Few Questions

[Gimplar]

Does anyone know a good LFS that sells pretty cheap RO and that it's ACTUALLY RO. Anywhere besides Petmart.

and

Does anyone have any advice on what i should do? My tank is running 4 VHO's and 2 metal halides. My temperature is reading out to be about 84.7 degrees. i have 2 fans on there, but i dont wanna buy a chiller (too expensive for me right now). and i was thinking of just putting more fans, but my evaporation is gonna sky rocket, more then it is right now. Any suggestions?

 

[Acolin]

The host of the June Sarasota club meeting had a very cheap RO unit he got online, it looked quite similar to one I saw at Life Oceanic in Apollo Beach (contact Steve or Agu)…

1) I would not worry about the tem, if things are growing fine
2) I would not worry about the temp., if it does not decrease more than 5 degrees F at night (what is it in the morning?)
3) One more fan might be just the ticket to finally get the heat out of the tank (temperature controlled ones are about $50). There is a calculation somewhere for how much air has to move over the water surface to cool it xx degrees (it is a lot!)
4) Are you venting the top of the hood, to make sure that heat can escape? This is sometimes worth as much as 2-3 degrees in cooling.
5) Are there A/C vents in your home that you can direct over the tank? If you can close 15-25% of your least used vents and open the one over the tank, you can cool your tank another few degrees without lowering your household temperature.

 

[Gimplar]

hrrm thanks for the info! yeah i've seen it as low as 78 degrees... but i only have one stealth heater that's suppose to operate a 75 max. But i have another so i think ill stick that one in there as well. As far as the canopy, it's completely closed except the two fans that blow air out of the canopy (used canopy, so i couldnt help the design) cause it was set up int he middle of the room from the previous owner. But besides that, everything seems to be doing fine.

 

[Gimplar]

Oh and about the RO, I heard Tampa Tap water has lots of metals and stuff and will quickly destroy RO membranes within a matter of weeks (or somethin glike that) I live in an apartment so i dont really wanna mess around with plumping and screw something up so their handymen can come up and see about 2 tons of water, rock, glass, wood,a nd fish sitting in the corner ont he second floor. I have a barebones 10 GPD but good lord that thing pumps out maybe .5 GPD if im lucky. I think the PSI in the plumping hosing is too low so it doesnt have enough pressure to pump out the GPD it's suppose to.

 

[luminary]

Before I setup an RO/DI unit for the 225, I bought my water from Ichthy Things. I tried a couple other stores near me but wasn't happy with the quality (most had measurable TDS in the high single, low double digit range).

As for temp, in my experience, 84 is too high. In my old 50 I had 2 250w MH and 2 36" VHO actinics and I constantaly struggled with temp (granted, that's a lot of light for a 50 so heat problems are probably expected). My average was right around yours and the tank consistently had problems. My evaporation was around 5 gallons a day and I still couldn't get it under control. If it's a problem and you can't get a chiller, consider cutting back on the lighting.
Are the VHO's just actinics? Maybe consider keeping them off for most of the day and see if that helps?

Colin's point about the temperature delta is spot on...5+ degrees difference is too much of a shock.

 

[Gimplar]

I'm running 2 whites and 2 Actinic Blues as well as 2 metal halides which i only run every other day for about 3-5 hours. Well, i mean my lights ARE on alot...i like to see them on all day cause im awake by 10 and sleep at like 3am...dont ask how i function from day to day, but usually their on from like 11-1:30am. I know this is rediculously long, but thats how i like it, im thinking about getting a RO unit, but any recomendations on what type i should get? how much does fish and other Ichthy charge for RO? Is there a way i can just fill up a 35 gallon trashcan and put dechlorinator, deionizing, and phosphate sponge and chemically making my own RO? I was thinkinga bout getting my brother to help me make an auto topper for the water levels, but the temperature is pretty wack. I mean, all i would need is a 1/4 or 1/6 horse chiller right? Any recommendations on chillers? i heard ones with external thermoneters are better. And i guess the cheapest way, is to get a used.

 

[luminary]

Do you really need them on that time period continuously? I think I remember reading about someone that had their lights on for a couple hours, then off for awhile and then on again later on. If I recall, they had pretty good success with it.

As for the RO water, I don't remember what the pricing was...I seem to remember something on the order of $8 for 15 gallons. It's been several years since I bought it. As for an RO/DI unit, you can get one of those for under $200. I think mine was a little bit over that, but I got all the bells and whistles.

Honestly, what you'd spend to chemically clean it would probably be just as much, if not more, than buying a unit.