one thing that i think that looks amazing, and that you could pull off, is a school of tangs. Yellows are especially beauitful. i have heard that same body shaped tangs shouldn't be mixed, but i have seen more than one tank where there were a school of the same kind of tang. just a thought.
Building Big Bertha: 800G
- Thread starter bbrantley
- Start date
Been following this thread for awhile.. This is one of the best tanks I've seen on RC. Well done. I can't wait to see it mature.
Re the bare spots, fixing this often only takes a slight adjustment of the powerhead. I like the suggestion to use a thinner piece of rock. This can look great - you can use the flat rock for centrepiece corals.
Re the bare spots, fixing this often only takes a slight adjustment of the powerhead. I like the suggestion to use a thinner piece of rock. This can look great - you can use the flat rock for centrepiece corals.
5 gem tangs?? That would be like 15K! 
Tangs can be added seperately as long as their different Genus. If you want a school add a Zebramosa school of like 3 yellows and 2 purples. My 2 purples went everywhere together. I later added a Naso, Goldrim and Hippo. All different genus though and no problems. My tank was just a 180 though. I don't think you would have much of an issue here although if you do a school I would cross that genus of tangs off the list from that point forward. Zebramosa are quick swimmers that would look incredible in this tank. I saw a group of 8 once (4purple & 4 yellow) & they all schooled together all day in a 600. It was really neat.
Your tank is an inspiration and I have been following for months. It's the only thread I check often. Great job!
Tangs can be added seperately as long as their different Genus. If you want a school add a Zebramosa school of like 3 yellows and 2 purples. My 2 purples went everywhere together. I later added a Naso, Goldrim and Hippo. All different genus though and no problems. My tank was just a 180 though. I don't think you would have much of an issue here although if you do a school I would cross that genus of tangs off the list from that point forward. Zebramosa are quick swimmers that would look incredible in this tank. I saw a group of 8 once (4purple & 4 yellow) & they all schooled together all day in a 600. It was really neat.
Your tank is an inspiration and I have been following for months. It's the only thread I check often. Great job!
Thanks for the suggestions, including the gem tangs. 
Tonight I wired up my first solenoid. I even had the right plumbing bits to get it hooked into my RO lines. It works just dandy, though I need to enclose it since I have 120V of control sitting there a little more exposed than I'd like.
I'm excited about plumbing my auto top-off. I have a right "fancy" setup that shares these goals:
a) produce RO/DI in big chunks instead of little ones to preserve the membrane,
b) auto-fill two reservoirs -- one for salt and one for fw top-off,
c) auto top-off into the main tank,
d) auto stir/mix/aerate the sw when it is time,
e) deliver either reservoir to the tank at high speed for changes.
I think I've got it down to
1) two reservoirs
2) three float sensors in the reservoirs
3) one peristaltic pump
4) one computer controller
5) one solenoid valve
6) one distribution manifold
7) some magnets to mount the sensors
8) a bunch more plumbing :eek2:
I'm still assembling parts and my schedule continues to look poor for long-term free time. I have a wedding to attend this weekend and then will be out of the country most of next week. Then four days gone the next week and going the entirety of the week after that. Sigh.
Ben
Tonight I wired up my first solenoid. I even had the right plumbing bits to get it hooked into my RO lines. It works just dandy, though I need to enclose it since I have 120V of control sitting there a little more exposed than I'd like.
I'm excited about plumbing my auto top-off. I have a right "fancy" setup that shares these goals:
a) produce RO/DI in big chunks instead of little ones to preserve the membrane,
b) auto-fill two reservoirs -- one for salt and one for fw top-off,
c) auto top-off into the main tank,
d) auto stir/mix/aerate the sw when it is time,
e) deliver either reservoir to the tank at high speed for changes.
I think I've got it down to
1) two reservoirs
2) three float sensors in the reservoirs
3) one peristaltic pump
4) one computer controller
5) one solenoid valve
6) one distribution manifold
7) some magnets to mount the sensors
8) a bunch more plumbing :eek2:
I'm still assembling parts and my schedule continues to look poor for long-term free time. I have a wedding to attend this weekend and then will be out of the country most of next week. Then four days gone the next week and going the entirety of the week after that. Sigh.
Ben
It's really just a second reservoir that'll be used mostly for premixing change water. I want both to auto-fill with RO/DI without short runs of RO/DI gen.
I'm going to chain them, so reservoir 1 auto-fills reservoir 2 whenever 2 is low. Reservoir 1 will be refilled by the RO/DI, but only once it falls below a certain level.
Ben
jnarowe
New member
so when the SW tank fills with RO/DI, you add salt and mix, but it will continue to top-off with RO/DI? Then when you do a water change, it is filling with RO/DI?
Seems strange to me. I gravity feed my SW mixing tank from my RO/DI tank, but only auto-top-off the RO/DI. Once the SW tank is full (about 4 minutes), I shut down the input, add salt, mix, and age. I also will bump any parameters like alk and Ca. Then I let it sit with aeration and a stir pump 4 times per day. So in essence, whenever I do a water change, I make new SW so that it has time to stabilize before the next water change. I use a LiterMeter III to draw from the RO/DI tank and feed my sump top-off.
My RO/DI is heated as well, and there is 200 feet of 1/4" supply line coiled in it prior to the water going into my filtration system. This helps buffer the incoming water temp. to get a better output ratio. The method to my madness is to always have 90+g of ready SW and 90+g or RO/DI. That way, in an emergency, I am not having to wait to make water. I recently purchased a 200g fiberglass tank I will swap out with my RO/DI so I have that much more capacity, and I use a Weatherson style start/stop built into the current RO/DI tank. When I do the 200g upgrade, I will switch to solenoid activated water supply.
If that doesn't make sense, it's because I am on valium and perkoset...
Seems strange to me. I gravity feed my SW mixing tank from my RO/DI tank, but only auto-top-off the RO/DI. Once the SW tank is full (about 4 minutes), I shut down the input, add salt, mix, and age. I also will bump any parameters like alk and Ca. Then I let it sit with aeration and a stir pump 4 times per day. So in essence, whenever I do a water change, I make new SW so that it has time to stabilize before the next water change. I use a LiterMeter III to draw from the RO/DI tank and feed my sump top-off.
My RO/DI is heated as well, and there is 200 feet of 1/4" supply line coiled in it prior to the water going into my filtration system. This helps buffer the incoming water temp. to get a better output ratio. The method to my madness is to always have 90+g of ready SW and 90+g or RO/DI. That way, in an emergency, I am not having to wait to make water. I recently purchased a 200g fiberglass tank I will swap out with my RO/DI so I have that much more capacity, and I use a Weatherson style start/stop built into the current RO/DI tank. When I do the 200g upgrade, I will switch to solenoid activated water supply.
If that doesn't make sense, it's because I am on valium and perkoset...
I think my configuration is similar to yours except that mine fills both reservoirs automatically even if they both start out empty. It sounds like you fill reservoir 1 but then must manually transfer to resv 2 and then 1 refills again. Mine just automatically fills 2 from 1.
When my reservoir 2 has salt added and is mixed, it won't continue to fill... it's already full.
When I do a water change, it will begin to fill with RO/DI, that is correct. Since it takes RODI at least 12 hours to fill it and it will take my pump about 2 minutes to make the change, I'm not worried about a tiny amount of FW diluting the SW mix.
Does that make sense?
Ben
