Burningbaal

I'm off the opinion that bleach is basically never necessary. A couple days in RODI water, pressure wash, and a week in RODI water should kill if everything except a few hardy microbes, I think. Maybe leave it dry for a few weeks Then soak it in 1.018 water at no less than 80 deg F with bacterial dosing (Dr Tim's, mb7, prodibio, Fritz, whatever) and a little ammonia or ghost feeding should get it richly populated Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

These are the absolute bomb! Tropic Marin nailed it. This is essentially the only way a chemist measures density of a fluid. If you keep it clean and don't break it, you won't find a more reliable way to measure. Don't leave it in the water (it'll build up a film and junk that will make it float wrong...that's why you need to keep it clean). Just wipe it with your hands under running water when you're done, dry it off, and put it away. There's no moving part to get out of alignment (refractometer) or stuck (swing hydrometer), no lens to get bumped (like a refractometer), no pins to get oriented wrong (salinity probe/pen). The only thing that can really mess with it (and ever form of density/salinity measurement) is temperature. But if it's 1.0260 at 79'F, it'll show 1.0270 at 72.5F, so it shouldn't really change your numbers much unless the temperature ranges wildly. Most refractometers and salinity pens post a 0.002 inaccuracy (plus temperature variation), so when it says 1.026, it could be 1.024 or 1.028, you can't be sure. But this thing has an accuracy of 0.001, so you know it's between 1.025 and 1.027, plus the resolution has an extra decimal place than most other devices. USE IT!

Ya, that's tricky because Neptune doesn't like to play nice with others. There's no robust way to integrate to it if Neptune doesn't treat it as a external API (a data contract) Parsing a file is about the most brittle way to integrate systems, especially when there's no contract regulating changes to the schema/etc Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

The reef-pi now supports control of smart outlets as well, the main thing to be careful of is low-draw devices. The types of relays in those outlets can leak current if the device plugged in is really low draw. Lights are fine, but something like a 1.1mL dosing pump might not work the way you want

Nitrate is super hard in a saltwater matrix; the chloride interferes significantly. Not surprising they didn't do it before (from a chemistry perspective), and I'm very skeptical that's going to be able to do any better from an accuracy/precision perspective than nyos or red sea. I think mostly, the checkers give a false sense of comfort because they are digital, tough they're obviously important when you have trouble distinguishing shades of color (especially if you are color blind) Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

That's the issue, a single drain will be very hard to maintain with a valve. If a single drain, you'll need to set it up as a durso with the valve 100% open. If you get their pf-1000 or larger (two drains), then you can run it as a herbie drain and it'll be all set for the long run. Adjust the set up to have the drain valve 100% open and you can change the pipe inside the overflow to be a durso drain to mitigate the noise. That's the best you can do with only one drain Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

1. Minimum 3x system volume per hour. If you've got 50 gallons of water, minimum is 150gph of actual water movement (not pump rating). Most target somewhere between 5-10x maybe 15x 2. Temp probe before heater will tend to make the water in the display slightly hotter than the probe says, the slightly colder if heater is before probe. Just know this and set accordingly. If your probe is before your heater, probably set a little more like 78 than 80. 3. I would not be collecting the skimmate if you're that low on nutrients or you may end up headed for a dinoflagellate problem. Indeed you need the extra gas exchange (unlikely), I'd turn off the skimmer until you have detectable nutrients 4. You going remove some rock, but I'd be slow about it. Maybe 10% every other week done be very safe as long as you keep enough for the tank 5. If you have rebalance flow every cycle of the pump, something is wrong ...what's the drain setup? Herbie? Beananimal? Dual durso? Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Can you have a nice tank with IO? Of course Is there a lot of marketing that makes differences between salts sound more interesting than it really is? Of course Are there certain choices with decisive advantages above IO? Yup Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

