BornToHula Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 Yeah I talked to them on the phone today. They said it sounded like maybe one of the Elbow Check Valves maybe came loose. But after working on it, that doesn't appear to be the case. I re-taped their threads and made sure they were tight. I'll give them a call again tomorrow, I was just venting some frustration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 When it makes a noise you can't diagnose you can fix it like I do on my truck and get a good sound system Haha, whats funny is a can hear it over the washer and dryer that its in the same room as. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 That's crazy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 OK some progress! I confirmed it is the membrane housing that is making the noise. My office happens to have an RO filter so I took their membrane & housing this morning and hooked it up to my system. Not a peep! Stuck my RO membrane in their housing and it was quiet as well. I'm guessing my membrane housing's threads for the elbow valves got stripped somehow and were letting in air. How that happened I am not sure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 You need to ease off on the weight training Hula! Good detective work by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 I don't know if I would consider it good detective work, more like brute force trial and error! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Careful, that brute force is what got you in trouble in the first place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 Got the biopellet reactor, recirculating kit and pump in today. This thing is huge! Hopefully it will still tumble the small amount of pellets I am planning to put in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted March 1, 2015 Author Share Posted March 1, 2015 I had written a long post about how I didn't like the Avast Marine recirculating kit but I edited out. I need some more time working with it before I am too critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I read it Hula. It was a good post but I understand the desire to give it more of a chance first. Hope you can get it working like you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 I read it Hula. It was a good post but I understand the desire to give it more of a chance first. Hope you can get it working like you want. Yeah I had posted that when I was pretty frustrated, so I decided to take edit out the post and work with the Avast Marine reactor a few more hours. Unfortunately, I didn't still didn't have any success so I will post my issues with the product below in case anyone is thinking about purchasing one. This criticism is for the Re-circulation kit that is an add-on to the Avast Marine MR-5 media reactor. The reactor itself is a well made product that would probably serve very well for carbon or GFO. The re-circulation kit seems like it was an afterthought. I probably spend about 10 or more hours this weekend assembling and trying to get the re-circulation kit to work with no success. The following issues may be due to my ignorance and lack of experience in doing this kind of stuff. But, in my opinion, there are some major issues with the product and its documentation. · No instructions are included in the box with the re circulation kit. You have to download it and print it off yourself. · The instructions you do download are very confusing and has conflicting information. One of many examples: the instructions say "Cut the downtube so that the nozzle, when pressed onto the pipe, has about 3/4” (8cm) of space from the bottom of the nozzle to the bottom of the reactor." What does "3/4” (8cm)" mean? Does it mean three-fourths of an inch? eight centimeters? They are both different lengths. Maybe they mean three to four inches which is roughly equivalent to eight centimeters. I don't know. · Once assembled, it does not look very nice and has a hard time standing up straight without support. If you cut the piping to the lengths they have in the directions, the water pump is off the ground with no support except the tubes its connected to. This causes the reactor to want to tip over, so you will have to mount it to something so it says upright when you install it. · There is no room for error in cutting the piping from the kit. I accidentally cut one piece half an inch too long and thus ran out of pipe for the last piece. Had to run to Lowes to buy some more. · On the Avast Marine website it says if you order a Sicce Syncra 1.5 pump it will provide enough power so you won't need a feed pump. This does not appear to be the case when I was testing it. To get the water flowing it needed a full siphon to get started. This involved me sucking on the output end to try to get the water flowing. I will not be willing to do this once its set up in the tank, I was just using tap water for testing. Even after starting it with a siphon, the pump eventually loses its suction and stops pulling water in. I tried to put the pump inside the water source and still had the issue. · I have very little water flow in the reactor chamber (probably due to the pump losing suction). Something is wrong, but as far as I can tell, everything is installed according to the directions. The pump is works fine when its not hooked up to