rdavidw
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Posts posted by rdavidw
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Greetings and thank you in advance for your advice.I am pondering adding a BRS resin kit - https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/triple-di-saver-kit-with-resin-and-tds-meter-bulk-reef-supply-bundle.htmlAre there benefits to a resin kit beyond reducing the TDS further? If I am getting around 3 TDS consistently from just my RO system would it still make sense to get a DI resin kit?I have a Watts Zero Waste RO system that has been heavily modified. I am on well water and my incoming TDS is around 148. I am running a pair of membranes in parallel and use a normally open solenoid valve to bypass the flow restrictors on the brine line. When the pressure switch hits 50 psi the pump turns off and the inlet solenoid closes and the bypass solenoid opens and drains into a floor drain, de-pressurizing the membranes. When the system powers back up the bypass closes and the brine line is pumped back into the house water further upstream. It only waste about a cup of water down the drain each time the system cuts off and its all automatic. Works great, with the bypass flush I am getting very little TDS creep. I am getting about 2 or 3 TDS at start up and it climbs to about 7-9 TDS and will then gradually fall to 1 TDS.I have a pair of 25 gallon pressure storage tanks that are plumbed together. I use the RO water for a top-up reservoir and 50 gallon water change reservoir for a 150 gallon reef tank. I also use the system for a home brewery and have a drinking water line throughout the house. I have a re-mineralization stage before the storage tanks on a 1/4" line, everything after that is on 3/8" tubing. After the storage tanks I have a polishing carbon stage and a 25 watt UV.If adding a DI kit would be a noticeable improvement for my reef tank, I am guessing that I would not want to have it on the high flow 3/8" line after the storage tanks. I am also guessing that I don't want to use the DI resin kit on my drinking and brewing water? I could make one of my two 25 gallon storage tanks just for the reef tank so it would go RO --> DI stages --> storage tank # 1 --> reef tank. The other line from the RO would go re-mineralization stage, --> storage tank #2 --> polishing stage --> UV --> brew kettle and drinking water.Thanks!
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Here is another photo
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Anyone know what this is? It started off almost black then turned to a cream color.
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Agreed on the Aqua UV classic. Rock solid unit. I had a cheap early model UV from another company that had a twist tube that was some type of plastic. The water flow got clogged and then the heat from the UV bulb burned and melted the plastic twist tube and then the salt water cracked the bulb. Luckily the fuse blew and there was no fire. Have been running a 40 watt Aqua UV for about ten years now and replace the bulb each year. Over that decade I had to replace one transformer and one quarts sleeve (I broke it changing a bulb). That is not bad.
About two years ago I decided to remove it from my system on someone's recommendation. The tank lost it's shimmery super clear look and I hooked it back up after about a month.
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Here are some photos of how the tank is maturing.
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The only thing that was off topic was talking about the reef tank.
I am not part of a local club. I may join this Frederick MD based club at some point: Frederick's Original Ale Makers
That may be a bit of a drive for you. Check out: Freestate Homebrew Club Guild
I make 12 gallon batches of wine about four times a year. I have been using Eclipse Kits but am looking into a group share on a bladder press. I used to work at a winery about 30 years ago. The nice thing about the kits is the pH is spot on, which can be tricky going straight from grapes. It's also hard to get just the right amount of bees and flies caught in the press.
Cheers!
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Perfect! Thank you so much!
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Chuck, the frags I got look amazing! Could you help me out with what is this:
It's beautiful. Right now I have the frag set in between some rocks near the bottom of my tank to keep it out of the strong current. Should I move it up to get more light and what is the best way to secure it in my tank? Do you recommend some JB Water Weld or super glue?
Thanks again and beautiful tank.
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Here is more of my setup on Home Brew Talk: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/new-home-basement-bar.663517/#post-8573529
I have a pair of these 1/2 hp chillers: https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-1-2-HP-CHILLER-AQUARIUM-WATER-SALT-WATER-CORAL-REEF-HYDROPONICS/153194537913?hash=item23ab1b23b9:m:mD_fBU7eO2r-i9yvPBYThqA
One is on my reef tank and the other is on my brewing fermenter setup. It hard to see in the photo but the chiller is on the lower shelf. There are three pumps in a glycol bath in a cooler behind the fermenters. Each pump is on a separate controller. One is set to 28F and powers on the chiller and the chiller pump. The other two each maintain a fermenter with a stainless coil in each. They are two stage controllers with heating pads under them. Works great. I can cold crash both of them down to 37F easily. I also use it for my yeast starters. The thing on the left in the photo is a stainless pot with a stir plate mounted under it and a cooper coil in it. I put the 2L starter in it and set the temp and that is it. Goes from a boil to pitch temp in about 12 min and then holds that temp. My lager beers are always the first ones to kick when entertaining but I still make lots of ales. The lagers take longer to make and its kind of a hassle to manually do the dozen or so temp step ups and downs. Surprisingly, it's been a game changer for my non-lager high gravity beers. I pitch at the cold range of the yeast to slow it down and keep the yeast from getting too sloppy and slowly ramp up the temp until the style yeast has gone as far as it can. I then pitch and re-pitch a champagne yeast. I have gotten some 12% barley wines to come out very crisp and clean with this glycol setup.