87 doesn't seem crazy for the pro mix @200g, I think that's what it was at BRS six months so, or nearly so. I'd love to find a dealer nearby, though! I was looking for the TM floating hydrometer a while back and couldn't find it anywhere. Eventually BRS started carrying it, but I was surprised no one around had it Edit: I'm in North Seattle and don't even know of options up here Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

I'm with everything @SuncrestReef said. But if I was getting a 1k tank, I wouldn't be getting a coral insert, I'd be getting rock and AT LEAST doing an easy-coral tank (toadstool, leathers, mushrooms, etc). and I'd be buying from customaquariums, or planet aquariums, or glasscages.com, or...really, I'd be calling probably 5 tank builders for discussion and quotes. Also, if you're really going with 1000g as your first tank, I'd plan to have a pro do all the maintenance for at least a year and choose someone who'll teach you so you can take over

wow, that is enormous! It's do-able, but not common. Common advice is to expect to spend $40-50 per gallon for a new well-appointed setup. I might actually expect a little higher for this level of tank because some of the parts break across to the commercial side. You probably want at least a 200g sump and 50-100g topoff reservoir, redundancy like crazy, monitoring all over, including power consumption monitoring (a good way to ensure pumps are still working, for example, is the watts they're pulling). 1000 gallons, I'd probably plan on extremely long or cube-ish enough that you can actually get in the thing. I'd think maybe 13-16ft long, 4ft wide, and 2-2.5ft tall so you can mostly reach everything (assuming you have complete access front and back). or I might do something like 5-6ft long, 4ft deep and 5-6 ft tall and plan to get in the thing at least every other week for maintenance. Honestly, if I was doing more than 800g, I'd probably try for 1500-2000 and just plan on snorkeling for maintenance. In any case, I'd try to plan on a 200g sump with 100g topoff in a separate 100sq ft room dedicated to supporting the tank, preferably more like 200sq ft room. What inhabitants do you want? predators? corals? sponges? clownfish? tangs? the inhabitants you're attracted to probably dictate more than anything else. Oh, and I'm up near Bothell, not too far from Tacoma. From my experience, Barrier Reef (Renton) and Saltwater City (Bellevue) would both be excellent LFS for you, I also like Denny's in Kirkland, but that's getting kinda far for you. not sure what else is down your way, but I think I've heard good things about Sierra's.

reasonable. Note my math was off by a factor of two (I was using 8 cups per gallon...I hate the imperial system!) my corrected math says if you're doing 20% daily changes, and evaporating 2 cups per day, you'll need 1.0234 as your new water to stay stable. of course, if for a week you're losing 4 cups/day, you'll want your new water around 1.0205. Using a constant 1.0234 as your new water, with 20% daily changes: 1 cup daily evap: 1.0247 is equalibrium 4 cup daily evap: 1.0294 is equalibrium if you use 1.022 as your new water instead, 1 cup daily evap: 1.0231 is eq 4 cup daily evap: 10.275 is eq

ok, one thing to maybe consider here...5 g is so small, you could probably cheat the system here... Say it's really 5g of water, and you can run a dosing pump or other slow and reliable pump from a relatively large vessel of saltwater. We want our reef at 1.026, but anything from 1.023 to 1.028 is probably fine, right? So fill up that reef with 1.026, fill the vessel with 1.024, and once the cycle is done, start doing slow but large water changes daily, just push water in and let the excess fall out to your p trap. yes, evaporation will happen, and yes, the salinity in the tank will average higher than the 1.024 you're putting in. Yes, the salinity in the tank won't be perfectly consistent as evaporation rates change, but that should be a pretty slow event. evaporation should mostly be happening when the house is warm, so you could focus the water changes during the hours your heater is mostly likely to run (and the room is warmest). If you change a gallon a day, of maybe 5g a week, but do it as maybe a half or whole pint per hour for 8-16 hours in the day, water temp should be trivial. It will reach an equilibrium, and with this 20% daily change, I bet it's no big deal. Say one day's evaporation would raise salinity from 1.026 to 1.030 Quick math says if you lose 2 cups a day to evaporation (Seems high to me), and have your new water at 1.024 with 20% daily changes, your tank will trend to 1.0267. If in that same setup, your evaporation is only 4 oz/day, you'd trend toward 1.0246, which is a tad low, but probably okay for most things. If I'm vaguely right that evap will stay between a half cup and two cups per day, then you might be just fine, at least if you keep less sensitive species

