discretekarma

I'm not sure what brand the heater is. Take the picture with you whenever you go to buy a heater.

I purchased the heater at A1 a few weeks after the aqua controller group buy came in. I think that would mean that I bought the heater new around January 1, 08. Sucks.

This SUCKS. When I posted before I had a few corals/colonies that were dead and about 100 that weren't doing well. Now I have a few that aren't doing well and about 100 corals/colonies that are dead. It's almost all dead. HOW DEVASTATING!!!!! There may be a 180 system for sale soon. We'll see.

No chance of a spike. I have an AC3 that shows the temp all night. No spike.

So far I have 9 colonies that are definitely not coming back.

My frag tank has shut offs from the main tank so I did a 100% water change in there and shut it off and now I'm going to put my nicer corals that are left in to there.

I just put the two chemicals in to the sump. We'll see how that goes. I'm suprised that none of my fish have dies (knock on wood). I really am most suprised about my yellow Tang. How does a heater just explode in to two parts?

I only have the one system so tyat's where I put the frags. I got carbon and the SeaChem product you recommended at the LFS near my house.

Two nights ago I woke up to find that the breaker on my tank had blown. I wasn't sure why but everything was off. I smelled something burning so I opened the doors to under my tank where the sump is and started looking around. I reached behind my skimmer and found my heater had blown up in to two pieces. I'm not sure how that happened but it did. I unplugged it and took out the pieces and then reset the breaker. A few hours later when my lights came on I realized that all my Xenia is dead (not too big of a deal) and that all my SPS didn't look good. I did all the tests I had (salinity 1.024, Nitrate 0, PH 8.2, Calcium 350, Alk 10, Amonia 0, temp 79). A few looked really pale (mostly my Monti Caps) and the rest just didn't look good. I did a 20% water change and left it alone. I didn't want to do further damage by freaking out. All the fish are fine. This morning I woke up and around half of my SPS are totally white and dead. I fragged the ones that were partially white. All the polyps are closed up so I'm not sure what'll happen to them. What can/should I do? Should I just wait it out and see what's left or should I do something? Thanks

I'd like to get a big bulk bag of Mississippi Lime but I'm having a hard time finding where to buy it or how much it'll cost. I don't really want to buy expensive tubs of stuff online and have to get it shipped. I know I'll need to continue to use it so the bigger the bag (and local) the better. Thanks

I'm going to buy a GSA K6 stirrer. I can't really find the Mississippi Lime for sale online. I was thinking about buying some from Boret but have no idea how much I'd need for my 250~ gallon system or how much it normally costs. Scott

Just holler if you need some help. I cecrtainly can't left tons but I can help rebuild a wall if you have to tear one down. I can pull wire with the best of them too.

Mine rarely hides. That's really the only experience I've had with them.

I have been getting overwhelmed with have to dose Two Part in the morning and night everyday and have to make a new batch every week. It's getting old. I'm looking in to getting a Kalk Stirrer and wanted to know what types of Kalk people use so I can price that vs Two Part. Thanks

Do you think I should call ASM or Sedra? Thanks for the ideas

Your pump wouldn't fit my skimmer. The connection isn't right which is why I had to order the new one. Thanks though.

I cracked the piece on the old pump. I think you can see it in the picture. Also, the piece needs to screw down in to the threads of the pump. When I borrowed your pump, I realized that yours had a different piece there and that I wouldn't be able to use it without moding your pump so I bought a new one. Neither picture is your pump (fyi)

The fitting on my old skimmer fits right in to the elbow. Do you think this would be a piece that's made for this pump?

My skimmer pump (Sedra 5000) stopped working so I ordered a new one. My old one fit in perfectly. It has to be exact for it to fit. My new one came with no fitting on top. My old one came with a fitting that went from the top (which has female threads) to the elbow. I think this piece has to be exact. I've been to the pvc section of Home Depot and Lowes and have not ever seen anything that's exactly like this piece. I think it must be made to fit the pump. Does anyone know where I can get it? I've posted pictures of my old pump with the fitting (it wont come out and I've even cracked it trying) and the new pump without the fitting.

I have a probe holder built into my sump. I had only an inch of the probes submerged before but now I have them completely submerged. The temp is about 6" submerged and the Ph is completely submerged. I just moved my float switches. I have it fixed now. I just wanted to share this for anyone else setting one up so they wouldn't make the same mistake.

Correct I raised the float switches and have reprogrammed the AC3 to fill the sump twice like I wrote above. Not sure if that's the correct code or if it'll work but that's what I've done for now. No ORP

After my tank filled back up I went back over to the tank and realized something else. I bought two 300w heaters because the temp was having extreme fluctuations, or was it? The temp and the Ph probe's were coming out of the water. The temp just now with the lights off was 83.9. I am very lucky that this was caught without crashing or burning up my whole system. I didn't even lose a snail.

This morning my Ph showed on the AC3 as 6.8. I did a manual test and it read 8.2 so I started looking all over for what my be causing this and here's what I just found out. 9:00am -10:00am is when my Ph drops down to 6.5 and 6.8. 10:00am is when my ATO comes on to fill up my system It drops down between 9 and 10 because it's out of the water and then it jumps back to an accurate Ph once the Auto Top Off comes on and fills the sump back up from all the evaporation. I had adjusted the float switches higher for a few days but thought the water looked too high so I put them back where they were. Those were the few day the Ph didn't drop. When I put the 2 part in before I go to sleep its still ok. My evaporates fast overnight. Is there a way to have the AC3 come on at 10am and 10pm to fill up the sump? Would it be the same code? This is what I have: If Time > 10:00 Then ATO ON If Time > 10:15 Then ATO OFF Would the next line be: If Time > 22:00 Then ATO ON If Time > 22:15 Then ATO OFF or would that confuse the AC3? Thanks again for everyone's help.

No worries...I just dumped my skimmer.

Here are some of my behind the scenes pictures of my plumbing, sump, and Aqua Controller setup. Frag Tank Next to Main Tank Plumbing Behind Frag Tank Plumbing Inside Frag Tank AquaController3 (I decided I didn't want it mounted on anything) Sump (Left Side with Return Pump and Floats) Sump (Center with Skimmer on left and Filter Socks on Right) 2 socks are from the main tank and 1 form frag tank Sump (Filter Socks) Sump (Fuge - fed by second overflow from frag tank and overflows in to the main part of the sump)