FarmerTy Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Very valid point. I'm planning to add other doodads too spice up my equipment list resume! Who wants to go in on a group buy for a autoglass cleaner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 For real Ty, you have an automatic skimmer cup cleaner, a UV filter that cleans itself, what's next? A servant boy clean the glass, feed the fish all day, perform small daily water changes, and spot feed your corals at night?!? I think I saw a tank of the month thread (or maybe just a build thread) where this guy had an AMAZING tank and hired a guy to do all the maintenance on it. What's even the point then?? Sure it looks pretty, but it doesn't mean as much if you don't put all the hard work in to make it what it is. It's the journey that makes the adventure, not the destination! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Why all the questions? You interested in a job? I don't think I can afford your consultant rates though! [emoji6] I've run across a couple of builds like you've mentioned where there is a team of people that take care of the tank. It's lost on us but for those that have the money, I'm sure it's a nice distraction from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Between their world travels to luxury resorts, drives in their super cars, tours on their mega yachts, and rides on their jet skis and Arabian horses, yes, the aquarium distracts them between events. What kind of life is that anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Well I sold the Arabian horses, but you are right... maybe I need to reevaluate my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 For those of you playing devils advocate why is it ok to use skimming that has been shown to really screw with the microbial populations in aquaria, notably selectively removing only species that have hydrophobic qualities and thereby reducing the microbial diversity but it's not ok to use a UV sterilizer? As far as running a UV at higher than suggested kill rates I have had very good success removing ick with flow rates giving 2-3 times the recommended minimum flow giving exposure levels in the 200,000 µws/cm2 to 300,000 µws/cm2. Does this kill everything? It certainly stops ich from spreading even after fish have died from it. Have I wiped out all the plankton in the tank with all the benthic stuff reproducing I may have killed it but I haven't removed it and it's still there to feed the corals one way or another. Corals do like their plankton, and fish **** and dissolved organic and inorganic phosphates and nitrates and frozen foods and particulate foods. With the use of it's holobiont a coral is capable of using just about any source for it's needed nutrients whether it be dead, dissolved or live. Regarding over heating of UV's, over the years I have worked with many different brands as well as built my own and the only times I have run into a problem with a UV overheating and breaking a bulb or quartz tube is when the installation and plumbing layout allows for the sterilizer to be on and empty of water if the supply pump is off for whatever reason. If the sterilizer is full of water even if the supply pump is off I have not seen one fail. The heat issue is why I do not normally run a sterilizer for years on end in a system. Only long enough to verify ich has been removed from a system. As far as systems always have ich and the fish only get it if stressed I have serious objections. There are strains with different degrees of virulence and fish with different degrees of resistance and systems with different species of animals filtering larva out of the water. Many mature systems have developed significant populations of corals, sponges and other filter feeders that are feeding any ich larva and these along with exposed fish that have developed resistance certainly do explain the cases I have personally seen where an ich outbreak disappears without much or any loss of life and no remedial treatment used. But considering ther are strains that have a high level of virulence and strains that have low levels of virulence I think it is a disservice to advise people that it will clear up on it's own. The systems most likely to see an ich outbreak are young systems still maturing are least likely to have the populations of animals that will help clear less virulent strain and in the case of a more virulent strain once it gets going in such a situation it is unlikely for many if any fish to survive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 For those of you playing devils advocate why is it ok to use skimming that has been shown to really screw with the microbial populations in aquaria, notably selectively removing only species that have hydrophobic qualities and thereby reducing the microbial diversity but it's not ok to use a UV sterilizer? As far as running a UV at higher than suggested kill rates I have had very good success removing ick with flow rates giving 2-3 times the recommended minimum flow giving exposure levels in the 200,000 µws/cm2 to 300,000 µws/cm2. Does this kill everything? It certainly stops ich from spreading even after fish have died from it. Have I wiped out all the plankton in the tank with all the benthic stuff reproducing I may have killed it but I haven't removed it and it's still there to feed the corals one way or another. Corals do like their plankton, and fish **** and dissolved organic and inorganic phosphates and nitrates and frozen foods and particulate foods. With the use of it's holobiont a coral is capable of using just about any source for it's needed nutrients whether it be dead, dissolved or live. Regarding over heating of UV's, over the years I have worked with many different brands as well as built my own and the only times I have run into a problem with a UV overheating and breaking a bulb or quartz tube is when the installation and plumbing layout allows for the sterilizer to be on and empty of water if the supply pump is off for whatever reason. If the sterilizer is full of water even if the supply pump is off I have not seen one fail. The heat issue is why I do not normally run a sterilizer for years on end in a system. Only long enough to verify ich has been removed from a system. As far as systems always have ich and the fish only get it if stressed I have serious objections. There are strains with different degrees of virulence and fish with different degrees of resistance and systems with different species of animals filtering larva out of the water. Many mature systems have developed significant populations of corals, sponges and other filter feeders that are feeding any ich larva and these along with exposed fish that have developed resistance certainly do explain the cases I have personally seen where an ich outbreak disappears without much or any loss of life and no remedial treatment used. But considering ther are strains that have a high level of virulence and strains