DerrickH

Im going to put this to the test once my 72 is complete and running. After the cycle, Im going to do a 50% WC, and thats it for a while. Running macro, GFO, AC, and going to dose trace elements. Probably the reef essentials. Will dose liquid calc as well. I found that I could go about a month with my smaller tank without doing a wc before it started looking down but then again, I wasnt dosing any elements.

LOL! You nailed that door shut haha!

Whos on first....?

I would never use old "live" sand. Moving that stuff around stirs up so much nutrients, its a recipe for destruction. Expect GHA or cyano if you.

Talk to Stephen aka Hydro. He has an excellent recipe for UV sterilizers on reef tanks.

I didnt want to go through the trouble of bowing the front either. Guess I took the easy way out. setfree23, not sure what type of stand your after and style http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/20826-72g-oceanic-bowfront-project/

Sold

One problem with gate valves. Generally, you would set the valve to achieve and equal "fill rate" and drain rate to make it silent. However, I have had problems with this and almost overflowed my tank. My pump, and maybe just my specific brand, will have higher gph when its first started up and cool. Once it runs for a few hours the gph is reduced a bit. I set my gate valve (used 1" ID ball valve) when the pump had been running for a few days. I shut the pump off to feed for only maybe 15 minutes, but I guess it cooled off enough. When I turned it back on the tank almost overflowed. Luckily I caught it and was able to open up the gate valve some to accommodate the higher flow rate into the OF box. I left it alone, wasnt completely silent like before but was a lot better than without it. Again, my just be my pump model. I see the bubbles in your drain tub on your first chamber of your sump, the cavitation in your OF box is causing this, if you can get the flows right, all the bubbles will go away as well. On a side note, I noticed on that one picture, you have a hose clamp submerged on your return pump. I would remove that, it will rust, even the stainless banded ones have a cheap screw fastener in them made out of carbon steel. There are some plastic ones available around or even a 1/2" wide zip tie would work.

Bump. Make me a reasonable offer, I need this thing out of my garage.

I tore this thing down a few weeks ago and its sitting in my garage taking up space. Its a truvu acrylic tank reef ready. The back has been drilled and bulkheads remain for return plumbing. Will have the Y fitting and tubing included. The stand isnt the best looking thing but just needs sanded and re-stained. Its a very tall stand. Tank dims are 36x15x18 with center overflow. I have the acrylic lids and OF box cover as well. It will include a home made durso stand pipe that worked well with a 1500gph pump. The canopy has two doors on the front of it and is built to cover up the plumbing on the back side of the tank. Below are some photos of it set up. It will come with a 20g tank to use for a sump. There are 2 ea 36" sunlight supply T5HO light fixtures(complete units with enclosed ballasts) and 3 month old ATI bulbs. $250 OBO for the set up.

Some people have had good luck with UV sterilizers using slow flow through them to give more contact time to kill the floating larva stage but its a shot in the dark.

That doesnt look like ich to me.

I drink RO/DI water and Im fine.

I live in an apartment as well. I have mine hooked up to my washing machine outlet using a "Y" splitter found at walmart in the garden section. The waste line just shoved in the washer drain hole in the wall. If you dont have washer and dryer hookups then you may be in trouble....Think there is a faucet adapter you could use.

No, DI means de-ionized or something like that. Its an extra filtration process. Trust the others here, a good RO/DI unit is worth its weight in gold....and if your in an area like I am (RR) plan on changing your DI resin often. I have to about every 6 months. I bought a spectrapure unit, but the BRS ones are just as good and you can build your own kit. The more filtration the better. The GPD thing is kinda a preference. I only have a 40gpd unit but Ive got a smaller tank and I make my water 5g at a time so Im in no hurry.

I have had success with it. Took a couple week and coraline started showing up. I will say if your calcium is low this stuff will shoot it way up! Mine was well over 500ppm for the longest time. Now Im not using it since its a little pricing and I have coraline spreading and my CA is hard to maintain above 420ppm.

Yeah the sailfin will get far too large as well. Ive got a 72g but Im wanting something in the 200+g range.

My tank is overcrowded, but my skimmer keeps up...rated for 200g tank..... Hopefully in the next month I will be setting up my larger tank.