The inwall 380 starfire reborn
- Thread starter Sparkss
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clekchau
Premium Member
tom, it's a huge waste collecter. i think it would be a small club buddy, probably 15 people have spazz skimmers? our tanks have similar equipment, marco rocks, vortech propeller pumps and volcano skimmers 
jnarowe, no custom inscribing yet, all i got was some volcano stickers
jnarowe, no custom inscribing yet, all i got was some volcano stickers
my post before was actually meant in response to that rotten bugger clekchau . Ok, so I am just a little bit jealous that he already has his skimmer 
EDIT : it is kind of cool that we both thought along the same lines (Vortec, MarcoRocks and Volcano skimmer). What sort of lighting are you using ? Lumenarcs ? I can't wait to see yours getting setup and running !!!! I thought I remembered that you don't have a build thread yet. When you do start one, be sure to post the link to it here !!!
MakoJ.. thanks for the props..I have alot to compete with between yours, MrCrabs and many others tanks here.. now if Jonathan would only take some pictures so that we could see what his tank looks like these days
. Ok, so I am just a little bit jealous that he already has his skimmer EDIT : it is kind of cool that we both thought along the same lines (Vortec, MarcoRocks and Volcano skimmer). What sort of lighting are you using ? Lumenarcs ? I can't wait to see yours getting setup and running !!!! I thought I remembered that you don't have a build thread yet. When you do start one, be sure to post the link to it here !!!
MakoJ.. thanks for the props..I have alot to compete with between yours, MrCrabs and many others tanks here.. now if Jonathan would only take some pictures so that we could see what his tank looks like these days
LOL.. I know how you feel. Every once in a while I feel the need to take a "reef sick day" to care for an ailing reef that needs my attention.. but somehow I don't think I could fly that past my boss, as others do to take a sick day to take care of their ailing spouse of kids (well, I could always just fib ).
).There actually isn't a DSB in the tank.. it is only 2" - 3", and the 3" spots being unintentional, created by both the engineer goby and the vortecs. I still think that I can get away without an RDSB, between the skimmer that we will have and the other nitrate reduction steps we will take.
We tried out Seachem's De*nitrate a couple of years ago. It is basically a pourous rock that works to allow aerobis bacteria to host on the outside (to strip the oxygen from the water passing through) and anaerobic bacteria to host inside of it, similar to how a DSB works. It is meant to be run in a canister filter or I believe also passively in a filter bag in a sump. We ran it in a canister filter and it worked quite well to bring down our nitrates. Since it is a rock, it never gets "used up". Our sumps have compartments for bioballs, in a bubble trap sort of configuration. I plan to fill those areas with the De*nitrate rock that we have. Actually, we have the De*nitrate Martix, which is the larger sized rock, that is rated for greater than 50 GPH, the smaller, standard size needs to be fed no great than 50 GPH, which while it worked fine in a canister filter that I could control, won't work how we plan to use it in our new setup. Luckily I have plenty of both since I was testing both last year.
We will see if it does a good enough job on our nitrates, combined with the skimmer. If not it is easy enough to add an RDSB to our sump (much easier to add later than it would be to take one out). The one downside is that we are pretty much giving away/trading away all of the sand that we had collected up for the RDSB from tank teardowns around the Bay Area.. most of it being kept "alive" in two 100g tanks. So if I change my mind later I will end up having to collect/buy the sand all over again. One thing that many people overlook is that even though we may not have paid for this sand, it was far from free... between gas, @ 14 miles to the gallon in our Expedition, buckets and lids from HD for transporting and our time and back muscles to empty out the tanks and lug the full 5g buckets back and forth. After everything is said and done it would almost have been cheaper to just buy the sand from the LFS that opened up 10 miles down the road. But then we wouldn't have the "live sand" that we were after .
We tried out Seachem's De*nitrate a couple of years ago. It is basically a pourous rock that works to allow aerobis bacteria to host on the outside (to strip the oxygen from the water passing through) and anaerobic bacteria to host inside of it, similar to how a DSB works. It is meant to be run in a canister filter or I believe also passively in a filter bag in a sump. We ran it in a canister filter and it worked quite well to bring down our nitrates. Since it is a rock, it never gets "used up". Our sumps have compartments for bioballs, in a bubble trap sort of configuration. I plan to fill those areas with the De*nitrate rock that we have. Actually, we have the De*nitrate Martix, which is the larger sized rock, that is rated for greater than 50 GPH, the smaller, standard size needs to be fed no great than 50 GPH, which while it worked fine in a canister filter that I could control, won't work how we plan to use it in our new setup. Luckily I have plenty of both since I was testing both last year.
We will see if it does a good enough job on our nitrates, combined with the skimmer. If not it is easy enough to add an RDSB to our sump (much easier to add later than it would be to take one out
). The one downside is that we are pretty much giving away/trading away all of the sand that we had collected up for the RDSB from tank teardowns around the Bay Area.. most of it being kept "alive" in two 100g tanks. So if I change my mind later I will end up having to collect/buy the sand all over again. One thing that many people overlook is that even though we may not have paid for this sand, it was far from free... between gas, @ 14 miles to the gallon in our Expedition, buckets and lids from HD for transporting and our time and back muscles to empty out the tanks and lug the full 5g buckets back and forth. After everything is said and done it would almost have been cheaper to just buy the sand from the LFS that opened up 10 miles down the road. But then we wouldn't have the "live sand" that we were after .
clekchau
Premium Member
tom, i had a lingering nitrate problem and tried everything imaginable, seachem denitrate, kent nitrate sponge, sugar, water changes etc and it would go down some but jump back up to 40 ppm due to a heavy bio load. i finally put a rdsb and didn't check nitrates as i was pretty burned out on the problem. checked it in a month and it was 5 ppm . to be fair though, i had the small little rocks, not the larger sized ones and ran it thru my sump which had alot more than 50 gph, maybe that's why yours worked.
