Durand tank build (1 Viewer)
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OP
OP
Nothing has worked. And I’m going to be just ok with it. I’m thinking the very minimal water height that changes in the sump between the ato turning on and evaporation has to be the issue, that and running 1000gph pump on a 800gph overflow. At night the tank is silent and during the day I get a little water noise. Time to obsess on something else 
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One other thought I had, maybe the house voltage is changing slightly day vs night. That would change the pump speed slightly.
OP
OP
This was my thought on the controller. I do have the outlet on its own circuit direct from my sub panel on a 20amp breaker. So the chances of voltage drop I would think are low, but not impossible. And if so prob nothing can really do about it.
I was thinking that drop may be coming from the electric company. They can vary the voltage a little. Might be a day/night change from them. As you said, nothing you can do about that. An EB832 could tell you directly as it shows the line voltage. Otherwise there are various low cost plug in electric meters that would show it if you are curious.
OP
OP
I did look at your pics you shared before and decided that I would maybe have the same problem. The noise I’m getting is a little bubbling from the bulkhead coming out of the main tank. The strainer stoped the tornado affect and water noise I was getting leaving the external overflow. It’s just a little water noise now from the water leaving the main tank and entering the external box. Having the water level above the main display bulkhead silenced that completely. But having it slightly lower creates at little bubbly noise randomly. So trying to have that sweet spot of above the main display bulkhead and the top of the emergency drain that is maybe a 1/2” from the top of the box does not leave much room. Maybe 3/4-1” of wiggle room. Since the water level moves up and down for a reason I can’t figure out in my external box. Keeping it in this sweet spot has been difficult. I opened up the gate valve to lower the water in the ext at this point and it’s mostly silent 90° of the time.
Edit: are you saying a t from the main display bulkhead a it enters the external?
I never had the room in my box to put any tee off the bulk head, from the tank.
I run my external box at a higher level, submerging the bulk heads coming from the tanks weir box. I run my vario 8 return pump wide open and the speed of rushing water though the bulk heads into the overflow makes noise I do not want. Ya if you could shoehorn a 90 in there to point the incoming water down into the box..... I just run it high, my emergency is within 1" of top of box...and my secondary (which you dont have) has water running down it all the time.
With the change in your water level sometimes it submerged and quite and other times it bubbles? ugggg :/
But ya Bills right, with your strainer at the bottom of the box, you could make something to 90 and keep the water coming in below your overflow box's water line
I run my external box at a higher level, submerging the bulk heads coming from the tanks weir box. I run my vario 8 return pump wide open and the speed of rushing water though the bulk heads into the overflow makes noise I do not want. Ya if you could shoehorn a 90 in there to point the incoming water down into the box..... I just run it high, my emergency is within 1" of top of box...and my secondary (which you dont have) has water running down it all the time.
With the change in your water level sometimes it submerged and quite and other times it bubbles? ugggg :/
But ya Bills right, with your strainer at the bottom of the box, you could make something to 90 and keep the water coming in below your overflow box's water line
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OP
OP
Yes the water level was going from overflowing into the emergency drain in the am to just below the bulkhead from main later in the day. The if I open gate valve as little as I possibly can. Water level goes from just below emergency drain, to just below bulkhead from tank thus making noise. Not a lot of noise but some.
OP
OP
Wanted to make sure to say thank you to everyone for reaching our with advise. It’s such a silly issue to be having, but super frustrating. Nice to have a community of people willing to jump in a help. So again. Thank you!!!
OP
OP
so think I have to start dosing kalk. I replaced the old ph probe that I got second hand with my controller finally and now can actually monitor ph. And over the last few weeks have noticed ph hovers around 7.8 during the day and 7.65 at night or early am. I’m not totally sure if I need to be concerned but you know the gotta chase those numbers game. 
. I just don’t know if I should stop the all for reef. Use the doser for the kalk. Just add the kalk to my top off and keep running aft. ?? Lots to figure out???But waiting for my Salifert mag test kit and calcium test kit to come in from brs before doing anything. Figured I better get a baseline first before doing anything.
