GraffitiSpotCorals

That looks like silicone to me. Best thing is to use a silicone lubricant but you can install without it and it should be fine as long as the gasket is good. The lubricant helps keep it from drying out and cracking plus helps it fit better when tightening. Just my experience. If that's hardened silicone try and peel off all the old stuff if it comes off without messing up the gasket. You could use silicone like they did after that you clean it off if your worried about leaks but you would probably need to wait over a day for it to dry.

Cool man, glad to hear it's going ok. I need to get some new ballasts and am not sure which route to go. I am using the select a watt lumatek right now on 400hqi with reflux 12ks. What would you suggest if I stay with the reflux bulbs? How do you like running your system with some readable nitrates and phosphates? Seems a lot of people are going that route now and hitting thoes same parameters. Oh and where is the FTS?

I know where you at tony?

I have some Weldon I can fix it with.

Defiantly the best pumps ime. I have a 3' cube and like Tom I overkill it a little but flow is important. Gyres are good at moving some water but horrible to clean and the flow is weak on the reverse mode, as well as when dirty. They are way to hard to place in a tank ime. I use 2 mp60qd on 75% and 2 mp40qd on 100% all on reefcrest but I switch to nutrient transport sometimes to stir things up that could have settled in cracks. Vortech flow is dispersed in a wide area which I love and moves more water than you realize because it's not in a thin straight line like gyres. Only thing a gyre would be good for in my book is supplementing a big long tank for some different flow. I have had one and it's sitting on a shelf.

I used to use life reef like dpasser but since switched because the chambers were to small at 6" for larger tanks imo. I did like the smaller necks and mazzei injectors. Now I use an old euro reef 4' tall 12" wide with two of the old large ehiem needlewheels along with a 1.5" mazzei injector and reeflo. The big old ehiem pumps rock but are so expensive I don't know if I will ever replace them with the same model. I also use a bubble king 300 I think it is at least. Only the big pump on it runs now but runs well. I have around 70 fish and estimated 400 gallons of water. I believe a quality pump and or air injection method along with a large amount of bubble space and contact time is most important for a skimmer. Body shape I don't believe plays much of a role in large, and to a degree, smaller skimmers as well. Neck size, body size and pump specs are what is most important to me. Less watts running doesn't matter to me because the most important thing on my tanks are these skimmers. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

I normally refill just under halfway gone but you can kind of judge when it needs to be done with some media's. They will get real mushy and clogged. Everytime I refill I clean the small media in the second chamber and top it off as well. I can't wait to set mine back up again in a few weeks.

Exactly what I had planned. I have everything out and about to start. I will share the results once I have ran water for a while. I appreciate the help man. Your a huge help to a lot of people here. I don't want to let that go unnoticed.

I think my stn was not related and nutrients played the role in the color shift I saw. But I still know I need to fix the situation or things will not progress.

Salifert test kits two new ones to double check. They say fresh and saltwater. Eric I am going to wash my storage barrels as well. Send me a text and we can share notes and maybe find what's up.

I can weld steel stands but I need to find more time to devote to it.

I double checked with new test kits, I am getting correct readings with both. I actually just bought extra line to replace it, I didn't think about it having stuff accumulated in it but that's very possible for all the times I have left the valve opened.

I got a zero reading after running the water for a few min and testing off it. I knew you get less effectiveness of your filters off running your ro line straight to your top off tank but I didn't k lw you could get nitrates building up... Doesn't make sense. I am going to run a line off one of my storage tanks to gravity feed my top off so I can fun the ro filter once a week for a larger amount of gallons and see if nitrates show.

Yea I am going to double check everything when I get home and will post results.

New di resin

Help me out guys... So suddenly I have been having issues with nitrates creaping up. I haven't changed anything on my rodi unit which has been working for years. All filters were good and I even changed out the prefilters. Still getting about 4ppm nitrates per salifert kit. I am wondering if somehow I am getting chloramines which hampered my ro filter but it's new too and still getting 3tds after the ro unit. Other than that I have no clue why I would be getting any reading at all. Anyone have any ideas? It's defiantly coming straight out of my rodi unit. I am also afraid phosphates are coming out too but don't have a test kit for it on me. I will have to check everything again tomorrow since I changed all prefilters. I did check right after I changed them though. I have seen a color shift on a few acropora which worried me so I checked things and found my rodi top off tank had white bubble bacteria growth at the top of the water. This is when I checked my source water. I had two acros rtn in the matter of hours which looked like a bacteria infecting just ripped through them. Others look ok for now. This could have happened because I upped my carbon source some to drop the nitrates back down, which reached the same as what was coming out of my ro unit, 4ppm. That took care of the nitrates and phosphates in the tank but could have caused the rtn. Or more than nitrates are getting through. I am getting 3ppm after ro and 0 after di like always though... Anyone in Prince william county getting bad rodi water?

People often work as teams when they steal things too so both people could have been involved. You should tell someone who can handle it so others don't get stolen from. Or before someone takes matters into their own hands. If no one says anything they will just keep getting away with it. The fish stores have cameras everywhere for a reason. Sorry it happened but I am glad you noticed and said something.

Thanks guys, I found someone close to help! Thanks for the tips.

I got a new chiller that requires a breaker for itself. Im not comfortable installing it or connecting the controller wires. I am a plumber not an electrician... I have the breaker and wire. Everything is basically ran I just need a confident person to put the breaker and controller together. I live in manassas right off 66 if anyone who knows how is willing to help please pm me. I can pay with coral or a little money for gas a time or both.

I would guess the asov is broke as well. See if the sound is coming from the asov. I like to use an auto flush kit and pressure shutoff on my filter systems, they really save some resin and membrane life.

Maybe you can try vinegar/vodka dosing to boost your bacteria populations, might help in the same way biopellets would and would be a little easier to control. Also -np pro is even more similar to biopellets in itself and would work the same way.

Bright orange, the color that's on their back. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Haha, you know I got you. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

This is the best pic I could get of one of my males. Sorry the leds were all that was on. Anthias always chase each other around in my tanks. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Only reason I am going for a certain number is because that's where the color is best