AlanM

I got 2 gallons of muriatic acid from Lowes to etch doo-doo off some old live rock. In addition I'd like to use it to remove coralline and calcium deposits off an old aquarium. I know a lot of people use vinegar to clean off equipment of calcium deposits and old coralline and make it all shiny, but I only have vinegar in salad size quantities, so I'd like to use the HCl I bought already. I took chemistry too many years ago, so maybe someone can help me out with this. I know HCl is considered a strong acid, meaning it dissociates completely in water, so if you know the molarity of HCl then you also know the molarity of hydronium ions. My muriatic acid is 30% HCl, so by my math that's a molarity of about 8.61 mols of hydronium per liter. I read somewhere that storebought vinegar is about 5% acetic acid, which comes out to 0.85M, and it has a dissociation constant of 1.8e-5, so that seems like store bought vinegar would have a molarity of about 1.5e-5 mols of hydronium/liter. Does that mean that to get the same "dissolving power" of straight vinegar when using muriatic acid from Lowes I would have to dilute it by a factor of 8.61 / 1.5e-5 or 574,000? This comes out to 6.6 microliters per gallon, that's like a tenth of a drop. Seems like I must be doing something wrong. Are there any chemists around that can set me straight? I put a cup of the stuff into a 5 gallon bucket of water, hung a crudded up aquaC Remora on the edge and set it running. Seems to be working.

Neat. That lip on the edge of the dropoff seems like a good design idea, and not one I would have thought about. Otherwise you'd have a continuous sand avalanche over that edge.

LOL. I've got a page of math. Wish I knew BeanAnimal had that calculator up there. Guess I have a rounding error by 1gph somewhere in there. 8)

I'm doing the math to get flow for 5 feet drop of 1/2" schedule 40 PVC (0.622" inside diameter) and before friction or turbulence I get 1018 gal/h (can show my work if someone is interested). Have you seen something approaching that from a full siphon 1/2" drain?

Why doesn't everyone use one of these to hook up their RO/DI instead of using the saddle valve which makes a permanent hole in your copper? http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/home/plumbingfittings/maxadaptor Sorry for the coffee company link, but it's how I have my espresso maker hooked up and how I plan to hook up my RO/DI.

Thanks! Looks like I'm on my way to getting salty arms.

Email sent.

Where does the output of the bypass tee go in this picture? back in to the water that the pump is sitting in? Also, where is the output of the skimmer going?

Thanks for the answers! So if I'm understanding how the CS1 works correctly I'd have a section of the sump for skimmer and MR5 fed from the overflow or however I chose to get tank water into that section. I'd put a 350gph pump in there to send water from that section into the reactor, then straight from there into the skimmer, and the CS1 has an output that goes right back into the water that it sits in and overflows through a bubble trap or something into the return section of the sump? So the Sicce is pumping air, not water? Or is it pumping water, but using venturi to pull in air from the tube going up next to the collection cup? Maybe I'll figure it out better once I get it and see the parts. I'm getting in by switching hobbies. Sold my home brewery today and putting the money towards saltwater. Can't get approval to spend too much extra money on fishes, so I'll likely be doing the DIY stuff and the Avast stuff seems like the perfect option for me.

I'm planning out a system right now. Looks like it will be a 90g 36x24x24. I'll likely get the full blown CS1 skimmer kit with pump, locker, swabbie, and an MR5 reactor/nozzle kit to run biopellets right before the skimmer as you mention in the suggestions for the CS1. I see the liters per hour for the Sicce pump on the CS1, but I had a question about rates and running it with the biopellets etc. Should I just try to design the overflow system to match the 1100 lph of the skimmer and then put the Sicce pump feeding the biopellet reactor with water going from that and into the skimmer instead of the Sicce pump feeding the skimmer directly? If that's the case, it's a little low for the movement through the sump at only about 3x turnover per hour, so that must not be right. Would I keep the CS1 outside the sump or put it inside since it comes with the recirc base standard now or does the base not determine if it's internal or external? Would I somehow run the drain from the overflow directly into the skimmer and put the extra drain pipe (if it's a Herbie or Bean system) into the refugium or return section of the sump? I guess I'm not sure how the water travels through the system, into the sump, and to a return section with a return pump in the sump before being sent back to the display. I know it can be done in different ways, but I would like to know what the recommended way of running the CS1 is. Also, if I was going to divert some water at some point into a refugium in the sump at what point should I tee off? On the return output or on the skimmer output or input?

Ah. I know what a Dobie is, then. Mom used to used them to wash dishes. I use a dishwasher. 8)

I don't know what a Dobie is, but if I get an acrylic tank I'll look for it. I know what the magic erasers are. So some copper Chore Boy pads aren't a good idea? I've got tons of those from brewing. (joke)

Do you put the magic sponge on a stick somehow or get your arm in the tank or what? I'm 6'2", and I'm planning to put a 24" deep tank on a stand of about 40 inches or so. Then I'll put some benches on either side of it and in the front so that the kids can stand on them and check out the action. I'm hoping that I can stand on the benches and reach in down to the bottom comfortably. The bottom of the center back seems like it will be the hardest place to get to to clean, but that's the same for glass or acrylic. I know a lot of people actively try to get coraline on their back wall, but I don't think I'll like it. I'd like to try to keep the minimalness of the ADA planted tanks if I can which is why I'm thinking about rimless glass or acrylic. Maybe my aquascape will be a pyramid in the middle with the sides as far as I can reach from the sides so that I don't have to clean what I can't reach. 8) Maybe a rimless glass tank with a screen made of square acrylic rod and clear mesh sitting just below the top edge of the tank would keep the jumpers and snails in and not disturb the look too much.

