madmax7774

I have a Kalkstirrer to supplement my calcium , but I have chronically low alkalinity. Until I manage to find the money for a calcium reactor setup, I am adding bakind soda to my tank on a regular basis to keep the alk up. I just use a 1 liter juice bottle with RO water, and added a box of baking soda. I add dash each day, and it keeps my alk at 9.8 where I like it. John

I can't dispute the manufacturing details of kalk powder(calcium hydroxide), because I am not an expert. However, I will say that for me, in the last year, I have tried 3 different source of kalk powder with differing results: Ms. wage's pickling lime - I tried this for 2+ months or so, and it was terrible. It left a grey sludgey residue in my kalkstirrer, and I had trouble keeping my PH above 8.1, and the growth was not very good. I don't recommend this. Mississippi lime - i used this for about 5 months, and it was ok. still had low PH, and growth was average at best. ESV brand kalk powder - going 2+ months now, and results are superior to the rest. PH is stable now at 8.3, growth is taking off, and no sludgey residue. Oddly enough, it seems to last longer in the stirrir to. I'm not saying that the other's don't work, it's just that for my tank, and my situation, the ESV is superior, and in my opinion better. take that for what it's worth. John

on my aquacontroller, i broke the light on period down to 2H on 1H off and shortened the duration by 4H. I will gradually increase back to the old schedule over time. i have no idea about par, I don't bother with that. I have great growth, and thats good enough for me

The ushios are the exact same bulb as the old XM ones were, just different brand. Single ended Mogul base 10,000K 250W ushio bulbs. Running on a Pair of ARO electronic ballasts. My reflectors have not changed either, everything stayed the same except the bulbs.

For supplements, I have 2 48" VHO actinics (110W each). The combination of them, plus the ushio bulbs is stunning. The color on my system seems to "pop" alot more for me. I am just thrilled with the look of the tank.

For what it's worth, I just replaced my XM 250W 10K bulbs. Johnny from BRK uses ushio bulbs on his personalk tank, and I liked the look of them in his tank. I got a set for mine, and WOW what a difference. Ushio bulbs *for me at least* are definately a step up from XM. John

Deltec !

he is going to be using an octopus 150 recirc protein skimmer. Sahould work quite well for what he needs. John

His nitrates aren't at zero yet, just his phosphates. His nitrates are still up around 80 ppm which is why I want to help him get the wet/dry filter out. his bioload is actually relatively small for the size of his tank, and the volume of live rock. I am thinking that you guys have the right idea, that as long as we are ready for some water changes, he should be ok. We will also be pursuing a denitrator coil to help with the nitrates over the several months. John

I have a friend who just recently joined the boards (neofish) with a 5 year old 120g fowlr system. He faithfully does a 30g water change once per month. There is roughly 175-200lbs of live rock in it and the system has been relatively stable for over 4 years. The problem is that when he bought it and set it up, the LFS sold him a wet/dry filter, and nothing else. As you may already guess, after 4 years of use, he has extremely high nitrates and phosphates. (85-100ppm nitrates depending when the test is run) I have been working with him to get him off the wet/dry, and onto a protein skimmer/refugium setup. We put some cheato in his sump last month, and it is growing like wildfire. Already his phosphates are undetectable. He bought an octopus 150 recirc skimmer, which we are plumbing in this weekend. My question is, what is the safest way to get the wet/dry out of the system without crashing the system. I am thinking that with the age of the tank, and the volume of live rock, that we should be able to just take the wet/dry out of the loop after the protein skimmer is broken in. We are going to be adding a denitrator coil to the system as well to slowly bring down the nitrates. phospahtes are not a problem at this time, as the cheato seems to have eaten it all up. Over the last 4 months, I have given him numerous frags of various soft corals, and they are all growing really well, as they obviously like the high nutrient levels. He also added a tunze 6045 to his tank to get some circulation gowing too. His lights are T5's and for the softies that he seems to like are working well. Can anyone give me insight as to what would be the best way to remove the wet/dry from the system safely?? anyone tried to do a filtration switchover like this before?? any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, John

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. I am going to have a tank tour sometime before Christmas, so you all are welcome to come see it when the tour happens. John

