Saltwater & Reef

scottayy · 02-09-2012, 02:43 AM

I'm playing with the water level in my sump. Question.. If I have a ball valve regulating how much water drains to the sump, and the pump pumps the same amount of water back in, won't evaporation occur in the DT as well as the return chamber of the sump?

I mean, same amount of water out + same amount of water in.. + evaporation = less water in DT?

scottayy · 02-09-2012, 03:50 AM

Officially cycling now! Added a mesh bag with 4 frozen silversides in it and some stability to jumpstart the process.

I've had success with bio-spira/safestart in the past, but the LFS was out. Can't hurt to give stability a try.

Fishkeeper92 · 02-09-2012, 03:56 AM

I used stability for my 20 gallon and it does surprisingly well.

Freshnoob1 · 02-09-2012, 02:49 PM

No, the only place where the water level drops is the pump section of you sump. Right?

scottayy · 02-09-2012, 04:39 PM

I thought so, but I wasn't sure with the ball valve on the drain pipe.

Freshnoob1 · 02-09-2012, 05:13 PM

I'm almost positive that no matter what the only place the water level drops is the pump section.

scottayy · 02-09-2012, 05:21 PM

I sure hope so.

Looks like the silversides and stability is working. I have trites and trates already!

ammonia: 2.0
nitrites: 1.0
nitrates: 10

Freshnoob1 · 02-09-2012, 05:38 PM

Wow, just after one day?

needmorecowbell · 02-09-2012, 07:01 PM

Do you have them in a lot of flow? That might be why it rose so fast.

Rozdab · 02-09-2012, 07:35 PM

I couldn't find the pure ammonia at any ace hardware store and i have 2-3 franchises in the area. Lowes and home depot didnt carry it either. only place I could find it was the dollar store. They had pine ammonia and non scented. Of course get the straight non scented kind if you wanna be able to know how much you need to put in everyday and to have more accurate results.

scottayy · 02-09-2012, 07:50 PM

Yep after one day. I do have a lot of flow.. almost 600gph.

Freshnoob1 · 02-09-2012, 09:25 PM

True Value has pure ammonia. Don't know if you guys have one nearby though.

scottayy · 02-09-2012, 10:13 PM

Thanks, I will keep that in mind. I don't think we do, but we do have a cleaning supply place that sells industrial strength stuff so that is worth checking out.

So I was adding up the power consumption of my nano unit.

heater - 50W if it's on
led lights - 21W if all are on
fuge light - 10W if on
powerheads - 3w each x 2
return pump - 13w
moonlights - 5 leds probably .5W each - guessing 2.5W, will say 3

So, if everything were running and on at the same time (which will never happen), that's 103 total watts - just about the same as running a 100 watt light bulb.

Pretty impressive!

During night time, with heater not on, only 29 watts
During daytime, with heater not on, only 40 watts
During actinic time, with heater not on, only 22 watts!

I say "with heater not on" because the heater only turns on when the water temp drops below what it's set on and then doesn't stay on for very long. Otherwise add 50 to those totals when it is on.

So pretty darn impressed with the low energy this setup uses. If I wanted to look it up i'd convert to kilowatt hours x 24 x average price per kilowatt hour and figure out how much it takes to run for a day, week, month, and year. (yeah, i'm a nerd.)

I still am debating on a nano skimmer and media reactor. I might try some DIY ones.

scottayy · 02-10-2012, 10:56 AM

Dang, no change in parameters. I was hoping for a 2 day cycle LOL.

ammonia: 2.0
nitrites: 1.0
nitrates: 10

Will the 4 silversides I put in there last me through the cycle or should I switch them out with fresh rotting fish every so often?

scottayy · 02-10-2012, 12:44 PM

Well now I'm just talking to myself, lol. But I cranked the temp to 83F and remembered I had a sponge filter in the sump of my 55! That should speed things up nicely.