Oof, this is tough. It's going to depend on your evaporation rate, that's the big problem. I'd say if you want to do this without having to watch salinity super carefully, it has to be more complex. 1. Have a water level sensor at the level you want to keep it. 2. Have a pump that can be turned on for 'x' seconds that removes water to the drain, or do this with a solenoid so it regulates that drilled egress. 3. Have a pump that can add RODI 4. Have a pump that can add new saltwater. Every day, turn on the RO pump until the water level sensor is wet (replacing evap) Then open the solenoid/turn on waste pump for "x" seconds to drain the amount you want (you could set this right a second water level sensor down lower, but time should be a reasonable system). Say 10 seconds drains a pint (hypothetical goal). Then open the saltwater pump until the water level sensor is wet again Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

that'd be perfect! no one to get out, even with an infinity bowl! It'd be amazing, IMO

What are you going to put in there? I think this right be really cool as an infinity bowl if you don't have to worry about fish jumping, out this in a dish so the overflow is just over the rim of the vase Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

it's not super pretty, but my answer was some 95% window tint. it was wide enough I folded it in half and wrapped it around my light (black box in my case). You can hold it in place (at most kludge-y) by putting a piece of masking tape 2-3" from each corner so it kind of spans the corner as a sort of 'chamfer' corner. The window tint is light enough these little pieces of tape hold the tint up (because the tape is above the light). so the tint hangs down below the light several inches

quick note for glue: as long as it's cyanoacrylate without weird additives, it's fine (that means most 'superglue' is fine). But if it's not a gel variety, it will be a giant pain to use; you'll have more on your hands than the coral/plug

A couple is probably fine, but if you're just putting in a couple flakes, they may just starve to death. The lights are off, right? so no herbivores, you could potentially get one or two detrivores, but they may just starve...you're trying to feed bacteria, not animals.

I'd just drop in a few pellets or flakes twice a week, nbd. Literally a few. Like 4.

Nullify is probably too strong a word, but in a system this new, I think you want all the bacteria you can get. If you can stand to be patient, I'd recommend you just wait Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

I'd say the shrimp did it's job, use some pellets or flakes to ghost feed from here. Or replace the shrimp weekly, maybe a 1/4 shrimp each week (can freeze the prawn in quarters) Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

it'll run it's course. Convenient you have no fish; no worries about oxygen deprivation. You'll probably spend a quarter of your time in the next year with a bloom like this if I've done a decent job of tracking how people do with BB and dry rock. I'd strongly recommend a persistent regimen of dosing bacteria all through the first year. Dr Tim's was a great place to start, but I'd buy just about everything you can find. Brightwell's MB7, MB CLEAN, Dr Tim's Refresh, Dr Tim's Waste-away, ReefBrite's Live Rock Enhance, Seachem's Pristine, Prodibio, anything, everything. During the fishless period (when the bloom can't hurt anything), I'd keep dosing one of them every day, mixing it up to different stuff so it gets a variety. Once there are fish in there, I'd mostly do the same, but when a bloom happens, drop in an airstone and stop dosing bacteria until it's cleared up. I'd make sure to ghost feed something once or twice a week; you're trying to get that biofilm as rich as possible. You might stick a Brightwell XPORT-BIO block in the sump to try to make up for the sand's surface area. Oh, and if API shows less than 0.25 ammonia, it's probably zero. You can pick up a seachem ammoalert badget, they last a year and more sensitive than the test kit.

$10!? Man, what a rip-off Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Not sure when it hits/schedule, but it still does happen. Up to the 40b, I believe Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk