Sky's Diving Into The Reef!

[needmorecowbell]

Craigslist buy.

That stinks, mighta just got scammed bud

 

[skywhitney]

That stinks, mighta just got scammed bud

Well nowi have a fixer upper i guess. :-/

 

[needmorecowbell]

It's not that bad, just get a replacement filter kit from brs or something, the actual unit is still fine

 

[Mrc8858]

I was using the hose outside but it was leaking quite a bit. It felt like there was still a good amount of pressure going through even with the leak.

If the hose is leaking there's a good chance your not getting sufficient pressure. Try buying a psi meter to check.

 

[Jlsardina]

Try replacing filters, carbon, membrane, etc. Give it a nip tuck and it should be fine. Also- brs has an additional chamber to reduce waste.

 

[kdpuffer]

Something else to look at is the flush valve. I don't know if your system has one but mine does and you want to set it so you filter 1g and get 2g waste. Or look into a booster pump after you replace all your media that is.

 

[skywhitney]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll pull it apart tonight and see if I can get it all spiffy and working properly.

I received my TDS reader today so I'll see how good the unit is working with the current filters and diaphragm.

 

[kdpuffer]

I would crank up the valve to the max filtered production while still getting 0 TDS.

 

[skywhitney]

Well on a happy note i got my stand today! The doors are still being finished but thats ok cause it'll be nice and easy to get everything set up and installed.

 

[needmorecowbell]

Very nice, I love how the wood looks!

 

[Bearchumjs]

Well on a happy note i got my stand today! The doors are still being finished but thats ok cause it'll be nice and easy to get everything set up and installed.

That looks awesome! It looks like your build is coming along nicely.

 

[skywhitney]

Thanks guys. It turned out great and is a pretty kick *** birthday present

 

[skywhitney]

Got a new 50g trash can tonight (and i made sure it didn't have any visible holes). Leak test and hopefully water mixing tomorrow!


Now i need advice. I've done a lot of reading and im hearing both good and bad things about running a refugium. What are your takes on this? Would i just be better off putting LR rubble down there (which i've heard as another suggestion)?

 

[needmorecowbell]

Got a new 50g trash can tonight (and i made sure it didn't have any visible holes). Leak test and hopefully water mixing tomorrow!

Now i need advice. I've done a lot of reading and im hearing both good and bad things about running a refugium. What are your takes on this? Would i just be better off putting LR rubble down there (which i've heard as another suggestion)?

What are the bad things you've been hearing of? Refugiums are nothing but good! Put chaeto, maybe frag plugs if you have them, extra live rock, sand, really anything down there. Now, if your talking about a deep sand bed, that's different. I'd say it's better to have all the other good stuff.

 

[skywhitney]

Some of the bad things I've heard are:
It is like a whole other tank to take care of.
The algae can crash or go sexual and release all it's stored nutrients back into the aquarium along with spores.
detritus buildup
a lot of negative remarks in regards to the DSBs.

The pros definitely outnumber the cons but I just wanted to get everyone's opinion(s) on this before I start setting stuff up.

 

[needmorecowbell]

Some of the bad things I've heard are:
It is like a whole other tank to take care of.
The algae can crash or go sexual and release all it's stored nutrients back into the aquarium along with spores.
detritus buildup
a lot of negative remarks in regards to the DSBs.

The pros definitely outnumber the cons but I just wanted to get everyone's opinion(s) on this before I start setting stuff up.

I guess that's true if you choose caulerpa instead of chaeto, but even then, I don't think it would be another tank to take care of. When stressed ( if you don't trim it and it is packed into the tank), it will go sexual as a last resort to survive. That's when people have issues. Chaetomorpha can't go sexual and is really easy to trim, you just rip it off. If you have a filtersock before the fuge, detritus should be minimal, your not supposed to be spot feeding the fuge. And to the dsb, unless your going big and doing the whole thing dsb, don't do it IMO.

 

[Bearchumjs]

What is dsb?

 

[Mrc8858]

Deep sand bed which is 6" or more

 

[skywhitney]

A lot of people I've talked to have said that a DSB is typically more work than its worth so I'm going to be avoiding those.

If Cheato can't go sexual then that removes a worry right there.

So a mix of Cheato and LR should be sufficient for a nice easy fuge?

 

[Jlsardina]

Definitely.