600 gal display/900+ gal build thread in the Chicago 'burbs.

[EnglishRebel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14079133#post14079133 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chartwell
I work at a vet clinic and we dispense Interceptor to hobbyists for use in their reef tanks - no dog required. As long as they've done their research and can tell us what size they need and how much they are going to use- prove to us that they know what they're doing we will dispense it. It is expensive though - $48 a six pack. The reason it is a prescription product for dogs is they can very rarely have a severe reaction if it is given to a microfilaria positive dog, so we have to have a negative heartworm check and/or proof the dog is up to date on taking the product. Plus it won't get rid of existing heartworms, so you need to make sure periodically that it is working and the dog doesn't have a problem brewing. I'm a newbie on marine tanks but know my stuff on dogs (lol)

Susan

Susan
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

 

[EnglishRebel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14079133#post14079133 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chartwell
I work at a vet clinic and we dispense Interceptor to hobbyists for use in their reef tanks - no dog required. As long as they've done their research and can tell us what size they need and how much they are going to use- prove to us that they know what they're doing we will dispense it. It is expensive though - $48 a six pack. The reason it is a prescription product for dogs is they can very rarely have a severe reaction if it is given to a microfilaria positive dog, so we have to have a negative heartworm check and/or proof the dog is up to date on taking the product. Plus it won't get rid of existing heartworms, so you need to make sure periodically that it is working and the dog doesn't have a problem brewing. I'm a newbie on marine tanks but know my stuff on dogs (lol)

Susan

Susan
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

 

[EnglishRebel]

Sorry about the double post, That's the second in as many days.

 

[mcliffy2]

wmilas - If you are willing to come downtown, Gold Coast animal hospital is cool about it. There is a vet there who has a friend into reefs and didn't blink an eye when I told him what I wanted to use it for. He did prescribe it for my cat (less off-label maybe?), but it didn't seem like he'd have a problem prescribing it otherwise. You could just buy a fish at old town and bring it with you if you need an excuse

 

[mcliffy2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14078796#post14078796 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wmilas
I'm still running only 1 pendant over the tank because the glass still hasn't come in for the second pendant. It'll probably come in while I'm gone this week

The Frag, Fuge, and quarantine tanks all have t5 fixtures over them now.

I walked past the tank tonight and I saw dozens of dime size red/orange algal rings on the sand under the one working fixture so at least the Agal cycle has begun. I'm going to need to get some cleanup crew week after next when I get back. I imagine it'll be an algae fest by then

FWIW, I run mine without the glass....I have to clean the reflectors every once in a while, but the reflectors don't seem to corrode (I've heard that ATIs do, so I was happy to discover mine had not when I went to clean them).

 

[wmilas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14083220#post14083220 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcliffy2
wmilas - If you are willing to come downtown, Gold Coast animal hospital is cool about it. There is a vet there who has a friend into reefs and didn't blink an eye when I told him what I wanted to use it for. He did prescribe it for my cat (less off-label maybe?), but it didn't seem like he'd have a problem prescribing it otherwise. You could just buy a fish at old town and bring it with you if you need an excuse

I might have to do that I have one other source I'm waiting on. Hes a cousin of a friend up in Wisconsin who is a Vet. I'm waiting to see if he'll write me a script.

 

[wmilas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14083231#post14083231 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcliffy2
FWIW, I run mine without the glass....I have to clean the reflectors every once in a while, but the reflectors don't seem to corrode (I've heard that ATIs do, so I was happy to discover mine had not when I went to clean them).

I think I'm going to pull the panels out of the tank, and run with the tank mostly open but the glass on. Its easier to clean the glass

 

[mcliffy2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14084105#post14084105 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wmilas
I might have to do that I have one other source I'm waiting on. Hes a cousin of a friend up in Wisconsin who is a Vet. I'm waiting to see if he'll write me a script.

If you do come downtown, swing by my place and I'll stock you up on some SPS frags. Perfect timing to QT them for a month while the display is cycling.

 

[wmilas]

How do you like your Geo Kalk reactor? Why did you pick the AquaC over the Geo Calcium reactor?