. to be fair though, i had the small little rocks, not the larger sized ones and ran it thru my sump which had alot more than 50 gph, maybe that's why yours worked.cleckau, we started with the small ones, in a canister filter that I controlled the flow rate through, but it was a pain to keep it between 40 adn 50 GPH (detrius buildup would slow it down, etc), so because we had decent success with it I dove in and ordered some of hte larger ones. They seems to help keep it under control (same canister filter, just turned the flow rate to full blast). So I am hopeful that replacing the bio balls in the trap section of hte sump with the larger Matrix rocks will give me the results that I am looking for. It is a pretty large area so we should be able to have quite a few rocks. I am going to see if they pack in to tightly I will mix in some of the bio balls to break up the rocks to help ensure that the water can flow through that section and not back up.
I will take some pictures of what I am talking about when I get a chance (and actually get to working on that part of our setup again).
I will take some pictures of what I am talking about when I get a chance (and actually get to working on that part of our setup again).
fishsoldseprtly
In Memoriam
Tom, everythings looking good bro. I will keep track of this thread for now on. Hope to see more pics bro.
Soon Warren.. working at the moment and hopefully sleeping in tomorrow
Sorry that we missed you today, we will definitely have to catch up with you the next time we head up your way.
We really love the frags that we got from you last year. The one just glows that dark green, like it has batteries inside it or something. One of my favorites, to be sure. Thanks again
Sorry that we missed you today, we will definitely have to catch up with you the next time we head up your way.
We really love the frags that we got from you last year. The one just glows that dark green, like it has batteries inside it or something. One of my favorites, to be sure. Thanks again
fishsoldseprtly
In Memoriam
man hows the rest of the frags you got from me? Yea I would really like to see how they turned out. send me a better pic of the one you are talking about. Next time you head down I will give you a couple of frags. take care buddy and congrats.
tacocat
Premium Member
Sorry Tom. I need to stop classifying any sand substrate as a DSB. IMO You are very close to having one in your display. I wouldn't worry too much about nitrate reduction right now. I recommend an aggressive water change schedule for the moment. Have you looked at sulfur denitrators?
Do you have an easy water change setup configured into your system?
cbui2
Thanks for the compliment and thanks for following along
tacocat
You are right, we are very close to a DSB in out tank.. a bit more than I like, but our engineer goby, pain that she is, has a cool personality, enough so that she survived when we trapped out the rest of the engineer gobies and gave them away and that we even decided to move her to the new tank with everyone else.
Just to clarify, we don't have a nitrate problem that I am aware of. We do have chaeto in our sump/fuge and a good quality skimmer running (just not the beast that we want to have in operation). We are just trying to plan for the future and any future need for nitrate reduction.
As for an easy water change system, no right now there is almost no automation built into our setup. I had hoped to get the ATO from our old setup installed this weekend, but that just didn't work out. If I can I will try to get to reinstalling alot of the automation throughout the week after work each day, but I may not get to any of it until next weekend. And we really didn't have any WC setup on our old one either.. any suggestions ?
Thanks for the compliment and thanks for following along
tacocat
You are right, we are very close to a DSB in out tank.. a bit more than I like, but our engineer goby, pain that she is, has a cool personality, enough so that she survived when we trapped out the rest of the engineer gobies and gave them away and that we even decided to move her to the new tank with everyone else.
Just to clarify, we don't have a nitrate problem that I am aware of. We do have chaeto in our sump/fuge and a good quality skimmer running (just not the beast that we want to have in operation
). We are just trying to plan for the future and any future need for nitrate reduction.As for an easy water change system, no right now there is almost no automation built into our setup. I had hoped to get the ATO from our old setup installed this weekend, but that just didn't work out. If I can I will try to get to reinstalling alot of the automation throughout the week after work each day, but I may not get to any of it until next weekend. And we really didn't have any WC setup on our old one either.. any suggestions ?
tacocat
Premium Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9456963#post9456963 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
for an easy water change system, no right now there is almost no automation built into our setup. I had hoped to get the ATO from our old setup installed this weekend, but that just didn't work out. If I can I will try to get to reinstalling alot of the automation throughout the week after work each day, but I may not get to any of it until next weekend. And we really didn't have any WC setup on our old one either.. any suggestions ?
I have always been partial to water change sumps myself. I am using my growout tank as a water change sump right now. Here is a good example of one:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/totm/index.php
See the Sump and Water Change section.
If I had one, I'd hard plumb it in so that all I'd have to do is turn a couple of ball valves to drain the water change sump and to fill it.
clekchau
Premium Member
As for an easy water change system, no right now there is almost no automation built into our setup. I had hoped to get the ATO from our old setup installed this weekend, but that just didn't work out. If I can I will try to get to reinstalling alot of the automation throughout the week after work each day, but I may not get to any of it until next weekend. And we really didn't have any WC setup on our old one either.. any suggestions ?
I use a spectrapure liter meter III + water exchange module, it changes 7 gallons a day automatically. The only thing I will have to do is refill my rubbermaid stock tank and mix salt every 2 weeks or so and keep it covered to avoid evaporation. I also use the unit for my auto topoff.
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