Higher Thinking

I agree. Just go to the dollar store and get a bunch of little bottles. Fill them up with your daily dosing regiment and clearly explain the dosing rules. That seems more reliable than a quickly set up doser. It takes time to get them dialed in correctly and I wouldn't trust only a few days. Sorry this doesn't really answer your question.

Where do you live?

Dang.... That is a deal!

Use Tapatalk to post photos from your phone. It takes about 2 seconds, no adjusting. You can either take the photo with your phone or upload it from your gallery. If you're set on the computer, then use a photo hosting site, like Photo Bucket.

He works at the Premium Aquarium, so he doesn't get much closer

Our faithful Vice Prez., BadxGillen, has moved countless systems. He's helped me move twice, the last including a couple 75s. He actually did that the night after moving a 180, I believe. Hopefully he'll chime in with some specifics. The more coral you have, the tougher it is. The trick is to use as many buckets as possible. As you fill up buckets with coral and rock, you may need to add some extra salt water into the display to make sure you don't run out of water. I also used large Styrofoam and rubber maids. Have as much salt water made up at the other location as possible. Maybe 50-100 gallons or so, depending on how much you take in the buckets. In my recent move, I didn't have extra water made up so I had to do it once we arrived. It made for extra complications, but we managed. Do your best to keep temperature where it needs to be. You can also bag up coral like you were shipping them. That's a great way, but it takes a lot longer with a bunch of coral. I'm not certain, but as I understand it, the sand issues is because when moving (whether you scoop it out or keep it in) the sand gets all stirred up and it can release phosphates and all the bacteria can/will die off, polluting the tank.

Chain cost about 30 cents a foot at Home Depot. I used little eye bolts for the roof.

The colored cups are just to catch the ball. The actual fish are in that gray holding tank towards the bottom of the picture. I didn't see anyone win, but I imagine they just bag one up and give you one of those little half gallon containers.

This is a super generous offer from you. I'd gladly get involved if I can. What'd you need to know? Here's a couple quick cell phone pics of some stuff I have. Nothing super crazy, but they're growing. Thanks either way!

What food are you feeding? Try live or frozen. Have you tested parameters? That's always the first thing to check.

I'm just wondering when you're going to host a meeting...

So I decided to bust out my old pH controller and I ordered some calibration fluid and new probe. Well, I ordered 7 and 10, but it turns out my controller also requires 4 to calibrate. Does anyone have any 4 pH solution they wouldn't mind passing along? I know sometimes folks buy it in a bigger bottles, so I'm throwing it out there. I just don't want to have to put another order in. Thanks all!

I totally agree. Just gets things operating consistently and start adding coral. Regarding your Ecotechs, there are several website online that people use to post up their graphs. I guess I'd just look at someone's tank with excellent looking coral, assess the height of the unit, use their graph, and go from there. It's not a perfect science, but it will allow you to start somewhere.

Isn't the Petco sale going on now? Buy a 20, install some baffles, and bam!

Pm sent...firsties

There is no push/pull with the refugium. And more importantly, you can never just use two pumps in opposite directions. The flow will never match. What Chris was saying was that you need to have the 40 breeder drilled. When you pump water into the refugium, it will fill up, then flow into the drilled tubes and gravity will lead it into the sump. This of course is HIGHLY DEPENDENT on you positioning the refugium above the sump. Gravity is what moves the water from the refugium to the sump and the pump is what moves water from the sump to the refugium. There is a way to use overflow boxes to do the same thing, but it's not nearly as fool proof and takes an aqua lifter and some more tinkering. Save yourself so much time and just get the tank drilled. There are several members on the forum who would probably help you with it. Although I hear it's pretty easy, I've never done it myself.

Legit!

Not that I'm on the cycle police, but for anyone else reading, a spike in nitrates isn't the problem with an uncycled tank. It would be a spike in ammonia and/or nitrites. Although the latter is not as detrimental in marine systems versus fresh. Either way, you seem to have it covered with the bottled bacteria.

Be careful adding too much epsom salt. Magnesium sulfate dosing will increase your levels of sulfate without the correct balance of chloride. That is why you need to dose magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride in proper ratios.

Come up!

Awesome work! That thing looks well thought out and put together.

Food will work. You can also dose with straight ammonia. You just need to keep a steady ammonia source in the tank to help the bacteria proliferate. If dosing ammonia, you want to be sure and not go higher than 3 or 4 ppm because the ammonia will actually start working as an antiseptic and kill bacteria....which you obviously would not want.

I would imagine it could be precipitate forming because of heat and possibly too high of levels. Although, I don't think that precipitate is usually sticky. Did you add water to a pile of salt or did you add the salt to the bucket full of water? The former would cause precipitation issues due to extremely high levels of calcium carbonate.

I'm cruising from Salem into Corvallis and back. I can bring you a brute can. PM'd you my number