lazy's 180 reef saga
- Thread starter lazyreefer
- Start date
- Location
- NY
Tae, looks like you're finally on the road. GL and keep those pix coming.
R
R
- Location
- NY
Going through withdrawls here Tae. We need some updates :tongue1: .
swimmer
swimmer
- Location
- Flushing, Queens
hehe ok Russ here are the updates.
1. plumbed the returns and overflow last weekend. i guess I should not quit my day job cause all four bulkheads started leaking. This is after I glued everything together so it was such a pain in the rear to fix this. The leak was due to stupid me putting the rubber gasket on the wrong side. so after that ws fixed, I put everything together again, and guess what It was leaking again.... I came home to day to see what the problems was and the bulkheads were loose. I think it came lose when I was moving the spa hose around to glue it back. The bulksheads are now tightended and not leaking any more. I went for the full test run tonight and yes I found more leaks... argggggggggggggggg.
It seems like the threaded connection between the valve and the return pump is leaking, I used teflon tape and everything but its still leaking... I will see if I can tighten the connections bit more but is there anything I can do to stop the leak? silicon maybe? plumbing is so frustrating....
1. plumbed the returns and overflow last weekend. i guess I should not quit my day job cause all four bulkheads started leaking. This is after I glued everything together so it was such a pain in the rear to fix this. The leak was due to stupid me putting the rubber gasket on the wrong side. so after that ws fixed, I put everything together again, and guess what It was leaking again.... I came home to day to see what the problems was and the bulkheads were loose. I think it came lose when I was moving the spa hose around to glue it back. The bulksheads are now tightended and not leaking any more. I went for the full test run tonight and yes I found more leaks... argggggggggggggggg.
It seems like the threaded connection between the valve and the return pump is leaking, I used teflon tape and everything but its still leaking... I will see if I can tighten the connections bit more but is there anything I can do to stop the leak? silicon maybe? plumbing is so frustrating....
- Location
- NY
There are some tricks of the trade Tae. Sorry to hear about your mishaps.
As you probably know by now, the gasket does NOT go on the side with the thread nut. When you screw the 'nut' onto the bulkhead if the gasket is next to the nut, the nut can twist the gasket and cause a leak
. The gasket should go in between the bulkhead and the glass so it is just compressed between them.
When you use teflon tape on a threaded fitting, you should wrap the threads with the teflon tape with seven or eight revolutions of tape (pulled nice and tight). Screw the fittings together nice and tight (but don't overtighten so much that you crack the fitting). After it's hand tightened, just a short turn with a wrench should 'seat' the fitting properly.
swimmer
As you probably know by now, the gasket does NOT go on the side with the thread nut. When you screw the 'nut' onto the bulkhead if the gasket is next to the nut, the nut can twist the gasket and cause a leak
. The gasket should go in between the bulkhead and the glass so it is just compressed between them.When you use teflon tape on a threaded fitting, you should wrap the threads with the teflon tape with seven or eight revolutions of tape (pulled nice and tight). Screw the fittings together nice and tight (but don't overtighten so much that you crack the fitting). After it's hand tightened, just a short turn with a wrench should 'seat' the fitting properly.
swimmer
- Location
- Flushing, Queens
Thanks for the advice. I should have asked before I dove in to it. I will be doing that tonight after
work... hopefully it wont leak any more argggggggggggggggggg.
work... hopefully it wont leak any more argggggggggggggggggg.
- Location
- Flushing, Queens
well I posted a message before but I guess something happend... well with my luck I am not suprised.
Well last night to stop the leak from the return pump, I took the fittings apart and teflon taped the threaded male pvc connection again. I guess I added a little bit too much teflon tape cause when I was tightning the connections the output part of the return pump housing cracked... I ordered a replacement and should get here by friday but.. DAMNNNNNNNNNNN why me... arggggg I took a look at the instruction manual for the pump and it says to use the teflon paste... man Why didn't I read the manual...
well any how, is there a special way to apply this teflon paste? and how long do I have to wait before I can test for leaks?
Thanks for listening to my rantings.... going to bash my head in the wall now... :banghead:
Well last night to stop the leak from the return pump, I took the fittings apart and teflon taped the threaded male pvc connection again. I guess I added a little bit too much teflon tape cause when I was tightning the connections the output part of the return pump housing cracked... I ordered a replacement and should get here by friday but.. DAMNNNNNNNNNNN why me... arggggg I took a look at the instruction manual for the pump and it says to use the teflon paste... man Why didn't I read the manual...
well any how, is there a special way to apply this teflon paste? and how long do I have to wait before I can test for leaks?
