Durso's 180 gallon in wall tank. - Page 4

240-Reefer · #76 07/23/2006, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by original-reefland
Our local reef club had its first open to public event including Anthony Calfo doing his coral fragging presentation. He stuck around for Q&A and did some book signings. I was surprised how well it went. No significant problems.

Had a whole table full of door prizes including various additives, magazines, books, food samples, etc. I picked up a bottle of DT's Premium Reef Blend.

Between vendors, members and visitors nearly 150 frags (including about 15 fish, a few clams, and a handful of BTAs) went up for auction. Many good buys. I picked up two new acro's, an encrusting montipora and I think its a birdsnest with purple polyps.

The fragging demo generated another 100+ frags and cuttings which were handed out as freebies. I'm not aware of the official headcount but I think it was around 70 people.

I second that event. Great time had by all. Thanks HVRK

original-reefland · #77 07/24/2006, 10:29 PM

I noticed I hadn't done any water tests since March according to my notes. Did a round of testing tonight:

Temp: 82.6*F
pH: 8.14
Conductivity: 52 (34 ppt)
Calcium: 410ppm
Alkalinity: 9 dKH
Phosphate: undetectable
Nitrate: undetectable

scaryperson27 · #78 07/25/2006, 07:25 AM

Other than the PH that sounds great!

I hope you really enjoy that tank. The plumbing is insane on that thing (8'.

Dudester · #79 07/25/2006, 10:35 AM

what's wrong with the pH?

scaryperson27 · #80 07/25/2006, 12:53 PM

The oceans PH is around 8.3 (or is supposed to be). from what i have heard that is the best ph to have. you have a beautiful tank by the way.

Dudester · #81 07/25/2006, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by scaryperson27
The oceans PH is around 8.3 (or is supposed to be). from what i have heard that is the best ph to have.

The ocean contains a vastly larger water volume than our tiny closed systems that we maintain at home. It is very difficult to maintain a constant pH in our tanks, (constant anything, for that matter) even with pH controllers. If you check the pH in your tank at different times of the day, you will see a range that can vary as much as 0.3 or more, depending on how you regulate the pH in your system. A stable number is far more important than the absolute value, IMO. Rich's pH of 8.14 is just fine; if it weren't, his inhabitants would not be thriving. Sorry, Mr. Durso, for being somewhat long-winded, hope this wasn't construed as "hijacking," just providing some info.

original-reefland · #82 07/31/2006, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dudester
Sorry, Mr. Durso, for being somewhat long-winded, hope this wasn't construed as "hijacking," just providing some info.

No problem. I never got a notice that this thread was updated. I agree, pH of 8.14 is fine. I'm not worried about it. Thanks.

original-reefland · #83 07/31/2006, 08:59 PM

Here are some pictures posted on our local reef club site from Anthony Calfo's visit. Guest should be able to visit and view the images. Let me know if you have a problem.

http://hvreef.org/yabb/index.php?topic=5474.0

original-reefland · #84 08/03/2006, 12:32 PM

Here are some pictures of Frags I got from 240-Reefer last month. Both doing well despite the very high tank temperatures.

A nice blue acropora.

This frag is like a box of crayons. It has green, blue, purple, teal, and various other shades. Very colorful.

original-reefland · #85 08/03/2006, 02:43 PM

I'm not a big zoanthid fan, but a fellow local reef keeper gave them to me.

I'm not sure what kind of anemone this is. It looked to me like a Sebae Anemone. The LFS had no idea what it was. For $10 I said to bag it. Looks neat.

It looks like the ones typically sold white, excpet this one has not been bleached out.

melev · #86 08/03/2006, 03:06 PM

Great pictures, as always.

scaryperson27 · #87 08/05/2006, 07:55 PM

I wouldn't be. All I was saying if it was higher it would be better but it isn't threatening enough to even bother thinking about getting up. What I should have said was good parimeters.

Those zoanthids really look nice. How do you take your pics?

melev · #88 08/05/2006, 10:28 PM

Richard, can you hook up your Kill-O-watt to the fan you have venting the room? I'd like to know how much power it pulls.

original-reefland · #89 08/05/2006, 11:01 PM

Quote:

How do you take your pics?

With a camera, how do you take them?

OK, perhaps I missed something specific you were questioning.

original-reefland · #90 08/05/2006, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev
Richard, can you hook up your Kill-O-watt to the fan you have venting the room? I'd like to know how much power it pulls.

Sure. I can get you that number.

original-reefland · #91 08/05/2006, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev
Richard, can you hook up your Kill-O-watt to the fan you have venting the room? I'd like to know how much power it pulls.

