Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread

[jnarowe]

yeah, I was just kidding Micki. didn't mean to offend you. I have low through-put on my fuge, but also have a powerhead to keep the macro from getting filled with detritus.

[thedude15810]

Marc I've been using those new twisty compact flourescent bulbs over refugiums with great success recently. GE and Sylvania both make a 6500k version and 3 bulbs costs less than $10. They really grow algae better then anything else I've tried.

John

PS: Lowe's carries them, Home Depot does not

[Kentanner11]

Micki, Jnarowe & Marc -
after reading the above posts about low, medium & high flow what kind of GPH (approximately) would each be?

[jnarowe]

we dont' really know! I figure I am putting about 250 gph through my fuge but churning another 800 gph with the powerhead. But keep in mind I have a 50 g Rubbermaid that is quite flat and long. Much different than most fuges.

[Kentanner11]

/\ Would you classify that as high, medium or low?

[jnarowe]

throughput is low. churning is about medium for my sized fuge I would think. Marc is right though, with not enough flow, your chaeto will turn into filter floss and get mucked up with detritus among other things.

It will really take some experimenting to get it right. What I did knowing this, was to put an gate valve on my input to the fuge. That way I can set it at whatever flow I want. I would recommend this to anyone managing flow to a secondary tank.

[Kentanner11]

The reason why I ask is because the only way for me to have a decent sized fuge is to do a display fuge next to my display tank sharing the sump. So I would buy a separate return pump for my fuge bc/ my current pump is not strong enough for both tanks. I would like to get the right sized pump.

[jnarowe]

or you could get one size up so that you could T off and send some flow back into the sump. Then you could set the flow into the fuge at whatever turns out to work well.

[Kentanner11]

yea thats also what I was thinking.

[bohlke]

Thats what I do as well, I have seen good growth with both low and high flow but I prefer the higher flow as it keeps the gunk out of the macro algae.

[Micki]

Originally posted by Kentanner11
Micki, Jnarowe & Marc -
after reading the above posts about low, medium & high flow what kind of GPH (approximately) would each be?

Good question! I really don't kow the answer for mine. I have one pump running my entire system. I have seperate pumps for the phosban and carbon reactors but for over all flow including the sump and fuge I only use one pump.

[melev]

Mine was low flow until I added the powerhead. It is still a little less than medium though. Okay, it is still low flow.

The way the plumbing runs to the refugium, the water flows on a slight decline straight to the skimmer section. Any water that falls down the Tee is what goes into the refugium, and the gate valve I installed ended up being pointless.

In this very cluttered shot, the red handle is the gate valve.



Water tends to follow the path of least resistance, so it moves straight far more easily than dropping down into the refugium.



When I had my 55g running, the refugium was 5g in size and the flow through it was around 45 to 55gph. On the 29g, the sump was mostly refugium, and the return pump moved about 300gph so that was how much flow moved through a 14g volume.

I have no idea how many gallons move through the refugium under my reef, but it is very steady. I guess next time I do a water change, I'll pump water out of the refugium and then time how long it takes to refill x amount of inches to figure out the current flow / refill rate.

[melev]

On Wednesday evening, we flew in a speaker for the club members to learn from. His name is Mitch Carl, and he's from the Omaha Zoo. His presentation about Project SECORE was very interesting, and he had tons of pictures for us to see. Definitely an excellent speaker as he's fun as well as knowledgeable on this topic.

I found this article about him that came out this month that covers the same topic, so you can get an idea about SECORE:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science...nks/index.html

We had 150 people attend, including Eric Borneman






Our meet took place at the Dallas World Aquarium, which is a beautiful place with lots of 1500g tanks. The building is three stories with a bunch of other animals, but that section was closed off for the evening.

After the presentation, we wandered around to see the tanks, and I shot two videos. They aren't big, but you might enjoy them.

Feeding the Octopus - Please Right Click & Save As to your computer to view it - 14 megs

A fish that walks - Please Right Click & Save As to your computer to view it - 6 megs

[bohlke]

Originally posted by melev
On Wednesday evening, we flew in a speaker for the club members to learn from. His name is Mitch Carl, and he's from the Omaha Zoo. His presentation about Project SECORE was very interesting, and he had tons of pictures for us to see. Definitely an excellent speaker as he's fun as well as knowledgeable on this topic.

I found this article about him that came out this month that covers the same topic, so you can get an idea about SECORE:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science...nks/index.html

We had 150 people attend, including Eric Borneman






Our meet took place at the Dallas World Aquarium, which is a beautiful place with lots of 1500g tanks. The building is three stories with a bunch of other animals, but that section was closed off for the evening.

After the presentation, we wandered around to see the tanks, and I shot two videos. They aren't big, but you might enjoy them.

Feeding the Octopus - Please Right Click & Save As to your computer to view it - 14 megs

A fish that walks - Please Right Click & Save As to your computer to view it - 6 megs

Mitch is a bit of a celeb around here:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pag...u_sid=10221850

[melev]

Hey, that's the exact same article as the one I linked. And I can totally understand why he'd be popular. He's very easy to speak with and looks at these corals from a hobbyist perspective.

[WeMa]

Originally posted by melev
Today as I was cleaning the reef, my suncorals sensed food for some reason and opened up several hours earlier than expected.

your sun corals look amazing, very nice...you need a pic of your duncan here now too...

[bohlke]

Originally posted by melev
Hey, that's the exact same article as the one I linked. And I can totally understand why he'd be popular. He's very easy to speak with and looks at these corals from a hobbyist perspective.

oops I missed that link in the middle.....sorry for the double link

[melev]

I figured I'd post a picture of the Duncan when it is in the actual tank. This isn't even the right thread, Wes.

[Kentanner11]

Hey marc did you make the podium that they are using in the 2nd pic?

[melev]

No, but people did take the time out of their busy evening to pester me about that.

[Kentanner11]

nice.