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thedude

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Posts posted by thedude

    Kingfish Aquariums

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Rey,

    Sorry no one has gotten back to you, please call me on my cell phone and I'll help in whatever way I can. Ps: we are looking to hire someone soon for maintenance which will improve my response time.

    John

    934 7470

    440 gallon build with water-cooled lighting

    in Tank Builds

    Posted

    Yep, just line them up one after another starting 12" up. I would then add a wavebox to the opposite back corner and you'll get some GREAT flow.

    FYI the wavebox has the equivalent of a Tunze 6100 pump inside of it. You can swap pieces to turn that 6100 into a 6200 and one wavebox will work on a really big tank. The 1100 gallon tank I'm referring to has dual 6200 modified waveboxes and gets a 1.5" wave on a tank 10'x4'x4'

    • Like 1

    440 gallon build with water-cooled lighting

    in Tank Builds

    Posted

    4 vortechs are more than enough flow for a 440 gallon tank, I have 4 in an 1100 gallon tank with one turned down. Youre misutilizing them but not placing them together. Random flow is not what many people think it is. What you want is a large, diffuse current carrying air, food, and waster away from your corals. Flow by friction's definition, is always random. The second you send a stream of water out, that stream bounces off other water molecules and creates the "random" effect. People in the beginning of the hobby used the term random meaning blowing into each other because the powerheads at the time would create a flow laser beam (think maxijet, not tunze) and blow the tissue off corals.

    Every tank is the same and you want to create a common current (gyre effect) by aiming all your powerheads in one general direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise). In this way, you utilize the kinetic energy of water and your flow will increase 10 fold. Try putting all 4 pumps up and down on one side of the tank and see what happens. I always recommend using a wavebox in a tank as large as yours as well as it accomplishes and up and down current that nothing else can really replicate.

    Search Gyre in Reefcentral and you'll get an idea how the effect pertains to our aquariums.

    Hope that helps,

    John

    • Like 1

    St. Thomas...USVI

    in Off Topic Discussion

    Posted

    I've been to St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix and they are truly beautiful relaxing places. I stayed at an all inclusive place (Wyndham I think) on St. Thomas and wouldn't recommend it. The beach was ok but the food after a day was terrible and we ended up eating out anyway. St. Thomas is by far the biggest tourist island as they have a ton of people coming off cruise ships daily and lots of shopping.

    St. John is the single most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. Something like 75% of the island is national park and the beaches have incredible snorkeling all over the entire island. If you go to St. Thomas you can take a ferry to St. John for the day and you will not regret it.

    St. Croix is kind of in between the two islands and is really cool. We stayed at the Bucanneer Hotel and the snorkeling was really great. I also did a "resort dive" where the dive shop came to the hotel pool, taught me how to dive in about 2 hours, then took me out into 35 feet of water with a master dive instructor. Snorkeling is great but diving is a whole different world.

    Zeovit Group Buy

    in Group Orders

    Posted

    I'd like to chime in my experiences with the Zeovit line pertaining to tanks not running the whole zeovit regime. I won't necessarily comment on the entire zeovit line as I haven't used the whole thing. Also, none of what I say is written in stone and some people have different experiences with different products.

    First thing to mention is that Spur2 (or any supplement that gets rid of "excess zooanthellae") is dangerous. If you overdose you will almost certainly screw up your tank and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone not using the full system.

    Second, the nano power supplements are great but the package is misleading. While a 20 gallon tank only takes 1-2 drops of sponge power, it takes significantly more pohl's xtra. The supplements do not last the same amount of time and the package is really only for tanks 20 gallons and smaller.

    PIF (Potassium iodide fluoride) is a supplement to enhance color. I haven't noticed a difference dosing it (either good or bad)

    Iron Concentrate is to enhance yellows and greens. It also grows fuge macro algae like crazy.

