A Golden Reef Tank (v2)

[Colored Sticks]

Certainly looking at AC pumps. I had a bunch of matching Coralife pumps on my last system. Not a big name but they were really reliable, simple, and low wattage.

I agree on the DC controllable side. Most are set and forget when it comes to flow. The only exceptions on my system are the two “closed loop” pumps in my overflow. They are programmed to ramp up and down through the day to help with random flow.

I like using identical pumps when possible in a system so that I can swap them as needed and prioritize the most critical needs. Obviously having spares is nice as well. I’ve already burned through spare Vectras.

I ordered a Pan World pump today. I’ve had good luck with them when I’ve used them. Re-plumbing is going to be a giant PIA due to other plumbing in the area. Probably have to dismantle that to get to the sump area. Luckily, I went crazy with unions and true union ball valves!

Yeah I understand that... I mean it is up to you! Any way you can incorporate a AC closed loop pump with sea swirls? Or some sort of home made locline that has a movable knuckle joint? I have 1" random flow generators from vivid creations if you want to try those?

I agree 100% if you can use the same pump in several places...

I use that on my water mixing station. I have used it in the past. Nothing fancy and works for years on end. The engineer in me wants to say "Simpler is better or KISS"

 

[Andrew_bram]

I have a spare panworld laying around....its a 200ps.

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk

 

[MuralReef]

I’ve had a little bit of everything as far as pumps go. I like Panworld and Iwaki pumps the best so far for returns. I do like my Reeflo pumps but hate the way the seals fail. As for circulation, I haven’t had bad experiences with my MP60’s but both of the quiet drive drivers failed so there’s that. I really like Tunze the best and they integrate well with the Apex, at least they did with the classic. I also have three Apex WAV pumps in the library and they seem to move water really well too. I don’t know about longevity but I also have two Skimz on the 450 and they really push some water. The Skimz pump I use for the return in the library tank has been doing well for over a year.


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[halmus]

I have a spare panworld laying around....its a 200ps.

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk

Thanks Andrew. I appreciate it.

I ordered a pump early this morning. Going to try it out and see what the flow is like. I know what the specs say and it shouldn’t be too far off from expected. I’m going to try to match that pump identically for all replacements in the room. So I can do swaps and replacements in the future.

 

[halmus]

I’ve had a little bit of everything as far as pumps go. I like Panworld and Iwaki pumps the best so far for returns. I do like my Reeflo pumps but hate the way the seals fail. As for circulation, I haven’t had bad experiences with my MP60’s but both of the quiet drive drivers failed so there’s that. I really like Tunze the best and they integrate well with the Apex, at least they did with the classic. I also have three Apex WAV pumps in the library and they seem to move water really well too. I don’t know about longevity but I also have two Skimz on the 450 and they really push some water. The Skimz pump I use for the return in the library tank has been doing well for over a year.


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado

Thanks for the info Mike. I should have asked you first to see if any of those 1940’s Iwaki pumps were available.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the Apex WAV pumps as well. They do a majority of the work in my frag tank keeping things mixed up.

 

[flagg37]

I’m a fan of dc return pumps but not when they are used at their maximum capacity. I try to buy units that I can set at about 50%. That way they are super quiet (DC is already a good amount quieter than AC) and don’t get hot (again, DC uses less power hence less heat). I had a red dragon before and was mostly happy with it. It did something funky and was tripping the gfci so I had to stick it on an unprotected circuit. I have a brand new abyzz 200 just sitting in my crawl space with the rest of my reefing gear just waiting to be used with the next build. I plan on getting a couple COR 20’s though for UV and other reactors.

 

[halmus]

I’m a fan of dc return pumps but not when they are used at their maximum capacity. I try to buy units that I can set at about 50%. That way they are super quiet (DC is already a good amount quieter than AC) and don’t get hot (again, DC uses less power hence less heat). I had a red dragon before and was mostly happy with it. It did something funky and was tripping the gfci so I had to stick it on an unprotected circuit. I have a brand new abyzz 200 just sitting in my crawl space with the rest of my reefing gear just waiting to be used with the next build. I plan on getting a couple COR 20’s though for UV and other reactors.

That makes sense about running the pumps 50%.

I haven’t used the red dragon pumps but I thought they were supposed to be top of the line? Aren’t they a European pump adapted to US AC? Sounds like they might have an issue with the voltage/frequency difference to trip the GFCI. Or, maybe just an unlucky fluke you happened to come across with a little current leakage.

 

[NickP]

Tonight was my breaking point.

