ruppertb
Valuable Member
I'm about to put my basement sump online! Does this pose any threat to my main system. It will technically be doubling my water volume, and it will all be new saltwater. I didnt want to shock system or anything.
Shock my system?
- Thread starter ruppertb
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I'm pretty sure as long as the salinity,ph and temp are the same your good to go.
Your fine if the params are equal
ruppertb
Valuable Member
well since i have this thread going, where should I put my temp probe for my apex. I would assume before the heater would be best. But should it be closest to the overflow to reflect the display temp, or would after my skimmer in the sump be ok?
I guess the first thing is do you have apex setup to send you alerts.
The reason I ask is because of a thread I read on here about some who did but there temp probe was in there sump and there return pump went out. They never got a alert because the heater kept the sump the right temp but the DT almost crashed from the cold. Since I read that my probes now sit in my display.
I have my temp probe in the overflow of my display. The heaters are in the sump in the basement. I could care less what the temp of the water is in the basement. I only care what it is in the display. Of course, they are very similar but maintaining a constant temp in the display is key.
One other thing to think about is Calcium and Alkalinity. You will need to monitor this closely. Assuming you have corals, a large increase in water volume may mean a larger need for Ca, Alk, and Mag. I would recommend testing daily to ensure it doesn't drop.
One other thing to think about is Calcium and Alkalinity. You will need to monitor this closely. Assuming you have corals, a large increase in water volume may mean a larger need for Ca, Alk, and Mag. I would recommend testing daily to ensure it doesn't drop.
Actually you have your display draining to your refugium and frag tank you could put it in one of them. The heater would heat the water going to the display but if it the return pump went out the heater would not be able to heat the fuge or the frag tank. So you would still get your alert.
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ruppertb
Valuable Member
ya the sump system is 5 tanks, so as long as i dont have it in the same system as the heaters i would be ok right. the first tank off the drain pipe is my water change tank. It is set to drain 16 gallons, so it will have water right down from the display, and it drains into my main heater and skimmer tank, so if the pump failed then the temp probe would still alert.
my only worry which is kinda stupid as i know when i do a water change. the temp probe will be sticking out in the air for maybe 15 min, this might cause the alert to go off and it to send me an email because it was reading the air, which would throw off my graphs, but thats not a huge deal.
what should i set the heaters at if there controlled by the apex, just the normal 78 or do i turn them higher?
I will post a pic when im done and see where everyone thinks I should place the main apex and the energy bar 8. the 2 best places are taken up by my drain and my reactors.
my only worry which is kinda stupid as i know when i do a water change. the temp probe will be sticking out in the air for maybe 15 min, this might cause the alert to go off and it to send me an email because it was reading the air, which would throw off my graphs, but thats not a huge deal.
what should i set the heaters at if there controlled by the apex, just the normal 78 or do i turn them higher?
I will post a pic when im done and see where everyone thinks I should place the main apex and the energy bar 8. the 2 best places are taken up by my drain and my reactors.
As far as the heater settings 78 sound right and yes if water stops flowing through your water change tank the temp will change. I don't know much about apex but I have a Profilux 3 and I can set it so that probes are inactive during water changes so there maybe a way for you to be able to do it too. If not you may need to put it in a different tank. There is won other way that I just thought of that might work if had a way to run another float switch. If your pump shuts of you will have some drain back from the display. So if you set a float switch so that it sound a alarm when activated you could put you heater were every you wanted. But like I said I don't know if apex have these options. Example: yours pump goes outage the water is going to raise the level in the sump. As the water level rises it activates the float switch sending you a alert.
iamvictor2k
Community Member
very confused you just recommended me by 10x my water to my 125 g that i was going to have a cycle. how is what he is doing any different? is he going to have a cycle if he adds that additional fish or that one piece of food gets left to rot?
tanks do mini cycles all the time so maybe.
I'm glad i could help. the reason I'm up so late is be cause i have worked nights for the last 18 years and got laid off last year and still haven't found a job. i spend slot of time studying sytems to get a idea of how i want to setup my 150 gallon when i do find work.
He is doubling the volume. You are basically dumping 10 gallons of established water into 150 gallons of new water, not just adding 75 gallons to a 75 gallon system. Doubling the volume can create a mini cycle, but it is not likely. Multiplying it by ten is asking for trouble. I am sorry if this thread was just derailed, back to the topic: I would not put a float valve that uses the water level when the pump is off as an alarm. I have tried that before, and the alarm goes off every time I feed my fish or do maintenance. I would put the probes in a frag tank or your overflow box as others had mentioned. If you have a silencer in your overflow, it should never be empty.
True. Frag tank sounds like the best spot.
mcarroll
10K Club member
It's good to be smart about placing the temp probe (and think I agree...main display is my favorite spot), BUT...
I never recommend hanging the livelihood of your tank on one piece of equipment. That means duplicating all critical functions (heat being one of em) in every tank that you want stuff to stay alive in during our imagined crisis.
E.g. Centralized heat control with your Apex/Reefkeeper is nice.....until it isn't. Keep a modest, but high quality heater in each tank....small enough to hide, but large enough to give you time to fix what's broken (return pump; controller; main heater; partial power failure; whatever) before things start to freeze in the display or boil in the sump. Set it below your main heat's set-point so it's really a backup, it could rarely/never come on during the tank's normal operation.YMMV, but that's how my tanks roll.
If you'd asked me a few weeks ago, I would have advised to start saving old water from water-changes and at least do a partial fill (if not 100%) of the new tank with that. If you aren't in a hurry, I might still do this. Use the new water as your water change water and just start switching some of the water from the old system with some from the new sump. You could easily do 10%-20% water-changes each night and be ready in no time.
Having said that, I'm inclined to agree with the crowd that if temperature and pH of the old and new water are a pretty close match, you're not too likely to see problems IMO.
Good luck!
-Matt
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Saving old water is a good idea. Now I have something new to add to future threads and to do when I start my 150 since everything from my 75 will be going in it. Thank for the info. Man I love this place.
