JC Pollman

I bought some butterflies from Blue Ribbon Koi this weekend and John told me that

Bi-colors are notorious for not eating, so make sure it is eating before you buy. I would caution you against getting another dwarf angle. Your flame is very likely to aggressively pick on it - particularly if it has been in your tank for a while. As a thought, you might want to consider an angle from the genus: Genicanthus. They are planktivores and will do well in a reef. Search carefully as some can be very expensive, but the Lamarck anglefish is usually fairly cheap. Also, they usually do not grow too large - max size in the wild is about 9 inches.

I think you might be mistaken: HD and Lowes carry sch 40 only. As for thin wall, you might be thinking of cpvc pipe - the tan colored ones.

I think you hit the nail right on the head: everyone is basically pushing the debris down and into the rocks. Your solution to push the water straight down along the backside of the tank is recommended by a number of experts - particularly if you are going bare bottom. The only solution I can recommend for mounting your powerheads is to buy some acrylic and make your own supports - which, actually, is not too difficult to do. I have given a lot of thought to this problem, and because I want a deep sand bed, shooting strong currents down the back of the tank is not going to work very well - I have already tried. Plans for my next tank include a lattice of pvc pipe just under the sand with nozzles. My thought is that most water movement schemes actually help gravity keep the debris down, I want to fight gravity by moving water from the bottom to the top and then out via the overflows. It is going to take a good sized pump to make it work, but I think this will allow me to keep a deep sand bed and get the debris out of the tank. The challenge to all this: convincing my spouse how important a new tank will be :wink:

Just a thought: you might want to think twice about using pickling lime if you are using a neilsen reactor. Chemically it is the same as any other kalkwasser product, but it is not as finely ground. I found that, when using pickling lime, my stir/recirc pump (a maxi jet) lasted about 9 months, and some of the pickling lime never dissolved, so I had to clean out my kalk reactor about every other month. You can find pretty good prices on line - $18 plus shipping for 4 lbs. http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=esv+ka...=Search+Froogle

If you have not ventured into the Bryopsis and Baking Soda arena, it is worth going through some of the threads for a few chuckles. Note: these are professionals and should not be attempted at home! A few examples: Fish Dyeing Fish list for a Nano Overflow Dangers An example: New heater There is a new heater out based on entirely new technology. It's called the micro-heater. Fascinating technology, it looks like a normal heater, but is a little fatter at the bottom. I think that the bottom must be where the microwave bulb rests. It's 1200W and will get the tank to it's proper temp in about 30 seconds. At first I was worried about the new heater, you know, fish can't change their temp that fast. But then I realized that the new heater would heat up the fish at the same speed as the rest of the tank. That must be what they mean by "Instant Acclimation" It's really cool for other reasons as well. If you grind up a bunch of aluminum or other metal and pour it in the tank, the heater will make all the bits sparkle just like star trek - what could the fish like more than riding in a tank that looks like a startrek transporter beam?!? There is a warning, something about a pacemaker, but my grndma didn't notice when she came over, so I kept my mouth shut.

Here is a link to alot of DIY stuff - including a kalk reactor. All of it is nicely documented and cheap. The only thing is that it is made of PVC, so you can not see inside, but the price is also much cheaper than acrylic, and PVC is much easier to work with. I have made the skimmer and kalk reactor and can attest that they work well. http://themantledmonster.thereeftank.com/diy.html Or, if you want to really go with a budget operation: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=868186

One alternative is to put a T on the output of the pump. The extra output from the T goes through a ball valve and then back to the sump. That way you are bleeding off the excess pressure back to the sump.

A couple of other DIY products for the tank that I made along the way: DIY Live Rock: Top off/kalk switches: I used 3 float valves - each attached to a seperate solenoid. The idea is to seperate water level from PH/kalk top off: 1. The bottom one controls the water level so I do not run my pump dry 2. The middle one controls the kalk top-off: I use a ph controler to determine when to add the kalk, but sometimes I forget to add the kalk and without a shut off float switch the controller would just keep pumping water through the kalk reactor into the tank. 3. High water float valve cuts off all water in case either of the other two stick. My neilsen (kalk) reactor. No need to spend money on acylic tubing, but I do like to be able to see inside to see if I need to add kalk, so I cut a hole in the pvc and glued on a piece of acrylic as a window. I also have a drain on the bottom so I can remove the non-dissolved kalk without dumping out the entire reactor.

Sohals are great swimmers and, to be truthful, I would not put one in a tank less than 8 feet - they are probably the most active fish you can buy. They are also mean as H-E-double hocky sticks when they get big and like to kill other fish for no apparent reason. I would put a sohal up against a trigger any day.

