paneubert Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) What else is new.....hmmmm..... Playing with bulbs.....right now I have the following in and it is just slightly Windex Blue.... FRONT ATI Purple Plus / Nice bright purple light Giesemann Actinic + / looks blue Giesemann Actinic + / looks blue ATI True Actinic 03 / looks really weak compared to the others.....makes me wonder if it is even worth it BACK When I swap a Giesemann AQUA BLUE + in for one of the Giesemann Actinic + , it looks slightly too white.....yargh! These are not color corrected or adjusted at all. So any bias from the Android Phone camera is equal for all the photos... Photo 1 - Super White with a hint of blue? Giesemann Actinic + Giesemann AQUA BLUE + Giesemann AQUA BLUE + Giesemann Actinic + Photo 2 - Windex with a hint of purple/pink? ATI Purple Plus Giesemann Actinic + Giesemann Actinic + ATI True Actinic 03 Photo 3 - Fairly pink/purple? ATI Purple Plus Giesemann Actinic + Giesemann AQUA BLUE + ATI True Actinic 03 Edited February 9, 2011 by paneubert Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 Looking at the three side by side.....I think I am sticking with what I have in there....Photo 2. Might rearrange the bulbs so that the weak ass ATI True Actinic 03 is in the middle instead of the back slot. I know moving bulbs can change the look all on its own... Quote Link to comment
Gort Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I finally got a TDS meter and decided to play around....went from cleanest to dirtiest so I would keep my readings clean. 0 - The distilled jug from Safeway. 6 - The water from my Britta pitcher in the refrigerator. 35 - Straight from the sink/tap. I have to admit I was surprised both at the distilled and the Britta readings. I always hear people claiming that distilled is still 3 or 4 or 5 TDS. The Britta was crazy since it is nothing fancy.....and I do not even keep track of when I replace the filter. Bringing TDS from 35 to 6 just using carbon and gravity fed micron filter is pretty good in my book! Sounds like the Britta and distilled are much better "than advertised" - would TDS of 6 be so bad to make saltwater from? Did you get the meter from BRS? Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) TDS of 6 is not that concerning to me.....so I could use Britta water if I could make it in large enough batches I actually was going to get the meter from the BRS Group Buy (TDS-3 from HM Digital), but I found one that seemed to be one model up on Amazon (TDS-4 from HM Digital) for about the same price. Who knows what the real difference between model numbers is..... I had a 25 dollar Amazon credit, so with shipping I ended up paying a few bucks total for it. Gave me a little bit more cash to drop on other BRS items instead.... Edited February 9, 2011 by paneubert Quote Link to comment
Gort Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 TDS of 6 is not that concerning to me.....so I could use Britta water if I could make it in large enough batches I may measure the TDS of the water from my faucet-mounted Pur filter just for laughs - if it's okay I could use for top-off or small-volume water changes Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 I may measure the TDS of the water from my faucet-mounted Pur filter just for laughs - if it's okay I could use for top-off or small-volume water changes My plan is to go to Safeway tonight and test their water dispenser.....that is the real reason I got the meter......I want to know if I can continue to use their machine for my Top Off water. Since I have been using it already, I measured what I had left in my ATO last night and it read in the mid 20's. But that is almost guaranteed to be because I dumped Purple Up in there a few weeks back and I can still see some residue on the bottom of the bucket. The fact that it is reading less than tap water even with some Puple Up in there is promising..... Quote Link to comment
Gort Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I'm already witness to how hinky the ATO drip-bottles are in the Solana - it's hit-or miss, mostly miss. Quote Link to comment
ajmckay Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 35 TDS from the tap is low compared to where I live... I have TDS of 110 or so straight from the tap. Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 cool tank! Can I suggest a skimmer though if you dont have one? Replace the filstar with a good skimmer, you'll see a noticable difference. I think you have rubbed off on me.....I just bought an AquaC Remora from the forums. So that should be fun. As for if it will totally replace the filstar or not....unclear. I really like the flow pattern that the filstar gives me with the spraybar I have attached to it. It is a really nice wide side to side but narrow top to bottom flow pattern. The filstar also lets me keep chemicals and floss in there.....not sure what I would do with my carbon. But I have said all this before in a previous post! Only time will tell. 35 TDS from the tap is low compared to where I live... I have TDS of 110 or so straight from the tap. I will qualify all this by saying these readings were from the "factory calibration". I do have some calibration solution from BRS that I am going to verify with tonight. I just did not want to dig out the calibration solution from wherever I have it hiding since I was excited to test when I first opened the box. Quote Link to comment
