chimera

this is the one i use, an HM digital inline dual TDS meter also with automatic calibration. one probe sits prior to RODI and one after. flick the switch on the unit to show ppm in and ppm out. shows 75 in, 0 out currently. doesnt matter what in shows, so long as out shows 0!!!

3 foot, can still get away with single halide etc. just stack rocks up in middle, extra water volume is whats important

yes, lower the better. may need to be calibrated? (fortunately) mine doesnt, i think most do though.

magic mark should be under $1k, nice round figure I would suggest 3 foot minimum. 2 foot too small

these wont be the issue. the water level will always (and obviously) come up to the overflow lip + a few mm no matter what size the holes are (of course there is a minimum overflow hole size you will need to keep up with the demand) the issue is the surface area around the overflow chamber - it may not be big enough to cope (even though the size of the overflow hole and piping can) the water will rise above the overflow lip by X, the only way to find out X is to test it (I'm sure there will be a formula, but your overflow design is quite unique being on an angle) good luck i can definately recommend that!

pH as you know is a measure of acidity vs alkalinity. "Alkalinity" (not high pH) is the buffering capacity - or how well pH resists being lowered from the addition of an acid (from uneaten food, fish poo etc) Adding sodium bicarbonate adds more buffers (so resists changes further) but this should be used as a quick fix as opposed to being used to increase pH. The best method now is a partial water change as it restores pH and replenishes the natural buffers. I think kalkwasser in your topup water dosed at night is the BEST to maintain good pH (which is when pH is likely to drop anyway) Baking soda is primarily the best way to maintain good alkalinity. Also, test your pH during the day and its likely to be higher than at night. Dont overfeed, keep GOOD water movement at the surface (oxygenates water - too much Co2 drops pH), dose with kalk at night and do regular water changes and your pH will remain stable.

the overflows are very close to the top of the tank (going by pic's only here, looks about 30mm?) maybe ok just, main concern is any vigorous water movement (streams) i think you will find it will be close!

I think you will find your water level will be too high with those overflows. As cracker says I would also take a stab and say 4,000lph would be a max. My lph is about this (maybe a tad more) and water level sits just under 20mm above the overflow lip. Dual overflow will give greater surface area for water flow so you might just be ok. I would seriously test this before doing anything else.

water change

from memory, i enquired about these with marinedepot and they only make 110V models. dont quote me on it though consider an iwaki or for serious flow, a dolphin ampmaster instead

haahaaaaa! :lol: i had 2 go missing also, never found them. not too much to a shrimp, could quite easily get eaten in a short time!

500 - 700grams or so for 1,000 litres, change every 4-6 weeks

yeah, coz how would ya tell.... dont want your children genetically mutating now do we sounds like a very interesting product, keep us up-to-date on how things go. wouldnt mind trying it if the results are promising

I realise its gets depleted overtime, just cant believe it gets used so quick. I got mag chloride here but seem to be adding HEAPS of it every few days until the calcium reactor kicks in (ordered a new impeller from pet planet dont get it til next saturday) i should get some calcium as well to add manually til the reactor kicks in too

is see the marine tank that was on sale on trademe recently was snapped up by michael at petplanet. bloody good buy id say, really surprised it didnt sell quicker

hmph! figures above are what im trying to maintain but right now... Kh - 6.7 Ca - 300ppm Mg - 1100ppm SG - 1.025 :-? no matter what i do they drop again within a few days

im sure that stags grown double the size since i saw it last week

http://www.sgreefclub.com/srctotm/srctotmdanano.htm

not at 8:30pm at night! in bed by 8pm usually. im going sunday morning, as high tide is at 9am today and i've too much to do. high tide tomorrow is aboput 10am so i'll be there 9:30am

jump just before you work on your tank i get the same tingle, i asked my mate who's a sparky to check over everything and he said its all earthed, all rcd's tested ok etc. it only just started happening after i put the auto-topoff unit in which has a couple of stainless probes that sit in the water. i certainly get a tingle when i touch these. could it be these passing through the water? cookie i assume you got your titanium probe from the states, do you know where you get one in nzl?

Not necessarily Ira!!! For example, an eheim 1060 would have little impact, an eheim 1048 would have huge impact. why? because of the way the impeller is designed in different models. in this case, the eheim 1060 has the impeller and magnet always spinning together (coz they're stuck together) whereas the eheim 1048 the impeller spins separate to the magnet. When water flows through it, the impeller moves away from the magnet. Both the impeller and the shaft are 'keyed' which then lock together and spin. If its worn, only the magnet spins and the impeller moves slowly, causing the rattling noise... ...which means thinking about what I just wrote means I initially contradicted myself - they dont necessarily always rattle if they are worn depends on the make/model pump.

you got 700 litres?!!! i didnt make it wife not feeling well, two young kids to look after! tomorrow's a goer for me tho!

biggest problem is that they require more power points to run!!! incidentally, they are called "bulkhead blasters!" so who's gonna be first to get some

hows the uv running layton? any improvements? is the ap902 skimming harder now?

from arkles bay usually. concrete boat ramp makes life easier. other than that i take the buckets to work with me and pick some up from taka boat ramp on the way home.