New 70 Gallon Custom Starphire Reef...

[Letsdiscus]

Pics.. Added a yellow tail Damsel before i start planning to move my other livestock including corals..

 

[Letsdiscus]

While the cycling wait was going on, we had a long pending Christmas gift I had purchased for my daughter which was lying around un-installed.
A 13 gallon all -in Acrylic tank. She wanted sea-horses so be it...

 

[Letsdiscus]

SOS.... Bean Animal overflow...

So i had quite a bit done this weekend. Got most of my live rock moved to neew setup with corals on them along with my paired Ocellaris clowns and flame angel...

Funny thing is all this while over a month during cycling i did not realise that from the two main overflows going to my sump, only the one with the air tubing is draining the water to the sump from the display while there is no water flowing via the second drain which has the gate valve for adjustment.

I tried playing around with the gate valve, removed both the overflows from the dispaly to drain all the water in the sump. Everything seems to be plumbed well as per Bean Animal.

However when the Return pump is started, the water only drains from the overflow as mentioned above with the air line connected. Not from the other.

Both overflows have the same height for the water line to drain, both plumbed using Bean animal..

Beats me.. anyone with any suggestions/ thoughts is greatly appreciated as i am in a fix now.

Had Herbie in my previous setup so never faced this problem.

I can share some pics but thy r the same. you can see on this thread shared previously..

Thanks in advance



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Josh]

another pony fan!! When i inquired on some pony info Yvette put me onto this post.
https://seahorsewhisperer.wordpress...ls-why-buying-from-a-breeder-is-so-important/

pretty good read on things to avoid.

I went back through a few of the photos and its really hard to see but are your 2 overflows not level with each other? It is "possible" but not "probable" that the 1 is draining because its lower and is lowering your oveflow height. Maybe it was just the way you took the photo but the one photro looks like they are about a 1/4" out which may explain the differences in flow. Try swapping the gate valve to the other overflow if thats easily possible and throttle it. If the other one starts to drain more than maybe that proves it? In that case you could likely leave the other one valved?

Could be way off on this one....

Good luck! everything is looking really nice.

 

[shamous113]

sounds like the main has a air lock. How far below the water level in the sump are the returns? if its more then 1/2" then you will have problems purging the air out of the main siphon. you could drill a 3/16 dia hole just below the water level to help it purge the air during start up.

 

[jeffopentax]

My guess is you have air trapped in your main siphon. I used to have the same issue when starting mine. Is the elbow in the overflow removable? What i did to get mine going was:

1. Remove elbow
2. Open valve fully
3. Crank up the return (so the water in overflow rises above top of bulkhead)
4. Reattach elbow

That should get the siphon going, then adjust return rate and valve.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

another pony fan!! When i inquired on some pony info Yvette put me onto this post.
https://seahorsewhisperer.wordpress...ls-why-buying-from-a-breeder-is-so-important/

pretty good read on things to avoid.

I went back through a few of the photos and its really hard to see but are your 2 overflows not level with each other? It is "possible" but not "probable" that the 1 is draining because its lower and is lowering your oveflow height. Maybe it was just the way you took the photo but the one photro looks like they are about a 1/4" out which may explain the differences in flow. Try swapping the gate valve to the other overflow if thats easily possible and throttle it. If the other one starts to drain more than maybe that proves it? In that case you could likely leave the other one valved?

Could be way off on this one....

Good luck! everything is looking really nice.

Thanks Josh. Both drains r almost of same height. Unfortunately the gate valve is hard plumbed so i may not be able to swap them.
Will check the length of the second drain going in the sump. Suscpect that could be an issue for air lock as suggested by other folks here.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

My guess is you have air trapped in your main siphon. I used to have the same issue when starting mine. Is the elbow in the overflow removable? What i did to get mine going was:

1. Remove elbow
2. Open valve fully
3. Crank up the return (so the water in overflow rises above top of bulkhead)
4. Reattach elbow

That should get the siphon going, then adjust return rate and valve.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Jeff. Iam not sure if i can remove the elbow as its hard plumbed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

sounds like the main has a air lock. How far below the water level in the sump are the returns? if its more then 1/2" then you will have problems purging the air out of the main siphon. you could drill a 3/16 dia hole just below the water level to help it purge the air during start up.

Thanks Shamius. I am hoping this could b the main suspect as this particula return from thr gatevalve i had left it way below the sump water line as against the other one with the air line.

I will try to reduce the length till just below water line and hope that it does the work.
Appreciate this input by all of u. Pics to follow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

Anyone know of a good online store nearby in west end for buying reef fish. Exlcuding Big Als And Coral reef shop.
Iam on a hunt for a fuzzy dwarf lionfish, hawain golden eye kole tang and few others..

Exciting times aghead to stock my new 70 gallons

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

Finally the move is

done.. had a gread deal done last weekend. Started moving all my Live rock with corals and few fishes...

Still working on cleaning my 55gallon Acrylic sump to be moved from old setup to new one. But so far all looks good in the new system with most live stock in place..

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nonuser]

What type of coral is below the neon trumpet coral?

 

[Letsdiscus]

Sump under cleanup. A good handful of white vinegar and water mix to get rid of excessive Coraline algae built up over months from thr cheato algae fuge light...

Any better ideas to feed light to cheato without having thr light spread to other aread in sump causing undue algae growth.. would love to know how u folks handling this..

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

What type of coral is below the neon trumpet coral?

Thats a sun coral. One of my personal favourites. He will wake up later at nite to feed. Its amaZing to watch them devour chunks of krill or prawns occassionaly when i treat them


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

Buckets full of Live rock is anyone interested in. Most of it is Tonga rock. I had to scale down a lot from my earlier 90 gallon to 70 now.

Any respectful offer will be much appreciated.

Also have 2 separate half full bags of Caribsea Live sand. One is black in color. Phosban 150 reactor as well

Pls PM me if interested with price.

Thanks

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

Project Sump swap for new 70 gallon----

So finally had to spare sometime to bring back my old 55 gallon Acrylic sump to the new setup.

Needed a lot of cleanup with lot of coraline algae...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

Had to re-work few plumbing and finally managed to get the overflow drain from both the 1" Pvc using Bean Animal. Came up with an idea of using a spare 3/4 loc line on the other overflow which had air trapped.

I had preciously mentioned that i was getting flow only from one drain and not both. Thanks to most of your suggestions main reason being there was air trapped.

I have connexted the second drain entering the sump via a flexi loc line which will help me create sufficient flow in the refugium section where i plan to stock some more Live rock and macro algae. Also it helps me release trap air if in future i come across a similar problem.

So far the system seems to work great and have to add my balance live stock and connect my apex and doser to the syStem.

Pls enjoy a few shoots taken ...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

Final resting place of my sump all cleant up

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

I need some ideas on macro algae setups in refugium. Wht kind of lights u guys use.

Basically i am trying to restrict the light spread only on the cheato and not spread around promoting unwanted algae growth in my sump glas..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Letsdiscus]

Added my Kessil lights

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk