dangros
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Everything posted by dangros
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Thanks Bruce, but I have plenty of chaeto and a couple other red/purple macros in the fuge. They just dont see to take off. BTW, Just saw your tank on AA. WOW!! Nice. Maybe I'll pick some chaeto up just to see the tank
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I pretty much do the same! I have the eqiv of a 100w CF bulb over the fuge ( this one: http://www.amazon.com/Philips-433557-100-watt-Twister-4-Pack/dp/B00M6SR1JM?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage ) My macro doesnt seem to grow to the point of harvest for some reason. It just stalls out and gets a light green slime on it. I will harvest the slime today during my water chg. I have a CaRx so I dont need to do 2-part. It also seems to dose the Mg in good proportion (love the calc reactor!)
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I would love to implement this but that means redoing the plumbing. Something I would be up to but not without help. I know I've at least damaged a coral by dumping water on top of it. I do my best to equalize temps and salinity but you never do get it just right. Having said that, I did see a new product on BRS that allows you to calibrate temp probes. I think I'll get it. To answer the food question: I feed hikari mysis, rods herbivore, rods, or reef frenzy. I know a couple of the main guys that have insane tanks (copps, and slief from reefcentral) utilize uv sterilizers. Something I would be more open to if I didnt have to replace a bulb every 9 months. I have a feeling that helps.
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My tests always come out to 0 so I stopped testing for nitrates and phosphates. I only test for alk, mg, and ca lately. I haven't tested P04 in a while b/c the low range hanna checker always reads 0 even for short periods where I stopped using GFO and some GHA started sprouting back. I've taken a shop-vac to my sump/fuge but there's no sandbed in there so must things get picked up by current. I havent blown the live rock when doing changes so that could be a way to improve some things (thanks for the suggestions!). I'll take a powerhead to it this weekend to see what happens. Hopefully I dont bleach out my last blue SPS! I didn't mean to suggest that GFO killed/bleached out the SPS. I was just saying I still have some algae in the tank in spite of using it and performing the regular water changes. I also didnt mean to suggest that my tank is doing poorly. It's just not WOW like some other 90g tanks I've seen and I dont seem to get that great SPS growth, albeit some does grow. It leads me to believe that something is just slightly off.
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I'm wondering if I am missing something or doing something wrong w/my tank. After trying to maintain good husbandry babits (5-15g weekly water changes, GFO & carbon reactor, feeding lightly, refugium, expensive hardware, etc), running for a year and 1/2 w/some SPS, anemones, and just a light load of fish, I still dont have what I would consider an algae free, coral thriving setup. The algae is minor but it looks like a little redish cyano on a powerhead and some on the gravel. The coraline, which has now exploded, also had some brown **** in places. It's not terrible but I've seen tanks which have none of that stuff! Even worse, a couple corals punched me in the gut and bleached out: A Copps hoek and a red dragon. The hoek bleached out last night but I have no idea why or how. The dragon bleaching I THINK happened after some maint, the water level dropped and when the ATO was turned back on, ran too much through the return and into the dragon. I am not sure of this but that's all I have to explain it. That or a water change which may have been the wrong temp shocking it as water was poured directly onto the coral? I thought I had all the hardware and was doing all of the right things, but outside of upgrading to a 300g monster tank, I dont know how to improve my setup. Can anyone with LOTS of experience suggest something? This is what gets really frustrating about this hobby! Tank 90g w/1-2" gravel. Sump: 40g w/fuge "growing" chaeto and some rock Skimmer: Vertex Omega 150 Filtration: Sock replaced once to 3x a week (usually 2x). Lights: Two Kessil 360we. Ramp up at 8am, ramp down quickly by 7:20. Alk/Calcium: GEOS 620, levels kept at 9dKH, 410-420 Ca Other: Avast Spyglass reactor filled 50% carbon, 50% GFO (expected this to solve issue but hasnt, running only 2-3 weeks)
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Mine seems consistent and ok now. I actually had high readings for alk and had to adjust my reactor so I was taking frequent readings after turning off the reactor for a day to let the readings drop. Other than being surprised at how quickly the alk dropped (1 dKH in 24hrs), the readings were quite consistent w/the new batch.