Thanks for listening to my rantings.... going to bash my head in the wall now... :banghead:
- Location
- Flushing, Queens
Ok guys the tank is finally up and running!!!! After many mishaps and issues, here is the final config!!
lighting - 2 250W MH and 1 400W MH in the middle. I am going with reeflux 12K and so far the bulbs are really nice. not as blue as 20K but still has a very nice crisp white with more blue hue will report after the burn in.. Had issues with pfo reg mag. ballast firing the 12k bulb, I checked the bulb with a gas lamp checker and the bulb was fine so changed the ballast (friend owns a electric supply house) but still no go.. so I bought a dimmable electric ballast from coralvue and the bulb is rockin! I like the ballast because it lets you dim the bulb down as well ( big plus when you are switching to a high par bulb and acclimating corals to the brighter light). The other 2 250w 12ks are lighted by PFO mag ballast (these fire with out issues :\ ).
The night light is 2 25W blue incandescent light with a dimmer attached to it. It works great and its cheap.
The flow is provided by a reeflo snapper (return) on a 3/4" seaswirl and tunze 6100 , 6200 on a indv. controller. as far the flow goes, it seems to be ok but I believe I would need more if I start sps later.
everthing is automated by reefkeeper 2. also the top off is done by jbj ATO paired with a aqua lifter.
I was going to go with shallow sand bed but I ordered too much sand from dr.forest and smith (ordered 6 X 40lbs bags) , so I have a DSB . I have about 120 lbs of base rock and about 60 lbs of live rock that has been cycled so I am looking forward to a short or no cycle time.
as for live stock I bought some mollys and put them in there. Also I have added some zoos from my other tank to see how it fares. Heard mollies are great algae eaters and also the babies can feed the fish or some corals. so win win I guess. I had to acclimate them very slowly to salt water but I still lost one during the acclimation process.
The skimmer has been bit erratic but I think its entirely my fault. I did not know where to adjust the water level to and it overflowed.. thank god I was there to catch it. but since I have dialed ok now (I think, thanks Russ and Jim) seems to be skimming ok (skimming all slit from moving the sand around). Also the skimmer has been bit loud around the air intake (making high pitched air sucking sound) I called Bermuda and they took the call right away and they are sending me a tee with an additional silencer at no charge.. Nice customer service. Also Jim at Russ at house of fish are did fantastic job answering all my questions.
Big thanks to Jim, Russ, Ronan and Allen for giving me the advice I needed when things went wrong. really really appreciated it guys!!
:grouphug:
lighting - 2 250W MH and 1 400W MH in the middle. I am going with reeflux 12K and so far the bulbs are really nice. not as blue as 20K but still has a very nice crisp white with more blue hue will report after the burn in.. Had issues with pfo reg mag. ballast firing the 12k bulb, I checked the bulb with a gas lamp checker and the bulb was fine so changed the ballast (friend owns a electric supply house) but still no go.. so I bought a dimmable electric ballast from coralvue and the bulb is rockin! I like the ballast because it lets you dim the bulb down as well ( big plus when you are switching to a high par bulb and acclimating corals to the brighter light). The other 2 250w 12ks are lighted by PFO mag ballast (these fire with out issues :\ ).
The night light is 2 25W blue incandescent light with a dimmer attached to it. It works great and its cheap.
The flow is provided by a reeflo snapper (return) on a 3/4" seaswirl and tunze 6100 , 6200 on a indv. controller. as far the flow goes, it seems to be ok but I believe I would need more if I start sps later.
everthing is automated by reefkeeper 2. also the top off is done by jbj ATO paired with a aqua lifter.
I was going to go with shallow sand bed but I ordered too much sand from dr.forest and smith (ordered 6 X 40lbs bags) , so I have a DSB
. I have about 120 lbs of base rock and about 60 lbs of live rock that has been cycled so I am looking forward to a short or no cycle time.as for live stock I bought some mollys and put them in there. Also I have added some zoos from my other tank to see how it fares. Heard mollies are great algae eaters and also the babies can feed the fish or some corals. so win win I guess. I had to acclimate them very slowly to salt water but I still lost one during the acclimation process.
The skimmer has been bit erratic but I think its entirely my fault. I did not know where to adjust the water level to and it overflowed.. thank god I was there to catch it. but since I have dialed ok now (I think, thanks Russ and Jim) seems to be skimming ok (skimming all slit from moving the sand around). Also the skimmer has been bit loud around the air intake (making high pitched air sucking sound) I called Bermuda and they took the call right away and they are sending me a tee with an additional silencer at no charge.. Nice customer service. Also Jim at Russ at house of fish are did fantastic job answering all my questions.
Big thanks to Jim, Russ, Ronan and Allen for giving me the advice I needed when things went wrong. really really appreciated it guys!!
:grouphug:
- Location
- Flushing, Queens
- Location
- Ossining, NY
Tae,
I see you dailed the skimmer down like I recommended - good work - leave it there for a week or two and then start to adjust the level to wet or dry - whatever your preference is.
Good luck with it.
House
I see you dailed the skimmer down like I recommended - good work - leave it there for a week or two and then start to adjust the level to wet or dry - whatever your preference is.
Good luck with it.
House
- Location
- Flushing, Queens
- Location
- Flushing, Queens
- Location
- Flushing, Queens
- Location
- NY
Tae, congrats on getting it up and running. It looks great. Keep us posted on the progress.
Russ
Russ
- Location
- Flushing, Queens
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