Also decided to check my dosing line for my afr and it was sealed off complete from I think salt creep from splashing back at it when my emergency drain is in use in the overflow at night. So cleaned that off and also had to recalibrate since it was about 2ml off. Guess my tank husbandry have been lacking lol . Going to give a few days, recheck everything and then go from there.
last plan is to start feeding a bit more. I’ve added a few zoa frags and lost one pretty quick. Just melted away and another is there but not opening and I feel like my other that are good are just not growing much. Could be the lack of mag or cal so will see, but might also just be ti clean. Little film on the glass from little sunlight and little algae around the feeding ring and that’s it. Think zoas like a little dieter water. Might be why my Leathers were never happy. But the fish will sure like it more.
. I just don’t know if I should stop the all for reef. Use the doser for the kalk. Just add the kalk to my top off and keep running aft. ?? Lots to figure out???But waiting for my Salifert mag test kit and calcium test kit to come in from brs before doing anything. Figured I better get a baseline first before doing anything.Also decided to check my dosing line for my afr and it was sealed off complete from I think salt creep from splashing back at it when my emergency drain is in use in the overflow at night. So cleaned that off and also had to recalibrate since it was about 2ml off. Guess my tank husbandry have been lacking lol . Going to give a few days, recheck everything and then go from there.
last plan is to start feeding a bit more. I’ve added a few zoa frags and lost one pretty quick. Just melted away and another is there but not opening and I feel like my other that are good are just not growing much. Could be the lack of mag or cal so will see, but might also just be ti clean. Little film on the glass from little sunlight and little algae around the feeding ring and that’s it. Think zoas like a little dieter water. Might be why my Leathers were never happy. But the fish will sure like it more.
I think ph is more important than some people realize. Getting it up to 8.1-8.3 is a games changer. I've read countless times that it's not very important on r2r but man do things grow better for me now. Kalk is a good option and should always be used on a dosing pump or with a kalk stirrer.
I'd probably drop the afr for kalk but make sure to do those water changes lol.
I'd probably drop the afr for kalk but make sure to do those water changes lol.
I like the high ph as well. For those that do both, do you dose or add kalk to ato and the supplement with 2 part on top of that. Right now I have my alk and calc really dialed in, but don’t like where my ph is. I am just using 2 part now, no kalk
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I dose my kalk (100% concentration) separately from my ATO. Seems to be working well.
do you then dose alk or calc on top of that to get your levels where you want them? Or does the kalk Get you all you need? I’m wondering when you get a lot of corals does kalk alone suffice?
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Right now kalk alone is enough, but barely. Even at 100% saturation the kalk volume I need is close to taking care of my full ATO amount. So I guess I’m honestly trying to decide whether I will upgrade to kalk slurry OR dose 2 part on top of kalk. Haven’t decided yet. 2 part on top seems more “typical”, but the results folks are showing with kalk slurry also look fairly intriguing.
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After some research and reading the responses here. I’m leaning towards adding kalk to my ato at low dose mix, or if I can make some room in my cabinet adding a another container of low mix kale and adding a dosing pump. I’m just not sure what I would set the dosing pump at for volume per day at night when ph is lowest. Guess I could try and figure daily evaporation and do half from kalk and rest from ato. Just want the ph boost. im imaging that I would cut my afr back a little since I’m getting some benefits from the kalk, but not all. I like the idea of running both. And the ato seems like the easiest to start now with little effort.
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What are you using to add Kalk to your system? Ive been watching and reading and seeing that with a stirrer I can just basically dump the kalk solution in the reactor and the dosing pump will pull water from ATO container and drip to the tank. I like this idea as I dont have to give up much room in the cabinet for stirrer, and the solution should last a long time with minimum upkeep. Now If I plan to keep using afr and the main purpose of adding the kalk is for Ph. Would A one gallon jug filled with kalk solution premixed and settled and then dosing pump from this last long enough to not be a daily chore and maybe its a weekly thing adding a second premixed jug that’s premixed an settled? I just dont want to add a second piece of equimpent that has overly complicated and daily chores. Im on a weekly schedule for maintance right now with hope to go biweekly if I can get things settled in and the tank can handle Biweekly water changes. Adding the Kalk Would need to fit into the regiment.