.57 amps / 67 watts

scaryperson27 · #92 08/05/2006, 11:14 PM

You have that little copyright thing so that led me to assumed you were a bit of a photographer and maybe you have a certain setup or technique for taking pictures. What kind of camra do you use?

original-reefland · #93 08/06/2006, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by scaryperson27
You have that little copyright thing so that led me to assumed you were a bit of a photographer and maybe you have a certain setup or technique for taking pictures. What kind of camra do you use?

I use a Nikon D70 Digital SLR with either Nikkor 18-70mm DX lens or Sigma 105mm macro lens. I use a tri-pod as much a possible and a remote shutter release. Sometimes you're lucky and get a great shot

IMO, you should always copyright your images. Just do it in a way that doesn't distract the viewer or take away from the image.

melev · #94 08/06/2006, 04:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by original-reefland
.57 amps / 67 watts

Not bad at all. You tested the one that looks like a donut with a tube stabbed through its center, right? I was considering a dehumidifier, but now I'm going to get a fan like yours to vent the fish room, and hook it up to a humidistat.

Do you have a link so I can order that fan?

BrianPlankis · #95 08/06/2006, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by original-reefland
IMO, you should always copyright your images. Just do it in a way that doesn't distract the viewer or take away from the image.

Rich,

How do you add that Copyright to your images? I've just started doing it to mine and I like the look of what you do. Is that photoshop?

Brian

original-reefland · #96 08/06/2006, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by melev
Not bad at all. You tested the one that looks like a donut with a tube stabbed through its center, right? I was considering a dehumidifier, but now I'm going to get a fan like yours to vent the fish room, and hook it up to a humidistat.

Do you have a link so I can order that fan?

Your description sound about right. It's from home depot as ventilation for spa rooms. I did not find it on the HomeDepot web site. It's in the area of about $160 to $180 or so.

original-reefland · #97 08/06/2006, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CirolanidHunter

How do you add that Copyright to your images? I've just started doing it to mine and I like the look of what you do. Is that photoshop?

I use multilayer images in Paint-Shop Pro 8.x, I have a layer for the frame created for various standard sizes I use (640x480, 800x600, etc). I have a layer for the copyright text which I adjust the year as needed. Then I simply cut & paste the source image onto the proper layer (behind the frame & text layers) and I'm pretty much done. I crop the source image a little large to provide some wiggle room to better frame the image. That allows me to move the image up/down left/right a little bit as needed.

I then do an export as JPG which merges the frame to a single layer and applies appropriate compression for web pages.

Although the program doesn't let me apply copyright signatures in batch to many files at a time, it does have a macro feature which I can use to record keyboard and mouse clicks. So I can just load an image and run the script, and its ready to be exported.

original-reefland · #98 08/16/2006, 11:45 PM

If you recall I've been working on an idea of drawing in the cooler night time air instead of running the room AC all the time. 240-Reefer was able to implement it before me and said it had very positive results to his sump room setup.

I finally gathered all the parts needed and 2 weeks ago got everything working. I'm still testing it out before mounting permanently into the ceiling.

This is how think the front wall of my house is. It took some time to drill this out with my 19v cordless drill. A 4 inch wide drill bit was used. Plan is to use standard dryer vent fittings to get to the outside.

This shows construction of the fan assembly all ready under way. It took some time to come up with ideas on how to get a vent fan to blow air into the room instead of exhausting air out of the room.

original-reefland · #99 08/16/2006, 11:50 PM

I decided to not destroy the inside of the fan assembly and make new mounts (like 240-Reefer had to). I found a way to simply mount the unit upside down and built a new cover instead of the supplied vent cover grill.

I figured I would build a new cover out of sheet metal and make a 4 inch hole for a vent duct to link it to the outside.

This is a 300 CFM bathroom vent fan made by Nutone which I purchased from Home Depot. Foam lined. Internal assembly is a dual squirrel cage blower. The unit is rated at 2.5 Amps which is much better than the 14 amps needed for the air conditioner.

original-reefland · #**100** 08/17/2006, 12:02 AM

Here is the custom blower assembly ready to be tested:

Here is the blower running, drawing in outside air. While testing, I just have it on top of a ladder.

So far all testing has been very positive. I have not needed the AC since August 7th which is a significant cost reduction. The tank room has been around 78 to 81 (instead of 80 to 83) and the tank has cooled off from 80 to 83 (I was running at 85 with the lights off!).

So far so good!

I still have an additional 300 CFM fan linked to the lighting system and ballast assembly sucking hot air out of the room.

Current stats, 4 hours into lighting period.

Outside 69F (71% humidity), will get cooler.

Tank room: 81F, 41% humidity.

Tank: 83.2F