Sharkey

Hi Suphew I pulled the whole thing apart and cleaned it with white vinager. I want to replace the valve I think it could run better. I got the skimmer secound hand. One thing that I like about it is with the air pump on the infeed it still has small sized bubbles just more of them. 8) Cookie has one and he swears the larger pump makes it go well and looking at his tank he will get no arguments its amazing and large I think his pump is around 5000L/Hour? (Is that right Cookie/)My tanks 360 Liters / 95 Gallons That includes sump volume. I will get a clearer picture for you. I had my heater and a bag of rowaphos near the out feed. So I will tidy it up and take another tonight. I know there are reefers that run two linked inline with each other the first wet and second dry. And they swear by it. But I would prefer one skimmer with a low running cost for me its the power bill that's the killer Cost saving without compromising my coral and fishes well being.Thats my first priority. Are you thinking of running them inline with each other or as two stand alone units?Theres some great information here. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showt ... did=723744 I see they split the thread theres alot of good information in the early part of the thread but still a good read.

well I have a redsea Berlin protein skimmer it a standard model that I run with a via Aqua 2500 L Pump. I have been happy withs it performance but after looking at the newer skimmers felt they were out performing it. But its doing a good job I have a low load and just cant justify spending the money on a new skimmer. (Because I want a bigger tank ) I felt it could be improved. So I did a bit of reading and come up with a plan. The biggest problem I had running a small pump was the waste collected would stay at the base of the neck. So I would have to clean with a tooth brush to reach down there and it was hard to clean. First I wanted to put gate valves on it so I could adjust the height of the water flow in the neck. I could have gone with ball valves that would have been a big mistake. With the gate valves you can adjust to perfection its amazing how much of a difference a small turn makes. It would be to hard with ball valves And secondly I wanted more bubbles. To achieve this I run a air pump on the intake. I only have a small bio Load in the tank and I thought that the skimmer was pulling the maximum amount out. But the mods have doubled the output I'm sure you could do the same Mods on other skimmers. Hope this helps some of you like it has helped me Part List Hose clear 23mm 71 cents Later Nut & Tail 25mm* 25mm BSP $4.40c 25mm*15mm Threaded Reducing Bush $3.10 Plastic Angle Seat valve 15mm $37.90 Ratchet clips 25mm (Plastic type) $1.60 Total 53.67 Inc GST (Money well spent)

holy I've never seen that. They had a good write up on them in coral magazine. I like the look of the blue ringed one pity they are poisons. And if I remember all octopuses don't live that long? But are highly intelligent. They had one in the magazine that was about four times that size Scary

Is the foam on the outfeed? Is it to stop bubbles?

Mmmmm You guys are sneaky I like it ! Think i ll try that one as well

cool Down there next week. But youve got me worried about leaving the tank :roll: What do you think was the problem with the corals ? Heat issues? Sg? Thinking i will drop the SG a little to make up for evap while im gone. And put a slow drip on as i walk out the door

I dont have the problem with fesh water top up cos it only takes two min with a empty milk bottle Tank still looking awsome

wow tanks looking amazing fay

No its real looks a lot better in real life. I have a low fish load and use rawaphos /carbon and a skimmer cant forget my DSB I love it( Think I could be the only one?). Been playing with my skimmer and im very happy with it. Its a red sea Berlin Standard. I've put Gate valves on the out feed and been running a air pump as well. Big inprovement.Havent lost the small bubble size and with the back pressure ive been able to adjust the height on the outfeed to perfection. Also looking seriously at future upgrade options e.g. ozone.( Anyone using it would love to hear from you) and I love the look of some of he cheaper controllers that are starting to appear like the aqua controller Jr very nice and fair prices

How much are the bunnings ones? And were can you get a GMC one? Looks like good prices to me. I live in the country so its just for piece of mind. With the last power cut everything was ok but its not a good felling watching your tank slowly die.

I seen a good deal at repco Petrol Generators 550 Wat max out put runtime 8 hrs on 3/4 Load 12 Month warranty 130 Bucks Sale ends 22/1/2006 Got to get one. Had two power cuts in the last 6 months only lasted 2 hrs each but gets you worried. Or is it over kill?

Looks like the hard work is paying off. And the good advice thanks to you guys

How much can some magnets cost? :-?

