Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This is an interesting idea!
(Quadropus?) :upside-down-face:

Good point. lol

 

[SomeHappyFish]

Hey Randy send me a private message its a private matter about a website with an article you made if I'm not mistaken. :) The site has an issue.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hey Randy send me a private message its a private matter about a website with an article you made if I'm not mistaken. :) The site has an issue.

Ok, but for general consumption, I am aware of several types of issues with old article sites, including one where some sort of renewal of a fee needs to be worked out. I’m not involved in or able to fix those issues.

Another problem is font changes that altered the meaning. Most just become nonsense words, but uM became mM on some, such as my silica article, which is particularly annoying.

 

[revhtree]

Ok, but for general consumption, I am aware of several types of issues with old article sites, including one where some sort of renewal of a fee needs to be worked out. I’m not involved in or able to those issues.

Another problem is font changes that altered the meaning. Most just become nonsense words, but uM became mM on some, such as my silica article, which is particularly annoying.

ReefEdition is up and running BTW but we will transition those articles over here soon! :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

ReefEdition is up and running BTW but we will transition those articles over here soon! :)

Thanks, Rev!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Looks like a link in an old article of mine now sends folks to an unsavory site. ESV must have changed their web address, and someone else bought the old one. I cannot change those old articles, but beware any old ESV links in anyone’s articles.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Aquascaping

I’ve been watching a lot of videos on aquascaping. More videos than I recall ever watching about reef topics, but aquascaping is visually oriented and is very conducive to video.

Videos on the goals of aquascaping were helpful, and many were found in the stickies of the Aquascaping sub forum.

Unfortunately, many aquascaping videos assume you are starting with dead rock, and have weeks to lay out, glue, drill, chisel, and otherwise shape your reef. That obviously isn’t the case for my plan using real reef sand and rock from TBS.

The first batch has live sand and base rock, and the second batch has the premium rock that will form the “outside” of the structure since it is more visually appealing and may have more life that needs light.

First to go in is the sand, and TBS also recommends that. Some videos say rock then sand, but I think that applies more to fancy glued rock structures than when adding individual rocks. In any case, the concept of sand first then nestling the lowest rocks down into it, perhaps all the way until they touch the bottom makes sense to me, ensuring sand is supporting the rock in places not touching the bottom.

Challenges come in not seeing all the rock at once, and in not being as readily able to attach rocks together as one can with dead rock. At the moment, I do not plan any sorts of glue or drilled hole/rod ways of holding it in place. That limits some shapes, but gets the rocks into the water fastest.

I’ll have to see how it goes, but the tentative plan is to put the largest base rocks into the tank right away, putting smaller ones into the sumps for later use when the premium batch arrives (if needed).

The overall aquascaping intent is a rock island on the left hand side to hold and help confine a magnifica anemone at the top, a gap of some sort in between, and a larger structure of rock on the right, likely extending from the right side panel to somewhat past the midline. The gap in between may go top to bottom, or maybe just part way.

A number of the videos emphasized leaving half the water column empty at the top to allow growth of corals without them hitting the top water line. I don’t disagree, but I’m also not just growing SPS corals. The large host anemones, for example, do not generally get much taller as they grow. They mostly get wider. Some other organisms I have in mind are easily trimmed as needed. Macroalgae of various types, for example. With that in mind, I will likely violate that 50% rule, at least in some places.

I do plan to provide a significant number of protected areas such as small caves between rocks for fish to hide as they desire.

Anyway, those are the early thoughts in aquascaping.

As usual, any comments and suggestions are appreciated!

 

[rishma]

My live rock was small pieces and I wanted an island structure. I used a masonry bit and some of the natural holes to allow heavy zip ties to build my structure. I went this route to because the time out of the water was minimal. None of the zip ties are visible anymore.

 

[Miami Reef]

Rocks first then sand makes more sense to me. It will be more stable and won’t shift from sand critters etc.

It’s never wrong to put rock first.

perhaps all the way until they touch the bottom makes sense to me

Wouldn’t it be easier to add the rock first if that’s the goal?

 

[areefer01]

Rocks first then sand makes more sense to me. It will be more stable and won’t shift from sand critters etc.

