bonese's 40b | revival

[captainbastard]

Yes I meant dykes as in cutters, works really well for that egg crate stuff. Great build so far man, wish I would have had as much patience as you. Love the rock work and the little bit sticking out of top! Is there a reason you went with that big of a skimmer?

[bitts]

+1 to spanko

dry sand for the bed, live sand from peoples sumps the culture the tank.

[bonese]

Awesome Idea Henry. Can't believe I didn't think of that, so simple but so good.

 

Thanks bastard - I appreciate the comments and the patience comes from a tank that I didn't have any patience on. I really wanted to over skim as well as buy a skimmer in case of an upgrade but I seemed to have shot myself in the foot because I can't for the life of me get it to work properly.

 

Just did my first Nitrate test results are as followed: 0ppm.

 

I'm adding a pinch of food tonight - Good? How much is this "Pinch"

[captainbastard]

Yea I keep debating on which one to get, our tanks are pretty close. I was thinking either the extreme 200 or the magus 7. What seems to be the problem with the 1000?

[bonese]

I have the Octopus 2000SSS - It just seems to over power itself. The pump is making too many bubbles thus forcing them up into the collection cup. It doesn't matter about the air flow it does it either way so I'm left to think it may need a break in?

 

I got my DIY LED's done on the downlow.

[captainbastard]

Well I have been cautioned about getting too large of a skimmer because of issues like that and foam collapse as well. What kinda LEDs did you setup?

[bonese]

Yeah I'm gutted about the skimmer and still up in the air.

 

I just did a strip of four royal blue and hopefully will build another strip for my complete moonlights.

[captainbastard]

is it 18 x 18 leds?

[bitts]

as for the skimmer leave the out let wide open to keep the internal water level as low as possible for now we can make adjustments as needed later. for size ratings there are things we can do to make sure that theres enough load to keep the skimmer running. I hate to promote the guy but let me find the link.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXuEebGU9zA...feature=channel

 

only listen to jeff the other guy is a moron.

[captainbastard]

Wow I just watched all of those, didn't know there was so much that goes into skimmers. That LA fish guy is seriously annoying though. Thanks

[bitts]

just thing of the calc it takes to consider surface area, in relation to changes in bubble size. now the ? is do you think they actually do these things. or is it the mechanical engineers working on water treatment. then skimmer manufactures just kinda say well this should work. mmm... isn't pickin a skimmer fun.

[bruce922]

You have a great looking tank!

[captainbastard]

just thing of the calc it takes to consider surface area, in relation to changes in bubble size. now the ? is do you think they actually do these things. or is it the mechanical engineers working on water treatment. then skimmer manufactures just kinda say well this should work. mmm... isn't pickin a skimmer fun.

 

I'm seriously considering a reef dynamics skimmer now, that guy really convinced me lol

[bitts]

I love my Euro-Reef, even if I can't get mine to form a decent head. nothing wrong with the skimmer per say. I started doing things (vodka & mb7) to boost its performance & poof. I have a foam canon. but also there are others to consider. like this one. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...ghlight=skimmer

I know, I know. its a diy beckett & you just heard the guru from Euro-Reef talking about "downdraft & beckett bad" but they still kick @$$ there's no way to argue that. power so on sure but on a tank big enough to suport one give me a downdraft.

[bonese]

"Buckle UP! It's time to take that Rocket Ride"

 

He ("LA Fish Guy) speaks like Steven Hawking and the only reason why people put up with him speaking like that is no one can understand what he is even thinking let alone saying.

 

I need to get this skimmer in 6" of water. I need to build the eggcrate stand and pray that that was the problem. If the skimmer is sitting in too high of water will it overflow or am I going to be wasting my time with this small stand?

 

Bruce - Thanks mate I do appreciate the love. I just hope it all..."Comes Together". Your tank is a purple explosion. I like it alot.

 

Still throwing in my pinch a day to get my cycle to come. What number on nitrates is the "Magic Number" so that I know I'm cycling?

[bitts]

to show a cycle the number your looking for is > 0. after that its keeping the bacteria feed so they can multiply. At this point there are ways to cheat, which is the only way to play, by using lab breed bacteria (mb7 or others). I say too do this, so that it speeds things up & thats the only reason. believe it or not the needed bacteria will even colonize the tank from the air, just takes a while. the added rock/rock rubble should do it, but why be patience when you don't have to.