Gort Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I will qualify all this by saying these readings were from the "factory calibration". I do have some calibration solution from BRS that I am going to verify with tonight. I just did not want to dig out the calibration solution from wherever I have it hiding since I was excited to test when I first opened the box. Ahhh HAH - falsifying the data.. no scholarly lit publishing for you. Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 Readings from the Seattle Aquarium water (at least I am pretty sure this jug is from the Seattle Aquarium, small chance it is the last jug remaining from the LFS...) 400 Calcium 7 dKH Right around 1.020 salinity (depending on temperature). I have 2 barrels in my car that I will compare to later today since I know for sure those are from the aquarium. Calibrated my refractometer. It was reading slightly high before. Now it is tuned in. Found out that my running the display tank at 1.020 for the past few weeks as a test to see how corals react as well as to piss off the ich infestation has not shown any negative signs from the corals. Since the display is at the same salinity as the theoretical jug of Seattle Aquarium water, I think I am going to continue the experiment with keeping things at that level and supplementing with 2 part BRS dosing to keep Calcium and Alk up closer to 450 and 9. Calcium in my display has always read over 450 by itself and so up to this point I have only been dosing Alk to get it up to 9-10 and a little bit of Mag since I do not have a Mag test to dial in a correct dose. Just to have some fun, I have been dosing 10 ml of Mag each day. This would only raise the mag level something like 5 in the tank. So that is TINY. Only bad news of the day is that my "factory calibrated" (HM Digital) TDS meter is reading somewhere in the 200's ppm when I dunk it in the same brand (HM Digital) calibration solution that claims to be 342 ppm.....WTF is up with that. So now I need to go online to read how to calibrate it. I wonder if that means my tap water and the Britta water are not as clean as I claimed Knew it was too good to be true.... Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 Calibrated the TDS meter to match the reference solution (I am going to assume the solution is correct and the "factory calibration" was wrong). New Readings.... Distilled that was reading zero TDS last time is now one TDS. Same jug of Distilled. RO water from the Safeway water jug machine is 9. Did not measure before calibration....but not bad! Britta refrigerator pitcher/filter that was 6 is now 11. Tap water that was 35 is now 45. Still not bad! It seems sort of odd that the readings were about 100 TDS off when measuring in the 300 range, but seemed to be a lot more accurate at lower levels when comparing before and after calibration. I mean....I can see how something really clean like Distilled is going to be almost nothing no matter what, but seeing the tap water only go from 35 to 45 was really surprising. Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 Newest adventure is going to be putting the Maroon and Molly back in the main tank this weekend....... I am going to play the odds that the ich died out in 6.5 weeks. The main reason for this move is because... 1. The wife really wants to get some new fish and I do not want to crowd the QT tank. 2. We also want to paint the room/wall that the QT tank is up against. So the clown/molly will go back in the main tank, I will move the QT to another room (while mostly empty of water), clean out the QT really good (since some detrius has built up on the bottom), fill back up (with water change water from the main tank) and add some new fish for observation for a week or so until I am sure they are clean and can go in the main tank. Might even throw a low level of Cupramine in there with the new guys just to be safe. Added bonus is that the clown and molly will boost the bio-load in the main tank so that the bacteria builds enough to handle the new fish once they are done with QT. Essentially "add fish slowly" but have them all in my possession already Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 Posted this in another thread, but since it took me a while to write, it is going here as well I called the Seattle Aquarium to get more details about the specifics of their water (since they never answer my email) and they finally called me back. They were very informative……. What I got from my phone call. The “filtered to ~750 microns” thing is via a sand bed filter they run. They do UV filter it after that. This is the point where they sell it to me via the pumps. For their internal use, they go farther (slightly shifty since they claim they sell the same water they use in their tanks…but whatever). Their internal water is put through the same sand bed and UV, but is then…. 1. Shoved full of ozone (ozone ruptures cell walls/kills things/sterilizes, etc….). 2. Has the ozone removed. 