dangros
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Everything posted by dangros
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Not sure if it will help but I noticed that when turning down the powerheads at nights, the anem tended to retract less. May be worth a try
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very cool! They look really healthy. Mine are hosting the powerheads. Drives me nuts when there's a lonely LTA in the center of the tank!
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I'd be interested in a small purple if it's not too $
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interestingly, the Red Sea refr. has all the traits of the Marine Depot Pro but it's calibrated to 77F vs 68F. That seems like it would be a little more convenient as long as you measured right away w/o allowing the water sample to cool too much. It's a difficult choice, at least on paper!
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Some white vinegar will get that cleaned up. If there's a lot of coralline, I would remove it
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awesome. that's what I'm looking for - stable, easy to read instrument! Thanks guys! I noticed the marine depot one measures at 20C. Is that the temp of the refractometer or the water it's measuring? I guess it doesnt really matter b/c once those few drops of water sit for a few seconds, they will pretty much be at room temp.
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Tom - I appreciate the long post so dont sweat it! Wolf - BRS had a nice special on the digital Milwaukee during the black friday time frame. I knew I would kick myself for not going for it but I was a bit shell shocked after jumping at the Vertex 150 skimmer. I really want one that is easier to read but in the meantime, I'm gonna wash my crappy IO old school hydrometer after every use and hope it does the job. The refractometer is going in the trash. So I measured everything again today and it seems to be a bit more inline with what I would expect. The results: Mg - 1260 (keep in mind that I boosted it about 200ppm w/Gary's diy potion) Ca - 390 Alk 2.82 meq/l Salinity 1.0245 (was in between 1.024 and 1.025) Phosphates - 11 The phosphates are a little high but I am running GFO in the brs min reactor so hopefully that is gonna drop soon. After reading some posts, I suspect my BRS Pukani is leaching out some Phos. After measuring, I did a small water chg (approx 10g). I purposely mixed the water to 1.030 so that I would get the salinity up a tad in the tank and it worked perfectly. I will likely do another small water chg tomorrow. I think the reason things were out of wack was 3 fold: 1) my recraptometer was off (*and yes I did calibrate as instructed by the documentation using rodi water*) 2) as a result of #1, my salinity was too low causing my Mg to be lower 3) I needed to do more water chgs.
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I tested the water last night 2x. The first time, the Mg came out to a shockingly low 1100 ppm. So I checked the salinity with both the refractometer and the ole swing arm made by Instant Ocean. The io hydrometer measured the water at 2 g/cm lower than the refractometer. The thing w/the refractometer is that it's quite old. I dont know if that matters. It's also VERY hard to read due to the very small labels and my lack of 20/20 vision (dont get older people!) So I decided to pump up the salinity to 1.025 by measure of the supposedly less accurate swing arm and sure enough, the Mg tested at approx 1235. MUCH BETTER! So i suspect that the old refractometer is either inaccurate or too difficult to read/calibrate due to the ridiculously crowded tick marks and labels. I'm going to get a new one. Do any of you recommend one that is very easy to read? I took a look at the red sea one and it seems like it solves the prob I'm having. Note the Red Sea’s Refractometer display section: http://www.redseafish.com/red-sea-salts/seawater-refractometer-salinity-test/If you recommend a better/easier to read brand, please speak up!
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I dont think 1.022 is 17% low. I recall that 1.023 was within the range of acceptable. Having said that, 1.025 seems to be the recommended level. My RODI unit is in in the garage. So eventhough there are heaters in the trashcans containing the salt mix, I have, at times, measured the salinity in the cold b/f heating the water! Here's something REALLY interesting that I just found: the density of seawater (S = 35) changes from 1.028 g/cm3 at 3.98 °C to 1.025 g/cm3 at 20 °C to 1.023 g/cm3 at a typical marine aquarium temperature of 80 °F. Since the density of the sample is changing with temperature, the measured specific gravity will also change, unless this is taken into account.
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How does your tank look? It's got a black frame and clear glass all over There's a tiny bit of brown alg on the gravel but otherwise, looks quite nice now. What's your salinity? How are you checking salinity? What numbers are you getting for Calcium and Alk? Another way to get low numbers is low salinity. The typical numbers we're looking for are for water at 35 pt (or 1.0264 sg). Good questions, actually. My salinity was both high and low for a while but I corrected that this weekend. My Tunze auto topoff hose was submerged in the sump. So when the pump turned off, the water back siphoned back into the RODI reservoir. I didnt realize it till recently and fixed my stupidity. I've been keeping it at 1.025 but it got as high as 1.028 and low as 1.022 before I fixed the topoff. My shrimp didnt die so it couldnt have been too bad. That was scary though. I had nightmare visions of my floor getting soaked. Fortunately, that didnt happen.
