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renman303

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    renman303's - 225 gallon Blog

    in Tank Builds

    Posted

    Well, it's been nearly a month since starting my drip method from Bulk Reef Supply. I am dripping Calcium at the rate of 1 drop every 12 seconds and Sodium Carbonate at the rate of 1 drop every 13 seconds.

    Everything is SPOT ON!

    Salinity: 1.026 or 35 ppt

    Magnesium: 1400

    Calcium: 425 ppm

    Phosphates: 0

    dKH: 9

    Still doing 10% weekly water changes every Monday morning. Since evaporation causes the salinity to increase, I have found that by mixing my new salt water at 1.020 or 32 ppt, It drops the salinity back to 1.025. Seems to work really well, no crazy chemicals to add, I'm only testing now "ONCE A WEEK".

    Protein Skimmer: I now only run the protein skimmer for 48 hours a week. I plug it in on Saturday and unplug it on Monday during the water change. It's making a huge difference in the amount of growth on the Algae Turf Scrubber and is now barely pulling a thing from the water. :)

    How much to feed?

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Ditto Gabe on this one. I melt one cube once a day plus one tightly rolled hunk of Nori on a "tent clip" tied with fishing line (No pun...courtesy and kudo's to the Mannin's for this idea). Once every 3 days I melt a cube of some sort of Coral plankton food and dump it in the water stream AT NIGHT. Turn off the Protein Skimmer if you are using one. I don't spot feed corals but do give a big chunk of fresh shrimp directly to both my BTA and my Tiger Serpent Star.

    Letter from Moody Gardens, Galveston

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Just thought I'd share this with everyone. I posed some questions to Moody Gardens and while general in nature I thought it interesting to see what the big boys are doing in terms of Marine water, light and chemicals. I do weekly 10% water changes and it was nice to see that this is what they adhere to as well.

    Cheers!

    Dave

    "Greetings David",

    Thanks for your enquiry about our marine aquariums, I’ll answer your questions as best I can. If you have any additional ones, please let me know.

    Most of our systems are very simple but efficient, we have biofilters, mechanical filters using floss, bags, and cartridges, protein skimmers, UV sterilization, and some of the tanks have ozone. We don’t use turf scrubbers but do have refugiums with macro alga on the coral holding systems.

    Water quality parameters differ depending on the animals housed in the exhibit and their requirements. I’ll give you parameters for our warm water marine tanks and reef exhibits.

    Temperature: 780 – 84o F

    pH: 7.8 – 8.3

    Salinity: 32 – 35 ppt

    NH3: 0.00 mg/L

    NO2: 0.00 mg/L

    NO3: 1 – 10 mg/L

    PO4: 0.00 mg/L

    Ca: 250 – 450 mg/L

    Alkalinity: 2.0 – 4.0 meq/L

    We perform 10% weekly water changes as SOP and as needed to maintain optimal health of the animals and system. We are very fortunate here to have natural seawater available to us from Offatts Bayou, an adjoining body of water to West Galveston Bay. The water quality remains fairly consistent all year long which really helps us out, though we do have to deal with some extremes for rainfall or drought. If we have to add salt to the seawater, we use a commercially available mix made for public aquariums in Dallas. We also have a few RO units available for that purity of water if we need it as well.

    Lighting conditions vary by tank, depending on animals and environment. We use a combination of PC’s and metal halides, together or separately on a 12 on/12 off cycle. The PC’s are 65 watt square pin 10K’s or actinics and the metal halides are 400 watt 10K, 14K, and 20K’s. The primary consideration as to the combination we use is the best intensity and spectrum needed for the target animals, whether soft or hard corals to our dimly lit deep water tanks. For the corals we usually use a combination of 10 and 20K’s, it’s a good formula that works 90% of the time. No real need to reinventing the wheel. As you know though, you always have to tweak the externals; light, flow, water quality, chemical additions, animals placement, etc, to get things just right. Aquariums are dynamic environments that constantly change day to day, demanding our attention to detail. They’re also quite forgiving because nature has an extraordinary way if keeping itself in balance.

