Willapa
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Posts posted by Willapa
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Yes but I think the Fritz RPM might be cheaper and already mixed. How much you dose each day and what size tank?
Never tried the fritz 2 part. Dissolving the ESV isn't necessarily hard, just takes a few days. So if you run out, don't expect to use your new shipment the day it comes in the mail. I dose about 60 ml in a pretty packed 50 gallon frag tank with LPS and SPS. Have quite a bit of rock tucked away with and lots of coralline. Coralline really sucks up a lot of 2 part. It's weird though, I've seen some other really full tanks that just don't use much and others that use a ton. It seems kinda mysterious sometimes. Your tank will be its own unique number and hard to compare. The big thing is to watch for is precipitation. I coated an old tank of mine with precipitation and was a pain to get off. For me, I dose right at a power head in the display or at the entrance to the overflow box. Lots of people dose in the sump and don't have issues, but never worked for me. You could put a powerhead in a chamber and dose there I suppose. Sodium carbonate can spike the ph locally and best to do in small increments in a high flow area. I dose every hour in small increments for about 18 hours over the lights off period to keep ph up at night. Dose the calcium during the day in 2 doses. Probably overkill, but I have pretty high alk and Ca and have no precipitation whatsoever and levels stay pretty stable. I rarely have to clean pumps and things. I use the BRS 1.1ml/min pumps hooked to Apex. I test the alk every couple of days and rarely test calcium. I just make sure to dose equal parts of the Ca supplement and levels are always spot on. Supposedly ESV has magnesium mixed in and was told you still need to add, but I haven't added magnesium in years and it stays in check.
Overall I like ESV but it's not cheap. I just have terrible luck with precipitation of the BRS 2 Part, but others love it. But I've always dosed quite a bit for a small tank and may cause some of my issues.
Just start dosing and testing and adding and tweaking every few days. Just try not to jigger with the dosage everyday or you'll start chasing your tail. Once it's dialed in, it should stay rock solid for months without many changes. Except recently my phosphate shot up to .24 unexpectedly I think due to dosing fluconozole and alk shot up.
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I use ESV and bought the 5 gallon buckets of concentrate instead of the 1 gallon of concentrate from BRS. Hopefully that is what you purchased. The savings have been huge. Took a while to get the 5 gallons of concentrate to dissolve though.
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[emoji44] I don't think that is called creep anymore. You got a full on saltwater wedgie!
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I thought that was what duck tape was for.....
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Ok, I'll just leave it as is and leak test. If I had known better, I would have used the right stuff, but it's a PIA to replace since I have a gazillion of other fittings glued on downstream already. Just hope for no leaks!
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On a closed loop I'm plumbing, a couple of the bulkheads I used were ABS slip type. I just glued PVC directly into them with standard clear PVC cement using primer beforehand. It seemed to set up just fine but haven't leak tested yet. Should I be worried about these leaking? Didn't even think about them being different materials and maybe needing a special solvent.
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I have one.. that big white plastic guy, it is Chris's but I don't think he has room for it. Its around 120 gallons total.
Its sitting on my back porch under the deck, by the fish room door. Just take it..... PLEASE.
I'll take it! Thanks for offering it up and thanks to Chris for following up with me saying it was ok for you to be loaning out his stuff! I'll get it back to him when I'm done. I'll try and grab it this weekend.
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I'll be doing a tank transfer hopefully over the holidays and need something to house fish and corals for a few days.
Hoping for something 100-150 gallons.
I live in N Portland.
Thanks in advance.
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building dutch oven now....
you coming over tomorrow?
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It's my daughters second bday tomorrow so got my hands full. I'd like to see your shop! Also need some more of those micron floss socks!
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Any 3 story fire breathing monsters in the ad? Between that natural light and all of the high octane gas fumes, you'll be lovin it.
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Oh, and sexy plumbing by the way. You must leave the doors open and admire it.
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I like that quick connect attached to the braided vinyl in the second pic. Where did you score that?
