mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks, things are really stating to do well in both tanks now, I'm pretty excited about how they are looking
Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
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Thanks, things are really stating to do well in both tanks now, I'm pretty excited about how they are looking
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks!!!
I played around with having both gyres vertical, but for some reason the one that's up front was doing way better at returning flow. The one on the other side was a little noisy as well, it just needs the bushing adjusted but I didn't feel like disassembling it.
Anyhow, I moved the back one back up to horizontal and voila! Quiet again and on that side, better flushing flow across the reef, It's not symmetrical, with one horizontal on one side and vertical the other, but the flow all over the reef is fantastic!
I don't have them hooked up to the Apex at all right now, they are on pulse flow at about 50%. I don't do nighttime flow or turn them off when I feed, so they are in that mode all the time. You get way more flow in the non pulse flow, but I find better "swishing" of the coral polyps and better detritus removal with pulse.
I cannot stress enough how much I love the Gyres, especially compared to propeller pumps!
Reefvet
New member
OK, just read this thread in it's entirety.
Wonderful job with the tanks. In the 40+ years I've been in this hobby I think your close to the top of the list of n̶u̶t̶c̶a̶s̶e̶s̶ seriously motivated reef keepers I've come across.
Solar is going to save your obsession. I'm a couple hundred miles north of you and couldn't imagine paying the SCE bill for that setup.
Best of luck with the new tank combo and I look forward to seeing and reading about your success :thumbsup:
Wonderful job with the tanks. In the 40+ years I've been in this hobby I think your close to the top of the list of n̶u̶t̶c̶a̶s̶e̶s̶ seriously motivated reef keepers I've come across.
Solar is going to save your obsession. I'm a couple hundred miles north of you and couldn't imagine paying the SCE bill for that setup.
Best of luck with the new tank combo and I look forward to seeing and reading about your success :thumbsup:
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks everyone! The two tank concept was not what I had in mind when I started thinking of upgrading, but its turned out better than I could've imagined
ReefVet, when I used the word "Obsession" I was as serious as it gets. I was hooked early on and at this point I can't imagine not having a reef to obsess over. I'm very lucky to be in a place in my life where I can feed that obsession without worrying about putting food on the table
Solar certainly takes away any sting of electrical costs, especially since SDGE is one of the most expensive utilities in the country, but realistically, the Solar was more to counter my wife needing to have the house Air conditioned at all times. It's nice to see how much power I generate each day and know that the sun is keeping my house cool and my tank lit!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Where isn SoCal are you located?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Two of the 150s in the shallow reef, one in the flubber tank. I was an early adopter the Gyre and couldn't be happier
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Oh one other thing, I put a Kill-a-watt on the system and believe it or not, running that much stuff is pretty efficient.
Return Pump:~65watts
Skimmer<30Watts
Silence Pumps for skimmer supply and Pellet RX: ~50Watts
Gyres:~20 watts each
So other than the Lights and Heater, steady state running the system uses around 200 watts. The kill-a-watt showed 145watts without the two Gyres on.
There are 6 39Watt bulbs on for 11.5 hours so 234watts
Then all bulbs on for 6 hours, so add 14 39watt bulbs for 546 additional watts.
With the single tank and the sump in the garage, I needed to use a 120watt Blueline 40HD to get the water back to the tank and the heater ran constantly. So, believe it or not, I use about the same or less electricity as I did with one tank!
Reefvet
New member
That's very efficient. Clearly you're benefitting from removing those right angle fittings and the bigger pump.
And hey if the solar just keeps your wife happy then it's worth it for that alone.
I'm 100 miles north of L.A.. and enjoying a slightly cooler climate than you but still end up in the higher tiers of the electric bill. I'm just rebuilding my systems now with more efficient pumps and primarly LEDs. I'll post a build thread when it's far enough along.
Congrats on being able to enjoy your obsession. :thumbsup:
biggles
Premium Member
So if you add a third tank you'd be saving money ! :thumbsup:
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
You're a genius!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks! It is available at Lowes or Home Depot, in the paneling isle.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
What a strange beastie Cyano is...its slowly but surely dying off but really strange in how its going. I didn't think there would be much of a cyano stage in the shallow reef because of the plastic rocks, but there has been one in both tanks.
At first the shallow tank was pretty clear, and the corals were reacting well to the flow and light there. Then with the draining and filling of the flubber tank, coupled with the anemone shredding, there was a good amount of die-off and the system had to re-ballance itself.
