Lets do this - 225+ reef bar

[mcliffy2]

The plan is to do the bar in granite, so not sure how practical it is to make that removable. Figured I might just stand on the bar for major tasks...you do raise a good pint about the ease of maintenance. I've got something cool planned in that regard for the canopy, but I'm gonna keep it a secret as far as the bar, I wonder if there is any way to have it fold down or something so I can move it out of the way, hmmmm....

 

[ReefEnabler]

granite??! oh man that is going to look slick. I guess you could just make it strong enough to stand on. couple L shaped metal supports or angle kickers might help.

have you picked a style granite yet?? my favorite is black galaxy, it reflects tanks really well

 

[mcliffy2]

I have a friend who is a granite contractor, so I can get it done cheap. I'm thinking black granite of some type, with a black mosaic on the sides and backstop against the tank.

 

[Jflip2002]

Maybe a big Maize and blue M above, or Orange olde english D. Thatd add a touch of class.

 

[mcliffy2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12620397#post12620397 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jflip2002
Maybe a big Maize and blue M above, or Orange olde english D. Thatd add a touch of class.

lol...while I do like Michigan, I'm going to go for something a bit sleeker....

 

[ataylo13]

Colonies are looking good. How is the skimmer coming? Do you have the frag tank plumbed yet?

 

[jglackin]

Looking good!

 

[mcliffy2]

Thanks Brandon and Jim.

Brandon - I'm holding off on plumbing the frag tank until I get the noise issue with the snapper resolved. Don't want to end up replumbing it...

 

[ataylo13]

I hear you on the whole re-plumbing thing... The pizza and beer was good so I am up to if you are

I don't think I remember seeing it in the thread, but what are you doing along the lines of Calcium/Kalk reactor

 

[mcliffy2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12621592#post12621592 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ataylo13
I hear you on the whole re-plumbing thing... The pizza and beer was good so I am up to if you are

I don't think I remember seeing it in the thread, but what are you doing along the lines of Calcium/Kalk reactor

I am starting to lean towards the balling method with dosing pumps, but still undecided. Im pretty sure I'm going with an AquaC RX-1 if I go the CA reactor route...we were talking about it after chugging beer on Sunday... I have this wacky theory about calc/alk metabolism...that in a sense if you "feed" more by actively dosing you encourage more growth, whereas a CA reactor waits for the CA to be depleted, then replinishes. I'm not sure its correct, but I do know that it seems like some of the craziest tanks use the balling method....

 

[ataylo13]

I vaguely remember that... I killed a few brain cells this weekend Glad you were able to come.

 

[ReefEnabler]

Cliffy I have never thought of Ca/Alk like that.

If anything CA reactors are driven by pH in most cases. Most people have them set up to stop injecting co2 if the tank pH drops below a desired threshold, which prevents it from driving the pH even lower. So I guess it can limit how much you can use the co2, but I wouldn't say that the 'waits the CA to be depleted".


With kalk you have the exact opposite. you dose (or topoff with) the kalk until the pH raises the upper limits (8.3 to 8.5ish), and then switch to RO water (I will control that with a solenoid on the profilux).

I personally think that using a kalk reactor and a calcium reactor together is the best of both worlds. Then you have very responsive pH up and pH down adjustment tools to really hone in on the perfect numbers. And if you dose both its pH stabilizing while still letting you add calcium/alk so you aren't limited by pH swings either way.

But for now I am just using my PM kalk reactor. Why??? Because AFY "lost" my calcium reactor that I already paid for and I cant spent another several hundred dollars on the one I want again I am going to wait a while and see how the kalk alone works out.

I'm using the dosing pump for the kalk reactor just because I know my pH will need to be raised a little bit. So theres no reason to just limit yourself to the dosing pump by itself, they can work great with kalk reactors.

 

[mcliffy2]

Ryan - your explanation makes sense. I based mine on the observation of people who were planning on two-part dosing, but seemed to have consistent levels of CA/Alk and thus didn't dose, and complained of no growth. This combined with the fact my corals almost seemed to suck up as much as I could dose...i.e. if I dosed 100 ml a day or 200 ml, my levels didnt vary much either way, so it seemed that the more I dosed, the more my corals sucked up (within limits of course). This is a just an observation and I will admit it lacks much in scientific backing...but who knows I could be on to something. For now I'm just dosing two-part, 100 ml 2x/day, but I will definitely be doing something as far as automation soon.

 

[ReefEnabler]

you know I always wondered if there was something fundamentally chemically diferent about the alk/calcium that gets added with the various methods.

that would make for an interesting study wouldn't it???

set up a control tank with 100% NSW changes, and then a few other tanks with synthetic conditions. One with calcium reactor, one with ionic dosing, one with kalk reactor, and then one with calcium + kalk. then place same-sized frags of the same colony in each tank and measure growth as well as cal/alk consumption. crudely given idea but just an idea.....

This would be a great question to bring over to the chemistry forum, I bet Randy would eat it up.

 

[ataylo13]

I have done very little research on the bailing method... but it looks like a more complex 2 part system. There are some people with really tricky setups using several dosing pumps to pump water in and salt water out and and and.... I think it would be cool to do, but it would be very laborious to setup.

just my initial thoughts. I will continue reading. If you have any good articles on the balling method let me know.

 

[jglackin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12621969#post12621969 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RyanBrucks
I personally think that using a kalk reactor and a calcium reactor together is the best of both worlds. Then you have very responsive pH up and pH down adjustment tools to really hone in on the perfect numbers. And if you dose both its pH stabilizing while still letting you add calcium/alk so you aren't limited by pH swings either way.

This is what I am going to be doing. I just got my reactor back from LifeReef (repairs) and I had a pH probe added. I am going to run the reactor off the pH probe connected to the reactor itself and then I will run my kalk via a dosing pump that will operate off of the pH meter in the sump.

I have a LitermeterIII with an additional pump. I will use the main pump for my auto topoff and the additional pump for the kalk.

 

[chrissreef]

I also think a Ca reactor and Kalk combo is the "best" solution... I'm just a lazy sob so don't bother with kalk. I don't know why but I also think "pushing" the calcium into the system gave me better growth.

In my past tanks, b4 I went the Ca reactor route, I've used Kent 2 part and odly Seachem's Reef Calcium. I really liked how the "sugar" from Seachem gave me a coraline growth spurt. I don't believe it's a good long term suppliment but in my eyes it might be a good kick-start suppliment so I'll use it for the first 2 months my new tank is up (half dose when I turn on the Ca reactor - about 2-3 weeks after the LR goes in). As for all the AB stuff - maybe I've done something wrong but I was never highly impressed.

edit: jglackin - that will be a nice setup!

 

[mcliffy2]

I liked the simplicity of hand dosing calcium and alk, I felt more in control of the tank. But, I also needed someone to come watch the tank and dose on a daily basis, so I felt trapped as far as going out of town, even for a weekend. With the ATO and dosing pumps, I figure I can safely go on vacation....I'm still torn tho. I was thinking of doing Kalkwasser top-off and a CA reactor, so I figure I'll sit on it for now. First have to resolve my return pump issue, then get the frag tank up, figure out a controller (which if I go with Biomatix, they are supposed to have a dosing solution out shortly), then figure out how to automate Calc/Alk.

 

[SSpiro]

I just read all 24 pages.. FANTASTIC setup. I LOVE it.

 

[mcliffy2]

Sspiro - thanks much

chrissreef & Jim - I may very well end up doing the CA & Kalk reactor combo, just trying to research all options and with the familiarity and success I have had with dosing, it is tempting just to automate that.