chimera

careful, you'll have Ira knocking on your door

Marketing hype or a potentially good product? http://www.ecoaqualizer.com/ ...or both? im not scientific enough to make a judgement but from what i understand, the theory behind it makes sense.

from what i have been told and read, RO strips out about 95% of crap where as DI does about 99%. with RO (ok, so pre-filters help too) your DI resin lasts longer. all about cost, a membrane is a high-initial cost outlay but saves in the long run on DI resin. pre-filters/carbon-filters are reasonably cheap too.

i think his point was the media contains traces of phosphates which unfortunately get added to your tank. i heard calc reactors aren't good for soft coral only tanks?

I wasn't talking about RO for Ira specifically Steve, talking about RODI in general. Ira does not have DI and the point everyone made was that he should. reef - is it really as much as 80% - sounds a bit high. does waste a bit but i didn't think it was that much. direct your RO waste water into a drum for your washing

completely agree pies, hence why i invested another $250 in getting a pre-filter and RO membrane added to my carbon/DI unit. now have prefilter, carbon, RO then DI and water is heaps better. to be perfectly honest ira, if you're earning $400 a week you either 1. need a new job or 2. need to budget for RODI in the future. as pies says, DONT SKIMP ON RODI. its a crucial piece of equipment and will alter water chemistry dramatically over time if you dont have good top up water.

i woulda been almost 7 years old at the time! still feel young so thats wot counts, he he hee!

hey welcome to the site! post in the saltwater section for best results! pies, nicks, jetskisteve and reef will offer you the best advice. if you want, send jetskisteve or nicks a PM (private message) and they are sure to let you go see there tanks and offer some good advice. enjoy!

20% is a good amount. try and make the water change water the same temperature, you end up knowing if you get it right by feel after a while! cant go past pleco's and clown loaches for interesting and cool to watch bottom feeders. feed them shrimp pellets and spirulina tabs, they love 'em! dont need to feed live but it makes it more interesting to watch

wanna post the design?

perhaps his corals are DIY? I dont believe there is anything wrong with DIY so long as it is done properly. There are plenty of smart kiwi's out there who DIY stuff all the time and most of the time it does a better job than what you can buy. I think the real question is how much "extra" (above the normal routine) does Alois need to put in to compensate for a DIY skimmer? On the flipside of this though, the key to this argument is the shear size of Alois' tank. If I did DIY (and let's say not an optimal DIY skimmer) on my tank I would probably be asking for trouble. DIY on Alois' tank is probably not an issue because he has such massive biological filtration that the work the skimmer is doing is almost negligible?

As an example, here's my costings: Bought a 4 foot tank, sump, deltec skimmer, fluoro lights, heater, eheim 1060 return pump, about 40kg live rock with various soft corals and about 8 fish/3 shrimps for $1,400 (bought 2nd hand) I estimate this new to be around $4,500. I also aquired a 3 foot tank free which will become my refugium (or new sump, havent decided which yet). I have also bought/budgeted for the following (mostly 2nd hand) stuff too: Hallides $400 Temp controller $200 Chiller $850 Closed Loop $270 More Rock $280 Calc Reactor $600 CO2 System $300 Dosing pump $200 Corals $400 Test kits $100 That totals $5,000 exactly. Ok, so I get a couple of bucks back when I sell the fluoro's but that goes towards a refractometer - a "luxury" item perhaps but something I'd like. Not all the above are needed of course (eg: chiller) but most items I define as "highly necessary", eg: if we have a hot summer, temperature controller plus chiller is going to come in real handy

Pies, I know this was a little while ago but what did this cost ya?

it's probably that your phosphates are too high. oh yeah, and caryl's right, you'll get a better response in there!

myself and jetskisteve are suffering the same thing on the substrate though, sand is covered in the shit. steve reckons "it's just that time of the year, it comes and it goes". i'm a little more concerned though... send pies or jetskisteve a PM and they'll tell you what it is.

did you say 50 ways? how big is the airline?!!!

sorry, should have put it as "fish only" or "reef". meaning whether you keep just fish, or fish, live rock & corals, or many variations in between. often referred to as things like FOWLR (fish only with live rock)

agreed pies, but i opted for the top end of the scale coz there are so many little costs that you just dont account for (usually) when setting up, eg: test kits, even those aren't cheap! also depends on whether you go marine or reef

4 foot, $5,000.

considering it... ! $$$,... gimme a better deal

cheers Pies/Reef, didnt think about the RO waste water dual solenoids - one on waste and one on good water?!!! just kidding!!! Well thats my idea all up the f@#$%k! Think i will leave auto top-up unit until I plan the rest of the sump room etc first and see how much extra maintenance I need to do. Im just too much of a gadget-freak there are so many interesting areas to the hobby and thats what keeps me so interested in it (other than just water chemistry, corals, fish, yarda yarda yarda... theres gadgets, plumbing, wiring etc etc) This post opened up a can of worms for sure!

Because the RODI membrane apparently doesnt like being turned on/off all the time (or a reduction in water pressure would mean the same thing). By maintaining high water pressure to the RODI unit and controlling water flow from the auto-topup to the solenoid AFTER the RODI unit maintains pressure in the filter and keeps the holding tank topped up (would have a minimum level too so it only tops up when it reaches a low level rather than on/off constantly). Then, a separate dosing pump drip feeds the sump (water/kalk) from the holding tank overnight from a timer. This obviously means that I have to guestimate the amount of evaporation from the sump and work out the literage to be dosed, but at least it's a set amount of water, if the sump leaked it wouldn't indefinately dose fresh water into the tank. This also saves me adding fresh RODI water to the holding tank every week as its done by the auto top-up. the way i see it, this should work exactly as i need it. Of course, 2 x auto top-up's would make sense - one for the sump (albeit the concerns of tank leakage) So my use for auto top-up is different than what its true purpose is - for topping up RODI in the holding tank, not topping up water in the sump. It's not "adding for the sake of it" Pies, its adding to reduce maintenance, to me that is a big benefit.

I dont think you're getting what I mean Pies... correct me if Im wrong but it will look like this: TAP -> RODI -> SOLENOID <-> AUTO-TOPUP <-> HOLDING TANK -> DOSING PUMP -> SUMP Auto-topup controls dosing to the holding tank (keeping water at maximum level ONLY when level drops to a minimum level - need 2 floats)

Cheers Mark. However... There is little chance of the float sticking as the one I was looking at is an optical float sensor. I believe if the unit fails, then no water is dosed at all. The RO unit wont be turned on and off all the time as I would put a solenoid AFTER the unit, so pressure is maintained to the membrane at all times. What advantages does the Kalkstirrer offer me over dosing by auto top-up and dosing pump?

was just being a smart arse Im still a little confused on whether I actually need an auto top-up though. The way I was considering doing the auto top-up was to have it in a separate holding tank for RODI mixed with kalk rather than in the sump itself. Then, have a dosing pump that pumps from the holding tank to the sump on a timer (running over night). The question here though is can an auto top-up system turn a tap (the tap that feeds the RODI) on and off to keep the top-up water in the holding tank always full? That way I only need to add kalk powder once a week or so to the holding tank. This is the way I was thinking in the first place, rather than having the auto top-up in the sump itself. Does this make sense?