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I'll chk the test kit but I have a feeling it's not that. Salifert tends to be right on and it's prob not a coincidence that my calc and alk were a little low also. I didnt use a kalk reactor, just the BRS mini reactor w/carbon and GFO. I also dripped Kalkwasser but w/RODI water. I'll make sure to test pure/new saltwater tonight. If that's as advertised, that should confirm that the kit is ok. If not, then it's either the kit or the salt.
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So I was testing my Mg this week and was quite shocked to see that it was at 950ppm. The tank is a very new setup but cycled (2-3mos old). I had only done a couple small water changes but since I dont have any coraline or much in the tank other than dry rock and live sand, I wouldnt expect such a drop in Mg. Especially since Instant Ocean has 1264ppm. Since then, I started boosting it up w/Gary's DIY formula and it seems to be bouncing back as expected. Anyone have any idea what could be dropping it - or are my expectations off base w/a cycled tank and only a couple small water chgs in 2 months?
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The green and blue look great!
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Pod Hotels? How about Brittle Star Hotels!
dangros replied to Squishie89's topic in General Discussion
At least you got something cool from the clam. -
Pod Hotels? How about Brittle Star Hotels!
dangros replied to Squishie89's topic in General Discussion
That's terribly cool! Where did you get the shell? Also, if you want to give out any more baby Brits, I'll be glad to grab a couple!! -
FYI, love the flakes. nice color and size. The pump, meh. It's ok but if you put on the lowest 2 settings, it makes a whirling noise due to the back pressure of pushing the water 5' up.
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I had a cheap ebay version and ended up with 0 readings on my tests but hair algae. I ended up going w/my good but still cheap ebay vendor and it was good. They are filterdirect. I think it's a great value. Feel free to email them b/c their customer service seems great.
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Did you say 500 Calc??! That seems way out of line - way too high. Read this: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php If I may also add, that when I experienced this issue: the first time was due to a hungry Urchin, and the 2nd time was due to the lack of Mag. Once I dosed it correctly, my other elements seemed to get back in line and the coraline started to thrive again. I suspect that is your prob. I would check for that first and try to isolate that Urchin son of a gun.
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Cool. I got 3 20lb bags. But it's the live sand so prob need another. Should do the trick for now. Can't wait to get this tank fully flowing
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Btw, I read ur entire tank build thread. Great read. I have the same tank but my lights r kessil and my fuge is a 40B. I also put in the Herbie. Water goes in this weekend. Love your rock scaping!
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What if we started a crowd funding drive to get one for the members? It would belong to the group and would be available to us as a service whose operating costs could be shared by member subscribers - if there were enough to commit. We would need an attorney who could write up the contract, etc. I wonder if it's feasible?
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Any idea how many lbs to get? I bought 3 20lb bags of live stuff
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I just bit the bullet and ordered the flakes from pa. After 20 years in this hobby I've learned that when I get impatient or substitute for what I really want, I end up Pying for it.
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I've seen the same. I guess I'll try it. I wish I could see it so I could decide b/w the mini-flakes and regular. Any consensus as to how many bags for my 90g or which one (mini vs reg)? I seriously doubt any local guys have it but that would be awesome
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So I went with the jebao 12000. The whole tank is setup and ready to roll with the exception of substrate and my rock scaping. I was curing the rock in a bin but the bin burst in the basement at midnight! Apparently the plastic was a bit old and brittle. One of the rocks broke through and BOOM! NOT FUN! Luckily, it was in the basement and we had removed all carpet when moving in. Even luckier, my wife was sleeping and I had finally finished the cleanup at 1:30am when she woke back up wondering where I was (gone swimming!). SO my plan is the test the tank to make sure things flow correctly and there are no leaks in my plumbing. Also want to make sure nothing splashes around in the oversized refugium I made. I'm a bit concerned about not having enough space in the sump area (I went with a 40g homemade fuge) to properly hide all of the wires and apex connections!! Fires are worse than floods. So anyone recommend a place for pretty white crushed coral? I would do sand but I dont want it blowing around like crazy with my RW-8s blasting the tank.