pledosophy

I don't run a chiller, although I have one, because I keep my AC at 74. I have to run a heater all year. 

When I lived in an APT with no AC, I had to use a chiller for a few weeks a year to keep the tank temp down. Fans can do so much, but when it is 104F outside for 2-3 days... well. I vote chiller.

 

It depends on what you are wanting to keep. For some tanks a WP-40 would be to much. Other tanks, maybe not enough. 

In my 120g Mixed reef I have 2 WP-40's and a Gyre along with a much stronger return. 

If your looking for a SPS tank, you can't have to much flow. 

If your looking for say a seahorse lagoon tank, then you can't have that much flow from one source. 

My 90g is a Nem tank and has a WP-40, a stronger return (900 gph) and a RW-8. I keep it lower flow because it is just aneomes. 

Sorry for the non answer to the question. 

38 minutes ago, albertareef said:

Haha!  Sorry about the name thing... misread your screen name on my phone.  Too much multitasking!

We're good George.  No worries at all  

Turns out these are not the ones for me. 

Good luck with the sale though man. I am sure someone wants to turn their Brute lid into a jet ski. 

 

Would you split them up or only together?

My tanks been up for awhile... was up before we moved to our new house. I still test Alk daily, but not for anything else.

I don't do water changes (maybe one in 18m), I just stick to the same regiment. There are a lot things we can't test for but I find Alk to be the most important and a key indicator for other levels.

JMO


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congratulations Bret. Wish you the best of luck.

Beautiful, Kevin!

Sent from my SM-G928P using Tapatalk

Thank you! Just a phone pic but these things are fun to watch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lookin gooooood!

Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk

Thanks Man! That Tang is loving it here. Great contrast too. The wrasse is all happy too. Thanks again for the healthy fish!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

3 hours ago, albertareef said:

There are some serious corals in there!  Looks fantastic - nice work!  Guess I shouldn't say "work" while you are enjoying your Saturday morning cartoons... sorry about that.

Thanks man. 

All the corals came as frags. I need to trim, I got some acro's growing out of the water back there. So fun to watch the progression of colonies over 5-10+ years now. 

6 hours ago, Higher Thinking said:

Looks good man! The frags (colonies) you gave me are doing great!

I miss you like The Biggest Loser champion misses high fructose corn syrup!

Ahhhhhh.... 

I know man between work taking off and the baby I don't have time for much these days. My TWD hour every Sunday is my only leisure time. 

Still my favorite Saturday Morning cartoon [emoji2]

Tanks grown a little.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a 65g acrylic with stand. It has a little knick in the front but otherwise pretty good condition. It was plumbed for a sump and closed loop and would need a new bulkhead for the closed loop intake.

 

To big?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you Sir!

Watermelon as my wife named her is out and about chowing down with the other fish. Everyone instantly got along. 

 

Thank you!

There are certainly plenty of ways to keep them fed. I could drop in a sand sifting star every couple weeks. Or cut legs etc. but that just seems pretty hard core.

 

Then again. I knew I had a sand sifter in the tank but couldn't find him yesterday. There is 16sq ft of sand surface area to dig through and he evaded me. Either way. They found him within 12hrs. Got a video of them pulling the star into their new lair. I'll post it later.

 

So at least they're getting a good first meal.

Chocolate chip starfish are a bit cheaper and more meatier then the sand sifting variety. Cutting the leg is weird the first few times, but you get used to it. Just snip it and put the rest of the starfish in the sump for awhile. Some people rotate between several feeder starfish but that always seemed a bit to much like Dante's Inferno to me. That book still gives me the creeps

I test alkalinity everyday. Every single morning.

 

I test my salinity once a month or so. 

 

My tank controller monitors my temp.

 

The rest... only if the alkalinity is off or I see algae. 

 

Once the tank is up and running for a few years the things you test for get fewer. As long as my alk is good, and my gorgonia is open I don't see a need to test anything. JME- granted it took 15 years to get here. 

I kept a single one going for a couple years before I had to feed it. Ironically once I started feeding it the thing immediatley died. Kinda sad.

IMO All the water from the DT should go through the skimmer 1st so as much detritus etc can be removed from the water column.

I guess i spent a few days when he looked like this and he convinced me of the merits of Mangrove trees

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Julian would tell you to put the skimmer after the Mangroves. ;) Something about them breaking down a specific element which in turn makes the protein skimmer more efficient at removing DOC's. I am a fan of his too. I thought I saw a bit of inspiration in there.  I had a set up with 3 support tanks attached for the sole purpose of filtration and generating food. But carbon dosing was a bit easier for me after my accident. Julian has always been great in the hobby. His outdoor mangrove garden for that little nano is pretty awesome.

 

I won't bug you again about your ventilation, just concerned for you after having two local people do significant damage to their homes with smaller systems, and a friend down south a bit who ended up having to level his home after constructing a basement tank with no ventilation. I had another buddy back home set his house on fire with a 450g tank that had no ventilation and corroded some wiring. I saw all of that exposed wood and was just worried. Flashbacks. I am sure you know what your doing though. Not trying to get down on you for sure. 

 

For the geothermal cool effect in the summer I thought you had to have the tanks actually buried in the 3 feet of dirt. Do you think that just being under the house will be enough? I hope so. That would be cool.... get it... Cool...       

 

For the salinity did you calibrate the conductivity probe? Sometimes if the temp is off at all during calibration it can give it a misreading. My salinity does slowly drop with skimming so I have to add salt once in awhile. I don't do water changes, well once every couple of years, so keeping up on adding salt taken out with the skim mate is part of my maintenance. 

Look forward to watching your tank grow. 

 

 

IMHO with the amount of water changes you will need to do with using the product, you could just as easily get a small gauge hose and just go through a suck them out for awhile for several days in a row and then add a natural predator to take care of the rest. 

I had a melanarus that did great with them, but my coris wrasse was the best at eating them. 

Best of luck to you.

That seems obvious but I never thought of that.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ya, took me about 5 years to figure it out. At least you won't have to buy all the other stuff like I did first.

 

Cheers

This thread makes me very happy I carbon dose and use DC pump LOL! Should be a fun system/build though. 

I have a couple questions if ya don't mind? 

1. Why is the skimmer before the mangroves? Just curious as to the reasoning. 

 

2. Are you a Julian Sprung fan?

 

3. Have you thought about trying to insulate the tanks in your new crawlspace for heat?

 

4. Have you heard of Solar World. They do this free solar panel thing where you pay them for the electricity instead of PGE but it's a lower rate and locked in for 20 years. I think you might be a good candidate there. I don't know if they still have the program to get the federal kick back but they might.  I swear man, your tank uses almost a 100x the amount of energy as my 120g system  . I can't even imagine the chiller bill this summer. It saves us quite a bit each year, and the kickback is nice. I don't work for them or anything. 

 

5. Did you add ventilation fans into the sump room? 

I used to use a piece of scrap acrylic that I got from Taps for like $2. It was better than the magfloat, magic eraser, flipper, kent scraper, and credit card which I have also tried. 

Acrylic doesn't scratch acrylic go figure.

Thanks! Rough is a pretty good description. Not disastrous or heart breaking, just rough, thankfully.

 

Well when you get ready for your comeback, make sure to hit me up. My tank almost always needs a trimming. And my wife would love it if my equipment stash in the garage thinned out. 

 

Good luck. 

Sorry your having a rough time. Best of luck to you.