    I hope this has helped somewhat with your questions. The best of luck to you and your club, remember, we are stewards of the animals we care for and it is our privilege, not right, to share the earth with these beautiful animals. Take care.

    Roy Drinnen

    Assistant Curator of Fishes

    The Aquarium at Moody Gardens

    One Hope Blvd.

    Galveston, Texas 77554

    Off: (409) 683-4103

    Cel: (281) 642-5354

    Fax: (409) 683-4943

    [email protected]

    August ARC Meeting

    in Meeting Archive

    Posted

    Here is a pic of the clam with the GSP covering the shell. I've had it for about 2.5-3 years. Doesn't seem to effect it at all. Clam is about twice as big as when I bought him. BTW, I bought him with the GSP all over him already.

    post-155-12506143096744_thumb.jpg

    August ARC Meeting

    in Meeting Archive

    Posted

    Dave,

    Thanks for opening your home to a bunch of reef addicts. Your tank and set up are superb. And the HOMEBREW was fantastic. Thanks again.

    Dave-

    It was a pleasure having everyone over and being able to put faces to the names. We had a great time and would love to do it again. In fact, Nell and I were talking and if we wanted to do an "off site" meeting (think outside the tank) and had a guest bring in some new contraption or a "Swap Meet" for frags, fish and inverts, we would love to host it at our restaurant, Nonna's Mediterranean Fusion. We are always Closed on Sunday's so it would be an ideal time to meet. I could set up a buffet for everyone and we seat 50 people. We could have a guest speaker or whatever.

    If you want to see Nonna's via the net here is a link to my Facebook page for Nonna's. Nonna's Mediterranean Fusion Another shameless plug....anyone wanting to see or hear Gina on her drum kit can go to her Facebook page....Gina Bongiovanni-Osmar, aka: Drummergirlgina

    Just a thought...

    ps: I hope I didn't ignore anyone's requests? If you want some Corals and I forgot to get to you or you just need to come take another look at the ATS, please feel free to contact me.

    August ARC Meeting

    in Meeting Archive

    Posted

    I would like to get all of the reefers in Gtown and get your emails. Might be nice if you need to trade or buy something? Most people won't drive across Austin anyway...at least you can hit up your local friends first????

    If you are interested, PM me with your name/email so that I can add it to my address book as a group.

    Dave

    August ARC Meeting

    in Meeting Archive

    Posted

    I will have a sign or balloons on the corner of Leander Rd. and River Ridge Dr. Then a sign in my yard. Any of you using Google Earth or Maps. The you can pin drop right on top of my home. If you wish to find me on GPS, My iPhone number is 512-818-2221.

    I can email my Pin Drop Map but to whom?

    Chris, Where do you live....right around the block? Come on over anytime! Give me a call.

    Dave

    have to sell by saturday

    in Hardware

    Posted

    One T5 Ho light

    almost one year or do you mean the anemone if so for weak

    What tank is it in?

    If the 55 gallon, it's probably only 22" deep. As long as the light is directly over the anemone it will be OK for the short term...I'd get another light.

    What makes you think it's not doing well?

    Do you have a pic that you can post?

    Do you have a clown fish hosting it? You know they help with the symbiotic relationship?....

    Give us all of the details on your tank...depth, number of T5's, wattage, color temp of the light, what else is in the tank, what are you feeding it?

    Dave

    Anyone using HW salt

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    There is a lot more to the article on Salt Comparison listed here:

    Comparison Continued

    The Composition of Some Synthetic Seawater Mixes

    Comparison Table of Primary Elements in Some Top Brand Name Sea Salt Mixes

    To help you easily compare the differences between essential elements contained in some of the top brand name sea salt mixes sold on the market, we compiled this quick reference elements comparsion table based on actual test results that were conducted by the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology reported in Marlin Atkinson and Craig Bingman's "The Composition of Some Synthetic Seawater Mixes" article published in the March 1999 issue of Aquarium Frontiers Magazine, and in reference to other Web resources.

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