Beretta

I remember hearing about this. It's a pretty impressive system, along with an impressive price tag.

Drilled tanks make life much easier. After I get the stuff in my freshwater tank sold, I'm taking it somewhere to get it drilled.

They can go on the rocks easily. My experience has been it gets along great with other corals, except leathers, as long as it isn't being touched. My problem is I've got two in my 10 gallon, and they're locked in chemical warfare with each other. They will be fine under PC lights, that's what mine is under.

KarenM, I've got a purple leather that I'm willing to sell. It's fighting with my other leather, and I'd like to remove it.

It's probably a wash, because if you keep your parameters right, it shouldn't add anymore time to maintennance. It increases your water volume, so you need to increase the amount of water for water changes. However, the larger water volume will help stability, and will likely reduce the time needed for upkeep.

1) I'm getting the tank drilled and baffles made at Binswangers. Depending on how much they would charge, I might have them silicone the baffles and overflow also.

2) That's good to know about the Koralia3s. I will look into that.

3) Good call on the 37 gallon tank. Since it's going to be in my office, I can't afford a flood, literally.

How long can you hold onto the blue digi? I might be able to get some next week, after I mod my skimmer to create more room in the tank.

How long has it been in your tank? They can take some time to adjust, especially if you didn't acclimate them.

They are tough, and will come back even if you lose some to die-off. They can take a lot of abuse. When mine was covered in hair algae, I would brush it with a toothbrush. It would open up about 2 hours later. Give it some time. They also prefer higher flow areas, and ironically, do better in dirtier water. When I installed my skimmer, my gsp didn't spread nearly as fast. It's still spreading, but really, really slow.

If you want to try an SPS, a green slimer frag mounted up high might work. They grow fast in good water conditions.

I've finally decided to pull the plug on my 29 gallon planted freshwater tank at work, I'm tired of fighting algae all the time. Thus begins the evolution to a 29 gallon reef tank. Here's what I'm proposing so far, equipment-wise. I'm planning on keeping mainly SPS/LPS, and maybe some zoas. Fish will be limited to probably some green chromis, and maybe a clown. I'm also planning on adding a cleaner shrimp or two.

29 gallon Oceanic tank with a corner overflow with dual 1" durso drains through the rear glass

20 gallon long tank for a sump, divided into a skimmer area, refugium, and return area

AquaC EV-120 skimmer powered by a Mag5

SunPod HQI Metal Halide 30 inch w/ 250W HQI Bulb

Stealth Heater

Mag7 (420 gph @ 5' head) for a return plumbed with a scwd

2 Hydor Koralia2 powerheads

Eheim 2213 (that I already have) for phosban/carbon

Auto top-off, sump mounted

Kalkwasser drip

Tropic-Marin salt

approx. 40# live rock, with a 1" aragonite sand bed

The only questions I really have is if the mag7 is the appropriate size for the return (big enough for flow, but small enough to not push water too fast through the sump) and are the koralia2s the appropriate size for flow inside the tank. I'd also be interested in any advice y'all would like to give.

That's awesome. I want to see a pic of that.

Instead of a calcium reactor, I'm considering dripping kalk instead. The only reason is I don't think I'll have enough calcium uptake to justify using a reactor on a tank of this size. I know the stuff is dangerous, but my other hobby is chemistry; I've messed with some pretty nasty stuff. Still planning on doing a sump, and just dripping kalk into the sump.

There's a 20g Long sump on there that I might attempt to make. Very simple design. I'll probably end up taking the tank and get it drilled at Binswangers (sp), and get the glass pieces cut for the sump there also. Thanks for the help.

I've got a 29g tank in my office right now that is a planted FW tank. I'm thinking of converting it to a reef tank because I can never ever get rid of algae, and I'm tired of fighting it. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to run a sump with this system, or go HOB. I'd like to go with a sump, mainly because I can hide everything and then I don't have a ton of stuff hanging off the back of the tank.

My main problem right now is the stand. It's not a wood stand, it's a wire stand with adjustable shelves, like you might see at several of the stores here in town. This means drilling the bottom of the tank for drains is out of the question, because doing so will compromise the support for the tank. Is it possible to drill the back and run the drains outside the tank? My only concern with this method would be the weight of the piping and water putting pressure on the back glass. I want to do some kind of durso drains, mainly for noise reductions. If this is possible, it would allow me to do a sump, which I can then hide a heater, skimmer, refugium, calcium reactor, etc.

I put a 25w stealth in the back of mine. I just hid it behind some live rock. You can see it, but it doesn't stick out that bad.

I've got a CSS 65 skimmer on my 10g. It took some tinkering to get it to work correctly, and I'm not done yet. It's a good skimmer for the money if you are willing to do some mods to it.

Don't go buy a new powerhead just yet. Mine typically don't work after mixing salt, because the salt solidifies between the magnets, especially if I don't run them in clean water afterwards. Take it apart to get to the impeller and give the impeller a spin. Then plug it in and see if it works.

Sounds like a good plan. Although it would be easier to just turn down the heater to your tank temperature and leave it in. Another good idea is to cover the container you're dissolving the salt in. This will prevent evaporation and keep dust, insects, cats, small children, drunk adults, and other things out of your saltwater.

Remember, it takes awhile to dissolve salt at these concentrations, especially if you don't have that much circulation. The more circulation you have, the faster it will dissolve.

Remember way back when your first set up your tank, filled it with water, and everything was working fine, so you added your salt? Do you recall how long it took to dissolve all the salt? In most cases, it probably took at least 48 hours to do so. The same thing is going on here, just on a smaller scale. Give it some time, it will eventually all dissolve, as long as you don't go past the saturation point, which is around a specific gravity of 1.030.

Rinsing mysis is always a good idea, as they have gunk on them that is loaded with phosphates.

I've always weighed it because I'm dealing in smaller amounts, and it's way more accurate for those smaller amounts. For IO, which is what I use, it's 151 grams of salt to a gallon of RO water will yield a specific gravity of 1.025. You should still check it once it's done, because I've had cases where this didn't hold true, especially if it's been humid and the salt is damp. That will throw off your SG whether you weigh or measure by volume. It's also a good idea to have a heater in the water so that the temperatures match when you add it to the tank. Also, if your house is cool, the water will stabilize to that temperature, and colder water can't dissolve as much salt.

I've also found as you get into the higher specific gravities (1.025+), it takes longer to dissolve all the salt.

If you have a good RO system, they should not change. As the filters age, the TDS reading will creep up from, 0, to 1, to 2, to 3, etc. I think once you get to about 4, it's time to change the sediment and carbon filters.

1. Cut down on lighting schedule temporarily. Once it's gone, SLOWLY bring your lights back to your normal time.

2. Siphon out as much as you can.

3. Water changes, lots of them.

4. Check your KH. If it's below 8, it will make the cyano problem worse.

5. Cut back on feeding.

6. TEST YOUR TOPOFF WATER!!! If there is phosphate or nitrate in your topoff, you will be feeding the cyano everytime you topoff.

7. Use a turkey baster on your rocks before you do a water change. Every bit of waste you can remove will help.

8. Be patient. Remember, nothing good ever happens fast.

I'm glad you got it working. Now just remember how it's done so you can help me when I get my big tank.

River City Aquatics will test it for free.

I have one of the hand-held meters. It works great.

Those are some awesome pics! Will you be putting some of them on your ID page?

If the unit is hooked up, see if you can pull a sample and test it with a TDS meter. If it's below 3 (ideally it would be 0), you should be good to go. The only other thing I would do is add a DI stage to this system.

I bought one about a month ago, and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner.