Blog Comments

Thanks guys, I'll get an iodine dip going today.

take out and dip with iodine dip and see if things come off.
Zoa Nudi's eat the skirts of zoas and thus turn the color of what they eat. (which makes them so hard to see)

dip, and and use a turkey baster to shoot the zoas and hopefully loosen any pests...

could be zoa pox?

I don't really like spray bars. They seem like a nice idea initially but it doesn't take long for them to start plugging up with bits of stuff. If you do it, make sure you can remove it easily for cleaning and or to just take it off permanently. You can make a prototype out of white PVC if you like... and if you have the time and want it black, paint it with Krylon Fusion for Plastics spray paint. Let it cure for 24 hours before submerging it.

Deciding how to do the return, was debating a black spray bar of sorts... I've got a rio 200 in there, so roughly 85 gph @1 foot, which will be the only flow source.. Any thoughts?

I've been doing this since 2004. Practice makes perfect. Looks good so far.

I was thinking about that when i was running water through it during the leak test, a bit of the dust that was left over was wiggling around and going up and down in the middle area, so there was some flow..
I've got an extra piece that's cut the same as the rest of the baffling in there, i may put it in one of the sides of the middle chamber...

I hope you decide to do it, I know I had a lot of fun (and frustration) with getting this together.. Marc makes it look so easy

Are you going to have anything that will cause the water to pull down into the middle chamber? Most of the water will skim right across the top and you'll lose a lot of flow from going down into the body of it. Maybe you could add a piece 1/2" inside of one of the two and make it go down to 1" or so from the bottom... causing the water to have to flow through the chamber.

Very cool and clean tank though. I'm looking to do one of these myself actually. :-)

Yeah mine is single circuit that either float will break the circuit if they rise.

Originally Posted by melev

And since then, I created a new top off system for my reef using two float switches that both have to be down for the water to flow into the sump from my ATO reservoir. If either one rises, water stops.

Sounds like a great idea, I may need to go find new switches...

Great story about the turbo - hadn't thought about that type of scenario. After a little more thought, it definitely would make more sense as an AND. If you're taking care of your reef, you'd catch the water loss soon enough that salinity changes and losses would be minimal.If the ATO sticks on due to an snail and the tank overflows, the reef would be a complete loss (wife would make me get rid of it)!

And since then, I created a new top off system for my reef using two float switches that both have to be down for the water to flow into the sump from my ATO reservoir. If either one rises, water stops.

Originally Posted by crewfish13

Just thinking as an engineer and aspiring reefer here, but do redundant floats actually help?

Not being difficult at all, something I thought of when I set it up

I've got them operate in an AND circuit, both drop it completes the loop and the pump gets power. I generally give them a quick wipe down when I do water changes, so I get rid of whatever grime/algae buildup is on them. I have, however, seen a large turbo snail stick to one of em (since I'm running sumpless right now they're tucked away in the back of the display) which actually pulled the switch down due to the weight, had i not had a second unit connected, I'd probably have had a flood =) So it's probably a personal preference and/or where you've got the floats located. If you're planning on running in the sump/return area, your likelihood of having issues like that are probably significantly lower.

I think i used Marc's DIY ATO idea that's posted on his reef page, just added the second unit for redundancy. In my new setup, I'll probably just have one switch.

Just thinking as an engineer and aspiring reefer here, but do redundant floats actually help? It seems to me that either way you program the floats, you still have a single point of failutre in one direction or the other. If the switches operate as an OR circuit (ATO turns on when either drops), you have doubled your chances of a switch sticking down, resulting in overdilution and overflow. If the switches operate as an AND circuit (ATO turns on when both drop), you have doubled your chances of a swtich sticking up, resulting in no topping off and salinity increase.

Not trying to be difficult - just trying to plan for the day when my wife finally finishes her residency and I have both the time and the money to get into reefs. Thanks!

I hate it when I forget to do stuff like that. I check, doublecheck and recheck stuff and still make mistakes. I think my biggest problem is not planting myself like a tree until something is done. I go off to do other stuff thinking I won't forget... and forget.

Welcome to RA.