It’s never wrong to put rock first.


Wouldn’t it be easier to add the rock first if that’s the goal?

There are a couple of different approaches to this. One is as you suggested the other is rocks on the sand. Pros and cons to both. Me personally I typically recommend resting the rocks on 4 or 6" PVC pipe cut just high enough to lift the rocks up off the glass or acrylic. Makes them stable yet keeps them off the glass. Things move one way or the other so in my mind this reduces those chances.

 

[twentyleagues]

Tunze Osmolator 3 for Tank Water Level Control

In my last tank, I used a large float switch (Omega Engineering LV-1201, still sold, bottom example in this picture):

Coupled with that, I used a slow diaphragm pump to deliver kalkwasser (a Reef Filler, no longer sold). There was no other limit on delivery besides the float and the slowness of the pump. But the system worked well for 20 years and I considered reusing the float switches.

This time around, I'm not dosing kalkwasser (due mostly to space limitations in my fish room), which can open up the types of devices used. I still have the switches, but not the reef filler. I made the decision that I wanted better control on potential overfill than I had before. The osmolator also allows me to easily change the desired water level in my sump (by moving the magnetically held sensor up or down) without having to relocate the float switch which would require drilling new holes in the can and capping the old one.

For that reason, I opted for the Tunze Osmolator 3. One of my concerns with it that I have posted in the past is the relatively fast pump provided with it. I was actually surprised when I opened the package how small it actually is since pictures don't show that. Nevertheless, that doesn't change the flow rate (two settings, 70 or 112 L/h, depends also on head pressure, the faster rate also comes with a higher maximum head pressure), and the flow rate concerned me from an overfilling perspective. If something went awry, it could overflow my sump in an hour.

Well, in setting up my system, I had collected a lot of tap water in my new salt water trash cans in case I needed it before my RO/DI arrived. When I ended up not needing it, I figured the pump of the osmolator 3 would be able to quickly pump it to a drain. Wrong lol

First lesson: the osmolator 3 has a time out feature to prevent overflow situations if something goes drastically wrong or the tank is leaking somewhere, flooding it with fresh water. I was not previously aware of this feature. The timeout is 10 minutes, and only a manual reset can restart it. If the pump is called for constantly for more than 10 minutes, it shuts down until you reset it (by power cycling it). That greatly alleviates the concerns about overfilling (the limit for a single delivery cannot exceed about 12 L (3 gallons), which cannot overflow my sump. Good for tank use, but it made my use of it to empty 80 gallons of tap water from my Brute cans a slow process of resets. I finally gave up and got a different pump. lol

The osmolator itself has two sensors in a single sensor "device" and so also has an internal limitation on delivery. The Primary is based on infrared and one (Tunze calls this the safety sensor) is based on heat conduction. Both must see a need for water to allow water flow.

OK, so there are three ways the pumping is limited and controlled. I have it hooked up now and it is operating fine. One immediate advantage over my old one is that the rock and sand will be delivered at two times, and each will result in a large change in system volume. I have the water level in my last Brute can set very low to allow the sudden volume increase in a week when the first rock arrives. After that, I will want a higher level until I remove some water to allow the next rock delivery. Then low again and then finally where I ultimately want it higher. Yes, that's a one time situation, but it shows when a movable water level in the sump is desirable.

I'll comment more on it in the future as I have more experience with it. As folks will recall from the first post of this thread, Tunze provided it to me free of charge, and some may assume that clouds my comments. I won't be able to convince everyone otherwise, but I assure folks it does not. If something deviates from expectation, I will certainly tell folks.

For now, I am quite happy with it. :)

I have the Tunze 3 and its been running for a little over a year without issue. I also have the older version, aside from having to clean the sensor every so often it also had worked great for me for years. I have not had to "mess" with the 3 at all. if you have a quick power glitch make sure you check its operation though. I did have a couple of these over a months time and it did put it into some sort of stand-by mode. A tree was rubbing on power lines causing the issue somewhere on the grid. It took about 4 calls to the electric company to get them to finally check it out.

