JoeBlog

Sorry, I was refering to the frag sizes that he is selling.

The ones that I've seen at Organisms are about an inch and just starting to encrust on the little rock.

$20 to $60?!?!?!?!!? Wow!!!! Things are certainly different down here in little ol' ChCh. Maybe because we are a much smaller group, but IME we just give each other frags. There is an implicit understanding of reciprocation, but more along the lines of, “Whenever you do some pruning, keep me in mind.†Being new to SPS, I’ve been very fortunate to receive HEAPS of frags for free from very generous locals as well as some Auckland reefers, and I will certainly return the favor to them as well as newbies as soon as mine grow out. There is a shop in town (Organisms) that is selling frags for (I believe) $30. It will be quite interesting to see how this goes with this "swapping" market locally established. He actually has some very nice pieces, so if you are interested, you should drop him a line.

Thanks Layton. I've unplugged it and waiting for the correct capacitor to arrive.

Hey Layton- I just checked on the motor, and it states the following: Hurst 1 RPM Model PA-SP P/N 3202-071 I went back down to Southland Components as you suggested and they assured me that they originally gave me the closest capacitors to those suggested. I've been running it for two days now and just noticed that it is fairly hot. Do you think that this is a worry? I should be patient like Chimera and just wait for the appropriate capacitor, but couldn't help myself. Other than that, the performance/flow is amazing. I couldn't be happier!!

I have the Miracle Mud in the sump which seems to keep the Mg stable at 1350. I bought a 25KG bag of Magnesium Chloride and Calcium Chloride for $11.25 and $16.25 respectively from Aakland Chemicals Limited. As far as dosing, I used to follow (before the MM) Randy Holmes-Farley's "Homemade Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Additive System" which uses Epsom Salts, Calcium Chloride and Baking Soda, except I replaced the Epsom Salts for Magnesium Chloride. Now, I just use the Calcium Chloride and Baking Soda parts with awesome success. Although, I am expecting there to be a problem keeping up as soon as the SPS get a bit bigger!! So, I expect a calcium reactor purchase in my near future.

Since I moved the tank out of the conservatory and direct sunlight, all is great!! There are actually quite a few of us in ChCh starting to get into SPS. The problem is that we are all fairly new, except for lduncan. He and Reef have been very generous in giving me some advanced trades. Since I am new, most of my colonies are very small and I wouldn't be able to get a decent frag off of them just yet. The only ones that I really have at the moment are the two that I just hacked up and who knows how many of those will survive. As soon as the others grow a bit more, I'm totally down for some swaps. Unfortunately, it will probably be at the height of winter then. That shouldn't hold us back too bad though since we can just use some camping heat packs to keep the little guys toasty. First things first though, I need to pay my frag debts to lduncan.

Well, I've chopped them up. What a pain in the rear!! That green coral was INCREDIBLY slimy. Hopefully, this will be the end of the STN. I would be REALLY bummed if I lost the green one since I just got it and it's certainly one of my favorites. At least now, I have heaps of separate frags, so hopefully at least one of the bunches will survive. If more than one, then I will have some corals for trade! 8) Yeah, it was a DARK chocolate color when I initially bought it. However, it did color up quite nicely to a really cool pink/light purple. The downer is that almost all the SPS turned a light brown when I moved the tank a little over a month ago and experienced a mini-cycle. They are just starting to get their pre-move color back. Almost all the corals that I've purchased were quite dark brown when I bought them, so I really hope the info on RC doesn't turn out to be the case for me! No Reef, I actually don't use any. I've been thinking about using that stuff that I think lduncan uses, Purigen (sp??), but haven't gotten around to it yet. I think a couple of the other ChCh reefers use it as well.

OK Let's try that picture thing again Thanks for the advice guys. I plan on taking the clippers to them tomorrow morning. The up side is that I will now have more frags for trading!! Cheers, Steve

Over the past week, two of my SPS have started to STN. Sorry for the picture quality, but I only have a digital video camera for the pics. All of my other SPS are doing great. In fact, they are getting more colorful by the day and growing quite rapidly. It’s just these two that are having the problem. Does anyone know why this could be? What I can do to stop it? My water parameters are as follows: Salinity: 1.026 (Unfortunately, measured with the glass bobber. Getting refractor soon.) Calcium: 450 Salifert dKH 11 Salifert (little higher than I would like) Nitrate 0 Salifert Nitrite 0 Salifert Phosphates 0 Salifert (triple) Mg 1350 Salifert Temp 26.7 My first thought is that they are both somewhat out of the main turbulence of the Streams. The OM 4-way just arrived, and thus the flow problems should be address soon (given I can find some time away from work). However, there is a little frag right next to them doing great. So, I am a bit lost.

Organisms has HEAPS of SPS now!!! Both Aquanet and Jetskisteve/NickS shipments arrived yesterday. Not only that, but Redwood also had a major release of all kinds of corals!! They just completed their BIG coral display and looks like they are trying hard to fill it up. Coral madness! I picked up a few SPS and wish I had more money to get a few more. Fortunately, made some quick arrangements for frag swaps, so basically doubled my purchases! 8) Absolutely beautiful pieces from all suppliers. Thanks guys!!!

Pies- Amp Master 3000 (closed loop) 13500 Amp Master 3000 (closed loop) 13500 6100 Stream (100% to 30%) 12000 6100 Stream (100% to 30%) 4000 DIY Stream (conservative estimate) 4000 DIY Stream (conservative estimate) 4000 DIY Stream (conservative estimate) 4000 Eheim 1262 (closed loop) 3360 Eheim 1260 (return) 2400 Resun King 3 (return) 2400 Total 60,000+ I have a total of ~650 liters (including the sumps), => 90 times turnover (approximately since I haven't calculated for head loss) In my new setup after the move, I ditched: DIY Streams (I hate that they are hard to restart and do not provide variable flow like the Tunze) Resun King 3 (basically because they suck) 2nd Amp Master 3000 (to fund the move, i.e. new sump for Miracle Mud, 4-way, another MH, etc...) which I plan to replace with two more 6100 streams, which will give me about 50,000LPH (approximately 80 times turn over) I like the flow!!!! 8)

Well Pies, I said it and the guys in ChCh know that it was true!!

I completely agree with Chimera. Before I sold my 2nd Amp Master, I was pushing over 90 times turn over in my 5x2x2 and the corals (SPS) never looked better!!! I plan on getting another 2 stream 6100's to accompany the two I already have as well as an Amp Master 3000 (on a closed loop OM 4-way), and Eheim 1260 & 1262 as returns. You can never have too much flow for SPS!!!!

Thanks Arthur. That's the sort of "evidence" that I am looking for!! If anyone else has timeline pictures that they would like to share, that would be great!

I have considered using Zeovit and just as Reef, I would like to see some before and after pictures. I have seen individual pictures of various tanks that do use Zeovit and they all seem to be very nice. However to get a (bottom line) idea of the benefits of the system, it would be helpful (at least to me) to see a time line comparison of these tanks. Thanks, Steve

What brand are the bulbs that you are thinking of using?

How low in the tank do you want to put the holes? Does silicone seal/dry under water? If so, then you could simply build a glass box yourself and glue it to the side where you want to put the hole. Once sealed, you can drill away and scrape off when completed. Seems a bit sketchy to me though. Personally, (if you don't want the holes too low, which I don't think that they need to be) I would just empty the tank, say, about half way, leave the fish in there, drill the holes and fill it all back up. This shouldn't take more than an hour (or two if you are really safe/slow during the drilling).

How would you attach the bulk head?

This is true that you can increase the flow of the dorso by creating a siphon. The only worry is that if the power goes off and then turns back on, the siphon isn't that easily started again. I unfortunately figured this out when I came home to A LOT of water on my floor. :oops: So, just be careful and definitely do a shutdown/restart test to make sure the dorso can still handle the flow before the siphon gets started again.

