I saw a pretty healthy increase in pH when I did my fresh air intake line, I was averaging 7.8 at night and now I'm usually around 8.0/8.1. Any concerns with the garage intake and car exhaust?
You'll want to guard against any time using spray chemicals or chemical fumes in your garage. Paints, WD-40, etc. Even one time of some of those getting in your tank could be an issue. Unless you are very good at remembering to cover the air intake in the garage every time without exception, vent well and then uncovering it after air is cleared. I know if forget at least once and likely many times. And if not me, then the wife or kids for a school project or birthday DIY gift.
Don't really do much in the garage that would produce any fumes. Most things like that I do outside. I've warned my wife about that just in case.
This has been a bad week for pumps. Five problems in one week. Most discovered during weekly tank maintenance. 1. Small cheap power head I use for nem control died Sunday. 2. Hydor power head not spinning, cleaning got it working again. Sunday 3. PMUPv2 used for carbon reactor discovered dead also on Sunday. Replaced under warranty. 4. COR-20 return pump quit with over current error Thursday. That usually means impeller is jammed or restricted. Took it apart and there was a lot of calcium build up on the impeller shaft and inside the pump. Overnight vinegar soak fixed it. Glad I have a spare return pump. 5. Skimmer quit on Friday. Pump cleaning and overnight soak fixed it. Looks like I'm going to have to increase my pump maintenance, Think I'll proactively clean the ATS pump tomorrow as it is about the only one not to fail this week.
Remember the ATS feed pump I said I should clean? Well, I didn't and it stopped yesterday. It did restart with a power cycle, but the ATS lights had stayed on without the pump running and fried a lot of the algae. Smelled real nice. The algae near the screen was still green so it should be fine. I've now added a line in the Apex code to shut off the ATS lights and alert if the ATS pump is not drawing enough wattage. Guess I'll actually clean that pump today.
I've been thinking about cleaning up the tank to sump plumbing for a while. The tank has 2 eshoppe overflows which each have 3 one inch drains. I had them configured as dual bean animals. That meant 6 one inch drain pipes running into the sump. (big mess) It was also a bit of a pain to tune the level since the gate valves were on the sump side of the wall. Placing filter socks when I wanted to use one also was difficult. So I've completed phase one of the re-plumb. I've converted the drains to a herbie with 4 of the one inch drains (2 per overflow) running into a single 1.5" pipe. According to plumbing websites a 1.5" gravity fed pipe can handle 1600gph. My return pump is doing about 800gph at the tank. That pipe runs through a single gate valve which is on the tank side of the wall. I also got a filter sock holder for when I want to use one. I still need to dremmel the lip off a section of the 75g sump tank so the holder fits. Phase 2 and 3 will be consolidating the 2 emergency drains into a 1.5" pipe, and the two returns into a 1.25" pipe which matches the COR 20's fitting. Before After Before After Before After
A few things made it easier. I did leave a fair amount of space behind the tank. I can reach the center from either side. I also put in a union everywhere a pipe meets the tank. That way I can complete all the gluing away from the tank and just screw the unions together. The hole through the wall is close to one end and large enough to work through. Lastly there is a short section of flex PVC between the union and the main pipe. That allowed me to be less exact on the measurements. I have most of the parts now for phase 2, the return. I don't think I'll have time to do it before the meeting though. The return line will be 1.25" from the pump through the wall, then T off to the two existing 3/4" flex PVC. I'll also add a union above the water line and plumb the spare return so it can just be swapped out at that union.
Phase 2 is done in time for the meeting. A nice benefit of upping the line from the pump to 1.25" is it did increase the flow. I also set it up so I can easily swap in the backup pump at the union just above the pump. So orange = drain, blue = return, and if I get to the emergency drain it will be red.
My corals have gone through a growth spurt. I've had to up my 2-Part to just over double what it was before the meeting (2 weeks ago). Now dosing about 360ml/day of each. About the only change was upping the red and green light peak from 20% to 40%. I mainly did it to make the tank color look a little better. Don't know if that is what caused it or not.
Still having pump problems. Skimmer froze up this week and the COR froze up this morning. My conclusion is that while running elevated ALK and CAL may increase coral growth, it is not worth it in the added pump maintenance. I'm going to slowly lower my ALK and CAL closer to natural sea water levels.
