ReefWaters
Premium Member
Where did you find that "collector" urchin and how did you know it would eat valonia?
ReefWaters' 220 Sun Room Reef
- Thread starter ReefWaters
- Start date
jnarowe
New member
They are very common at LFS etc. and usually labeled "pincushion" urchin. I had no idea that it would eat valonia, but I wanted it out of my overflow. I had 3 (gave one recently to another reefer) and I figured it would eat the coraline in the fuge. Well, it actually ate just about everything in the fuge except for caulerpas.
melev
Well-known member
My Naso tang loves valonia. If you don't want to go with emeralds, and I was thinking maybe 5 for your 50g system, then either the Foxface (which has the risk of being stung) or the Naso may work.
Of course, manual removal is possible to. I've had to work in some huge systems before and I pulled out a massive valonia WREATH from the display. The person didn't want it out because of the baby brittle starfish, but there was so much that I just pulled out huge sections of it, revealing rockwork that had been hidden for a long time.
Of course, manual removal is possible to. I've had to work in some huge systems before and I pulled out a massive valonia WREATH from the display. The person didn't want it out because of the baby brittle starfish, but there was so much that I just pulled out huge sections of it, revealing rockwork that had been hidden for a long time.
ReefWaters
Premium Member
Ugggg. I really dont want any large fish like a naso or a fox face. Not right now anyway. I was only planning on doing one or two large "show" fish in the display but not any time soon. I think Im going to get 5 or 6 more emeralds and let them do what they can do until the move. Then manually remove as much as I can as I pull the rock out the 50 and move it to the 220.
Thanks for the help guys.
Thanks for the help guys.
ReefWaters
Premium Member
Well....
I have been pretty busy on the tank lately. Tying up loose ends and doing a bunch of small chores. Things are coming along pretty steady now.
The tank is filled with RO/DI and salt. I started testing both tanks last night and working on getting the parameters to match as closely as possible. The water is a little cloudy but I believe that will go away once I start to skim it. Unfortunately, that wont occur until the actual move occurs since I need the sump that is running on the 50 cube.
All the parameters seem like they will be easy to adjust. My only concern with the new water is that the alkalinity is pretty high and I'm not sure how to lower it. Any suggestions? Or is it even possible? The calcium was at 290 ppm last night and the Magnesium was at 1230. So I added a little supplement to raise that. We'll see where it is tonight. The PH was at 8.13. I will calibrate the probe (unless people feel that is unnecessary) tonight and see where it stands. If need be, I can buffer it up. The temp is running steady at 77. I would like it a degree or two higher for the move but I'm not real concerned about it. I have several heaters on the 50 that will be moved over so I shouldn't have a problem raising it another degree or two once everything is up and running.
I hope to get the parameters in line by Saturday and break down the 50 on Saturday or Sunday. I probably need to plan on Saturday AND Sunday though.
The humidity in the room has turned out to be a major concern. I have a humidistat in the room and it will quickly jump up to 85 or 90%. Fortunately, I do have a portable dehumidifier that I have placed in the room for the time being. It pulls out a solid gallon or more a day. I don't want this to be a permanent solution but it is just fine for now. I am hoping that once the tank is running on its schedule, lights on most of the day, all pumps running, etc, that the A/C will be working hard enough to pull the humidity down. If not, I will add a vent fan or some other contraption to control the humidity. But I cannot live with condensation on everything in the room.
The AquaController III Pro appears that it will be a great asset to the system. But it is a little overwhelming at the moment. Even though I have been using a Jr for years now. I do have the basic understanding of the controller, and can definitely run it from the base unit, but I am a little overwhelmed with the computer interface. But I haven't really played with it yet so hopefully it will all make more sense once I dive into it.
Speaking of the AC III Pro, does anyone know right off hand if the temp probe cable and other probe cables can be lengthened?
I will try to get some more pictures up soon. But really, there is not much new to look at.
I have been pretty busy on the tank lately. Tying up loose ends and doing a bunch of small chores. Things are coming along pretty steady now.
The tank is filled with RO/DI and salt. I started testing both tanks last night and working on getting the parameters to match as closely as possible. The water is a little cloudy but I believe that will go away once I start to skim it. Unfortunately, that wont occur until the actual move occurs since I need the sump that is running on the 50 cube.
All the parameters seem like they will be easy to adjust. My only concern with the new water is that the alkalinity is pretty high and I'm not sure how to lower it. Any suggestions? Or is it even possible? The calcium was at 290 ppm last night and the Magnesium was at 1230. So I added a little supplement to raise that. We'll see where it is tonight. The PH was at 8.13. I will calibrate the probe (unless people feel that is unnecessary) tonight and see where it stands. If need be, I can buffer it up. The temp is running steady at 77. I would like it a degree or two higher for the move but I'm not real concerned about it. I have several heaters on the 50 that will be moved over so I shouldn't have a problem raising it another degree or two once everything is up and running.
I hope to get the parameters in line by Saturday and break down the 50 on Saturday or Sunday. I probably need to plan on Saturday AND Sunday though.
The humidity in the room has turned out to be a major concern. I have a humidistat in the room and it will quickly jump up to 85 or 90%. Fortunately, I do have a portable dehumidifier that I have placed in the room for the time being. It pulls out a solid gallon or more a day. I don't want this to be a permanent solution but it is just fine for now. I am hoping that once the tank is running on its schedule, lights on most of the day, all pumps running, etc, that the A/C will be working hard enough to pull the humidity down. If not, I will add a vent fan or some other contraption to control the humidity. But I cannot live with condensation on everything in the room.
The AquaController III Pro appears that it will be a great asset to the system. But it is a little overwhelming at the moment. Even though I have been using a Jr for years now. I do have the basic understanding of the controller, and can definitely run it from the base unit, but I am a little overwhelmed with the computer interface. But I haven't really played with it yet so hopefully it will all make more sense once I dive into it.
Speaking of the AC III Pro, does anyone know right off hand if the temp probe cable and other probe cables can be lengthened?
I will try to get some more pictures up soon. But really, there is not much new to look at.
ReefWaters
Premium Member
Can you think of anything else I might need (or want) to get from Curt so I can save on time, effort, and shipping costs by getting it all at once?
Also, do you know if the conductivity probe has a shelf life, unused, in the box? I am thinking of waiting a few months to hook it up and/or just returning or selling it.
Ahhh!
:lol:The new tank water is around 12 dKH and the 50 cube is ridiculous at around 14 dKH. I'm also going to test again tonight and I'll let you know what it is.
jnarowe
New member
All depends on your setup. Theconductivity probes do have a shelf life IIRC, but more importantly, they have a limited life in use. That would be the last thing I would worry about.
Float switches, PX-1000, extra pH probe for a Ca reactor, and the break out box would be important add-ons. Plus calibration fluids.
Float switches, PX-1000, extra pH probe for a Ca reactor, and the break out box would be important add-ons. Plus calibration fluids.
If you add Calcium Chloride to raise the calcium, that will probably lower your alk a bit at the same time.
I've been using Aquanotes (just the lite version) with the ACjr, I don't know how much different it is for the ACIII, but I'd be glad to help however I can.
Let me know if there's anything I can do to help with the move.
Mark
I've been using Aquanotes (just the lite version) with the ACjr, I don't know how much different it is for the ACIII, but I'd be glad to help however I can.
Let me know if there's anything I can do to help with the move.
Mark
ReefWaters
Premium Member
Jonathan, can I order the probes, etc, directly from Curt?
Marc, Im using a Salifert test kit to test the Alk. I'll double check the expiration date on it. Hmmm.. I hope its not bad...or maybe I do.
Mark, the plan is move this Saturday. Give me a call if you want to come over and play! No worries though. I dont think there is anything I need extra hands for.
Marc, Im using a Salifert test kit to test the Alk. I'll double check the expiration date on it. Hmmm.. I hope its not bad...or maybe I do.
Mark, the plan is move this Saturday. Give me a call if you want to come over and play! No worries though. I dont think there is anything I need extra hands for.
carlosngloria
Active member
i hope im not to late on posting this. but if it is still possible i would try to move that mini split ac. Ive had many cases where they freeze up and leak like crazy. the filters for those hardly stop anything and will be needed to be cleaned very often and the coil as well. once the coil gets dirty it will freeze up.
ReefWaters
Premium Member
It is definitely not possible to move the mini-split now. If you look back at the pictures in the beginning of this thread you will see how the plumbing is run through the wall. I believe the gutter underneath the unit will catch any leaks. I am going to add a drain line too it as well just to be on the safe side.
My alkalinity dropped a little to 10.5 dKH. My cube is still holding steady at 14 dKH. The date on the top of the box is PH/2009. So I have to believe that it is accurate. Should I clean the titration syringe? I don't believe that would have an effect would it? My PH jumped up to 8.35 as well. I didn't buffer.
