150g Indio-Pacific Biome

[+KimP]

Only thing that happens when your mg is high is that you waste money dosing it

Is this only when you get it above nsw levels? From what I understood of the speaker at the frag swap, mg levels affect how high you can get both alk and ca.

I don't want to hijack, just curious.

[+KimP]

I wouldn't be worried about your alk being too high but being too low.

[esacjack]

mg has a direct correlation to it, but also pK. Products like eight.four raise your pk/ph/alk/ca all at the same time.

As for cyano, I noticed my cyano bloom started during the summer, and has recently gone away on its own.. my wife on the other hand has been battling it in her tank for hte last 4 months... The only thing that stands out in my mind is she's still using KALK and I stopped using it.

[Sascha D.]

Right now I'm not worried about anything being too low. I've been doing weekly water changes and that should replenish anything that was consumed. I started with dry rock so it may be leeching a ton of PO4 and that is what is feeding the cyano. Although, I haven't been getting any other types of algae growth in excess. I only have to clean the glass once a week.

Here's some picture of those two unidentified snails.

The last of my Mollies has met its demise. Of the five that I started with, three ended up in the anemone, one jumped out and the last one got bullied by the other four in the beginning. I can honestly say that I didn't expect this result when I got them.

[Sascha D.]

I feel pretty good this weekend. I got a lot of projects done around the house and even started a few for the tank. This project took me around two hours and came out fairly well.

Project RO/DI!

As most of you know, I have decided to end my project with municipal water and go with an RO/DI unit from Bulk Reef Supply. I'm not exactly sure how I will plumb it but I have chosen a location in the garage with multiple options. There is no sink or drain for waste water, but I have planned to recycle it into my yard for the plants anyway.

This is the space that I have chosen. I picked up the wood from The Home Depot for $12 and had them cut it. The base that I plan to build will be 63x36x27. It will be long enough to hold three 55g barrels on top and approximately eight 5g buckets underneath.

I started by building a base on the ground. My original plan called for a header in between the legs but I had to change my design because the finished product was not tall enough to fit any buckets underneath. The frame came out surprisingly square, but I have a feeling the legs will be a different story.

Next, I have attached the legs and center bracing to help distribute the weight. I figured there would be problem with the legs and I was right. The kid at HD didn't cut them all the same length. I don't have a table saw but I do have a circular saw and a horse. I did my best to make it level.

I may decide to add a pair of legs in the center before the 1,500 pounds of water goes on top.

I decided to skin the top in 0.5" ply (mostly because I had it already laying around LOL). I really love to recycle wood and see no reason to throw any out. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough wood to do a single piece and I had to make a seam about 3/4 way through. I placed the seam on the right center brace for easy nailing. Each board splits the 2x4 and received nails and wood glue to help hold them in place. Lastly, I glued all of the joints, spaces in the legs, and the entire top piece of ply.

[Planeden]

Looks good. I think you'll be ok without center legs. Add some cinder blocks and you can get your buckets under.

[+Grog]

With that design all of the weight is on your fasteners, not the legs. Is better to have the legs under compression. That is a lot of weight.....

_

|

instead of

|-

The weight from the top pushes on the leg and the wood provides the strength, not the fasteners.

[Sascha D.]

Hmm. I've seen people build stands for their tanks with this design. I thought the weight would be on the legs since they attach directly to the top. I can't take it apart now without breaking it because of the wood glue. I'd better add some bracing just to be safe.

Thanks for the input Grog and Planeden

[Sascha D.]

I've finished reinforcing the stand and jumped on it a few times for good measure. The unit has been mounted to the wall and works perfectly. I need one more barrel for salty goodness and then we'll be in business.

I got the float switch mounted and tested. It looks like it works well and my drum is on the way to being full.

I'm getting 14 TDS coming in and 0 going out of the unit. Of course I have no idea what that means but it's the goal and that's all I need to know. I'll leave the rest to the H2O gurus!

[Deanfe]

Just curious is that plumbed in before or after the softener?

[Sascha D.]

Just curious is that plumbed in before or after the softener?

The RO/DI has to be plumbed in before the water softener. I thought it would be easiest to put the filter near the softener because there is already an exposed line going into the softener. Hopefully it saves me cutting into the walls.

