pledosophy

That is tempting. This is the same one I use to run my 120g (with an extra EB8). So tempting. I love mine on the 120.

ATI 6 bulb Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a 6 bulb T5 fixture and it supports my 3 anemones. I am also growing SPS on the sand, which is 24" down. I have not had good luck with Ocean Revive fixtures myself so I would steer away from there IME.

Doing great. Wife is happy, dog are happy, fish tank is on auto pilot (sorry to rub it in). I opened a studio in downtown PDX. Everything is moving along wonderfully. We should all get together sometime. See how those kids of yours are growin

I have an octo hammer I could do a couple heads of, or some gorgonia. I need a different sump for my 90g, The one I have is a bit to small. I can't tell from the pic but is there not a seperate pump bay?

Do you know what brand or size it is rated for?

He LIVES! How ya been Homie?

Cheaper then what? I think I paid like 5.95 on Amazon

If you look at the pieces individually I think you could DIY the ARID for less then $80, especially if you do not care about having clear sides probably less. If I see it right it is just a reactor with a light in the middle. I'm kinda curious. If I had more time I would make one just because. Maybe I will next month just to see. I do miss that about my last house. Reef in the dining room plumbed through the wall to the office with the display refugium. That was a great setup for me too. Impossible to overfeed but also with all the pods, you ddin't really have to feed. Was a lot of fun.

The polyps are fine, and will be. Did you do the 72 hour complete black out? If so did you do something to monitor/stabilize your pH during that time? Without knowing more about your system there is really not much else in the way of meaningful advice I can offer. Sure increased water movement will help to keep the tank cleaner if you have adequate filtration, but if your running an all natural system it's not going to help you much. Cyano Bacteria (it is a bacteria not an alage) feeds off excessive nutrients in the system. It is actually a very efficient feeder and can drop your levels low so you think the water is clean, but really it is just being cleaned by the bacteria. Cyano is also a very efficient reproducer and can double itself every 20 minutes. So even if you do a water change and remove half of it, you have bought yourself 20 minutes. There is a source problem that needs to be fixed. Once that source problem is fixed then you can do a 72 hour no light period that will kill the bacteria mostly, but enough to where if the source is resolved it will no longer be an issue. I would highly recommend against using the additives or supplements they sell for it online, as a medic you know the responsibility associated with antibiotics. If you want to geek out on something it is a pretty fascinating bacteria. It is thought to be one of the oldest bacteria's on the planet. Absolutely fascinating stuff but, not really for our tanks. Fix your nutrient problem and you will fix this problem.

So I pulled all of it out and it seems that the solenoid is working and when hooked to the C02 tank and not the reactor it emits gas. So I took the reactor all apart (recirc pump and hoses) put it back together and it seems to be working fine now. I have no idea why. Guess i wasted my money buying 2 part today (needed something to keep that alk up), but it is nice to have around I suppose. So weird.

Awesome. I love it when that happens

Did that and it clicks on and off. I guess I'll take the tank in tomorrow to make sure it's full. No idea what else to do/try. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If it is the solenoid can I replace just that or do I have to replace the whole regulator? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can have some if you want to come by. I am in Oregon City

Ya I dose Vodka, about 8mL a day in my 120g tank. So 1mL every 3 hours. I started at 1mL a day and worked up to 7 over a month and a half or so. I have used sugar as well and that works good, but had to pour it in manually and I would forget often. Tried vinegar when I was keeping more of an lps/softie tank but for SPS I recommend Vodka. Just buy the cheapest unflavored vodka you can find. I think it costs me about $10 every 4 months. I do loose some to evaporation.

So I have no bubbles.... The tank seems full and when I went to take the regulator off it shot out a ton of C02 (I assumed it was empty). The pressure gauge from the tank to the regulator shows it is in the green. But even with the needlevalve fully open no bubbles in the chamber. I checked and the C02 line is not kinked. I burped the reactor to see, that is not it. The Apex says everything is powered. I am thinking my solenoid went bad? Does that happen? Can't think of anything else it could be. I don't have much experience with reactors. Been running this one about a year and have replaced the C02 tank and refilled it, but that is about it. Any help is apprecaited. Thanks.

If your mainly worried about nutrient export I would go with a bare bottom space with cheato. You can get a small powerhead to go under the cheato to acutally make it spin. I find an 18 hour light cycle works best. It gives the pods a time to propagate and the cheato a time to breath. Try to keep the cheato thinned out often and when you trim it try to cut the middle with scissors and pull it apart a bit. Not to small but cheato will grow from both ends, so the more ends, the more growth. Pods will colonize the cheato so you will see some increased population from it. The trip through the return pump won't phase them. I even had a clown fish ride through a dart unphased, pods are to small for the impeller to do much. Carbon dosing forever isn't such a bad thing IME. Way easier then maintaining a refugium and much more effective IME if nutrient export is your goal. Dosing pumps are so cheap now it really has become the easiest method for those who already have a protein skimmer. My nitrates and phosphates stay next to 0 and I haven't done a water change in 18 months or so despite feeding more in a day then some feed in a week. Refugiums are a fun thing to play with though. Good luck HTH

Dude you know your nuts right. I hope you have a conductivity meter on that Apex controlling this somehow. PNWMAS lost a very very good tank a while back due to it having an automated filling of the top off reservoir. Be careful. I would not want to know how that smells.

What are you trying to accomplish with the refugium? IME if you are looking for nutrient export you would set it up differently then if you are looking for a place for specific creatures to grow without being hunted (refuge as in refugium). If your just looking for nutrient export then I agree with the above. Cheato is the safest choice, not the best at absorbing nutrients, but the safest and legal choice depending on where you live. While pods will grow and breed in cheato if you are focused on pod production alone then their might be a better way to set it up for you. I think some of the muds are very good depending on what you want the tank to grow, but I would not use mud with cheato. IME the problems that give refugiums a bad name is when people start trying to do to much in one space and mix 3-4 different types in one refugium. that just tends not to work. Whether your trying to grow pods for a certain fish, increase pods in general, provide a constant food for corals, incorporate slow releasing trace element, improve the efficiency of your protein skimmer, keep food you will feed to a tank inhabitant, or just do nutrient export, then each of those would be setup differently. Although i will say that after 10-12 of experimenting with almost every type of refugium and spending countless hours talking to the refugium master Leng Sy, if you are just looking for nutrient export, I find carbon dosing to be far supperior.

I use the Red Sea Reef Energy A and B and also the Fuel from Aqua Vitro. I dose 20mL of each twice a week, at night with the lights and skimmer off. I think for my system it has made a huge difference in growth, health, and color. I have been doing this consistently for about a year and a half or so. I think Julians claims IME are true for using the AA. I also think that mangrove tank in his office that is plumbed outdoors to his system is sick!

Nice work.

Where you at?

I use a 5g water jug. I put a cinderblock in my sump to raise it up a little bit and just swap the jugs out. I have a ton of them from when I used to do water changes, so I make 30-40g at a time n 5g jugs and that will last me a couple months. HTH

Maybe in the later afternoon. I have my licensing exam tomorrow but after. Unless I flunk... Then I will be crying in a parking lot I'll hit ya up