is everyone on vacation

[spshead]

this forum has been dead. does anyone have any questions ideas or concerns? or is everyones reef tank inperfect condition:D

[mylittleocean]

Mine is a little less salty today after leaving the FW top off on all day! :(
Salinity is at 1.020. I think I will just let evaporation tak care of bringing it back up slowly.
So mine is NOT in perfect working order. But thanks for asking. :rolleyes:

Anyone else having a bad day?

Come on.... make me feel better.

[mylittleocean]

I did order a Neptune Aquacontroller Jr today. I cant wait until it gets here! :beer:
I will be controlling my Calcium Reactor and chiller (hopefully soon) with it. Maybe lights and other things too.

[spshead]

i think i finally dialed in my etss skimmer. oh wait i am dreaming lol

[jake2045]

working on collecting equipment( controller, tank, and reg.) for a calcium reactor and watching tank temps. I may need to get a chiller.

[GGGREGGG]

HAIR ALGAE

[spshead]

NEED HERMIT CRABS

[GGGREGGG]

hahaha, i wish it was that easy :) i've got a ton of hermits in there already; zebra's, blue-legs, dwarf red tips, and scarlets. 4 emeralds as well, plus 2 sally light foots. i am thinkin about buyin about 100 snails and throwin them in there though.... some astreas and some nassarious or ceriths.

[spshead]

or cerith and margarita. did you see my other post on your problem

[The Shrimp X]

good news, my dad orderd my new 75 gallon pre drilled tank at fish Safari (by far best prices i have seen on tanks) for my B'day. I am still saving up for my lights (6-48" T5 Teklight) but i cant wait, :D oh and my pistol finally met/befriended my wheelers goby
(to bad i wont have a sand bed as i am going BB starboard on my new tank so i will have to find them, and my pair of scooter blennies a new home, oh and last for the good news, it was my B'day yesterday so i will be getting more money to put twards my new tank (didnt mean this in a greedy way)




but for the bad news, I still have ALOT OF HAIR ALGEA, i tried buying more astrea snails but out of the 6 i bought only 2 made it threw the night, i also bought cerith which do an awsomejob, and my hydrometer is'nt working so i have to go get a new one, and for my final problem when i went to Fish Safari last saturday i think it was i had one intension, getting the squamosa clam they had, but i was sad to find that it was almost fully dead, just a tiny peice of mantle left in the widley open shell.

[mylittleocean]

I have a 6' x 2' piece of starboard that I was going to use in my reef but never got around to putting it in. All the rock and corals are in and I dont think I will ever add it. Not that you would know it now as my bottom glass is completely covered with pink coralline. :D
If you would like it let me know. I can even cut it down to size for you, just give me the inside measurements.

Jeff

[The Shrimp X]

well thats awsome!!!! I will have to wait till i get the tank though because of the over flow i need to get complete measurements, how much would you want though?

[tangface]

actually i was on vacation. i took this deep water reef diving expedition in my own tank:D

[lmattix]

I am here. It's getting warm and my tank temperature is going up. When I started last august I only had 260 w of PC and a mag 7 in the sump. Now with 760 w (with 2-250 w MH) of lighting, a U.V., the mag 7, a Euro Reef CS 6-2+, and 5 powerheads, my temp is already up to nearly 84. I think I need a chiller. I am looking for a quiet one, maybe a 1/5 to 1/4 Hp. Anyone have any ideas?

BTW. I saw a really great tank this week at Jacob30's place. He has mostly sps and lps in a clean 110 g acrylic with black stand and canopy. The whole thing is lit with 20K 250w MH and it really glows. All the live rock is covered with a deep purple coraline algae (and the 20K's really bring it out). No hair algae, bubble, or cyano in sight. It's like a well manicured garden in a royal court compared to my "wildflower garden". It is Awsome. You have got to see it.