 

[mcliffy2]

I love the Geo Kalk Reactor, highly recommend adding one. There are used ones available all the time (or its a really easy DIY if you are so inclined). I really like the AquaC but I have to confess I took it offline temporarily because it was driving my ph down....this is more the fault of Digital Aquatics as they keep delaying release of their module that has salinity/ph/temp, and I refuse to spend money on a second ORP/ph/temp module when Im not even using the ORP on the first...and since I don't want to be continually testing I was guesstimating on the ph in the AquaC (based on bubbles/drip rate), so after struggling with it and at one point having the ph drop to 7.8, I just took it offline and decided to wait until I can set it up properly with a ph monitor and an emergency shutoff. At any rate the reasons for chosing it: (1) it has an eheim pump which is more efficient and IMO better than the Iwaki, (2) its recirculating so using C02 more efficiently (3) no feed pump required so eliminates a pump and further increases efficiency, and (4) the square footprint allows for much more media in a smaller footprint, which besides taking up less space, requires less frequent changes. I can also attest that Jason @ AquaC provides top notch customer service - when I blew up the reactor due to a faulty regulator (not really their fault since the regulator wasn't made by them), they went above and beyond and provided a replacement at only the cost of materials.

Oh and sorry for the ramble, the main point of the whole deal with taking the CA reactor down temporarily, is that the kalk reactor is doing an awesome job of keeping things stable in the meantime...without anything, my dkh would drop to 6-7 and calcium to 330 in the matter of a day or two. with the kalk reactor, I can leave for a weekend and it only drops to about 8-9 dkh, 380-390 calcium. While I'm at home I dose every other day with the kalk reactor online (as compared to 2x/day dosing if I'm only using 2-part).

 

[ReefEnabler]

just got a bit caught up... this thing is coming along really great!!

sorry to hear about your magnet finger crushing accident.... if it makes you feel any better I had the exact thing happen to me.

Except in my case, what makes it funnier is that I had JUST finished explaining to my wife how dangerous they were :lol:


I was bringin them to the display tank, each in a separate hand, far apart as I could keep em.


When I walked by my front door near the tank, I noticed it wasn't closed all the way. Subconcious reaction is to reach over to close it, duh. I didn't even think just did it. Only problem is that when I lowered my hand afterwards, the magnets acted on that tiny force of acceleration and literally pulled together from over a foot apart!

YOUCH~!

next time I need to move powerful attracting magnets anywhere, I am taking two separate trips... there is no precaution good enough IMO

especially need to be careful with these things in a shop environment. a screwdriver or a razor blade could easily become a lethal weapon or at least a finger-losing one.

 

[EnglishRebel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14089192#post14089192 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefEnabler
just got a bit caught up... this thing is coming along really great!!

sorry to hear about your magnet finger crushing accident.... if it makes you feel any better I had the exact thing happen to me.

Except in my case, what makes it funnier is that I had JUST finished explaining to my wife how dangerous they were :lol:


I was bringin them to the display tank, each in a separate hand, far apart as I could keep em.


When I walked by my front door near the tank, I noticed it wasn't closed all the way. Subconcious reaction is to reach over to close it, duh. I didn't even think just did it. Only problem is that when I lowered my hand afterwards, the magnets acted on that tiny force of acceleration and literally pulled together from over a foot apart!

YOUCH~!

next time I need to move powerful attracting magnets anywhere, I am taking two separate trips... there is no precaution good enough IMO

especially need to be careful with these things in a shop environment. a screwdriver or a razor blade could easily become a lethal weapon or at least a finger-losing one.

How do you get it on the glass without it slamming (and risking breaking the glass)? :eek2:

 

[wmilas]

I have already decided I'm keeping them separated by a room length at all times. I'm keeping one end right by the tank where I start to clean and the other is going all the way on the other side of the room.

As far as not breaking the glass, I don't have glass Acrylic wont shatter damn near no matter how hard you hit it. That being said if you ease the wet end in and bring the outside close and keep them parallel to each other they snug up to the acrylic without much of a problem.