I don't use stainless fermenters. Just cheap and easy Speidel 30L. I have four, two on the glycol and two off. Stainless is a little easier to clean but harder to insulate. I have five 6 gallon Better Bottles and a glass carboy I use to filter with a vacuum sealer.
This is my HERMS set up:
The fourth kettle on the right is a steamer for crabs and lobster bakes. Not part of the brew setup but just as important.
My only burner is a single 3500 Watt induction burner. I pump my sparge water from the BK with a stainless coil in it to my HLT with no coil. I'm sure that sentence will make complete sense to everyone here on WAMAS.
Cheers to thriving yeast in your fermenters and thriving bacteria in your reef tank.
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24 minutes ago, D805 said:
Pics not loading up for me. :(
I was able to edit the original post and re-upload the photos. Don't know why they were down.
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Sounds like fun! Will also trade beer for cheap frags.
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Nice setup YHSublime!
Man, I got a soft spot in my hart (and probably my liver) for mead. Just opened a 2009 bottle.
I know I guy who uses his skimmate as a fertilizer to grow weed and swears it somehow makes it magical. Weed is not my thing and I don"t think skimmate would work well for brewing.
We have all seen some beautiful thriving reef tanks run on some very modest equipment, and, more often the inverse. I find homebrewing is the same way. Can't buy experience and a solid process but well designed quality equipment sure helps.
I have heard good things about the Grainfather. Did you get the expanded grain bin that can do a almost 20lb grain bill? I am still doing 5 gallon beer batches and brew two or three times a month. I do 12 gallon wine batches. We entertain quite a bit. I keep 12 five gallon kegs full - six on tap (two taps are nitro), two in cold storage and four at room temp.So nice to run into another reefer here on the home brew talk site.
Cheers!
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2 minutes ago, Viktoriia said:
love the set up. what kind of beers do you brew?
Don't want to get too far off topic, but the beer and the urinal do complement the tank well.
I make 5 gallon batches at a time, from water grain and hops. I also make wine. On the six taps, I typically keep a mead, an apple wine, two dark beers, a lager and a big IPA.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/new-home-basement-bar.663517/
The two hobbies play well together. Both are part art and part science and you can get great results using mostly one or the other. I started with a salt tank back around 1990 and started making beer and wine a few years after that. I had a part time job just out of collage working in a winery.
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1 minute ago, flooddc said:
I was being sarcasm! Your other hobby overwhelm the tank. awesome basement btw. I am sure your tank will be the center of attention once you get it back to where it was.
Thanks Chuck, all good.
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1 minute ago, flooddc said:
Very Nice!
where is the tank?
Sorry if off topic - replying to the basement in general comment. Not too much to look at in the tank yet but looking forward to changing that. What little I do have seems to be doing well so far. My old tank was very overgrown so this is a nice change.
Thanks!
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13 minutes ago, Origami said:
Welcome to WAMAS, rdavidw. Glad to have you aboard now as a member. Great tank!
Thanks Tom!
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9 minutes ago, ImGoingCoastal said:
Your basement is amazing!
-A-a-ron
Thanks A-a-ron.
Here are some more photos:
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8 minutes ago, pizzaguy said:
Dido
I would rather not say who the mover was; don't want to give them a bad review. They sent 3 guys and I worked on it all day as well. One of the guys had to leave mid-day. The guys were knowledgeable and hard working for the most part. I don't totally blame them for the loss. The old set up was packed in under the tank and also had some equipment in the basement under it. I did tell them I was concerned about the decrease in bacteria on the temp setup. They dumped the gravel floor and stored the deep sand bed in five gallon buckets, not on the temp set up. I was also concerned about lighting, only the stuff on the top of the plastic container was getting light. It was running ok for a few days and I would check on it regularly. When the pump died it was only down for a max of 8 hours. Ran to Home Depot and got a pond pump. When it was back up the skimmer was going nuts and it smelled like death. I removed all of the dead fish and inverts. Did a 50% water change but the skimmer keep going crazy and still smelled bad. All of the coral was slimy and very sad. I sent some photos the the moving company and asked if they could come sooner to set up the tank. They said it looked like it would be ok and could get there in a few days.
