Stone's 225 Carbonate Factory

[lastlight]

"I have a mind-blowing SPS tank which I usually don't have enough time to perform general maintenance on".

You sir... suck

[Stones]

Originally Posted by lastlight

"I have a mind-blowing SPS tank which I usually don't have enough time to perform general maintenance on".

You sir... suck

I always look forward to your posts Brett

The mind-blowingness of the system however, is sadly at an all time low right now. Hopefully I can get everything back on track here within the next few months with some diligent water changes as well as a few other measures I'm taking to test their claimed effectiveness.

Luckily I didn't lose too many pieces from the pseudo-crash and just need to get them to color back up to their full potential. Most of the pieces I did lose are also replaceable as I had given frags to the only other hard core SPS addict in southern Saskatchistan.

[Delphinus]

Did you compare the Vectra against the Avast unit at all? I'm curious, I'd like to try one someday as well and the two seem similarly priced.

One idea I had if I ever get ambitious and energetic enough was to put a cleaner head on my skimmer and see if I could also attach a mist nozzle attached to a pump on the RO/DI reservoir doing the top up. Get a wipe AND a spray-down kind of thing .. but maybe the squeegee does a good enough job on its own?

[Stones]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Did you compare the Vectra against the Avast unit at all? I'm curious, I'd like to try one someday as well and the two seem similarly priced.

One idea I had if I ever get ambitious and energetic enough was to put a cleaner head on my skimmer and see if I could also attach a mist nozzle attached to a pump on the RO/DI reservoir doing the top up. Get a wipe AND a spray-down kind of thing .. but maybe the squeegee does a good enough job on its own?

I didn't really look into the Avast unit Tony but I did know that they made a similar product. I've been quite happy with every Vertex product I've owned so I didn't have 2nd thoughts on pulling the trigger on this purchase come black friday.

Thats a pretty slick idea using a spray nozzle and pump to help aid the cleaning process. When I first heard of these neck cleaners, I assumed they would have had hardware in place to do just what you described so I was a bit dissapointed that they were simply a motorized squeegee.

The trick to pulling off such a design would be running the hose to the spray nozzle if it were mounted on the wiper blade arm. You'd have to figure out how to get around the hose getting wrapped up as the wiper arm rotates. You could just mount the spray nozzle protruding just below the inner lid of collection cup so that it sprays the entire skimmer neck I guess but this wouldn't be as effective.

However, I'm not sure that a spray down would be necessary or even help the cleaning process at all. It seems the foam head inside of the skimmer neck keeps the surface of the neck continuously wet. When the wiper blade makes its rounds, it removes most of the grime on the surface and after each pass, the rising foam column cleans off any loosened gunk that the wiper blade may have missed. If the foam head were to collapse shortly after the wiper blade started moving, then I could definately see a mist of freshwater aiding the cleaning process but this is not the case.

I'm also running the wiper blade for 1 minute intervals twice a day so the wiper blade goes around 6 or 7 times per cycle. After each run cycle, the skimmer neck appears just as clean as if I had gone over it with a scrubber so I'm happy enough with how this unit performs without the use of an added fresh water mist.

[lastlight]

I'm not sure it's made anymore but the AquaDriver units had water nozzles:

http://reefbuilders.com/2009/07/31/a...m-custom-nice/

They also cost as much as the skimmer lol.

[Delphinus]

Cool, thanks Stones, yeah I agree Vertex seems pretty top notch on all their other things too. I'm still sort of tempted to consider Avast because I'd probably get one of their waste collector buckets (with a skimmer shutdown relay? Boo yah!)

Brett - Oh wow, neat, it almost looks like that would spray down into the cup area. I didn't even think of that but man would that make for a nice feature.

[Stones]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Cool, thanks Stones, yeah I agree Vertex seems pretty top notch on all their other things too. I'm still sort of tempted to consider Avast because I'd probably get one of their waste collector buckets (with a skimmer shutdown relay? Boo yah!)

Having a skimmer shutdown relay has been one of the best additons I've made to my equipment lineup in years and I highly recommend installing one for all those hobbyists using in sump skimmers. Prior to the Vertex Alpha 250, I had never ran an insump skimmer before and didn't realize how finicky they were in regrard to water level consistency. I'd end up with an overflowing skimmer every time the power would go out or if for some strange reason the water level in my sump rose by more than 1".

Posted this pic at the beginning of the build but it shows how I added a 2 way shutdown relay to my skimmer.



This way if the sump level rises above the level where I have float switch #2 or if the skimmer collection cup gets full it triggers float swith #1. If either switch is engaged, power is cut to the skimmer pump until the float drops back down. This way, I'm protected against power outages where the sump level rises by ~6" or if I add something to my tank like 2 part epoxy that makes the skimmer go crazy for a day or two the skimmer also shuts down when the collection cup is full.