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Brent's 150 gallon build (1 Viewer)

Need to make sure the lens and cover is rinsed well before and after use. If any residue it left on it can give a higher reading on the refractometer than it really is. I like to take at least 3 readings before making a judement on what the salinity is.


Only way the salinity would go down during week would be if your loosing saltwater by some means and you have a level based as it replacing with freshwater. But to go from 1.025 down to 1.021 you would have to loose probably 10 gallons which would be pretty hard to do without noticing.

So that leaves freshly mixed saltwater is much lower than you think it is. Be sure to test multiple times and clean it well between uses.
 
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Thanks for the pointer!. I usually just wipe it off with the cloth not rinse it with water. Can you run it under tap water and how long should you wait after placing water on the lens before reading it?


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You aren't somehow skimming so wet you are dumping a gallon+ of saltwater a day, are you? Only way you wouldn't notice that is if you drain the cup through a tube to a floor drain or something.
 
I would say the cup fills up about half way in a weeks time so maybe a half gallon a week?


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I re calibrated my refractometer, it was at 1.025 when it should be 1.026 and after today's water change the sump level is correct(ATO will be back working again rather than just letting evaporation raise salinity) and my salinity is at 1.025 in the tank. My tank did seem like it evaporated about 20 gallons of water over the corse of the week.

I wish I had a more accurate way of seeing how much water my top off uses in a week but the holding bin I have is really hard to open as it's tucked under the stairs.


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You could evap 100 gallons in a week and top it off, your salinity shouldn't change. If your salinity is dropping that much, you are losing salty water and replacing with fresh. Like David said, hard to miss 10 gallons of saltwater on the floor. Also, you would need 2-5 cups of "salt creep" for it to be that.

I know clogged drain lines can adjust water height in overflows. It could start low and end high which would then mean more freshwater being added to keep the pump chamber at the right height. However, I don't think there is enough capacity in 2 overflows to allow for the adding of enough freshwater to drop 150g from 1.025 to 1.021.

Hope it is just your refractometer maintenance.
 
Me too, otherwise I've gotta figure out where the water is going. The sump is on concrete. So I feel like that would be super easy to see water if it was leaking


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So I came home today and figured out the culprit. After getting my salinity how I wanted it I plugged my ATO back into my reefkeeper. And it added about 10 gallons of water today for some reason. Needless to say I have unplugged it until I get a chance to figure out what is going on with it. Does anyone have a reefkeeper that this has happened to them as well?


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But on the bright side I got two mp40's last week to replace my 4 koralias in the tank and today my battery backup arrived :) so I am set for thunderstorm season!


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How are you running the ATO on the reef keeper? Mine, I run on a timer to run one minute every hour, unless the float switch alarm is tripped, then it won't run.

Without at least a 800w generator, you aren't ready for thunderstorm season. Grigor was without power last June for 3 - 5 days? 2000w or 3000w kept his whole place going (tanks/freezer etc)

The battery backups are great though. They allow you to at least not worry about outages while you are at work. You have time before you need the generator.
 
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I do have a generator as well (have it for work) but this way like you said I won't have to leave work early as soon as I get the email alert that the power went out

I have the float switch set up that any time the water drops below the switch it kicks the pump on but I would be interested in hearing more about how you programmed yours


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I would have thought 10g addition would be easy to detect. That's nearly 4" of height in a 55g tank if that's what you still using for a sump. I always mark on my sump where the normal water level should be so at quick glance can tell if too much or too little. Float switch working correctly should be able to keep it with a 1/4" easily. Can't help with reefkeeper, always been a Neptune guy.
 
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First, figure out why it dumps the 10g. Gotta be a problem, right?
Second, my ATO pump is a maxi jet because I don't use kalk. If you are using an aqualifter or something, you may need more than a minute.

Set up an alarm that is "tripped" when the float switch is "up"
Go to the outlet on the PC4 that is your ATO pump.
Mode: auto
Function: multi timer, assign timer A to defined timer xx (I have timer xx set up as daily, start at midnight, on a minute, off 59 minutes, repeat count 23)
Alarm: set to the float switch alarm, "off" when "tripped"

Set up this way, it runs for the full minute, unless the float is up, in which case, it turns off.

Anyway, because I have it on a timer to only run one minute an hour, I limit how much it can dump if the float switch fails. I also have a limited reservoir, so I am doubly protected.

I kept my RKL with the float switch on my tank after I bought the Apex because I am fond of this setup....and it also gave me some more outlets and a second temp probe with backup heater to cross check with...
 
Yea I had no problem noticing this water addition, it has never happened before so I don't think that was the issue I was having before. I think that was poor maintenance.

I will set up my reefkeeper to do that tonight when I get off of work.

Thank you for all of the input it has been very helpful


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Bschowa said:
So I came home today and figured out the culprit. After getting my salinity how I wanted it I plugged my ATO back into my reefkeeper. And it added about 10 gallons of water today for some reason. Needless to say I have unplugged it until I get a chance to figure out what is going on with it. Does anyone have a reefkeeper that this has happened to them as well?


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Click to expand...

Did it pump all the water out of your ato bucket or just until it was level with the output hose/sump? I had this problem with my aqualifter, I realized that Aqua lifter has a siphoning issue, if the output hose of the aqua lifter is lower then the water level in the ato bucket it will let water drip through (even while off) until it is level with the hose (elevation wise). I ended up stapling the output hose to the top inside of my stand so the ATO is louder now but no longer adding to much water. Took me a few weeks of water levels over my baffles in the sump to figure it out...
 
It pumped everything out of my holding tank but when I came home the pump was not running dry so at some point it shut off? I was thinking this morning that maybe my return pump was pulling my float switch down which casued the pump to run and then when the water was 4 inches above my float switch it finnaly had enough to break off of the pull from my pump?


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Where is your holding tank in relation to your sump? Higher, lower, next to it, over it? Are you using an aqua lifter?

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My holding tank is below and I use a rio pump 1200 it pumps out water pretty quick out of a 1/2 hose that has about 2 feet of head on it


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Got my switch hooked up hopefully it works I couldn't find a way to test and see if it did but I set mine up for on 1 min off 2 hrs 59 min 8 times a day as my pump puts out a lot of water at a time


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Still concerned about the open brain coral though not sure what's going on ImageUploadedByTapatalk1398568617.080848.jpg

Here is the picture of it currently it seems to have holes in it and it's always deflated
udu9a6ap.jpg

Here is when I got it
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1398568656.915223.jpg


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