75g 'finding nemo' themed FOWLR LOG

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rsw686

AC Members
Feb 27, 2007
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Virginia
Hmm, that would have been good to know going into it. I will take that into consideration and possibly make some changes. Shouldn't be to difficult to modify. If it did fail and the water couldn't flow do you think the PVC would bust or would the pump just continually try to push water into it at no avail and possibly burn out the pump?

I'll keep the Urchin comments in mind. So far he is doing ok.
No I mean the opposite. They will fail in the open position and not close. So then when the power fails it will flood your sump if your not prepared for the water that will drain.
 

vorlx

yadda yadda
Aug 30, 2007
565
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Broken Arrow, OK
No I mean the opposite. They will fail in the open position and not close. So then when the power fails it will flood your sump if your not prepared for the water that will drain.
Ohhhhh ok. That makes alot more sense. So, I would be taking the hole drilling route. Basically the objective would be to have them below the surface during normal operation, and above the surface during a power outage. That way as you said, the siphon would break due to the holes?
 

wantvws

AC Members
Jul 15, 2007
861
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Waynesboro, VA
So, I would be taking the hole drilling route. Basically the objective would be to have them below the surface during normal operation, and above the surface during a power outage. That way as you said, the siphon would break due to the holes?
That's exactly what I did for mine, even down to the scrapping of the check valve. I drilled my holes (four) about 1/2" below the water surface. Works like a charm.
And test it.
Repeatedly.:D
Robbie
 

viruzjk

AC Members
Aug 21, 2007
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try ebay.com for the figi live rock i got a good deal on there for mine and it was top of the line!
 

vorlx

yadda yadda
Aug 30, 2007
565
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47
Broken Arrow, OK
That's exactly what I did for mine, even down to the scrapping of the check valve. I drilled my holes (four) about 1/2" below the water surface. Works like a charm.
And test it.
Repeatedly.:D
Robbie
Ok, perfect. That would be really close to the depth of mine. I would need to do some mods to cut out the check valve. I'll drill the holes, then work on getting rid of the check valve.

try ebay.com for the figi live rock i got a good deal on there for mine and it was top of the line!
I can get fiji live rock for 5 dollars a pound here locally. They are always down to rubble though since its 3 dollars cheaper than any where else in town.

The good thing is, for my sump, rubble is what I need!
 

vorlx

yadda yadda
Aug 30, 2007
565
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Broken Arrow, OK
So it's been awhile since my last update. I have finished my sump/refugium project and am pretty happy with it. I purchased some chaeto off ebay, and have added some LR Rubble. I had an established 12G SW tank that become vacant when I built my 75g and moved all of the Live Sand from it to refugium. I have a Decorator crab in my refugium along with a newly added Emerald crab.

The 2 Emeralds in my main tank died. Well 1 I found dead and I never saw the other again. He used to make perodic appearances then one day just dissapeared forever. I replaced them today with 2 new emeralds.

In the mean time I have upgraded my lighting to T5's and added a Beautiful Rose BTA. My tank probably wasn't as mature as I would have liked it to be but the oppurtunity arose and I took it.

I had done alot of research on the BTA as far as feeding and general requirements and behavior. One thing I totally missed along the way was that they don't get along well with powerheads. Well one morning I had a very unfortunate incident. The powerhead naturally won and while the Rose BTA tried to make it, it ended up losing the battle.

As stubborn as I am, I decided to quickly try again with a cheaper and well not as appealing Normal BTA.. The LFS said that it was actually slightly different than a normal BTA that it had lil red tips at the end of its Bubbles.

Either way, at first he would float around the tank quite often trying to find that 'perfect' spot.

He finally settled down after a week or so and stayed put. So far so good. I have had him for close to a month now.

This led me to my next project. A closed loop system. I pretty much mirrored the design over at melevsreefs. The project took alot longer than expected and I fell short on funds mid way. I finally finished it about a week ago and I used a Mag 9.5 and my pump sits on the ground which is about a foot or two longer than he has his.

This left me with a few problems. The closed loop w/ scwd works perfect but the flow isn't near what I would like. I was used to 2 Koralia 4's and after it was all said and done, with the upward push and scwd efficiency I was getting 400gph flow through the closed loop. This ends up to be 7 seconds between intervals with the scwd.

Feeling really low in the flow department I tried experimenting with my Koralias. I tried the sheer pantyhose method but lost nearly all the flow the Koralias put out, so I ended up putting the Koralia opposite the BTA without the pantyhose and the one next to it with (even though its near worthless).

I still have bad feelings about the powerhead and plan on upgrading the closed loop in the near future. However, I'm really not sure what to go with. I know there is a Mag 12 but I don't think that would be worth the gain, so probablly a Mag 18.

My cleanup crew was getting rather depleted so I added a few things today.

5 more Cerith snails, 10 red legged hermits, 3 Large turbo's, 3 emeralds (1 in refugium), and last but not least a Porcelain Anemone Crab. He hung out in some rocks below the BTA for most of the night then he found the BTA and started pushing it around and got situated next to it.

The pics didn't upload right so I am redoing them and will add them to the next post.
 

vorlx

yadda yadda
Aug 30, 2007
565
0
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47
Broken Arrow, OK
Here are the pics:

Full Tank



Anemone, Porcelain crab and Dory checking things out.



Anemone, Porcelain crab and Dory 2



Anemone, Prcelain crab and Dory 3



Humbug Damsel and in the upper left is the tail of the Yellow Tang.



Emerald Crab and Dory not wanting to be left out.



Porcelain Crab when it first found the Anemone, trying to find a good spot.



Porcelain Crab & Anemone 2



Rose BTA (RIP) and Rare pic of Yellow Tang



Rose BTA 2 (RIP) and another Rare pic of the Yellow Tang



Dory



Rose BTA (RIP) Solo



Nemo

 
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