The tank is 8' x 2' x 20" and is aprox 200 gallons. It is designed for fish as I wanted to give them as much room to swim back and forth as possible. It has been set up for 2 years and is finally up to the standards I want. I have been running it as a semi-reef tank as I figured if I could keep corals, I would be able to keep the more demanding fish: in particular - butterflies. During the next month I will be getting rid of the corals, and hopefully by 4th of July, have a "butterfly garden". I have had butterflies before, but they are so demanding of the water parameters that they never lasted long. Anyway, here are some pics: here is the start of the tank: Here is the front - hard to give 8 feet the proper perspective: Here is part of the back:

There is no collection cup - I have a pipe that goes from the top of the skimmer to a bucket on the floor. There is still some work to get it tuned as I am skimming very wet right now: all foam, but I ended up with a gallon of foul smelling liquid this morning. I bought the air stones at: http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseac...d/9751/cid/2328 Side note: everything about my tank is DIY, including the tank: plywood and epoxy.

This project has been in the works for about 5 months, and now that the kitchen is done, the cars are running again, family and work satisfied, I finally got enough free time to build it. It is a 6 foot tall, 6 inch diameter, counter current skimmer. And so far, it is working better than expected. A few pics: The air stones: My set up: from left to right: ozone reactor, skimmer, kalk reactor: With me in the picture to give a size perspective: This a picture of the 9 inch upper tube 30 minutes after I started it up: Costs: Air pump $200 PVC parts $150 air stones $30 The air pump is an Alita 40, and puts up way more air than needed - I had to put a bleeder valve on it. The air stones are 6 inches from Aquatic Eco-Systems. Hopefully my tank mates appreciate it as much as I do

Personally, I stick with salifert. I know there are come complaints about a few of their kits (colors are hard to see) but in general, their kits are at least as accurate as anyone elses. Here is a pretty good place on line for buying test kits. http://www.aquatictech.com/misc.html Note: I have nothing to do with this company, I just pass on the link because I have shopped with them and their prices and service are good.

Part of the the issue is: how long has your 55 been set up? If it is more than a year I would not transfer much of the old sand. If you do use all of the old sand, you are bringing with it all the phosphate and nitrates in the sand. I think a better way to do it is fill your new tank with 130 lbs of new sand and then add 10 lbs of the sand from the top layer of the old tank to seed the new sand.

My 2 cents

Another alternative is to make your own SCWD, here are two threads to consider: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=845649 http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=843091

I started out with two SCWDs run by two Mag 9.5s. It was a waste of money. The SCWDs ran about a year before they bit the dust, and the MAGs should never be run an external pumps for any period of time: they eventually heat up and the inside core deforms which makes them freeze up. I am now running two Squirts powered by two Eheim 1262s. I could not be happier. Technically the Squirts do not produce random water flows, but for the money, they do a great job, and they have been rock solid for me - just like the Eheims. I save every penny I can in this hobby (I even made my tank and live rock) and I would say that OM equipment and Eheims are the cheapest way to go for the long haul.

Here is a pretty detailed thread on how to build a tank. Now, he is building an acrylic tank, but, other than the gluing, most of the the info should be useful to you: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=390652 A detailed thread: Step-by-Step: Drilling Holes in Your Glass Tank for Bulkheads http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=603816 Also, a note on Mags: I would not recommend them for a closed loop. I had 2 closed loops with Mag 9.5s, and burned up 4 Mags in less than a year. They have real problems when run externally. Danner was very good about replacing them, but you will be out of a pump for 3 weeks. I have been running a Mag internally (in the water) for almost 2 years, and have not had any troubles. The Eheims I bought to replace the Mags on the close loops have given me no trouble - well worth the money.

A couple of articles you might want to read: Everything you always wanted to know about magnesium, but were afraid to ask: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2003/chem.htm Near the bottom is the discussion about calcium and magnesium The affordable way to keep calcium and magnesium levels up: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php And a nice calculator to figure out how much stuff to add: http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

What is your magnesium level? It can make a big difference keeping your calcium up.

My experience has been that kalk will hold the calcium at a level, but will not raise it much. For raising it, I use the calicium as listed in this article: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/chem.htm Walmart had the Prestone Driveway Heat during the winter, and for 10lbs I think I paid about $10. Might be hard to find right now, but if you ask, they may have some in the back. As for raising the calcium, I use this calculator: http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html which has Randy's formula's listed as well. Hope this helps. JC

I have been running purigen for several years and, generally, am quite happy with it. Unfortunately, I have had to swap it out about every week as it is usually completely changed color/exhausted by that time. I added an ozone generator to the tank about a month ago. Seems to be working well - at least as good as advertised. I continued running the purigen as usual, and now, a month later, the purigen is as white as the day I put it in. So I guess the ozone is doing its thing. Cautionary note: you really should run the water coming out of the ozone reactor/skimmer through activated carbon, not to remove excess ozone - which is unlikely - but ozone will create bromide bleach which will cause serious problems with your livestock. In most cases, purigen is a better product than activated carbon, but it will not handle bleach of any kind - so this is one of the few times that activated carbon is better. Between the ozone and the activated carbon, I just might put the purigen back in its container for future use.

200 gallons reef - homemade plywood tank 60 gallons worth of sumps

Is the blueface still available? If so, what is the size and price? Thanks, JC