180-Gallon Upgrade Starts NOW!!!

[ryshark]

I have been in this aquarium hobby for almost 2-years now and the entire time I have been buying Natrual Seawater for my partial water changes. Here in California, many of the LFS sell water that was pumped in from the ocean and filtered. It doens't really have an abundance of extra trace elements that is good for coral in a captive environment. So I have finally decided to make the switch to making my own synthetic saltwater. The main thing that held me back in the past was that my RO unit was upstairs in one of the bathrooms. It would have been a huge pain to make enough gallons of water for a pwc upstairs and then have to bring it down to mix it.
However, my bro-in-law said he would help me move the RODI unit into the garage and tie it into the water heater. We got around to doing this today, now I finally have a cool setup as you can see below. We tied it into the copper pipe with a brass T-valve. I purchased this last night which is a smoking deal because aquacave wanted $40 plus shipping for what I think is the exact same thing. http://cgi.ebay.com/HM-DM-1-Inline-Dual-TDS-Meter-ppm-RO-DI-Aquarium-DM1_W0QQitemZ280343869510QQcategoryZ20684QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3907.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DFICS%252BUFI%252BUA%252BIA%252BUCI%26otn%3D14%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D54
I look forward to getting this and adding it in. If you are wondering why the DI-chambers are just hanging there its because I tried to get them as vertical as possible instead of using the horizontal bracket that I am supposed to use with it.

In regards to saltmix choice I have decided to go with Tropic Marin Pro Reef for now. I have also heard good things about D-D H2Ocean, so I may give that a shot too. The only drawback is these two are the most expensive. I am thinking about mixing the TM Pro Reef with a cheaper salt maybe 50/50. What salt mix have you had luck with for a reef tank?

 

[Ziggy953]

I use Reef Crystals and have no complaints about it. I've switched to a few other brands but always come back to RC.

 

[spilzer]

Are you worried about the copper in the pipes affecting any of your inverts? I have no experience with salt water but I thought I had heard that copper, even in trace amounts, was bad for shrimps and the like.

I'm sure you've checked it out already and are satisfied that it won't be a problem but I'm curious to learn more about just how dangerous copper is to reef tanks.

 

[CaptainAhab]

Hopefully you ties that into cold water supply. Warm/hot water and RO membranes don't go well together.

Regarding the copper comment; trace your water coming out of the tap and try and find a place where it hasn't run thru copper pipe. At least in my house, the supply line is copper from the street and all the internal piping is copper.

 

[ryshark]

Very good question regarding the copper, because copper will kill a reef tank quickly. In fact I purposely mentioned the word copper because I was hoping somebody would say something about it. I am not 100-percent sure but I believe my 6-stage rodi unit should......BETTER, take the copper out. It is hooked up to the cold water copper pipe on the water heater. I ordered a dual stage inline tds meter so I will not make any water until that arrives. I do believe that the pipes in my house are all copper and the unit was upstairs, so I am assuming everything will be fine, because it was before. Anybody else want to chime in on this one?

 

[spilzer]

Ah, yes, that totally makes sense. I forgot that the copper was BEFORE the RO/DI unit. I bet it'll be fine.

 

[GhostKnife]

I switched from regular instant ocean to tropic marin. Good stuff I am gonna stick with it for a whilte.

 

[ryshark]

Did you switch to the regular Tropic Marin or the Pro Reef?

 

[GhostKnife]

I switched from instant ocean to the regular TM.

 

[ryshark]

I picked up a few more corals today. I am sticking with the designer named corals from here on out. Here is the Tyree Pink Lemonade and the Tyree Seasons Greetings, both pieces with lineage. Its nice the guys involved with reeffarmers are from so cal too.
On a side note, I pulled my fish out of the display to treat for ich. I had a heck of a time catching the powder brown tang, infact I had to take most of my rocks out and stack them in the sump. Now I need to reaquascape... Oh well, I have a little bit different design in mind for when I decide to put it back together. This will be the last time I pull my fish out of the display to put them into a hospital! I will continue to QT every new fish, but if I still get crypt again somehow.... it is what it is and I will let it runs its course. For now I have them stressed out in a QT and I am trying the Quinine Sulfate treatment recommended by wetwebmedia.
Now for the pictures:

 

[GhostKnife]

Awesome looking corals!

 

[ryshark]

Awesome looking corals!

Thanks! I appreciate you following the thread.

 

[djrusselljoseph]

Thank you. RedSoxFan, you shouldn't let saltwater intimidate you. I think saltwater gets a bad rap for being "too much work" and "too hard to keep things alive" however its not too much work or too hard. Most of those sayings come from people who have never had a saltwater tank or never took them time to read or find a website like this to learn stuff before or while attempting saltwater. If the "know-how" is the only thing holding you back from doing a reef tank, then I think you should start one up and just continue to ask lots of questions on here... you wont be disappointed. Reef tanks are very fun and beautiful

Well put!
I have stood back for years and watched people around me with salt setups with great success. With that said, I have known people to lose hundreds in one night. Arm yourself with knowledge. Just read, read, read.
I just got into salt myself. Started with a small 2G setup and suffered some losses due to a mis-reading of a hydrometer. Built it back up, then went up to a 10G. Tank is established and I am going to 'roll' with it to get used to the upkeep while I do more reading.
I have a 75G freshwater included in my 'images' section that I am really happy with right now.
Until I have the confidence and knowledge I will hold off another upgrade then I will take apart the 75G to go salt.

