Najer's zen twins.

[Lowell Lemon]

Don't throw in the towel! What would you do with your camera if you threw in the towel? Well we know the answer to that and we just don't want any more pictures of you snorting vodka! Wishing you a better day Simon!

 

[najer]

I need a day to think about this, my right ribs are killing and my right forearm looks like I am a self harmer, the proper new bulkhead was a lot easier to tighten so why fight with the leaking makeshift one!

 

[najer]

Not sure why I don't talk about my big guy (or girl, I do correct myself) much, nearly got a pic.
I have suspicions it might be chewing my leathers, like they need more love with the fff trying to get them to host it!
It is like the smoker in the tank, when I put the trap blocking the swim through it swam into the side of the trap and was like "that doesn't usually happen!" so tried again!

 

[Mortie31]

I came down to water lapping at the brace bars this morning.
The main drain has been blocked for ages, don't ask.
Something was blocking the back up!
I fiddled with the valve to see if it would un block, bulkhead went!
Unplugged the M1 and the Eheim for the cube and took the spraybar off in the display and angled the nozzle in the cube up.

There may have been various expletives dropped!

The two drains for the display are over the return section of the sump, less of a panic than when the one on the cube went and fried my electrics.

Trip to lfs.

Upgrade bulkhead and fittings bought, snag one, reaching the nut in the weir.
Picture me on a folding work bench stretching 26 inches across the tank and 18 inches down in the weir!

Did I mention expletives?!

I had to adjust the angle of the bulkhead below to nip the nut down so I used a zip tie to the secondary drain, ... and then I have the secondary drain in my hands!

... lots ...

Back to the lfs.

The only thing they had left that would fit was a pre made piece from a tank, no problem.
Except it had to be tighten from inside the weir again.
I have tried three times to nip this up by hand and failed, no I couldn't find a wrench.

So we are semi running, the M1 is not running in the display and the spraybar is off, the Eheim (3000 I think) is throttled back to give a slow turnover in the cube and fuge.
I have the RW 15 on a pulse mode for the display and aimed up a bit.
I have a constant drip into the sump which I can live with, I will find or buy a wrench tomorrow.
The water does slowly permeate between the two side so I am just trying to cut the flow to that bulkhead

The twins have 6 bulkheads by the way, all replacements being ordered next week and will nudge me up to one inch drains.

A good trick to tighten bulk heads with short arms... get a piece of pipe the same size as the nut, heat it up then hammer the pipe over the nut, let it cool and voila a bodgers wrench...

 

[najer]

A good trick to tighten bulk heads with short arms... get a piece of pipe the same size as the nut, heat it up then hammer the pipe over the nut, let it cool and voila a bodgers wrench...

I will do that on the next one outside the tank, the first one is holding hand tight but a tweek would make me happier!

 

[Mortie31]

I will do that on the next one outside the tank, the first one is holding hand tight but a tweek would make me happier!

Yes you don’t want to be hammering on one in place on your tank, but once you have made the wrench on one on a bench you will be able to tighten the one in place as well...

 

[najer]

Today the engineer goby decided to be busy and due to the flow issues we are cloudy.
I need to take the trap out and open the swim through.
It's looking like I am going to have to take the cube apart to catch the cherub!
Some of the fish, flame angel and naso mostly are going stir crazy and the display is very edgy.
Oh and I have badly bruised or cracked a rib and can hardly move so the leak will continue!

 

[najer]

As I was typing the above there was a dust up between the flame angel and the yellow scopas, I noticed the scopas had a split fin so it was quite serious.
I then noticed that the top and bottom rear edge of the flame's fins are basically shredded with splits!
They are 2 and 3 in the pecking order.
I opened the swim through, I will try something else to get the cherub!

 

[SPR1968]

Oh and I have badly bruised or cracked a rib and can hardly move so the leak will continue!

Go on then tell us Simon ?

I hope your ok, I know cracked ribs are excruciatingly painful (well so I’m told!) but does it involve vodka, a straw or anything like that?

