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Thread: ATS for 120 Reef

  1. #141
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    That's pretty much how my screen looks most of the time, unless I over feed, which give a week of green forest.

  2. #142
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    Ok, now I have a new problem. SM, maybe you can give me some insight here.

    The flow rate of the pump has increased to 760 GPH. Before, the screen could handle the full flow rate, because it was so low. Now, when I run the pump wide open, it fills the overflow almost completely. The open standpipe in the overflow box has at least 6 inches of water over it, so it basically runs at full capacity. The problem is that the sump level is now very low, because the pump pushes the water up into the DT. This is fine, until the owner sees the low level in the sump and adds 3 gallons of water, which happened today. The pump pushed it all up into the DT so that the relative level of sump to DT was the same. The DT was within 1/4" of overflowing. Luckily, it didn't. But basically, the ATS slot tube is restricting the overflow rate such that it could overflow the tank. This is not good. If I could add another emergency standpipe like for a Herbie like you run, this would be no problem, the head pressure would keep the screen flow great and the overflow would never, well, overflow. Right now, I have to either dial the pump back, or crack open the ATS bypass to keep the water level in the DT down.

    If I open the bypass for the ATS, the overflow box drains right down to the open standpipe. So I have the proper flow rate that I need - 20" wide screen, 35+ GPH/in - but it seems now that this is too much. I still am running the notched slot tube, I haven't had time to cut a new slot tube. This time, I will be doing it with a router and a jig to hold the tube so it will be a truly straight cut. Also, I'm not 100% confident that the current slot is actually 1/8", it might be slightly smaller and I know it's uneven. But I'm worried that a non-crosscut tube will require even more head pressure to push 760 GPH. Isn't 35 GPH/in the minimum flow? How in the world would you get higher flow than that, if mine can't push 35 without 4 feet of water column over it?

  3. #143
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    Even a tuned-overflow ("herbie") will increase level at the overflow if you put more water in the sump.

    The only way to increase flow through a scrubber pipe is to widen or lenghen the slot.

  4. #144
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    I worked on tuning the system using the pump shutoff, for now it seems to be doing fine. I plan on replacing the slot tube eventually so that will have to happen sooner than later.

    But, the big news it the mega-harvest. Pics and video below

    Here's what it looked like Saturday





    And today





    Drained and lightly compacted



    3 CUPS



    I didn't have a scale or I would have totally weighed it. When I pulled out the slot tube, I swear it was about 5 pounds. I'm going to have to find a cheap digital scale.

    Check out these YouTube vids of the cleaning.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXhYfY2gvi8

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvJfKnSNpWQ

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeVQk4jUOKI

    I like the last one best, because I use a new scraper instead of my fingernails and it was totally quick and easy. It also got the red turf off very easily. I prefer this to the hacksaw blade method, because it doesn't think your screen out. Plus I don't think you need to rough the screen up after the screen has a layer of algae encrusted on it, that forms the base. At least, that's my opinion. This screen was so thick and heavy, and the lower 1/2 of it was out of the laminar flow, yet the algae still hung on.

    My next build (yes, I will be replacing this one) will not allow for the box to be flooded. I am starting to wonder if 3D growth is really all it's cracked up to be. Laminar flow is really all that matters, 3D just ends up slowing down the flow below the water line and increasing the boundary layer effect.

  5. #145
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    Did you increase feeding last week, as a test to see if depleted nutrients were the cause of less growth before?

  6. #146
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    Originally I thought the problem was low food, so I upped the feeding, then realized the dino outbreak was caused by the bad water, so he cut back on feeding to about 1 sq inch of DIY food per day, and I stopped using my RO/DI water and switched to Wal-Mart/Culligan water. The screen still had a bit of brown on it at the last cleaning (during the plumbing change) but I would have to say that the increased growth is 100% flow related.

    Nitrates tested perfectly clear from the side (Salifert) and the Hanna Phosphate meter tested 0.09, which seems to be the lowest it ever goes. I think I will have to run a couple tests with that meter, using distilled water from the store as a baseline, because my home RO/DI water right after changing the filters read 0.09 also. Or maybe I'll pop for the Phosphorus meter, which tests in ppb.

  7. #147
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    You have to remove it to clean it, unless you can put a bucket underneath the drain and then scrape or brush the inside, then wash it out. If you have an acrylic box then use a plastic scraper, don't use 3M scrubbies or anything else that will scratch it and cause light blocking.

  8. #148
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    Ok, 1 week + in the bag, one extra tear-down and setup (last Wed) to fix the stand, and I've finally got everything running. Algae scrubber is all ghetto on top of the tank and loud, but functional. To the pics:

    These are before the scrubber was set up, so the screens are just hanging in the tank for survival:













    So far, a few corals have taken a hit. The War Coral turned white on top but I think it was just ticked off, because it is turning back to normal. The big ORA Green Birdsnest died off quite a bit on the tips, but the rest is doing awesome. The Kryptonite Candy Cane started to show some signs of death on a few heads, but that seems to have stopped.

    Interestingly, the 2 Frogspawns and the Branching Hammer are doing much better, in the other tank I think the clowns were trying to host on them and ticking them off.

    Everything else is clicking along without skipping a beat. But, the true test is yet to come. I'm sure there is a cycle of some kind happening as a result of moving everything and changing flow patterns, light coverage, etc.

    Here is the scrubber setup:













    This is the one from the old setup (40 breeder sump) so like I said, totally ghetto and loud because of the way I made the drains. So I have to re-build it or figure out a way to silence it. I'm going to raise the 90s tonight so that they terminate at the surface rather than below it and see how that helps, should eliminate the short-siphon effect that is probably generating the most noise.

  9. #149
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    You might also be able to try some of the bubble-reducing things:


  10. #150
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    Re: ATS for 120 Reef

    Good ideas. I am actually not at all concerned about the bubbles, since the "microbubbles" issue is pretty much a myth. I just need to quiet the thing down. Right now the drains terminate well below the surface. Without those 90 bends, then water just dumping directly into the tank was actually pretty quiet. Adding the 90s creates a partial trap and the speed of the drain water causes a constant partial siphon, which sounds like a toilet that is constantly gurgling like at the end of a flush.

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