[waterlily]

I'm here. Work has been busy lately. Seems like all of the strange cases come in at the same time. Now we have docs wanting their blood washed for surgery, had two big teratomas in the OR (one didn't make it), and have a case next week which might require a ton of blood if they nick the aorta trying to take the tumor out. FUN!!! Plus there's a girl who gets her entire plasma volume exchanged every day.

I'm busy getting my neighbors geared up for the public hearings for the insane high school rezoning.

My tank is looking pretty good except the air algae (looks like it's probably cyano from what I see under the microscope). Still baffled as to why I have it when my phosphates and nitrates are zero. The fish are happy. The system is working well. Basically right now I'm not working on the system, just enjoying the fruits of my labors. I could use more corals, but will work on that as money permits.

David - congrats on the new tank! Sounds like fun!

Imattix - care to post some pics? I also have a 75 gallon tank with 20 gallon sump and would like to see yours.

[lmattix]

mylittle ocean: Do you have fans in (over) your sump? Yesterday my tank temperature went up to 87, so last night I added a clip-on fan from Target to it. I set it to come on when the temperature reached 82.5 and to go off when it dropped to 81.5 (using an Aquacontroller II). Today I am estatic. Even with my 2-250 w MH running the temperature went up to 82.5 and leveled off there. Last night right after I installed the fan, it went down to 81.5 and leveled off there. I may not need a chiller afterall. The ambient temperature of the room was 79-80. Without the fan the tank temperature was always about 6-8 degrees above ambient. I read about it on other RC threads, but really did not believe a simple fan could work so well. The true test will be when it gets hotter outside and ambient inside is up to 85 or something.

I have also read about people who install fans in their canopy to blow down on the tank (also cool by evaporation). I am afraid to try that since I don't have anything between my MH bulbs and the water. Afraid cold water will splash up on the hot bulbs and "boom".

Waterlily: I will try to take some pictures of my tank. I have not had much luck with my digital camera. Strangely, I tried with the camera in my cell phone and it works better. I'll try that.

[jacob30]

Hello everyone,

I just ordered my Aquacontroller III pro (with my wifes blessing of course) and am very excited to try it out. I travel a lot and the remote monitoring and controlling feature will be very nice. I will let you know how the gadget works.

lmattix thanks for the kind words! I hope all the frags are doing well. Please PM me and let me know how they are doing.

I am waiting on a Barr aquatic kalk reactor. Hopefully it arrives next week.

I keep telling my wife that the madness will end soon, but she just laughs at me (yes I will be upgrading my skimmer next).

Jacob

[mylittleocean]

I just hooked up my AcquacontrollerJr tonight. Its great once you get past the programming. I didnt go for the Pro (budget restraints) but the Jr will do everything I need. The Jr. will not do the AquaNotes (computer), ORP and DO. It will do everything else.
I am glad I got it just wish I had done it a little sooner. Actually it was not a bad price. I ordered from http://www.neptunesys.com/

[mylittleocean]

Jacob.
Why are you getting a Kalk reactor? Is the Calcium reactor not keeping up?

[The Shrimp X]

well, it turns out that Leroy could not get a 75 gallon AGA pre drilled tank for me becasue they do not drill the corners for the 75 anymore (i wanted to have 1 right corner overflow, right side for easier access).

SO instead i will be getting a 90 gallon AGA pre (right corner) drilled tank lol.

[jacob30]

I am getting the kalk reactor to raise my night time Ph. Just running the calcium reactor I was getting a Ph of 7.8 at night. I have been dripping kalk at night and the Ph has held nicely at 8.4 but it is a PITA to mix every few days. This will also be used for 1/2 of the auto topoff at night.

I almost went with the Jr. but since I am gone a lot decided the ACIII would ultimately work better for me. Hopefully it is easy to get it running on the web.

[Ixthys]

I am waiting on my Calcium Reactor from Barr.

This week I'll be setting up the skimmer and Kalc chamber from MRC.

Will be drilling the side of a 120g as well...wish me luck!

