Pickupman66's 180 gal Glass box - Update for July 2013

Thanks newreef! yes it is. just waiting on the chiller to put it fully into action. for now, I run the halides for a few hours at night just to lookie lookie. I have some Powerheads running in the sump, and the loop running in the DT. it is a little cloudy today im guessing the cycle is hitting finally. I did some testing and traced out some Nitrites and some ammonia. nothing on the Nitrates. once i get the sump running, ill get the De-Nitrator coil online and get it cycled with the rest of the tank. I also run the outside system just for grins and to hear it purr!

 

well, I got a used 1/4 hp chller. and its working well at this time. total system is 79.5 and dropping. I have it set for 77, but may bump that up a touch.

It has now been determined that my overflows are uneven. yes... one is about 1/4" higher than the other causing the high one to have very little flow, and the lower one to get more and is thus quite loud. I will need to re-do my stand pipes, but I need to either find a way to raise the low one a bit or get more water into the high one. this might prove difficult but hopefully it is nothing some acrylic wont fix.

also, I have a bit of a bubble issue. getting some sporadic bubbles thru the sump return. some microbubbles, and some are larger in size. they come and go with no true pattern. it has settled a little bit, but the are still there every once in a while you will see a burst of bubbles come from the 4 outlets. They are all connected to the same line, so it makes it hard to determine. Any ideas? I hope its not the pump cavitating as I do have the tank line cut back to about 60%. I also have the skimmer valved and the chiller valved, so there is some back pressure on the pump. Maybe tomorrow ill try the smaller Dart on it and see if that makes any difference.

 

Here is a quick video of the tank. you can see my Nemesis now. Random bubbles. there are a few micro bubbles, but the larger ones are the ones mystifying me. any suggestions? click to play.

 

Moonlights

Moonlights have been installed. I got this kit from a local reefer. $45 for the power supply, head unit with 8 LED's and 8 single LED's on strands that are placed across the hood. Talk about awesome looking at night.

the head unit is a bit too bright so I dont have it pointed at the water. Click the pic below for a video.

Oh yea, it also can be setup to change colors to red, blue green teal, orange, yellow and white.




Oh yea, and the bubbles have been eliminated from the above post.

 

looks good,nice shimmer effect..

 

Thanks. I love the shimmer effect. comes out great on the carpet too...

 

what was causing the bubbles?

 

Turbulence in the pipes. too much flow from the sump. I toned it back and they all went away.

 

you should go with the herbie style overflow. silent and bubbless.

Great looking tank by the way.

 

it wasnt the overflows causing the issue. it was teh fact that I have a long distance and several elbows for the water to go thru. I also have a 4600 gph pump driving the whole thing. it was also too much water thru the sump anyways.