Reefer 350

[HarryPotter]

14 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

You simply don’t have enough flow going thru them. They have a recommended flow rate chart, you should try using that. 

 

Ive already talked em (our communication has been via pm) about possibly not getting the random effect, and the amount of flow I have. This is the max of my return pump- 925gph advertised, should be 800 after head loss. Theoretical values- not measured. I dont see the value for apex flow meters 😛   I think I have so much flow in my tank that the random effect of 800gph nozzle may be irrelevant/overpowered-  so I will try feeding with the powerbeads off. We are having friendly chat about 3d printing reef stuff and flow- by no means am I trying to criticize the product. 

 

I do want a stronger return pump, but the price/reward is a close fight there. 

[A Little Blue]

Even tho the effect might be overpowered by other wave-makers/pumps, the effect is still there. The only question is if it is worth the $ and if it improves the flow in your setup. 

You’re the only one who can answer those questions. 

[markalot]

You would need 2000+ GPH flow rate for those to make any difference IMO.  Old school was to produce massive flow through the sump and the return but that's not good for skimming.  I'd say your return pump is a little too powerful for the size tank but not horrible, it's about the same as mine for 150 gallons.  IMO this product is kind of outdated for what we know about best practices now, at least for SPS tanks.  For lower flow softies, maybe.  A nice soft random flow is probably perfect.  

[HarryPotter]

10 minutes ago, markalot said:

You would need 2000+ GPH flow rate for those to make any difference IMO.  Old school was to produce massive flow through the sump and the return but that's not good for skimming.  I'd say your return pump is a little too powerful for the size tank but not horrible, it's about the same as mine for 150 gallons.  IMO this product is kind of outdated for what we know about best practices now, at least for SPS tanks.  For lower flow softies, maybe.  A nice soft random flow is probably perfect.  

 

Yeah I agree with that- 400gph through each nozzle is not much, as you can see in the video when I raise it, water is falling out more than actually "pushing" out- not a lot of flow. I thought 10x display volume per hour was the general guide for return pump flow. 

 

With a  large SPS tank that requires a plethora of both irregular and laminar flo ,  obtaining "random" flow from your return nozzle is definitely not something that I would suggest investing in.  With DC powerbeads so cheap, this seems more like a gimmick

[markalot]

Powerbeads!  

 

Triton recommends 10X, which IMO is just stupid.  Strong words, but I'll quote Randy Holmes Farley... 

 

Quote

For those of you who think a 2x turnover is not "sufficient", what do you think is happening to the tank water in 30 minutes that necessitates it be replaced with sump water?

I don't recall ever hearing a strong explanation...

 

My return pump is the EHEIM 1262 rated at 900 GPH and run forever (never cleaned).  Actual GPH is probably 750 or so.  That's 5x turnover, which puts me smack in the middle group when looking at polls.  RHF says 1X to 2X, most others are either 5X or 10X.    The reasoning is that at higher turnovers the skimmer has less of a chance to grab dirty water.  I don't use a fuge so the skimmer is the only means of export I have, since I don't do water changes.   edit:  I use PhosphateRx which is technically a form of export since it precipitates PO4 which either collects in the sump or the skimmer gets it.  I also use a Matrix reactor to aide in Nitrate reduction, which used to work but no idea if it's working now or not.  Nitrates always near 0 either because of this or the corals.

 

You'll notice the 10X Triton crowd likes to spend money.  Fast flow, big skimmers, lots of dosing.   This locks one into a routine that will cause a tank collapse if any part is neglected.  My reef thrives on neglect. :)  They call their approach holistic ... gag.   I have a crap ton of algae, and algae eaters, in my systems.  It might be fair to say that algae is doing some of the export ... though it gets turned into poop which doesn't all get exported.   Triton is concerned with removing contaminants from the system using plants.  Plants remove more than just contaminants, just like carbon removes more as well  ...   I'm not saying the Triton Method is bad, Really it can't go wrong if you test often, but IMO it's mostly a great way to sell test kits.  I like do like the Triton test.

 

All just my opinion, more than 27.33333 ways to run a reef tank.  :) 

 

[HarryPotter]

50 minutes ago, markalot said:

Powerbeads!  

 

Triton recommends 10X, which IMO is just stupid.  Strong words, but I'll quote Randy Holmes Farley... 