I was blowing/siphoning the cyano off of the rocks and scraping it off the bottom every day, sometimes multiple times a day, even though the tank has enormous flow. Eventually the bottom started showing some clean spots and the rocks on the left side of the tank on the dining room side started staying cleaner and cleaner. Over the last few weeks, the clean has proceeded around the tank in a counter clockwise fashion, even though that doesn't have any relationship to the flow in the tank. Very weird. About 5 days ago the dining room side was for the most part clear except a couple spots on the bottom. As of today, the family room side is clear on the rocks, but about 1/3 of the bottom still shows some Cyano but its fading fast. Here is the Dining room side as of this evening:
Its hard to be patient with this stuff but it seems to be sorting itself out. There is some in the flubber tank but its mostly on the sand and sheltered areas, I'm letting it ride for now. The Flubber tank is looking pretty good, actually:
I'm also getting some color going in the Acros after quite a few went brown following the anemone incident. This Solitaryensis is getting purple tips:
At first the shallow tank was pretty clear, and the corals were reacting well to the flow and light there. Then with the draining and filling of the flubber tank, coupled with the anemone shredding, there was a good amount of die-off and the system had to re-ballance itself.
I was blowing/siphoning the cyano off of the rocks and scraping it off the bottom every day, sometimes multiple times a day, even though the tank has enormous flow. Eventually the bottom started showing some clean spots and the rocks on the left side of the tank on the dining room side started staying cleaner and cleaner. Over the last few weeks, the clean has proceeded around the tank in a counter clockwise fashion, even though that doesn't have any relationship to the flow in the tank. Very weird. About 5 days ago the dining room side was for the most part clear except a couple spots on the bottom. As of today, the family room side is clear on the rocks, but about 1/3 of the bottom still shows some Cyano but its fading fast. Here is the Dining room side as of this evening:
Its hard to be patient with this stuff but it seems to be sorting itself out. There is some in the flubber tank but its mostly on the sand and sheltered areas, I'm letting it ride for now. The Flubber tank is looking pretty good, actually:
I'm also getting some color going in the Acros after quite a few went brown following the anemone incident. This Solitaryensis is getting purple tips:
biggles
Premium Member
Things are definitely on the improve Matt, i always blow cyano free just before lights out since it's such a light driven beast i think just before darkness is the best time to put it into the water column - when it's at its weakest and it can spend all night being shredded by the pumps and removed by the skimmer. When i had cyano a few months back that's how i dealt with it, turkey basting everything just like you but i did it at the end of the light cycle and i saw a noticeable increase in skimmate production any night i did it. Seemed to speed up the process so it's worth a try if you want to experiment mate. :beer:
That purple tipped soli looks extremely yummy How is your powder blue agro wise, does he give the others any i'm the boss attitude.
That purple tipped soli looks extremely yummy
How is your powder blue agro wise, does he give the others any i'm the boss attitude.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Things are definitely on the improve Matt, i always blow cyano free just before lights out since it's such a light driven beast i think just before darkness is the best time to put it into the water column - when it's at its weakest and it can spend all night being shredded by the pumps and removed by the skimmer. When i had cyano a few months back that's how i dealt with it, turkey basting everything just like you but i did it at the end of the light cycle and i saw a noticeable increase in skimmate production any night i did it. Seemed to speed up the process so it's worth a try if you want to experiment mate. :beer:
That purple tipped soli looks extremely yummy
I turkey baste before lights out for the same reason, and I suck up any large glops and deposit them in the overflow to go to the sump. Even though I don't have a sock in the system full time anymore, between settling in the first chamber and the super skimmer, I think a good amount of the cyano gets removed.
With the bare bottom all the actual detritus collects in a nice neat pile. I siphon that into a filter sock to get rid of that for good. It seems to be working well.
The powder blue is a model citizen, but he only has clownfish and Chromis to compete with. Speaking of Chromis, I got a lesson in buying fish from the right place. I started with four from the "good" LFS who gets their fish from the premier importer. I wanted more but all they had was four. After that it seemed everyone was out of them. Finally, the "not so good" LFS had 15 small Chromis at 4 bucks each. I bought them all. They were swimming, eating, and looking good. And about one was dying each day
. I thought a few would die since they were fresh to the store, but it kept going....till four were left:headwallblue:Those four were fine for about a week, then it struck me...they were the same four I started with! I got five more from the good LFS and haven't had any more losses. I think I got a batch of cyanide caught fish from the not so good LFS:furious:
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