Finally have a large tank... 280g Deltec Custom Reef Tank

[danskim]

A D80 is nice, and a D3 is in general nicer... but it really depends on what you want to do.
If you really like doing macros, then the D80 is better because of the 1.5x fov crop. The D3 is FF, so the effect of the macro would not be as great. The higher number of megapixels might seem like it'd help more, but actually it doesn't because pixel density on the D80 is higher than the D3. This also applies to wildlife photography where range is most important.

The 18-200mm is a good lens, but in general, ultra wide to telephoto means there's give and take somewhere. You're better off getting two good lenses... one wide to normal and one normal to telephoto (for example, the new 24-70 f/2.8 and the 80-200 f/2.8 VR).

 

[danskim]

I forgot to include what I meant by give and take. There is a considerable amount of barrel distortion on the wide end, and on the long end, it's not as sharp as other 200mm zooms, especially the 80-200mm I mentioned.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

well today I did some work on the plumbing. I am working on a manifold for my overflow drain to split between gravity feeding the skimmer and rest of the water to a filter bag.

The skimmer return is now feeding the refugium so that eliminates the refugium feed pump and gives a place for the ozone and micro bubbles to work themselves out.

The current skimmer feed pump (eheim 1260) has been dry fitted with another ridge PVC manifold which will feed the fluidized filter and calcium reactor once the skimmer is gravity fed.

The caulerpa is looking health after its first week. Have not noticed significant growth but it has a deep green color and looks good. The flow through the refugium is fairly slow with water constantly moving up (vertical from under the egg crate) rather then linear (horizontal) flow.

I'm still working on getting my closed loop up and running after the other day. I have had a few other set backs due to the plumbing and now I'm having a issue with the pump not kicking in. Oh joy.


I have reached the leveling out stage of the AZ-NO3 treatment and am dosing 30ml per day in the morning. All clams, corals, and fish look solid and will be testing the water this afternoon. I will be getting some new probes this weekend so I'm re-calibrated all my aquatronica probes at the same time.

I am also getting a 300gpd 4 stage RO unit which I'm going to add a extra micron sediment filter and two DI polishing canisters by using the parts from my current 50gpd RO/DI unit. The direct hook up to my sump with a 300gpd unit kinda scares me so I am using a normal float switch (the kind with the back pressure shut off) along side two D-D solenoid controller float valves that came with the tank. I also have that timer on the RO/DI source to only come on a few hours a day so I should have plenty of redundancy and security measures. Seems excessive but last think I need is the RO/DI to get stuck on and flood everything.






Danskim - thanks for the advice on the camera. I haven't sold myself on the D3 yet and would like to use it before I make a decision. Good call on the D80 to D3 comparison, I'll have to do a side by side before I decide on anything.

I a currently using the original lens (Nikor 18-55mm) but am not happy that is only f/5 and I obviously would like more versatility. . I really like my sigma lens and my new Nikor 70-300mm VR is pretty good as well. I will have to look into the new 24-70 as its what I'm looking for. Any suggestions for really good macro lenses? I'm looking for more zoom power if that makes sense.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

pictures again

FTS

STS

A untouched macro I took last night... I like it.

 

[cbui2]

nice pics Tom, so you only have 2 pendants for now? any plans for more then that?

 

[ReefingBuddha]

I'm thinking of adding a D-D twin 5ft T5 bulbs, 80w each. I would move the single 5ft t5 bulb I have right now to the back. I might add a second twin set in the back further down the road.

That's about that on lighting. I know the pictures are a little dark but its the only way I can get a picture without overexposing my corals, stupid stock lens. Now I really want the 24-70 f/2.8 danstim was talking about. Except I just looked it up the price and its over a 1,000 pounds over here, a little steep right now but looks like a hell of a lens.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

I just found a old deltec calcium reactor I got with the tank that I'll just convert over to a sulfur denitrator as soon as I get some media. Its a recirculating skimmer so it only needs one or two little mods to get it right. Ordered some from Coral Culture but I guess they are out for right now, need to find an alternative and get this thing rolling.

Also I am currently collecting materials to build a new skimmer with a 230mm Diameter w/ 400m high body with a planned 3 mesh modded sicca recirculating pumps. Should be able to do a much better job then my AP851 is doing right now.

Also upgrading my lighting a little with a 5ft double bulb 80w D-D razor. Its going to be running 80w pure actinics to get some better light balance. I'm going to move the current one I have to the back. If I'm not happy with that I'll add another 5ft 80w in the back as well.

Also ... Finishing off a manifold to gravity feed my skimmer and some other equipment. I've been busy. Still battling nitrates but it seems to be improving. I need to get a better test.

 

[amashun]

Nice pictures, please keep us posted for your DIY skimmer.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

Will definitely keep you update. Getting supplies for DIYing a skimmer over here in England has been a problem so its taking time.

So time for an update.



Anyways.

Bad News: Got some STN on a acro a few days ago and it has gotten bad so I fragged it out tonight. Most of the corals look great but that one and another are looking a little rough. Could still be acclimation pains, we'll see what happens.
Also so far I have heard nothing from Deltec about a replacement controller for my HLP pump. Its incredible basic to switch out so I don't know what the problem is.