 

 

My return pump is the EHEIM 1262 rated at 900 GPH and run forever (never cleaned).  Actual GPH is probably 750 or so.  That's 5x turnover, which puts me smack in the middle group when looking at polls.  RHF says 1X to 2X, most others are either 5X or 10X.    The reasoning is that at higher turnovers the skimmer has less of a chance to grab dirty water.  I don't use a fuge so the skimmer is the only means of export I have, since I don't do water changes.   edit:  I use PhosphateRx which is technically a form of export since it precipitates PO4 which either collects in the sump or the skimmer gets it.  I also use a Matrix reactor to aide in Nitrate reduction, which used to work but no idea if it's working now or not.  Nitrates always near 0 either because of this or the corals.

 

You'll notice the 10X Triton crowd likes to spend money.  Fast flow, big skimmers, lots of dosing.   This locks one into a routine that will cause a tank collapse if any part is neglected.  My reef thrives on neglect. 🙂 They call their approach holistic ... gag.   I have a crap ton of algae, and algae eaters, in my systems.  It might be fair to say that algae is doing some of the export ... though it gets turned into poop which doesn't all get exported.   Triton is concerned with removing contaminants from the system using plants.  Plants remove more than just contaminants, just like carbon removes more as well  ...   I'm not saying the Triton Method is bad, Really it can't go wrong if you test often, but IMO it's mostly a great way to sell test kits.  I like do like the Triton test.

 

All just my opinion, more than 27.33333 ways to run a reef tank.  🙂

 

 

That all makes sense, and I think is a fair assessment of triton. Expensive, delicate, but can also have great results. 

 

My thinking with skimming was that you would always want to be skimming “new” water, which would have a  higher concentration  of crap than water that has already been skimmer. Hence why a relatively strong return  is good, making sure you are always skimming as effectively as possible. It must not make much of a difference tho, when it really all is pretty much the same water. 

 

I am SOOO happy this efflo colony made it. It had started to RTN at the base, and had some white patches. It has now colored up over the white patches and also you can see a defined separation between the stop of the RTN and flesh. 

 

You can can see the dead patches below it, on the gray disk. Or @markalot would that just be due to the base encrustment now being 100% shaded? (So it couldn’t recover) 

 

Coralline is coming back with vengeance now that I am not burning the crap out of my tank! 

 

 

@markalot for that efflo colony, I was thinking of hacksawing it off the base to mount. It will still have a 1” wide stem to epoxy with. Do you think that is too risky, that I am better off leaving it as is on that disk?  Will I see RTN at some point from the bottom of the colony due to shading? 

[markalot]

My Valida never recovered from the base loss.  My theory is that if the water is good and stable the base will stay, even when shaded.  When there's a stability issue the shaded areas are the first to go and they don't come back.   Personally I would just leave it as is, do not disturb and all.  I only say this because I never disturbed mine and it worked.

 

All the acros in that pic look really healthy again IMO.  

 

Can you get PAR readings?

[HarryPotter]

27 minutes ago, markalot said:

My Valida never recovered from the base loss.  My theory is that if the water is good and stable the base will stay, even when shaded.  When there's a stability issue the shaded areas are the first to go and they don't come back.   Personally I would just leave it as is, do not disturb and all.  I only say this because I never disturbed mine and it worked.

  

All the acros in that pic look really healthy again IMO.  

 

Can you get PAR readings?

 

Yeah acros are absolutely coming  back,  even the frags of the colonies I lost are encrusting again. Now that the fixture is higher, I see green on the red planet frags for the first time. Was definitely cooking them. Cooking them, heavy metals, and alk spike 

 

I don't have a par meter unfortunately. I would love to know the par I am getting, so it is less guesswork. 

 

 

 

[Tamberav]

Glad everything is recovering 🙂 

[HarryPotter]

Some nice PE apparent on everything, as stuff recovers. Still minimal coloration but things are not “unhealthy”. 

 

I obtained a new apex pH probe after realizing that my 5+ year old one was not holding calibration.  I know pH in itself is not a particularity useful indicator, but I use it to watch for alkalinity changes (and a cutoff). My old probe was reading 8.38 after being calibrated last week, and the new one reads 8.2 after a fresh calibration. Hopefully it’ll work better and last another 5 years 😉 

 

The aquamaxx skimmer that came with this used tank is pretty darn nice. Just works and works. I empty the cup weekly when it is about half full.