that have low levels of virulence I think it is a disservice to advise people that it will clear up on it's own. The systems most likely to see an ich outbreak are young systems still maturing are least likely to have the populations of animals that will help clear less virulent strain and in the case of a more virulent strain once it gets going in such a situation it is unlikely for many if any fish to survive. Well, to play devil's advocate, it would be ok to use a skimmer to remove hydrophobic bacteria because you are removing sources of organic material from the water column. The whole purpose of a skimmer is to remove nutrients from the water. You would never completely remove the population of hydrophobic bacteria from skimming and the microbes would repopulate over time while removing nutrients from the water coumn. Thus it makes it a valid form of nutrient export. On the oter hand, UV sterilization would just kill the hydrophobic microbes and pump them back into the tank. Just recycling the nutrients back in to the tank and making it available to more bacteria and microbes in the tank. The nutrients would keep building and building with the only export being gaseous byproducts from respiration. Sure skimming selectively removes hydrophobic microbes, but it's better to remove them and dispose of them as export vs. only killing them and recycling the nutrients back into the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 Better yet... UV kills it, skimmer removes it! Win win! [emoji87] At least UV will kill free floating parasites as well where skimming by itself won't. That's it, everybody, buy a UV and a skimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 We should totally create a UV skimmer and patent it! It can go towards the ARC tropical island coral grow out farm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 That's funny gigem I was thinking about that last night. I think the foam would mess with the uv though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 C'mon Reburn! UV first, then skimmer = no bubbles! You had too much fun last night? Didn't you? [emoji12] Aquatop already beat us to it... however a much more rudimentary version. The ARC UV Skimmer will have a 57-watt UV bulb and a giant Skimz Skimmer in a nice little package. I'll go ahead and run the first test runs in my system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 Either today or tomorrow is going to be the big day! One giant 57-watt UV, check! All plumbing parts already bought, check! The wife wondering what you're doing on her final weekend of Spring Break... uh... hmmm... better rethink this. [emoji30] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Honey it's raining outside so I thought I would redo my manifold and accidentally not glue a fitting and make it rain inside. Ooopppssss sorry!! This is what I was thinking last night. On my new big build I will be running an avast marine cs3 in recirculating mode. The skimmer needs 300-500 gallons feed. I can use a reef octopus BR110 reactor. It will hold 1000ml of biopellets. The appropriate reccomended dose of bio pellets for a 275 total water volume system is 236ml per 50 gallons so 1300ml. I plan on running 1/4 of that to start which is 325ml with a max of 1000ml (which I doubt I'll ever get to). To tumble the full reactor I will need a 700gph pump. Ideal pass through on the skimmer is 412gph which is 1.5 system TWV per hour. I will probably us a Aqua uv 15w advantage series, it needs 700gph for 30mw, about 412gph for 52mw, 350gph at 60mw. I will plumb it like this, feed pump to uv, uv to biopellets reactor, biopellets to T to flow out valved and to recirculating skimmer. I think that I will be able to tumble such a small amount of biopellets with the pump at the 412gph target which will put the uv and skimmer right in line Gph wise. I know it's a way undersized uv but the purpose is just to clear the water and help reduce some algae. Not to battle ick or velvet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 I don't think that's a bad idea if everything lines up on paper the same way it lines up in real life. My only reservation is the expected flow from the biopellet reactor. You want a nice tumble, but not too fast. I can see dialing it in might throw some loops down the circuit in your perfectly engineered flow path of perfection... or I like to call it... PEFPOP. [emoji14] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Well I think we could do better than Aquatop, what if we used LED UV, and not the "UV" that some reef LED lights claim that they have, I mean true UV radiation of >290 nm that will cause damage to DNA. That way it is more efficient, won't heat up as much, and will hopefully last longer (as long as water is flowing over the diodes to keep them from overheating). It may even have the capabilities of increasing the intensity to kill off everything with a lower flow rate if the right wavelength is used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 I don't know much about led design but it seems like a valid thought. Basically creating a uv led stick that could serve as a direct replacement for the uv lamp. It would be nice if it can slip into the existing Quartz tube as well. That would eliminate the need for replacement lamps. Which there seems to be much debate about medium pressure tubes vs low pressure tubes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 This thread is starting to smell slightly of - dare I say it - engineering analysis .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Jim, Ssssssshhhhhhhh!!!!!! But it's dead before it started. Apparently UVC LEDs are still in the fledgling stages and at ridiculous dollars per diode. Like hundreds of dollars per diode. Since UVA and UVB are not nearly as effective it's not worth trying with those diodes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 Engineering! Not in my thread! How dare you! If someone mentions relays, I'm going to lose it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 SSR! You may go bananas now Ty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 [emoji87] [emoji85] [emoji86] [emoji35] [emoji36] [emoji26] [emoji27] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 I'll insert a stock picture in a bit of the unit for those visually-minded people like myself. -poke- Yes, I'm too lazy to google it but not lazy enough to bug you about it lol <3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Thanks for the poke! Life sometimes takes a hold of me and doesn't let go! I'll hopefully be installing my UV sterilizer today after work so I'll snap some good pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 It's today after work.... Poke..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 26, 2015 Author Share Posted March 26, 2015 Alright, alright! [emoji5] Still not installed yet but tadah! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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