The inwall 380 starfire reborn

[Sparkss]

here is another thread that got a custom skimmer from the same place :

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...96#post9267396

And this one also :

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...26#post8756626

[jnarowe]

Make some room dude...With your size system, I can't imagine doing it any other way. The only guys I have ever seen do it without are LFS owners, and I think they are all crazy with the hoses going all over.

[jnarowe]

Scott needs help with his web site!

[Sparkss]

Well, it is a realatively new site... one I am sure will gain some polish to it when Scott has the time (you know... after he finishes our skimmer ).

As for WCs.. I am not a big proponent of them.. here are the reasons that read for why we should do them.. whether it be 10%, 20%, etc :

1. Replenishes trace minerals and so forth

While I agree with this to a certain degree, I feel that firstly, only changing 20% out would have a minimal affect on the overal level of the trace elements. And it would seem easier to just replace the missing elements (but not as profitable for the salt companies). Some of it gets put back through the calcium reactor anyways.

2. Nutrient export

There are other ways to achieve this. Large skimmers, maintained refugiums with macro algae (regularly harvested), Large skimmers, additives that make certain nutrients more skimmable, Large skimmers (ok, so I listed large skimmers a couple of times... can you tell that I feel that they are an integral part of a good reef system ? ), GAC, RowaPhos, etc. While a WC is a great, quick, way to export nutrients, again it only impacts 20% of the built up nutrients.. so if the nitrates are at 40 ppm, a 20% WC would bring them down to 32 ppm.. not really a great leap forward there. Using a something like a DSB/RDSB, or other nitrate consuming bacteria (there is some nitrate reduction product that comtains this bacteria in a bottle, that has been reported to be quite successful). The same thing goes for phosphates.

3. Heavy metal build up export

This one is great... exporting something other than nutrients, that has built up in our systems.. since they are closed systems, I still have not heard where these metals come from and how they build up/increase to where they need to be manually exported.. I would just say stop adding whatever is adding the heavy metals.

Those are the 3 main bullet points I have seen for advocating WCs... and my responses to each one.. so come on.. flame me for my beliefs

P.S. I would still like to have a WC sump setup... I just like the concept. And if it were easier to do a WC I would probably do them more often.. even though I do stand by my comments above.

[jnarowe]

First off, although I am a big fan of refugiums, you would need an extremely large one to do much good. Like equal to or larger than your display...I still have one and I enjoy it, but as far as exporting phophate and nitrate, I doubt it is on par with what my system produces.

Personally I like to add trace elements in a more natural form, ie: salt. I am always skeptical of additives, and in particular the consistency of them from batch to batch. Of course I also test my salt before it goes in the tank.

So let's discuss the respiratory process on a layman's level ('cause that's all I got). If you stay in a closed room like a closet for an extended period of time, how is your respiratory system affected? What happens if there is flame in the room? Burns up the oxygen even faster right? So what I am getting at is that our systems ARE closed, and that we need to change the "air" out periodically to keep our friends healthy.

I am even an advocate of using different salts from time-to-time because I think using just one kind will slowly skew the available minerals in the water.

That all said, there are reef keepers that don't do water changes and they have healthy sysems. I just don't want to press my luck!

[tristanbloor]

i like your thinking jnarowe, great advice! although i suppose in some aspects Sparkss could be correct, however I am a strong supporting of periodic water changes and support your thinking jnarowe. sorry to change topic, bak to the tank!
PICS!!!!! UPDATESS!!!!

[jnarowe]

And Tom, there is one more interesting issue I think about a lot. If I could just keep up with my aiptasia I would be really happy, but it is so hard to attack them...the same goes for waterborne bugs. There are so many things in our water at a microscopic level that want to affect our fish and corals. And there are devices to remove them like floss, and devices to kill them like UV, but I feel more comfortable pouring them down the drain.

[Sparkss]

I agree with you about pouring the pests down the drain

As for WCs, to be honest, I would like to do them more often, and if I can design a system that allows for that to be performed easily then I will. While I still stand by my previous statements/beliefs, I do look at a WC similar to opening a window in a stuffy room.. keeping the window closed won't necessarily harm the room's occupants, but the breath of fresh air from opening the winow is almost always welcomed


And you didn't go off topic Tris.. in fact I welcome your thoughts and opinions . There may be more pictures next week sometime.. right now I am not looking to spend too much time on the equiptment, since the new skimmer is on the horizon (and I would need to redo whatever temporary setups I put into place before it gets here anyways). And with the one Vortec down (update below), we are battling the tank maturity/cyano bloom, so I am not so inclined to take a bunch more pictures just yet , but I may change my position on that and take some individual coral picts this weekend, if I get the time

Vortec update :

It was IDed as a bad power supply and a replacement is on it's way, it should arrive next Wednesday (according to the UPS tracking info). The stalling issues when on BB appear to be related to the BB unit itself. I moved the stalled pump over to the second BB unit and the pump ran all night without incident (and is still running). So I will be investigating the indicated BB and opening a separate trouble ticket with IceCap about it shortly. But since that does not directly impact the daily operation of our tank or circulation, I have deprioritized those investiagtive efforts.

