Coral Maternity in Portugal

[Machado deSousa]

Great to see you posting again Machado.

How are you liking Sfilogoi's Infinity fixture?

I'm liking Infinity vision for some reasons: 1) the light is similar to sunlight and the coral grows like crazy, 2) the spectrum of light emitted does not change during the lifetime of the bulb, 3) the fixture does not heat up as it happens with Metal Halide / HQI / fluos fixtures, 4) the heat radiated down to the water surface is low and so does't warm the tank water (if we put our hands under the fixture, close the UV protective glass, we don't burn), 5) the electricity consumption is quite low when compared to metal halide or fluorescent tubs (1/3) , 6) the cost of the bulbs are very small (less than USD3/bulb).
Because in the world not everything are roses, in my opinion the Infinity Vision also have some drawbacks as: 1) by now, the investment is high, 2) the corals are not so colorfull under this kind of light comparing to Metal Halide / HQI / fluos fixtures, 3) the light emitted when it is running at full power is quite yellow (+ - 5.200 Kelvin) which requires us to use extra actinic bulbs to raise the color temperature to become the tank more pleasing to our eyes.

Cheers,

 

[Machado deSousa]

I just wanted to bump this question.

Also, I loved your first video, where you showed all your equipment and and the path way of water. If you have extra time, would you mind doing a short video like that again.

Thank you very much!

Hi dahenley!
As soon as possible I'll post pictures showing polyp cuttings and fixation on flower pics.
About the video showing the equipments and the path way of water, I will post more than one closeup video showing equipments and tanks. I will do so in order to upload recorded videos in HD.

 

[dahenley]

Hi dahenley!
As soon as possible I'll post pictures showing polyp cuttings and fixation on flower pics.
About the video showing the equipments and the path way of water, I will post more than one closeup video showing equipments and tanks. I will do so in order to upload recorded videos in HD.

Wow, thank you so much!

 

[Machado deSousa]

Great to have you back. Show us some latest pics please and lots, with latest equipment you running.

Ok, zaheda, thank you for your words of welcome. I will take some pics for you. Keep an eye on here.
Cheers,

Hi zaheda, this is a sump general view

Fell free to put any questions.

Cheers,

 

[maroun.c]

Hi Machado,
Can you please exlain the use of both the Ca reactors and Ca chloride and NA bicarbonate?
I'm sure you have a great demand in your system but are both Ca reactors not able to handle the load? how much of Ca and Alk are you dosing everyday to your system?
Any advantageson running both 2 part dosing and Ca reactor?
Did you ever struggle with low PH because of the CA reactors running on a high load...
Sorry lots of questions.

 

[Machado deSousa]

Hi Machado,
Can you please exlain the use of both the Ca reactors and Ca chloride and NA bicarbonate?
I'm sure you have a great demand in your system but are both Ca reactors not able to handle the load? how much of Ca and Alk are you dosing everyday to your system?
Any advantageson running both 2 part dosing and Ca reactor?
Did you ever struggle with low PH because of the CA reactors running on a high load...
Sorry lots of questions.

Hi Maroun,

It Is always a great pleasure for me to see you here!

During long time I used the Full Balling method, but about a year ago I´ve changed into Calcium Reactors.

I´m using a Deltec Calcium Reactor PF 1370 - for 25000L aquariums (6,600 g) - filled with 95 Kg (209 pound) of Deltec midia with Mg. The pH is controlled inside the reactor through a profilux computer.

To perform the degassing (CO2) of the effluent from the Reactor Calcium Deltec PF 1370 I´ve turned another reactor in series, the Deltec PF 1001, for tanks up to 5.000 liters (1320 g), also loaded with 35 kg (77 pound) of Deltec midia.

To raise the pH from the output of this last reactor, the effluent goes through a PVC tube 90 mm of diameter and 1m in length, loaded with about 8 Kg (17 pound) of ARM (Aragonite Reactor Midea)-based on fossilized Halimeda alga.

Note: The CO2 is supplied to the Calcium reactor PF 1370 during the day according with Ca and kH demand from the system.

Normally, I use Calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate only in SOS to correct the concentrations of Ca and kH.


View of two Calcium reactors

Now the Ca reactor PF 1370 is out of service because one of the pumps is broken and now I'm waiting for the new pump from Germany.

Because the Ca reactor PF 1370 is out of service, to compensate its lack I'm using the Balling Light method (with the solutions of calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate added by Grothec Tec III) together with the Calcium Reactor PF 1001 flowing into the tube with ARM to raise the pH of its output.

Cheers,

 

[dahenley]

Your Skimmers always look like they are pulling some nasty stuff. Do you prefer the deltec or H&S? Also, they use different pumps. Do you like 1 more then the other?

I love the picture with explanation

 

[zaheda]

You said that this setup in a rented place couple of miles from your home. Do you have any reef tanks at your home? Can you estimate running costs a month for this passion of the hobby.

 

[dahenley]

also, is your QT tank hoked with everything else?? wouldn't that threaten your main system?

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for the info.
Guess it does make sense to keep the dosing pumps and CA and alk even if I add a reactor down teh line to my setup...

 

[Machado deSousa]

Your Skimmers always look like they are pulling some nasty stuff. Do you prefer the deltec or H&S? Also, they use different pumps. Do you like 1 more then the other?

I love the picture with explanation

For me both skimmers are good in terms of performance. The H & S skimmers are equipped with Aqua Bee F5000 pumps and Deltec AP903 skimmers are provided with Eheim 1260 pumps. Aqua Bee pumps move a lot of water and suck on larger volumes of air but I have had problems with this kind of pumps. Often they crash with the energie flutuations and this don't happen with Eheim pumps which are more reliables.

 

[Machado deSousa]

You said that this setup in a rented place couple of miles from your home. Do you have any reef tanks at your home? Can you estimate running costs a month for this passion of the hobby.

I spend about 2 USD for each trip but I do not care if I work a little far of my home.
I no longer have aquariums in my house.

 

[Machado deSousa]

also, is your QT tank hoked with everything else?? wouldn't that threaten your main system?

The water level of the quarantine tank is higher than the water level of the sump. When I want to isolate the quarantine tank from the rest of the system for treatment I have to close the valve that supplies the tank. The water that flows from this tank is filtered when I have animals in quarantine, with filter socks.

 

[Machado deSousa]

Thanks for the info.
Guess it does make sense to keep the dosing pumps and CA and alk even if I add a reactor down teh line to my setup...

This is the problem...

 

[RPimenta]

Updated link,

Apparently it seems to be some type of problem with link posted before

Try this new link:Machado de Sousa's Coral Maternity is a quite impressive garage fish room

 

[apuhl20]

I would love to see a video or step by step series of how you actually frag your pieces. I know you stated before that some are done with single polyps so seeing the actual sizes you start with and the process would be great!! Thanks again!!

 

[Machado deSousa]

This weekend a friend of mine goes with me to make a video showing how I do it.

Cheers,

 

[rogergolf66]

This weekend a friend of mine goes with me to make a video showing how I do it.

Cheers,

Awesome!!!!

 

[maroun.c]

Looking forward for that Video.

 

[CarlitosReef]

OP you should have more videos on your tube channel looking forward for the upcoming video as well