The NPS garden; my NPS coral/macroalgae tank (with pictures!)

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

It is attached to something...it was sent attached to a small frag plug. It's the leaves that are not attached that are flying off.

[Lula_Mae]

36 minutes ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

It is attached to something...it was sent attached to a small frag plug. It's the leaves that are not attached that are flying off.

Try moving it into a lower flow area for a few days until it recovers from shipping.  It will be fine in lower light for a few days.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

OK. Moved it to a lower flow spot.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

I have a question...how useful are refugiums really? A 2.6 gallon HOB refugium would dock me 80-135 dollars depending on what brand I use, and even the one gallon refugiums are in the 30 dollar range...not sure whether they are really worth my money with how much food will be going into this system already.

[Tamberav]

I personally wouldn't bother with a HOB fuge. If you wanted a fuge really bad I would just add a sump with a pecto tank as a fuge. I think a HOB nano overflow is around 70 bucks then pick up a 10 gallon tank from petco and then you'd actually be rocking a nice space for cheato/pods for around the same cost but much more water volume. 

 

Do you have a RODI unit? Because if I didn't have one, I would want one of those over a HOB fuge for extra water changes. 

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

No, but I'm getting a water distiller. Would cost me about .24 a gallon after taking electrical into account.

 

EDIT: Just purchased the distiller on ebay...more WC's on the way 🙂

[Tamberav]

9 minutes ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

No, but I'm getting a water distiller. Would cost me about .24 a gallon after taking electrical into account.

 

EDIT: Just purchased the distiller on ebay...more WC's on the way 🙂

 

You sure a ebay distiller is going to give you the water you want? Do you know anyone else who uses one?

 

I don't think they give 0 TDS?

 

Does the distiller use copper coils? That would be a no-no.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Distilled water has worked for me up until now

[Tamberav]

2 minutes ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

Distilled water has worked for me up until now

Yes, but you buy it not make it right?

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

True...but my distilled water tanks in the past from distillers never had nutrient problems, and they always have activated carbon to snag any pollutants that inexplicably get by the distillation process.

[Tamberav]

3 minutes ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

True...but my distilled water tanks in the past from distillers never had nutrient problems, and they always have activated carbon to snag any pollutants that inexplicably get by the distillation process.

 

I'm confused. What I am saying is a ebay distiller as powerful enough to get 0 TDS water? Because the stuff you buy at the store is commercially made and they obviously don't use distillers that would fit on a counter top. 

 

I would be leery but hope it works.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Oops...said the same thing twice.

[Clown79]

32 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

 

I'm confused. What I am saying is a ebay distiller as powerful enough to get 0 TDS water? Because the stuff you buy at the store is commercially made and they obviously don't use distillers that would fit on a counter top. 

 

I would be leery but hope it works.

That's what I was concerned about.

 

Commercial distilleries not only use steam but also ozonate the water which gives you pure water with no bacteria.

 

 

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Very confused how any potentially infectious (to humans or otherwise) bacteria would survive the distilling process...

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

For those worrying that I am about to crash my tank with a water distiller, you can put your fears to rest...I am canceling the order.

[Tamberav]

I don't think you will crash it, I just think it may not be worth the investment as it might not give you 0 TDS water. They have some cheap RODI machines and you can hook it up to a sink with an adapter or parts from the hardware store. 

[Clown79]

No one said you would crash the tank but rather advising to do a lot of research on what you are purchasing because in the end if it isn't pure water, it's a waste of your money.

 

 

Distilled water from a large distillery is not only steam distilled but ozonated. The ozonated process is what ensures no microorganisms is left in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

I thought your idea of getting a home distiller was an interesting one. Will be researching it further. I didn’t like the home RODI filter option due to the water waste, and I used jugs of distilled water from the local grocery store for a while but with two tanks that started creating too much plastic waste from the jugs, so I recently went back to RODI and premixed saltwater from my most trusted LFS. That water is leading to very happy corals,so I’ll probably stick with it, but if I couldn’t get my water there, I would definitely be considering all my options including looking further into a home distiller... hadn’t even heard of them before. 

[banasophia]

8 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

No one said you would crash the tank but rather advising to do a lot of research on what you are purchasing because in the end if it isn't pure water, it's a waste of your money.

 

 

Distilled water from a large distillery is not only steam distilled but ozonated. The ozonated process is what ensures no microorganisms is left in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought that distillation itself also destroys bacteria and viruses... are you sure about this? 

[Clown79]

7 minutes ago, banasophia said:

I thought that distillation itself also destroys bacteria and viruses... are you sure about this? 

 

If you look at the vast majority of distilled water purchased in a store it is labelled ozonated.

 

Not only good for completely polishing the water by inhibiting microorganisms but its added oxygen

[banasophia]

27 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Yes. 

Okay, thanks will research further... if you have any links or references let me know because this looks like it could be a good option, but obviously not good if bacteria and viruses are not removed. I wasn’t a fan of the RODI filter I bought. 

 

This is article is interesting: 

http://extensionpublications.unl.edu/assets/html/g1493/build/g1493.htm

[Tamberav]

1 hour ago, banasophia said:

Okay, thanks will research further... if you have any links or references let me know because this looks like it could be a good option, but obviously not good if bacteria and viruses are not removed. I wasn’t a fan of the RODI filter I bought. 

 

This is article is interesting: 

http://extensionpublications.unl.edu/assets/html/g1493/build/g1493.htm

 

Id you don't like waste there is ways to cut down on it significantly.. saw people adding extra membranes and booster pumps. BRS has a video on it. Just tossing that out there.

 

I'm sure there are distillers that would give 0 TDS water but I know the OP made this seem more of a budget tank and he said ebay and it threw up some red flags so I was worried that it may not work out. If he has a TDS meter, he should test his tap water first just to know what hes up against. 

 

My other through is a distiller has working/heating parts and probably more prone to failure and needing replacement from heavy use. Whereas RODI is just a filter change but nothing to really break.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Hello again everyone! I have decided that a 2.6 gallon refugium is insufficient for this tank...therefore, I will be setting up a 5 gallon fuge beneath the display tank. It will have a 240 GPH return pump and a 300 GPH overflow. The fuge will be filled with live sand OR live rock, and macroalgae...leaving the display largely to the NPS corals. I am also hoping that such a comparatively large refugium will house a decent pod population to help feed the corals.

 

EDIT: Never mind...I did more research and discovered that there are more than a few cases of HOB overflows flooding even in the best of cases. I think I will just skip the refugium altogether.

[Tamberav]

Lifereef overflows are pretty fool-proof... if you add a check valve to your return pump then even more so since the pump should turn off if the display rises too much. That is more cost although I think autotopoff.com is pretty affordable. 

 

 

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Hello everyone! I just purchased an isochrysis starter culture on ebay...I am going to be culturing microalgae to feed my NPS corals 🙂 Hopefully mom doesn't mind the smell...it's not supposed to be very bad...