Fazio92

No i havent done a chemical test yet, i'll do that when i get home. Also, i use to have my skimmer inlet outside and now its inside, only because there's no window that close, i might have to drill a hole to put it outside again. Yes, I did another water change yesterday. Thanks for your input. I just hope everything will stop recessing! i already lost a chalice mother colony, cali tort colony and others may be on their way out with only thing remaining are the colorful coralites inside the skeleton!!!

Hey All, Ok so i just moved my tank this past weekend, by the way not the best time when its 18 degrees outside. Anyhow, so i had all the coral sitting in stock tanks on sat and sun and everything looked great only loosing 1 piece, not bad out of 150+. Monday i finally got eveything moved into the tank, but then the next morning evrything looked pretty bad, i.e. exterior membrane disappearing, but coralites still inside skeleton (almost all SPS). The clams, fish, hermits, all good though. I recalibrated my pH probe and it still averaged about 7.8-8.0, and yet i did almost 75% new water and turned off CO2. What could be going wrong. I am really scared that i may loose a bunch on my best colonies, if they havent already gone! Any advice?? -Anthony

Bingo! Sounds good to me, i work in Rockville, so that works out great. Send me a PM and let me know when you're free and i'll come pick it up. Thanks! Looks like two fine members have loaned me a 50gal and a 70gal, so i think thats all i need (i hope ). Thanks again everyone! -Anthony

I appreciate the offer. If nothing else comes up closer i will definitly let you know. Thanks! -Anthony

Hey everyone, I am moving on Jan 9th, just across the parking lot actually, but i need one of those heavy duty rubbermaid/brute stock tanks to put 92gal + 40gal fug worth of LR and Coral in while i move the tank over to the new place. I really dont want to buy one, mainly because i dont have room to store it when i'm done. So, if anyone has one or two, perferrably the 50gal or 75gal or even the 300gal, that i could use really for 1 night/ 2days max that would be phenomenal. If you have anything please let me know. The best way to contact me is by sending a PM, bc it will go to my email so i know there was a post, since i really havent had time to get on the forum lately while being swamped at work. Thanks for your help!! -Anthony

Looking Good!!

I've heard great things about the MSX skimmers. There's a "MSX Club" thread on RC that might be helpful. That is what I was originally planning on getting, but changed my mind and got an MRC, mainly so i can upgrade later without having to buy and entire new skimmer.

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

Ok here's an updated pic as of this evening. Sorry for the poor pic quality, hopfully I can get a better one next weekend using my parents DSLR! -Anthony

It works great! Once you see the updated pic, you'll notice that its the only pump i have in the tank since it works so well!

So, here's the rundown on my tank. I set this tank up in August of 2008 in Blacksbrug, VA (Go HOKIES!!). It is a dominant SPS reef with a few LPS and softies for movement/ liveliness purposes. Below is a progression of the tank while in Blackburg for the 2008-2009 year until graduating and moving up to Tysons in June. I will post a pic of the current state of the tank (here in NOVA) when i get home this evening. Hope you enjoy!! -Anthony

So do I.

If you ever want to, your welcome to come by and see the difference in person, as much regrowth is occuring now! And can show you what i did and how i did the switch.

I've always just used a rubberband with no probalems. Once its attahced (and usually grows over the rubberband, a week or so) i just cut the band and slide it out!

Yes, that is the first thing that i did before two-part and a Ca reactor. See how it works its a great thing, just have to be careful not to let it overdose!

Personally, Yes i did. I think this is mainly due to the fact that i could not keep up with the consumption requirements using two-part since my tank consumes heavily (AKA, testing the parameters then dosing to the correct amount, almost everyday!). It was just too much time i did not have to spare using two-part. Changing to the reactor made my life and my corals life much much easier. And man are they starting to pop in color and growth! Personally, I am extremely happy with my decision to move from two-part to a Ca reactor. Again my experience.

Main reason i got the Ca reactor "hands free", with the ACIII of course! Buying dosing pumps could cost just as much as a used Ca reactor setup.

enough to make it a 100% fully saturated solution. It's usually on the container on how much to achieve that.

Yeah, especially if you dont have a controller, you have to take it slow, so you dont melt away your media with too low a pH and lower the pH of your tank dramatically too. Or just have no change at all. So defintily take it slow and let everything adjust and take tests every day for the first week or so to get it dialed in. Not sure if Kalk is required, mainly to offset the low pH of effluent entering your tank, but its so simple why not just do it you know. Again just add it to your topoff. then again i have parmeters on my ACIII for that too, just incase it dumps into the tank the raises it too much, the controller will shut it off. Honestly, for me i probably wouldn't deal with all the hassel of all this equiptment as much if i didnt have the controller to keep everything in line. It's more of a fail safe thing then anything else and keeps me at ease, you know when you have thousands into something you want to take every precaution possible. that's just me though. I dont like leaving my tank for a few days without being able to check the parameters online and turn on/off things to help patch things while i'm gone. geez, now i'm starting on a whole new topic of controllers. lol. better stop now

I had that same fear, but now it's in the past and was one of the best decisions I ever made for the health and growth of my tank!!

A controller is not a must, but defintily makes life super easy. Once you hook up the reactor you can tune it to raise your alk to where you want it, but keep in mind that lowers your Ca, so you will have to supp Ca until you have your parameters where you want them (i.e., Ca and Alk), then once that is achieved the reactor keeps everything balacned and stable at those levels. The Kalk can help offset the excess CO2 low pH, since it is more basic than acidic. You can add a fully saturated solution into your topoff for that; which is really easy. Kalk also helps to mantain Ca and Alk inbalance like the Ca reactor, but provides a higher pH; which offsets the low pH of the Ca reactor (i think thats right any input anyone, i forgot ).

Alk buffered topoff or Kalk buffered topoff?? If you mean kalk thats perfectly fine, you don't need alk though, thats the reactors responsibility to maintain after you get your intial Alk and Ca in line. If you have a controller, its a piece of cake! Good luck.

Actually the first couple of days i had it setup my pH fell. then i relocated my effluent line to drip into my skimmer intake to burn off the excess CO2, as well as adjusted the bubble rate because i noticed CO2 pockets in the top of the reactor (AKA too much CO2 at one time and was not being consumed). But after I fixed those two issues and got ALk and Ca where i wanted them, the pH went stable as well. I know it really does not make sense being that they really arent related (except for it to fall), but it could be because my Kalk is now being balanced against the Co2 comming in from the reactor? dont really know. The only other thing I did was raise my Mg2+ from 1050ppm to 1450ppm; which probably made the difference too. I have a 92 corner fully stocked SPS and it just consumed too much for me to keep buying two-part and dosing so frequently, now the reactor is a godsend for me! Up front expensive, but in the long run for ME it is much cheaper. Again ever tank is different. Mine is 95% SPS and tons of them along with clams, so Alk and Ca cosumption is high; which is why it made sense for me to get the reactor. As a side note, i have had my clams roughly 3yrs and have really only grown about 2inchs over that period. Within the past month or so with the reactor, both have grown two layers (rims) of bright white new growth to their shells; i usually saw that every six months or so before. For me the reactor is incredible, but for others two-part may be the way to go. You just need to know your system and how is consumes. Just my 2c

Good catch, Great Article!

I agree and for myself personally, it was easier and i didnt forget as much or get tied up with things and not have time to dose two-part. Also, since i have a controller, i never had to worry about pH issues or wild parameters sending my tank into wack without it being under control. It was a ease of mind and time for me personally!