Mattgsa 315 gallon build

[Janci]

Just chimming in.. which seems at the right time now that the tank is wet and the floor is dry.
I love the ABS idea for the bottom. I am not sure from the picture, but will you continue bare bottom?

Great build and you have one more follower as from now.

 

[mattgsa]

Just chimming in.. which seems at the right time now that the tank is wet and the floor is dry.
I love the ABS idea for the bottom. I am not sure from the picture, but will you continue bare bottom?

Great build and you have one more follower as from now.

Yes, it is going to stay a bare bottom. That is assuming of course I can get the tank to cycle. LOL

 

[mattgsa]

How about a Tee fitting in the high point of your ato tubing, with more tubing off the Tee to run much higher. That can act as your siphon break. And maybe have an empty container under the end of the siphon break tube just in case. The siphon break direction of the Tee would need to point up to ensure water runs in the direction you want it to.

Or run the ATO into your DT or overflow. You can also try a 1 way Rodi valve with that T, which can help break a siphon.

So I tried both of these, and neither worked. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture. I will keep working on this. However, I just had another idea, but it does have a certain degree of risk. I control the water for the rodi unit with solenoids. Since the water likes to flow all on its own I can control it with another solenoid. Granted if the thing fails in the on position, I'm in trouble. However, there are ways of minimizing the risk. Or better yet, I can simply this even more. I will use the float valve as the main one and off, and the solenoid as a backup. The only thing I have to look into is, are the solenoid designed to be one all the time. Should the float fail, and optical sensor would shut off the solenoid. Let me know what you think.

 

[Gablami]

Is your ATO reservoir above the top of your DT? And obviously the ATO line is not submerged right? Just want to understand your situation further.

 

[mattgsa]

Alright, I did get some work done this weekend. This is my first go at a control board. However, I don't think I like it. Granted I still have a lot of work to do with wire management. Some of these manufactures don't think about people with large tanks when they determine cord size.

 

[mattgsa]

Is your ATO reservoir above the top of your DT? And obviously the ATO line is not submerged right? Just want to understand your situation further.

So right now I'm testing using a brute trashcan and adding water to the sump. since the water in brute is higher than the water in the sump it siphons from the trash can to the sump. So right now I ran the tube up to the display which of course fixes the problem. However, the Brute trashcan is a temporary thing. My main ATO container is in the garage, and yes it is higher than the display. (ATO on top.)

 

[Gablami]

The simplest thing would be to have a second small reservoir at ground level, with a float valve to the Rodi reservoir, and have it go to your sump.

That’s what I do. I have a 65g horizontal nowesco outside as a rodi ressy, and run a 1/2” tube down to my crawl space where I have a smaller ATO reservoir with a float valve. As it is depleted it will auto refill from the Rodi ressy. The smaller reservoir can be as small as you want. Mine is a 5 gallon jug.

 

[mattgsa]

The simplest thing would be to have a second small reservoir at ground level, with a float valve to the Rodi reservoir, and have it go to your sump.

That’s what I do. I have a 65g horizontal nowesco outside as a rodi ressy, and run a 1/2” tube down to my crawl space where I have a smaller ATO reservoir with a float valve. As it is depleted it will auto refill from the Rodi ressy. The smaller reservoir can be as small as you want. Mine is a 5 gallon jug.

As my wife will atest, I'm a gadget guy. Next to Reef tanks, technology and automation are some of my favorit things. That being said, I tend to add complexty where simplisity will due just fine. I completely agree with your solution, and I agree it will work just fine. I may end up going that way, but it is very low tech. I'm telling you, the more I can control with my phone or a touchscreen, the happier I am. LOL ;Shamefullyembarrased

 

[Gablami]

As my wife will atest, I'm a gadget guy. Next to Reef tanks, technology and automation are some of my favorit things. That being said, I tend to add complexty where simplisity will due just fine. I completely agree with your solution, and I agree it will work just fine. I may end up going that way, but it is very low tech. I'm telling you, the more I can control with my phone or a touchscreen, the happier I am. LOL ;Shamefullyembarrased

I feel you. I like my tech and equipment too but low tech can often be more reliable than all the bells and whistles. I’ve used this method with the same float valve for almost 4 years and never had an issue (except once when I let my RODI ressy run dry).

 

[mattgsa]

I feel you. I like my tech and equipment too but low tech can often be more reliable than all the bells and whistles. I’ve used this method with the same float valve for almost 4 years and never had an issue (except once when I let my RODI ressy run dry).

Agreed

 

[mattgsa]

I have also ordered some filter floss mats from Amazon. I'm hoping to use it to silence the filter sock section. It's really loud and I can hear it from across the house. I have not been very impressed with this new sump. I keep finding things I don't like about it.

 

[GBRsouth]

I have also ordered some filter floss mats from Amazon. I'm hoping to use it to silence the filter sock section. It's really loud and I can hear it from across the house. I have not been very impressed with this new sump. I keep finding things I don't like about it.

Is your gate valve close to the bottom of the pipe for your main drain and is your main drain exiting into your sump below water level? These are the two main ways to keep it quiet other than adjusting the flow with the gate valve on the main drain to alter the amount going down the secondary drain if you run bean animal. I can't recall if you do.

 

[Gablami]

Filter socks are notoriously noisy. I’m assuming where it pours over the lip and drops into the sock, right? Did you get a “silencer”? These round lids that go inside the sock? Even with those it’s still noisy. The filter floss will help, but it’s still a pain. You can also try raising the water level in the next compartment so the water doesn’t drop as much. One reason why I skipped that compartment.

 

[GBRsouth]

As my wife will atest, I'm a gadget guy. Next to Reef tanks, technology and automation are some of my favorit things. That being said, I tend to add complexty where simplisity will due just fine. I completely agree with your solution, and I agree it will work just fine. I may end up going that way, but it is very low tech. I'm telling you, the more I can control with my phone or a touchscreen, the happier I am. LOL ;Shamefullyembarrased

Always follow the KISS principle! Tech is supposed to fix problems, not create them!

 

[mattgsa]

Well today started off really bad, my company was infected with ransom ware. The build is going to have to wait, since I help run the IT department.

 

[mattgsa]

Well, I'm the only one here at work at almost 10 O'clock, waiting for some of our more critical system to restore from backup. I just don't feel comfortable going home and hoping everything goes well. So it looks like I will be here for several more hours.
I don't understand why people spend so much effort doing things like this. If you have the brains to pull something like this off than you could make a lot of money in the business world, and not breaking any laws. I just don't get it.

 

[Janci]

Well, I'm the only one here at work at almost 10 O'clock, waiting for some of our more critical system to restore from backup. I just don't feel comfortable going home and hoping everything goes well. So it looks like I will be here for several more hours.
I don't understand why people spend so much effort doing things like this. If you have the brains to pull something like this off than you could make a lot of money in the business world, and not breaking any laws. I just don't get it.

I admire your dedication.
If it is ransom ware, somebody should have asked for ransom by now?

 

[mattgsa]

I admire your dedication.
If it is ransom ware, somebody should have asked for ransom by now?

OH, they did, but I'm not stupid enough to pay it. It usually cost tens of thousands, and 9 times out 10 you never get your data back. Even if you do they come and do it again in week or two. This is what system backup and vm snapshots are for, and everyone will have to change their passwords. All PC's are wiped and reloaded.

 

[mattgsa]

Well, things are starting to calm down here at work. Which means I now have time to think about aquariums.

I cleaned out my skimmer. I was really surprised by how well it works. I set it on its lowest setting thinking that there was really nothing for it to pull since the tank is empty. Well even on the lowest setting it still managed to pull out a lot of stuff. It even managed to skim out a dead fly. I never thought that was possible on such low power.

 

[mattgsa]

I even did a little work on plumbing, but it didn't help with noise at all.

I think most of the noise is coming from the filter socks.