Origami

Mine is setup similarly to what Brian's describing. I've got a bathroom that's about 20 feet or so from my display. The RO/DI system is hooked up to the wall in a storage area that is adjacent to the bathroom and I tap the cold water line for input and tap into the drain for my waste water. The output then runs across the ceiling in the storage area, using polyethylene ice maker tubing, into a 44 gallon Rubbermaid Brute trashcan in my fish room. I've installed a float valve in the Brute to stop the production and flow of RO/DI when the container is full. The Brute is right next to another Brute that I use to mix up my change water; and that is right next to a 100 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank that I use as a sump. The arrangement makes water changes reasonably easy.

No experience with this one, Jeff, but saw it today on RC: http://www.aptinstruments.com/Merchant2/me...gory_Code=SP100 It's supposedly the OEM guts (or similar the the guts) of the peristaltic pumps sold on BulkReefSupply. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Plumbing-and...oduct_info.html Not a dual setup, though. Not sure if this is absolutely critical or not.

How big is your system? You might consider a hang-on skimmer like a Turboflotor 1000 Multi SL or, for a small system, even an AquaC Remora Pro. The turboflotor can be used in sump or as a hang on. In the hang-on configuration, the footprint needed in the sump is fairly minimal (about 7" deep or so x 10" wide or so). If you had enough room out of the sump, you could run an external skimmer.

I've used a Typhoon III (for RO/DI) from Air, Water, Ice since day one. I've been very happy with it.

I have a yellow, scopas and sailfin in my 180 gallon display (which is a bit larger than your75). The yellow's been with me more than a year. When I introduced the other two (smaller) tangs last month, the yellow tang chased the others around for a good day and a half to show the other two who's boss. Luckily, the rock work is such that the smaller tangs were able to retreat and keep distance between them. Since then, though, they've been happy to hang out together.

The way I read the study, the author used a powerhead supplying 1500 ml/min (or 23 gph) thru 20 grams (0.7 ounces) of GAC (granular activated carbon) in his experiment (which recirculated 4 liters of sea water containing yellowing organics) over 12 hours. From this, he concluded that GAC from lignite offered the best price / performance ratio. While he mentions the lower flow rate in other, different, experiments, he does not indicate how these other tests were set up. That is crucial information to have before you can compare what the author has done with what others have done. However, you can, from reading the author's paper, gather that a lignite GAC can remove nearly 90% of yellowing gelbstoff under comparatively high-flow conditions.

They probably mean 65 milliliters (not millimeters) per minute. That's the flow rate (volume per unit time). 200 gph equates to 12,617 ml / minute or 210 ml / second. I've not read the article but I will. Off hand, though, it would seem to me that rate of adsorbtion should be mediated by contact time with the media and concentration of the compound to be adsorbed (not absorbed). If that were the case, I have difficulty understanding why a low flow is better than a high flow in a recirculating system (such is the case in our tanks). I neither flow fast nor slow through my reactor, though I do throttle back the flow enough so that the media is not tumbling so aggessively as to abrade but enough that it stays open to flow.

I wholeheartedly agree. Prevention is the best approach. Make it so that if your delivery method fails (or even if your kalk stirrer fell over dumping its entire contents into your sump) you're not screwed. On the other hand, if you find yourself in a bad way, maybe this advice can help minimize losses.

Thanks. If it went sticky (or even not), I wish I'd made the title, "How to Respond to a Kalk Overdose." That way, somebody in trouble seeking advice could zero in on it quickly. (Mods, can you help me out here? Thanks.)

What a terrific project, Dave. The kids will love it (and they'll remember you forever, too)! You're an incredible ambassador for the hobby. Thank you!

Given the several occurrences of kalk overdoses we've seen in the last few months, this advice from RHF that I read on RC today seemed worth capturing here: *** The following important points should help in dealing with a limewater overdose: 1. Don't panic! These overdoses do not usually cause a tank to crash. 2. The primary concern is pH. If the pH is 8.6 or lower, you need not do anything. If the pH is above 8.6, then reducing the pH is the priority. Direct addition of vinegar or soda water is a good way to accomplish this goal. Either one mL of distilled white vinegar, or six mL of soda water, per gallon of tank water will give an initial pH drop of about 0.3 pH units. Add either to a high flow area that is away from organisms (e.g., a sump). 3. Do not bother to measure calcium or alkalinity while the tank is cloudy. The solid calcium carbonate particles will dissolve in an alkalinity test, and all of the carbonate in them will be counted as if it were in solution and part of "alkalinity." The same may happen to some extent with calcium tests. Wait until the water clears, and at that point, alkalinity is more likely to be low than high. Calcium will likely be mostly unchanged. 4. The particles themselves will typically settle out and disappear from view over a period of 1-4 days. They do not appear to cause long term detrimental effects to tank organisms. 5. Water changes are not necessarily beneficial or needed in response to a limewater overdose. *** He cites this article as where this advice was given: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php

Ack. How much it raises your alk depends upon how much water volume you have. There is no simple rule like 1 TBSP to raise 1 dKH. Use a reef chemistry calculator like this instead: http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html Simply enter the water volume of your system in the box at the top center; enter your current alk, desired alk, and (where it says "Pick a Product") click on "Baking Soda (not baking powder)." The calculator will then tell you how to mix up and dose to get the desired effect.

