Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread - Page 23

JVHam · #**551** 08/03/2005, 09:18 AM

melev which tangs are you removing?

WILDTHING · #**552** 08/03/2005, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev

Phosphate .1

Thats GREAT !! Congrats

Can't wait to see the new stuff.

colleen

Knyght · #**553** 08/03/2005, 10:43 AM

New stuff!?!?!?! I`m still wanting some of the Old stuff!!!

Will it never end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

rjwilson37 · #**554** 08/03/2005, 10:56 AM

Mark, my tank made TOTM on Ultimate Reef, here is the link.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/

RGibson · #**555** 08/03/2005, 11:20 AM

Marc how many cups of rowaphos are you going to used in the phosban reactors?

melev · #**556** 08/03/2005, 12:21 PM

Eric & Jvham, the three Hippo tangs are going. Tucker (the smallest) is chewing on zoos and some SPS. The two yellow belly tangs are causing a little too much commotion and tend to splash the lights almost daily. I've had to replace light bulbs a couple of times because they were shattered. I need to build a trap and wait it out.

Colleen & Greg, I'll get some pictures taken later today.

Rj, congrats.

I read through the thread, and it appears to be me that you may have a typo or a mistaken identity. That one fish listed is not a Royal Gramma. I'm pretty sure it is in the damsel family.

RGibson, I'll measure it out and put enough for each reactor to handle 150g of water. Why? How much do you use?

Micki · #**557** 08/03/2005, 12:29 PM

Awww, you're getting rid of the hippos??? What are you doing with them?

melev · #**558** 08/03/2005, 12:44 PM

I'm sure someone in the club will be happy to care for them.

Micki · #**559** 08/03/2005, 12:46 PM

I'm sure, I think it would suck getting rid of them though...

rjwilson37 · #**560** 08/03/2005, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev
Rj, congrats. I read through the thread, and it appears to be me that you may have a typo or a mistaken identity. That one fish listed is not a Royal Gramma. I'm pretty sure it is in the damsel family.

Yep, I see that it is not a Royal Gramma, it is my Neon Blue Yellow Belly Damsel. I sent all the information to Craig and he set it up. I did not know the final was being posted until I saw it there. I will have to email him to fix it in that post. It is pretty cool to have a TOTM, maybe someday it may make it as a TOTM here at RC.

My hippo does the same, it will sometimes pick a soft coral patch and pick at them until there gone. Luckily it has not been often and it has been just a small patch or portion of a patch.

RGibson · #**561** 08/03/2005, 02:06 PM

West told me that he used 4 cups in that 800 gal tank of his so i used 1/4 cup in my 180 gal tank.

melev · #**562** 08/04/2005, 01:30 AM

Okay, you'd think with a 280g reef system, I'd have an ultra cool top off system set up. Well, I don't. I've tried a few things but never am satisfied. I've dumped in 5g of water once a day, I've used auto top off switches and containers, and dripped kalk from a bucket.

A few minutes ago, I was thinking how nice it would be to make a slight adaptation to my kalkwasser holding bucket, so the lid would sit on top and the tubing would be a little more secure.

What I did was drill a hole (3/16") just under the top lip of the bucket, and inserted a piece of bent rigid tubing into the hole. This piece of tubing came from Florida Aqua Farms from their phytoplankton kit. It reached down into this 6g (volume) Oceanic salt bucket, and stops short about 1" from the base of the bucket.

Then I added 6 gallons of RO/DI water, and 6 heaping spoons of kalkwasser powder (12 tsp worth). I mixed this with a Kent long handled scraper (the blade is removed) until it was in full suspension.

A piece of flexible tubing runs down into the sump, with a simple clothespin clamped down on the tubing to get it to drip.

Now here's the cool part. I pressed the lid down on the bucket, sealing it on all sides. Then I thought to myself, "There is no way the fluid will drip out because it is a total vacuum..." and opened up the lid all the way around the bucket so it doesn't seal tight but keeps dust from landing in the kalkwasser.

As I looked at the tubing, I saw it was dripping of its own accord. I hadn't taken the time to suck in the end of the tubing to start a siphon, and was surprised. Then I realized that when I pressed the lid down on the bucket, it pushed the kalkwasser up the tubing and basically primed it. Removing the lid allowed some air into the bucket and it just started dripping! How cool - a self-priming kalkwasser drip system.

The fact that the rigid tubing was pressed in through a tight hole makes the vacuum-start method work.

