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Yes, I have a blue controller too...
Turtle's Deep Blue Sea
- Cube Build
- Thread starter SashimiTurtle
- Start date
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Haven't had trigger time in forever.
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Been over a year since I pulled a trigger, and I have a range less than a mile from the house.
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Few things I did/figured out this morning.
The gurgling drain, it had to be fixed. The air hole in the top was the culprit, as when I plugged it with my finger I could tell the bubbles in the sock stopped. I placed a piece of black electric tape on it and adjusted my gate valve to regulate the full syphon I just made.
Now, I have no bubbles being made from the overflow. Only problem now, is when I turn the return off and back on it takes too long to return to full siphon and the return runs dry, churning up a TON of air.
So I decide I'm going to drill air hole in the elbow for the drain. It will be under water when running, and allow trapped air to escape on starting the pump.
Bingo, that problem is fixed. No more air being pulled into the drain, and it starts quickly and obtains full siphon. No more bubbles getting into the refugium section. It gets water from the left of the filter sock, straight from the return.
The skimmer section gets water from the filter sock, and didn't get any of the bubbles. I did find that it is making bubbles tho. Not the skimmer, it's off for now until I get eveything fixed. The overflow from the skimmer section into the return section is causing large bubbles to form. My return pump is cavitating and turning these large bubbles into micro bubbles.... here's a video explaining what is happening.
The gurgling drain, it had to be fixed. The air hole in the top was the culprit, as when I plugged it with my finger I could tell the bubbles in the sock stopped. I placed a piece of black electric tape on it and adjusted my gate valve to regulate the full syphon I just made.
Now, I have no bubbles being made from the overflow. Only problem now, is when I turn the return off and back on it takes too long to return to full siphon and the return runs dry, churning up a TON of air.
So I decide I'm going to drill air hole in the elbow for the drain. It will be under water when running, and allow trapped air to escape on starting the pump.
Bingo, that problem is fixed. No more air being pulled into the drain, and it starts quickly and obtains full siphon. No more bubbles getting into the refugium section. It gets water from the left of the filter sock, straight from the return.
The skimmer section gets water from the filter sock, and didn't get any of the bubbles. I did find that it is making bubbles tho. Not the skimmer, it's off for now until I get eveything fixed. The overflow from the skimmer section into the return section is causing large bubbles to form. My return pump is cavitating and turning these large bubbles into micro bubbles.... here's a video explaining what is happening.
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Next thing to conquor is the leaky return plumbing. I wasn't too happy with it to begin with, as it started in 1/2" at the pump and, and since I'm going SPS dominant, I went with the biggest pump that would fit in the hole and it's 3/4". This took some funky adapting with bushings and a threaded nipple to go from 1/2" female thread to 3/4" female thread which you can see here.
Well, looks like I'm going to Lowe's... again. Here's what we came up with in as few pieces as possible.
The return section starts in 3/4" and ends in 3/4". I also added a line coming off to run a reactor in the future if I want. This is in 1/2".
Well, looks like I'm going to Lowe's... again. Here's what we came up with in as few pieces as possible.
The return section starts in 3/4" and ends in 3/4". I also added a line coming off to run a reactor in the future if I want. This is in 1/2".
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Return plumbing is assembled...
And painted...
Now... where did my tank go?
And painted...
Now... where did my tank go?
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Hey my tank is back!
Turtle, where did the sand go? You're not going bare bottom are You?
No, I'm not going bare bottom. Remember how we wanted a sand sifting goby? Well, that Hawaiian sand was way too coarse for one of them and it was magnetic. We can't have that.
So, you're gonna put plain white sand back in it?
Nope, we're still using black sand. We're just not using the Hawaiian black "sand."
I know what you're thinking. That's freshwater sand...
It's not pH buffering, but the salt and alk dosing should keep my pH where it's supposed to be. Bare bottom tanks don't have sand for a pH buffer and they do just fine. This stuff is super fine grain also, perfect for gobys, wrasse, and eels.
View attachment 598290
Turtle, where did the sand go? You're not going bare bottom are You?
No, I'm not going bare bottom. Remember how we wanted a sand sifting goby? Well, that Hawaiian sand was way too coarse for one of them and it was magnetic. We can't have that.
So, you're gonna put plain white sand back in it?
Nope, we're still using black sand. We're just not using the Hawaiian black "sand."
I know what you're thinking. That's freshwater sand...
It's not pH buffering, but the salt and alk dosing should keep my pH where it's supposed to be. Bare bottom tanks don't have sand for a pH buffer and they do just fine. This stuff is super fine grain also, perfect for gobys, wrasse, and eels.
View attachment 598290
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Well, everything is back together and running. Micro bubbles are still there. I've completly replaced the return plumbing under the tank, fixed the leak on the bulk head, replaced the lok-line, added a mesh filter pad "bubble trap" in the overflow from the skimmer to the return and the return pump is no longer cavitating. I'm lost as to why I still have micro bubbles when I've done all that.
sfin52
So many pedestrians so little time
Sometimes the sponge will trap air and produce bubbles till it breaks in
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I'm gonna just let it run and see if they go away. Bringing salt up to 1.026 now, then we will add the sand.
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I never shook my head, you assumed I did. :p
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Well, for laughs and poops I took the lok-line off and put some Teflon tape on the threads. Don't think it'll help but it can't hurt.
Took some underwater photography with the S8+. I just found out the volume up button will take a picture instead of having to use the touch screen(which doesn't work under water). These are some caves in the rock that I've set up for fish and eel hidey holes... more so eel than fish, but I'm sure the fish will use them too.
I'll have to play with some under water pictures once we have this thing stocked.
Took some underwater photography with the S8+. I just found out the volume up button will take a picture instead of having to use the touch screen(which doesn't work under water). These are some caves in the rock that I've set up for fish and eel hidey holes... more so eel than fish, but I'm sure the fish will use them too.
I'll have to play with some under water pictures once we have this thing stocked.
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Salinity is just about where it needs to be, and we've got 30lbs of sand. Tank is super cloudy with the sand and the micro bubbles.
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