[jnarowe]

yeah the whole BB issue still has me a bit confused. Particularly that they were promoting its use as a temporary controller and then when I got mine, the instructions clearly indicated that using it in that manner would be detrimental to the battery.

[strittmatter]

Thanks for the links that skimmer is very nice, maybe one day.

[Sparkss]

We had a top off incident (forgot and left the top off running, filling the sump.. over night).. managed to drop the salinity to around 1.024.. uugghh.. I hope nothing gets too stressed in our tank from that.. I really need to get that darned ATO set up.. *sigh*.

Stressed as I am out various tank topics, I decided to go to a happier place.. and took some picts of corals at lunch time today. I am hoping to get some IDs for these next couple of corals, since I have no idea what they are (or even where most of them came from, most all info lost in the tank migration chaos and confusion)

So any IDs on these would be appreacited

#1. (it is a very vibrant red/purple with blue hues.. almost glows, hard to capture in a pict though)



#2. (forgive the pict on this one.. it is just hard to get a good shot.. I was hoping to go more off of the shape than the color.. as with most, it looks alot better in person)



#3. (even worse than the previous one, but even harder to get a good shot.. it is an olive colored base with light blue tips... again I am hoping that the shape will help people ID it)



#4. (it is much more purple in person)

[Sparkss]

#5. (Not a great shot, mainly because it is at the back of the tank)




#6. (Just thick and hairy, although not quite "furry")




#7. (Not a great shot, it is furhter back and I cannot seem to get a good pict of it. Sort of some interesting highlight on it already though.. I am not really expecting to get an ID, not from this shot anyways)

[Sparkss]

Here are some that I don't need an ID for.. I just think they are neat so I wanted to post picts of them

Here is a cool granulosa (we just love the colors in this guy).



Here is a yuma baby that we scored in our travels over this past weekend

#5. (Not a great shot, mainly because it is at the back of the tank)




And our idaho grape that is finally starting to recover and color back up (it had a hard time with the tank move)

(Not a great shot, mainly because it is at the back of the tank and also at an agle through the glass.. a really bad combination, but the best I could manage at the time )

[jnarowe]

Hey Tom, what is that on the left side of the last pic?

OK, the other last pic!

[Sparkss]

Here are some cloeups of the ones we got from Warren up in SacTown . This first one just seems to glow nuclear from inside.. I had to manual focus because the auto-fous could not lock onto the deep, rich colors



Some other kewl one from his collection :







and this one has gotten some interesting coloration to it.. I can't really place my finger on what color to call it, but like the others, I like the contrast between the base and the polyps and also the poly's shape. And the color in the picture us pretty accurate for the coral.. it is almost a dark slate blue color, with maybe a hint of red/purple to it, overall (not highlights or hues)






I wouldn't mind a general ID/Genus on these, since they all appear to be the same type of coral, just different color morphs. We have had them for going on 4 months now, 1 + month of that in our new tank, so I am not really expecting their colors to change drastically from here on out.. but who knows ? . The first one just seems to get a deeper and richer green every time I check on it

[Sparkss]

Originally posted by jnarowe
Hey Tom, what is that on the left side of the last pic?

OK, the other last pic!

you mean pict #7 ? That is a gorgonian. Grows like a weed.. that is the photosynthetic gorg, aside from it's overall brown color it is pretty cool because it has large, intricate polyps that are like small feather dusters that it will grab food from the water column and pull it in.

[jnarowe]

nice. I totally want one of those. it does OK with your flow and light? And you don't feed it anything special? very cool.

[Sparkss]

nope.. nothing special at all.. and it is one tough bugger.. in our old tank it was too close to the hydnophora and would periodically get knocked over by a fish or what not and fall into the hydno (which is a particulaarly nasty LPS). That gorg lost anywhere from 2" - 5" off of each branch once every other month. Within a couple of days it would heal over and start growing again. Now that we have the room for good placement for it I wholly expect it to get quite large . I think we got it at an LFS for $15 or something.. they are typically not that expensive because, well, they are brown

[jnarowe]

I am gonna get one. Thanks for the input!

[Sparkss]

Just for you Jonathan




EDIT : Now the coral I am looking for is another pink jade.. to replace one that we lost to AEFWs last year grrrrrrr

[jnarowe]

It's awesome Tom.

[tacocat]

Originally posted by Sparkss
everyone
Why can't we get back to the happy topic of water change system options ? I really like the idea of a WC sump, like Hector pointed out... but don't have the room

A water change tank doesn't have to have traditional tank dimensions. It can be shaped like a drum or cylinder.

[Sparkss]

But no help on IDing the corals in the numbered picts ?

[jnarowe]

saw one of those gorgonians at the LFS today but it didn't look too hot. I told the owner that when he gets one in I would take it. He also had a nice crosshatch but a kept my wits about me and left it there!

[Sparkss]

crosshatch triggers are reef safe, at least that was my impression .

Well, we moved a few rocks around and the wife fragged a bunch of our zoas up and spread them around... so the area we opened up by moving the rockwork was quickly annexxed by the zoa garden

I will take some pictures tomorrow, after we pick up a few frags from Tim and a few zoas and a fish from Paul