Dary's tank!

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Long time followers ( thank you [emoji4]) may realize that I isolated my large seaside aquatic skimmer
outside my sump into a large 20-25 gal barrel ,this is fed directly from the tanks over flow and then back into the sump ,... there was a problem there whenever it came to doing any maintenance ( motor replacement ) on the skimmer ,..I would have to literally disassemble the skimmer in pieces to remove it from the barrel and basically reassemble it back underwater to get it back in there ,... a week or so ago I replaced the skimmers motor with the new " improved " version ,..however the newer motor seemed to not like how deep the skimmer sat in the barrels water [emoji97] and no matter how you tried to adjust the skimmer it would only produce really wet foam ,.. I've always been more of a dry skim guy so I knew I had to raise the skimmer up about an inch or a inch and a half to get it to work properly again,... I ran down to dixieline this am and bought two 11/2 inch unions and installed these on the intake and out take lines of the barrel,... now I can simply close a valve to the barrel open a gate valve and redirect the flow into the sump while I pull the barrel out via those 2 unions ,... I also made up a pvc spacer that fits under the skimmer which raises it about a inch and a half above the old water level .
So far , it works beautifully !! I can remove the whole skimmer assembly in minutes now and do any maintenance needed easily ,.. the skimmer loves the new water level and now response to any adjustment like it should ,... whew!!! A $20 project that's worth a million bucks !! :) Image1500922354.241136.jpgImage1500922376.375146.jpgImage1500922394.259858.jpgImage1500922408.388431.jpg
 
This morning I took advantage of the swiveled up sleeping state of some of my soft corals ' before the lights came on and removed a few giant clumps of them ,... it wasn't that long ago that I had to do the same thing ,... I feel like the tank has a little breathing room now .
It's kinda neat knowing that you've created an environment in your living room that mimics the ocean ,.. just can't quite get over that !
 
Something that I usually am very lazy about is testing for my magnesium,... a month or so ago after I lost a few chalices which I thought might be to my protein skimmer crapping out ,greg suggested that incorrect alk levels could cause bleaching of them also,... I decided to do a complete testing of the water( for me :-/. ) to see where I was,..the magnesium was very low which in turn twisted my levels of alk and calcium ,... the last couple of weeks I'm slowly working on getting the magnesium leveled out and trying to stabilize the alk and calcium too... I think I'm winning ! The bleaching has subsided ,the levels are getting back where they should be and the tank is looking good again.
Hey , I got saltwater totm for July !!! I'm Very proud of that ... makes you feel like all the hard work you've done has gone noticed ! Thank you !!!
 
Just as there are relationships in the nitrogen cycle, there are interdependencies between alk, cal and Mg. People get thrown off because you can dose Mg in larger amounts without causing harm. But as calcium is absorbed, Mg is also absorbed. I suggest checking Mg at least monthly. And I dose the same amount of Mg as I do the others.

Congrats on TOTM!!!!
 
Hey congrats on the totm, it is much deserved.

Ive had issues with keeping mag up since going to the larger tank. The recommendation from brs is to add the mag in one dose once the alk and cal has been used up. (Then you fill the alk and cal jugs back up and repeat.) I found this odd, though, why not just dose it slowly like the others like Greg said?

The chemistry side has been on the top of my mind lately, I found this cool diy dosing supplements from Randy Holmes Farley. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/.
 
erichm20 said:
Hey congrats on the totm, it is much deserved.

Ive had issues with keeping mag up since going to the larger tank. The recommendation from brs is to add the mag in one dose once the alk and cal has been used up. (Then you fill the alk and cal jugs back up and repeat.) I found this odd, though, why not just dose it slowly like the others like Greg said?

The chemistry side has been on the top of my mind lately, I found this cool diy dosing supplements from Randy Holmes Farley. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/.
Click to expand...



Thank you !!! The chemistry side of the hobby is still mysterious to me, but thru trial and error and input from you guys I'm slowly gaining alittle knowledge along the way ,... fingers crossed that some of it sinks in !
 
Gregcoyote said:
Just as there are relationships in the nitrogen cycle, there are interdependencies between alk, cal and Mg. People get thrown off because you can dose Mg in larger amounts without causing harm. But as calcium is absorbed, Mg is also absorbed. I suggest checking Mg at least monthly. And I dose the same amount of Mg as I do the others.

Congrats on TOTM!!!!
Click to expand...



As always, I'm sitting in the front roll in class as you teach . I so much appreciate the lessons,...re the totm award ,.. I honestly feel like mr.Roberts in the movie with ensign pulver when the crew presented him with the homemade medal with the tin cutout of the palm tree ,... he said something to the effect of " I cherish this more than the congressional Medal of Honor "
 
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Very deserving Dary. Your tank always looks great. Sorry about the chalices. Went through a bout with one of my chalices as well. Had a raspberry lemonade Chalice that was 12" in diameter. It appears my Tangs took a liking to it. I was able to save two pieces about 2.5" each. Very disappointing.
 
SeanMonster said:
Very deserving Dary. Your tank always looks great. Sorry about the chalices. Went through a bout with one of my chalices as well. Had a raspberry lemonade Chalice that was 12" in diameter. It appears my Tangs took a liking to it. I was able to save two pieces about 2.5" each. Very disappointing.
Click to expand...



...thank you Sean,...those chalices can be a bit touchy imo ... it's great when they're going good but when things start to go downhill it sucks ,... a 12 " diameter chalice had to be a brontosaurus!
 
Yea, I have an Alien Eye in my 90 that must be almost 16" across. Hard to say for sure as it's "wavy" if you know what I mean.
 
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