Putter's first tank

[putter]

so I should be looking at some sort of algae bloom in the next short while?
won't be able to get any critters for about another week anyhow so will have some time to keep and eye on it to make sure. Man it would be nice if it was over already LOL.

[fatman]

I always add live rock first with Phosban or equivalent in sump with running skimmer. I really do not see the point in letting the phosphates from rock curing being absorbed by a sand bed as the Live rock goes through the die off stage of curing. I always wait to arrange rock until after curing and adding sand bed, just move it to one side to get it out of the way to add sand. Tank is just used as a vessel for rock curing, with easily applied skimming and chemiacl absorption through medias, in the beginning not as a show piece. However I only seed my sand beds with live sand, so I would probably do things differently with an entire bed of live sand. Good live sand is expensive, up here it is more expensive to get really good live sand than to get good live rock, si I give good treatment to my live sand materials. I prefer dedicated circulation pumps to unsightly in tank pumps. If your going to go with high dollar LED's you should consider a temperature controller for your heaters. Cheap insurance even without a chiller being used.

[fatman]

Bifferwine! What size sump refugium are you using that you have 1800 gph flowing through it? Seems like it would be pretty turbulent if the water is very shallow. Do all your skimmer micro bubbles actually disipate with that quick flow through your sump/refugium? Figuring 30 gallons water in your sump/refugium means a turnover of once per minute. Possible, sure but why?

[fatman]

Putter, please change your RO exit valve over to a plastic valve. Low pH, soft water and brass/copper do not work well together. Unless you, for some strange unknown reason, want to put copper back into your freshly cleaned/filtered water. I really doubt that you will find factory furnished brass or copper fittings anywhere on a RO or a RODI unit. If so they were definately not using an engineer or an experience marine aquarist to look over there production plans. Home Depot, and probably Lowes, carries a complete line of plastic fittings, threaded and Johnny Quest.

[putter]

The brass fitting was on the system for the first few days, where I live I don't have access to alot of materials and that was all I could find in that size to stop flow. I have since had the kent marine float system on that barrel, oh and by the way, I got rid of the barrel of water that was in use while the brass fitting was on the exit line, but I think that was covered in a post here some where....maybe....

Oh and I will be looking into a controler at some point in the near future....got to pay off the expensive light first...LOL, heck at some point I would like to be able to run digital probes for water quality ensurance, but again it will have to come down the road when I actualy find out if I can manage to keep a system up.

[putter]

Recieved the replacement power supply tonight...got a couple pics of the lunar light set up.

[fishbait]

wow, even the moonlights look awesome on that fixture.

[Doc]

good stuff

-Doc

[Bifferwine]

Originally Posted by fatman

Bifferwine! What size sump refugium are you using that you have 1800 gph flowing through it? Seems like it would be pretty turbulent if the water is very shallow. Do all your skimmer micro bubbles actually disipate with that quick flow through your sump/refugium? Figuring 30 gallons water in your sump/refugium means a turnover of once per minute. Possible, sure but why?

I have a 55 gallon sump/fuge. No turbulence or microbubbles. I didn't even bother to build bubble traps into this sump either. I have a recirculating skimmer that sits outside of the sump (it's almost four feet tall and doesn't fit under my stand), so I don't experience any problems with it. If you take into account the distance that the water has to travel from the return pump back to the tank, it's probably a lot less than 1800 gph.

[fatman]

Wow, a four foot skimmer. Is that a DYI or a commercial unit. Is the through put large enough to run all your externally circulated water through prior to the sump? Are you extra safe, or have a heavy load in your tank? Four foot! Of course I do suffer from the disease of more and bigger. Used to get me into all kinds of trouble when married. Now it just means more circulation (and larger bulkheads), higher light intensity, more live rock and dreams of larger tanks. I guess I need to find another LFS to manage again. Nah!