OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

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John, thought about that and I pulled it apart. There is absolutely no space inside for a fan, let alone any electrical harness. There are multiple ballasts inside the enclosure.

I am thinking about outside mounting a fan to push air through it, but with the glass off it may not be a problem. 50% more light would be seriously blinding.
 
Why does it need a glass shield (other than to prevent water splashing on it)? I say, take the glass shield off and hit it with some cooling fan power!

PS: Didn't read far enough up but I know you won't be releasing any UV into the tank. One of the most popular T5 fixtures (TEK) don't have any kind of glass shield.
 
yeah, based on how the fixture is designed, trying to push air through it doesn't make much sense.

Taking the glass off looks like a much better option. As it is, the tank is only getting to 80.1F so it's not a big deal, but that could change in a month or so. If it becomes an issue, I can just mount a 4" fan on one end of the tank and that will take care of it. There is an exhaust fan port about 1.5' above and to the left of the lamp so that will carry the warm air outside.
 
yeah, that is essentially how I cool my display halides. I blow air between them and the water. Works well and doesn't burn a lot of energy or put more heat into the room.
 
More good news to report:

While I was gone I took the kalk stirrer completely out of the loop and today my alk tested at 9.0 dKh. I will put it back online tonight to see how it goes.

Also the PLTA appears to be making a recovery. I fed it shrimp a couple times before I left and it now looks larger and more colorful. It is also interesting to note that when I fed her tonight, when she got the shrimp she quickly closed down over it and ate, and also simultaneously stung the crap out of some nearby zoas. This is a good sign IMO since previously the zoas had been totally unaffected by the PLTA. Unfortunately for them, they are sandwiched between the PLTA and a frog spawn. :(

You may notice that I am calling the PLTA a "she" and this is based on my experience with her and how she has been so fickle...no doubt she is a woman! :lol:
 
yup...but too early to tell I think. With this much water it will take a while to see what's up. If it goes below 8.5 dKh I'll know i need to up the supplementation a bit.
 
OK except for the encrusting monti (my favorite coral). It is still STNing and I can't seem to stop it. So far I have cut off about 10 square inches. It was such a nice large piece I am really bummed about it. Today I moved it to a new location to see if that will help. Tomorrow I will trim and dip again.

PLTA is definitely recovering and getting bigger and more colorful. That's good and bad as now it is starting to sting stuff. I need to work on my RO/DI systems too, and have been thing about scrapping both and going with a different kind of system. I have heard about ones that don't have wastewater and process more water, but I need to do some more research.

So many little projects but I am getting ready for a huge transition at our store and that will eat up the next few weeks. You would think I would have more free time since I don't really work!!
 
Good the hear most everything is getting back to normal.

But there is no "free time" when one has a 1000 gallon reef:)
 
Then it's a good day:D

Did we ever figure if this was a result from the clogged socks on the kalk drip or did I miss something else when I was gone?
 
the clogged socks dropped the dKh and the over stirring of the kalk spiked it...so it has been swinging the last month but now I think I understand it and have it better set up. Now the doser will not top-off during and for an hour after a stir, and the stirs are currently just twice per day. I will adjust it as needed. I also raised the average pH in the Ca reactor which is helping stabilize things. However, my tank pH is now between 8.16 and 8.30, up from an average of 8.15.
 
Been a while since I have posted so a quick update is due:

Ca: 425 ppm
alk: 9.8 dKh
NO3: 0
NO4: 0
PO4: 0
Salinity: 1.025
Temp. : 80.5F
ORP: 317
pH: 8.32

So all seems OK with water parameters but I am getting a strange feeling about the reef. I see some SPS with less than normal PE. Maybe about half. I also see some changing colors, and tips that seem to protrude more than normal.

I think I really need to change the lamps because it has been about 1 year now, but I still don't have the capacitor for my "burn-in" ballast. I am a little gun-shy to pop fresh lamps over the system without burning them in for a while.

My hunt for the capacitor has turned up nothing, which is strange because it is a fairly popular ballast. SO maybe I will try to swap out the lamps. The problem is I don't have much room to raise my reflectors...
 
What type of ballast? You could reduce the photoperiod for the new bulb and ramp it up gradually each day back to the normal schedule.

You might need to treat for red bugs to get the polyps back out, but that could be the result of your water parameters bounching around quite a bit in the past few months.
 
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