Reeferhead's 150DD Build
- Thread starter Reeferhead
- Start date
Schplitter
New member
I remember that clam in your 60 gallon about 5 or 6 years ago. It was probably the size of a softball. I went looking for weeks until I found one similar to it 
Great work on the tank. I love the aquascape.
BK
Great work on the tank. I love the aquascape.
BK
I remember that clam in your 60 gallon about 5 or 6 years ago. It was probably the size of a softball. I went looking for weeks until I found one similar to it
It was 2" when I bought it at GWA over 7 years ago. Steve (letmegrow) actually sold it to me, I think.
Thanks, the sump is working out well. I've made a couple adjustments, like adding row of overflow teeth on the weir that connects the frag tank section to the skimmer chamber. I just cut a piece of scrap and used some excess tunze magnets to hold it in place. All my snails and crabs that were meant to keep the frag tank clean kept ending up in the return pump chamber.
Koddie Doo
Czar of All ThingsAwesome
Do you call the display "Semi deep sanded / bare bottom"?
Kevin,
You need to stop treating RC like Playboy. :lol: I'm in the process of replacing my sand.
You need to stop treating RC like Playboy. :lol: I'm in the process of replacing my sand.
IMG_6834 by nickgrant79, on Flickr
I finished changing the last of the sand a couple days ago. So far I couldn't be happier. It looks much better and stays in place. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it looking good by vacuuming.
IMG_6851 by nickgrant79, on Flickr
The frag tank is now virtually bryopsis free. There are just a few remaining strands in the process of dying. Now is when I wish I had taken a before pic... imagine a literal forest of green covering the whole tank! I know its probably a impurity (heavy metal) in the stuff that makes it work but I don't care, Tech-M rocks. I'm using it from here on out to maintain my Mg. I'm also adding it to all my WC water to bump the Mg up to 1500 and keep the bryopsis fairy away.
April 25, 2011
IMG_5792 by nickgrant79, on Flickr
Today
IMG_6840 by nickgrant79, on Flickr
This coral came back pretty good.
I think I finally have my Ca/Alk balance and dosing in order. I've reduced my dosing of both parts down to 100 mL/day from almost 400
The GFO no longer clumps, pumps don't seize up, 5 gallons last way longer, and now that its properly balanced, I haven't seen a drop in Ca/Alk levels yet. Now that I have sand that stays in place, I ramping up the flow and taking advantage of the power of the MP40! Here's what I programed in today...
Left Pump
Fallback Lagoon50
Set Full
If Time 07:00 to 10:00 Then ReefCres
If Time 23:00 to 07:00 Then Lagoon50
If Time 20:00 to 23:00 Then ReefCres
If FeedA 012 Then Lagoon50
If FeedB 012 Then OFF
Right Pump
Fallback Lagoon50
Set Pulse100
If Time 07:00 to 10:00 the Antisync
If Time 23:00 to 07:00 Then Lagoon50
If Time 20:00 to 23:00 Then Antisync
If FeedA 012 Then Pulse60
If FeedB 012 Then OFF
Basically what this means is at night both pumps independently and randomly intensify power up to 50%. In the morning and evening they work opposite of each other, randomly intensifying up to 100% power, when one is strong the other is weak. Midday flow is the strongest, one pump runs at max power constantly (creating a circular flow around the whole tank, while the other works at maximum pulse creating about 1/2 wave. Lots of possibilities :lol:
This
plus This
Hope it works, tried it with the old substrate and sucked up more sand then detritus.
Schplitter
New member
! ! ! Wow ! ! !
mcfarrow
Member
I have never gotten the hang of this. I loose a lot of sand when I vacuum.
I love it when a pic comes out and the pumps and return aren't even noticeable. BTW, I rebuilt the overflow cover out of 1/8", you would be proud. :lol: I didn't like the way the last one came out, particularly the lower slits, which just provide a place for algae to grow. I rebuilt the form as well (the last one was pretty shoddy) and it came out perfect.
I'm going to play around with it tonight. Hopefully it works well. They make an extender for those vacuums I might need to get, we'll see.
smoothdog
Active member
A long tube can be helpful, but a wider one will create slower flow that will do a better job pulling detritus without sucking up the substrate.
Still working out my technique and the right flow rate but so far I think I can make it work. Here's a video if anyone is interested.
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6ph1qxclLRo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Here's what I got. I only vacuumed the sand I added about a week ago, so about a 1/3 of the tank. I think its so funky because I turned up a lot of crap replacing the last of the old sand a couple days ago.
Untitled by nickgrant79, on Flickr
The tank stayed perfectly clear the entire time so I can only take that to mean that the poly filter did its job and trapped everything. We'll see if I can keep up with weekly vacuuming, if not I may end up like Chad and rip it all out again. :lol:
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6ph1qxclLRo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Here's what I got. I only vacuumed the sand I added about a week ago, so about a 1/3 of the tank. I think its so funky because I turned up a lot of crap replacing the last of the old sand a couple days ago.
Untitled by nickgrant79, on Flickr
The tank stayed perfectly clear the entire time so I can only take that to mean that the poly filter did its job and trapped everything. We'll see if I can keep up with weekly vacuuming, if not I may end up like Chad and rip it all out again. :lol:
double post
Schplitter
New member
I love a clean tank. As I'm planning out the new tank it looks like I'm going to go with a closed loop instead of vortechs to eliminate any foreign objects in the tank. I can't stand the sight of pipes and pumps.
BK
jjwill_sdsu
New member
I don't know if anyone else has tried this (and it probably won't work with your Magnum pump since the flow is always on), but I've had a reasonable degree of success with this manual siphon method:
1) Plunge the vacuum into the sand bed. You'll get a big plug of sand/detritus to start rising up the vacuum.
2) Pull the vacuum up just above the sand bed and immediately kink the hose to stop/slow the flow way down.
3) The heavier sand falls back down into the sand bed while the detritus will remain mostly suspended in the big tube.
4) Unkink the hose and VOILA! Detritus gets sucked out, sand stays in sand bed (for the most part).
5) Repeat until a) you're out of patience, b) you're out of detritus, or c) you're out of water.
I've read some suggest to only do one part of your sand bed at a time with this method so you don't devastate your whole bacterial population in one shot, but you do pull out a lot of junk and probably more so than just skimming the top of the sand bed. Anyway, just a vacuuming tip on RC that I've found to be helpful...
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