Ryans Reef

[JBReef]

I'v been looking for some cool stuff to add to my tank and was woundering if boomerang formica would live under t-5HO's? I have decent flow so......

Never mind I'll take some anyway. worst comes to worst and it dies "It'll always come back right?" aahhhh hahaha
O sory... bad jokes!
-Josh

 

[RyanG]

JB you are on the list for the boomerang formica! Its going to be limited to a one a month release for the first two year with the 24 lucky recipients having to sign a nonpropagation waiver. Its definately a deepwater species that need total darkness and to never be view for full polyp extension. IE the bottom of a closet?

Biff why do I need to dilute the vinegar?

 

[Bifferwine]

Biff why do I need to dilute the vinegar?

Dunno. I've always diluted it. Straight vinegar might be too strong. I don't know. Does anyone else dilute it??

 

[JBReef]

I'v always diluted it but I also wasn't trying to get CLA off eaither....

 

[Piggy]

I always dilute vinegar whenever I soak something. I let it set overnight and by morning all the crap is gone.

 

[yote]

Why not just unplug the skimmer,pour the water out of it,and let it sit in the sun for a day.That will kill the coralline and it should just flake off once its dead.

 

[daugherty]

i painted the side of my sump so light would not get to it. i guess it will not work if your is an in sump skimmer.

 

[RyanG]

Well just a little update. Had a local guy come drill my tank for me today. We drilled it for a 2" bulkhead for the closed loop intake. Got some great info and awesome ideas! Getting very close to being ready to go. Scott and his plumber friend Don offered to come back in a couple of weeks to help plumb so I have finally made some great local connections.

Going to order some Cepex true union ball valves next week and maybe my sand to so those are the final hurdles to get by until I get wet! Yippee!

 

[dustin_P74]

i just finished reading the TOTM article on reefcentral and the guy that wrote it used ball valves and said dont use them because one of his malfunctioned and drained 30 gallons of water from his tank and replaced it with kalk

 

[RyanG]

Thats why im getting the cepex ones. Foolproof, the ones that I had originally bought are garbage. They were the Hayward single union type, if you take the union apart with the valve in the off position the ball will quite literally fall out its a worthless garbage set up. The cepex are the good ones. One of those pay for what you get unfortunately but Im going to do it right the first time so I dont have to redo it later.

Also Im thinking of buying a powerhead(ick)! Im looking at maybe getting a Polario, expensive but you can get a sweeping 5500gph for only 40w of power. We will see if the closed loop is suficient or if Im going to need more flow before I drop the cash on that bad boy.

 

[dustin_P74]

i just looked at there website and thats a nice little powerhead

 

[RyanG]

Yeah I was thinking so myself. Huge flow, wavemaker options and controller all together sounds ok to me!

 

[RyanG]

Oh yeah one more little cool tidbit of info. The local guys make their own salt! Every batch is identical so as soon as I use the three buckets that I have now Ill be switching to the Scott and Kent brand salt. 40lb bags for 40 bucks! They also have two pallets of low brom(bromium or bromide something like that) dow flake for two part. These guys are seriously into their reefing! Buying stuff for their brand of salt by the tractor trailer at a time and use an el cheapo customized plastic cement mixer as a tumbler. Itll be really nice to have a consistent mix I think.

 

[yote]

Sounds like your getting closer bro.

 

[Altohombre]

Knowing Ryan he will get all the equipment, let the water cycle, and then wait another year before putting fish in it.

 

[RyanG]

Oh no I wont mister! Well maybe a year for fishes but certainly not corals! This build has been on a budget seriously, If I had unlimited funds it wouldve been done immediately. Lots of OT worked to pay for this hobby, which has been difficult because we have been a little political at work lately due to some schedule changes, we are all back to normal now so let the cash flow!

 

[RyanG]

Heres a pic of the tank post-drilling. Oh yeah its finally clean too!

 

[Altohombre]

It looks purty now!

 

[yote]

Looks a lot better without all that sand and crud all over it.

 

[RyanG]

Yea it does. I wasnt able to get my hands/arm deep enough into the overflow box to get everything off the walls in there but Im not too worried about it. You can see how small the opening is. Im thinking that I need to build a fool proof(does that really exist?) way to keep livestock out of the overflows because Im thinking that its going to be a real pain to get anything out of there.