My 120 filled mostly with SPS

I'm curious whether those mini cones on the bubble plate make any difference other than being a pain to clean.

Other than that, is it the same as the previous model?
 
dvanacker said:
That skimmer was the one thing I really recommended that did you wrong....sorry buddy. Hope your new one is headache free.
Click to expand...

I don't think you recommended it to me, did you? I think I asked you about it and all you said was that the BB pumps are supposed to be good... and they obviously are... no issues there and very quiet. In hindsight I think I should have went to a skimmer rated for a greater volume of water sooner, but hindsight is 20/20. Without your help I would be nowhere near where I am today! :thumbsup:

Acronic said:
Ah my bad, meant neck not volute. The angled neck and oval opening surely peaks my interest. Its a nice looking skimmer for sure.
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Yes, the neck does angle in prior to the collection cup. Only time will tell I guess, the price point combined with the aesthetics and performance (so far) are pretty impressive IMO.

Big E said:
I'm curious whether those mini cones on the bubble plate make any difference other than being a pain to clean.

Other than that, is it the same as the previous model?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I couldn't really tell you. Maybe they just look cooler and really have no functional use... but I'm sure someone with a better understanding of skimmers could tell you what they do (if they do anything). Not sure in terms of previous model, do you mean previous AquaMaxx model, or in comparison to the SRO?
 
May I ask your opinion/experience with sand? When you tanks have been firing on all cylinders, what has been your sandbed depth, maintenance routine, other thoughts? I broke down by last 150g display after six years and though I occasionally vacuumed the top layer, it will take me days of rinsing to clean this stuff. Your thinking on effects to a SPS tank in general?

Thanks!
 
I am about 3 weeks into the aquamaxx co2 and LOVE it! I also put it on a 120g sps tank, lol. This skimmer is amazing in terms of performance. I am sad to say that im having a tiny issue with a large chip breaking off one of the tightening lips for the cup. I called the large online place i got it and as usual, they are taking care of it asap. Great skimmer. Great tank man!
 
Jroovers...............

Have you reamined constant on your photoperiods or made any tweaks?

I have been sucessfully mimicing your tank for some time now and things are good. Im running a pretty short 3 hour light cycle with my ATI Coral+ and Aquablue special. I am running 4 hours of 2ea. Blue plus and then 12 hours with my 32 RB LED.

Ive finally started to find my speet spot for nutrients and life is good! Just wondering if bumping up my white T5's might eek out a bit more growth.

Color is fantastic although most of my pinks/yellows are pretty green....

Thanks!!!
 
lanshark said:
May I ask your opinion/experience with sand? When you tanks have been firing on all cylinders, what has been your sandbed depth, maintenance routine, other thoughts? I broke down by last 150g display after six years and though I occasionally vacuumed the top layer, it will take me days of rinsing to clean this stuff. Your thinking on effects to a SPS tank in general?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I started with a shallow sand bed, variable between 1" to 2.5" (variable given the relative high flow at the front of the glass from the Tunzes). Since then, I've consistently siphoned and stirred up the sand bed, especially when having cyano problems, and lord knows I've had my share. Right now I've mostly got exposed egg crate and glass at the front of my tank as I've never replaced what I have taken out (I put egg crate down as a base to help support the pillars, and help the sand stay down - don't know if I would do that again). I am planning in the very near future to replace a bunch of the crushed coral and get a nice looking bed down again. Right now I've got a ton of debris everywhere and it isn't very appealing visually. My take is that if you have a SSB, you either have to consistently stir it up or siphon it or potentially face nutrient issues. My old 55 gallon had a 6" deep sand bed in the display, I wouldn't do that again. Also, I wouldn't bother trying to clean sand, especially if starting a new system or tank, just get some new stuff and soak in RO/DI for a while first. No point starting with something that could be chaulk full of nutrients. So I guess in my opinion you need no sand bed or a shallow sand bed that is maintained routinely. If you want a DSB, make sure it is compartmentalized so you can take it offline if needed. I had my DSB in the fuge of my sump, but I think it just became a detritus dump. I took it offline and haven't looked back. I think the biopellets are more than enough for nitrate reduction anyway.

