75 gallon tank build!

acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by aquaria http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/80#post_3451356
The pre-filter sponge could be trapping air, watch this video let me know if it helps!

Same concept i believe, removing the air will avoid the bubbles in the tank
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CECTDF0_B6o
Honestly that's not what that video is more or less depicting.....The prefilter sponge isn't causing the gurgling or air bubbles.....The turbulence of the water coming over is creating the bubbles and the gurgling sound you hear is far to common with a standard standpipe that is used there, and the air/water mix or ratio if you want to call it is incorrect.....So the air line tubing you see him adding to the standpipe adjust the air mix in the drain line.....
 
xandrew245x

xandrew245x

Member
I found the solution, I was running the water level to low in my sump causing enough water to evap in a days time for the return pump to start sucking air, I looked through some pictures the guy sent me before, and the sump is much fuller than what I was running it at, problem solved.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/80#post_3451360vi
I don't think it has to do with that, the intake of the pump is sitting off the bottom of the tank by a few inches, what I believe is happening, the water level is getting to low, causing the pump to suck a little air and blow bubbles into my tank.
Xandrew!!!!!! Have you checked the tank and plumbing and such for a possible water leak......
Another question as well is what is the temp in the house, the humidity in the house, all these will affect how much your evaporating.....The way I'm interpreting your topping off everyday makes me believe gallons......If I'm topping off a lot of water I'd get rather curious and start checking for wet areas......Not saying that is the case, but part of good trouble shooting is double checking each line...First with your hand, then a paper towel....You'd be surprised how often our hand might miss dampness, but the towel won't lie......If nothing there check bulkheads for slight drips, or salt creep, check the sump edges;seams for dampness as well.
When you get up in the morning I'm also assuming your checking the water level before leaving the house......Where is the water level at that point.....
Why not take a couple pieces of masking tape and when you top off mark, forget the line already there.....then when you check and leave in the morning put a small piece of tape where the water level is at. Then when you get home check again and mark. Is it possible your house is getting super warm during the course of the day.....
This is another reason I never set up a tank during the middle of the week or beginning of the week....When trying to trouble shoot or catch a problem your not around....I'd rather make sure I am able to give my tank undivided attention for a couple days to make sure everything is working properly.......
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/80#post_3451363
I just looked at the pictures the guy sent me when I was buying the tank, I can see that he has his water level at the max line, this has the bioballs completley underwater, and is higher than the little baffle coming from the feed line. I guess that is the right way though, since he built the sump to be used that way. Also, in the pictures his protein skimmer is all white looking, and also he gave me a bunch of cotton, I kinda put two and two together, I think he had the skimmer tower filled with cotton, is this something I should do?
Probably built the sump incorrectly.....As stated earlier the bio balls shouldn't be submerged in water......They should be suspended above the water and there should be a drip tray that sits over top the bio balls. That drip tray usually has some sort of filtering material and I prefer to use a poly filter vs all the filter floss junk......The poly filter will serve better purpose than floss.....With the poly filter and drip tray in place the drain line from the sump dumps onto the drip tray. The drip tray has holes drilled into it to evenly disspers the water out and across the bio balls. This is done as to not to bombard the bio balls with forceful water....As mentioned earlier again the water drips down through the drip tray onto the balls, and the water continues to drip from bio ball to bio ball till it falls to the bottom of the sump and carried to the return chamber.....The dripping of water through the drip tray onto the bio balls allows proper air/water contact time.....
If you would hook an air line up and run it into your bio ball chamber and take a ORP reading you would see a set number, and that would be dependent on your overall water quality.....Now take that same air line away and take another ORP reading and you will see that the number has dropped off, so yes that is an excellent oxygen exchange area......Old school, and I'm showing my age a bit, but sometimes you have to revert back to things that have worked and been proven.....I'm not advocating bio balls, just saying the proper use or purpose of them......
Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/80#post_3451365
put a piece of PVC... a 90 elbow on the intake of the pump pointing downwards. It will keep it from sucking in bubbles from the surface.
the filter sponges need to be kept in pairs. take one sponge out a week and wash it, alternate it every other week or two. Just always keep one in there that is seasoned.
Snake's advice is wise......A 90 elbow will make you draw water from the bottom.....If there are bubbles present in the return chamber which were suspecting you won't be sucking them since your drawing from the bottom of the return section......
Honestly there isn't or shouldn't be a need for any sponges.....Your making more maintenance work, and a area to get overlooked and a potential problem area for nitrates.....Again remember that any uneaten food will make it's way to your sump.....Your sponges will pick up and trap this "crap" and you will continually have good water running through decaying matter....Again personal preference just something to consider.......
Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/80#post_3451366
No, skimmers should never be filled with cotton.

Polyfil is probably what you have... it can be used as filtration media.
I haven't seen that as well, but have seen bio balls used in the skimmer body......
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/100#post_3451403
I found the solution, I was running the water level to low in my sump causing enough water to evap in a days time for the return pump to start sucking air, I looked through some pictures the guy sent me before, and the sump is much fuller than what I was running it at, problem solved.
Cool deal!!!!! Again with bumping the water level up please double check your back siphon margin.......Also another added piece would be to add an elbow to the return pump as well. Would buy you a bit of time before running the pump dry possibly.........
 
xandrew245x

xandrew245x

Member
Yea the first thing I did was check for leaks, I have it in my basement, and right now it's so dry, all that water really is evaping! The guy I bought the tank off of had is sump designed by some guy that builds sumps, he had it running with the bio balls submerged for 2 years and he said he never had any trouble. I plan on replacing my bio balls with lr rubble and raising the water level
 
xandrew245x

xandrew245x

Member
I'll be doing my first water change tomorrow, I already have my water mixed up matching salinity, ph and temp. When I change the water, do I drain all the bad water out at once that i'm going to replace, then slowly refill it with the new water, or do I say take 5 gallons of bad water out and put 5 gallons of good water back in until I have finished my water change.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/100#post_3452105
I'll be doing my first water change tomorrow, I already have my water mixed up matching salinity, ph and temp. When I change the water, do I drain all the bad water out at once that i'm going to replace, then slowly refill it with the new water, or do I say take 5 gallons of bad water out and put 5 gallons of good water back in until I have finished my water change.
Most people with a sump change the water from there but bending over is hard on me...so I take my water from the DT..First step..shut down the pumps.
Oddly...I have done it both ways. In my 90g I have corals high in the tank, and to drain it too far down would expose the corals to air, It won't hurt them but it makes them mad and they stay closed for a bit...so I remove just enough water before that point, and then add the new water... I let it circulate about an hour, and then finish the water change.
Removing all the old water I want out and then adding back the new saltwater is fast and easy on the seahorse tank.
 
xandrew245x

xandrew245x

Member
Thank you flower :), Im doing large water changes right now since i'm in my cycling process, but once i'm one cycling i'm going to do a 15% change every other week, so that way I will be able to just do it out of my sump since its a 20 gallon sump.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/100#post_3452218
Thank you flower :), Im doing large water changes right now since i'm in my cycling process, but once i'm one cycling i'm going to do a 15% change every other week, so that way I will be able to just do it out of my sump since its a 20 gallon sump.
Whay are you doing a water change in the middle of your first cycle? Do you have a live fish in there?
Be sure to shut the pumps down when you do water changes. I put all of my pumps on the same power strip, that created an emergancy shut off beside being convenient for water changes.
 
xandrew245x

xandrew245x

Member
I read to do a 50% water change every week while your tank is cycling, no there is no live fish in there, just live rock and a lone hermit crab lol. I have all my equipment on a powerstrip with a shut off switch ;)
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/100#post_3451451
Yea the first thing I did was check for leaks, I have it in my basement, and right now it's so dry, all that water really is evaping! The guy I bought the tank off of had is sump designed by some guy that builds sumps, he had it running with the bio balls submerged for 2 years and he said he never had any trouble. I plan on replacing my bio balls with lr rubble and raising the water level
Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/80#post_3451201
The way the guy I bought it off of had it set up, he had about a half of inch of his bio balls underwater, I raised the water level to be about and inch, and it seems that to much water evapped off the tank and my pumps started to suck air, I'll see what it does today, maybe it was just because of setting the tank up and things changed, we will see if it happens again.
After reading these posts I have to ask...do you know about water top offs? The water in the tank evaporates from the sump but the salt remains, so mark the water level on the sump and if it drops you add some fresh RO water to bring the sump water back up to the right water level. I'm asking because in one day you should not have so much evaporation that your pumps suck air, it sounds like you are not topping off.
 
xandrew245x

xandrew245x

Member
Of course I know about water evaporation! I just couldn't believe the amount of water that was evaporating out of my tank every day. I top off twice a day with fresh ro water, once in the morning and once in the evening, I have a water line set on my sump.
 
xandrew245x

xandrew245x

Member
The guy that I bought the tank off of was running his sump all wrong, he had his water level way to high, so I lowered it to the right level when I filled it, but the way he has his pump, its barley submerged under the water then, so when a little water evaporates out of the tank, the pump becomes slightly unsubmerged and starts to suck air in, and blows bubbles in the tank. I am currently looking into setting up a refuge that will then flow into the existing sump, all my sump will be used for then is to house my protein skimmer, heater and return pump. It will also still have the baffles in it for the micro bubbles. This way i'll be able to do away with the bioballs, and add more volume to my tank.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/389883/75-gallon-tank-build/100#post_3452236
The guy that I bought the tank off of was running his sump all wrong, he had his water level way to high, so I lowered it to the right level when I filled it, but the way he has his pump, its barley submerged under the water then, so when a little water evaporates out of the tank, the pump becomes slightly unsubmerged and starts to suck air in, and blows bubbles in the tank. I am currently looking into setting up a refuge that will then flow into the existing sump, all my sump will be used for then is to house my protein skimmer, heater and return pump. It will also still have the baffles in it for the micro bubbles. This way i'll be able to do away with the bioballs, and add more volume to my tank.
Whew...LOL, I was just making sure you knew about top offs.
 
xandrew245x

xandrew245x

Member
haha, I looked at the eshopps refuge, it says its for tanks 75-100, but man...the refuge area looks awfully small. I would hate to scrap the sump I have now, but it would be so much easier to just build a whole new refugium the way I want instead of trying to add one to my existing sump, I have limited room under my tank, and I feel building a whole new sump would be the most efficient on space, because I do want to add an automatic top off system under there too.
 
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