My alkalinity dropped a little to 10.5 dKH. My cube is still holding steady at 14 dKH. The date on the top of the box is PH/2009. So I have to believe that it is accurate. Should I clean the titration syringe? I don't believe that would have an effect would it? My PH jumped up to 8.35 as well. I didn't buffer.
ReefWaters
Premium Member
Update
Update
I was able to complete the move on Saturday and it went surprisingly well. It was exhausting but it did go fairly smoothly. I started around 10 AM and didn't stop until around 10 PM.
So here is where I stand. Just thought Id tell you a little bit about some things that are finished, some things that still need to be done, as well as some problems I have found and some of the things I really like about the system.
The corals are doing okay. Certainly no worse than they were before. I did lose one of my five fish. But it was an old chromis and it could have been that he was just too old to handle the move. The clown pair and coral beauty are doing GREAT. They cant get enough of the extra space. The clowns do laps around the tank and the choral beauty is always out in the open water.
The skimmer is only running on one pump right now. The valve is 100% open, and if I turn the second pump on, it will overflow the cup. But it is skimming already so we will see how it settles in over time. I seem to have made a little mistake with how I plumbed the drain line going from the secondary sump to the main sump. Its 1" and only drops a few inches from one end of the room to the other. I didn't take enough time making sure the pipe slopes down the entire way either. The combination of these two problems means I have a ridiculously low turnover rate through the secondary sump, and therefore the skimmer as well. I think my plan is going to be to re-drill the bulkhead hole for this drain and re-plumb the entire line with 1.5" pipe. I think this will be large enough to give me the turnover I'm looking for.
I am having a hard time figuring out how to connect my computer to my AquaNotes. I know, its not that hard, but I am not very good with all the networking jargon and I am not being very patient knowing I cant waste too much time on things that are not 100% necessary right now. I am however, able to get to the controller through Internet Explorer to work on timer programs and names. This makes it a lot faster. However, I have to run an Ethernet cable out the door and across the room to the router to be able to do this. I plan on getting a wireless game adapter soon. Other than the connecting to AquaNotes, I am enjoying the AC III Pro. The Jr taught me pretty much everything I needed to know about the programming.
I have not set up my reactors yet. I am going to manually dose for a while to make sure I get a feel for what the system is using in the way of calcium.
Going back to my alkalinity issues, I went ahead and bought a new test kit. This one came with an "Alkalinity Check Solution." The check solution is calibrated to 7.2 dKH +/- 0.3. I got some interesting readings this time around too. I tested my old kit with the check solution. I actually got a 6.5 dKH. So I went ahead and trashed the test. But that made me realize that if anything, the kit was giving me a lower than actual reading on my previous tests and that my alkalinity has been high, even in the new water. I tested the the check solution with the new kit and got 7.6 dKH. I know this probably has a lot to do with the way I titrate. But I feel that is close enough to feel that I am getting an accurate reading.
Soo.... My alkalinity is definitely 14 dKH. Any ideas on how to get this down? Again, 80% of this water is already new. It had a dKH of 14 before I ever added a drop of the old tank water to it. I feel like this is a little too high. Anyone agree/disagree?
My calcium was 360 ppm last night. I manually dosed. Tonight, the calcium was 340. I think I can get this nailed down and keep it nice and steady after a few days.
Salinity is rock solid at 1.026 and the auto top off from the old system is working like a champ.
The magnesium seems to be getting sucked up pretty fast. I am manually dosing a little each night to keep it up. But I am being careful as I have had problems over shooting my magnesium.
I'm keeping the temp right around 77 to 78 F. I was running the cube a few degrees hotter but wasn't sure if that was causing some of my algae problems. What are you guys running your tanks at?
I was able to get 99.9% of the bubble algae off of the rocks and am pretty confident that I will be able to keep it at bay this go round.
Well, this is getting a little long winded so I'm going to wrap it up. But I do have one more problem I need to work on.
I'm not sure what my PH actually is. Let me give you some more info on this because I think I possibly have more than one problem.
Right now, my PH probe is in the sump next to 4 heaters. The temperature probe is in the display. In this configuration, I am getting a reading of 7.74. If I move the PH probe up to the display, next to the temp probe, I get a reading of 7.9. I tested with a Tetra PH test kit and got a reading that looks like 8.0.
So, what's my problem with the sump reading? The heaters or the fact that the PH and Temp probes were not next to each other. If it is the heaters, I'm not sure where I am going to move the PH probe to. I will be ordering a temp probe extension so that I can put the temp probe next to the PH probe no matter where it ends up. Does anyone see a problem with keeping the PH and or Temp probe in the display? I worry about coraline growing on the probes and or bubbles causing problems with the PH probe.
