I haven't updated anything for a while so while I had the ambition tonight I snapped a couple of pics of some new things that have been going on with the barquarium.
I couple of weeks ago I noticed that my SQWD went, what a pain those things are to deal with. The theory behind them is good, but the product was lacking as it turned out. one of the gears broke inside so the valve got stuck to one side. I only noticed this after sme of my corals began to show signs of stress, and GHA started to appear on one side of the tank. I pondered replacing it, but instead opted to go a different direction. Thanks to a fellow Canreefer I've now jumped up a notch in the tech ranks to a digital wavemaker.
It runs the existing 3 Koralia 2's that I have in the tank. What a noise they make when turning on after being idle. I couldn't stand it for even a day, and it got the gears in my head turning. (turn off your smoke detectors) This is what I came up with. A simple by as it turns out, very effectiveway to shut them up. Anyone who owns Koralia's knows that the impeller flaps around when they're turned on, until it grabs. A small piece of rigid watr filter tubing did the trick, and should also extend the life of the impeller.
Oh, I forgot to mention; When I ditched the old plumbing from when I had the SQWD I increased my return line flow a lot. Not only did I get rid of the SQWD but also, a check valve and all of the 3/4" plumbing. Now with 1" plumbing I figure I've added about 250 - 300 GPH to the return line, if not more. This caused an unexpected problem with the overflow from my refugium to the sump. It couldn't handle the increased flow due to the lack of pitch in the drain line and I had a mini flood. Rookie plumbing mistake I guess. So I had to "T" off the 1.5" drain line before the fuge so that some of the water went directly int the sump. I also added some more pitch to the drain.
