$$$ Holy Cow

[1newfish]

Well I wanted to do a closed loop and after looing into different types, I decided to bite the bullet and drill for a OM 4way with a dart pump. After these were purchased I thougt the expensive part was over.

So I went to Home Depot today to get the plumbing.


No one ever told me it will be another 150 dollars in plumbing. For anyone else with this setup, did it cost just as much? or do I have stuff I don't need?

[NuclearReefs]

Its the valves and unions that cost you so much .I did a custom install on a 450 gallon tank and we spent allmost 400$ on couplers,valves,unions, etc. But if you want a safe install with ease for maintenance you better bite the bullet.... This hobby is like a remodeling job for a house or restoring an old car. your never done.....

[SHOmuchFUN]

Buying all your plumbing from Home Depot is never a cheap experience.

[Deuce67]

I believe it. After I did my closed loop with a Dart, I realized it would have been easier and a little cheaper to have just bought 2 Tunze 6100s lol!

[skerz]

Originally posted by SHOmuchFUN
Buying all your plumbing from Home Depot is never a cheap experience.

return them and pay a visit to your local plumber's shop. you'll save about half of what home depot or lowes charges.

[SHOmuchFUN]

www.savko.com

[chrissreef]

Vortech... the economical solution =P

[invincible569]

plumbing definitely adds up

[DanInSD]

After investigating closed-loop versus VorTech, I chose the latter, no contest. Criteria included noise, complexity, flow, power consumption, maintenance, total space, and bang/buck. I have a 3000 gal/hr VorTech. It would have cost a small fortune to get the same flow with a closed loop system.

Dan

[Canadian]

Stay away from HD when you need fittings and pipe. As suggested above, go to a local plumbing store and buy your fittings for retail price there (it will be markedly cheaper). Better solution: make friends with someone with a trade who has an account with a plumbing store and pay discounted wholesale prices.

[seagirl]

Originally posted by NuclearReefs
Its the valves and unions that cost you so much .I did a custom install on a 450 gallon tank and we spent allmost 400$ on couplers,valves,unions, etc. But if you want a safe install with ease for maintenance you better bite the bullet....this hobby is like a remodeling job for a house or restoring an old car. your never done .....

isn't that the truth

[kdblove_99]

I hate those ball valves. I have them but will not ever buy them again they are a pain to turn. I will and would go to Savko.com and get the true union ball valves much nicer

[dascharisma]

I would say you didn't spend enough. If it were me, I wouldn't use anything but true union ball valves. They have them at Lowes, but they are a bit more money.


Brad

[slow_leak]

As much as I think TUNZE streams are over priced, they do have some advantages over closed loops. They will never leak. Have much lower power consumption. Also mine are on battery backup, and tested to run for several hours to keep the sand bed aerated.

I dunk them in a bucket of 1% vinegar once a year to clean off deposits. Too many parts for a simple device. Can't help but think I was screwed.

[jschottenfeld]

Slow leak...What kind of battery backup do you use? I have a pair of 6100's and was thinking about using an APC UPS (like one used for a computer server).

[jschottenfeld]

Also...forgot to say that I too chose the Tunzes on the advice from Tony at reefexotics. No chance of leaking and much quieter.

[slow_leak]

Yeah, I agree. No drilling of 500 usd tanks here. I do think the new Eco tech has a better electronic design. Tunze has a two part transfomer prior to the controller. That is plain odd by todays standards.

It is critical for long term success to have a backup on these power heads. Any computer UPS will do. I suggest at least 900 watt supply and doing a full cycle to time it yourself. I only have one of two pumps attached to increase battery life while protecting sand bed.

The model I use is a Conext 900. The key is to get a bare bones computer model with a replaceable battery. The replacement battery for this is only 25. I had it from a computer replacement so it is what I went with.

They consist of a voltage regulator and battery, so I might recommend ebay and expect to get a spare battery.

[sjm817]

Originally posted by slow_leak
Yeah, I agree. No drilling of 500 usd tanks here. I do think the new Eco tech has a better electronic design. Tunze has a two part transfomer prior to the controller. That is plain odd by todays standards.

That is no longer true. The New Tunzes dont have that external transformer. The Ecotechs are too noisy for my liking.

[slow_leak]

Ok I have the old style (now w/o replacement parts?)

I am confused as to how the ecotech would make any noise if it has decent bearing system.

[Gingers64]

I agree HD and Lowes are way over-priced on almost everything!! I own a pool company and use boxes of plumbing fittings, valves etc, before getting an account with a distributor, the local plumbing stores were much cheaper! As suggested before make friends with a plumber or pool person and they can get it even cheaper!!

[sjm817]

Originally posted by slow_leak
Ok I have the old style (now w/o replacement parts?)

I am confused as to how the ecotech would make any noise if it has decent bearing system.

I have the old sytle too. Tunze will support them for a long time. No worries. The Vortech motors are noisy. The exterior motors are very audible. The propeller side also gets noisy when run at or near full speed. I tried them and could not stand the noise. I kept the Tunzes.

[slow_leak]

Sad to report back that I went to Europe and Context battery didn't work. Lost tank after 5-6 years of growth. I sold all stuff in garage and got new 6105 and 100 aH battery with safety relay switch. It will do 2100 gph at 12volts and last 58 hours. 3500 gph at 28 watts is still most efficient out right now.

Seriously considering a simple aggressive tank for a few years. Always wanted a line trigger fish for some reason, but I keep going back and forth.

[jschottenfeld]

I too have a similar sad story...Having floors refinished in my house, workers tripped my breaker for my tank and did not reset until 24 hrs later. I did have a pretty hefty APC UPS connected to one of my Tunze pumps to preserve run time, but it was unaffective. Even though the pump ran for about 7 hours it wasn't enough.

Lost all but two of my fish; some were 8 to 9 yrs old. The subsequent crappy water parameters did a good job of killing off half of my corals...bad scene.

It appears that just moving the water is not enough. I need to figure out a way to break the surface of the water to agitate and oxygenate. Any thoughts of doing this without using a bubbler connected to UPS all of the time in the event that my power goes??

My live rock consumed most of the O2 I believe.

[luther1200]

What do people with closed loops do for battery backup? Is a generator your only option at that point?

[jschottenfeld]

...or a really big mother UPS.