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Return pump options....any recent additions
dangros replied to Der ABT's topic in General Discussion
Over the years, I've had experience with 3 pumps on one 75g and 2 90g tanks: The first 2 were Mags. They lasted many years and probably still work! The drawback is that they ran hot and loud. Lots of vibration! Not something I would tolerate today. When I setup my new 90g I wanted quiet but didnt want to keep breaking the bank, so I went with a Jebao 12000. It's a little over a year old and in spite of the high reported failure rates, it continues to work. Concerned with the reliability and reported failure rates, I was not going to take the chance. My luck would mean a dead pump while I was out of town on vaca. So it is now my backup and I replaced it with the new Ecotech Vectra M1. It is 100x quieter!. People claim the Jebaos are quiet but they still have a very high pitched whirl that drives me nuts. The rw-8 powerheads have the same issue(s). People have different tolerances for noise. They are by no means loud, but anyone who says it's dead silent, is dead wrong. My Echotech is dead silent and I dont hear it b/c it's quiet, not b/c something next to it is drowning it out. The only drawback is the lack of integration w/the Apex. For the guy wailing on Ecotech products, I'm sorry, I dont think those are shared sentiments. I would refer a potential buyer to scan the boards. View for yourself. Enough reliable experts with time tested techniques will stand out. One final observation w/Jaebo: If you look at the reviews for Jaebo products on amazon, you'll see very high positive remarks but very high negative ones as well. I interpret that as a "good till it fails rating." Hope this helps. -
Thanks guys, this is very helpful. ctenophore: Dan said I should get the medium, however, the small holds up to 500ml of media (little > 2 cups). According to BRS's calculator, that should suffice for GFO and rox. That's as long as I don't go with their recommended 3:1 rox to carbon ratio. Do you agree? Now, I did state that I have a 90g tank but the sump is a 40B. So I used about 110g in their calculator. And that really doesn't account for all of devices, the live rock, and 1-2" of gravel. In order to do this, I will have to redo the plumbing, which includes replacing my Jebao 12000 DC with something a LOT more reliable and quiet. Do you guys point me to someone who could help me plan this re-plumbing thing out?
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that would be awesome! Thank you!
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1) Thanks again for the experience - yes it helps. 2) I spoke with them via email and that's where I got the reactor size recommendation - which made me hesitate. 3) I'm now worried about the sound. My tank is REALLY quiet and once I replace my return pump, it's going to be almost totally silent. So, if this reactor makes noise, that wouldnt make me too happy. 4) I like the idea of fluidized carbon over stuffing it in a bag (as long as it doesnt create fines). My carbon clumps up in the bag with the GFO and I'm sure that makes it much less effective.
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I'm trying to find out if it's 1) silent 2) worth it 3) how effective it is with gfo and carbon. Avast says you can tumble both in there but everything I see says not to tumble carbon so that you avoid creating dust. 4) the size I would need. Avast says for my 90g mixed reef, I should get the middle one. I have almost no room to begin with so if I can get away with the smaller one, that would be great. Thanks for the feedback!
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I saw a post about that product and what they expected pricing to be. The disks were not cheap! But then again, I dont think anything in this hobby is except bad equipment
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If one of you guys would invent an alkalinity probe, we could avoid this mess!
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Wow. I bet this is gonna cost them a fortune. Mine came today.
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I was the one that started this thread and I still havent gotten mine. I asked them last week and the response was 5-10 business days. Origami already got his
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Anyone have experience with the Avast Spyglass reactors? I would like better than dumping a bunch of bags in my sump. My BRS mini reactor clogged after about a day's use so I'm a bit resistant to try their full size reactors. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated b/c I'm not sure it's worth it. Plus, I will have to do a LOT of re-configuring to fit one of these bad boys in my crowded sump.
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yes, here's the exact quote from hanna's email when i told them I had one unopened refill: The one in the package still will be fine to use once you open it just make sure to store it upright on your shelf. So all you guys who just purchased the refills but haven NOT opened them, should still be good as long as it's left upright ONCE opened. I will still throw mine out once the replacements arrive. There's no need to risk my livestock for a $7 bottle. I may still get the red sea pro just to verify the readings are similar.
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Origami- not fair! I ordered before you!
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I contacted Hanna since I still haven't received mine. They said 5-10 business days. If you haven't opened the bottle, then it should still be good as long as it's not laying sideways once opened. It needs to keep from touching the metallic cover.
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I think I did Sterling glass also. They were great.
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Yep, they confirmed with me as well. It's absolutely legit. Very odd that they would use a different domain like that but I guess they didn't want to risk polluting their main consumer site with a quick modification. In any case, mine was stored in the horizontally in the kit and hence is no good. Think I'll get a red sea pro kit for the time being. Need a refill on my calcium kit as well so good time to stock up on some stuff.
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I emailed hanna support for more info. I'll let you guys know if I find something - the site definitely looks fake though.
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Yeah, I'm usually pretty good about catching scams too. I was pretty tried last night though and didnt think to verify! I saw the thread on reefcentral.
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My refill was brand new and giving high values as well.
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Both of my refills are bad and I suspect that the orignal that came w/the meter was bad too. I have a feeling that this is a HUGE issue. Mine were purchased several months ago and the meter a year ago! That's a huge range when you combine it w/the others. Please spread the news.