The Wolfe 90 Build Thread - updated 12/30.

Thoughts on firing up the carbon reactor? BTW, tested for nitrate yesterday and registered 3 ppm. Love it.

 

Got my Mag/Cal/Alk test kits in today from BRS (Red Sea Pro).

Cal: 440
Mg: 1560
Alk: 8.5

Seems like the alk is a bit lower and the mg a bit higher than what it's supposed to be according to the product literature (Red Sea Coral Pro mixed to 1.025)

Still cycling along...

 

Not bad numbers though none the less

 

Nice build. i really like the aquascape.

 

Yeah, I'm hoping that I won't have to buffer the water change water. We'll see...

Thanks Say, I appreciate that!

Ammonia still going down... This waiting part sucks.

 

Getting there....

Ammonia is around 0.3 ppm (down from about 4 ppm). Nitrites are still present to the tune of about 1 ppm. Hoping by next weekend we'll be ready to start fillin' 'er up!

 

Nice! Water cleared up?

Hows the operation? Quiet?

 

I have to look at the surface agitation to make sure it's still running. It's almost too quiet sometimes... Love this system, so glad we went with the BeAn.

On a side note, of the two pumps in the basement the Panworld is 100% quiet. The Iwaki is a little bit louder, but not by much. Granted the Iwaki is almost twice the GPH of the Panworld (820 v. 450), but still. Either would be pretty good in a stand if you needed to go that way.

 

Thats great to hear, dead silent for the win!

If something goes wrong, it starts making noise since the secondary and emergency drain kick in, kinda like warning sounds. I love the BeAn.

 

RO/DI and Water making set-up.

I've been threatening to post some details on certain sections of the build, and this is the start. It's a bit of a novel, consider yourself warned . Without further ado, the water making set-up...

The goals of the system are:

1. Create storage for RO/DI water.
2. Make sure there was water constantly available for the ATO.
3. Saltwater make up capacity of ~30g at a time (need to support water changes for this system and for a BC29 plus want to have some on-hand at all times in case we need to stand up a QT or a hospital tank or something).
4. Automate automate automate...

The major system components are:

• 2x 40 gallon vertical storage tanks
• 90 gpd Spectrapure RO/DI system
• Sprinkler timer and solenoid valve from HD
• RO float valve from BRS
• Various ball valves PVC pipe and flex hose
• Small pump
• BRS top off doser (50ml/min)
• Digital Aquatics Reef Keeper Elite

The RO/DI unit is installed behind this wall at roughly the height you see the output (blue 1/4" line) emerging. You can also see the sprinkler timer hanging on the wall there. It's location is based on ease of reach. The ATO doser pump is located directly below the 45* brace for the drain pipes.



The RO/DI output is connected to the solenoid valve. PVC and JG fittings installed to reduce the input and output to 1/4".



The output is then connected to the RO/DI float valve that's inside the tank.



The combination of the timer/solenoid and the float valve keep storage tank from overflowing while keeping the RO/DI unit from cycling on and off every time the ATO kicks on. Constant on/off is very bad for the DI resin. Thanks to AZDesertRat, Marshall O and Scott from Spectrapure for advice on this topic. Check these threads for the original discussion if you're interested:

http://www.3reef.com/forums/spectrapure/ro-di-installation-questions-139274.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/ews-75g-build-planning-thread-139010.html

The timer is set to run from midnight to 6:00 AM everyday. The one thing we have to be conscious of is if we dump the RO/DI into the saltwater mixing tank we have to hit "manual" on the sprinkler timer to kick the feed on for 2 hours to make sure water is available for the ATO.

The tanks are arranged one above the other, with the RO/DI tank on top. In the picture below, you can see the 1/4" line at the very top.

The plumbing is all 3/4" PVC. The first tee reduces to 1/4" line again and feeds the ATO pump. The second tee now has some hose attached to it, which we use to get RO/DI out to top off the BC29. The bottom feed goes into the saltwater storage tank.



I don't have pictures at the moment, but the saltwater tank now has a heater and a powerhead in it to mix and heat the saltwater. The cords are currently just running out the top, so I need to figure out a way I can keep the lid on while in operation.

The bottom of the saltwater tank is plumbed with a ball valve and connected to a pump to get the water up and into the system (or to get water in to a bucket for the BC29 water changes).

I'll edit with a few pictures of the last two steps shortly.

Hopefully this was helpful, or at least mildly interesting. Let me know if you have any suggestions, recommendations or questions. Thanks for checking it out...

--EW