I have 7 Ecotech Vectra M2’s on my system. 4 have failed. Finding a workaround for everything or just leaving that pump dead if it’s not critical.

I have 4 Ecotech MP60’s on my system. 4 have rusty impeller shafts.

My Ecotech Reeflink has been inop for about a year.

I sold x5 Radion G4’s and replaced them with either old school MH or T5HO.

See a trend? I’m done with Ecotech.

Just lost another Vectra tonight. Second time the impeller shaft seized on that pump but it’s a trend with all others. The plastic housing of the pump is failing and the shaft disintegrated tonight after I cleaned everything and restarted the pump.

Have a Maxijet circulating water to my frag system now as backup.

Planning on replacing every Ecotech product in my system as budget allows.

So if you have the older vectras with the white impeller cavity, they quickly fixed that issue 6 months or so after release. the newer version has a black sleeve instead. My L1 began to fail after 3 years and they replaced it no questions asked ( bought it second hand) with an L2 as the L1 was out of production. A far as the mp shafts rusting I also had the same issue on all mp40/60s. They added a coating to the shaft(gold colored on the new version) and since have not had any issues with the shafts going on 1-2 years. Now for a while they were replacing the wetsides no questions asked but then took a stand it wasn't an issue and made you pay 50%. Then all of a sudden they replaced the last old style 60 wetside for free that I sent in. I only have 2 older 40 wetsides with the chrome shaft left. I feel your anger as I've been their but the vortechs are just to good imo and they seem to have fixed the issue. Personally my 1st 2 votech wetsides from quite drives lasted years so either they changed something in manufacturing to save money and it did't go well or the factory in China screwed them some how.

 

[Colored Sticks]

Any updates?

 

[halmus]

I'll get some pictures posted up soon. I've been getting good growth and better coloration over the last few months.

I finally trapped an Angel and evicted it from the display. It took a liking to my Hawkins Echinata (my favorite coral). Was nibbling on all of the tips. I don't see any signs of STN from that damage. Should, hopefully, recover well.

I got one vectra ripped out and re-plumbed with a pan-world to circulate water in my coral frag tank. I should get some pics up for that system as well. It's getting a little full. The plan was to stock up for the next DBTC event which might have been at my house before the world shut down.

I still have plenty of other vectras to replace. Two dead but neither are really critical. One is for emergency UV which I don't run unless necessary. The other helps turn over water in the fuge. I still have some flow through that system, so I'm ignoring it for now. I'll get those replaced as time and money allows. Budget has been a lot different since I started working for myself. My boss doesn't pay me well. One paycheck in the last two years. It all stays in the business to help it grow.

Speaking of that, my LLC purchased an AVID CNC. 2'x4' bed. The good thing about that AVID models is that it's all based on 8020 extruded aluminum and is fairly modular. They're probably less rigid than a steel model but they're good enough for what I do. They aren't cheapo units like the hobby level CNC's you typically find. A good balance between affordable and dependable. They're still heavily built. I bought oversized components (steppers, spindle, cabling, etc.) so that I can easily scale this up to a 4'x8' bed once space allows. I'm waiting on a couple of outlets to be wired up in my shop to support the CNC. Need a 220 which I never had. I was also slammed with work starting a month ago, so completing those projects on schedule is the primary focus right now. I wish I could have been assembling the CNC during the CORONA shutdown but didn't get it ordered soon enough. It will be a long learning curve with the CNC and new CAD software I need to transition to.

For now, working 7 days a week and having to stare at a corner of the shop full of boxes that hold a tool system that I've been dreaming about for about 10 years.....

 

[Colored Sticks]

What angel was causing the issues?

Defiantly need some photos.

You should talk to your boss about that. Now that you have the right tools for the right job, you should be more efficient.

Did you pull 220 off the main house input? Installing 220 is scary...

Will that router table handle cutting acrylic at all? Or can get end mills that meant for other purposes besides wood. I really want a CNC bridgeport mill for the garage.. but the fiance will not be on board with that. Obviously I would be using for different applications. I am curious what CAD software that style of router uses? I would assume you actually mean CAM software. Ex MasterCAM, surfaceCAM, CAMworks? Or you actually mean CAD and CAM.

Totally side note. I found a place in longmont that you can go use their CNC and manual equipment ( mill, lathe, router, etc) by the hour and is open to the public.

 

[halmus]

Coral Beauty. Every fish is different. I know some people have luck with Angels in their SPS tanks. Or, they’re willing to put up with the damage they do. Maybe coral growth outpaces the damage. I’m just not willing to put up with it when they go after my favorite colony.