Thanks for all of the feedback. So no one with acrylic has trouble getting up into the seam on the top to keep it clean? I'd been picturing that as a big pain with acrylic.

OK. I'd figured that small kids would go better with acrylic than with glass. They littlest one sometimes bonks his head on the planted tank (which the fish love, of course). Not hard enough to risk breaking it, but I'd just assumed that acrylic would be less prone to break. Is it the scratch issue with little kids again?

Way less than 300 gallons. Probably 3 feet wide and either 18 or 24 deep and 24 tall. So either a 65 or 90. I'd love to put a 4x2x2 120g in this spot in my house, but being that this is my first marine tank and my first tank above 20 gallons my household won't support that big of a jump in size. Not socially acceptable and not obvious that it wouldn't be a huge pain to walk around in the spot that has been designated for one. Maybe in the future. I'd likely do a DIY build with a 90 gallon kit of LEDs from RapidLED or something like that and work out the geometry with heatsink placement, sizes, and lens angles to try to keep the light off the viewing surfaces. Would love some Radions for the fun features but the v1 ones with new lenses are still twice as much as DIY. Plus I actually arrived at the WAMAS forums from a member here's LED tank thread on RC, chucelli, I think, when I was searching for more pictures of his nice tank and ended up here. Maybe I should contact him to get his advice since he's local. I like the idea of the ATI dimmable Sunpowers too, and think a 6x24" bulb fixture could be nice since it wouldn't spill off the ends of the 36" tank, but even that's much more than LED. I won't be going bare bottom. A lot of the reason for the tank is that I want my kids to be fascinated by what's going on in the tank, so I want lots of fun activity going on. My littlest gets really excited when the bristlenose catfish or Amano shrimp makes an appearance in my planted tank, so they're easy to impress. 8) I'm thinking a conch pulling itself along the bottom with it's mouth. A bunch of snails. A watchman goby/shrimp pair to make a little house in the sand. A clown pair. A bunch of hermit crabs. I know crabs are opportunistic eaters and will take out a fish or soft coral from time to time, but the kids will like them, so I'll probably get them. Maybe a banggai or pajama cardinal or two. Green mandarin and BTA would be great too, but would wait a good long while for either of those. Once I have the tank and it's wet I'm sure I'll be back for some suggestions for stuff in the tank that kids like.

I know lots here have acrylic tanks. How hard are they to keep really clean? Seems like it would be difficult to really get up under the perimeter brace to clean the top seam. Also, seems like any little scratch would cause a line of uncleanable algae to form along that scratch. Do they have a limited lifespan because eventually they build up so many little flaws that they look junky? How high do most people run the water line? I would like to not put a hood over mine if I got one, so I'd like to keep it very clear and clean with a water line as close to the perimeter brace as possible and as close to a rimless glass look as possible but without the possible rimless annoyances of jumpers or snails or splashing or needing to put an window screen on the top of your new pretty rimless tank because of things getting out (or kids tossing Transformers or Stomp Rockets in). What I really want is rimless glass, but it just seems like it's possibly more trouble than it's worth, so I'm trying to see if a similar but different sets of trouble exists for acrylic.

Not quite a qt how to, but there are a few on the reef central fish disease forums. It's one is what I plan to use. Tank transfer method: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1996525&highlight=tank+transfer

I was one of the ones interested. Would have felt guilty taking such a nice aquarium from someone. Glad you're setting it up.

I thought tuning of the Bean overflow was not done with the return pump, but with the gate valve leading out of the main drain pipe which should be operating at a full siphon. I thought you turn the return pump on basically full blast, open the main overflow drain full with the valve, and start closing it until you get it closed just beyond what it could handle coming from the return pump alone and then your "margin of error" or variation or what you're actually tuning is the second drain pipe and a minute amount of water that should always be sheeting down the sides of that pipe without making a transition to "slug" flow which sounds like a toilet flushing over and over. Is your return pump too big for the size of your main drain? Or maybe the weir is too low in the tank and if you want the water level a bit higher Adam could fabricate a piece of acrylic across the edge inside the tank with some slots on the ends and some plastic screws to hold it on so that the level is adjustable and less coupled to flow out the overflow drains.

Rob, I see lots of people advising no crabs in a reef aquarium. Normally because they eat the shrimps and snails (and maybe small fish?) and they eventually start picking on that one coral you wish they didn't. Do you just like them and feel the good outweighs the bad or view their predation as a natural balance or just haven't had any of those problems? Also, Quantum Reefs has on their new stocklist a conch that they say is a cyano buster. Have you ever tried one of those? Marc, I think your reef looks great. The dunes are cool. The rocks look **** and span to me in those pics you posted. The back and overflows and powerheads are the grungy parts and you could clean those without taking out all your hard work and risking huge loss. 8)

Here's what Tom at glassreef.com did with his smooth overflow. Maybe you could get Adam to make an L shaped piece of acrylic to clamp onto the back of the eurobrace to hold some gutter guard like this. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17655111&postcount=557

You have a lid? Maybe on the floor behind the cabinet?

Is that a little white spot I see on it's fin? Hope it doesn't have ich. 8)

Bet that low ammonia reading you got is due to the dead fish, not the cause of the dead fish. Nitrates going up after dead fish and a small increase in ammonia also seems reasonable since you didn't do any water changes before you took the reading. Sorry so many died. Will be cool to have a big school of fish for the kids to watch, so I hope you sort out what happened and try again. Maybe put a webcam on it after your next introduction and take an overnight movie.