Tank Update

[bluwtr]

Pete, natural seawater ranges from 35 to 37 ppt which is 1.024-1.025. Specific gravity varies depending on temp. I run my tank at 1.025.

[Redfish]

If the wet side and dry side arent lined up perfectly it will sounds like a blender. lol Just turn the wetside til the noise goes away.

I have had that problem before, this noise is something else, like the bearings aren't running smoothly.

[bluwtr]

Pete I read somewhere on another forum that the MP's have to be set up before using and that is what evo834psi is talking about. If I remember correctly you turn the wet side slowly until it's silent, go past a bit then back up to silent again. I assume it lines up all of the magnets and gets them in the same plane.

[Gerwin]

call Ecotech support , they are awesome and can guide you right to the fix. I'm sure its a minor issue quickly resolved by phone. Everyone else is giving good advise but in the end the techs have heard every known setup issue and can probably take guess work right out of it

[Gerwin]

Well, a bit more bad news. I had one old MP40 from the 125g tank that was about 6 months old and was working fine when I shut down the 125g, now the motor side is making some kind of noise, I shut it down. I put salt in the tank for 170g and the salt is at 1.024 in the tank, I will check it again tomorrow, if its still high, I will dilute it a bit. Got all of the rock in the tank and that's what it is, just in the tank.

also soaking the old one in white vinegar to get old deposits off helps alot

[Gerwin]

The Big Let Down,,,,,, Everything that I can think of is done, recheck everything, take a break come back and recheck everything again. Its time to turn the return pump on, will I have leaks everywhere, did I do everything right, kinda afraid a bit, will be ready to yank the return pump plug if things go wrong, OK its time don't be afraid, just do it. Plug in the return pump, wait for it, wait for it, here its comes Nothing, Nada, Squat what the @#$% Unplug the pump. Plug in the manifold pump into the same outlet, works fine, plug in the skimmer, everything's good. Take the return pump out of the sump, get the old pump from the old 125g, plug it in and everything's good. Guess I got a bad pump, tapped on it a bit and got it to Hummm a bit, but it won't pump water. Anyway putting salt into the sump now.

take a pen or something and tap the impeller in case a bit of trash got in (quite common), if it still dont start bring it back and I will replace it (assuming it came from me )

[Shadow1]

That right there folks is why we make a 4 hour round trip most weeks to see Just Fish. You cannot get much better service than these last 3 comments.

[Redfish]

[quote="
also soaking the old one in white vinegar to get old deposits off helps alot

The part that is making the noise, is the dry side, can I soak that part? I also tapped on the return pump, and it might be working, have to get it in some water to find out.

[Gerwin]

NO! do not soak dry side. But I would try the soak of the wet side , just in case its binding from calcium etc. and causing the moving parts on dry side to make noise.

[Redfish]

NO! do not soak dry side. But I would try the soak of the wet side , just in case its binding from calcium etc. and causing the moving parts on dry side to make noise.

That makes since, will get it done.

[Redfish]

Return pump is working and the MP40 Wet Side is soaking.

[Redfish]

Day Off today so made a little progress. After soaking the MP40 wet side in vinegar for a few hours, hooked that up and had the same noise. Called Brett at EcoTech, he had me hold the phone up to the dry side and said there is something wrong with it. His remedy, he is sending me a new wet and dry side, I will put the old one back in the box and mail it back to him. Can't beat that with a stick. Have the quarantine tank up and running also am making water for the Top Off tank. The one thing I have learned in this whole process, when you think you have enough water made, make another 150 gallons.

[Redfish]

Went to Sandy's tonight and she hooked me up. Got two Chromis in the new tank, a couple cups of sand, a piece of live rock and a couple of sponges for the sump. we should be well on the way to a cycle. Here's a few new pics.

[Redfish]

Gerwin, you asked for some test results, here they are, don't know what I need to do with them though

I used a Salifert test for all of these, and I will need some guidance on what I need to do with these test results. I never really did much testing on the 125g mixed reef tank, changed out the GFO/Carbon bout once a month, tried to keep the Nitrates down as much as possible, did a water change every two weeks and added two part every so often. I know not the way to do it, but it worked for the most part.

On to the test results:

Nitrates 0, this is I am guessing where it should be at, just put fish in the tank yesterday and have only fed them 3 times. The rock I put in the tank for the most part didn't have anything on it, good or bad.

Phosphates 0 I do have the GFO reactor running

Ammonia the test sheet says 0.25 but the water in the tube was white, so I am guessing its really 0

ALK Best I can tell the number is 5.7 dkh do have a question about this test kit, it comes
with a powder that I didn't use in the test, small bottle that says, Salifert Standard Check solution,
the instructions didn't call for me to use this, so what is it for?

Calcium Best I can tell 40 if I am reading this right. I used just about the whole syringe before the water changed. I started the test with 1ml in the syringe. When the water changed it was at, one line below the 0.1 mark.

Magnesium This test kinda confused me a bit, I think the calcium is at 150 I used almost all the liquid in the syringe, when the water changed I was at 0.1

That's all the test kits I have, I do have a copper test kit, bought that for the quarantine tank.

Ok, what's all of this mean and what do I need to do?

[Gerwin]

these are the ranges you should try for
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10 or less
Calcium 400-450
Magnesium 1200-1300
Alk in MEQ/L 3.5-4 or Dkh 8-10 prefer you read in meq/l*

I think your Ca is a misprint, did you mean 400?

also the Alk test gives a control sample, test it as if it were your tank water and see what you get, it should tell you what it is. This helps confirm your a) doing test proper b) your test reagents are good