Raxnar's Red Sea Reefer 250 Deluxe - Vancouver Island Build

[Raxnar]

Quesstion!

I've been trying to run the Skimmer a bit but it goes nuts with the foam and fills the cup half way in under 3 minutes with mostly water. I have not yet cycled my tank, so am I wrong to be running the skimmer yet?

 

[Fence13]

Probably breaking in still, try to dial it way back it possible

 

[Raxnar]

Probably breaking in still, try to dial it way back it possible

I've tried that to the point where both valves are completely closed.

 

[Fence13]

Did you add anything to the tank recently? How much water is it in?

 

[Raxnar]

Did you add anything to the tank recently? How much water is it in?

Absolutely nothing other than Salt so far.

We were going to start the Maturation process this weekend.

Had an incident last night though with a dribble on the main drain. After some investigation the dang pipe has a crack in it! How the hell! Not only that I inspected the Return fitting and this is what I found...

No clue how this could happen. When I removed the Return fitting it basically fell off and I thought that was odd. Then I noticed no O-Ring, sure enough the O-Ring was up inside the pipe still...

I suppose this isn't a huge disaster as I had not started to Cycle the tank.

Red Sea were great! No issue with overnight shipping me a new Drain and Return fitting. I also bought a bag of their O-Rings while were at it.

Replacement parts should be here Monday, so a slight delay in the maturation process.

I am a little baffled how there wasn't a leak on either until I noticed some salt build up just below the Nut on either. But when I cleared the salt on the Drain nut a bead of water appeared.

The crack I suspect may have been my fault. The other, no idea...

 

[Raxnar]

F

Did you add anything to the tank recently? How much water is it in?

I forgot to answer your other question. The Skimmer is sitting in 8" of water as per the directions iirc.

 

[kinetic]

Skimmer: did you run it in vinegar for ~10 min before setting it up? If not, give it a go. It'll help clean out any weird residue that's creating excess bubbles. Just sit it in a bucket of RO/DI, liberally add a bunch of vinegar, wait 10 - 15 minutes max. Then rinse it well in RO/DI, and if you want, you can even run it in a clean bucket of RO/DI for awhile too. Then add it to the sump, it should help. Otherwise the skimmer is just reacting to a lot of stuff in the tank, which is basically oils, or anything else that came with the assembly/making of the tank itself. It'll sort itself out eventually. It's a good sign it's overflowing, rather than not producing anything to start.

Another way to speed the process up is if the water is boiling over the top of the skimmer cup, put a small towel over the top. If it's not boiling over, take the cup off completely and let it run with a towel over the body. The idea is the towel will sort of absorb any oils/etc. to a certain extent that is bubbling up. An even better solution, if you have it, is to run a drain from the skimmer cup into a filter sock with carbon, and let that drain back out into the sump. This way the skimmer will be picking up junk like oils and the carbon/filter sock will be an export of that out of the water column. If you're using the NYOS 120, it won't come with a drain hole, but you could always drill one, put in a simple bulkhead, and do it that way. But I would just leave it with a towel on top for now.

Also, you should make sure your wedge pipe is all the way "OPEN" rather than closed (as I see you mentioned). The more open, the more water it lets out of the skimmer body (as opposed to keeping the water level higher by closing the wedge pipe).

Overall, don't sweat the skimmer for now. You got plenty of time before it actually needs to work, and by then it'll definitely calm down.

Salt creep: interestingly, salt creep can actually plug minor leaks. Some barbed fittings I have (that would drain into the sump) have a bit of salt creep keeping it from slightly dripping. I try to fix them at some point by tightening clamps, but I'll get lazy and just leave it.

 

[mmw64]

@pelphrey This makes more sense than what I was trying to do, Big Thank you! Making the changes now for the ATK.

Seems it fits better now, I must have moved the Return pump some when finishing the hard plumbing.

I'm partial to the heaters in the corner but if they aren't able to keep the tank warm properly I'll definitely consider moving and submerging them completely. Glad to know they can actually be submerged and kind of put out of sight.

Tank is nearing half full now! I turned off water production over night.

Looks great! Following this build.

 

[Raxnar]

Skimmer: did you run it in vinegar for ~10 min before setting it up? If not, give it a go. It'll help clean out any weird residue that's creating excess bubbles. Just sit it in a bucket of RO/DI, liberally add a bunch of vinegar, wait 10 - 15 minutes max. Then rinse it well in RO/DI, and if you want, you can even run it in a clean bucket of RO/DI for awhile too. Then add it to the sump, it should help. Otherwise the skimmer is just reacting to a lot of stuff in the tank, which is basically oils, or anything else that came with the assembly/making of the tank itself. It'll sort itself out eventually. It's a good sign it's overflowing, rather than not producing anything to start.

Another way to speed the process up is if the water is boiling over the top of the skimmer cup, put a small towel over the top. If it's not boiling over, take the cup off completely and let it run with a towel over the body. The idea is the towel will sort of absorb any oils/etc. to a certain extent that is bubbling up. An even better solution, if you have it, is to run a drain from the skimmer cup into a filter sock with carbon, and let that drain back out into the sump. This way the skimmer will be picking up junk like oils and the carbon/filter sock will be an export of that out of the water column. If you're using the NYOS 120, it won't come with a drain hole, but you could always drill one, put in a simple bulkhead, and do it that way. But I would just leave it with a towel on top for now.

