What Chris was doing in May 1998

I'm investigating possible injectors for protein skimmers. This work includes trying to find a source for the injector used in the new HSA skimmer. Go here for photos of two interesting injectors that might be good on a skimmer.

On May 8 I added a fan to my 15 gallon setup. The temperature had been hitting 89 degrees by the time the light went out at night. The morning temperature was typically 85 degrees. The morning after adding the fan, the temperature was 72 degrees. I had to add a heater to the tank again. As of May 14, the high temperature in the tank, at lights out time, is about 82 degrees. The heater keeps it from going below 80 or so at night.

The coral in the center of this picture has been slowly dying (receding) over the two years I've owned it. I believe it's just starving to death. The problem with feeding it has been that when I put food in the tank, 95% of it gets captured by live rock critters, especially Aiptasia anemones, so it was impractical to feed enough that the coral got what it needed. As a drastic attempt to reverse this coral's problem, I removed all rock and sand from the tank. I mounted the problem coral to a 6x6 inch ceramic "quarry tile" that I found at Hechinger. There are a few coral fragments off to the sides.

The same as above but from a different angle.

This is a 15 gallon "chemical mixing tank" that I bought from Surplus Center (item number 20-1284, $29.95). I want to raise brine shrimp in it. On the right you can see the beginnings of the stand I am constructing for this tank.

Here's a front view of the whole setup. The 20 gallon tank is currently lit by two 175 watt, 5500K Venture MH lamps, with no supplemental actinic. The 40 gallon tank is lit by a single 400 watt, 6500K Iwasaki MH lamp, with a single 9 watt blue compact fluorescent (which doesn't do much). The 40 gallon tank has become a dumping ground for the rock that used to be in the 20 gallon, and for anything else that isn't a particular focus of my attention right now. It has gone downhill, to say the least, but I don't care. I want to focus on improving certain aspects of my aquarium technique, rather than on maintaining a system that is fairly normal but "just okay." On the left you can see the calcium reactor, the CO2 tank, and the chiller. This is a bad place for a chiller. It should be outside, rather than dumping its heat back into the room where the tank is.

The view in the side of this tank has never been very clear, because of faults in the glass, but nevermind that. Notice what an Aiptasia farm this has become! Can you see them all over the side of the clam at the top? Perhaps some day I will raise Berghia, the Aiptasia eating nudibranch.

In this final photo of the overall setup, you can see the Spectrapure RO/DI unit behind the tank. I have gotten lazy (and brave), and connected the RO/DI unit directly to the sump, using the Spectrapure Liquid Level Controller for level sensing. It has been running this way since December 1997.

Here is my simple calcium reactor. There is no recirculation pump in this reactor. Aquarium water and CO2 gas are mixed in the bubble counter at the left of the picture. The mixture enters the reactor at the bottom. From there, it flows up through the sand, and then down through more sand on the other side of an internal baffle. it exits the reactor at the bottom on the other side. The valve at the top is to allow me to bleed air that gets in the reactor when I open the top. Normally the valve is closed, thereby reducing CO2 waste.

Here's what you can see of the skimmer running in the sump. Notice all the bubbles on the wrong side of the baffle. It would be better to make the baffle vertical, rather than slanted as I have it here.

Here is a little block of acrylic that I use to constrain some small tubing in the sump. The left tube is connected to the air bleed valve of the calcium reactor. I use it only when refilling the calcium reactor. Note the nice clean tubing. Next to that we have the effluent line from the calcium reactor. It's pretty grubby. The input line to the reactor looks the same, so I don't think it's because of the high calcium/alkalinity content of the effluent. The next tube to the right--the one going down into the sump water--is the level sensor from the Spectrapure Liquid Level Controller. You place the bottom of the tube at the level where you want the water level to be. I have a nylon thumbscrew pressing against this tube from the side (acting as a setscrew), to be sure that this critical tube doesn't move. It's not really necessary because the fit of the tubing in the hole is fairly snug. The far right tube--the blue one--is the RO/DI water input line.

This and the following photos show the parts to my surge project in progress. I'll say more about this later, but here's the basic idea. When the motor is turned on, it turns at 72 RPM. The motor will be mounted above the aquarium. The spool on the motor shaft is connected by a nylon rope to a box filled with sand. The box of sand will be in the aquarium, within a sleeve of acrylic that is open at the top and bottom, on the side facing the main body of the aquarium. A timing circuit will cause the motor to lift the box up to the top of the water, and then it will shut off the motor, allowing the box to fall freely (the shaft resistance is low in this motor). This should excite true waves in the aquarium, as well as move a significant amount of water, pumping it from the top of the tank to the bottom, as the box falls, and then the reverse when the motor lifts the box.