Wow Very Nice I guess it would be very strong to right? Will the welds on those bars hold the weight of a whole tank with water without some sort of support from the bottom?

Thanks Wasp I still have a long way to go to get the colours you have. But im getting there slowly.

Thanks Brianemone Im turning into a reef Monkey.

Were are the pics? Its been so long since we started the thread im ready for updated ones. So here goes Sorry about the blurry image camara sucks And santa wasnt that nice to me. But at least theres a pic Pics taken this morning under fluro lights 1 blue one white 6000K I had the sides of my tank painted last time. Since then i have removed the paint and the corals are getting alot of natural sunlight. Its made a Big differnce ive noticed Polyps and my open brain fully expanding. Also getting on top of Alk and calcium (Kalwasser at night) Ca around 400 Alk 8.6/ 3.09 Meq Min. All hard corals are booming :bounce: Close up off some hard Corals

This is my secound tank so I learnt from the first one never to let them in or you will have an almost impossable fight. So Im fussy about everything I put in a watch it like a hawk. They still pop up on frags and corals from Shops etc I just had a frag thats had three and I swear there wasnt any when I bought it. Soon as I see the little buggers I pull out the frag and cut the rock out really deep Squirt lemon juice on the spot it was on and put it back in. So far so good HaHa Glad you got me or i would still be looking for my way home. Its a maze out west or was that east? North? :roll: Dont know what to say to that one. Hope to see some nice tanks down there maybe layton could show me his?

Cant wait to go and check out the shops in Christchurch going down soon. It will be good to see some different set ups. Might bring that yellow Frag home only a hour 20 in the plane should be ok. Looking forward to getting down there. I was brought up in ash Vegas Yehaaa. Might buy a real rugby shirt while Im there the blues suck I know what you mean about aptasia Ive been fighting it hard and can say Im aptasia free( That i can see ) I hate them :evil: So C Kingdom and Redwoods are the shops to check out :bounce:

I second that Has anyone got a euro reef ,Asm ,(Aqua C come on chch you have them down there. They are rated as some of the best?)

I don't think anyone is ever happy with there tank 100% We have our wins and loses? You know its like the models who so the are fat etc when they are fine. We are always finding faults our self but its good to post and be able to put a tank to the name. I think every tank Ive seen on here has improved in the last year from what Ive seen so we must all be learning right? Im pretty open and know I have alot to learn and have got so much good advice from reading the post on the site. ( Hey you guys who run this site awsome job ) So relax share and injoy the ride we can learn and you can learn Win Win

Both very good shops. If your looking for top quality fish and corals both are excellent you must have gone close to a new shipment coming in? Over xmas they both had an excellent selection. I see some great equipment in Hollywood's with the Deltec range also ozoners uv etc etc very very nice. :bounce: PS Jansans display tank is looking fantastic

Well I did a large water change 70L my tanks only 360l .But the Test haven't been stacking up. It said my alk had dropped ?So I got a second test done. And found my alk test was giving me false results :evil: So I had been dosing to increase the alk thinking it was low when it wasn't. So I bought a new test kit today and got some more readings. After another 30L NSW change. I have a reading of 3.43Meg/L (9.6 DKH) and Ca 310 So calcium is still low so I've dosed calk and will retest in morning all test done with new salifert test kits. Looks like I got of lucky as there hasn't been any damage to corals. Boy I feel stupid Ive been looking at my tank thinking how well its all going when really Ive been on the edge of a disaster :oops:

Excellent advice thank you :bounce:

Because alk and Ca go hand in hand right? 3.6 meq/L is a good reading right? But the low reading of Calcium had me puzzeld :-? PH is a different story. And a alkalinity reading is not an indication of PH.At least thats my understanding. Am I on the right track?.But I will test tomorrow ( I take a sample to work) I didnt I stopped and did a water change.It freaked me out Ive never seen that happen . Looking back I think when I added the reef complete I drove the alk down ? But Im not sure what happened to be honest . But Ive learnt to test. Layton & Wasp any thoughts? To be honest im still getting my head around the chemistry side of things. The more I read I just realize how complex it can get. But I can see the sense in a larger water change. Thanks for the advice guys Then I guess I should test the water to work out a dosage based on what the coral uptake is of calcium :-? As well as watching for changes in alk your right. Just had to type look at the time Im writting this I cant sleep to hot/ And thinking of work xmas time brings out the crazy :roll: