320g build/journey/experiment DIY :-)

[Greenmaster]

Well It's been a while... I had some troubles with PH so I was having to flush the system as often as I had time... I forgot the water was on at one point and it flooded my house... so I left the tank empty for a while. I have been waiting for an apex controller to come on sale, not having any luck there. I have also been really busy with family and work... also my car ended up getting totaled as well. Anyways... I'm working on the tank again. I filled it with fresh water two weeks ago PH got up to 8.2 I emptied it last week and re-filled it. Today I emptied it and it was down to 8.0. I will be doing it again and again every week until I get a stable PH. I will try to post here next week as well and answer any questions.

[lastlight]

Yours was an interesting thread I'm glad you're back at it.

The ph issues are caused by your DIY rock? How long did you have them in the lake curing?

[Greenmaster]

They were only in the ocean for 4 weeks... I know that the rocks are the problem but they are getting better so it's just a waiting game ATM.

[josie]

wishing you the best for 2011!
sending you good vibes for the tank

[lockrookie]

i snooped on your reef central thread and noticed you are doing fresh water fill only with your rock is this correct? you have no salinity with your rock in the tank? if im wrong then discard this and ignore me.

just my thoughts on your difficulties are these no matter what type of tank you start there is a time frame where ph and amonia is all out of wack. but since your diy rock was in the ocean to start it up you have added fresh water only to the tank which may have destroyed all that you tried to accomplish with the rock being in the ocean. it would be like putting live rock ina fresh water dip but longer. removing all the water and refilling is really only going to cost you a huge water bill. the tankneeds to cycle it needs to get all screwed up to level out.and if ph is too high there are ways to lower it with additive.

again im not an expert nor claim to know all the answers.but maybe you shoudl start fresh. re insert your rocks in the ocean if you chose or leave theminand add some live rock toseed your rock. in the mean time fill the tank with salt water at the prefered salinity. let it cycle (you can add again additive to help boost the cycle with bacteria prodivo comes to mind). do weekly water changes and test for the spike in ammonia.. dont worry about ph just yet until the tank cycles. when you see your levels level out check for ph.

i just hate to see you struggle and by no means am i the best at this im sure ppl will dissagree with me or i missed something. and maybe im just selfish and want to see this baby running and pictures of youradditions

good luck
jeff

[Greenmaster]

You are right that I am putting fresh water in the tank and not salt water.
I think you misunderstood the reason for putting my rock in the ocean. I didn't put it in the ocean to build bacteria colonies I put it there because cement leaches out lime and other chemicals but the lime leaches the longest... affecting the PH, so I am flushing the system in order to get out most of the lime that is going to leach. When I realized that my rock had not finished leaching I would have put it back into the ocean but a couple of my rocks were too big to take out so I decided to just flush my tank... As for the water bill... I live in a rain forest, we pay only a yearly fee for water service, we have plenty of water here.

[lockrookie]

ok well that makes more sense thank you for explaining i just feel bad for you struggling with this

will shut up now and be patient

[Greenmaster]

This week the water is down to 8.0 I did a full change and I'll wait two weeks now to see if it stabilizes.

[Greenmaster]

So I got a new pump for my B-day and now I need some help figuring where to put it... I'll upload some photos of my tank and if someone would like to give me some ideas on how to set it up I'm all ears. I see two options for the source. Either I can do a closed loop (that would allow pulsing of the pump... like on 5 sec off 5 sec.)? Or do it the same as my other two and just add a third return pump (that would increase turnover of the tank through the sump)? The next question is where do I put the bulkhead? (in/out for the closed loop or just the return) I was thinking I would like it close to the bottom half of the tank considering that the other two are at the top of the water. Next question is do I put a flow accelerator on like I have already or do I put some kind of rotating/ switching nozzle on? If so what kind/brand do you think works well?

Full tank shot.


Left side, looking from front.


Right side, looking from front.


Left side looking from left to back.


Left side, looking to right side, looking across the front of the tank.


Right side, looking to left side, looking across the back.


The white and black 1/2" pipe that is inside the tank is only there for filling/emptying the tank while I sort out the pH issues, once that is done I will be removing those pipes.
Also the pump is a 950 GPH

[Skimmerking]

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM looks fantastic Green hows is the LED light doing