides a lot of pictures...lol Thanks again for tagging along and sharing in my excitement.
Arkonen March 5, 2014 March 5, 2014 Question? for all those following along. Do you guys want water quality parameters before the unit is used and then I can post them as the unit plugs along on its program? My system is a 58 gallon oceanic with a 30 gallon breeder for a sump. The sump has a 10 gallon refugium in the center. I estimate the full volume at around 70 or 80 gallons with water displacement from aquascaping. I am good with posting my pre-water change parameters but I have to ask that there be no judgement. I am pretty sure that things are bad enough in the tank to choke a horse. (I really am a responsible reefer, I promise) My plan is to do three 30 gallon water changes this week (every other day) to get things back to a good place. Then I think I will set the unit to change a gallon a day until there is a need for more. Essentially, what would you all like me to include on this thread, besides a lot of pictures...lol Thanks again for tagging along and sharing in my excitement. Judgement free zone my friend. Trying to better your husbandry should never be looked down upon
Oprah Wrangler March 5, 2014 Author March 5, 2014 Parameters throughout the process it is. Thanks for the input.
Oprah Wrangler March 5, 2014 Author March 5, 2014 Judgement free zone my friend. Trying to better your husbandry should never be looked down upon Thanks, I am really beating myself up about my lack of time. I commend all who are able to run their tanks without a 600.00 auto water change system. My hat goes off to you all.
Oprah Wrangler March 5, 2014 Author March 5, 2014 No, dang Fed-ex would be here by now any other time. I'm a little frustrated...lol
Oprah Wrangler March 5, 2014 Author March 5, 2014 Well, the first thing I have to say is Holy bubble wrap batman...lol I cant wait to share tonight.
AlanM March 5, 2014 March 5, 2014 So give up the info. What is your nitrate and phosphate currently at? Promise I won't point and laugh. It would also be interesting to see what the tank looks like with really high numbers so that a good visual comparison can be made once you are doing auto water changes (i.e. post pics of the current state with "choke a horse" water quality, heh). For what it's worth, I bet horses don't like pristine salt water either.
mr.x-ray March 5, 2014 March 5, 2014 Man that is one nice set up. Almost turned around and waited for you to get off work, so I could follow you home and help set up.
monkiboy March 5, 2014 March 5, 2014 yep looks like kevin is still a packing genius, haha. took me like twenty minutes to unpack my system, haha.
Oprah Wrangler March 6, 2014 Author March 6, 2014 The unit is on the wall and I have taken photo's of every step. Then life got in the way and I had to stop working. So I will continue today, I think I am going to try and get out of work early. I could use some advice however. I have not had to do much connecting of vinyl tubing to things and these fittings take some muscle to connect. I was thinking about put some Vaseline on the fittings and then heating up the end of the vinyl tubing to make it more plyable? Thoughts and recommendations welcome. I am dealing with 1/2 in and 5/8 in tubing.
Oprah Wrangler March 6, 2014 Author March 6, 2014 yep looks like kevin is still a packing genius, haha. took me like twenty minutes to unpack my system, haha. Hahaha, I think he has graduated to super genius because I have never seen something packed so well.
Oprah Wrangler March 6, 2014 Author March 6, 2014 Man that is one nice set up. Almost turned around and waited for you to get off work, so I could follow you home and help set up. I could have used another pair of hands. Now that it is up on the wall, I just have to muscle on these dang vinyl tubes. Maybe when it is up and running you can come by for a beer and we can watch it do a water change.