I think the problem is that when there is nothing between them its that last 1=2" where they REALLY accelerate and it becomes an issue. With the acrylic between them they aren't as scary

The red algae is growing pretty well. I can tell its not the complete slimy stuff but the photosynthetic type. If i remember right its the type right before hair algae. I never really had much of the hair algae in my previous tanks, but I remember having this stuff

I've settled on the 26" Precision Marine Media filters for my carbon and GFO. I'm planning on buying two to start These are them: http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewI...iew~idProduct~PM5113~idCategory~FIFRISPR.html

While the pro series or the geo series media reactors are probably better made, its just a reverse flow tube. It's kind of hard to justify more than a hundred dollars each for what is really no more than a bucket with a tube and top on it

I've come to the conclusion I need to rerun my topoff lines out of 1/4". I'm going to do that. I'm also toying with the idea of building my own floats and control logic with the Ac3 Pro and its breakout box because it'll give me more flexibility with alarms if a float fails, ect. For instance In the sump I plan to have 2 top off floats. If the second is triggered I get an alarm, and an email and a buzzer goes off letting me know something is very wrong.

 

[Electrobes]

Very nice so far wmilas, I'm liking the clean look, definitely can tell a lot of care went into this

 

[ReefEnabler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14090085#post14090085 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wmilas


I think the problem is that when there is nothing between them its that last 1=2" where they REALLY accelerate and it becomes an issue. With the acrylic between them they aren't as scary

exactly. if you have glass, when you do put them on the tank, you put them both flush against the tank on opposite sides but very far apart, and then you gently move the magnets closer together. even then you want to be careful they dont lift off the tank at all.

btw i ended up downsizing to the next biggest algaefree maget... the one that "bit" me ended up being a bit too hard to move on 3/4" glass.

 

[wmilas]

I think figured out my kalkreactor and calcium reactor choices. I don't need them now but it was bothering me that I had non picked out.

jtarmitage had a great suggestion back 8 or 10 pages when he suggested I look at a Austin Oceans MoCalc 400. You can see it here: http://www.austinoceans.com/products-calciumreactors.html

It has just about everything I want. Dual chamber, ph probe port, large enough for my setup, low wattage eheim pump.

For a kalk stirrer I'm going to go with the Precision Marine http://www.precisionmarine.com/html/kalkreactor.html

Its kinda funny. Even though I think I have the best available skimmer for my setup, I'm still itching to try one of those monster single/dual becketts that Austin Oceans makes. I know they aren't electricity friendly at all, but something about seeing a massive tower of foam like that gets my engineering side all worked up

 

[ReefEnabler]

Good choices. I have the PM kalk reactor and its pretty nice, gets the job done. did have a pinhole leak from the elbow fitting by the pump but a small dab of WO16 fixed it for me.

 

[mcliffy2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14091535#post14091535 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wmilas
I think figured out my kalkreactor and calcium reactor choices. I don't need them now but it was bothering me that I had non picked out.

jtarmitage had a great suggestion back 8 or 10 pages when he suggested I look at a Austin Oceans MoCalc 400. You can see it here: http://www.austinoceans.com/products-calciumreactors.html

It has just about everything I want. Dual chamber, ph probe port, large enough for my setup, low wattage eheim pump.

For a kalk stirrer I'm going to go with the Precision Marine http://www.precisionmarine.com/html/kalkreactor.html

Its kinda funny. Even though I think I have the best available skimmer for my setup, I'm still itching to try one of those monster single/dual becketts that Austin Oceans makes. I know they aren't electricity friendly at all, but something about seeing a massive tower of foam like that gets my engineering side all worked up

Good choices - the Austin Oceans looks like a cool design at a really good price point. Kalk reactors are one of those things where brand doesn't matter, just need a decent build since all it is is a tube with a pump on it.

How are you going to set yours up? I have mine hooked up to my Tunze Osmolator so I'm topping off with it, and it seems like it works pretty well that way.

 

[VegasReefer]

Had you looked at the Kalk Reactor 3 by Austin Oceans?

This is the one I was thinking for a a large build I was going to do before the economy took a crapper. I liked the idea of a Magnetic stirrer, and having used them in labs umpteen years ago in college, and not having to worry about the pump jamming due to carbonate fowling.

If you had thought of using this and decided against it could you share your concerns.

 

[ReefEnabler]

I only run my kalk reactor pump for about 10-15 seconds per day.

I basically turn it off just before the kalk slurry makes it into the pump intake. I dont doubt that it will still eventually need a heavy cleaning in vinegar or acid though.