[Sascha D.]

Week 18

This week I plan to do some serious clean-up of the tank and how the system works.

1. Adding a new 1600gph circ pump to the opposite side of tank. This pump will push water along the back of the aquarium and aid in surface skimming. This will be the third source of water movement in the display and accompany my 1500gph evo and the 1000gph return (est after headloss).
2. Replacing one 65k with a 450nm bulb, which will tip my spectrum to 4-2 blue to daylight. I'm hoping the increase in actinic will show some more coloration of the corals and reduce algae growth, while keeping a daylight look.
3. Chemiclean. The cyano is starting to decrease on its own so I know that the problem areas have been addressed. I'm going to aid the process by doing a dosage of Chemiclean. I've been reluctant on using this product, but I would like to save some of the corals that have closed up due to the cyano accumulating on them.
4. Sump. After much debate, I have decided to keep the sump in tact. The design is working but needs a bit of refining for my tastes. First, the return pump vibrates something fierce and is bothering the heck out of me. I plan on sound dampening the return section to fix the noise. Second, I'd still like to experiment with the skimmerless system so I'm going to repurpose the current layout. The first (skimmer) chamber will be used as a live rock filter, the second chamber will have substrate added and will house macros and the third will remain the same.
5. Macros. My macros are growing out of control! I like a more hands off system and the pruning is more than I'm willing to do in a 31" deep tank. When you add the canopy I can barely reach the bottom and salty armpits isn't my thing! All of the bubble algae has been removed and I plan on removing the C. Prolifera from the DT. I plan on maintaining around 5-6 species in the DT and the refugium is undecided.
6. Refugium. I have to research which macros work best with the pods and refugium critters. I've decided to migrate to a substrate refugium instead of the LR I curently have. I may grow a variety of macros in there or let one dominate and run exclusively that one macro. I think the Ulva is slowing the flow too much for my taste and I may end up removing it. I still have some Chaeto and may go back to that, but I have to add some gutter guard to keep it out of the DT. Other options for the refugium besides Chaeto and Ulva are C. Prolifera, G. Hayi, and Red Ogo.

[Sascha D.]

I've found a couple of good articles while researching copepods and macroalgae.

If anyone is interested.

The Pros and Cons of Copepods for the Home Hobbyist, by Dr. Adelaide Rhodes

Beyond the Refugium: A Macroalgae Primer, by Sarah Lardizabal

[victoly]

Putting it after the softener would probably be beneficial to filter life if it doesn't present too many logistical issues.

[+Grog]

Good detailed update!

On your sump, not sure how your return pump is situated but mine was noisy as heck and driving me crazy. Two things fixed it.

1. Adjusted the plumbing so that return pipes are floating and not bumping against the stand or each other. The stand can act like a big violin/guitar and amplify the noise tremendously. Old socks and redoing one pipe fixed it.
2. Added a silicone mat (I think the proper term is trivet) under both of my pumps. That aided in vibration against the bottom glass. They are ~$10 for a pair on Amazon.
3. If the problem is your pump itself.... I'd recommend going with an Eheim return, spendy but quiet.

Quiet is good!

Sump. After much debate, I have decided to keep the sump in tact. The design is working but needs a bit of refining for my tastes. First, the return pump vibrates something fierce and is bothering the heck out of me. I plan on sound dampening the return section to fix the noise. Second, I'd still like to experiment with the skimmerless system so I'm going to repurpose the current layout. The first (skimmer) chamber will be used as a live rock filter, the second chamber will have substrate added and will house macros and the third will remain the same.

[Planeden]

I've found a couple of good articles while researching copepods and macroalgae.

If anyone is interested.

The Pros and Cons of Copepods for the Home Hobbyist, by Dr. Adelaide Rhodes

Beyond the Refugium: A Macroalgae Primer, by Sarah Lardizabal

Thanks for the links.

[Sascha D.]

Putting it after the softener would probably be beneficial to filter life if it doesn't present too many logistical issues.

I had read to put it after the water softener because of the sodium ions affecting the Ph and Alk. I'd have to look for the reference. Have you heard anything like that?

On your sump, not sure how your return pump is situated but mine was noisy as heck and driving me crazy. Two things fixed it.

