Fish's new tank project

nanopodreefer · #1 03-28-2007, 10:37 PM

Hey, things looking great had a couple comments, sorry if I missed any of this earlier in the thread.

- how does one get in touch with Nate, where does he work?
- why did you choose to take out the bubble trap in your sump? have you any problems with the bubbles now going over the partition
- I bet at lot of us could appreciate a price breakdown of your setup

Thanks, ohh ya i'm looking forward to another tank video tour someday, hint hint, hehehe

Take care,
Nano

Fish · #2 03-29-2007, 09:09 PM

untamed,
Thanks for the info. If I ever had to switch systems to a float, I would put into practice your safety measures. I can't see that happening though.
As I said, I kept a 2gal nano for two years with one of these pumps and my salinity was always rock solid (amazing feat for a nano/pico that size). So far this one has been running for two weeks and all I have observed is the water level in my sump moving just above the line on my sump over night, and just below the line by the end of the day. I attribute this to the on/off cycle of my T5HO lighting. It is only a couple millimeters of drift and the difference in salinity is undetectable via refractometer.
I have not observed a change in evaporation rates from day to day (only the day/night cycle which seems to be self cancelling). The tank is in my basement, and the house is temperature controlled via thermostat.
Perhaps you findings are the result of the type of pump you tried to use for topoff. ???
I stayed away from peristaltic pumps when researching my topoff options because I felt that they were designed to be monitored and checked way more frequently than we usually would do topoffs by hand anyways. Also, the tubing stretches and wears as it pumps which affects the dosing rate. In hospital IV applications the tubing is swapped out so often it is baisically disposable. If you don't mind me asking, what brand of pump were you using?

nanopodreefer,
Nate can be reached via PM to "Nate". He is working for a wholesale company and can get some good prices. Also, as I found with this pump, he goes out of his way to take care of you.

Sorry dude but I'm not ready, emotionally, to add up the cost yet

- Chad

untamed · #3 03-29-2007, 09:54 PM

It was a Kangaroo medical peristaltic pump, so maybe it just wasn't consistent enough. I could also have been that evaporation rate in my particular home was more variable.

Fish · #4 03-29-2007, 10:41 PM

That's a good point too. I may have been lucky that my nano was in a large government building with air contitionioning too. ???
I bet I would see more fluctuation if my current setup was upstairs in my house where the temperature fluctuates a lot more than it does in the basement.
Thanks for the great input on float switches - I'm sure it is the best way to go in certain applications.
Cheers,

- Chad

Fish · #5 04-10-2007, 03:20 AM

Here are a couple zoanthid colonies that I picked up. The photos are under the T5HO actinics. With the daylight bulbs they don't look nearly as nice:

Hope you like,

- Chad

justinl · #6 04-10-2007, 08:38 PM

sweet zoos. i gotta get me some o those

Fish · #7 04-18-2007, 06:04 AM

Thanks Justin.

Well I added 20lbs of rock to the tank. You can't see it all in the photos because I put a big piece in the sump because it had some gsp on it. (After scraping off as much as I could, I am trying to kill the rest by keeping it in the dark for a while - just so it doesn't take over my rock-work).

Hope you enjoy:

- Chad