If you look closely at the top of the left tower in the 1 day old photo of my tank, you can see the clear acrylic rod that I used to hold the towers together. I got the concept of the rock towers from surfing various reef sites, and I got the idea for the rod from Dandy7200. I was talking with him last year about how to accomplish it with something thinner than PVC pipe. he had some of the rods in his garage, and he came up with the idea of gluing the rods into a plastic cutting board and using that as a base buried in the sand to provide stability. Using a drill press with an auger bit, I was able to bore holes through the live rock, and the rest is history.... One big advantage to towers is that there is good circulation everywhere, and no dead zones. Also this affords me more swimming room for fish, and is the justification I have used for overcrowding my tank as much as I have. As for the piece of coral on the far lower right off my tank, it is a huge leather coral that I got from BRK, and has turned a nice tan color, and has some interesting polyp extensions on it. I am actually thinking about getting rid of it, as it takes up too much space, and I would like that space for more SPS corals. John

End of this month is the 1 year anniversary of my tank. I thought I would show off some pictures of the tank. here is a picture of the tank at 1 day old: here are some current shots: My tank specs are: 110g AGA display 40g GSA custom sump with built in refugium Deltec AP851 skimmer GSA kalkwasser 4 mj1200 powerheads on a red seas wavemaker 1/3 hp Teco chiller 2 xm 10K 250w metal halides 2 110w VHO actinics aquacontroller jr. 1 carbon chamber on mj600 automatic R/O topoff through kalkwasser controlled by AC jr. monlthy 30g water changes with reef crystals temp - 79' ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/phospate - 0ppm or ph - 8.3 calcium -485 pmm alk - 9.8 dkh magnesium - 1400ppm current "to do" list for my tank: swap out mj1200's for tunze's get a calcium reactor at some point replace my bulbs get a fluidized carbon chamber get rid of the anthelia !!!!! get rid of those pesky aptasia keep my xenia from growing out of control add some more rocks to use a places to put more corals ( you can never have enough spots for coral right?) As far as taking care of the tank and ongoing problems, the only real issue I am dealing with so far is that my alkalinity tends to be low (around 7 dkh) and I am currently slowly bringing it back up with baking soda. I have gotten it back to 9.8dkh, which is much better. I am watching to see how long it will take to start going down again. If it drops too fast, then it's time for me to get a calcium reactor. If it stays up for a while, then I can get by with dosing baking soda for now. Tank inhabitants: 3 firefish 3 clownfish 1 desjardini sailfin tang 1 powder blue tang 1 yellow tang 1 potters angel 1 chryserus angel 1 scribbled foxface 1 lyretail anthias 1 bangai cardinal 1 pyramid butterfly assorted corals, crabs, anenomes, and snails

I have a trio of clowns, which supposedly doesn't work. I have had them for almost 2 years. Not sure why you aren't supposed to be able to get way with this but... I have 3 tangs in a 48" wide 110G tank. I'm sure the tang police would be all over me if they knew. I added a yellow tang 5 months after I added my "final" tang which was a powder blue. It was like a jet Li movie for the first 48 hours, with all sorts of crazy kung fu action, but now they are like best friends forever, and swim everywhere together. Who'd have figured...

For me personally, I get all my fish from BRK. I know for a fact that they QT all their fish. They have an entire system dedicated to QT with hypo (and I think copper too, but I'm not 100% sure). The biggest reason to buy locally is to support the LFS. These local stores literally work their tails off to stay open, and service us as hobbyists. I appreciate that. The Internet stores have their place, as they help to keep prices in check, but nothing beats being able to walk in and see what you are buying. In both cases, fish can and do die after you bring them home. It happens. To me it's more of a headache to worry about shipping issues and arrival times and QT. With BRK, I know the fish is healthy, and QT'd properly, and I can see before I buy it. I have seen first hand the amount of work that BRK puts into taking care of their fish, and I can appreciate that.

The color choice is pure personal preference, and unless you've seen someone else's lights that you like, no advice will help on that. I have to agree with the others on the heat issue though. dual 400's and a 250 will definately cause heat issues. If you go that route, plan on a chiller. If you dont mind my asking, what size tank are you putting these on?