Wryknow

My rose bubble tip just split last night and the clone is ready for a new home. I can meet at RCA in the evening or on the weekend. $50. You can call me on my cell at 585-1959.

Jason

You can clean the holey rock by gving it a dip in distilled white vinegar. That would disolve the outer layer of rock completely.

This skimmer easily handled my 215 with a decent fish load and lots of feeding. It is an in-sump BK clone with the bubble plate design and is rated up to 350 gallons. The skimmer is 3 years old and uses two extrememly efficient sicce 2500 pumps. Both pumps are currently fitted with the original micro-mesh impellers but I also have brand new sicce pinwheels and upgraded carbon fiber shafts so that you can play with the set up to see which you prefer. (The micro-mesh is slightly more efficient in terms of air intake per watt used but sometimes causes start up problems with the skimmer is turned off and restarted. I almost never turned the skimmer off so I ended up sticking with the micro-mesh.) You can find the original MFG specs on Reef Geek. This is a BIG skimmer that pulls a lot of skimmate very efficiently.

Asking $400

I have two E-heim 1262 return pumps for sale. These pumps have a well deserved reputation as the best available submersible pumps on the market. They run great all the time, every time. I have never had a problem with an E-heim pump and these two are no exception. Both of the pumps are about 3 years old.

Asking $100 each

Offering a 1/3 HP Current USA / PRIME tower chiller. It is 3 years old and runs great. It has a built in thermostat and digital control and is set up with 3/4" barbed fittings. This chilled about 280 gallons of water volume with no problems at all.

Asking $400

I have a Tunze wavebox for sale with a set of 2 tunze magnets for glass 1/2" thick or less. It is about three years old and comes with the controller. It has the new one piece impeller. Works great!

Asking $400.

Everything has been sold. Thanks for looking

Tank is still for sale.

Sold. Thanks for the interest.

My general recommendations would be

1) wait until you are starting to get some significant film algae growth (3-5 days typically)

2) add some hermit crabs and feed 'em a small bit of pellet or raw food daily (small chunks of fresh shrimp are great) for a few more days

3) add some snails to help with the algae (make sure that you acclimate them very carefully)wait a week

4) after two weeks you should be ready to introduce a fish IMHO since you had some starter live rock to kick everything off

What species are you planning on keeping in your tank? You would want to pick something that is relatively hearty and small but I wouldn't introduce anything that I wasn't planning on keeping.

What Russel said except that I try to stick with a 3-5 times tank volume return regardless of whether or not there is a refugium just as a matter of personal preference. I find it easier to control noise and micro-bubbles with less flow through the drain. For the pump on my new 34 gallon tank I went with an E-heim 1250. It is within my target flow range at that head pressure and I have always been very happy with the E-heim pumps that I have owned in the past. Mag drive pumps would be another reasonable choice IMHO.

I will vacuum stuff of the bottom sometimes - a bit of nuisance algae would be an excellent example. I definitely try to avoid disturbing the sand bed too much though. I certainly don't vaccum the bottom like I do in our fresh water tank.

Dpo you have over flow boxes or are you just drilling a hole in the back for a drain? Is the tank glass or acrylic, if it's glass have you drilled glass before? How many GPH are you running through your return pump?

OK, I've got a 4" yellow tang and a mated pair of pajama cardinals that need a home as of Saturday because the tank is getting drained.

My asking price is $20 for the tang and $20 for the pajama cardinals. If you can provide a home please make me an offer!

Jason

Lol - what Jeff said. I'm about 1 mile from RCA, real close to Hunter's Chase and Ponds Springs intersection.

Hmmm - I would go down to Aquatek and ask Bruce about that one. It seems like it would be kind of an odd arrangement but it might work.

The other think that may help is reducing the volume of water going through your return pump. Is there much of a difference between th bottom of the overflow slots and the top of your water line?

On a large tank you want enough room that you can run your arm behind it if you need to. That's usually around 4-5" depending on your arms. You really don't need to get behind the tank too much except to run wires or power cords.

Well, as someone who has been there and done that here's my take on the whole big tank versus small tank question. How difficult is it? It really depends on two things

1) What are you wanting to do with it? Fish only with live rock (FOWLR) is a lot easier than a mixed reef tank. A mixed reef can vary a lot depending on how difficult your species are and how diligent you are in your responsibilities. A mixed reef with SPS, anemones, clams, etc is the most difficult because you have a lot of requirements for water quality, light, flow, and supplementation.

2) How much automation ar you able/willing to invest in?

Water top off and changes was really the biggest issue with a large tank. An RO/DI unit (about $120 from Buckeye Field Supply) and an auto top off of some sort are minimum requirements but there are a lot of options beyond that. I was just using a 44 gallon BRUTE trashcan as a resevoir and then filling it up as needed (about every 2.5 weeks.) For water changes I had another BRUTE container on a wheeled dolly that I would fill with 35 gallond of RO/DI and mix salt in and then wheel over to the tank. With a Python to drain the tank the whole water change only took about 10 minutes, but it did take 1/2 a day to fill up the RO/DI.

In retrospect, I should have gone ahead and hard plumbed the RO/DI unit into a sink water line and drain and rigged it to auto-fill the resevoir with a float switch/solenoid auto-top off. This would have simplified things a great deal.

For supplementation I have a PM 620 kalk reactor that I ran the top off water through. This was fine as long as the corals weren't too big but after a couple of years as they grew I needed more and more supplementation. I ended up using the 2 part souliton from RC and found that that wasn't too bad to supplement with. I would add 1/2 a cup of each mix every couple of days and that was working about right for me but that was another daily maintenance activity that I had to keep up with and I had to mix more 2 part every month or so.

If I was going to try another large tank with heavy coral I would probably invest in a calcium reactor.

Glass cleaning is the other daily chore that you need to keep up with. It only takes 5 - 10 minutes, but if you let it go for too long you will start to get coraline algae growth with is harder to remove. When my son was born and I had a full time job, school, and a baby I fell behind on this.

Just do it! Don't skimp on the magnet and change your magnet pads regularly so that they are able to remove stuff easily.

My wife and I seriously debated keeping this tank and just changing the inhabitants and upgrading the automation. If I went with a FOWLER tank and made the upgrades to the RO/DI it would probably have been LESS work that the 34 gallon tank that I got to do a mixed reef in. At the end of the day my wife wanted the floor space back and I really wanted to keep my RBTA and clown fish so that's what really decided things.

Thought I would post a couple of pictures of the aquarium. It is mostly empty except for water, sand, and a couple of fish so there's not too much to see at this poin. I did add a beer can for a size reference on the 2nd photo.

Well, a good pair of tongs can do wonders but I understand

Due to the over-whelming success of the sale of my live stock I am prepared to sell my tank as early as this weekend. It is a 6 year old 215 gallon Oceanic reef ready with facory 30" oak stand and canopy. Stain is a medium oak stain. This is a very solid and HEAVY aquarium made by one of the highest quality manufacturers. It retailed for over $3000 when I bought it, I'm sure I don't even want to know what they would charge for it now. Measurements are 72" long, 24" wide, and 29" tall. It is made of standard glass and does have a center brace. Glass is scratch free except for a small scratch on the left side panel where some live rock fell over on it years ago. I am including 4 x 3" ICECAP variable speed fans that I attached to the canopy for air circulation. I live in Jollyville if you'd like to come by and take a look at it.

Yours for $950.

Buyer must pick up and move the aquarium. It is VERY HEAVY and is going to take a crew of at least 4 strong men to move. (It took 5 and a furniture dolly to get it in the house and up on the stand when I bought it. Perhaps someone who knew what they were doing and had the right equipment could do it with less, but don't say I didn't warn you.) I am willing to help lift and carry but the buyer will assume all risks for moving it. It is currently filled with water and some sand but I will drain and empty it prior to the big day.

I would recommend just running the 4 x VHO actinic bulbs and using them for actinic supplementation. 2 x VHOs are plenty of supplemental light on a 24" tank - you can take a look at mine on Sunday if you want to see it.

I have 4 sets of water proof end caps for each 660. The reflectors are the 36" ICECAP.

I've got two ICECAP 660 ballasts for sale with T5 water proof end caps. They are both about 5 years old and in good working condition. They come complete with the extended wiring harness and power cord.

$75 each

I also have the old reflectors and bulbs if you want them and can pick them up - but the reflectors have some staining from salt spray and should most likely be repalaced.