Orca Tl-450 Anybody?

[leeroysw20]

lol, i didn't no, figured that the problem is the speed of the water bein passed through by the pump, so if i made the holes bigger...ye more water would go through em but at the same speed as that hasn't changed! so it wouldn't make a diff anyway
! think best bet really is to do the same as most pple have with this tank and simply replace the pump with a more powerfull one, n everyone seems to suggest the maxi jet 900 or 1200 . seen them on ebay for around £22 delivered so they're not expensive.

 

[westiemarble]

lol, i didn't no, figured that the problem is the speed of the water bein passed through by the pump, so if i made the holes bigger...ye more water would go through em but at the same speed as that hasn't changed! so it wouldn't make a diff anyway
! think best bet really is to do the same as most pple have with this tank and simply replace the pump with a more powerfull one, n everyone seems to suggest the maxi jet 900 or 1200 . seen them on ebay for around £22 delivered so they're not expensive.

Hurry up and get on with it mate - if you do all the research and experimenting I can just reap the rewards of your hard work and copy your solution

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah either of them pumps will work fine to directly replace the skimmer pump. I would then put the skimmer pump in the left hand chamber connected to the spray bar. Or you can leave the skimmer pump as it is and just get a small pump to go in the left hand chamber (think the one I used was a newjet 300 which was about £20 from my LFS).

 

[leeroysw20]

cheek! well im guna pop down to the fs at the weekend and pick up another pump, think will try that first and if it works i will let u know and what pump i get!

 

[leeroysw20]

maxi jet 1000 pump on order, will let u know asap if it solves the problem!

 

[leeroysw20]

hi folks, tank is looking lovely now with some lovely purple and blue colours apearng on the live rock!
my new pump arived today so will be fitting that tonight!
algae is growing nicely too, i have a quick question....i have some kind of algae growing out of my live sand, it looks like grass! looks lovely actually blowing around! lol
bit concerned as its growing quickly!
when i do a water change should i just take it out or is it good to leave it so that once the fish are added its still there? is it good for them?!?!

 

[rabbut]

Any chance of some photo's of this algea?

 

[leeroysw20]

ye sure........

thought would add a quick pic of this i put together quickly today at work, hides all cabels etc behind it and has a cupboard on the right

message for 'westiemarble'....fitted the maxi jet 1000 pump tonight...didnt make much of a diff to the water level at the rear really, so decided to do some playing around...i put a few 3mm holes in the cap which covers the hole next to the spray bar, worked a treat!
water level now sits about 3/4" below the surface of all compartments and do not overflow

 

[westiemarble]

ye sure........

thought would add a quick pic of this i put together quickly today at work, hides all cabels etc behind it and has a cupboard on the right

message for 'westiemarble'....fitted the maxi jet 1000 pump tonight...didnt make much of a diff to the water level at the rear really, so decided to do some playing around...i put a few 3mm holes in the cap which covers the hole next to the spray bar, worked a treat!
water level now sits about 3/4" below the surface of all compartments and do not overflow

Cheers. I don't have a cap or hole next to the spray bar - just the tank wall!! Still I could just drill the tank wall with a few holes
Before today did your water level in the protein skimmer compartment come right up to the top of the neck of the collection cup and now you've added the holes has it gone down like the levels in the other chambers? Has your skimmer ever 'bedded in'? 4 months in and I still have some small bubbles although they do seem to be getting less and less.

Many thanks

 

[leeroysw20]

ye the skimmer compartment was exactly the same, and i had bubbles squeezin out of the sides of the cup and into the tank.

dont actually have the skimmer on at the mo coz i have no fish yet, but wen i switched it on last night it worked a treat, im gettin loadsa bubbles comin out of the heater compartment tho through them 4 slits in the wall which apparently are the heater fixings, was supposed to block them when i first got the tank but never did!

......so im guna pop in a piece of plastic tubing between the skimmer and collection cup to link them directly together, hopefully that will keep all the bubbles in the right place and none wil escape into the next compartment!,,,and with any luck it'll stop the bubbles, if not then im jus guna have to find an alternative way of blocking them holes with the water in the tank! maybe you should try that, i reckon that will make a hugh improvment, most pple seem to do that.
lol

will try this on monday as im away from 2mro till then so will get back to ya n let u know how it goes!

 

[rabbut]

The algea looks to this *untrained* eye to be hair algea...

Whats your photoperiod, phosphate and nitrate readings?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[leeroysw20]

to be honest with u im totally new to salt water and have no idea what they are! but my nitrate is reading 15, so has come down from 20 in the last few days or so, obv will be doing a water change shortly so hopefully this will reduce the nitrate level even more hopefully to 5 or less.

 

[SkiFletch]

We call that hair algae . Probably gobbling up your nitrates to grow...

 

[rabbut]

Unless phosphate is also high?

 

[westiemarble]

ye the skimmer compartment was exactly the same, and i had bubbles squeezin out of the sides of the cup and into the tank.

dont actually have the skimmer on at the mo coz i have no fish yet, but wen i switched it on last night it worked a treat, im gettin loadsa bubbles comin out of the heater compartment tho through them 4 slits in the wall which apparently are the heater fixings, was supposed to block them when i first got the tank but never did!

......so im guna pop in a piece of plastic tubing between the skimmer and collection cup to link them directly together, hopefully that will keep all the bubbles in the right place and none wil escape into the next compartment!,,,and with any luck it'll stop the bubbles, if not then im jus guna have to find an alternative way of blocking them holes with the water in the tank! maybe you should try that, i reckon that will make a hugh improvment, most pple seem to do that.
lol

will try this on monday as im away from 2mro till then so will get back to ya n let u know how it goes!

I don't have those heater fixing slits in my back wall - the heater just clips onto the lip of the wall - so my bubbles aren't escaping from there. The bubbles escape from around the collection cup edges and also make their way into the left two compartments and then overflow into the tank. I think my biggest problem is that the skimmer output is not directly under the collection cup but is half a hole pitch away from it - the bubbles obviously rise in a straight line and so half of them don't make it up to the collection cup. I think some bendy plastic tube is called for!
Cheers