Flippers reef 125 gallon

[Flippers4pups]

Water change day.

Been very busy around the house this weekend doing little things. Laid some hardwood flooring at the landing to the steps:

Changed our hall closet to make some space:

Got some shelving to hang in the mud room and that’s it.

 

[NDIrish]

Water change day.

Been very busy around the house this weekend doing little things. Laid some hardwood flooring at the landing to the steps:

Changed our hall closet to make some space:

Got some shelving to hang in the mud room and that’s it.

Looks good

 

[Flippers4pups]

Well I come home from work and the DT has a low water level and isn’t draining to the sump! It’s obvious the return pump is not on!

I run down stairs and yes it’s off. The GFCI tripped!

I of course try to reset it and it does but the pump isn’t turning! Making a low audible “hum”. I turn off the switch and proceed with my emergency/maintenance plan for the pump. I have a piece of pvc pipe cut to length with a threaded fitting on the end that plugs the bulkhead that I screw into. It keeps the water from the return section from draining to the return pump while I’m working on it.

I unthread the unions on the pipes and with a socket wrench undo the bolts to the impeller housing. Pulling it way from the pump I see a snail jammed in there. Not a big one, but a small one. Now sometime ago I put a strainer on the bulkhead to keep this from happening, but little snail must have been in there for some time.

I also notice that I do need to service the impeller as it’s full of “slimy gunk”, so I clean the impeller and housing and reassembled everything. Unscrew the pvc pipe and turn on the pump. Back in business!

Now the system temp was low, but not bad. 77.3

 

[NDIrish]

Well I come home from work and the DT has a low water level and isn’t draining to the sump! It’s obvious the return pump is not on!

I run down stairs and yes it’s off. The GFCI tripped!

I of course try to reset it and it does but the pump isn’t turning! Making a low audible “hum”. I turn off the switch and proceed with my emergency/maintenance plan for the pump. I have a piece of pvc pipe cut to length with a threaded fitting on the end that plugs the bulkhead that I screw into. It keeps the water from the return section from draining to the return pump while I’m working on it.

I unthread the unions on the pipes and with a socket wrench undo the bolts to the impeller housing. Pulling it way from the pump I see a snail jammed in there. Not a big one, but a small one. Now sometime ago I put a strainer on the bulkhead to keep this from happening, but little snail must have been in there for some time.

I also notice that I do need to service the impeller as it’s full of “slimy gunk”, so I clean the impeller and housing and reassembled everything. Unscrew the pvc pipe and turn on the pump. Back in business!

Now the system temp was low, but not bad. 77.3

Glad it was only a snail and nothing serious with the pump.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Glad it was only a snail and nothing serious with the pump.

Me too! I’m getting ready to go down there again to take a temperature of the return pump to make sure it’s not a thermal issue.

 

[WIReefer]

Glad it didn’t drop that much! How do you like that panworld pump? I’m planning a basement sump and thinking about this brand.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Glad it didn’t drop that much! How do you like that panworld pump? I’m planning a basement sump and thinking about this brand.

I love them, BUT......... I hate to say this, but I’ve heard that they have discontinued sales in North America. BRS doesn’t even offer them anymore, as with all the online vendors. I would definitely look into Iwaki. Pan world was a company that was started by a previous Iwaki engineer. Iwaki is more money, but is as good or even better than Pan world. I’ll be switching to a Iwaki when this one is done.

 

[WIReefer]

I love them, BUT......... I hate to say this, but I’ve heard that they have discounted sales in North America. BRS doesn’t even offer them anymore, as with all the online vendors. I would definitely look into Iwaki. Pan world was a company that was started by a previous Iwaki engineer. Iwaki is more money, but is as good or even better than Pan world. I’ll be switching to a Iwaki when this one is done.

Well darn, I see marine depot sells panworld still, was also looking at Iwaki I see brs sells them but panworld is a tad cheaper. Just wanted to hear your thoughts.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Well darn, I see marine depot sells panworld still, was also looking at Iwaki I see brs sells them but panworld is a tad cheaper. Just wanted to hear your thoughts.

What your seeing is what’s left in vendors inventory. The thing that has me turned about it right now would be parts, like a new impeller if I would ever need one. No good.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Temp rising up to 78. Return pump is cool at 82. All good.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Update:

Long week at work kept me busy. Water change water made. Water change tomorrow. Return pump is working fine. Temp back up to 80 degrees. Corals and fish are fine and

Moving on......

Decision time again with the large toadstool in the DT. It’s Partially out of the water sort of. It’s growth is so large that I have to do something very soon. So with that said, tomorrow may have to be a day of fragging for it. I’ll have to take a trip up to like Petco to get some GAC tomorrow. Take some of the dry rock I have and bust it into fragments.

Next is to take some frags to some LFS nearby to make room for the toadstool frags.

The last round of toadstool frags sold very well for me. Around 8 babies. This one should yield around 12. We have a frag swap coming up and though I don’t have a frag system I could set up for a spot there, I do know someone in mind that may work with me on selling some. Got to make some calls.

 

[TriggerFinger]

Do you know where I can find details on the frag swap @Flippers4pups?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Do you know where I can find details on the frag swap @Flippers4pups?

Of course:

 

[Flippers4pups]

 

[TriggerFinger]

Thank you good sir ;Smuggrin

 

[Flippers4pups]

Thank you good sir ;Smuggrin

Your welcome!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Update:

Water change was done over the weekend, but my return pump since the snail incident has been making a "wobbling" sound. This is most likely from me cleaning it while i had it apart. This is something i've lived with and have tried to control it by adjusting the ball valve that is on my manifold.

When i first set up the system i hard plumbed the inlet side of the pump from the sump. It wobbled bad back then. I removed the pvc pipe and replaced it with Spa flex pvc and it helped. The other thing that seemed to reduce the "wobble" was after some time the pump would get dirty and it would get quite.

After the snail incident, I started to reevaluate what was causing the "wobble". After all this time i realized that the tee to the manifold was causing the flow to vortex, in turn cause the "wobble".

I decided to buy a true union ball valve to place above the return pump to put some pressure back on it. Tonight i cut the return and glued in the valve. Turned on the pump and adjusted the valve. Bam, just like that the "wobble" stopped!

Lesson learned. It just needed some back pressure to settle the impeller down!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Got home and took the return pump temperature and it's at 80 degrees.

Definitely should have done this long ago! Quite as a mouse (well as quite as a pressure rated AC pump goes! lol)

 

[Bleigh]

Your tank makes me miss my basement. It looks incredible! I cannot wait until my corals are too large to stay in the water. lol

 

[fishybizzness]

Hi! Quick questions, I read in the beginning pages of your build thread that you used carisea special grade sand. Is that still the original substrate? If it is, are you happy you went with it? How easy is it to vacuum and keep clean? Sorry for all the questions but I'm planning on changing sand in my tank because the current fine sand blows around too much and is difficult to vacuum. Thanks