Alk drops 1 meq/l (or 2.8 dKH) for each 20 ppm of calcium drop. That's why you see what looks like a drastic drop. Both are actually dropping, it's just that your test kit probably doesn't have the resolution or that you're just not noticing the very slight decline in calcium. If you're using a balanced additive the proper way, you can compensate for consumption with dosing. You can learn a bit more about this here: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

Ahhhh, a visit from the editing genie I see. Gluten tag!

It's a matter of choice and technique, I suppose. Kalk is, by composition, a balanced additive, too, giving an equal part of calcium and alkalinity. (Magnesium would still have to be dosed, if required. But that's the "third part" of two part, isn't it?) Two part, on the other hand, gives you the ability to independently control each. Also, it's well known that some people dose two part using automated systems, which (I suppose) could lead to similar overdose risks. BTW, I'm not advocating Anthony's suggested approach to dosing kalk - just repeating the rather unique advice that he was giving.

See the image below. The flow control knobs are circled in red. There's a line molded into the top of each one that can be used to track the positioning of the knob (I highlighted each with silver paint on my old one, otherwise it was too hard to see). Both should be free to turn. If that's not the case, you may have some salt or calcium build up that's causing the knob to bind. I recommend having your friend take the skimmer body and give it a good long soak in warm water or in vinegar and water to see if it frees up the stuck valve. By the way, how old is the tank setup and do you know the salinity? I know he's not complaining about getting TOO MUCH skimmate! And, yes, when it's tuned well, it does produce some pretty nasty stuff.

Kalk is good. It can help stabilize your system if done right and you take the proper precautions against accidentally overdosing. Don't be. Just be thoughtful about it. That's correct. If it's a slow drip and if the amount that were in the container were not enough to wreak havoc on your system if it were to be dosed quickly and completely, then you should be safe from accidents. First, have you established that you need supplementation? Does your alk fall noticeably between water changes, indicating consumption? If so, a slow drip into a sump using a gravity fed doser is one easy way to do it if consumption were low and you were up for maintaining the regimen. A lot of us compensate for evaporation entirely with the addition of kalkwasser - whether it be through a prescribed doser (drip, aqualifter, or peristaltic pump) or through an automatic top off system (which combines water level sensors with pumps of various kinds). I used to use an ATO to regulate my kalkwasser delivery but have, in the last couple of months, switched over to using a peristaltic pump on a timer. There's another method that I've not tried but I'll mention it here. At the last meeting, I participated in on a conversation that Anthony Calfo was having with another WAMAS member. Anthony was suggesting at the time that you could just mix up a kalk slurry and just throw it in a high flow area all at once as a daily ritual and that things would be fine. Of course, I suspect that he runs much, much, larger systems than we do so I haven't a clue as to what such an approach would do to our systems. At 54 gallons, I suspect that you're evaporating somewhere in the area of 1/2 gallon a day. Is that about right? In that case, I think you have a couple of easy options. One is a simple drip doser with a 1-gallon jug. The general rule of thumb for saturated kalkwasser is 1 teaspoon of powder to 1 gallon of RO/DI or distilled water. Since there are 600 drops to an ounce, dosing 1/2 gallon per day, equates to a drip rate of about 1 drop every 2 seconds (actually, it's 26-2/3 drops per minute). Drip rates on gravity fed systems, however, is not constant so you may have to play with the drip rate to get the dosing where you want it. You would mix up your first gallon and, every day, just refill the jug and add your kalk powder (1/2 tsp for 1/2 gallon of added water) and give it a good shake in order to make sure that the kalkwasser is saturated. The other option is to make it part of an ATO system and to run your top off through a kalk stirrer, or to just premix your kalkwasser and dose it using a pump and float switch (or timer) system. In either case, if you wanted to avoid a kalkwasser disaster, limit the amount of kalk or top off water that your top off system can deliver, not by trusting the delivery system, but by limiting the water and powder available. That way, if the delivery system fails, you're still covered. Kalk keeps just fine. And, saturated is saturated. Remember, though, kalkwasser is the saturated solution that remains once you let the particle stuff - the stuff that hasn't dissolved - settle out. If you dose the particulate stuff, you're not controlling your delivery. Now, that said, kalkwasser (or more properly, a saturated calcium hydroxide aqueous solution) does react with CO2 (in the atmosphere) to form a calcium carbonate precipitate. Those of us that have kalk stirrers see this as a crust at the top of our reactors. The formation of this crust often gives some protection to further reaction with CO2. If constantly stirred, the potency of the kalkwasser solution would ultimately deplete (though it may take a while) if it were not for the kalk powder reserve generally found at the bottom of the reactor column. In your case, however, if you're mixing up a gallon or a half gallon of the stuff each day, you'll be fine.

Is this an established tank that we're talking about - one that actually has some organics to remove? If so, has he tried adjusting the flow adjustment knobs (they're normally black and at the top of the exit tubes)? I used to run my flow adjustment tubes at the 9 o'clock position (when viewed from the top) to skim rather dry, or I would leave one at 9 o'clock and set the other to 11 o'clock to skim wet.

So sorry to hear of the trouble.

According to PFO's website, they've been working on using LED's for aquarium lighting since 2002, which is a full 2 years before Orbitec filed their patent claims. If, in fact, this is true and PFO can prove it, they may have a chance of having that patent invalidated.

I've bought IO (in 200 gallon boxes) from several of our local vendors including Blue Ribbon Koi (Manassas), Aquarium One (Rockville), and Fins and Feathers (Ashburn). Each time it was at a very, very reasonable price. I'm sure that our other LFS' have great prices, too, on IO but I just haven't gotten by their place yet. That said, not all of our LFS vendors carry IO. And, of course, IO is not your only option. For example, Aquaco (Reston) carries Bio-Assay (at a very good price, I might add) which you might find meets your needs just as well. As Bob said (above), I encourage you to support your Local INDEPENDENT Fish Store (I make the distinction here to separate our independents from the big chains) in any and every way that you can. If they're a WAMAS sponsor, all the better. Times are tough and we need to stick together if we're to come out of this economic muddle with options that care about this hobby and about us. Saving a few pennies or even a few dollars on a box of salt isn't worth losing these much more valuable supporters to the hobby.

It's also possible that you did have a bigger die-off and you're only now catching the back end of the spike.

Nitrates at 1 ppm? That's still low. What test kit are you using and is the reading in ppm? You should not have problems at 1 ppm - not problems due to nitrates, at least. But, to answer your question, yes. You can get a mini-cycle with any sort of die-off. For example, if there were sponges on the rock, then their death could cause a rise, first in ammonia, then nitrites, then nitrates. The same goes for detritus. Is your skimmer performing well? Could you have a salt or calcium carbonate build up in the venturi that might be leading to reduced air intake, and therefore a build-up of organic compounds in the water (that might be stressing your corals)?

Yes. It's a retrofit and 60" is just the length of the setup. The light dispersion will cover 72" easily. It also has VHO supplementation. They're awesome lights. If you do get them, let him know that I pointed you his way.... Great advice.

First off, are you looking to set up a reef or maybe a fish only with live rock (FOWLR)? What's the look you're going for? Do you intend on heavily stocking with fish or are you comfortable having just a few small fish with lots of corals? And, are you looking to go with mostly soft corals or are you looking to go with more demanding (SPS) hard corals? These are key questions to ask yourself before you get into selecting equipment. I'm going to, for now, assume that you're wanting to set up a reef tank with corals and a modest count of fish using lots of sand and rock as the basis of your biological filtration. In this case, I think that the sump that you're looking at is way too small. For a tank that size and with a stand that would hold it, I'd recommend maybe using a 75 gallon tank for a sump. That will give you lots of room for a good skimmer, room for a refugium compartment, and for a return pump. Also, the skimmer shown is probably way undersized and inefficient (my guess). Look for a high-quality skimmer if you want to do this right. Trial and error, starting at the bottom-end (to save money) usually results in error (and wasted money). 3x250 for lights is OK but a 210 is pretty deep. That setup would provide you a range that would probably support SPS up high, but less so at depth. (Would you supplement the 3x250 with actinics?) 3x400 would be better if you were to go with some corals with high light demand. I mention this because DEEPBLUE (a member here) had a really nice Hamilton retrofit kit posted for sale for a great price just a few weeks ago. Another member had some interest, but the post has not been updated to indicate that the lights have been sold, so it may still be available. If you're going to put a canopy on this 210, you may want to consider his lighting setup as you'll get it for a better deal than most 3x250's.