This stuff is fun!

 

[ryshark]

Well put!
I have stood back for years and watched people around me with salt setups with great success. With that said, I have known people to lose hundreds in one night. Arm yourself with knowledge. Just read, read, read.
I just got into salt myself. Started with a small 2G setup and suffered some losses due to a mis-reading of a hydrometer. Built it back up, then went up to a 10G. Tank is established and I am going to 'roll' with it to get used to the upkeep while I do more reading.
I have a 75G freshwater included in my 'images' section that I am really happy with right now.
Until I have the confidence and knowledge I will hold off another upgrade then I will take apart the 75G to go salt.

This stuff is fun!

To be honest with you, the 75-gallon should be easier than the 10-gallon. The bigger it is the more stable it is and the harder it is to make devastating mistakes like the one you mentioned with the 2-gallon. I have never even heard of a 2-gallon saltwater, I think that it would be close to impossible to have a successful 2-gallon sw tank. I don't even know of a sw fish that would survive long tern in a tank that tiny. My advice is take apart the 75-gallon fresh now and keep your 10-gallon salt as a QT and turn the 75-into salt, it will be much more enjoyable... in my opinion of course.

 

[djrusselljoseph]

Thanks for the input.
I am reading through this thread, some awesome info.
Big Al's here in Canada (and I am sure in the States as well) had a sale on a 2G, (check link) on sale for $59.99 CDN about 2 months ago. This was up and running fine until my losses.
You're tempting me ryshark, I don't like this....LOL.

I worry (well not really) about filtration, not sure if I would have to upgrade.

Just doing some reading right now on sumps.

We'll see.

 

[SparKy697]

One quick comment on the copper question. I'm not sure if it is state or fed. but here in Indiana there is a copper/lead rule that requires the water company to feed phosphate as a coating agent to help protect us from those metals leaching out of the pipes. The phosphate creates a white coating on everything. While that helps protect you from the copper and lead, it is also a nice source of phos. that often has to be dealt with in the tank.

You can contact your local water company and ask if they dose phosphate into the finished water.

 

[ryshark]

One quick comment on the copper question. I'm not sure if it is state or fed. but here in Indiana there is a copper/lead rule that requires the water company to feed phosphate as a coating agent to help protect us from those metals leaching out of the pipes. The phosphate creates a white coating on everything. While that helps protect you from the copper and lead, it is also a nice source of phos. that often has to be dealt with in the tank.

You can contact your local water company and ask if they dose phosphate into the finished water.

Interesting, I will have to call and find out.

 

[ryshark]

VERY SAD UPDATE

I think I mentioned before that I was seeing some crypt on my tangs. Well I decided to take my two tangs and two clowns out and put them in QT for treatment. Somebody on www recommended using Quinine Sulfate to kill crypt/ich so I ordered it and tried it. After a weeks time, it wiped out all of my fish one by one. My powder brown was the first to go, at that point I stopped the quinine treatment, did two 25% water changes within 8-hours and put the carbon media back in the filter. It was obviously too late.
It was SOOO sad to watch my Blue Hippo Tang "Lizzy" suffer and die. I had her for over two years and she was my favorite fish. I had success in the past with hyposalinity, but I was looking for an easier way out since hypo was a pain. HUGE MISTAKE, stick with Hypo for Tangs. The last day Lizzie was alive she was breathing very hard with what looked like powder all over her. I wasn't sure if it was powder from the Quinine or if it was full blown Marine Velvet.... I dont know. I couldn't watch her suffer in the QT anymore so I took her out of the QT and put her back in the main for what I hoped was either a fighting chance for survival or a death where she felt more at home, opposed to being in the QT.

 

[ryshark]

I am now leaving my main tank fallow for 9-weeks for whatever is in there to die off. I will NEVER EVER EVER pull fish out of a happy display tank to treat them for ich again, ever. They would all still be alive if I would have just let things run its course and fed very heavily with Selcon, Zoe, Garlic enriched nori, pellets, spirulina brine, mysis and Rods Food. Learn from my mistakes.
I have decided I will also spend the extra money and buy all of my fish from Liveaquaria and preferably DiversDen which has an excellent reputation.
In the mean time I picked up 40 more pounds of base rock and decided to reaquascape my tanks since 1. I had to tear it apart to catch the powder brown and 2. I think it needed a little more rock anyway. So here is what I came up with the other night below. I have also been thinking constantly about my new fish list. Here is what I have come up with so far:
New Hippo Tang
Red Sea Sailfin Tang
either a blonde naso or an achilles
a mated clownfish pair, either ocellaris or true percula
at least 3 bartletts anthias hopefully more like 6.

 

[ccCapt]

Sorry to hear about the problems. Just another reason why I'm a firm believer in qt for all fish before they are put in the display.