Good News: Finally the nitrates has started to drop. I'm down to a solid 25 from a estimated 35 to 40 a week ago. I'm getting some sulfur media later this week and my live sand is on the way as well. Going to add a small RDSB and DIY a sulfur nitrate reactor out of a old CA reactor to pick up the slack.
Today I also finally finished my drain manifold and I'm happy with it. It replaces a eheim 1260 that was feeding my skimmer and CA reactor. The new manifold takes care of the filter bags and skimmer right now and has a bleed valve at the end to take care of extra air in the line. It also has plenty of unions for upgrading later. Will post pictures tomorrow. The CA feed is now on a smaller eheim that feeds the refugium and fluidized reactor. Going to add a tee off my return soon to handle that and I'll be good without extra pumps in my sump.
I also got some cheato from a LFS as the cheato that was mailed to me from a guy who offered it never made it to me, royal mail is horrible.


That's all folks. New t5's coming later in the week.

 

[cbui2]

pretty we all have STNing before, i know i have. you know i can send you some cheato . i heard deltec has a lot of problems now. pretty sure when you setup the equipment the nitrates will go down. how much are you feeding and how about water changes schedule?

 

[ReefingBuddha]

doing 40g change a week and I'm feeding a decent amount 2 to 4 times a day. Never enough so that food is left in the water after a couple minutes. I now also rinse my food tanks to Jnarowe's suggestion so keep the extra crap out of the water. I feed a combination of small krill, large krill, mysis, cyclopeeze, and red, purple and green algae. My fish are fat.

Yeah I'm surprised by Deltec's customer service over here. It took a week to respond to my email. When the down tube was missing from a CA reactor I bought in the states the head of the US division called me within minutes of the email to apologize and get the part out ASAP. Now that was impressive customer service.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

Alright.. time for some proof of life

FTS (April 1st, 2008)

Top Down shot using prezel cam... quick shots, haven't played with it much

Skimmer after 8 hours gravity fed.. pretty happy with how its doing

Left side sump

Right side sump

funny, looks like its much more messy in pictures. And yeah I have a lot of cables going on, trying to cut down on that now.

 

[cbui2]

great shots, exactly how did you gravity feed skimmer? could you do a simple diagram on sketchup . waiting for my parts to come in so i can do the same thing too.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

Thanks Bart. I ended up making a manifold a little different then I originally wanted as I was reusing old PVC parts, unions, and bulkheads for some of it. I don't know if its the best way to go but here it is. 50mm drain from the tank goes into 2 50mm T's with a union on the end that's then reduced to 32mm elbow with a 16mm tap at the end. The 50mm T's are reduced down to 32mm. The first one drops down into the filter bag. The second goes down into a bulkhead and then back across the wall and then gets further reduced to 20mm right before the union to the skimmer input. It took a little bit of tinkering to get the flow balanced right but it works fine now. Hope that all makes sense, if you still would like a sketchup version let me know.

I don't know a whole lot about plumbing or where along a run of pipe to reduce but I figured that the larger pipe leading up to the skimmer and then having the shortest length of reduced sized plumbing would work the best and it seems to work fine.



Today I added a deep sand bed to the refugium. Its only 60 pounds of CaribSea Aragalive Bahamas Oolite sand. Sounds fancy I know. Its about 4-5" deep and I'll get another 40 pounds tomorrow. I took all but a handful of LR from the refugium. The remaining rock is just to help disperse incoming and outgoing water flow.

I also noticed that the same urchin who has decorated himself with the GSP decided that one of my clams would be nice for his shell. This morning he was upside down under a ledge with a small clam hanging of the bottom. Didn't get a pictures as i was worried that the clam might fall into a crevice but funny enough was the clam was wide open and looking happy.

Also the colony I had to frag out is looking shitty. All the frags RTNed except for one, hopefully it will make it. Rest of the corals are looking solid. Right now I'm trying to bring up magnesium a bit and lower my alkalinity. Calcium is dead on as are all my other levels outside of Nitrates which are hovering around 25.

 

[cbui2]

omg that sucks on the colony. no need for sketchups i have a general idea hows its done. i just like seen them over and over again . guess i will learn one day

 

[ReefingBuddha]

lol.. not that hard man. With your talents sketch up should be no problem. I've gotten a little tired of it but its still good for preliminary concept testing. These days I'm happy just getting at it as I actually have a tank to tinker with.

Can anyone tell me what kind of crab this claw might below to? Also do you think it was torn off, molted, or the crab is simply dead. The card is for reference and its the shorter end of a standard credit card

 

[cbui2]

thats an acro crab claw. pretty sure its molt

 

[ReefingBuddha]

really? that would be the biggest acro crab I have ever had by a long ****. My other little guys don't have arms longer then a few centimeters at most.

 

[TandN]

I agree I never seen a aco crab that biggefore

 

[cbui2]

my friend display have been setup over a year now, and has one size of half dollar. its not emerald for sure with black claws. place a small piece of shrimp at the bottom and wait to see if he comes out.