I wouldn’t sell the pump since I think it is absolutely ideal for the 4-way that you are getting. I would drain the tank down a bit and drill another hole in the back wall (possibly next to the overflow and behind your existing rockwork so that the input isn’t visible). I just drilled 8 holes in my tank and it is absolutely no problem. Granted, my tank wasn’t full, but I wouldn’t have any reservations now. Just use heaps of water, take your time and you will have a nice hole in your tank so that you can use your sweet pump properly. While you are at it, I would drill another hole for the 4th 4-way outlet and rework the return plumbing as described in my earlier post. If you are really hesitant about drilling the tank, you could always simply put the input pipe over the top of the tank. A bit of an eye sore, but can be hidden fairly effectively with creative aquascaping and again no (well, minimal) head loss since it is a closed loop. I would definitely not restrict the input to the pump in any way. In fact, I would recommend using a 2†input instead of a 1.5â€. When I installed my first AM3000, I had quite a few elbows since the installation was a bit awkward. I couldn’t believe how drastically the flow was reduced. I shortly after reworked the plumbing so that it was 1.5†over the side input with a minimum of bends and the output was amazing. I then bought the second AM3000 (yours now) and plumbed it over the side as well, but with 2†input plumbing and noticed a sharp increase in output. Lastly, I believe that the make output of the AM3000 is 3600gph, which is at zero head. 3000gph is at a 4’ head.

I try to keep it between 26 and 27 in the summer. However on the hottest days, I battle to keep it under 28.

Wow Reef, you are getting some really good growth. I can’t get anything to grow in my mud just yet and it’s been going about a week longer than yours. In fact, I’m getting really good at killing some initially nice looking algae. :evil: I’ve almost completed the tank move and addition of the new sump, which is designed more appropriately for the MM system, i.e. size, flow, lighting, etc… I’m hoping that this will bring some of the algae growing success that you are having. I’ve read a few threads on RC where guys have had a bit of a hard time getting their algae started, but then it takes off like CRAZY. Pictures of your fuge gives me renewed faith!

Sorry for the confusion. From what I can tell in your diagram, 1 of the 4 outlets from the 4-way is going to a spray bar (presumably, under your reef rack). IMHO, I just think that this may be a bit of a waste for one of the returns from the 4-way. I would have a Y (or T) connect right after the AM3000 outlet (just as you do for the two inlets into the AM3000) to split off the output flow to the spray bar directly and to the OM 4-way. I would replace the 4th outlet on the 4-way (which used to go to the spray bar) with another return high in the water column (i.e. just like the other 3) by either drilling another hole or just going up and over the side (if drilling isn't an option). That way, you would get the best use of the wavemaking features of the OM, i.e. 4 returns that alternate their flow instead of just 3. Depending on the drum configuration of the OM (i.e. how many outlets you will have open at a time, which I would assume will probably be 2), you will have only 3 3/4" returns available for over 12000L of flow. The AM3000 is rated at 3000 gph at 4' head, and (I believe) 3600 at 0' head. Since you are running a closed loop, the only head you have is from pipe friction. Is your tank already drilled for the configuration in the diagram? If not, I would increase the size of the two inlets to 1" that combine into a 2" to the AM3000. When I was running both AM3000's, I had my first one on a closed loop with just a 1.5" inlet (similar to your diagram) and my second on a closed loop with a 2" inlet. The later worked much better with greater flow! Also in regards to the returns from the 4-way, maybe place all of them in the back wall with Loc-line to vary the directions since you plan on having the Streams as well, which can be placed more towards the front corners, i.e. similar to Reefs stream setup. This is how I think that I am going to run my stream/OM 4-way combination. Cheers, Steve

Hi Chimera- I would suggest T-ing off the spray bar prior to the 4-way and add an additional hole up in the water column area of the tank for the 4th outlet of the 4-way. The outlets from the 4-way (or to the tank, that is) are 3/4", which may be undersized for the pump anyway (depending on the drum configuration you decide for the 4-way). I think that if you are able to drill another hole (or even possibly do an over the back for the last outlet), you will be able to use the pump, the spray bar and the 4-way (in wave making ability) to their optimum. IMHO, that is. Cheers, Steve