3. Then is filtered down to a smaller micron, then heated and used for all tanks. So their water is cleaner than mine. The guy said the absolute only concern he could see with the water as it is sold is that the nutrient levels can sometimes rise to a level that might not be nice to your tank. He said he could see a small algae outbreak if the nutrient levels were raised in the bay for some reason at the same time as someone does a large percentage water change without a strong bio-filter to eat all the nutrients quick enough. So at least he was honest about that. BUT!!!!!!!!! The guy said that they do absolutely no supplementation at all with any sort of trace elements, calcium, alk, mag, etc…. He also said that this means their tanks salinity drifts with nature and that they do see a swing from season to season. They just do not worry about it since it is gradual. So that is the answer to the main question I had about supplementation and salinity levels. Moral of the Story: As long as I keep an eye out for the nutrients in the water, I should be good to go. Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 (edited) Maroon Clown is back in the main tank! So far so good. She is hella happy and swimming all around exploring all the corners. I am really surprised she did not go and hide since she had been really shy in all my other tanks. Maybe she is just happy to get out of that 10 gallon crappy QT tank and into a 40 with lots of coral and rock . Wife was really excited about it and demanded we get more fish. So the QT now has a tiny SixLine, a blue/black cleaner wrasse, and 3 chromis...... I told her that I would never hear the end of it on nano-reef about the chromis....but she likes fish that school and I figure chromis are ok if they make her happy! They are going to sit in the QT for a week or so while I check them for any issues. I think I will probably dose them with Cupramine towards the end just as a precaution. Plan after that is to breed saltwater Mollies and Guppies in the QT tank until I need it again for QT/hospital reasons. Just for fun. While the Maroon does not seem to like to eat the babies, I am sure the coral will not hesitate if a baby lands on it. Breeding them in the QT means I can keep the main tank from being overrun with mollies/guppies and only introduce the fish I want. Edited February 20, 2011 by paneubert Quote Link to comment
nanoreefsurf Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 why in the world are you running more than 2 actinic bulbs? Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 why in the world are you running more than 2 actinic bulbs? I would not call a "Giesemann Actinic +" a real actinic "The Geisemann Actinic Plus has a special 60:40 combination of deep blue and actinic wavelengths" So.....with both of those bulbs they still only equal 80% of a normal actinic bulb. Technically that means I am running 1. One true actinic. 2. Two 40% actinics. 3. One purple bulb. Bottom line is that I do it because it looks like the best combo visually and the corals seem to be doing just fine with the PAR levels they put out. Nothing is stretching for the light and nothing is shrinking away from it either. I should also mention that the photo is pretty intense compared to real life. I need to take a new photo anyway. So I might break my "straight to the web with no editing" rule by editing it so it looks true to life. Quote Link to comment
Gort Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 (edited) . a tiny SixLine, a blue/black cleaner wrasse, and 3 chromis...... I told her that I would never hear the end of it on nano-reef about the chromis....but she likes fish that school and I figure chromis are ok if they make her happy! Cool! I was considering a very small school - either chromis or PJ Cardinals. I know the cardinals hover kinda like blimps - are the chromis a bit more free-swimming? Edited February 20, 2011 by Gort Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 Yeah. The chromis seem to swim more and check things out if they are interested. They tend to school only if they feel threatened. But with the other fish I have.....they probably will always school. Quote Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 wow, didn't know that Chromis only schools when they feel threaten. Learned something know. I love them Chromis, i think they are under rated. Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 wow, didn't know that Chromis only schools when they feel threaten. Learned something know.I love them Chromis, i think they are under rated. Well that is just what I have been told/seen. Seems like it makes some sense since schooling by design is to confuse predators and such. Better chance of survival when you are in a crowd Quote Link to comment
redkneecoral Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 oh yeah, you are right on that. Thats why ants do so well. Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 (edited) I always update the first post of the thread with the newest photos....but here they are in a post so people don't have to go back to the beginning.... **As of 2-20-11** Not adjusted or corrected (or even cropped) at all. Direct from the Android Phone to Photobucket.... Edited February 21, 2011 by paneubert Quote Link to comment
24nanoguy Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Looks great Paul! Tell me do you like the Tek?? I have a 4 bulb 24" on the way.........I hope it's what I'm expecting. Quote Link to comment
paneubert Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 I do like the TEK fixture. It is all about how high you hang it though. Provides a lot of light and a lot of bulb combo options. On a lamer note....I just discovered that Cleaner Wrasses seem to be just as hard to keep as Mandarins The one I got seems to eat prepared foods though. So we will see how that goes.... Quote Link to comment
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