 

[patback]

1 hour ago, HarryPotter said:

Some nice PE apparent on everything, as stuff recovers. Still minimal coloration but things are not “unhealthy”. 

 

I obtained a new apex pH probe after realizing that my 5+ year old one was not holding calibration.  I know pH in itself is not a particularity useful indicator, but I use it to watch for alkalinity changes (and a cutoff). My old probe was reading 8.38 after being calibrated last week, and the new one reads 8.2 after a fresh calibration. Hopefully it’ll work better and last another 5 years 😉 

 

The aquamaxx skimmer that came with this used tank is pretty darn nice. Just works and works. I empty the cup weekly when it is about half full.

 

That's some nasty skim mate.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Hey I'm glad to see everything is getting back on track😀 keep up the good work

[HarryPotter]

Some night stalking. I discovered polyp booster and it is amazing! 

 

 

 

[HarryPotter]

Attacked the sand bed with a powerhead for a bit. Not too cloudy, a darn clean tank. 

 

[ninjamyst]

On 10/22/2018 at 8:51 PM, HarryPotter said:

The aquamaxx skimmer that came with this used tank is pretty darn nice. Just works and works. I empty the cup weekly when it is about half full.

 

I am running the same skimmer based on your recommendation and it's great.  Did you have to raise yours by an inch or two to stop it from overflowing?

 

 

[HarryPotter]

5 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

I am running the same skimmer based on your recommendation and it's great.  Did you have to raise yours by an inch or two to stop it from overflowing?

 

 

 

When I first got it yeah, I remember it was on two pieces of eggcrate. But after it wore in and got a slime coat, I removed it with no problem. Glad you like it. Simple, quiet, reliable. 

[seabass]

The tank is looking healthy again.  Remember when you were ready to give up on it?  I'm glad that you stuck it out.

 

Do you notice the corals coloring up any more?  It probably looks more colorful with the tank lights on.  IIRC, you turned down the lights a bit to help things recover.  Have you started cranking them back up again?  That might help with coloration.

 

I'm sure it will be back to its former glory soon enough.  Looking forward to seeing more SPS rack sale threads from you.

[HarryPotter]

8 minutes ago, seabass said:

The tank is looking healthy again.  Remember when you were ready to give up on it?  I'm glad that you stuck it out.

 

Do you notice the corals coloring up any more?  It probably looks more colorful with the tank lights on.  IIRC, you turned down the lights a bit to help things recover.  Have you started cranking them back up again?  That might help with coloration.

 

I'm sure it will be back to its former glory soon enough.  Looking forward to seeing more SPS rack sale threads from you.

 

🙂 thanks. I am keeping lights higher for now, because someone told me that I was cooking my sticks. 

 

That was  hard week for several family/medical reasons, but everything turned out fantastic there as well.  Worlds shortest cancer diagnosis- 4 days in between the unintentional finding and the successful removal 🙂. 

[seabass]

7 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

everything turned out fantastic there as well!

I didn't know; but it's good to hear that everyone is doing well now.  Sometimes things seem to pile up on us.

[HarryPotter]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

I didn't know; but it's good to hear that everyone is doing well now.  Sometimes things seem to pile up on us.

It went like this: 

 

Day 1: a bit of side pain

Day 2: scan and diagnosis of stage 1 kidney cancer

Day 3: A few calls to some friends that may of may not have donated a few hospital wings 😳

Day 4: Removal in New York by the foremost expert in the United States 

 

She was cracking jokes about whether she would get her “make a wish” on day 5 😂. She also refused painkillers because “I don’t like how they make me feel” 🙄

 

 

[HarryPotter]

@markalot I was at gotcorals and they lent me their par meter!!!! A nice apogee one. So I’ll finally be able to take real measurements- no more guesswork! 

[Christopher Marks]

👏

That's awesome, now nice!

[HarryPotter]

23 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

👏

That's awesome, now nice!

 

It was super nice. I hooked up a toggle box for them and programmed it, they gave me a SICK mini acro colony for it. My dad got a handful of Ricordia for his tank too.  

[HarryPotter]

My first  DSLR photo in months 

 

[mitten_reef]

6 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

My first  DSLR photo in months 

 

Wow 😲, you do have some Harry Potter magic in that tank. 

 

This tank doesn’t look like it skipped a beat!!