Update
I was able to complete the move on Saturday and it went surprisingly well. It was exhausting but it did go fairly smoothly. I started around 10 AM and didn't stop until around 10 PM.
So here is where I stand. Just thought Id tell you a little bit about some things that are finished, some things that still need to be done, as well as some problems I have found and some of the things I really like about the system.
The corals are doing okay. Certainly no worse than they were before. I did lose one of my five fish. But it was an old chromis and it could have been that he was just too old to handle the move. The clown pair and coral beauty are doing GREAT. They cant get enough of the extra space. The clowns do laps around the tank and the choral beauty is always out in the open water.
The skimmer is only running on one pump right now. The valve is 100% open, and if I turn the second pump on, it will overflow the cup. But it is skimming already so we will see how it settles in over time. I seem to have made a little mistake with how I plumbed the drain line going from the secondary sump to the main sump. Its 1" and only drops a few inches from one end of the room to the other. I didn't take enough time making sure the pipe slopes down the entire way either. The combination of these two problems means I have a ridiculously low turnover rate through the secondary sump, and therefore the skimmer as well. I think my plan is going to be to re-drill the bulkhead hole for this drain and re-plumb the entire line with 1.5" pipe. I think this will be large enough to give me the turnover I'm looking for.
I am having a hard time figuring out how to connect my computer to my AquaNotes.
I know, its not that hard, but I am not very good with all the networking jargon and I am not being very patient knowing I cant waste too much time on things that are not 100% necessary right now. I am however, able to get to the controller through Internet Explorer to work on timer programs and names. This makes it a lot faster. However, I have to run an Ethernet cable out the door and across the room to the router to be able to do this. I plan on getting a wireless game adapter soon. Other than the connecting to AquaNotes, I am enjoying the AC III Pro. The Jr taught me pretty much everything I needed to know about the programming. I have not set up my reactors yet. I am going to manually dose for a while to make sure I get a feel for what the system is using in the way of calcium.
Going back to my alkalinity issues, I went ahead and bought a new test kit. This one came with an "Alkalinity Check Solution." The check solution is calibrated to 7.2 dKH +/- 0.3. I got some interesting readings this time around too. I tested my old kit with the check solution. I actually got a 6.5 dKH. So I went ahead and trashed the test. But that made me realize that if anything, the kit was giving me a lower than actual reading on my previous tests and that my alkalinity has been high, even in the new water. I tested the the check solution with the new kit and got 7.6 dKH. I know this probably has a lot to do with the way I titrate. But I feel that is close enough to feel that I am getting an accurate reading.
Soo.... My alkalinity is definitely 14 dKH. Any ideas on how to get this down? Again, 80% of this water is already new. It had a dKH of 14 before I ever added a drop of the old tank water to it. I feel like this is a little too high. Anyone agree/disagree?
My calcium was 360 ppm last night. I manually dosed. Tonight, the calcium was 340. I think I can get this nailed down and keep it nice and steady after a few days.
Salinity is rock solid at 1.026 and the auto top off from the old system is working like a champ.
The magnesium seems to be getting sucked up pretty fast. I am manually dosing a little each night to keep it up. But I am being careful as I have had problems over shooting my magnesium.
I'm keeping the temp right around 77 to 78 F. I was running the cube a few degrees hotter but wasn't sure if that was causing some of my algae problems. What are you guys running your tanks at?
I was able to get 99.9% of the bubble algae off of the rocks and am pretty confident that I will be able to keep it at bay this go round.
Well, this is getting a little long winded so I'm going to wrap it up. But I do have one more problem I need to work on.
I'm not sure what my PH actually is. Let me give you some more info on this because I think I possibly have more than one problem.
Right now, my PH probe is in the sump next to 4 heaters. The temperature probe is in the display. In this configuration, I am getting a reading of 7.74. If I move the PH probe up to the display, next to the temp probe, I get a reading of 7.9. I tested with a Tetra PH test kit and got a reading that looks like 8.0.
So, what's my problem with the sump reading? The heaters or the fact that the PH and Temp probes were not next to each other. If it is the heaters, I'm not sure where I am going to move the PH probe to. I will be ordering a temp probe extension so that I can put the temp probe next to the PH probe no matter where it ends up. Does anyone see a problem with keeping the PH and or Temp probe in the display? I worry about coraline growing on the probes and or bubbles causing problems with the PH probe.
ReefWaters
Premium Member
Oh, and Jonathan (and/or anyone else who wants to share), I would love to see your program if you can post it.
Thanks,
RW
Thanks,
RW
