250 Gallon Starphire SPS tank

[dougchambers]

LSM - Just to clarify your RO water flow;

Wall source > 7 ft of tubing in the sump > RO unit > sump

Pretty interesting idea... It's a good use of potential energy from cold water coming out of the wall. How often does your RO unit kick on for makup water?

-Doug

 

[LittleBlueGT]

LSM - Just to clarify your RO water flow;

Wall source > 7 ft of tubing in the sump > RO unit > sump

Pretty interesting idea... It's a good use of potential energy from cold water coming out of the wall. How often does your RO unit kick on for makup water?

-Doug

Source > 7 feet to sump > about 80 feet in sump > 7 feet to RO unit.

My RO runs once every 4 or 5 hrs I believe. Time will tell how good this works.

 

[tgunn]

.... It cost about $40 US. It is a 110 - 120 Volt unit that uses about 45 watts. I have no idea who would use this in their computer!
I have yet to hook it up.

Heh, I'm guessing the guy who made this PC case would use it:

:lol:

Tyler

 

[LittleBlueGT]

The RO tubing (AKA poor man's chiller) in the sump seems to be doing its job as the tank's temp appears to be around 1 degree lower then normal, it has only been a little over 1 day so I will keep an eye on it.

I killed the acro crab on my green slimer, it took about 15 min to finally catch that guy! I probably killed another 100 polyps in the process. That was about 3 days ago and the slimer appears to be doing better, already slowly healing itself with new growth. Has anybody else ever had an acro crab harm their corals? My tri-color has a large acro crab in it but he is so buried under the branches that he is too hard to get out. The tr-color is doing well.

 

[melev]

Acro-crabs are safe, as long as they are in the "bandit" family. It is the hairy or furry ones you have to worry about.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Acro-crabs are safe, as long as they are in the "bandit" family. It is the hairy or furry ones you have to worry about.

He was a hairy one! Good thing I got rid of him.

My tri-color's crab is also a hairy one, maybe I can poke him with a needle.

 

[melev]

This is a good one: http://melevsreef.com/id/acro_crab.html

I have a picture of a bad one too, but I'm trying to locate it now.

 

[melev]

This one. Bad.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Very informative! That first pic is real cool!

The second one is the kind of crab I have.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Kill the crab. Kill the crab.

:uzi: :uzi: :uzi:

:hammer: :hammer: :hammer:

:blown: :blown: :blown:

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Before I hooked up my 230 cfm fan over my sump I decided to run a large house fan over the sump to see how much of a difference it would make seeing that I already have one fan.

My tank was down to 80 this morning!:dance:

I am very glad that it appears to be working! I will fab a bracket to hold the larger fan in place and wire it in this afternoon. It looks like my goal of temps between 80-82 is going to be achievable sans chiller.

It is worth mentioning again IMO:

My lighting makes less then 1 degree difference in my tank temp. It heats the house (indirectly heating the tank, but the a/c takes care of that) but is really not a factor in the tank temp. I feel that as long as you have an open cover or a fan cooled hood that is designed properly one shouldn't hold off on lighting because of temp. (Unless you don't have a/c) My pumps, all external, contribute by far the bulk of the heat to my system.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

I got the larger fan wired in this afternoon, all is working well. It is fairly quiet and really movers some air! My temp has been steady at 82.

I also tested for any stray voltage in my tank with a multimeter while I was cleaning my grounding probe. I had 4 volts of alternating current. I think that is OK considering the amount of pumps I have. I have a feeling it is due to my one powerhead in my overflow. With the grounding probe in it dropped to 0.

Of note is my mixing pail which had a Mag9 running in it. It tested at 13 volts.

My old tank before the closed loop had 2 Mag pumps and 4 power heads. It tested at 42 volts. It was never one particular item, but everything just added up.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

I tried to nuke a few anenomes today. I used to use Joe's Juice, but it always got my syringe clogged up. I made a mixture a 1/4 cup of RO water, 1 teaspoon of kalk, and 1/4 teaspoon of Vita-chem. It seemed to work very well (just as well as Joe's stuff) as the anenomes seemed to consume the mixture and then shrivel up. I will see if they are there tomorrow.

I used a medical syringe that you can get at a Pharmacy, I like it better then the Joe's Juice one.

 

[pecan2phat]

Acro crabs are a nice addition when purchasing colonies, well at least the bandit ones but since the wide spread of red bugs, do you choose to practice prevention with an interceptor dip and loose the acro crabs if you cannot isolate them or take a risk?

 

[LittleBlueGT]

Acro crabs are a nice addition when purchasing colonies, well at least the bandit ones but since the wide spread of red bugs, do you choose to practice prevention with an interceptor dip and loose the acro crabs if you cannot isolate them or take a risk?

I have yet to do an interceptor dip. My LFS has never had a problem from Bali, where he gets most of his acros. When I start trading in the future I will have to be very careful I guess.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

If anybody is interested how BB is working out for me here are a couple of shots.

This shows a completely coraline covered bottom at the back of my tank where the lights are less intense.

 

[LittleBlueGT]

This one shows some zoos at the front of the tank that are about 20 times the size as when I first got them. I am glad they are spreading out over the starboar, I am not glad that they are encroaching on my monti!

 

[Flatlander]

I have yet to do an interceptor dip. My LFS has never had a problem from Bali, where he gets most of his acros. When I start trading in the future I will have to be very careful I guess.

That would be Jayson I assume.

 

[pecan2phat]

This one shows some zoos at the front of the tank that are about 20 times the size as when I first got them. I am glad they are spreading out over the starboar, I am not glad that they are encroaching on my monti!

I have a solution for you on the encroachment, just get a beautiful Red Sea Regal Angel

 

[RonSF]

I bet the starboard makes fragging those zoas pretty easy. Looks nice. :thumbsup: