Jackie and Glenns 180g Reef Build

[Janci]

It is hanging like this but is level. There were no instructions with it at all. Everything was guesswork.

That looks neat but once you start running water, it will not fill up as the nozzles are facing downwards.
There will remain quit an important air pocket inside.
If that is the only mounting position possible, you might take it off, connect the hoses with the nozzles upwards, run water through it and put it back in position without disconnection the hoses.
At least that is how I did it when I was in the same situation.
But even then you might have air entering after you restart the pump.

 

[prsnlty]

So I did some checking with Eric at Fish-Street and he said that it is preferred that it stands or is mounted vertically with the cord end up to keep air away from the bulb. So my last 2 days were wasted time and energy and I have to figure out how to do this with no headspace left or vertical either. The only vertical location I have would be the center upright between the doors. This is going to be quite the challenge....

 

[prsnlty]

That looks neat but once you start running water, it will not fill up as the nozzles are facing downwards.
There will remain quit an important air pocket inside.
If that is the only mounting position possible, you might take it off, connect the hoses with the nozzles upwards, run water through it and put it back in position without disconnection the hoses.
At least that is how I did it when I was in the same situation.
But even then you might have air entering after you restart the pump.

I posted a split second after you did lol.
I agree. Knowing the air was inside and not finding all the answers I needed I asked fish-street since they are the main distributor of Jebao.
I have to rework the entire uv setup. And probably hard plumb it as well.

 

[prsnlty]

I don't see why they couldn't so much as put a simple picture install illustration with a check or no symbol as to what to do or not. There were no instructions on the box or in it at all

 

[Velcro]

So I ended up tilted mine last weekend because it was getting quite hot in there without water surrounding the top of the unit. When I took the unit apart to clean there was a strange burning plastic type smell that made me uncomfortable, which is what made me make this change. It is now mostly cool to the touch except for the very end. When I hard plumb this to the sump I will have it completely vertical. The ther option would be to have the outlet point up and then the tube loop back down.

 

[prsnlty]

So I ended up tilted mine last weekend because it was getting quite hot in there without water surrounding the top of the unit. When I took the unit apart to clean there was a strange burning plastic type smell that made me uncomfortable, which is what made me make this change. It is now mostly cool to the touch except for the very end. When I hard plumb this to the sump I will have it completely vertical. The ther option would be to have the outlet point up and then the tube loop back down.

Yep, that's why I was concerned about plugging it in for the light to come on. I have a whole house UV hooked up to the main water line going to my softener that hasn't been used since we bought the house. I didn't honestly see a need cuz we thought the guy was a little cuckoo that used to own the house. But through the years we have second-guessed that decision many times lol. The point is there's no air in that chamber whatsoever. So when I saw air in this chamber and thinking about how hot it would get made me think that the bulb might blow, crack or shatter. In any case none of those were a good scenario in my mind. Yes it is probably because I have the nozzles pointing down but I've seen them this way before and didn't think anything of it. If I hard Plumb this I'm also going to put a gate valve on it so I can adjust the flow. I say that because the flow that's going through it is quite considerable. My reactors that are on the same manifold have ball valves on them, so this one being wide open is collecting a lot of flow and actually slowing it down going into the DT through the returns.

I watched a video from brstv last night that showed them putting in a 50w UV sterilizer, they also had it vertical and hard plumbed. They said to put the inline at one end of the sump where the drains are and the out line to the return chamber. They put a gate valve on theirs and measured the flow by counting how long it took to fill up a 1 gallon jug just like we do for our ro systems. Bed said you lose 1/3 of its effectiveness by plumbing it to the sump as opposed to the DT but eventually it isn't going to matter because it will circulate through it eventually it just takes a little longer.

 

[prsnlty]

For anyone that is following along, a UV sterilizer only works when it's in the water column. However you can stir things up to get it into the water column if it's on your sand bed. It will take care of algae as long as it's free floating, cyanobacteria, dinos and other bacteria. It will not harm your bacteria that is good because generally that is on your rock and in your substrate. So if you have a tank full of algae that you're trying to get rid of it is not going to get rid of any pre-existing, you have to take care of that first but it will keep it away once you've done that. So that being said I will have to dose my system with chemiclean to get rid of the cyanobacteria. On the bright side it will keep it from coming back

 

[prsnlty]

One disappointing thing about all of this taking so long is that it kept me from my rock! I really wanted to get that going while I had my days off. Tomorrow through Sunday night I'll be babysitting. She's at that age that you have to be on top of her constantly so I can't get anything done while she's here. And I can't leave my reactor manifold turned off so the UV takes priority today.

 

[Velcro]

Definitely put a valve on it. You only want about 150gph going trough it.

 

[prsnlty]

Every place i can squeeze this to fit, i have an issue... ugh. Still trying to come up with a work around before I go shopping for parts or dismantling how it is at the moment.

 

[prsnlty]

I still want the flow to come in off the manifold regardless of where it gets installed. But this means in order to put a gate valve on it I have to take that apart anyway. So that really isn't the big issue. The big issue is placement and the out line. The few locations that I have to place it vertically, well actually there's only two, make it very difficult to hard or soft plum to the sump. The location on the upright between the doors would be okay but my dosing containers are located there. And I can't figure out a way to change my dosing container layout and they have to stay in that neighborhood. Those containers are one gallon a piece so they take up a pretty good amount of space. The only other location I have to place vertically would be inside the side access door on the corner frame. The problem with this is the out line would have to be going up and over the 20 gallon ATO tank and all the way down to the other end of the stand. It also poses a problem if I ever have to pull the sump out. That was the main reason for the access door to begin with.

 

[prsnlty]

I might have a 3rd option but if I can squeeze it in there I can only screw it to the frame at the top and that is provided I keep it on the board that I placed it on currently. Each location poses an issue or two. Thoughts?

Option1-3 in
#1 upright between the doors.
#2 access door
#3 end upright in front of sump
(pics order.... )

 

[Velcro]

I might have a 3rd option but if I can squeeze it in there I can only screw it to the frame at the top and that is provided I keep it on the board that I placed it on currently. Each location poses an issue or two. Thoughts?

Option1-3 in
#1 upright between the doors.
#2 access door
#3 end upright in front of sump
(pics order.... )

I think any of those options is fine. Just keep in mind that you'll want to use unions on the plumbing and have access to the screws that mount it so that you can remove it to disassemble and clean the quartz sleeve.

 

[prsnlty]

I think I'm going to go with option number 3. Here is a sketch of what I think I'm going to do. The only thing up in the air is the "IN" line. I'm going to decide that once I get all the piping and fittings. I am either going to run it up and across to the manifold or I am going to run it alongside the frame of the sump to the end and run a vinyl tube from there to the manifold. I am not positive of either idea yet. I think more than likely I'm going to run up and across... This option allows me the ability to remove it easier than any other option. It's barely going to fit.

 

[prsnlty]

Final decision on this UV setup... I decided to go with black vinyl tubing and some two little fishies ball valves. I'm also using the two little fishies black hose clamps and the original connectors on the UV. This is going to save me a small fortune to do it this way plus I'll have more flexibility using the tubing. I'll also be able to disconnect it easily when need be. The problem with this is I can't do it today because I had to order several of the parts. They won't be here until Friday.... ugh

 

[prsnlty]

Dosed chemiclean in the meantime. By the time I hook up the UV sterilizer it will have taken care of the existing cyanobacteria. Actually it's perfect because I can't run carbon or anything right now anyway while I'm treating it. Therefore the whole reactor manifold is turned off. The bad thing about me having to treat the tank this way is that I have to turn off my protein skimmer which will lower my pH quite a bit. I'm considering running it without the cup.....

 

[GoVols]

Also the salifert mg test was less involved and easier to see the color change

+1

 

[GoVols]

Jackie,
When I've used Chemiclean. I let the skimmer keep running and just take the cup off.
I just let the watery skim mate over flow back into the sump, with the tiny micro bubbles.

I also like the CC powder over the liquid. The powder produces more micro (oxygen) bubbles.

 

[Velcro]

+1

I can't for the life of me get an accurate reading with a salifert kit, and i've tried two different lots. My NYOS kit and red sea kit match at a reasonable amount, but salifert Mg kits always read sky high for me.

 

[prsnlty]

Here are a couple of tang shots taken a few minutes ago.