Dary's tank!

[SeanMonster]

My 90 and 180 reefs are pretty set. Will most likely spend money on plants for the 60 gallon cube, freshwater live plant tank I just set up.


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[Dary421]

Not too sure if anyone outside the hobby would even attempt buying a gift for a dedicated reefer,... I'm not even too sure of anything else in the near future that I'm looking at equipment wise ,.. Always a safe bet would be beer :-/ somehow that seems to go well with pwc's , cleaning up the glass and building projects ,.... I truly hope everyone has a great xmas and Santa comes thru for you In a big way ,.. enjoy the family , friends and the holidays !!!


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[SeanMonster]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours Dary. Gift cards are the way to go!!


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[Bdonaldson]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your Family Dary. I hope you get something nice. Gift cards are the best if your not sure what to get someone. My Husband said he would give me $100.00 but not sure what I'm going to get with it yet.

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[Dary421]

A question for Greg or anyone who runs a ats ,... Usually during the summer months my aquarium uses somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-8 gals of top off water in a week,... Since the winter has started and the nite time temps in San Diego have dropped to the high20's to low 40's combined with the daytime highs in the mid 60's ,I have done two things , reconnected my heater to give my tank a constant temp of 78 degrees and the addition of my new turf scrubber.
Since then my top off water has risen to 10-15 gals a week ,... The salinity has stayed at 1.026 so it's all in evaporation I would imagine.
Does the ats really cause such a high rate of evaporation or is there something I'm missing here ?


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[SeanMonster]

I know here in Upstate NY I notice evaporation increase in the winter due to the lack of humidity. I also have a higher rate of evaporation in the heart of the summer since my central air is running thus lowering the humidity. Those in between seasons when I don't need much heat or AC I notice it drops. Having no frame of reference for the West Coast (furthest west I've been is Denver) I'm not sure if this helps.


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[Gregcoyote]

It does increase evaporation and gas exchange as the surface area in the ATS is pretty significant. But that evaporation also cools the water so the lights don't seem to heat the system up much at all.


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[Dary421]

thank you guys,.... i appreciate the replies

 

[navaljonf]

I always found evaporation rates to be higher in the winter for my tank. I think it's driven by vapor pressure, water temp, and relative humidity. If you never noticed this in previous winters I am guessing it could be the ATS.


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[Sniperhank]

This is my first winter with my ATS. I have seen no increase in evaporation. I'm always about 1.5 gallons evaporating off of the 55 system a day during the winter due to the dry heat. When the heater isn't running, it is sometimes under a gallon.

 

[Dary421]

Interesting views regarding the increase in evaporation,... Never really thought about the humidity in the air etc , as Greg says the overall surface area of the ats is kind of large leading to an increase of evaporation too , I've always had roughly the same amount of ato water going on in summer and winter for the last 5 years or so but suddenly it really shot up , I guess "it is what it is " and as long as the salinity stays on track it's ok .
I'm currently making a secondary 5 gal water container equipped with a ball valve that'll sit above the current container and will feed into it,..a twist of the valve and that'll refill the main container back up .,I think that'll make life a little easier at 2:45 am when I ck things out before heading to work .



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[Gregcoyote]

Be sure you don't have a leak.


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[Dary421]

Be sure you don't have a leak.


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Checking that out as we speak ,...so far thumbs up !!!


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[Dary421]

[[/ATTACH]
It's a little crude but effective .... Saves having to wrestle with a five gallon container and a funnel at 2:45 am ... No leaks


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[SeanMonster]

Very nifty!


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[Dary421]

I decided that I needed something aquarium wise for Xmas that I could get for myself ,... I've always liked the skimmer overflow canisters so I looked into one that would suit my new skimmer setup , at brs they have a reef octopus overflow canister that has a twist to it , it actually has a outlet that your skimmer plugs into and delays your skimmer startup for 5/7 minutes after a power outage ,that lets your tank and sump return the water level back to normal before the skimmer kicks in thus preventing the skimmer from going nuts due to a high water level in the sump ( if that's where your skimmer is ) , with my skimmer setup l have mine isolated into its separate barrel that maintains a constant level so that would not come into play for me , however the feature that I do like is that once the canister is filled up with waste water wether from Normal everyday usage or from one of those unforeseen overflows caused by chemicals or whatever sets them off , it'll actually shuts the skimmer off via a float valve ,.. That's pretty cool , so if you have an overflow while on vacation or at work you'll come home to a dry floor or a non overflowing skimmer .
It also has a charcoal filter built into the top of it to keep the house from smelling like old crabs at low tide . They come in two sizes and are rather pricey but what isn't in the aquarium world ? I elected to get the larger of two size for my system.
A man and his toys ,thank you Santa


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[PB_Smith]

Sounds nice, especially the auto-shutoff feature.
I rigged my DIY skimmer up with a collection bottle and an overflow line that runs back into the sump. It has worked flawlessly so far. Since the skimmer is about 6' tall, the pressure makes sure it will flow through the collection set-up and at that height it is right at the head pressure limit of the pump feeding it, so it can't overflow the cup.
I also put a carbon thing on the top.


One thing I have wondered about and one reason the auto shut-off on the unit you are getting is great. In the event of a skimmer gone wild, you also run the risk of having the ATO kick in and lower the salinity.
With my setup the most water that could ever be removed is one quart, but in a setup where the skimmer could dump gallons out of the system, that could be disastrous.
you go on vacation and come back not only to a flooded floor, but a burned out ATO pump and possibly dead brackish water tank as well.
worst case extreme scenario of course, but I do wonder how you guys manage that if you worry about it at all.

any thoughts anyone?

 

[Dary421]

That's exactly another reason I liked this setup ,...I remember one day my old bubble magus went nuts for some reason and overfilled the collection container which was outside the sump ,..needless to say that was a messy situation ,it also as you said dumped in five gallons of ato water mixed with kalk into the display tank to make up for losing that much water


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[Gregcoyote]

Just ordered it for $199. Got the 6" model. Didn't even know they made something like this, thx Dary.


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[Dary421]

I got the same one ,...we can compare notes down the line


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