1. Adjusted the plumbing so that return pipes are floating and not bumping against the stand or each other. The stand can act like a big violin/guitar and amplify the noise tremendously. Old socks and redoing one pipe fixed it.
2. Added a silicone mat (I think the proper term is trivet) under both of my pumps. That aided in vibration against the bottom glass. They are ~$10 for a pair on Amazon.
3. If the problem is your pump itself.... I'd recommend going with an Eheim return, spendy but quiet.

Thanks Grog. I've been talking to Greg about the silicone mat and I think I'm going to try that first. I think the problem is the pump vibrating on the glass. I would like a water sound but the humming is killing me. The mat will go on the bottom and up the sides of the glass; on three sides of the pump. I was kind of worried about stuff gathering under the mat, but Greg says he doesn't have a problem with that. I should upgrade the vinyl to spa tubing, but I'll have to research which one to use.

Is your mat under the sump or inside the sump? I know Yasmine has a mat under her return pump, but it's an external application. Her pump was super quiet!

[victoly]

Something else to consider about the pump vibrations is that you can add a small section of flexible tubing to both the inlet and outlet sides. Sometimes what you're hearing is the vibrations of the plumbing, which then gets transferred/amplified by the tank stand or tank itself. Try the easy stuff first, but when I rigid plumb, sometimes I get that hum.

[victoly]

http://www.rosystems.com/pdf/Filmtec-Membranes/filmtecliterature.pdf

The specs for filmtec membranes (which is what most reef rodi systems use) use softened water as a baseline. I'm speculating here, but calc and combinations of calc/mg are probably more prone to scaling up your rodi membrane and prefilters than sodium, which is less likely to precipitate out of solution.

The membrane is going to reject sodium ions just as easily as the calcium and magnesium that an ion exchange water removed.

[+Grog]

Mine is inside the sump, between the return pump and the sump's bottom glass. (Not between the sump and stand.) I didn't put any on the sides as the pump is not touching there.

The item is used was this. http://www.amazon.com/Freshware-Silicone-Honeycomb-Holders-Trivets/dp/B006N3MIO4/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1384907897&sr=8-16&keywords=silicone+trivet Easy to clean, I just wash in the sink.

I have a mix of hard and flex tubing. Most of my noise was the pump touching and the pipes touching each other.

Thanks Grog. I've been talking to Greg about the silicone mat and I think I'm going to try that first. I think the problem is the pump vibrating on the glass. I would like a water sound but the humming is killing me. The mat will go on the bottom and up the sides of the glass; on three sides of the pump. I was kind of worried about stuff gathering under the mat, but Greg says he doesn't have a problem with that. I should upgrade the vinyl to spa tubing, but I'll have to research which one to use.

Is your mat under the sump or inside the sump? I know Yasmine has a mat under her return pump, but it's an external application. Her pump was super quiet!

[Sascha D.]

I've been researching SPS requirements this morning and found a very good write-up that I would like to share with anyone interested.

Acropora - Proper Care Yields the Best Results, by Melev.

[Sascha D.]

After much debate, I have decided to remove the C. Prolifera from the display and keep it in the sump. The tank is too deep for me to maintain it easily and it had grown tall enough to cover some of the corals on my rock structure. I plan on replacing it with a nice Mermaids Fan or Shaving Brush

Before

After

You can also see the cyano starting to clear up. I think a direct result of switching to RO/DI.

[FarmerTy]

Hallelujah! You know that rock would look really nice with some colored sticks on it. :-)

[Sascha D.]

Hallelujah! You know that rock would look really nice with some colored sticks on it. :-)

I'm not cool like you Ty! Maybe some day.

Something else to consider about the pump vibrations is that you can add a small section of flexible tubing to both the inlet and outlet sides. Sometimes what you're hearing is the vibrations of the plumbing, which then gets transferred/amplified by the tank stand or tank itself. Try the easy stuff first, but when I rigid plumb, sometimes I get that hum.

Thanks Victoly. I put a mat under my pump and there was no difference in sound. I think that you are right and that I'm hearing the humming of the plumbing. I don't know how to fix it. I already have vinyl tubing connecting the pump and manifold and also connecting the manifold to the bulkhead.

[victoly]

Any way you can switch in another pump to see if its the pump itself?