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Anyone order from them? I ordered a bunch on schedule 80 union ball valves a couple of years back and they still work great with constant use. The only one that started to stick a bit was the one hooked up to a reactor that stays barely opened and got calcified. But took almost 2 years before needing a cleaning. The ones used routinely for on off switching have no issues at all. I'm sure the cepex ones are great but can't spend $25 a pop. For comparison, a 1" one from PVC online is $15. I used these on my manifold.
I'm currently plumbing a closed loop and didn't want these bulky ones, so tried their "compact deluxe" ball valves and they turn really well and only $5 for a 1". That's less expensive than the low bin ones at Lowe's.
I did splurge on a 1" Spears gate valve for a bean overflow. They had these for $30. The shipping can get you so you have to order quite a few things to make it worth it. They also have a ton of obscure PVC parts. I wish I would have added in a check valve for my return line in my order but didn't think about it.
Cheers, Trevor
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I have 3 gen4 xr30 with the aquatic life t5 fixture and it awesome They are definitely Par monsters depending on height of fixture and intensity of Radions
What T5 combo do you run with this?
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Tank is looking great! I bet those corals will enjoy that influx of fish poop. How did you keep nutrient levels up while they were in QT?
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You'd have to buy Novus by the 50 gallon drum to get that thing clear!
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Update here: got a new pH probe in yesterday and things are back in check. Just got another neptune probe.....figured if it lasted 4 years, might as well try another one. Picked up a new temp probe while I was at it.
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I just love watching algae melt away! The H2O2 eventually turns the coralline white, but it comes right back.
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Yep, definitely bryopsis. I've had issues with it until the magical fluconozole treatment was discovered. But.....I have it return after treating with fluconozole but not for months. BRS sales it now and is much cheaper. I run the treatment for a long time and follow all the rules laid out in the R2R thread, but comes back anyway.
I would definitely try the H2O2 treatment mentioned above first if it's only on that frag. I dip in 1:4 H2O2 to tank water. Use the 3% peroxide that you get over the counter. I dip for 4 minutes and rinse in fresh salt water. This usually takes care of it. Haven't killed anything yet!
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Uhh, who/what/where is the bloom you refer to?
https://www.bloomgardensupply.com
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I use food grade vinyl tubing from hydroponic stores. it is flexible and usually doesn't kink too much. plus its black so it doesn't grow algae in it.
If you go to bloom, tell them you are buying it on the devils lettuce or kilowatt account. we have a wholesale plus 10% account.
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Cool, thanks man! I'm sure I could pick up some other things too!
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The Apex is programmed to run one pump on the DOS to drain 1.5 gallons of water from the sump between 9am - 10:30am through the black tubing into the utility sink. Then at 10:30am - noon the other DOS pump adds 1.5 gallons of new saltwater back to the sump through the orange tubing from the 75 gallon storage tank on the left. During this whole time, the Apex has the ATO pump disabled so it doesn't try to top off the missing water. The ATO pump is located inside the 75 gallon RO/DI tank on the right in that photo and feeds fresh water through the blue tubing.
I have optical sensors in each of the 75 gallon storage tanks so the Apex can alert me when either one is low. It will disable the auto water change if there is insufficient saltwater to complete the cycle.
During the water change process the water level in my sump return chamber drops about 3 inches, but there's still plenty of water for the return pump to run.
Oh gotcha. Just small, frequent changes. I'll check it out, thanks!
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I set up my system from day one with 1/4" tubing inside a conduit running from my sump through the wall to my mixing station in the garage for automated water changes and ATO. That was probably the smartest thing I did in my whole setup. Aside from when I first filled my tank and did a 100% water change after cycling, I've never needed to drag a hose or buckets into the house.
You use that Apex dosing pump for the water changes? How does that work, does it feed fresh saltwater as it empties the tank? Do you have to change more than you normally would since the freshwater is getting diluted with tank water as it's running? Yea, I would love to kiss buckets goodbye!
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Thanks! I'll try those ideas. Part of me is leaning towards running a few permanent pex lines between the water station and tank. One for fresh saltwater, one for top off, and another hooked to my manifold for emptying tank water. Sure would eliminate dragging buckets around.
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My least favorite part of a build
in General Discussion
Posted
That's pretty cool! The epoxy and cement seems to be pretty solid to hold that cantilever out there like that. Does the hydraulic cement or marco cement work on wet live rock?
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