    Amino acids are supposed to enhance color and growth. I have seen a feeding response when dosing them but have no idea what the difference between the two is. The color enhancement is not dramatic but it makes the coral overall more healthy looking (better polyp extension, puffier lps flesh)

    Coral Vitalizer is a food that corals store within their tissue and after ~one month of dosing, SPS growth is increased.

    K Balance is a potassium supplement and having potassium at the correct level helps with color. That being said, potassium is hard to test and if overdosed can do WAY more harm than good.

    Sponge Power is for growing sponges, feather dusters, tunicates, etc. and absolutely works. This supplement is a no brainer to me as it requires a very small amount daily so the portion lasts for a long time.

    Pohl's Xtra is a color enhancing supplement and the most effective one at increasing color. It will not turn a green coral blue but existing colors become more vibrant and less brown is noticeable. I dosed this supplement for 9 months and absolutely noticed a decrease in color when I stopped.

    B Balance is a supplement designed to enhance blue and red corals but does so by getting rid of excess zooanthellae. While not as dangerous as Spur2 I would still consider it to be expert only.

    Coral Snow is best described as a clay like liquid that clouds the heck out of a tank. It soaks up yellowing agents and gels together proteins making it easy for the protein skimmer to take them out. It also feeds corals and coral vitalizer and amino acids can be dosed at the same time. This makes the tank very clear for 24 hours following dosing and will make your skimmer pull out some serious funk.

    Zeozyme is a bacterial enzyme stimulator. It is a powder that basically clouds the tank exactly like coral snow. I have no idea what it actually is, or what it is actually doing but when dosed on a regular basis it made less film algae and the water more clear.

    Zeomag is a dolomite calcium reactor material to be used in combination with ARM or whatever media you are using (except Deltec reactors). You use 10% zeomag and 90% aragonite and it keeps magnesium levels stable.

    For anyone looking into trying some Zeovit supplements I would recommend Sponge Power, Pohl's Extra, and Zeozyme (or Coral Snow as Zeozyme is expensive)

    If ya'll have anymore questions I'd be happy to answer them to the best of my knowledge.

    Thanks,

    John

    custom aquariums

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Medi,

    Sorry you had a hard time getting a hold of me. If you would still like please feel free to email me at [email protected] or call my cell at (512) 934 7470 and we can talk about your options. This goes for any of ya'll that need to get a hold of me as my phone is pretty much glued to my hip.

    Sorry for not getting back to you quickly,

    John

    Austin Aqua Farms

    in Off Topic Discussion

    Posted

    His site was hacked by russian hackers working for some real bad people about 3-4 weeks ago. The FBI got involved and I believe they got it resolved so I wonder if it is still showing the warning from that?

    I'll let him know.

    John

    Tank tour

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Beefy,

    While I appreciate your opinions, I think you're being pretty darn harsh. We had more meetings last year then we have ever had in Austin before and while recently the site has been slow, it's only the 8th of January. Every meeting, whether the tank is 500 gallons or 30 gallons, is still fun with the right planning.

    I for one am open to taking ya'll to some of our tanks for a tour. We'll have to plan plenty in advance as it takes the ENTIRE day (Marc's tour was from like 8am to 10pm). I still think monthly meetings are the way to do things because as you said, Austin is scattered. To go to one tank for a meeting for 2-3 hours isn't as big a deal to me as spending an entire Saturday looking at aquariums.

    As Andrew said, it just takes a coordinator to setup the place, refreshments, and speaker.

    John

    Tunze wavebox

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    The nano wavebox would be my pick for your 75 Mike. I do have one running on a 30 gallon but it doesn't make a wave like you traditionally think. We also have one running on a 150 gallon reef and while it makes a nice wave, it is hard to adjust and doesn't do what a full sized wavebox could do.

    Your tank being right in the middle should be perfect.

    John

    Feeding

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Dave,

    Blackworms are live but used mainly in freshwater applications, Bruce at Aquatek carries them.

    If your tank is well established you shouldn't need to supplement a green mandarin with the large volume you have. I would have waited until at least the 6 month mark to add a mandarin but I still don't think you should have any problems.

    John

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