Also why is it the threads you are most interested in quit giving notifications of update? lol

 

[rishma]

I’ve done sand first, rock first, elevated on PVC stubs, etc.

My least favorite is rock on top of sand because it gets nasty under the rock over time and/or fish and critters move sand and cause shifting.

My favorite is belt sanding some base large pieces to make a very flat stable surface and place it on the glass.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Rocks first then sand makes more sense to me. It will be more stable and won’t shift from sand critters etc.

It’s never wrong to put rock first.


Wouldn’t it be easier to add the rock first if that’s the goal?

I think it depends. Rock first means no sand, or hard to get sand into gaps between rocks, under rocks that are not flat on the bottom, behind the back rocks, etc.

Unless the rocks are very flat, rock will only touch the bottom at a few places. Sand first then rocks pushed into it will still touch the bottom, but will have sand under the remainder, provide more stability toward rocking back and forth.

Anyway, I appreciate the comments and realize there's no perfect answer. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have the Tunze 3 and its been running for a little over a year without issue. I also have the older version, aside from having to clean the sensor every so often it also had worked great for me for years. I have not had to "mess" with the 3 at all. if you have a quick power glitch make sure you check its operation though. I did have a couple of these over a months time and it did put it into some sort of stand-by mode. A tree was rubbing on power lines causing the issue somewhere on the grid. It took about 4 calls to the electric company to get them to finally check it out.

Also why is it the threads you are most interested in quit giving notifications of update? lol

Thanks. I will keep an eye on the effect of power issues! It's an out of sight out of mind sort of thing, requiring an effort to look into the Brute sump to check the lights on the sensor. A light elsewhere on the system would be nice in my situation, but many folks have transparent sumps where they can easily see it. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’ve done sand first, rock first, elevated on PVC stubs, etc.

My least favorite is rock on top of sand because it gets nasty under the rock over time and/or fish and critters move sand and cause shifting.

My favorite is belt sanding some base large pieces to make a very flat stable surface and place it on the glass.

Ah, belt sanding. Don't mention that. Deck I stained last summer is already peeling and will need sanding. Sanders and I are not going to be friends this year. lol

Thanks, however. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Plumbing Repair

Remember I said a bit ago that the 4” black corrugated polyethylene tubing had split a seam at a tight curve and needed replacing. It ran from just under the floor below my tank, across the foundation, and into the first Brute can of the sump.

Got 2” pvc to replace it. Much harder to work with, but should never need replacing.

First surprise came from Amazon. The 2” pvc couplings look too small. No lable on the bag. Might it be 1.5”? Duh, no, it’s something called schedule 20 pvc for vacuum systems. Ended up going to Lowe’s, which is what I was trying to avoid by using Amazon.

But it’s all glued up now and has been running leak free for 24 h, so all should be good.

First picture below is the tricky part, where the water comes down from above through a hole I mistakenly cut over the foundation wall. The smaller tube is the 1” food grade silicone tubing taking water back up through a different hole.

Second picture is it exiting from over the foundation, and the third is it entering the Brute through a hole in the lid.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ammonia Monitoring

I picked up a Seachem ammonia alert to continuously monitor ammonia for the next few weeks during live rock/sand additions and fish additions after that.

It annoys me to support Seachem, but this is clearly the best tool in this situation, especially for $7.36 from a local Petco. I’ll be putting it into the tank later today. I assume that the ammonia that I have dosed for the refugium is either consumed, converted into nitrate, or just below the detection limit. But I can’t know for sure without testing!

 

[rtparty]

Rocks then sand. Always IMO. Use a pvc pipe or credit card to move sand around and push it under and around the rocks.

Rocks ON sand is an accident waiting to happen

In 52 Weeks Season 2 on BRS’ YouTube you will see Ryan used TBS rock in a few of the tanks. He talks about how he scaped with it while being quick and preserving life

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks. I suppose a reasonable compromise might be lowest layer of rocks, then sand, then remaining rocks. Allows sand in places inaccessible once higher rocks are in place. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You folks who have used and tested the Seachem ammonia alert, any idea how long it takes to begin operating usefully? The package says it could be days, which seems somewhat high to me.