AlexKilpatrick

I finally got my 156 all plumbed and ready to go today. And, a first for me, no leaks!

I'm using a Hamilton fixture, one of the only ones I could find at the odd size of 5' I have a PM sump with an PM RL225 skimmer that fits nicely. I'm using a smallish wet pump for a return because I don't want to have a ton of flow through the sump -- just enough to get things circulated. I plan to use a wavebox to get good flow in the tank.

Adding sand tomorrow, and I have some rock waiting in the garage.

You can see how well illuminated to cabinet area is by the lighting fixture. Too bad I'll lose that when I put in the sand.

I would say my hubby, but the agency he works for it not exactly small...it's more of a moderate sized agency.

Actually, moderate would be good too. We are just not looking at large (Dallas/Houston/etc.) type agencies. Where does he work?

Hi ARK folks,

I am working for a new startup company that is building a product targeting smaller local law enforcement organizations (think Round Rock, not Austin)

If there are any law enforcement folks on here that would be willing to have a chat in exchange for dinner or something, please let me know. We aren't selling anything; just looking for someone to bounce ideas off. If you know of anyone else in law enforcement, I would appreciate a contact. They don't have to be local, but it would be good if they were within short driving distance.

Thanks

Alex

Thanks for the great frogspawn. It has expanded hugely. I had to move a few things to get out of range of its reach.

Also, it is hard sometimes to tell what they are eating. It may have just been eating a piece of food that fell on the mushroom.

That open brain is incredible.

My 29 Gallon JBJ Nanocube is about 3 weeks old now. I started it with live rock from an established tank, and everything looked great. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates very close to zero. Put in a couple of clownfish -- hungry and doing great.

Then at the ARC sale I picked up some Xenia and a couple of snails. The Xenia disintegrated almost immediately, and the snails never moved after I put them in the tank. 24 hours later, still no movement no I assumed they were dead. Puzzling. I thought maybe I just had some bad snails, and Xenia is always a toss-up.

Somehow I decided to question my salinity. Checking the water from ARC and another ARC person, both of their water samples were 1.030. That couldn't be right.

I had been using a refractometer, and it said the water was 1.024. Perfect. I bought a cheap swing-arm and checked. 1.010. What? Did some more checking and realized I had calibrated my refractometer incorrectly. I had used a calibration solution at 53 mS but was looking at the wrong units on the refractometer. My water was actually 1.010. A this point, I figured it was better to bring it up quickly than slowly (no real corals to worry about). Over the process of about 6 hours I brought it up to 1.020, low but tolerable. No problems with the fish. Amazingly, the fish seemed to not care about the salinity (or swing in salinity at all).

Let that sit for a couple of days to stabilize and the tank params were all good. Put in some snails from Aquatek today and they went to town immediately.

I don't know the law on this stuff, but how can RO waste be grey water? Isn't it cleaner that what comes out of the tap, since it goes through the first stage?

I just found out my refractometer was way off calibration, so my (36 gal) tank is 1.017. All I have a GSP rock and some fish. The fish are doing fine, which is surprising. All my parameters are great.

How fast can I safely raise the salinity? Any suggestions on technique? I was planning to just do a bunch of successive 3.5 gal water changes, with increased salinity.

Thanks for the stories. Please keep the coming. So far, it seems like we have the following major groups:

Cause 1: Failed Connections

Solution: Do not use gravity or friction as a means of maintaing a connection. Use clamps, preferably redundant

Cause 2: Lack of attention / forgetfullness

Solution: Timers / Shut-off valves / Alarm clock

Cause 3: Tank failures

Solution: Avoid old tanks

THe idea of a seam failure is really scary. There is nothing you can do to prevent that or mitigate it (short of going acrylic).

For you guys who had tanks crack, how old were they? Did you have any warning signs?

I thought it might be interesting to share flood stories, so that other people can learn. I'll start:

1) Probably the most common -- I had my returns too low, and when I turned off the sump pump, the reverse siphon overflowed the sump

2) I set up a temporary siphon hose from the main tank to the sump, to filter out some gunk in the tank through a sock. I wasn't watching it, and it fell out, siphoning about 20 gallons onto the floor.

3) I had a submerged pump fitting pop off and spray water out of the sump all over the cabinet, floor, etc.

4) Numerous RO/DI mini-floods, mainly from starting water generation and forgetting about it. I have fixed this by putting a timer on the water generation part.

I have never had PVC plumbing or a tank fail. All of my floods have come from "temporary engineering" or lack of attention.

I have had check valves (the clear ones) on several tanks and they have never failed. It is possible, but anything is possible. I like using the NASA approach of having multiple redundant failure prevention systems.

You don't have to have a huge sump -- you just need to make sure your return is high enough so that the reverse siphon does not involve a lot of water. That could be just the first inch or so of water in the tank.

I am interested in preventing floods, though. I am going to start a thread just about "flood" stories, so maybe people can learn from other's mistakes.

I was going to go with the Odyssey as a temporary measure and then upgrade it over time. However, I have a 5' (156 G) tank and there are only a couple of places that make light fixtures in that size. Odyssey makes one, and Hamilton makes one. I went ahead and got the Hamilton one, which is a lot more expensive, but shouldn't need upgrading.

That's a monster. Are you going to have a canopy for it, or will it just be topless?

This is really interesting. How hot does your tank get when it is 105 outside? Do you get a lot of nuisance algae? Do you have pictures of your tank and setup?

Wow, what a tease...

Sorry, I forgot to include that it is enroute right now. I will post when it comes in. I didn't expect this much immediate interest.

I ordered the wrong fixture from these guys: http://shop.aquatrad...act-p/54205.htm

It isn't a great fixture, but the reviews are that it is decent. To send it back, I will have to paay a 20% restocking fee (~$60). I would rather have some local reefer benefit than the company.

If anyone wants it, I will sell it for $250. New in box, unopened.

The fixture is enroute via UPS right now. Should be here in a few days. I will post when it comes in. Sounds like I have a primary and backup, so it is probably spoken for at this point.

I've got a commitment for Wed. Thanks all.

I need to move a 156 from AquaTek to my house in Austin (~ 2222 and 360). I am not sure of the exact weight, but I think it is around 300 lbs. The tank is 60x24x24. The stand is a generic stand, pretty lightweight. I am willing to help, but I think we will need 4 people total (maybe 3 with a dolly)

Willing to pay $100.

PM Sent

Willing to buy all of it. PM sent.