[The Shrimp X]

OMG!!! i have noticed that everytime i have gooten new snails especially the astreas they cant stick to the glass after i acclimate them. So besideds that i new that my hydrometer was off a little, and every time i top off my water level i switch off one using salt water, then the next 2 times i use Ro from Scales and tales, well lately when i checked the hydrometer it said my salinity was low so i only used salt water and got it up to 1.023, thats when i had gone to get astreas and now all the astreas i bought (this was all last week) died. SO im like what up here, then my MOntiporas started to have vey little polyp extension. So i threw out my hydrometer and today i went to Scales and Tales bought a new Hydrometer, had them test there water then use the hydrometer i bought and make sure it was accurate. after we found out that that one was off they went and opended a new one and it was right on, so i also bought 5 gallons of premixed salt water, and 5 gallon of RO water.


Now heres the scarey part, i got done teasting my waters salinity, and its was at 1.032!!!!!!! so i slowly took out 1 gallon of my water added 1 gallon of RO water, waited like 15 minutes for it to mix around, tested and my water was at 1.031, so i did this over like 3 times and now my water is at 1.029, so i am waiting a while and doing this till my water gets to 1.023. Man i feel very stupid, do you guys think this is why my SPS and snails wernt doing so hot?

also any one now what Scales in Tales RO water is as far as TDS and PPM? So i know that this is not what caused my algea bloom in the first place?

[jake2045]

and every time i top off my water level i switch off one using salt water, then the next 2 times i use Ro from Scales and tales

Are you using salt water to top? I only use ro/di to top off.I'm thinking if you are using salt water to top off your, salinity will continue to raise!The salt will stay in the water as it evaps.

[The Shrimp X]

no, i use to top off with Saltwater ever so offten, but then my hydrometer said that my salinity was low, so i did top off with saltwater until my hydrometer read 1.023. Once it read 1.023, this stuff started happening so i through out my hydrometer and got a new one that was presise, and it read that my salinity was 1.033, so that is what my water really was, i have taken out 5 gallon total and replaced it with 5 gallon of RO water, my tank is at 1.027 right now, a big improvement but its not enough. Distilled water is just as good as RO, am i correct? Just want to make sure because my parents do not want to drive back to get more RO, when i can go to Food lion and get some Distilled water?

[Country Boy]

1.027 is rediculouse... That is high...stay under 1.025 if you can.... and above 1.021 I would definatly invest in a Refracto... before you kill everything with your HIGH salinity

[The Shrimp X]

I KNOW THAT IT IS HIGHT IT WAS AT 1.033!!!! AND I WAS ABLE TO BRING IT DOWN TO 1.027!!! Thats a big improvement, but i cannnot do this quickly, the quick change in salinity is what will kill all my fish, my fish have gooten use to this due to it has probibly beeen this high for a month or 2, so I AM TRYING TO LOWER IT, BUT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT CANT GO TO QUICKLY OR YES IT WILL KILL MY FISH. I do plan on purchasing a refractometer but i have to wait, i am upgrading to a 90 gallon tank in about a month and thats one of the new gagets and Gizmos im gonna get.

[jake2045]

David, I agree take it slow,let us know how it turns out.

[The Shrimp X]

well around 9 last night i changed 3 gallons of salt water out for 3 gallon of distilled, now its 1.026. Later today im going to Fish Safari so iwill be able to pick up more RO water. I have noticed my fish have been a little more active, i also noticed that over night the Hair Algea did not grow any, and some of it is starting to get brown colored. I think the good algeas are coming back, lol, yay for me.lol.

Ok i know alot of you guys/Girls, (lol), have 75 gallon tanks, For those of you who have 75 gallon tanks that have overflows, and dont have closed loops, what size pumps do you use? What kind? And how many?

[spshead]

i would use a mag 12 and put a ball valve between it and the tank. this way you can increase or decrese your flow as you want

[The Shrimp X]

well i just took 3 gallons of saltwater out and put 3 gallons of distilled in, and now my water is at 1.023. YAY!!!!

Hopefully i will start to notice a diffrence in the one montipora that hasnt shown any polyp extension today, all my other SPS corals are fine, except for the one orange montipora digitata.