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Blue Z Reef

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Everything posted by Blue Z Reef

  1. My parents just did this through repipe specialists for their water lines (no drain/sewage). They had quest pipes that fail (early 90s disaster product lol). Total was 18k with drywall but no painting. What my dad thought though was if you just hired out all the subs individually you would probably save money. The issue is that repipe specialists acts as the general contractor and just hires all the subs so you are paying them plus whatever extra they charge on top of the subs quotes for them to be the “organizer”. Yes, sometimes it makes the job go faster, but you pay extra for the coordination. They just used a local plumber (I believe it was Sarkinen or something…but forgetting). If you find a drywaller and plumber yourself it will probably be cheaper is all I’m saying. Good luck, it’s a big job and a lot of tear up.
  2. Just make sure your oring in the housing is in good shape. If at all concerned a small bead of silicone will keep it water tight for sure. Also don’t forget ball valves and unions for service!
  3. Jebao DCP series works external and is adjustable. I use a 4000 on my 55w UV unit (turned down). Mine is submerged but I have a large 15000 for my mixing station external and haven’t had any issues with it leaking. Very quiet pumps and budget friendly.
  4. So I have frogspawn…everywhere 😂. I need to start fragging and selling/trading off, my tank is too stuffed these days. Typically I just grab and break them apart but on certain colonies that is not accurate and ends up with frag disasters. Anyone use a cutter for LPS? Bone cutters in the past I had mixed reviews with. Anyone tried one like this?
  5. Do you frequently lose power? Because running the apex on a UPS isn’t going to last very long and doesn’t have a ton of point IMO. Apex will already contact you with the heartbeat if it disconnects for more than 30 mins so if it’s just for notification sake it doesn’t really matter. I have seen people buy a used UPS and wire it to a deep cycle battery for some real significant run time, if you feel up to that, it would probably be the most ideal route.
  6. I have the icecap one plugged into my dual gyres. Works great and the newer gyres recognize the power out and switch the pumps into only running a single to conserve. Overall happy with the piece of mind. Haven’t had to put it to much test aside from a maybe 3 hour outage. https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/icecap-battery-backup-v3-0-for-aquarium-pumps/?gclid=CjwKCAjwj42UBhAAEiwACIhADplImD9J3jlw2h2usuWtBb3h85_Djknq9nzhUdWxZsBu0ZEm5KDMUxoCwY4QAvD_BwE
  7. Thought those might be my BTAs, looking great! The 20 is looking pretty full 👍 might be about time for an upgrade 😁
  8. Great deal for someone! The stand alone is worth more then that. Hope the new tank is going well 👍
  9. Yeah we got a bunch in Camas, probably 6-8ish inches and still coming down. Some rain starting to mix in. Only issue here is Comcrap has died…so I get a real snow day even with WFH 🤣
  10. That system sounds good and relatively sound in principle, I just don’t see the need for most reefers who run maybe 100-200 gal tanks to need all that. I run a Spectrapure 99% rejection membrane 90gpd , considered one of the better ones out there and it’s $65. It gets replaced every few years? I swap carbon blocks/pre filter every 6 months (~$25). Rarely worry about resin as the membrane typically outputs between 0-1 tds. The waste water is arguably insignificant in cost as a unit of water around here low (748 gals is roughly $2). As a whole, my semi standard 3 pre filter, RO, 2 DI unit probably cost me somewhere between $50-100 max per year to run. I recently did an ATI ICP and my fresh water was literally perfect, 0s across the board. Again, I'm not a shop so the factor of water usage is much different, this strategy just seems a bit overkill for most is all.
  11. @islandVib3s did you ever check your tap TDS? The system Rudy is using really depends on what your initial TDS is. Where I’m at in Camas, I get somewhere in the 60-70 TDS range from my tap. When I lived in Vancouver it was 120. If you do a filter/DI only system with those numbers that resin would only probably last 1 month, not 6. Considering resin is one of the most expensive parts of running the system you may want to consider that.
  12. That’s great, mine was going crazy again. Got the new probe in, readings are perfect again.
  13. Tried it once, looked like grey oatmeal piles…not a fan 😂! Sometimes you just can’t beat the “real” stuff (real or mined that is!). Didn’t seem to get as porous as one would hope despite the rock salt. I remember reading someone’s concern about the cement leaching something but never found out for sure what that could be, I know it has been done successfully so would worry too much about it.