anything so I don't think that's the issue. I could probably spend even more time with it and email Avast Marine, wait for them to call me back, and troubleshoot my issues. But I kind of think when you buy a premium product (which I think, in general, Avast Marine provides) it should work correctly once its assembled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 Thought I would update my battle against cyano... I did a three day blackout with not much improvement. In hindsight I should have removed all the cyano I could before the blackout, but I didn't. Here are some pictures showing the cyano problem from yesterday afternoon: I then did a 20 gallon water change and removed as much cyano as I could: I then did a dose of Ultralife Red Slime Remover (hence the airstones in the above pictures). I'll post some updated pics tonight to see if any progress was made. It appears I need to get a better camera too haha. The pictures look great on my phone but seem kinda blurry when posted here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Haha, the airstone cracks me up. I was going to look for spongebob or a treasure chest with a diver in it as well! You can also just remove your skimmer cup and let it overflow in your sump as an alternative to the airstone as well. Glad you're on your way to a cyano free tank! Keep an eye out for any snotty looking brown algae once the cyano clears. I've had the unfortunate luck that the two times I removed cyano, dinos took over instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 You can also just remove your skimmer cup and let it overflow in your sump as an alternative to the airstone as well. Glad you're on your way to a cyano free tank! I did that too but didn't know if it would be enough aeration. I have a freshwater tank too so I had an extra air pump and a couple air stones laying around, figured it couldn't hurt. Here are the updated pics from 24 hours since the Ultralife Red Slime Stain Remover was dosed. One concern I have is my fire shrimp molted, I am hoping that was not induced from this and is just a coincidence. (Protecting my shrimp was the reason why I went with Ultralife over Dr. Tim's Re-Fresh.) I'm not sure if there has been any improvement or not yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I see the logic, the more aeration, the better. I was just teasing about the air stone. I currently have one in my QT. The slime remover seems to be doing its job well. If your system has hit a good balance, the cyano should stay away. If you still have nutrient issues, they'll come back. Sometimes, the slime remover is the perfect tipping point to totally remove it from your system after your nutrients have balanced out though. I'm rooting for the last scenario. [emoji106] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 I'm hoping for the last scenario too, but it looks like some Cyano is creeping back already when I had the lights on for a little while. I will do another dose of the Red Slime Remover tonight per the instructions, but it is obvious I still have a nutrient problem. I did order a different biopellet reactor that will be in tomorrow, so hopefully that will help combat the nutrient issue. This reactor is not recirculating but I hope to be able to control the output by regulating how much biopellets I fill it up with. I have been doing some thinking/experimenting since I started this thread on source of my nutrient problem (I have written about all of these before, but I find writing them here keeps them fresh in my mind): Over feeding - I do not think this is the cause, I have been only feeding every other day since February. The fish seem okay, but a couple are noticeably skinnier. Since no noticeable reduction in nitrate or phosphate has occurred I came to conclusion that feeding is probably not the main source of the excess nutrients (but is defiantly a factor I have to keep in mind.) Phosphate seeping from rocks - I had read some threads on reef central about how once your live rock gets into a bad condition organic phosphates can live within them and continue to leak phosphates for years. I hope this isn't the case but seems like a strong possibility since when I bought the tank used there was already a cyano/algae problem. From what I know, there really isn't a solution to this besides breaking down the tank and re-curing the live rock, so I will have to combat this by having additional nutrient removal in my system. I am doing this by upgrading my skimmer (went online about a month ago), adding biopellets (hopefully will be online by tommorrow or Thursday) and continuing to do weekly 10g water changes. Debris from the air falling into the tank - I haven't ever seen or read about this as a possible source of excess nutrients, but I have 2 dogs that shed a lot and their hair and dust end up in the air and eventually falls into my tank. Reading that it may seem like I may live in a filthy house, but keep the house clean - I think my dogs are just big dustballs and they love to roll around outside. I don't know if it is actually possible that dog hair/dust would cause an nutrient issue but it can't be helping anything. To solve this issue I have plans made up for a new canopy, and once some logistical issues are solved for a few parts, construction will begin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Did