Tank Journal Archive

[NiCd]

Okay so we are moving and there has been a lot of things running through my head as to what to do with the tank and for the time being, I have settled with moving it as it but with a few tweaks to make life more comfortable and then look at a possible reboot down the track.


This is where I am looking at positioning the tank

I am looking at plumbing the chiller in the roof space, along with my Alk, Cal and Mg dosing to save space in the cabinet.

I am also looking at running an automatic water changer with the outlet hooked up to the sewer lines, an inlet to some drums outside and a further FW top up for my ATO, why I have an ATO topping up my ATO is still a bit of a mystery even to myself at this stage but it will be easy enough to change it to top up the sump should it would out to be reliable.

Now because I always do things the right way around I got the plumber in to tear the place apart after it had been fully patched and painted

So we have run 6 John Guest lines down the wall encapsulated in the tubing to prevent any kinks and then two 17mm refrigeration lines down that we are encasing in an insulated wrap.

Tomorrow is patching the plaster and finishing off the plumbing works and the sparky is coming to run the fish tank on its own circuit and to install some power points in the roof void above.

 

[Rob]

Going to he great..... i would really like my lines plumbed through the wall as well however i should of planned it. how will you manage syphoning if anything (ie ato)is higher than the tank. Are you using peristaltic pumps for everything ?

 

[NiCd]

With the water change and ATO there will be fairly much natural siphon effect with the line friction and the difference in heights.

The dosing does scare the shit out of me though. It is going through peris with 4 point rollers so there should always be one -two pinches on the line but if a head pops off or something its game over. I was thinking of bolting a strap over the heads so if they pop the rollers will still be in contact.

 

[Sam Parker]

Too late now, but did you consider using different coloured lines? That'll be fun working out which is which later :D

If you are using quality peri pumps, syphoning wont be an issue

 

[NiCd]

Unfortunately, Reece did not have different coloured lines. I have ordered some from PSI so from the wall out I will know but this is what I was left with.

They also did not ID the inlet from the outlet on the chiller lines, which isnt as hard to tell but still a bit annoying.

 

[NiCd]

If you are using quality peri pumps, syphoning wont be an issue

Years ago I used to have issues with the aquamedic ones as they only have two heads there was a magic position that they seemed to allow siphoning every few months or so.

 

[mcclown]

It's looking good :) When are you moving the tank?

 

[NiCd]

It's looking good :) When are you moving the tank?

The move is happening on 27/6 so a little while off but I still have a heap of renovations to do so this has just been ticking over in the background.

We managed to get the chiller into the roof, this bastard was heavy to be lugging up a ladder, through a man hole and then in between beam I can tell you!!!!!

 

[Sam Parker]

Years ago I used to have issues with the aquamedic ones as they only have two heads there was a magic position that they seemed to allow siphoning every few months or so.

I wouldn't classify aquamedic as "quality" :P

 

[NiCd]

lol then you wont think much of my Kamoers that I was going to chuck up there for the Alk Cal and Mg

 

[macca_75]

Great start.

1) ebay is your friend for colored JG line. There is a great supplier in QLD. (for next time ) If you still want to color code your lines maybe consider colored collets - https://k-j-aquatics.myshopify.com/collections/john-guest-speed-fit
2) Are you storing your supplements in the roof space - wouldn't this become tedious to top off over time (and check)? Stuff that needs attention or regular checking should be in eye sight - if its to hard or time consuming it doesn't get done.

what do you mean by topping off your top off? Are you running a solenoid to make the RO into your reservoir and then topping off from there into your ATO? That sounds like a like a great plan (unless you make a mistake like me - but honestly one of the best things for a lazy reefer - not having to make RO non stop).

Not your first time round and you know how to make a great reef.

 

[NiCd]

I honestly was not expecting to have trouble getting coloured JG lines from Reece and didn't want to send the plumber away as it was the last thing they had to do, they also did not have bulkheads per say so I wouldn't mind refitting the plates if I am honest, but it will just be a time issue if I can get the new fittings before the tank gets moved.

I am having an attic access ladder installed and the alk cal and mg drums are going to be located in an area that is very open getting decked out with flooring etc.

I was planning on having 30l drums of each up there so it should just be a 6 monthly refill of alk and yearly of calcium and magnesium. The kamoer is wireless so I can adjust the dose rates without going up there.

I was planning on going over to a Kore 5 in the cabinet to get better resolution on zeo dosing and I was also playing around with going full zeo with SPS in about a years time after things settle down.

At the moment the ATO system is pretty clumsy and needs to be refined.

So I have a 100l res outside. This is topped up by an RO/DI on a garden watering timer that runs for an hour and a half a week, which gives me about 15l which give or take 2l is my average.

I then have one of these guys

http://spectrapure.com/DOSING-TOP-O...uto-Top-Off-System-with-Magnetic-Probe-Holder

which sucking from the reservoir outside to my reservoir inside....which I then have one of these

http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/catalogue_products.php?prodID=7210

Topping up the sump from the internal reservoir....

Yeah..... I do see the extra steps in there that are not needed and that this can surely be improved upon even just by just having the spectra pure ato top off the sump from the external reservoir or not having the external reservoir spectra pure pump and having the RO/DI top off the internal reservoir. It is just a matter of lack of trust with those components.

The goal is really to have the ATO manage itself apart from yearly filter changes on the RO/DI filter. What are other lazy people doing?

 

[ajkdark]

In summer, the average roof cavity can reach 70 degrees Celsius.

I can't see how your chiller will survive up there, in your roof. It's an abhorrent environment.
The heat exchanger just won't work either. It's too hot.

And if you put your Kamoer dosing pump in the roof. It will fail. As the recommended maximum operating temperature is 50 degrees Celsius.

 

[NiCd]

I know what you are saying but it won't get to 70's but 50's will be likely in the peak of summer,

We are doing a bit of an attic conversion up there, we have a just installed a hand full of oversized whirely birds to bring cool air through the cavity of the brickwork, getting some extra sarking installed and have positioned it the furthest away from the roof tiles we can.

The pipes we used are meant for refrigerated lines and are heavily insulated and we have further wrapped them again to avoid ambient loss.

In terms of the roof space we did a similar thing at our current place and I have all my servers, nas, routers etc mounted up there without too much issue.

If things do get bad I will look at doing some ducting from the eves are force-ventilate into the inlet of the chiller, if things are still bad we will look at remote mounting the condenser unit the same as a ducted air set up.

I have had a few situation where a chiller has turned a closed room into an over with the fish tank in there where it got so hot the lights safety turned off etc and the chiller has kept the tank at temp despite the room being in the 60* range at ground level.

Basically, if this doesn't work there will be multiple revisions but the chiller will not be in the same room as the tank, it's just stupid having the hot air pumped back into the same room as something you are trying to cool down.

 

[MTG]

This is epic!!

 

[macca_75]

The goal is really to have the ATO manage itself apart from yearly filter changes on the RO/DI filter. What are other lazy people doing?

I have a PSI filter connected to my 8555 - this fills a 50L reservoir (which has an overflow plumbed to waste *in case* the 8555 locks on). So the filter makes 1 big run of 50L of RO production - good for the filters.

(excuse the average camera work on the camera)

The 3155 takes the water from there in to the sump like a traditional ATO.

Lazy - yeah thats me.

 

[macca_75]

they also did not have bulkheads per say so I wouldn't mind refitting the plates if I am honest, but it will just be a time issue if I can get the new fittings before the tank gets moved.

If you order online today you will most likely have them by the end of the week - when is the tank being moved?