New 120 on the way

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this thread, especially with some pictures. I re-aquascaped a few weekend ago and I've been working pretty hard on keeping my params (ca, alk, mg) up to 400, 8-9, 1300 respectively. It's been quite a challenge when my ca reactor doesn't want to play nicely. I'm wet testing a new diy reactor that I hope to have installed in the next week or so. It's a beast, 6" diameter, 18" tall reactor chamber. I figure that this should last me a while. Next on the list will be either a) kalk reactor or b) phosphate reactor.

I added a seio 1500 from Ken on Sat. and it adds some nice gentle flow throughout the tank. Really helps with the dead spots.

I also added some DIY branching rocks when I reaquascaped. They look alright now, but it gave me some added space, which I desperately needed. Plus, they are going to be covered in corraline and corals anyways, so what's the big deal.

I added 4 lyretail anthias, 5 peps and 2 cleaner shrimp about a month ago. 1 of the anthias died the first night and 1 had a bad case of pop-eye. The pop-eye is clearing up and I do believe that adding those 3 fish and along with that the increased feedings, and bioload has really helped the colors of my sps.

In terms of corals, I added a small hammer from Marc, and a couple of other small frags from Rick, although, I had to play hack an acro with one of them due to some RTN when I was mounting it this weekend.

Other than that, things have been going well. I'm hoping to upgrade from my RK1 or get some tunze but I haven't decided what to do just yet.

Now, onto the pictures.

Small pink frag from Chris (cfrobin). Finally started to get darker, I thought that it would never recover.

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Cali tort, looking better each day. Not growing too fast, but it's there (I think)

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Yellow Acro frag from Cfrobin (this has started to encrust and is looking great, especially the green ring on the encrusting part)

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Close-up

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Valida from Peter (finally getting back the purple and darker colors, note the purple rim around the encrusting base)

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More pics.

Unknown blue from Exotic Aquatics (this one got eaten by something on the left hand side, I believe it to be AEFWs)

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Unknown #2 from EA (also attacked by I believe AEFWs)

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Close-up on Unknown #2 (This coral was very purple/green when I first got it, and I hope it returns to that color)

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Tenius, tri-color and pocci

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Tri-color up close from TranquilScape

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Tenius up close

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Tenius

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A few more

Hacked frags

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Hoeki

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Hoeki #2

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Unknown from TS

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New ledge w/ frags

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Hammer

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Deep water acro (perhaps?)

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Right side

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Left side

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Full tank shot

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Alright, so anyone watching this thread, I've got a couple of questions. Right now I've got my setup like most peoples, skimmer --> return --> fuge (ca reactor).

I'm getting a pair of 6100s this week and so I wanted to re-do my plumbing and remove my mag 9.5 and switch my CL pump (gen-x pcx-55 pump) from a CL pump to my return pump. My sump has a 1" hole in the upper left side where the skimmer is. I was originally planning on installing a hook over the back of the sump so that I could get the water from the sump to the pump, but then I thought about using the 1" hole that is in the back of the sump. Anyone see anything wrong with this?

The only thing that I have a real question is regarding the pressure rated pump and the 2 other devices that I power with my return pump, namely the ca reactor and phosban reactor. Will hooking those up to the gen-x pressure pump be a problem?

While I am re-doing the sump pump, I thought about re-doing the sump as well. I have the fuge on the right hand side but there is no macro algae, just my ca reactor. Anyone think that pulling out the second baffle and just keeping the one up-and-over baffle and making the sump a 2 baffled sump a bad idea? This would give me more room for my skimmer, ca reactor, etc. I could also pull my phosban reactor into that section as well.

Thanks,
Chris
 
Chris I don't see any problems with anything you mentioned.

Put the valve for dialing the flow of the calcium and phosban reactors before the reactors. That way the pressure is on the valve and not anything in the reactor to be on the safe side.

If you need the room I would remove the baffle. There is no reason to have it if your not using it! YOu can always silicone it back in later if you need to!

Using the hole is a much better idea then a hook. It is much more error resistant!
 
Thanks for the input Keith. I'm hoping to get some of it done this weekend.

Unfortunately, I came home to a flood in my laundry room. I guess my wife was trying to help and out fill up the top-off water reservior. Well, I guess that she forgot to remove the waste water drain line from the washing machine when she went to work and it flooded the room and into the hallway. Nothing like coming home at 9:30 to find 20-30 gallons of freshwater on your carpets.

BTW, what color are your 6100? I just got some in and they are brown and I was thinking that the newer 6100s were black.

Thanks,
Chris
 
That's what I was thinking. The guy that I got them from said that they were only 4 months old. Did I get dooped?

Chris
 
@Olaggie01 wrote:
That's what I was thinking. The guy that I got them from said that they were only 4 months old. Did I get dooped? Chris said:
It may be possible that when he bought them, the place he got them from had the older models in stock.
Click to expand...
 
i agree, they should be black...i am finding it very hard to trust a lot of the people that sell stuff on the various boards....you only get 1/2 the truth, 1/2 the time ... :roll:
 
Well, I hope that's not the case. He seemed like a fairly legit guy, but then again, who really knows. I guess John's theory could be right. I emailed him to see what he said.

Chris
 
actually you may be OK, i was curious about this and did a little search..
and found that the changeover to black streams was completed in September '05.

The 6080 and 6200 were the last to change to black housings, with perhaps a stray 6000 or 6100 still coming out in brown here and there....
 
Thanks for the info Scott. He did have the new 7095 so I guess that is a good sign.

Did you find another 6100? I'm really anxious to hook these pumps up this weekend.

Chris
 
John,
How accurate is your AC Jr? I got mine last night and as I expected, my temp is higher then I originally thought it to be. I believe that Curt at Neptune calibrates the temps to within a certain temp.

Chris
 
Got an email back from Curt at Neptune.

It should be +- 0.5F; it was calibrated with a NIST traceable temperature source.

I hooked up those Tunze, man those things are crazy. Combined with my CL pump, the fish are really going to be in shape after a while.

Chris
 
Alright, so I re-did my sump, return pump and installed my tunze 6100s over the weekend and I'm feeling it right now. I did have a few small issues last night when I was hooking up the gen-x pump on the return. I'll snap some pictures tonight and post them.

My one question is this: For those with a pressure rated pump on the return, how do you drill for your anti-siphon holes? On my old return, the water flowed up the returns through the overflows. I had the return high enough that when the return pump was turned off, it sucked air in a matter of seconds. So I drilled a couple of anti-siphon holes in the pvc that's coming over the back of the tank, but when I turn on the return pump, I was getting soaked. So I stuck a 1/4" tubing into the anti-siphon holes and ran that into the overflows. Now when I turn off the pump, the overflows dry out and then the airline tubing sucks air, therefore stopping the siphon. I'll snap some pictures tonight.

Another thing, how do I quiet the vibration that the pump is putting onto the sump? The return pump is pulling directly from a bulkhead on the back of the sump, but it is transferring some vibration noise to the sump itself.

Thanks,
Chris
 
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