Hello, my name is KGChampagne, and I have been a pvc user for 14 years. My wife thinks I have a problem, and I admit that I think about pvc while I am at work, sometimes during church, and always when my mother in law is telling me about what is wrong with Corporate America. I can tell you this is the second post in my lifetime, and thought after reading everything I could on this site that you might understand. Seriously, this is the "end result" of solving 14 years worth issues, everything from temp swings, to temp power issues, to overflowing problems to CA, PH, O2, O3, AK, PAR, and really anything else you can think of. It is basically a fully automated system with the exception of a very few maintainence routines. Water is changed in 6 minutes (for 30 gallons) with two valves, and my skimmer cup is exchanged for a clean one once a week. Everything is plumbed into the house water supply and sewer directly (to the RODI, of course), and only have wet hands when I am playing in the show tank. I may never win Tank of the Month, after seeing some of your beautiful pics, but if there were ever "filter of the month", I figure I might have a shot. I have learned a lot over the years, but never became a part of the online community before I got hooked on Rob's podcasts. Only then did I realize I might know a little something about this hobby and might help you avoid some of the mistakes I have made along the way. I would welcome any comments you might have on the "Reefbot 2000XL", even if you agree with my beautiful wife and four sons.

thanks for posting...that is some sick plumbing!

Hi KGChampagne and :welcome: to TR. I can see you are going to fit in here with no problem!

I have trouble with plumbing when it gets past an overflow and a return line. I have a non-automated reef because I would have to try and figure out how to do this stuff. It would help me if you could label things. Or if you can't do labels describe which bin is which by shape and color.

WOW, i thought I had a lot of PVC and ball valves !!

OK CarmieJo, I'll give it a shot. From the furthest left, chiller, the orange thing is my Kalk reactor (Home made, next to that is a small well lit refugium (175 MH I bought new but wouldn't fit under my hood. Under the refugium is one of two final holding sumps, 30 galls each. The grey rubermaid 33 was my kalkwasser holding tank, which worked fine for ten years but then I started to believe that an airtight container might be better, now it holds fresh RO pumped through the reactor. The blue 60 gall is new salt mix. Straight up is the white 30 rubbermaid wich is pre skim, UV and Eco Aqualizer....which I believe does do something good, but never really took off...didn't matter, I had to try it. To the left of that is Skimmer, CA reactor, CO2 and Ozone reactor. The large smoke box is a wet/dry with the bio balls removed (about seven years ago) and the most impressive piece of equipment, the magnum 350 running carbon, for a total of 16 years, 24 hours a day, on the original impeller! The electrical outlets and switches are all on seperate lines, GFI (learned that the hard way) but are only there so I don't have to run upstairs to the reefkeeper II to turn off a pump. the very small blue valves control RO input to the new salt sump, holding tank, or direct to tank to desalinate if for some reason my salinity raises above the 1.023 mark, and the last is for an RO supply to mix Turbo calc or buffer before it gets auto dripped into sump 3. You can see to the far right where I am plumbed into a 4" cleanout for water changes, skimmer overflow, and new salt dump (which prevents overflow prob number 17) and finally, a really slick system for my motorhome holding tanks, (unrelated to tank, but accounts for at least 3' of PVC. The tank sits in the living room directly above. What you don't see, is how the skimmate used to be pumped to a hydroponic tomato and pepper garden after a hail storm wiped out hours of work outside. Amazing what skimmate does for tomato plants. After I did the math, I figured the 400 watt Merc Vapor bulb cost more to run than all the tomatoes I could buy at the store. So you see, this is all purely a result of my own tendency towards the lazy side of the scale. It holds so much water and since everything can be dialed to the smallest increment, it really is the most stable 90 gallon reef I know of.

Wow! I would get distracted after the first 2 things!

Yeah, I know. Hard for me to follow too. In all of that, here is are the two most important tips I know. 1) Always, always, always put your PH controller's probe in the same sump in which your kalkwasser is added, so when your siphon fails, the computer shuts off kalk flow. 2) GFI is no joke. Not sure where to put this, but I hope someone reads it.

Dang !!!! now that's what I call automation !!!

Welcome Kgchampagne !

Always nice to meet another reefer from Colorado !

Warm Regards,

you are by the far the most radical, money burning basket case,http://www.alexander-oberg.de/smileys/hiiillfe_2.gif & ingeniously insane reefer ive had the pleasure of just meeting..lol If you weren't so cool id call you a major nerd & make the L shape with my hand to the forehead! That my friend is ultimately fantastic, i mean we prob have alot of the same things running but with yours----- its like organized chaos....... to which its now my computers wallpaper. It vexes me your so cool! http://www.alexander-oberg.de/smileys/Tsachakko.gif

Welcome to the club, & grab a camcorder, cause your the next vid cast provider:up:

Veriann, a vid cast, that would not only be an honor but would certainly jetison me to the coveted geek status....not to mention the extreme pleasure I would get from seeing my wife fall off of her chair. The day we were moving into the home we built I was cutting a 8" x 4" hole through the brand new carpet and floor. She asked why the hole had to be so big. I explained it was exactly the size of the heater vent that we would put in its place when we moved. Guess that's when it dawned on her that I was really going to tackle this tank maintainence thing. Thank you very much for your response, I am glad that someone sees the beauty in all of this.

KG that is so excessive it is ridiculous. I love it, when can you come build me one. Also when I showed my wife what was coming she nearly had a heart attack.:mrgreen: Welcome to TR

well definatly make it a 2 part series explaining your mouse trap & how it all works (at least 2 parts cause of the shear expanse of gear & the head explosion factor taking it all in lol) and submit it to Rob for post editting & upload. ;)

Just tell me what you need, I'll get it done. Give me some guidelines on time, if you want commentary, and what the theme should be, and I will send it off. I think what I would like to do is a show on what mistakes to avoid when you get into this hobby. But Rob might have other ideas.

KG that is so excessive it is ridiculous. I love it, when can you come build me one. Also when I showed my wife what was coming she nearly had a heart attack.:mrgreen: Welcome to TR
IAreef, I could send you a quote on what this has cost me over the years and you might rethink hiring me. In fact if I do that I would have to add it up myself, and face that reality, then your wife and I could both have a heart attack.

a podcast video series on something like that would be sweet !! usually podcasts are kept to about 1hr per episode (or less). i would like to see one done for every piece of equipment that you have on there (the main ones anyway), then maybe an overall to end the series. pro/cons for each, how they work, etc.

I think this is a great idea. I like the idea of segments based on the different pieces of equipment. I'd say with commentary on the equipment such as what it is called, what it does, pitfalls and problems, benefits and would you call it a must have (skimmer), secondary (ato) or toy. I'm having a little trouble with the toy category, I guess something like an AquaController, where you can do the job with something else but this makes it more elegant, efficient or lets you do something extra (like send data to your computer.)

it was a quiet sunday afternoon in colorado, birds cherping , the occasional dog barks, kg.champ was proceeding to film his up-coming documentry when "boom" ........ out of no-where a naked streaker runs into view wearing an australian flag & only an australian flag:sick: .................................................. ....wrapped around his right bicept :rotfl:

better be a tiny flag if it is going to cover anything !! lmao