Dolmo5000 said:
I am about 3 weeks into the aquamaxx co2 and LOVE it! I also put it on a 120g sps tank, lol. This skimmer is amazing in terms of performance. I am sad to say that im having a tiny issue with a large chip breaking off one of the tightening lips for the cup. I called the large online place i got it and as usual, they are taking care of it asap. Great skimmer. Great tank man!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment. So far the Co-2 is working well for me as well. I haven't had any problems like you have with the collection cup. I do find that I need to rinse the collection cup every couple of day, especially the neck, as it skims like a pro for a couple of days then the skimmate really tapers off. My guess is that it is just getting gunked up in the neck and preventing the skimmate from progressing all the way up to the top of the collection cup and over the sides. That said, I'm very pleased so far.

likefish said:
Jroovers...............

Have you reamined constant on your photoperiods or made any tweaks?

I have been sucessfully mimicing your tank for some time now and things are good. Im running a pretty short 3 hour light cycle with my ATI Coral+ and Aquablue special. I am running 4 hours of 2ea. Blue plus and then 12 hours with my 32 RB LED.

Ive finally started to find my speet spot for nutrients and life is good! Just wondering if bumping up my white T5's might eek out a bit more growth.

Color is fantastic although most of my pinks/yellows are pretty green....

Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

I haven't made any significant changes. Currently I'm running my royal blues 12 hours, and my T5's 6 hours. You could bump up your photoperiod a bit if you wanted with the T5s, but from your description I'm not positive what you are saying you are using for total light with your T5s and their photoperiod? Can you clarify? Right now I have two 12k UVLs and two Coral Pluses. In a month or two I think I'm going to swap out the UVLs for Blue Pluses. The growth has been good with the UVLs, but the colour is very orange-pink-deep yellowish. The royal blues kick out a lot of magenta and I think I have too much purple hue. This is just visually of course. I'm hoping the Blue Pluses and Coral Plus will give more of a crisp white-blue look.
 
Quick update. When I put the new skimmer online, I upped my biopellets from about 250 ml to about 500 ml. I thought that with the improved skimming, more pellets could do nothing but help. Big mistake! Almost instantaneously I got cyano on the sand bed and some kind of algal growth on the back glass. I've taken about half my pellets offline and am back at about 250. The cyano has kicked back substantially, but as it likes to do a small amount is lingering. Once I get it kicked I'm going to replenish my shallow sand bed, as right now it is pretty barren, lots of bare glass and exposed egg crate, and lots of un-sightly debris. The new skimmer though resulted in some improved colouration (that or the pellets), and now I'm wondering if I'm skimming too heavy as the colour backed off a bit (or if the pellets being taken offline are the cause).

I had to get rid of my elegance coral. I had it for 6 years and it and my hammer were the first two corals I got. My regal started eating it and would just not let up. I gave it to another reefer and apparently it is happy in its new home, which is nice. The upside is I have more space now, and I got a small flame bubble tip which I'm hoping will grow fairly quickly and give me some tentacle motion that is no longer there due to the elegance being removed.

I haven't had time to take/post pics, but will do that soon, maybe next week.
 
Dose some Microbacter 7 or microbe lift special blend when you add more pellets or have any cyano creep up. It will out compete the bad bacteria (cyano) with good bacteria.
 
dowtish said:
Dose some Microbacter 7 or microbe lift special blend when you add more pellets or have any cyano creep up. It will out compete the bad bacteria (cyano) with good bacteria.
Click to expand...

Have you found that works? I have MB7 and find that dosing it along with carbon tends to make things worse instead of better.
 
jroovers said:
Quick update. When I put the new skimmer online, I upped my biopellets from about 250 ml to about 500 ml. I thought that with the improved skimming, more pellets could do nothing but help. Big mistake! Almost instantaneously I got cyano on the sand bed and some kind of algal growth on the back glass. I've taken about half my pellets offline and am back at about 250. The cyano has kicked back substantially, but as it likes to do a small amount is lingering. Once I get it kicked I'm going to replenish my shallow sand bed, as right now it is pretty barren, lots of bare glass and exposed egg crate, and lots of un-sightly debris. The new skimmer though resulted in some improved colouration (that or the pellets), and now I'm wondering if I'm skimming too heavy as the colour backed off a bit (or if the pellets being taken offline are the cause).

I had to get rid of my elegance coral. I had it for 6 years and it and my hammer were the first two corals I got. My regal started eating it and would just not let up. I gave it to another reefer and apparently it is happy in its new home, which is nice. The upside is I have more space now, and I got a small flame bubble tip which I'm hoping will grow fairly quickly and give me some tentacle motion that is no longer there due to the elegance being removed.