  14. Follow up: Neptune says no changes in temp probe module were done last update and to recal. I did the recal, which seemed to fix it for about 2 days. Then today, off to the races again! Shot up to 83, checked tank, it’s at 80. Have a new one on the way 👍 All things considered, running for about 5 years is good in my book. Some get lucky with them running “forever” but would assume that’s not super common.
  15. I sent in a ticket, we’ll see what they say. I’m going to order up a new one, just seems odd especially if @GreenJeans is experiencing a similar issue.
  16. Anyone had issues recently. I did the last OS update about 4-5 days ago. Randomly last night, I get a temp alarm that my tank has exceeded 82.5. I go look, heater is off, nothing different in the tank. My IR handheld temp device says tank is 79, right where it should be. I leave it hoping it’s just a fluke and will correct. Nope, is bouncing around at 82.5+ range. Heater has been off the whole time, house temps normal, no changes. My graph below you can see it kicks on heat at 78.2 and goes to 79.5 and shuts off. Just usually never deviates from the sine wave. What is the best course of action? Recal, replace? Haven’t had an issue with it since I put it in service a few years ago…I think it’s about 4 years old. Just unplugged it and plugged back in, seeing if that does anything.
  17. Interesting that phos didn’t come down after a water change…try running a phos test on your RODI water. Make sure that is zero. Doubt your salt mix would have it in it, but never hurts to check that too. Could be leeching from your rock but after a water change it should be lower initially then creep up if that was the case. Sounds like you have everything else going good, I think the fuge is a good idea overall but likely won’t knock out nitrate and phosphate by itself (since you are space limited). Regular bacteria dosing will help in the long run to get your live rock and bio materials doing more work for you.
  18. My quick 2 cents 😁 NoPox works well for what it does, however, most reefers in your situation freak out and dose a lot, don’t monitor their levels enough while doing the dosing, and end up zeroing out either nitrate or phosphate (rarely both though, which creates a whole new issue). In my opinion that is way worse (and has a longer recovery time for the corals) than just taking it slow and using some additional methods for reduction. I’m assuming you don’t have a heavily stocked SPS tank or your corals would be looking sad (or possibly just not the colors they should be). However, in my mixed reef (heavily LPS based), I’ve seen levels close to those with little issue. I would be taking steps to lower them, but keep it gradual. So if I was in your boat, I would probably implement a few methods. 1. Regular bacteria dosing (such as with MB7 or Prodibio Bio Digest). Set reminders to keep up on it or use a doser (where applicable) 2. Rowaphos is great, but again, take it slow and monitor. Pull back or remove when you start getting into the sub .1 level and see what the tank does. 3. Skimmer - are you running one? Is it performing as it should? Products like NoPox rely on a skimmer to work properly so make sure that is in place prior. 4. when things get out of wack ratio wise, look into products that tackle phosphate or nitrate independently (like rowa or BW Phosphat-E). You could even end up at zero and have to dose to get back to where you need. 5. Think about adding some bio materials if you don’t have them already. I run marinepure blocks and spheres but there are other options available now as well (marinepure gets a bad wrap for Aluminum leaching but ultimately doesn’t affect anything I’ve seen). 6. check source water, make sure phosphates aren’t coming from your RODI filters/DI being old! good luck! If you take nothing else away, just take it slow and use slightly under the manufactures dosages and see how your tank reacts first.
  19. I have one around somewhere in the gear hoard but never got around to trying it out. I use the IM seaweed grazer and every time I open it up to put some more nori in, I shake it around in the water and usually 3-4 large pods go swimming out. Occasionally my wrasse is paying attention and gets a snack out of it 😁 You wanting this for a mandarin or something? Or just some free live food?
  20. Was looking at these today too, they look pretty cool overall. I think the $200 price tag kind of seems excessive for what it is. In the past when nano/pico competitions have happened, it’s usually a provide your own tank under a certain size. A lot of people prefer to do small (cheap) petco tanks or a vase/cool container. Kind of let’s people have more fun with their unique twist on the setup. Just my 2 cents
  21. This is a bit vague…how much variance are we talking with your target dkh for the tank? Inconsistency in a CaRx can be from various things like inconsistent feed pump, CO2 regulator/controller, clogged lines, etc. Probably going to need to elaborate a bit for help. Also, could this be a test kit issue? What are you using?
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