When they got there a few days later they drilled the tank for the new overflow and put in the new gravel in. After they put in some base rock pieces in they said they were done. I asked about moving in the coral into the main tank, it looked pretty beat up but I was hoping some of it would recover. They said that I should just throw all of it out. After they left I picked through it and moved some of the better looking pieces into the main tank. There was nothing else living in the main tank so I didn't have anything to loose. None of it ever recovered.
When the guy came back a week later to pick up his final check he gave me five or six fags to help get me started.
Here is the tank prior to the move:
Again, I don't want to blame the loss on just the moving company. They have gotten nothing but good reviews here on WAMAS and my tank was difficult.
Any recommendations on restocking? I like Steve's Tropical Lagoon in Silver Spring. I have been going there since around 1985 or so.
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Just moved. My 150 tank started as saltwater fish only in 1992. Moved it in 2001 and made it a reef tank. The recent move to the new house was difficult. The first company I hired to move it walked away when they got there. I found another company and was up-front with how established the tank was and sent them lots of photos. They said no problem and could do it two days before my old house closing. They showed up and the guys called their boss and they got in their cars and drove off. I negotiated to pay more to get them to stay and they said they would not set the tank up at the new place. I was out of time and had no other options. We tried to keep all of the coral alive in plastic bins till they could come back two weeks later. The temp pump we were using died. I the pump replaced the same day but nothing survived.
I have been slowly adding some corals but it will take some time to fill in.
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Thanks everyone!
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Anyone know what this redish lettuceish mushroomish thing is?
Or these balls?
Thanks!
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I have a 150 gallon reef tank that I am looking to add a dosing system to. I have bought a MC-03-M Dosing Peristaltic Metering Pump Triple http://www.ebay.com/itm/331194548383?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 and am planning on dosing calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium.
- I don’t have much space under my tank. I have plumbed a drain line from the top of my sump to my laundry tub in my basement for water changes and overflows (saved me once when my tap-up stuck open) and a chiller in my basement plumbed in my closed loop wave maker line. Could I set up my dosing system in my basement as well? It would be about an 8 foot head. Anyone know what the max head is on the peristaltic pump? Could/should I splice all three out lines into a single icemaker line to run up to the tank? With the line out being that long, I would guess that my feedback on my levels between the three would be delayed as the solutions would spend extra time in the longer line. Would it be better to keep the three jugs in the basement and move just the pump under the tank? I would then have three long lines in and three short ones out.
- Stirring? Will I need some sort of stirring mechanism for all three jugs? I would prefer to go with larger jugs that will only need to refilled every few months. I have seen the DIY stir-rods with the motor on top. To keep it super simple, could I just get three teeny power heads and stick them on a timer to run an hour to two each night? What about an air pump with an air stone in each jug on a timer? Would that kick out too much of the additives on the sides of the jugs?
Thanks for any help and suggestions!
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If you are having trouble with hair algea, I would suggest a Rabbitfish. One will clean your rocks within a couple of weeks. For the Aiptasia you can maybe try a Copper Band Butterfly, but my experience has been once the Aiptasia is gone, it's hard to get them to eat anything else.
I had one a while back. It cleaned the whole tank in a few days and then starved to death and was a mess to get out of the rocks. The whole house smelled. The one I had was big, a little one may have done better. Thanks!
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The emerald crabs should take care of that bubble algea. I have always had a Copperband in my tank and I have never had to worry about aptisia. All of mine have transitioned easily to frozen food.
Are you running GFO? I couldn't tell for sure looking at your sump. That may help pull down the cyano, hair algea and bubble algea. I have also had great results dosing MB7 and vodka.
Thanks! What is GFO? I have Pure RO water for my tap-up.
RO water - Are there benefits to a DI resin kit beyond just reducing the TDS further?
in Do It Yourself
Thanks DaJMasta! I do occasionally get some spots slime algae and run some GFO to knock it out. I only do a 50 gallon water change every three months. I think I will try it out, not very expensive and it will save my re-mineralization stage by isolating it to the drinking water side.