Simon's 450

ca1ore · May 24, 2019

Salty Lemon said:
I'm starting to follow. I'm going to do my best to catch up. I have many posts to go through.

Then I commend you on your persistence LOL.

maroun.c · May 24, 2019

ca1ore said:
Bad lighting....

Amazing build and DIY skills.
I'm having a small reactor made and appreciate if you could elaborate on how you glue the cylinder into the flat base? do you make a circular grove for it to go in for better support or just glue on the base? also can you tell what are those small acrylic pieces around the base next to the cylindre? are those for suppoort?
one last question do you thread the fittings directly in the cylindre body or add a piece of threaded acrylic to make the thread in? Sorry for the million questions.

ca1ore · May 24, 2019

I basically route a circular groove into the flat base that will accept the cylinder. I always practice on a piece of plywood first to make sure the cylinder fits precisely into the groove. The 1/2" square acrylic blocks are just for additional support/strength - probably not necessary but peace of mind for me. I do mostly tap the threads directly into the base or the cylinder; though in this case for the 3/4" circulation plumbing I used bulkheads. If you do it directly, make sure to use some kind of tap lubricant. Would be a bummer to crack the cylinder.

ca1ore · May 27, 2019

I’m liking the trident. I’m ok with testing 2/4 times per day - $23 per month for reagents seems ok to me. After running for a few days, I did the calibration. Didn’t make much difference as apparently the units are calibrated before they leave the factory. I did use some of the remaining calibration solution in my alkalinity checker. Solution claims alk of 8.4 which read 9.4 in the checker ..... hmmmn. Assuming the trident is accurate, then clearly my checker has not been. Precision is more important than absolute accuracy, but still.

iReefer12 · May 28, 2019

My Hanna checker has always read .5dkh less than what Trident reads, that’s been consistent for 5 months now. The trident has the accurate number & the Hanna checker is out of whack but at least the Checker is consistently out of whack.

ca1ore · May 29, 2019

One of my 'complaints' with apex is the frequency of false positives ….. alerts that trigger based on faulty or fouled sensors. Probably 95% of my alerts are false positives. BUT, it's the 5% that makes the rest tolerable. Yesterday my 'water on floor' alert was screeching. Usually, this time of year, it's moisture/condensation on the basement floor (bare concrete). So that is what I figured it was - only none of the paper towels under the sensors were damp. Hmmn! Turned out that one of the bulkheads on my external ghost-style overflow had developed a drip. Curious that this would happen after 18 months, but putting a wrench on it clearly the nut had worked itself loose. Usually I periodically check bulkhead nuts, but the one sunder the overflow are just so hard to get to.

User1 · Jun 1, 2019

ca1ore said:
One of my 'complaints' with apex is the frequency of false positives ….. alerts that trigger based on faulty or fouled sensors. Probably 95% of my alerts are false positives. BUT, it's the 5% that makes the rest tolerable. Yesterday my 'water on floor' alert was screeching. Usually, this time of year, it's moisture/condensation on the basement floor (bare concrete). So that is what I figured it was - only none of the paper towels under the sensors were damp. Hmmn! Turned out that one of the bulkheads on my external ghost-style overflow had developed a drip. Curious that this would happen after 18 months, but putting a wrench on it clearly the nut had worked itself loose. Usually I periodically check bulkhead nuts, but the one sunder the overflow are just so hard to get to.

Things have a way of coming loose I guess. I remember many years ago when stationed overseas attending one of my FTD classes on the F-15. I remember asking a question to the instructor about something similar. I was like why am I safety wiring a nut on this Aim-9 launcher when I just torqued it to 1400 lbs. Her response was because I said so - which made me feel like an idiot for asking at the time - but then she smiled and said sorry - I'm teasing but to be honest it is in the tech data and T.O. and we follow those first. Second when the plane is flying we don't want something to come loose and cause a issue. Lots of cannon plugs, nuts, bolts, are all safety wired using different gauge of course.

Fair enough I said. What you learn at 18, right? Anyway learned something that day then the next when we all went through the manual drills she smiled again and said put the safety wire tool down. We only do this by hand...ugh!

Anyway unrelated I guess but I do check my bulk head fittings and a few other things because, well, things do come loose. Probably why I re-torque my lug nuts about once a month.

User1 · Jun 1, 2019

ca1ore said:
I’m liking the trident. I’m ok with testing 2/4 times per day - $23 per month for reagents seems ok to me. After running for a few days, I did the calibration. Didn’t make much difference as apparently the units are calibrated before they leave the factory. I did use some of the remaining calibration solution in my alkalinity checker. Solution claims alk of 8.4 which read 9.4 in the checker ..... hmmmn. Assuming the trident is accurate, then clearly my checker has not been. Precision is more important than absolute accuracy, but still.

Still looking here. I've tried a couple days this week starting at 0745 and stop around 0815 PST but found nothing. Maybe next week.

ca1ore · Jun 1, 2019

Had a spawning event in the tank last night. Happens a couple of times a year, always within a few hours of the lights going down. Tank gets cloudy, the skimmer loses its foam head and the tanks gets that wet dog smell. I generally don’t do much other than replacing the GAC if it’s a bit old.

ca1ore · Jun 3, 2019

Hoping to get my Bill Wann built heat exchanger/control board in the next week or so. Well water to cool the system; hot water heater to heat it (don't have to worry about heat for a few months though). Will be the tank 'project' for the Summer. Always looking for an opportunity to break out the blow torch

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ca1ore · Jun 5, 2019

I am on a mission to make maintenance in my mad-scientist sump room a little easier - for those disappointed, it'll still look insane (aesthetics be danged!!!). Redid the skimmer and the CaRx; now the dosing station. Even though I do run the CaRx, I like to have the ability to still dose as needed. I wanted to consolidate the dosing containers into a single, accessible station with float switches in each container. Here it is about half done.

My teenaged sons are weightlifting 'animals' ….. always giving me grief about not joining them. HAH! Using the plates now

ca1ore · Jun 6, 2019

Mostly done …. just have to cut a few more lids. All acrylic except said lids which are polycarb.

Victoria M · Jun 6, 2019

Wow simon, that is nuts! Looks fantastic.

ca1ore · Jun 7, 2019

Just one teeny, tiny problem .... one of the floats needs to be torqued down a bit only my hand is too chunky to get down into the smaller tubes. Always something ....

Victoria M · Jun 7, 2019

ca1ore said:
Just one teeny, tiny problem .... one of the floats needs to be torqued down a bit only my hand is too chunky to get down into the smaller tubes. Always something ....

lol...always something.