launchnukes
New member
wow. tank is looking better than ever
Mike's 300 Double-D
- Thread starter prop-frags
- Start date
Next came the tricky part of disassembling the trees, moving them into the tank, and re-assembling. This worked flawlessly on one of the trees, and the other one we had trouble remembering how it went back together!! :hmm6:
No problem-o! We just re-worked and wound up improving it.
Here's how it looked with both in there...
Detail of the left side sculpture:
And then finally looking from the right side across towards the left:
For you plumbing freaks, we finally finished up the closed loop and drains.
Thanks for everyone's input and advice on this, it really did help us a lot:
All of this work, and while we knocked some stuff off the list, there's still quite a lot more to do:
The good news is the tank is now full of water, the closed loop is blasting like no tomorrow! The herbie drains are working just like we planned (and it's a really good thing we took y'alls advice and put gate valves on those things).
:celeb3:
Now we are dreaming of having fish in there:
M & T,
I am just trying to find where you found your CL strainer at and where I can get one?! Thanks! Your reef masterpiece is my inspiration, one day I will start my 300DD adventure.
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Thank you both for the awesome compliments!
Just need a nice big anemone to wreak havoc on your system
We actually tried to get our Ocellaris clowns to ditch their paly colony and move to an RBTA, but after 2.5 months we gave up. We moved the RBTA to our frag tank and the loner Ocellaris clown in that tank eventually claimed it. The RBTA has split countless times since then and burned a few frags along the way.
At last count, we had 5 nems in there, sigh. For every nem we remove, 2 more pop up... reminiscent of "The Trouble with Tribbles"... and if you know that reference, your as old as dirt, like me, HAH!
We purchased ours from US Plastic
Thanks for stopping by our thread - we appreciate the nice words, and best of luck with your 300DD planning. We'd be glad to help you out... our advice is free :lmao:
Well, unfortunately I know exactly what you mean! BTW, there is actually a Tribbles reference in the new Star Trek movie.
biodegraded
New member
Ouch! I watched it on broadcast TV when first aired. Now where did I leave my laxative...
launchnukes
New member
that last shot is epic. good job!
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Dave, the CL is doing quite well. Very low maintenance, and trouble-free operation. We just did some regular maintenance on the CL pump this past weekend - took the Dart offline and cleaned it. We were starting to notice some microbubbles and what we found were some snail shells and debris in the impeller. I was initially concerned about the OM4 getting jammed with sand, but that's only happened once since we installed it. If you are thoughtful about your plumbing so that it's easy to take the thing offline and pull it apart, it's no worries. We get great flow from the design, and with the low maintenance, it's great. Highly recommended.
You guys are cracking us up. A little bit TMI, but...
Thanks buddy! We'll put a few more up - we put the underwater camera in there for some coral pics.
Thank you Rick - we started with an idea, borrowed some from others, and then had the opportunity to re-work it a few times :idea: Our advice coming out of all this is if you're planning a space for SPS, to allow for plenty of room for coral placement and growth, and provide for lots of flow at multiple levels in the tank.
:fish1: :fish2:
A little bit of a technical update. As with many large system owners, we've been battling low pH, and trying to keep it steady. For a couple years, we were dosing Kalkwasser with our top-off. Eventually, our demand for Alk and pH was calling for us to top-off with pretty much 100% Kalk. This is in addition to running the Calcium reactor. Then a few months ago we had the Kalk overdose scare, and went to a Kalk dosing approach (separated from fresh water top-off). That was making it even harder to get the pH where we wanted it. So we decided to give the soda lime a try. If you've not seen this, it's a pelletized hygroscopic Calcium Hydroxide used in CO2 absorption applications like SCUBA rebreathers. We installed it in a TLF reactor and put it on the skimmer. After observing this for several weeks, we're convinced it works. Our pH is leveling out much better than before, and we don't see the big nightly swings we were having.
dahenley
New member
what calcium reactor are you running, and are you running a 2nd chamber?
its as simple as a reactor with fine calcium media and running your effluent from the reactor through it before going to your tank. it absorbs excess CO2 from the calcium reactor water before hitting the tank to effect it.
it will also buffer the water and possibly giving you a little extra bump or ALK/CAL
I ran one with my MRC CR-6 dual and never had any PH problems. just something to think of. and its basically free and hassle free. (just fill it up as needed. no maintenance)
its as simple as a reactor with fine calcium media and running your effluent from the reactor through it before going to your tank. it absorbs excess CO2 from the calcium reactor water before hitting the tank to effect it.
it will also buffer the water and possibly giving you a little extra bump or ALK/CAL
I ran one with my MRC CR-6 dual and never had any PH problems. just something to think of. and its basically free and hassle free. (just fill it up as needed. no maintenance)
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Thank you for your suggestions, we really do appreciate them. Mike's been very busy with a project at work the past couple of weeks, so I'll answer what I can and let Mike follow up later.
We are running a GEO 818 Ca RX which does not have a 2nd chamber. We tried the fresh air approach for several weeks without any noticeable difference. We looked at running a second reactor and may try it in the future, but for now, we have a 5g bucket of granular soda lime we need to make us of. As far as maintenance goes, it is quite simple (and the easiest task I do). I replace the granules when the media is exhausted (media turns blue) which is approx every 2.5 to 3 weeks.
And for an update, how about some overdue pics:
Fish:
prop-frags
SPS Slave
A few coral shots:
A. austera:
A hyacinthus:
A. millepora:
Purple Monster:
We love the color of this staghorn:
And lastly, a view from the right side of the tank:
A. austera:
A hyacinthus:
A. millepora:
Purple Monster:
We love the color of this staghorn:
And lastly, a view from the right side of the tank:
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Your wrasse game is like no other. Beautiful pic updates.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
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