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Aberrix's 40 Gallon Breeder (1 Viewer)

sogonerg said:
83 for temp??? Wow...that getting high

ALK @ 160!?!
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again, I don't have the fans in my canopy/sump area installed, once they are I'd imagine the temp will be fine.

160 for alk, im using an old test kit I got from hypertech so I dont know if its still good(?) but even then it was my first time testing for alk so I may have done it incorrect. It's a different test kit than my others so I'm sure there will be a learning curve...
 
DG mentioned those honeywell Turbo Fans from mernards. I have 1 of them inside the sump and it keeps my temps around 78 with my home temped around 73 on the thermostat. Thats with MH and T5s

In addition to the canopy fans
 
I got the canopy fans installed last week, I'm staying at a constant 79.8F now. What a change those fans made to the temp! WOW. I also picked up a small 6" fan for the sump area but I don't even seem to need that right now. I managed to pick up second RKM-PC4 power strip to add to my reef keeper lite (L1), so I plan to add the fans to my controller, currently they're running 24/7. With the fans running 24/7 I seem to be losing 1 to 1.5 gal a day in evaporation! and the return area in my sump only holds maybe 2.5 to 3 gal... so I was pretty much having to keep an eye on it every day, and do trips to the basement to get fresh RO/DI to top it off and if I missed a day I would've probably been a goner... So, Friday I picked up a level-loc from BRS, WOW! this thing is amazing! plumbed it right into my RO/DI system and now its zero mess w/ no reservoirs to top-off or anything, simply amazing! So far I *highly* recommend it.

That's about it for updates, tomorrow will be 2 weeks up and running... still waiting for the cycle, I haven't seen anything spike yet... *shrugs*
 
Aberrix said:
I've got the "75GPD RO/DI 5 Stage *PLUS* System" from BRS and am VERY pleased with it. Here is how I mounted it in my laundry room... Also I just hooked up my level-loc to it Friday and its was simple to install and very clean looking, no reservoir to fill up either... it's awesome. level-loc is *the* way to go for an ATO imho now.
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keep in mind that short bursts produce higher TDS water. So hooked up to directly to your sump will make more work on your DI and some TDS will slip through to your tank. Best to fill up a resevoir wait until it's nearing empty and refill. Produced highest water quality and your DI will last longer.

IME: Regardless what redundancies you think you have in place, the cardinal sin is to supply a potentially endless water source to your tank by hooking directly up to your sump. Especially when it's level based topoff as in this case. Notice on the loc level that this DOES NOT protect you from low level conditions. It's going to continual add freshwater. Water level based goes on the assumption that the water is lower from evaporation which in normal conditions is true but not always and it only takes once and tank is dead.

If you have a plumbing issue or anything else that causes the water level to go down other than from evaporation then you could end up with a freshwater tank. While a plumbing type issue is bad in itself you don't want to compound it into a salinity issue too. Ask Ben Nichols, he learned first hand. Overflow slowed down, show tank was flowing over, causing sump level to lower. Since based on water level RO/DI kept getting adding and return pumping it back to the tank. By the time he noticed, not only did the floors and drywall need repair but complete tank losss. Then there is Derek ( Epedemic ) who didn't use clamps on his hoses one day it fell off cuased a big mess as is but if he had continuous water supply to his tank that could have compounded to an even bigger mess.

I used direct RO supply as topoff for a couple of year, thankfully I had no real issues. But have seen enough from others mistakes, I'm no longer willing.

Always best to use a resevoir and sizing it so that if absolute worst case if everything failed the salinity would not get too low or cause the sump to overflow.

At very minimum you need to combine LEVEL BASED with TIME BASED so that you know at max it can only add xx amount per day based on a timer REGARDLESS what the water level is.

You may also find later that you want to use your topoff for other than just RO such as supplementation for ALK and/or Calcium and hooked directly up will make that a non-option.

It's your tank, as long as you know the risk and okay with the worst possible scenerio then fine. However, I'll be the first to say "I told you so".

Sometimes it isn't just the automation your just protecting yourself from your own dumbu mistakes or errors when doing maintenance to your tank and forget to turn something back on or hook something back up. Been there done that too.
 