I do have an AquaLifter coming in from Premium Aquatics on Friday, and plan to make a larger resevoir using that pump to top off my tank while I attend MACNA for 4 days next month. But this was a pretty cool solution.

You'll note the bucket is stacked on a second bucket to get it high enough up over the sump to drip. If you copy this, just adjust what works best for your system.

AJP · #**563** 08/04/2005, 01:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev
I need to place the corals in their new spots, and will take pictures of them tomorrow. I hope they do well, and thrive!

Well enough you tease, where are the pics?

melev · #**564** 08/04/2005, 01:41 AM

Man, I just posted four very interesting pictures. What is it with you and corals? What's wrong with buckets and tubing?

AJP · #**565** 08/04/2005, 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev
Man, I just posted four very interesting pictures. What is it with you and corals? What's wrong with buckets and tubing?

Truth be told I really did like thr bucket post. I need to find some sort of top-off for my tank also. I have a 75 with a built in 25 gallon sump. Same footprint as a 120, with a 75 size display.

melev · #**566** 08/04/2005, 01:52 AM

You could try this container perhaps, if it fits. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. http://www.melevsreef.com/plumbing/auto_topoff.html

InsaneClownFish · #**567** 08/04/2005, 02:03 AM

Ingenious.

Buckets and tubes and Kalk...

OH MY!

Lunchbucket · #**568** 08/04/2005, 06:04 AM

you are the smartest man alive. and i'm being a smartarse right now too

nah pretty cool the bucket worked out that way

Lunchbucket

rjwilson37 · #**569** 08/04/2005, 06:35 AM

Yep, I have a real sophisticated top-off as well, it is my top-off and kalk drip.

Ehydo · #**570** 08/04/2005, 08:32 AM

I use this container http://www.petsmart.com/global/produ...=1123162208140

bought it at petsmart. make sure you take the wheels off.

bheron · #**571** 08/04/2005, 08:49 AM

marc - great idea!!! cool. anything with "self" added to it is always a good thing.

edit: wait, so now that I'm thinking about it more, are you saying this is not just a kalkwasser drip but also an auto topoff? are you saying you just run this drip at a rate to keep the water level consistent in your tank??

rjwilson37 · #**572** 08/04/2005, 09:58 AM

I poked two pin holes near the top of the bottle so it could breath a bit, otherwise the water would not drip. I adjust the dripping with the little plastic screw, so it drips like 1 drop every second or two.

Auto top-off's make me nervous, I hear so many things that have gone wrong with them and caused floding, NTTC, or even TTC.

Electrobes · #**573** 08/04/2005, 09:59 AM

Marc, you'll love the aqualifter. I have been using mine for about 8 months, and before that was a powerhead. The cool part is that I use a see-through measured 5g bucket from Lowes, a single-hole-punched lid (intake tubing of aqualifter goes through that hole), and of course both the aqualifter and float switch. The lid is always snapped tight so nothing gets into the bucket but it isn't air tight, so no vacuum problem.

I swear.. I don't know where I would be without this contraption.. oh God to think I could be driven to BBism... the horror!!!!

I kid! I kiiiiiid! ::waves the BB flag:: Go BB! Man, I am going to get flamed for this aren't I?

melev · #**574** 08/04/2005, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bheron
marc - great idea!!! cool. anything with "self" added to it is always a good thing.

edit: wait, so now that I'm thinking about it more, are you saying this is not just a kalkwasser drip but also an auto topoff? are you saying you just run this drip at a rate to keep the water level consistent in your tank??

Yeah, nothing is automated currently. I'll be setting up something in the near future, but since I didn't have a good spot for the storage tank, I didn't actively pursue the solution.

melev · #**575** 08/04/2005, 06:59 PM

RJ, I've used auto top offs for years with no bad results, but always made sure to use RO/DI water as top off rather than kalkwasser. It really helps if you limit how much water can be added, and there are many solutions to making sure your tank is absolutely safe: double float switches, timers to only allow it to come on at specific times, valve switches that close when water is detected where it doesn't belong, etc.

Here is the system I used on the 29g and even on the 280g until about two months ago. It isn't fool proof nor 100% safe like my next one will be, but it did the job and I never had an issue of any kind.

Electrobes, I bought two of the aqua lifters so that I could have one as a backup. Of course with all the tanks here, I might put it to work on another system.

I really like what it can do, and the price is great.