I haven't had time to take/post pics, but will do that soon, maybe next week.
Click to expand...

Beautiful reef mate, stunning display of eye watering SPS :thumbsup:

Feel free to ignore the following ramblings as i'm no expert. I've over skimmed SPS tanks with huge becketts and saw loss of color but it took weeks not days. If you haven't seen a dramatic drop in skimmate production i doubt you're stripping nutrients too quickly. If by improved colors you mean more saturated or defined i'd think the rapid rise in food for the corals brought on by the large pellet increase was the culprit. Obviously it passed the point of healthy algae growth but perhaps once you get the water spotless again you could try 50ml increases and monitor the colors again.
That's bad news about the elegance but that's what you get for trusting a bloody fish to behave itself. A reefer told me how he stopped something similar once and i bet it makes you laugh as much as i did when he told me.....he chased the fish around the tank with the coral every day for a week and the flame angel never went near the coral again lol. You have to visualise him doing it to truly appreciate the concept.......:wildone:
My sand bed constantly suffers as it comes second to circulation so i know how annoying the bare patches can be. I have acros 1" off the bottom and i have to blow sand off them every few days :facepalm:
Looking forward to more pics when you get a chance :thumbsup:
 
biggles said:
Beautiful reef mate, stunning display of eye watering SPS :thumbsup:

Feel free to ignore the following ramblings as i'm no expert. I've over skimmed SPS tanks with huge becketts and saw loss of color but it took weeks not days. If you haven't seen a dramatic drop in skimmate production i doubt you're stripping nutrients too quickly. If by improved colors you mean more saturated or defined i'd think the rapid rise in food for the corals brought on by the large pellet increase was the culprit. Obviously it passed the point of healthy algae growth but perhaps once you get the water spotless again you could try 50ml increases and monitor the colors again.
That's bad news about the elegance but that's what you get for trusting a bloody fish to behave itself. A reefer told me how he stopped something similar once and i bet it makes you laugh as much as i did when he told me.....he chased the fish around the tank with the coral every day for a week and the flame angel never went near the coral again lol. You have to visualise him doing it to truly appreciate the concept.......:wildone:
My sand bed constantly suffers as it comes second to circulation so i know how annoying the bare patches can be. I have acros 1" off the bottom and i have to blow sand off them every few days :facepalm:
Looking forward to more pics when you get a chance :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Biggles, thanks for your input - it sort of confirms what I was thinking regarding the pellets and the colour improvement, I think you are right. Since I've backed off it seems as though they are improving again - this is pretty minor stuff though, I'm almost talking about splitting hairs (no one would notice the colour difference except me).

As for the elegance, I can certainly appreciate the effort your friend put in! I wish I could do the same, but in reality wouldn't have the time.

As for the sand and bare spots, still waiting to nip the little bit of cyano I have in the bud and then fill them in. Hopefully it sticks to the bottom better, or I may have to get a bit of coarser crushed coral.
 
jroovers said:
Have you found that works? I have MB7 and find that dosing it along with carbon tends to make things worse instead of better.
Click to expand...

It has always worked for me. I have run bio pellets for 3 years and have had only 2 outbreaks of cyano, and both times it took about 2-3 weeks of dosing mb7 or special blend and the cyano disappeared.
 
dowtish said:
It has always worked for me. I have run bio pellets for 3 years and have had only 2 outbreaks of cyano, and both times it took about 2-3 weeks of dosing mb7 or special blend and the cyano disappeared.
Click to expand...

I've been dosing now for a week to give it another shot and no real noticeable difference.
 
Been a while since I posted some photos.

Undata - I can't stop taking pictures of it


Aquarium October 2013-1 by UpOnTheRoof, on Flickr


Aquarium October 2013-18 by UpOnTheRoof, on Flickr


Aquarium October 2013-17 by UpOnTheRoof, on Flickr

Purple Cap - has some really nice colour variation to it when you look closely


Aquarium October 2013-2 by UpOnTheRoof, on Flickr


Aquarium October 2013-3 by UpOnTheRoof, on Flickr


Aquarium October 2013-4 by UpOnTheRoof, on Flickr

Aculeus

Aquarium October 2013-19 by UpOnTheRoof, on Flickr

Red Planet

Aquarium October 2013-16 by UpOnTheRoof, on Flickr
 
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