Also, you should make sure your wedge pipe is all the way "OPEN" rather than closed (as I see you mentioned). The more open, the more water it lets out of the skimmer body (as opposed to keeping the water level higher by closing the wedge pipe).

Overall, don't sweat the skimmer for now. You got plenty of time before it actually needs to work, and by then it'll definitely calm down.

Salt creep: interestingly, salt creep can actually plug minor leaks. Some barbed fittings I have (that would drain into the sump) have a bit of salt creep keeping it from slightly dripping. I try to fix them at some point by tightening clamps, but I'll get lazy and just leave it.

Yea I realize Salt Creep can clog some minor leaks, I think the issues I found are a tad beyond that though

Thank you very much for the tips on the Simmer as well, I'll be looking at that once I can restore flow to the tank on Monday.

 

[Raxnar]

I forgot to post an update regarding my Neptune ATK.

I have a Faulty Sensor so I am operating just fine at the moment just using the Hi Sensor for now.

Neptune is sending me a replacement one, and provided excellent customer service!

 

[Fence13]

I forgot to post an update regarding my Neptune ATK.

I have a Faulty Sensor so I am operating just fine at the moment just using the Hi Sensor for now.

Neptune is sending me a replacement one, and provided excellent customer service!

That's both good for their quick turnaround but questionable for their already faulty part?

 

[Raxnar]

That's both good for their quick turnaround but questionable for their already faulty part?

Questionable for the faulty part? Absolutely not.

There is no manufacturer in the world that has a 100% flawless record regarding quality control. It happens. It is how a company handles the issue that can make or break them. They have been fantastic to deal with! My PH Probe from the Neptune Apex full kit was cracked. Sent them a picture, I had a new one in 2 days.

 

[Raxnar]

Were back in business with flow in the tank after a short weekend of none. The replacement components are in place now. This time I used some silicone o-ring lubricant and boy did it make the assembly much easier than the first time.

Props to RedSea for getting the replacement parts out the door on Friday!

Zero leaks! #Fingerscrossed,#sacrificeachicken, #rubsluckyrabbitfoot

Will be monitoring it closely over the next week or so doing the "tissue test" for any moisture at the fitting. Wrapping a fresh tissue around the fitting will easily spot any moisture you can't feel with your finger.

Tonight we'll start the maturation after a quick base line test of water parameters. We did one last week but want to make sure nothing has drastically changed over the weekend.

 

[Raxnar]

Received the replacement Neptune ATK Sensor last night. It is installed and the ATK is once again acting as it should!

Were back in action!

Maturation commence!

 

[Raxnar]

Meant to post this yesterday but apparently didn't hit the Post button...

We began the maturation process tonight but before we even began I noticed signs of life!

Alkalinity was a bit low tonight 7.56 so we had to start with adding some buffer from the Redsea Maturation kit.

Excellent to see that letting the tank sit over the weekend (3 days) while waiting for the new drain pipe and return fitting haven't fouled anything up!

Here's a little pic of the life we noticed tonight.

These spots are brownish/orange in colour. Also quite a bit showing on the back sides of the rock structures.

Day 1 of Matuation started!

 

[Raxnar]

Day 3 done!

DK/Alkalinity 8.54
Nitrates are at 9 ppm
Nitrates are 0-0.05 ppm
Ammonia .02
PH 8.87

All looking great!

More Diatoms are growing so life is definitely starting to make its self known!

Next up some pretty basic stuff, adding 3ml of NO3,PO4-x per 25gal of water for Days 4 and 5.

 

[Raxnar]

Was in Vancouver on Saturday to watch Canada take on Uruguay in Rugby World Cup qualifying and visiting with some friends afterwards! Great day but we lost to Uruguay 39-28 One more game to see if Canada is going to the world cup or not next Saturday.

Anyway, Seems the diatoms are doing there thing in spades!

I know its ugly at this stage but stay the course!

 

[Raxnar]

Day 7 is done.

5% Water Change, easy peasy

Nitrites are below 0.05ppm, almost doesn't register any colour!

Ammonia is a solid Zero! Maybe 0.1 if I think about it.

Ordered my Clean up crew to arrive on Friday

Hermit Crab - Blue Leg x 12
Hermit Crab - Red Scarlet x 3
Snail - Astrea x 5
Snail - Cerith (Black) x 5
Snail - Margarita (Atlantic) x 5

Everything is progressing nicely!

 

[Raxnar]

Day 9 is done and unfortunately I couldn't time the delivery of the Clean Up Crew for Day 10 which is tomorrow.

But they are here! and they appear happy so far

 

[Raxnar]

Just a small update for the weekend.

Everything is going well, except had a red hermit crab pass last night. Not sure exactly why. by the time I noticed him not moving he was stuck in a crevice at the top of the rock structure. Perhaps starvation, light overload, not sure exactly. He left his shell late last night and died shortly after. Seems he was also missing his movement legs... Perhaps he was attacked by another crab.

It happens, part of life.

I have 12 Blue leg hermit crabs in the tank somewhere. Think I can find them? lol At most I usually can find 3-5. I know they are in there but they are good at hiding!

Snails are working hard! burrowing, cleaning and getting fat!

I'll be getting a second batch of Clean up Crew this week as well as my first herbivorous fish!

Any Recommendation?