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good advice, I put the level-loc on a timer today before I read your post :) I have it set to "turn on" for 15min at 6am and 6pm, gonna start with that to see how it works... figure then worst case scenario I'm flooding my house with water for 30min every 24 hours... instead of running continuously for 24 hours should I be away...

also noted on the higher TDS... I'll try and keep an eye on that, since my TDS meter is in-line, you're saying that's something the meter will not detect? (the bursts)

I still have my 35g RO/DI storage barrel downstairs, having gone the "ATO reservoir" route with my pico I thought I'd give something like this a shot...

like I said I was losing about 1 to 1.5g of water due to evaporation a day, my stand simply isnt big enough for me to fit anything bigger than like a 3g ATO reservoir in the stand (and that would be if I got creative...) so even then I'm only giving myself roughly 2-3 days max before I need to refill it / check it...

definitely something to think about though... again, thanks for the insight.

Also, I was home over lunch and my 2nd RKM-PC4 power strip came in the mail so I got that hooked up while I was home :) got my fans set to turn on at 80F, put my power heads on there as well and my return pump. So the only thing not on there right now is my level-loc and thats just using a mechanical marineland timer. I still think I'm going to need just one more strip though :) hehe
 
Aberrix said:
also noted on the higher TDS... I'll try and keep an eye on that, since my TDS meter is in-line, you're saying that's something the meter will not detect? (the bursts)
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It's obvious when your looking at a meter reading directly after the membrane. If your only reading after the DI then you likely are not going to see it becuase the DI is taking up the slack but will exhaust quicker as a result.

Avoiding the frequent on/offs and making as many gallons as possible at a time is always best.
 
I'm not an advocate of putting the return pump on the controller. Mine is an always on device so I have that hooked up independantly ( acutally to a UPS in addition ) so if the controller strip pops a fuse or malfunctions at least one circulation pump is still running. Optimally should be on a seperate circuit as well for added redundancy.

Plus, gives you another port for things you may want to control.
 
how about the skimmer? neither really seem like things you'd need on the controller? but if you got extra outlets, any reason not to?
 
Aberrix said:
like I said I was losing about 1 to 1.5g of water due to evaporation a day, my stand simply isnt big enough for me to fit anything bigger than like a 3g ATO reservoir in the stand (and that would be if I got creative...)
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Nothing says it can't be hidden in other ways and has to be under the sump. Many people have placed in on the side, under an existing accent table type thing with long drapping material to the floor ( forgot what that's called ) and placed some pictures on top maybe a plant to make it look like it is intentional piece of furniture.
 
UPDATE!

Thanks to UMDivX for holding on to a couple of my frags from my pico that I wanted to save while I got the 40B setup. I swung by his place the other night and picked them up and brought them home.

This is the kinda stuff that makes it all worth it... When we got home and I put the frags into the tank. My 19 month old daughter got changed into her PJ's as it was getting near her bed-time, then she went straight to get her stool she uses to brush her teeth and wash her hands and walked right to the tank where she stood on it and was glued to the tank for the next 30 minutes until she went to sleep. She was so excited to finally see something in the tank, kept saying "CORAL! CORAL! CORAL!" it was super cute and totally made me forget about all the money I've spent getting to this point and any headaches I've had along the way, totally worth it...

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Aberrix said:
UPDATE!

She was so excited to finally see something in the tank, kept saying "CORAL! CORAL! CORAL!" it was super cute and totally made me forget about all the money I've spent getting to this point and any headaches I've had along the way, totally worth it...
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I totally know how you feel - I get the same way when Ky stops by on her weekend's home from Mankato - she gets just as excited!

Looking very nice BTW!!!!
 
Installed a RKM-MLC Moonlight module last night, pic is with (3) 2-LED pod's @ 72%

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I'll get some more pics of all the new additions in the coming week... ;)
 
haha, she does love the tank.

One of my additions about a week or two ago was an RBTA... This was originally from David Grigor, I got it from ShaneDolan where it got a little beat up in his tank and mine also during the first couple days... I'd say it's still not 100% but its rapidly getting there... truly one of my favorite things in the tank now...

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I fed it a 1/2 piece of silverside last night, was pretty fun to watch it eat.

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'nem update!

He hasn't moved since he finally picked a spot, I rotated the rock he was on the in above pic (a few posts up) so that he's facing the top of the tank. been feeding him silversides and mysis (alternating) pretty often and he seems *really* happy after every feeding. Above is a pic a couple hours after a feeding taken just a couple days ago.

He was pretty beat up when I got him and he has really bounced back. His white speckles are starting to really show and his tips are showing really nice bubbles.

He is just a little smaller than a tennis ball at this point.
 
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