Oprah Wrangler March 6, 2014 Author March 6, 2014 (edited) So give up the info. What is your nitrate and phosphate currently at? Promise I won't point and laugh. It would also be interesting to see what the tank looks like with really high numbers so that a good visual comparison can be made once you are doing auto water changes (i.e. post pics of the current state with "choke a horse" water quality, heh). For what it's worth, I bet horses don't like pristine salt water either. I will test the water tonight. I had a hard time with tubes last night and then some other things came up. I was thinking about pics of the tank. I agree that a visual record of improvement would be nice so I will add a tank photo to go with each batch of test results. I will get on the phone with Mr. Ed and ask him how he takes his salt water...lol Edited March 6, 2014 by Oprah Wrangler
AlanM March 6, 2014 March 6, 2014 I typically heat a mug of water in the microwave for a minute and stick the tube ends in there for a while to soften and lube them with water. I wouldnt use vaseline. If you really need a lubricant think about plumbers silicone grease which you can get from HD or lowes in little white puck shaped containers. Or maybe a water based one like KY? Not sure if KY is reef safe, but I imagine it is fine in the quantities you would be using.
Nytelighter March 6, 2014 March 6, 2014 I typically heat a mug of water in the microwave for a minute and stick the tube ends in there for a while to soften and lube them with water. I wouldnt use vaseline. +1
monkiboy March 6, 2014 March 6, 2014 (edited) I typically heat a mug of water in the microwave for a minute and stick the tube ends in there for a while to soften and lube them with water. I wouldnt use vaseline. exactly. the barbed fittings on the reservoirs are great for a secure fit as they are a bit oversized for the ID of the hose they tell you to use. do as alan suggested and just heat up some water in a mug or similar then put the end of the tube in there for about thirty seconds and easy peezy. i'd still recommend using zip ties or plastic ratcheting clamps on all connections. have you gotten to experience kevin's world class customer service yet? i remember installing mine i had a few questions and was thinking i was going to have to wait a couple days for feedback. i had a response that night at 10pm and was able to finish my install. so how do you work your ATO when you don't have the storm module to communicate with the renew to stop ATO function during a water change? eager to see it installed and how it works for you! Edited March 6, 2014 by monkiboy
Oprah Wrangler March 6, 2014 Author March 6, 2014 exactly. the barbed fittings on the reservoirs are great for a secure fit as they are a bit oversized for the ID of the hose they tell you to use. do as alan suggested and just heat up some water in a mug or similar then put the end of the tube in there for about thirty seconds and easy peezy. i'd still recommend using zip ties or plastic ratcheting clamps on all connections. have you gotten to experience kevin's world class customer service yet? i remember installing mine i had a few questions and was thinking i was going to have to wait a couple days for feedback. i had a response that night at 10pm and was able to finish my install. so how do you work your ATO when you don't have the storm module to communicate with the renew to stop ATO function during a water change? eager to see it installed and how it works for you! Thanks for chiming in. I will give the mug of water a try. I currently top off by hand so there is no concern about top off interaction. I will be adding the RocV to the Renew eventually. Kevin is amazing. I joined reef-central before ordering because Genesis is a vendor sponsor for them and has a pinned thread. I posted that I was ready to place an order and he responded before I could log off. Then, once my order was placed, I got a message from him saying that my order was received and being packaged before I even logged off of the Genesis site. He even told me when it should arrive and he nailed it.
Oprah Wrangler March 6, 2014 Author March 6, 2014 Ran home for lunch to pick up the Wife and decided to give the microwave water a try...worked like a charm. So I have no school tonight and my wife will be out for about four hours, woohoo no distractions. Should be able to get everything done this evening.
Oprah Wrangler March 7, 2014 Author March 7, 2014 Alright, so pics will go up tonight if I can figure out how to post them. The unit worked flawlessly. I changed 30 gallons of water last night while I slept . Here are my parameters before the water change: Temp- 76 degrees S.g.- 1.026 pH- 8.2 NH3- 0.25 NO2- 0 NO3- 80 Mg- 1600 KH- 10.1 Ca- 360
AlanM March 7, 2014 March 7, 2014 Geez. Those aren't terrible. The way you were talking it sounded you were going to have ditchwater where nothing could grow except Xenia. haha. Nitrate is high, calcium seems low, but it seems like with this system those could be fixed in pretty short order. Very cool that it changed 30g overnight.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now