. The avast reactor looked like a good and cheaper option. But shows its discontinued From BRS. The two little fishes also looked like a small footprint but had lots of bad reviews. What would be a good option for a stirrer thats not super expensive?
I'm using a 5 gallon bucket started with a 1 gallon milk jug I basically add about 2 teaspoons per gallon I never clean out the residual kalkwasser from the bottom of the container the milk jug lasted about 6 months before I went to two milk jugs now a 5 gallon bucket next will be a small brute trash can lol. Basically you want a air tight fit so the solution is not overly exposed to co2, other wise it weekens dramatically when the solution is dosed via dosing pump it will make a vacuum in the jug crushing it so I put a tiny little hole in the cap, you don't want to over mix the kalkwasser and you don't want to undermix it but there's no simple way of telling I just mixed the jug about 45 seconds or so then let it settle and start dosingWhat are you using to add Kalk to your system? Ive been watching and reading and seeing that with a stirrer I can just basically dump the kalk solution in the reactor and the dosing pump will pull water from ATO container and drip to the tank. I like this idea as I dont have to give up much room in the cabinet for stirrer, and the solution should last a long time with minimum upkeep. Now If I plan to keep using afr and the main purpose of adding the kalk is for Ph. Would A one gallon jug filled with kalk solution premixed and settled and then dosing pump from this last long enough to not be a daily chore and maybe its a weekly thing adding a second premixed jug that’s premixed an settled? I just dont want to add a second piece of equimpent that has overly complicated and daily chores. Im on a weekly schedule for maintance right now with hope to go biweekly if I can get things settled in and the tank can handle Biweekly water changes. Adding the Kalk Would need to fit into the regiment.
The avast reactor looked like a good and cheaper option. But shows its discontinued From BRS. The two little fishes also looked like a small footprint but had lots of bad reviews. What would be a good option for a stirrer thats not super expensive?
Also: don't breathing kalk don't get to much on your hands and don't stick your hand in the solution it's a very fine powder so it not a bad idea to were something over your face when mixing it up.
Now about kalk stirrers they slowly loose potency over time so you either have to run more rodi threw it or top it off with a bit of kalk every so often I just run the bucket of fully concentrated kalk and dose about 1 liter a day lasts 15 days or so when I started I did 1/2 a teaspoon so it wasn't very concentrated and worked great slowly up'd the dose and concentration corals started taking off and growing good the real trick is keeping a stable environment. Witch is probably the most important thing.
So I rambled a bit but when I first started the kalk It lasted quite a while maybe start at like 30ml of not so concentrated a day spread out over at least ten doses increasing the doesage then the concentration of the kalk solution slowly over the course of a couple months you only have to test ph and alk dont let alk get to high and don't let ph get to high like 11alk Is high and 8.5 ph is high you want to shoot for 7-9 alk and a 8.1-8.3 ph threw out the day as ph fluctuates in our home tanks but is a steady 8.3 in the ocean
OP
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Thanks, I remeber dosing kalk back in the day and did exactly as you did with milk jugs. I eventually just went to 2 part. But took the tank down before I could see the results. Thought there might be a better solution this time around but Milk jug it is. Thinking of using a Kamoer wifi for pump If I cant find a used brs dosing pump. The Kamoer one im using for my afr has worked well for me, maybe hook to ac controller to not run or shut off if PH gets above a set amount. Is your kalk water your only water you are using for dosing and ATO. Or do you run a separate ATO as well. My plan is to hopefully have my ATO still online. Run Kalk in low dose for PH increase, and AFR for trace, mag,alc,cal. Hopefully this all works together and I dont crash the tank.
