Blue Z Reef

If you ever want some neon green Yumas, come get some from me....dang things are everywhere LOL

Nice looking nano though! I dig the piece of rock you found for it!

Disclaimer: I always get my bulbs from Jason at OIAB, just happened to have a $40 gift card for Amazon and with the prime account I thought why not give it a shot?

I don't blame this on Amazon, they were shipped by "bigflysports" seller. Obviously doesn't know how to pack t5s as they were basically in a long box with bubble wrap at the ends (loose, not taped to bulbs). Now I'm waiting for UPS to come fetch this back so I can get a refund :( . When Jason gets them the box has cardboard hole holders so they can't move around and hit the sides.

When I picked up the box I heard the glass jingling noise and knew they were toast. Pulled them out to find this:

I took the refund, no sense in having another set of bulbs destroyed :(

Got some knock down, drag out coral fight pics? Weapons of Acro destruction? Post them here!

This is about the slowest battle of all time but over the last few months the pink bewbies chalice is "on top" About time to break it up and scoot them LOL

Got 2 RW-8 back in Aug 2014, now one of them just died. I wonder if the constant on/off is the cause of failure. Would ramping power on be better for it. I'll reprogram my controller for soft start but unfortunately it's those thing that only can be 100% sure if it fails.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

I noticed more issues with my last set when using wave modes (tending to lock up). I run them all constant now.

I think the problem with their products is tolerances are too tight. It doesn't take much in the saltwater environment to gunk something up or create build up on a bearing. Once they jam, it's only a matter of time before they burn up. Seems like an over current fuse somewhere would prevent this. DC pump owners should sand inside the ceramic bearing to avoid it locking up. Just my experience with them.

Saw this on R2R, I think they said $200 for the kit. You can buy their App for $15 and it stores your params also.

Test strips seemed a little weird to me from an accuracy standpoint but I hope it works out!

I've been happy with my Jebao products. I ran 2x WP40s for 1.5 years with minimal maintenance until they died. I now run 2x RW15s in their place, up for 8 months now.

As Lex said, the price difference lets us replace them more often for less money. Only long term wave makers I've heard of are some of the older Tunze ones, which usually run $400+ each and often don't have controllers for that price.

Honestly, people have luck with some and not with others. I bought my first RF Dart return thinking "it was the best" and it started making noise after a year and I ended up replacing it with a newer one that has been running solid now for almost 2 years with no problems. Both were new, both were same brand and model. I think more bad batches of equipment come out of China but doesn't mean everything is total junk.

Video works, nice looking tank! Some sweet colonies grown out nicely in there!

Probably should post quantities of everything, pic is very low res and can't see anything...

The 2 cones 1 skimmer look is kinda weird but the spire idea seems interesting...makes me want to print one lol!

My blue hippo nips at LPS occasionally. Kinda sucks since it only takes a time or two for the wellso to not puff all day. Yellow tangs usually don't bother anything from what I've seen in my tank.

Should also note my blue hippo is like 5" and the smaller ones I never notice picking on stuff.

It's a 5 stage: 5 micron sediment, 5 micron carbon, 1 micron carbon, 150gpd membrane, 2 DI chambers.

I guess this is more of a convenience issue as it outputs 0 TDS but I feel like I have to replace the DI resin every other time I make water. The cost is low as 5lb of eBay resin is only $35 which fills the chambers several times....just seeing what others use.

I personally went with reefkeeper only because way back when I got a deal on one with some extras for cheap. Over time I’ve slowly added on to it until I now have the Archon, 3 power bars, SL2 and a second system with 2 power bars and SL1. Had I started with an Apex it could have happened similarly. My thoughts overall are that RK is a bit more user friendly when programming for the first time but Apex has more expandability and better graphs/user interface. So you can go the cheaper route and find an ReefKeeper Lite with SL1 or 2 for your float switches used (I would estimate you to be in the $150ish range for that setup) or find a used Apex (hard to come by, likely to be in the $300ish range and up). If I had unlimited funds from the get go and everything is how it is today, I would buy an Apex gold package.

May be a lot to think about and is a sizeable investment. Overall I think they are great and well worth the investment and have saved my bacon more than their value many times.

Okay sounds good I will probably go ahead and order one of those 2 today, but what about building a float switch setup to turn my return pump off if the level in my top tank gets to high? Ever heard of anyone doing this

This is where controllers like apex and reefkeeper are nice. You can have multiple switches and control what they do to turn off return pumps, skimmers, whole system if necessary...endless possibilities. I usually tell people to think about it before buying an ATO, you could be that much closer to one! Used reefkeepers can be had for pretty reasonable.

Wondering what DI resin you are all using? What lifespan are you getting out of it? Mine seems to get used up rather quickly despite newer filters. Wondering if some is "better" than others. Mine is some color changing I got off eBay, of course they say nuclear grade but who knows lol. This is the loose stuff you reload yourself.

Kinda weird since my membrane is less than 6 months old and filters are like 3-4 months old. My triple TDS meter says 110-120ish from the tap - > 4 after filters and membrane -> 0 out. I manually flush until membrane out TDS drops to 5-6. Seems like I get somewhere around 50-70 gals per 2x DI refills (plastic tubes, not filter style holders).

Any thoughts or experiences?

Awesome, always glad to see someone breeding sustainable species for our tanks! I know that pacific east aquaculture (sponsor on here) breeds them. Which color are you breeding? When you get some raised, let me know, wife has been nagging me for years to set up a horse tank for here lol

Beauties! Would be interesting to see how they morph under different lighting like the Clarkatoas do!

Don't worry Jeremy, we can rebuild him!

Maybe dual recirc, upgraded air intake, lots of possibilities!

I'm still rocking my Avast Swabbie, going over a year now. I've said it before but again, I really only clean it when the inside of the collector gets so spattered with goop that I can't see the foam head. Every time I've done it the inside of the neck has been pretty much spotless. As for over efficient, I think I'm doing fine. I don't skim very wet so it keeps thing where they should be.

Want this out of my shed, it's in ok shape. With very minor tweaks it could hold a 36x24 tank (feels pretty solid, I've had stands like this in the past do just fine). Give it a coat of paint and it should be looking nice. Is a kitchen cabinet if you haven't gathered that. Ignore electrical bits I have sitting in the bottom. Exact dimensions are as follows:

35 5/8W x 23 3/4D x 35.25T

Located in Orchards area of Vancouver

You have your own jugs? My display could use a 25 gal change sometime soon. I'm in Vantucky as well, orchards area.

I can relate to 5 gal changes, it's how I've always done the mixing since day one so its easy to default to known mixing amounts. With a tank that small though, I think a gallon is the most I'd be changing. Maybe get ahold of some gallon milk jugs and force yourself to only use one at a time haha

A quick read on SPS coloration issues. Easy on those water changes and things should start turning around. Fuel should help as well.

http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-my-sps-are-paling-and-i-dont-know-what-to-do.210035/

Great looking tank, should make for a cool build! Did you do Starfire on the front?

As for the lights, the higher you go the better the spread and less shaded areas. I believe Kenny from Reefstar has a rail system, not sure if it will work with the Radions or not though.

Are you doing a hood? If so you can supplement with t5s to fill in any space the Radions don't cover. I have an 84" tank and had both 3 and 4 fixtures (d120s) and can say having 4 really covers much better. If you plan your rock work around the lights it's not a big deal though.

OIAB carries it as well. I bought some bottles of it off amazon for pretty cheap.