Marc Weaver

Welcome!!

Make sure to bring some Dos Equis

We saw cut, waterjet, and laser-cut acrylic at work and I've never seen any of them leave as nice an edge as a router. Laser-cut edges are nice but they cut on a slight 1/2 degree angle which is just enough to make tank building not work.

If all your cuts are 24" or less, you can use our acrylic panel saw at work, it cuts very nice and square. I also have an 84 tooth carbide which we used to make a refugium you can borrow.

I can help you out, but I keep my water at 1.025. I have a digital scale and can make calibration solution with table salt to 1.026 as illustrated here http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/ It works, I have done it and verified against purchased calibration solution. I just don't have enough bought solution to fill a hydrometer.

I have never owned Vortechs, but Tunze pumps are great, but expensive. The WP-25 or WP-40 's seem to be at a great price point and I have generally seen favorable reviews. They have not been out very long yet, so no one knows about long-term reliability. I have had 4 Tunze 6105's for 2 years now and all 4 are still running strong with no problems yet. I used to have Koralia pumps and every now and then they would start up backwards for me too.

I only use 1 vial. I also cut 2 corners off of the reagent pack and make a V to pour the reagent. Very easy. I get repeatable results from inverting the vial for 20 seconds, then swirling the vial for a minute and a half. I don't know about accuracy, as I have no standard to test against. I CAN say that my reef does much better with a low but measurable level of phosphorous with the checker (5-10 ppb) than when the checker measures zero all the time, due to overdosing vinegar/vodka/NOPOX. I've been through that a few times.

Some random pics from the tank and frag tank....

Brian your PM inbox is full. Can you PM me your cell number? I want to talk to you about the food sometime later. Marc

I stopped using it too. I tested mine without the plastic tip against Lamotte and Salifert alk kits and it matches perfectly. There is excess fluid under the bottom zero mark near the tip which accounts for the air at the 1mL mark near the plunger, so you are getting 1mL. When I tested it with the tip, it always read different than the other kits.

I have 5 or 6 still alive. They will most likely lose most of their leaves and will not start growing for several months. Mine did not grow to speak of for 4 months. I don't have them rooting into a substrate and they grow under 2 75w spotlights placed around 2 feet above them. They are very slow growers, maybe a new leaf every 2-3 weeks. I will post a pic in the next few days. They are growing in my cyano/aptasia infested "crud" tank plumbed off the main and the roots are covered with cyano.

Maybe these are the nasty ones http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/04/05/worlds-2nd-deadliest-poison-in-an-aquarium-store-near-you/#.Uje2oMafgWY

I'll post an update when I get back from Germany next week.

Good job Robert, your tank is amazing.

I went there last year and it was nice. I bought a few sweet frags from Dan Rigle (rigleautomotive on reefcentral) but they died in tank transitions. I plan on going back this year and getting more. You can pre-order frags on fragswapper. You are welcome to ride with me if you like, as I usually go alone 'cause my wife is not a coral fan lol.

Hey Brian if you order the bulk reef supply pumps let me know and I'll order one of the 50mL/minute for vinegar and we can get free shipping. I'll come over and pick it up and help you get them dialed in. I know how to do it for Apex but the RKE can't be that different. I had a Chinese one called "Marine Color" brand and it worked great when I used to dose 3-part. It was 3 pumps for $150 with a built in controller from ebay. You could enter the amount per day and what times to dose between. I sprayed water on it by mistake and fried something inside.

I always used this chart to estimate flow in pipes. http://flexpvc.com/WaterFlowBasedOnPipeSize.shtml I think you will be OK with 3/4" drains. You may want to expand to 1" right below the bulkheads though and definitelty make a 1 or 1.25" durso. On my 220, I ran 1" drain lines and at one time had 2 mag 12's, one for each side. After head loss I was probably getting close to 800GPH on each side, and according to the chart 1" is 960 GPH (times two=1920) and the drains could have handled more. The chart says 3/4" can handle 660GPH and since you will have two that's 1320 GPH. At 6X turnover rate, you're probably getting close to 1000GPH, which should be fine. You can always put a ball valve right at the output of the return pump to control flow it it's too much.

Just a quick note - you may want a ball valve on each return line after the split to balance flow to each side of the tank. In your drawing, your right side will flow faster due to less head pressure on the pump.

You'll get a kick out of them, at least I do. They will rise from the sand like the living dead when you feed the tank.

I've used Tropic Marin, API, Red Sea Pro, ELOS, and Lamotte all multiple times. The Lamotte 3110 is by far my favorite for repeatable, easy-to-read results. I have not tried the Salifert, but I like the idea of their precision when looking through the vial sideways There is currently no available titration test for nitrates in the hobbyist price range that I am aware of, unfortunately. My experiences and $.02 (if anyone cares) API - Good for cycling a tank only, then throw away after your first few water changes indicate levels are lowering. Tropic Marin - A little better Red Sea Pro - Frustrating, due to the fact that if you are high range and test in the low range, you waste a test. I went through 2 batches of reagents and the colors never closely matched the wheel in my opinion. Also, one of the reagent bottles would constantly clog. I believe the cadmium in it may be difficult to keep in solution and is clogging the dropper. ELOS - It works well and is repeatable, the color comparison chart is not too bad. Lamotte 3110 - Expensive but worth the money Reagents are not available from many places, especially on the east coast. I've never tried ordering from Lamotte direct, though which is in Maryland. You have to multiply their scale by 4.4, so measurements are 1.1, 2.2, 4.4, 8.8, 17.6, 26.4, 35.2, and 44.4ppm. The color changes on the color comparator are good enough to determine values between the labeled ones.

It smells like walking outside right after a thunderstorm in the summer, after the rain, sometimes before. Once you smell it, you will recognize the smell.

If the tips were burned and algae grew on them as a result, cut 'em off. They'll grow back quickly. For some reason, cutting the tips off makes the coral regrow without new algae infestation. If you just try to pull the algae off, it will grow back.

Welcome, I'm from Boonsboro. Good to have another reefer on here out west lol.

I have had two ORA and two wild caught mandarins. The two I had bought that were from ORA acted like they were too dumb to even feed at all and eventually died (on 2 separate occasions.) It's almost like their drive to eat was not there. I wonder if since they are tank-bred in a specialized environment they get too "domesticated" for even a reef tank?? The 2 wild ones adapted quickly to frozen foods and are still doing well today.

I'm only a few minutes from Hagerstown. Let me know what you are ready for some coral to get started. I have some LPS coral you can have frags of.