milesmiles902

If you bring it to Bob Moore's Frag Swap, I will get some. They look really handy and I am going to throw one in my wallet for future use.

Whatever happens. I think a ride-share would be great. I have a 2001 Ford Escort, which can fit 3 passengers comfortably. I will be coming from Corvallis, Oregon and if anyone needs a ride let me know through PM.

If there is no one that needs a ride, I would love to meet in Portland and either offer to drive or pitch in for gas.

Thanks!

I watched this last night and it is an awesome video. He spoke of techniques I have never even heard of for the common hobbyist.

He has great wisdom and I would love to hear more informatiom.

I second the idea of asking him to speak at a monthly meeting.

You must have connections to the NSA. There is no other way.

Please count me in too.

BRS sells 5 gallon or smaller pails of soda ash and they have instructions for mixing up the solution, including amounts needed to increase the alkalinity of your tank volume.

I didn't know that. That's a good idea, I will try to go and find the BRS instructions online.

BTW I had a friend use a dose system and it went haywire and dosed his tank 30 oz when it was supposed to do 1 killed it all so what i do and works perfect i have a paper cup on a zip tie over the sump and i poked 2 tiny pine holes when you dose you want it to be slow.  I timed it and it takes 3 and half hours for my cup to empy nice drips. I have 3 cups i made and timed one is at 2 hours and another 1 hour thats to fast for me though. Just a thought for you.

Slow dosing is probably best. I tend to just use a syringe and slowly squirt it into my sump. A drip system is something I might try to figure out how to do.

Thanks! Yeah, I started dosing my aquarium and it seems to be maintaining alkalinity. I haven't measured to see a change in pH, but I think it is fine. Baking soda is what I will use next.

I think I might attempt baking soda for the next batch, but for now I am going to use sodium carbonate. It is very similar.

I just imagine that it would alter pH a little more than baking soda.

Hello everyone!

I went and bought a Red Sea Alkalinity Pro Test kit and have been using the alkalinity solution inside for a little bit, but since it is about to run out I want to make my own alkalinity solution. I have some ACS grade sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃) lying around that I want to use, rather than buying baking soda. I know it is dirt cheap, but I want to just use what I have.

I want to clarify my maths :P I am shooting for the same dKH as shown in the Randy Holmes Farley DIY alkalinity solution recipe #1.

The proposed dKH is 5,300 dKH (1900meq/L), which is what I am running the calculations off of, with a water volume of 1 gallon. The main reason is I am unfamiliar with meq/L...so...

meq/L × equivalent weight = mg/L

• 1900meq/L * 105.9888g/mol = 201,378.72 mg/L
• 201,378.72 mg/L * 1g/1000mg * 3.75L/1 gallon * 1gallon = 755 grams of sodium carbonate.

To me this seems reasonable because sodium is heavy and it should be more mass than what is in the Randy Holmes Farley DIY. I guess I could test the solution that is made, but I imagine it will be higher than the test kit can handle. I would have to dilute it, then sample it.

Any ideas?

That is a great video. It captures enough information to present a good argument. Thanks!

My corals can tell when the carbon is exhausted so I go by that test...Until there is one for allelopathic terpinoid saturation.

Organic scavenger resins can be used but they can be costly and their efficiency is questionable. 

 

I am always up for seeing more information on the subject so thanks to all who have chimed in so far.

Yeah...I don't think that is on the market. :P

Here was my thought process:

Chemical pump dispenser -> Liquid Dispenser -> Pump Dispenser local (search) -> Bed Bath and Beyond.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Pump+Dispenser+local&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

I don't know if they all would measure, but I think moving in the direction of soap or lotion dispensers isn't a bad idea. If you are willing to not do local, amazon is always a good option.

What are you using it for?

I used to run that setup too a few years back on my son's tank.  It is low cost and quite effective for the most part.  

 

Unfortunately the high voltage/amps running through the float switch eventually caused the float switch to fail and overflow the tank with freshwater.  It is much better to put low current through the float using a relay.  The stuff from autotopoff.com is great, apex is great, etc etc...

It happened. Be careful!! I went to my auto topoff smelling burnt plastic to find the pump melted from the inside-out . It was smelling of burnt plastic even though it was submerged in 6 inches of water. A relay is a better option.

I always thought this too, but after watching a video of someone actually testing it, I found out that what I thought was true was wrong.  The reactor and passive bag don't have to much of a difference, just a couple of hours or so if I remember right. Although the test did not go for days, as it only took the carbon hours to clear the containment. 

Could you link the video?

The craziest thing I find about activated carbon is that quite a lot of aquarist use it, but we still have nothing to test for. For either life-time of the carbon, or quantity to add.. It is has always been a rule of thumb and probably always will be. It's hilarious. Guess that is the beauty of the hobby. Sometimes you just know what's best. As goldenbasketreef said.

Is there alternatives to activated carbon?

That just looks amazing. You are doing a good build.

I have never seen a starfire tank in person. Now that the tank has rock in it, would you advise it to another person? It can be difficult to judge clarity with a camera.

Wow! Thanks all for the quick reply.

I have seen many larger copepods, but never this small. They have to be no more than 2 mm in length.

I'll keep it in mind that AEFW tend to live on tissue. It was just odd to only find them on the plugs with acros.

Hey everyone!

I might have a pest problem. To begin, there were two Acropora's in my tank that lasted a while and immediately died off. I know I had a bit of an alkalinity problem, but anything that was damaged came right back. After about 3 weeks of keeping the Acropora where they were (hoping they would come back), I decided to examine them up close. I found some bugs, that aren't on other pieces of coral. If I do a quick google search, they do somewhat look like other Acropora eating bugs. What should I do about them? There aren't any other Acropora in the tank right now, but some SPS, more LPS.

Have fun everyone! Wish I was able to make it :(

 

 

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Ditto. Sounds like a good event.

Great trip! I loved Venice except for all the mosquitos in the cabin that we had! Europe is awesome with all the old architecture.

If you have time, go check out the Murano Glass Factory. You'll like seeing the level of craftsmanship put into each individual hand crafted piece. It's pretty insane. 

Edit: Never-mind.

the drums will help but not a ton, there are lots of ways to cut down on heating. most of the ways you will see online are more for vegetable farming where the greenhouse has to be above freezing, not 80+degrees. but that being said if space allows any extra water volume will help stabilize night time temps.

 

regarding what types of corals the short answer is all of them. some do better in the winter some do better in the summer. many stony corals wont survive winter without supplemental light. I had about 80 cyphastrea start to bleach last month because they weren't getting enough light. put a halide on them and now they are fine. just because I get PAR levels of 200 on a nice sunny day, there are cloudy days where I get PAR readings of 20-30, get enough cloudy days in a row and corals start to go downhill. on the flip side things like mushrooms love this weather and look incredible. in the summer I have to put 4 layers of 20% shade cloth overt their tub just to keep them from dying, even with all that they still don't grow well.

I might try some evaporative cooling techniques. They seem to work for larger greenhouses, but use tons of water. I should start collecting rain water now. Haha.

Kyle, do they make photometers to turn lights on and off based off how much sun you are getting?

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some commercial products like that. I know you can do it with an arduino, which is something I might try. Just need to wire together some relays and get a PAR meter. I only have a lumens one right now and they correlate, but are not a true correlation.

Day: I lost track

So I wanted to get my greenhouse done by January, but because there were some set-backs it is not quite there, but i do have some cool progress.

My dad came by for the holidays and saw that the structure wasn't level and we tore it down. He was so right. We reused a lot of the material and I saved all the insulation for my new structure. I advise everyone to keep a level structure. It makes building so much easier and it really adds to the quality. Here is a picture after we took down the endwalls and built a new frame. He also said my structure was too heavy for what I wanted to do.

My dad really helped me build a level structure, then I added the rear end wall. After making a level structure you can see how off the bricks were from being level. If I want an aquarium in there, the ground better be close to level...or else.

I went and added some spring lock (I like to call it wiggle wire) to the structure. It is around the trim of the end walls and the base of the structure. I think it is a great product and would suggest it to any person building a greenhouse. I was able to easily install the plastic and remove it in a matter of seconds without ruining it.

Here is what it looks like up close. The stuff is cheap and re-usable. I spent probably 9 dollars per 6ft of the stuff. With the channel and wiggle wire included.

I went and added some plastic to the structure yesterday and installed my fan. I haven't cut the wiggle wire or plastic quite yet. The issue is with one person it is kind of hard to pull the plastic taught. So, I am going to wait to cut both of them when I find another person to help. I started doing the brick, but really felt like I could just do it later.

I went and installed a fan to blow a layer of air between the folded over piece of plastic. I have a regulator around, which I will probably use because the fan is too strong. The fan is 12watts, which adds up to ~4.50 per month if I ran it. Not too bad for what it does.

My favorite part of the whole system is I went and dug up a contraption I built during the summer. Originally it was going to be a weather station, but now it is going to be a greenhouse controller. Reloading all the firmware was worse than doing a software update on the international space station.

It measures temperature, humidity, relative pressure, lumens and calculates heat index  altitude. Then streams them live to my website: http://localdatacenter.org/

The arduino collects data, which goes to the raspberry pi and emits the data wirelessly to a web server every five minutes. The web server hosts the website and relays any incoming data. The case is a pelican case, which is semi-waterproof, but there is wires coming out which break the seal. it does some other neat stuff, but a lot of it still needs polishing. It measures lumens, rather than par, which is kind of a problem. **Note the current max/min values are a little off because it was in my room last night and was being turned off and on***

My next few goals: Lay out the brick and figure out what to do with the pond. I extended the pond probably another 6 ft and has a volume now of 300-500 gallons. I am not sure if I should add an opening into the greenhouse for the pond. I know I want to attempt to do some aquaponic/vertical grow towers inside the greenhouse and that would require piping from the pond. I just think it is going to let in too much cold.

Edit: Due to unplugging and replugging in the power for the raspberry pi. Data values might be inconsistent with true values because it doesn't want to restart with the same ports etc.. Its a work in progress.

Higher Thinking speaks the truth. Those corals look awesome!

Thanks. I was just curious what levels you were achieving with that type of dosing.

Dose should be the same every day. The goal is consistency and stability. You may have to once a month or every few months adjust it slightly by adding a little more Calcium or Alk.

Hand dosing is a daily ritual...when I feed the fish, I dose. so once a day, I spend 15 minutes with my reef. Oftentimes with a busy schedule, it's all the time I get with the tank! But you have to be diligent...missing a day isnt a huge deal, but things get compounded if you miss days...you have to make up for it! If you cannot remember to do it every day, seriously figure out a way to hook a Ca reactor up!

This is some good information. What is your normal Alk levels with dosing 4.5oz per day?

To allow us to compare, I am going to make a graph of what users answer to this question.

What do you test in your saltwater aquarium weekly?

I tried to find an embedded graph where users could click their answer, but I couldn't find it without leaving the forum.

My say: Alkalinity, pH. I haven't had a need to test calcium or magnesium weekly, quite yet. The once a week water changes help with most issues. I don't really have to worry about phosphates or nitrates with the bio-load and only test them periodically.