220. If my shop was a stand alone barn, I’d pull the line myself. Since I’ve taken over the garage, I’m not willing to risk the liability of burning down the house. Insurance certainly wouldn’t have my back. I hired Karsten Electrical out of Golden. Worked with them before. Great people. They do great work.

The CNC will handle wood, acrylic, aluminum, brass. Different tooling for each but the system is rigid enough and has the power to handle them. Obviously get better results with the aluminum if you have the proper tool with whatever lube I see the dedicated machines use in a production environment. But, it will handle aluminum fine with thinner passes.

I’ll be starting out with fusion 360 CAD/CAM. There is other software that would be more appropriate if I wanted to carve 3D images. The CNC has an 8” Z axis. So, I’ll eventually be carving some intricate designs for things like corbels. Probably try a 3D carving of a reef at some point. The hard part there will be sorting out the design in the software to make use of the available depth.

Would love to mess around with a Bridgeport mill someday. Certainly don’t have the space and couldn’t justify that tool for my work. A decent amount of that functionality I can do on the CNC even if it’s a hack job.

AVID also offers a fourth rotary axis add-on. It’s not a lathe. I ordered the controller to have that future add-on without replacing all of the brains. The rotary action is controlled by a stepper at very slow speed. The spindle is still doing the hard work. This system would allow you to design something like table legs or a gun stock with few linear flat planes.

 

[Colored Sticks]

Are you mainly focused on wood working? sorry if you have mentioned this before.

I am stubborn when it comes to change modeling and CAM software. Learning new ones you would think is easy and they should be similar. not always true..

 

[halmus]

Yeah, I’m not looking forward to the move to a new software. I’ve been designing projects in SketchUp for over a decade. A friend of mine downloaded a free version of Fusion for a project we’re working on. It seemed to be a relatively easy transition for him. I just haven’t had time to work through that yet. I know I’ll like it far more than SketchUp once I have the hang of it.

I’m sure I’ll use the CNC for woodworking primarily. Unless I can shift my business to building the weird type of stuff I’m really interested in. I grew up addicted to Mythbusters. So, I’d like to be able to fabricate custom “stuff” for people rather than just custom woodwork. Custom acrylic, aluminum, fiberglass, wood stuff. I’m not trying to compete with the big cabinet shops or acrylic sump manufacturers. I don’t want to spend every day producing the same boxes. That’s boring. That’s also where the good money is, but I enjoy a diversity of projects. I’m always trying to learn new medias to work with and new technology to get better results.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I don't know if anybody wants to take the splurge, but there is an Abyzz A200 on CL I think you could buy 4 or 5 other pumps for that price, but what do I know...maybe it converts your SW into beer?

 

[Colored Sticks]

Yeah, I’m not looking forward to the move to a new software. I’ve been designing projects in SketchUp for over a decade. A friend of mine downloaded a free version of Fusion for a project we’re working on. It seemed to be a relatively easy transition for him. I just haven’t had time to work through that yet. I know I’ll like it far more than SketchUp once I have the hang of it.

I’m sure I’ll use the CNC for woodworking primarily. Unless I can shift my business to building the weird type of stuff I’m really interested in. I grew up addicted to Mythbusters. So, I’d like to be able to fabricate custom “stuff” for people rather than just custom woodwork. Custom acrylic, aluminum, fiberglass, wood stuff. I’m not trying to compete with the big cabinet shops or acrylic sump manufacturers. I don’t want to spend every day producing the same boxes. That’s boring. That’s also where the good money is, but I enjoy a diversity of projects. I’m always trying to learn new medias to work with and new technology to get better results.

Yeah Sketch up IMO is great for when you are learning to use CAD. Great entry level program, but I feel especially when you do this for work it has it's limitations, where a true CAD/CAM software will really benefit you in the long run. Does Sketch up output any G code or are you converting via some other platform? I haven't used it a long time.

Well.... if you want to dabble at all in any side projects. I have some ideas for things I want to make ( fish related), but do not have the equipment to fabricate it. Ex. various Eurobrace related brackets ( to remove all things magnet to the viewing panes), frozen fish feeds for those times your on vacation and need trust a none fish person. I have had several people PM on R2R in regards to the gyre bracket I made to remove magnets from the front pane. They are will to pay for them. @TheRealChrisBrown feels it is can get patent .

 

[halmus]

 

[halmus]

 

[halmus]

 

[halmus]

Few quick pics of the frag tank while the acrylic is clean.