I actually saw the new valve from Jaycar jam on as the water was heading past it. As soon as I tapped it, it let go. Nothing around it jamming it. Thinking I should try to change the angle a little to see if I can stop that behaviour until I can afford a better designed ato set up in a couple of months.
Tank Journal Archive
Sorry, this is as hard has hell to get decent photo of.
The angle will look odd as I can't get straight on it to shoot. What you will see is that the water has gone past where the float should have floated out to cut it off. A horizontal mount would probably be better, but be buggered if I'm going to waste money on acrylic I can't bend after the price I saw that stuff's worth the other day.
The angle will look odd as I can't get straight on it to shoot. What you will see is that the water has gone past where the float should have floated out to cut it off. A horizontal mount would probably be better, but be buggered if I'm going to waste money on acrylic I can't bend after the price I saw that stuff's worth the other day.
A picture says a thousand words ;), or something like that,
It needs to be mounted horizontally or, as you have found, it won't work properly. Given the job you did on your hood you appear to have some DIY skills :p
Go and buy a breadboard from the $2 shop, or the local equivalent, and make up something like mine - I made mine adjustable to make it easier to get it set at the right level but you don't necessarily have to do this.
Do not leave it like it is or you will have problems.
It needs to be mounted horizontally or, as you have found, it won't work properly. Given the job you did on your hood you appear to have some DIY skills :p
Go and buy a breadboard from the $2 shop, or the local equivalent, and make up something like mine - I made mine adjustable to make it easier to get it set at the right level but you don't necessarily have to do this.
Do not leave it like it is or you will have problems.
Man - have you ever taken a boot out of the signal running through those valves to the relay? I put in a connector plug/socket on the end of the wiring so I could more easily connect/disconnect from the relay wiring (havent sealed it up yet, but there's a compound I use on sealing LNB connectors on sat dishes that I can use for that). I managed to somehow get my finger in the middle when I plugged them in... Not the biggest kick I've had, but sure as hell felt it :D
Haaa ha , was waiting for it , you only get nine lives remember.
mmm, that is just silky sexy plumbing, I like it A lot!A picture says a thousand words ;), or something like that,
It needs to be mounted horizontally or, as you have found, it won't work properly. Given the job you did on your hood you appear to have some DIY skills :p
Go and buy a breadboard from the $2 shop, or the local equivalent, and make up something like mine - I made mine adjustable to make it easier to get it set at the right level but you don't necessarily have to do this.
Do not leave it like it is or you will have problems.
Still not the best picture because I have a stud right next to it...
I have just made up a U shaped bracket with one part screwed to the back wall - the pieces of the U are just drilled/screwed together. The extra front movable section is just slotted with a bolt coming through from the back so you can turn the knob and move the sliding bracket and thus the float switch to the required height.
I have just made up a U shaped bracket with one part screwed to the back wall - the pieces of the U are just drilled/screwed together. The extra front movable section is just slotted with a bolt coming through from the back so you can turn the knob and move the sliding bracket and thus the float switch to the required height.
I am using my Arduino so I only have 5v and something like 50mA running through the float switch - the Arduino switches my 240v control board (which is opto isolated) and turns on a small pump. So, no, I haven't had you experience:p
Started on brewing Randy's Recipe today, using recipe 1 as my pH is a little low.
With the help of Synodontis yesterday, we did a magnesium test that came in about 400ppm, which is obviously way too low.
Other useful bits:
Calc 380 mg/L
Alk: 8dkH
Phos: 0.25
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html suggests at 400ppm, I probably need 9 litres of the mag component to get it up to where it needs to be based on 500 litres. Obviously I don't want to make ridiculous changes quickly and I don't want to add that much without verifying the result that low against another kit, so I may just slowly add the first 2l of mag over a week or so, then I'll wait until I can get my own mag test kit and see how things are looking. Thinking of going for a Red Sea kit, and then trying to fine tune this in before the tank starts to get any major inhabitants. Thoughts?
With the help of Synodontis yesterday, we did a magnesium test that came in about 400ppm, which is obviously way too low.
Other useful bits:
Calc 380 mg/L
Alk: 8dkH
Phos: 0.25
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html suggests at 400ppm, I probably need 9 litres of the mag component to get it up to where it needs to be based on 500 litres. Obviously I don't want to make ridiculous changes quickly and I don't want to add that much without verifying the result that low against another kit, so I may just slowly add the first 2l of mag over a week or so, then I'll wait until I can get my own mag test kit and see how things are looking. Thinking of going for a Red Sea kit, and then trying to fine tune this in before the tank starts to get any major inhabitants. Thoughts?
Interesting day tank wise.
Finished off a bread broad bracket to hold the float valve only to find that's behaviour works the opposite to MagicJ's, so I need to rotate the valve so the float can go up to keep the pump off.. when it goes back to level, it's then on. In trying to rotate it, of course, I managed to break one of the pins that holds in the float. A piece of plastic, some glue and some patience, and I managed to fix that.
Added 30ml of Seachem Reef Calcium to see if I can get the calc up a little higher. I do have the batch I made for Randy's recipe, but I'd prefer to hold on to the Calc and Alk from that until I start dosing together. I did an ammonia test straight after that came in at 1.0ppm. Just done another one at 0, so not sure if the earlier one was a false reading, or whether it was just the extra water I added this morning or the calc additive that caused it. I did dose 2 1/2 cups of the mag recipe yesterday - noticed an increase in the pH today after doing that. I might do some more in another day or so, and hopefully get a mag test kit on order by the end of the week.
There are a couple of additions I made to the tank yesterday - I had a couple of rhodactus that have been growing like mad, and were stuck on a rock a little close together. I pulled them from the nano, split the rock and mounted them in this tank. Probably a little soon, but these two were too big to keep in the nano.
Finished off a bread broad bracket to hold the float valve only to find that's behaviour works the opposite to MagicJ's, so I need to rotate the valve so the float can go up to keep the pump off.. when it goes back to level, it's then on. In trying to rotate it, of course, I managed to break one of the pins that holds in the float. A piece of plastic, some glue and some patience, and I managed to fix that.
Added 30ml of Seachem Reef Calcium to see if I can get the calc up a little higher. I do have the batch I made for Randy's recipe, but I'd prefer to hold on to the Calc and Alk from that until I start dosing together. I did an ammonia test straight after that came in at 1.0ppm. Just done another one at 0, so not sure if the earlier one was a false reading, or whether it was just the extra water I added this morning or the calc additive that caused it. I did dose 2 1/2 cups of the mag recipe yesterday - noticed an increase in the pH today after doing that. I might do some more in another day or so, and hopefully get a mag test kit on order by the end of the week.
There are a couple of additions I made to the tank yesterday - I had a couple of rhodactus that have been growing like mad, and were stuck on a rock a little close together. I pulled them from the nano, split the rock and mounted them in this tank. Probably a little soon, but these two were too big to keep in the nano.
Side shot from today. A little hard to balance the colour right. I can't get the white balance to cope with the blue as there is just too much of it. Not as clear as I would have liked.
FTS: Hard to see, but there are a few different frags with zoas on them thanks to Luke. Also an acro and monti that he sent me as well. Terrified of SPS, but trying my best. The rock down in the gully is a massive bit covered in zoas. I split the rock from my nano that my fluffy morph had split on and stuck one in here.
I'll consider turning up the whites so I can get some clearer, closer shots once everything starts to settle down a bit more. The big zoa rock has a few polyps that haven't extended as yet - I think a few of them might have suffered it landing on its head.
I put in some other smaller pieces from the nano over the past week or so, and everyone seems to have adjusted to the change well.
FTS: Hard to see, but there are a few different frags with zoas on them thanks to Luke. Also an acro and monti that he sent me as well. Terrified of SPS, but trying my best. The rock down in the gully is a massive bit covered in zoas. I split the rock from my nano that my fluffy morph had split on and stuck one in here.
I'll consider turning up the whites so I can get some clearer, closer shots once everything starts to settle down a bit more. The big zoa rock has a few polyps that haven't extended as yet - I think a few of them might have suffered it landing on its head.
I put in some other smaller pieces from the nano over the past week or so, and everyone seems to have adjusted to the change well.
Not as controlled as you think - I moved a sponge, an elegance that was getting squashed and Spot the spotted cardinal straight after that :D
That's all for now though. I didn't actually want to move those last two yet, but the nano is starting to suffer from being a little overstocked, and I'm getting constant cyano issues, so I figured drastic measures are necessary to reduce it's stocking down a bit. About the only other things from the nano I'd move at this stage are some more zoas. The hammer and scolly will be last to move. The hammer in particular, given how much work went into resurrecting it from the dead, it can wait the longest.
There are other bits of coral on the live rock that seem to be coming back to life, including a couple of different things I think are both SPS that have started to colour up and glow under the blue lighting. Not easy to get a camera pointing to them.
Hopefully in about a month from now I'll be ready to collect my stock from Synodontis place and put them in as well. Not going to push my luck with a tang in the tank just yet. Really want to get my nutrients under control by then too, which may or may not happen. March is more likely for that.