 

[najer]

I just turned the Eheim 3000 to flat out, it feeds the cube, it raised the water level in both sides about 1 cm in about 2 minutes, I know they are not the quietest but they are very reliable pumps.
Drip rate stayed the same at about 1 drop a second, the display was a touch colder than the cube end, now we have better circulation all be it slow.
Acro two is behind acro one.
The new Indo. acros got dislodged and touch a gorgonian, who knew?
Repair crew hard at work.

Notice filaments on the dormant acro, this is feeding, very happy!

 

[najer]

Go on then tell us Simon ?

I hope your ok, I know cracked ribs are excruciatingly painful (well so I’m told!) but does it involve vodka, a straw or anything like that?

Leaning across 650 mm of glass and down 450 mm to reach the nuts (get your mind out of the gutter everyone) for the new bulkheads, my ribs were on the top front edge of the glass!

 

[najer]

So with the Eheim flat out in the cube you can see the line where the level rose in the display top left.

 

[najer]

Oh and I just had a thought, without the positive flow into the cube I will be getting a planaria issue in the display soon, oh the joys!

 

[RichtheReefer21]

I came down to water lapping at the brace bars this morning.
The main drain has been blocked for ages, don't ask.
Something was blocking the back up!
I fiddled with the valve to see if it would un block, bulkhead went!

Picture me on a folding work bench stretching 26 inches across the tank and 18 inches down in the weir!

1st .. Did u spill the drink while doing it one handed?

2nd .. what were u wearing so I can get a visual? Toolbelt?

 

[RichtheReefer21]

I need a day to think about this, my right ribs are killing and my right forearm looks like I am a self harmer, the proper new bulkhead was a lot easier to tighten so why fight with the leaking makeshift one!

Suck it up buttercup!

 

[najer]

1st .. Did u spill the drink while doing it one handed?

2nd .. what were u wearing so I can get a visual? Toolbelt?

Suck it up buttercup!

Thanks for your help and concern, no drink was spilled!
Levis and a T shirt.
I'm trying but my ribs hurt like a mo fo!

I am going to change all the plumbing from the tank to 1", I can't run the M1 too high currently so better drainage will help.
I will swap out the two return bulkheads seeing as 3 of 6 have failed now, I am more concerned about the one for the cube as the Eheim does vibrate the pipe.

I am putting the spraybar back on today, the tank is stagnating already, display back glass in 3 days, very fuzzy!
This does mean I will have to turn the Eheim down or off.

I was talking with @Katrina71 a while back about an idea to change the spraybar, I have been thinking about it again, looking at parts today.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Best wishes with the upgrades and swaps! Stay dry!

In bothh manners.

Cheers

 

[najer]

Ok we are at the M1 on four power dots and the RW 15 on pulse one at four dots, we have turnover, I tried 5 dots on the M1, ... drip rate had dropped to about half, a drip every two seconds, now back up to a drip a second, I have the Eheim for the cube set to near minimum, I might try with the Eheim off tomorrow and up the M1?!

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Dang double posts everywhere!

Whoops!

 

[najer]

I now have the M1 up to 8 lights of 11 (why 11?) and I am slowly going to raise it again.
Running the Eheim throttled back on the cube is causing the drain to gurgle like crazy in the cube but due to the swim through the ends balance so the more flow into the cube from the display the more that drain will be used.
Scratch that, 7 lights, I need a second dc pump to replace the Eheim, it will be a lot easier to balance the flow!
I need to find the RW 8 and swap out the RW 15, I have tried running the 15 on "else" (random) mode but it is too much for the display.
The drip count is about one every 5 or 6 seconds now, gotta love salt creep!
I actually have the skimmer dialed in wet so maybe half a cup in 24 hours, I will watch my salinity, 35.5 yesterday.

About 20 minutes before I took this there was a little red nose in the same spot, the flasher wrasse is still hiding most of the time, I love watching the cucumbers "eat".

The disaster area!