 

for the skimmer. depth is to prevent there being to much back pressure on the pump which can affect the air draw. thus less air equals more water then flood. so it could be that or anything else. mmm... skimmers. no bumping it up should help raising mine like 4 inches doubled to trippled the out put. also you could set it in a 5 gallon bucket with the cup off for a couple days to break in some where that splashing won't hurt anything. then make sure the air is wide open.

 

hey bones I've been meaning to ask. how is the bottling going, hadn't realized "HOW" much snow everyone out there actually got. hope things haven't sucked to much.

[bitts]

another sign that things are on the right track is a diatom bloom. that would be time for certh snails to be added. maybe about a month or so.

[bonese]

I have some of this coral amino - I presume that would do nothing. I need to go grab some mb7. How do you dose it?

 

The skimmer is in fact killing me. I hate that I can't use such a beautiful thing. I hate myself more though for not being able to fix it.

 

Bottling is fine. We do one case from empty bottles to 12 full bottles cased and corked in a little under 50 seconds so I still have to work it out to be a little bit faster. I can send you some "Samples" if you'd like. How would you ship that?

 

Yeah right now the tank is just the same nothing on the rocks nothing really wrong but nothing really going either I think. I have yet to set up the pH probe and the whole monitoring and timing of the controller. I think if I raise the skimmer it'll work. If it doesn't I think I'll be getting a SRO 1000SSS. I hate this.

[bitts]

I think the skimmer you have will work fine. an experiment you can try, is close the air all the way, turn it on then adjust the air from there. then let it brake in at this setting. sorta like you would with a downdraft.

 

50 seconds a case sounds pretty fast really. how you would ship it is simple. very carefully. sorry had to. hey sorry if you already said, but How old are you vines & what type of soil do you have out there. I use to work in a pretty large liqueur store out here & became a total wine geek. well realistically I don't actually know anything, but its nice to pretend. I had a pretty good pallet after being spoiled by the reps. but that was a while ago.

 

edit:

was saying mb7 just so you could use it later as well, a penny here & a penny there right. but you could use other things like seachems stability or any of the ones that are to help cycle the tank. they just add bacteria so its not absolutely needed. dosing info should be on the bottle.

[bonese]

How would you adjust the air? The air induction (?) hole when covered doesn't overflow but it still seems like alot of bubbles going into the collection cup. Should I just run it with the plug out dumping the excess back into the tank and see if it is just a break in problem?

 

The vines are about 30 years old now. The soil is very sandy for vines and we were advised to not plant where we planted. We did plant however and now we are never looking back. It gives it a different flavor - I work in a shop over on Fire Island. Seriously - you get so spoiled by either the clients or the reps that you don't ever have to buy anything ever. I would enjoy sending you some samples of what I produce if you would like.

 

Yeah I feel pretty stupid asking all of these questions but in honesty I thought I knew a lot but then when faced with certain particulars I could always use some more info. I will run a nitrate test and post the results.

[bonese]

Got to go pick up a bottle of that mb7 today. Excited to see if this hopefully can jump start my cycle. For the past 2 days I've drop in just a cube of mysis and the nitrates haven't gone up. So we will see about the mb7 and all it can do. Just follow the directions on the bottle on how to dose? No special instructions for a dead tank?

 

The skimmer I think has officially beaten me. It is sad but every time I get near it I get frustrated. So much so I had to ask my dad if he had any ideas. He said to install a switch like a dimmer? to the skimmer pump this way you can vary the speed of pumps output. I do not like this idea and said No I think I just need to raise it in which he says that simply will not help. What should I do about this problem that just may start a family debate.

[bitts]

have you run it in a separate bucket yet to see if just needs to "brake in" with the water flow unrestricted. one benefit of this is you can see how the water depth effects it.

[bonese]

I have not.

 

You guru.

[bonese]

Quick Update: Skimmer is running in an empty guest bath tub. Should I take a video and post it so it makes it easier for you to understand whats going on? At this point I'm so confused about it that I don't even know what the problem is anymore.

[spanko]

Sure.