jamesbuf

You answered your own question. Do a bunch of water changes the next few day to get it down. You could also get a nylon bag and fill it with phosphate remover, and put it somewhere in the back compartments. How much do you feed?? Sounds like you're probably overfeeding if your phosphates are that high.

What brand of skimmer is it? When was the last time anyone cleaned it?? If it has been a while since it's been cleaned, go get a large bottle of vinegar and soak the pump in a 50/50 vinegar and water mix. The vinegar breaks down any calcium deposits inside the pump.

Picked up this yesterday and watching some of right now. For those of you who liked Blue Planet and Planet Earth, this is a pretty cool documentary too. Its only $14 at the store.

David, having a single float valve is asking for trouble. I was lucky that when my single float switch failed, I only had maybe 5-7 gallons of RO water in the storage container. If I had just filled up the RO container, and all 25 gallons had been available to top off, I would've come home to a mess on the floor and a major kalk overdose. I know many people purposely have a small RO container just to avoid this very incident. I use a dual float switch to prevent overflows, as well as have a line of code in my aquacontroller to stop the ATO pump if my pH gets above 8.4.

Can't really tell without a picture, but it sounds like its' budding. I remember seeing Almon's large toadstool in the process of dropping a few buds. Pretty cool actually.

Honestly, you can go quite a while with just a Kalk reactor before you end up needing a Calcium reactor. You have to have quite a bit of SPS to justify a Ca reactor.

Oh yeah, you could also use this: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Two-Part-Kit...oduct_info.html It goes on sale for only $69 (hehe) this Friday. Yes, even BRS is having a Black Friday sale.

I just got one of those 5gallon Kent Aquadosers to do this exact thing. Its for my Mom's 90gal. Also, have you considered just adding the Vodka to your auto top off water. Most people's evaporation is faily consistent. Would be pretty easy to calculate how much to put in each back of new RO water.

Go with 400watt ballasts, 20K Radiums, and Lumenbrightreflectors. The Lumenbrights allow you to put the reflectors up higher, so there is less of a heat transfer. According to what I've read, the LBs are designed to put 15" or higher over your tank, without a sacrifice in PAR. If height is an issue, then just go with Lumenarcs. I'd go with either or those reflectors over an HQI or mogul pendant.

Bingo. I definitely owe him one.

Nope. The drain from the skimmer cup will eventually drain into a 5gal bucket or something. I only have it setup that way right now until the skimmer finishes it's break-in period. I was told that the skimmer can go wacky and overflow the cup during this period, so its best to just allow it to drain into the tank if there is an unfortunate overflow. It hasn't produced anything yet. Gotta get the oils and residue off the new acrylic. This is my first brand new skimmer since I got my old ASM. That thing took almost a week to produce anything, I'm hoping the wait for this one isn't as long. I probably shouldn't have sold my Deltec just yet. I'm running my fuge 24/7 until the skimmer starts producing something. I'm sure once it does though, it'll clean the water pretty quickly.

Yes, the clear tubing is the feed line to the Orca. I'm gonna replace with with black tubing eventually. No more toys coming online just yet. My Kalk reactor has been keeping up with my Ca needs just fine, for now anyways, so no need for a Ca reactor just yet. One will probably be used to feed my BRS media reactor, one for a denitrator, and one as the feed for the 60gal in my bedroom. A few extras there for future needs. Maybe a remote DSB. Who knows. All I know is that I won't need individual maxijets to feed equipment anymore!!!

Already have plans. The equipment closet is actually next to my bedroom, so I'm setting up a 60gal cube (2X2X2) in my bedroom, and just plumbing it in-line with my existing system. Its gonna house my Riteri anemone and clown trio. I'm sure the skimmer will also be able to handle any other upgrades I may decide in the future. After having seen Eve's beautiful tank today, I know I'm gonna own a monster tank one day in the future. Can't wait.

That's exactly what what it does. As you can see, it converts to 2" to 4", then 4" to 6" opening. I wanted my equipment on top of the stand, but I didn't want tubing and PVC going all over place, so I figured one drain up top could help do away with alot of the excess tubing. I installed that about a year ago.

Depends. I personally don't like non-recirculating skimmers. I had a non-recirc skimmer once and I'll never own one again. Having the bubble producing pump also be the feed pump, means that all king of crap is gonna get stuck inside the needlewheel. The first time I cleaned the needwheel, it have snail shells, cheato, and all kinds of other random crap caught inside the needlewheel. It wasn't until after I cleaned out all that junk, that I realized how much this severaly affected bubble production. I'll always own a recirculating skimmer because it increases dwell time and you can filter the water coming into the skimmer, so that no large particles get inside the skimmer body to clog the needlewheel. I don't think this will be an issue with the Reefle pump though, since it'll probably rip anything large into shreds. Plus I like not having my skimmer sitting in the water. All kinds of stuff grown on the outside of the skimmer and such. Plus, I like how I have the skimmer at eye level. I used to hate having to get on the floor and squeeze inside the stand to do maintanance on my in-sump skimmers. Now that I have all my equipment in the closet, I'm much better about doing my regular maintanance on equipment. That being said, I've been impressed with every BubbleKing I've ever seen. I think they are WAAAAAAAY overpriced for what they are. I ended up getting an incredible deal on the Orca, which ended up about 1/4 of the price of a comparable rated BubbleKing. I don't care how good those Red Dragon pumps are, they aren't worth that. I saw two people using this skimmer before me, Dan (zoozilla) and Kahn (Bendalat), and both have had great success. I've seen what this skimmer can do and I'm looking forward to having this skimmer for many many years to come.

Oh yeah, forgot to say what kind of skimmer it is. Its an Orca 250, with a Reeflo needlewheel pump.

Finally got my latest toy up and running last night. How does one upgrade from a Deltec. Look and see................. There is easily 3-4 times as many bubbles in the body as compared to my old Deltec. Looks like it's in the "break-in" period, but a foam head is starting to form this morning. This thing is a BEAST!!! I'll never have to upgrade again!!!

agreed, it is pretty funny. Its all about the music. And I'm sure it's not "trained. The tank is probably the same width as the treadmill, so the shrimp has no choice to but to run on the treadmill.

Very nice aquascaping. Definitely tagging along to see the process of this one..............

Can we get a pick of your refugium? Sounds pretty cool.

I wonder if this toolbag even knows what he's covered in GROSS!!!!!

Hmmmm, guess I'll have to wait to see what this is. Somehow I think the joke's on me this time

Will I be able to pickup that Deltec you owe me the grand re-opening?

There is a retro light setup in the for sale section right now. Its a: 60" 3-400W MH AND 2-140 WATT VHO, SUPERBRITE HAMMERTONE REFLECTOR, ALL BULBS LESS THAN A MONTH USE - $450 This is a retro kit that you screw into the inside of a canopy. It might be overkill on the 400watt bulbs though, and it would most likely cause some overheating unless your tank is in the basement, or you have a chiller. Just drop the $20 and join. Trust me, if you haven't make that $20 back within the first month, or even week, I'll give you $20 myself.

Don't buy into the hype. The Odyssea fixtures really aren't that good. I had one of the 24" versions of that light. Power compact lighting is obsolete. I wouldn't invest money into a fixture that has them installed inside. The ballast that came with the hood was also a piece of junk. Turned even my 14K bulbs a little yellow looking. Count on having to replace the ballasts if you buy that fixture, not to mention the bulbs that come with it. You don't save any money in the long run, trust me. Do you plan on having a canopy over your tank?? If so, I'd think about a retro lighting setup to save money.