you ever get your GFO/Carbon reactor running smoothly without having to run them in the same chamber? What type of pump and valve are you using the control the flow into the reactor? I use an mj1200 dedicated to the reactor and actually use a small ball valve and my GFO never clumps or flows out of its chamber. You are correct about not using the foam pads, those are for the carbon only. The one thing with the GFO is that you need to check periodically to make sure it is moving. As the GFO gets older, it will tumble less so you will need to adjust the flow going into it to keep it going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 No, I have just been putting the carbon and GFO in the same chamber and changing them every two weeks. I could never get the GFO to tumble correctly with the pads and when I tried it without the pads half the GFO went to the carbon chamber and clogged everything up haha. Maybe I got a bad batch of GFO from Bulk Reef Supply where the grains are too small? The reactor is fed off a manifold from the return pump, it has a ball valve so I can adjust the flow. Are you using the high capacity GFO from BRS? Maybe need to try that instead of the "regular' GFO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I use the regular GFO, switching to high capacity tonight. I would try the GFO in its own chamber without the foam pads. With your tank, you should be at best a cup. Once you have everything put together, start to turn the ball valve ever so slightly until your GFO has a slight wave to the top of it. It should not take much flow to make a cup of GFO tumble. Remember all you are looking for is a slight wave across the top of it. As the GFO reaches its end of life, you will need to increase the flow a bit. I would check the flow each week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvrEnuf Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Hula I almost have my emergnecy turf scrubber ready to go. I'll spare you the details of construction, surfice it to say posts like this have convinced my to keep a portable turf scrubber ready to go at all times if for no other reason to show people what they can do. I got into turf scrubbers as a solution to my "inherited" live rock and constant high Phos. I kept using them when my skimmer stopped producing skimate a few weeks after my cyno cleared and have never gone back. I have a "mat" almost fully matured and am in the process of setting up a 5 gallon bucket system to allow at least a couple different set-ups (syphon and pumped). I am thinking hopefully to complete as a weekend project this weekend, though I am not sure if I have a pump for it. I am thinking just a MJ1200 or so should be perfect, and I'll need to pick up a couple cheap clamp lights. If I get it running this weekend would you like to be my first victim, I mean...guinea pig, I mean...umm, "guest"? I haven't gone back to look at a FTS to see exactly how bad your problem is, but this mat should clear a 75 in 1-2 lights out periods. Once removed we can decide about leaving it to clean the rocks, or bringing back to sit on my tank as it currently is. You should keep in mind my tank has been fallow for almost 5 weeks due to an ich out break...9 days left to the 6 week mark...shouldn't be a problem but some people might think so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 nvrEnuf, thank you for offering to let me try out the turf scrubber. I am getting a biopellet reactor in tomorrow and want to hook it up and give it a few weeks to see how it does first. If after a few weeks the biopellets don't help and I still have a cyano problem, a turf scrubber is the next step and I will happily be the guinea pig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 You'll need more than a few weeks for the biopellets to ramp up. Typically, it takes about 3-4 weeks to see it fully in action as the bacterial colonies have to start building up in the reactor. I would highly recommend plumbing the biopellet reactor effluent directly into the skimmer... or at the very least, in the skimmer chamber. Most rig up a type of pvc elbow that has a direct connection for the effluent of the biopellet reactor and also an opening for it to pull additional water from the water column. Here's what a quick google search found me. It is similar to what I did on my old system. http://www.reefaddicts.com/entry.php/1612-Biopellets-Skimmer-modification-complete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 I am done with the dosing of Red Slime Remover the tank looks excellent! Its been a long while since my tank has looked so clean. Now the hard part: Keeping it that way. I also got my new biopellet reactor in but will not have time to set it up until Monday. In the meantime I did do a 10g water change last night and I am running my skimmer pretty wet to help get any of the nutrients from the dead cyano out of the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Tank looks great! How's that skimmer now that it's been broken in a bit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornToHula Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 The skimmer is working great! It pulls out exponentially more stuff than my old one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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