[scolley]

Originally Posted by Steve Kelly

Steve,

For general reference purposes, I would like to know the following:

1. With a new 25 micron cartridge in your OC filter what does the pressure gauge indicate with the Poseidon PS1 running full tilt?

2. If you close the valve(s) on the 'Output' side of the OC what will the pressure rise to?

Steve

My pressure gauge does not just show just pressure caused by the filter. Due to all the back pressure of my extensive plumbing after the filter, it's a little elevated. So,

With brand new plumbing (not gunked up), and new filter media, my pressure on the Ocean Clear 340 was dead on 5 PSI. And very low flow out of the filter.

I changed my filter media at 10 PSI.

When I bleached and pressure washed the filter, my pressure dropped to 8 PSI, but climbed within days back to 10. Moral of the story... buy a new cartridge.

With a new cartridge in, my PSI is 7.25. I assume the drop from the original 5 is due to the gunk in my extensive lines. And water gushing out of the filter.

And when my Poseidon is unrestricted, but I shut off the outflow of my Ocean Clear, the PSI sits firmly on 10 PSI - just like you.

Oh yeah, it's worth noting that I've change the media two times now - once with a "cleaned" cartridge, and once with a new cartridge (since the cleaned one clogged so fast - just like for you), and the screw top gave me no trouble at all either time. Since the first time was a bear, I'm wondering if maybe it just has to seat itself, or compress, or something. Either way, the seal is no problem now. Just needs a hammer.

Originally Posted by bgoodwins

You might try stepping up to a higher micron size. @5 is pretty small for general purpose unless you have larger (100?) micron filters before it in series.

I'm not sure what I said before... it's a 25 micron filter. Which is small technically, but I have filter socks on my outflows, so it doesn't get gunked up with big chunks. Only little stuff makes it to it. And it was 6-8 months before I had to change it. So I'm not going to sweat it. 6 months or more between filter maintenance is just fine in my book.

Originally Posted by bgoodwins

Scolley, did you ever happen to make that outflow diagram? Color me interested

I need to finish that diagram don't I? Sorry. It wound up being a ton of work, and I've got a lot going on in my personal life keeping me busy. But I'll try to get to it within a month or two. Promise.

Originally Posted by samckitt

This is just beautiful, that is all I can say, beautiful.

Thanks! You should see the algae!

Originally Posted by Oqsy

good stuff as always steve

Thanks buddy! Always nice to hear from you!

Originally Posted by jphan

why do u ahve a wireless router for your tank? lol

I trust you read ganjero's reply...

Originally Posted by ganjero

its connected to an aquarium controller and sends all the info to the computer, it can send email alerts and some controllers text message alerts if something is out of balance in your tank.Then with most advance controllers you can turn things off and on through the Internet, in case you are on vacation or something like that, and I believe the owner of this tank travels a lot so its a great tool for him.

Thanks for helping me not have to type all that! You said it better than I could have.

Originally Posted by jphan

wow! lol

Thanks!

Originally Posted by macclellan

I agree with the GDA being linked to biofilter maturity. I had the nastiest outbreak I'd ever seen in a new tank (it literally coated 80% of the tank), despite being precycled and not being a 'new' tank (the tank/substrate had been used for a different setup previously, so no silicates or whatever). In a few weeks it was gone. I never had the GSA problems like that though, so I can't comment there.

I appreciate the feedback on that. Tom Barr appears to think it is a life cycle issue. And it may be, but I'm not sure it is the lifecycle of GDA. I've written quite a few PMs to people that have tried to wait it out. And I've tried it. And I've read a lot about it here, and have yet to see anything that appears to be real proof that it is a GDA lifecycle issue. And even though there is a LOT of evidence that it MIGHT be, too many people have tried to wait it out, only to have it reappear soon thereafter.

But it does seem like it might be related to the size of the biofilter. That could appear as a life-cycle thing. People think they are waiting out the algae life cycle as it gunks up their tank walls, while in actual fact the only thing that's happening is the new tank's biofilter is maturing. So they scrape the walls and "wallah! it's better!" when all that has happened is that their biofilter has become more robust over the weeks that the algae grew.

I'm not stating that that is what is happening. But I am positing it as a possibility. The one thing I can say for certain, was that it was improving a good bit until I changed my filter, and BANG! The GDA exploded.

Sounds like a biofilter issue to me.