........Yeah...........Dave I changed it to a FOWLRSLPSSPSF (Fish Only With Live Rock, Softies, LPS and a few SPS. :mrgreen:

Not really Doug. My poor camera skills don't really show the differences. :redface: Although the tank looks considerably nicer with the new light the pics I took don't show it.

:sad: My tank sitter (nephew) informed me that he didn't want to look after the tanks anymore because it was too involved and he is afraid he'll do something wrong. So, I decided to automate most everything and make it as foolproof as possible.

Lighting: all lights are on timers including the sump light.

Cooling fans: controlled by the AquaController: on at 81.0F/off at 80.9F

Dosing: Ca, Alk, & Mg by 2 separate dosing pumps and run through the
AquaController

Sump Heaters: one controlled by a Jalli JT-1000, and one on a Ranco. Heaters
are each plugged into separate GFCI's in case of an accidental tripping.

ATO: Sump is topped up by a vacuum pump run by the Aquacontroller. Unfortunately, a 5 gallon bucket under the sump has to be manually filled each day with R/O water. I was all ready to drill a hole in the wall from the garage for the R/O tubing but the wifey caught me and informed me there was to be no more holes in any walls due to aquarium stuff. There's already 3 holes from the corner tank to the outside sump, a 6" hole in the wall of the sump room for the ventilation unit, and a 3' by 4' hole in the wall between the 225g stand and the sump room. You can't see any of the holes and what's one more little 1/4" hole going to bother right? So I'll just wait until she goes to work and drill the hole, run the tubing under the carpet of the study and she'll never even know. Then the sump can be topped up directly from the 55 gallon R/O reservoir. :biggrin:

Salt Water Mixing Station: 55 gallon R/O reservoir plumbed to 55 gallon salt water reservoir and filled by Quiet One 4000HH pump

Power Outages: In the event of a power outage the sump can of course more than handle the tank overflows; battery-driven air pumps keep the tanks and sumps aerated; and for a prolonged outage a generator is nearby with instructions. I've got the accidental GFCI tripping covered as well. Powerheads and return pump are on different GFCI's and the 2x MP40's are again on a separate circuit.

Skimmer: The skimmer drains into a large waste container that can handle at least a whole week of skimmate.

Emergency: equipment failure, etc. Dave and Marie's phone numbers for him to call. :mrgreen:


So there you have it, all automated except for feeding. Any recommendations on a fish feeder?

Of course that's only one tank done. Now I have to start automating the corner tank. :doh:

Yep...I recommend Marie :)

I will come feed the fish, just leave it in the cooler at the beer store and drop off the keys, I will swing by and get the beer, I mean fish food at least 4-5 times daily, I or rather they will be well taken care of.:drinking:

Nice try Dave. I wonder who Lynne would be more ****ed at: you or me. Of course you could always bring her home some wine. :lol:

I promise I will only check for freshness so the customers are getting the best, by the way you need to start carrying Lambs Black Sheep, that stuff is holy hell knock your socks off.

I've actually had a few requests now for it. That's the spiced rum with a hint of cinnamon right?

Cinnamon and Vanilla. I wouldn't say a hint of cinnamon more like a lot, kinda like an amber rum and Fire Ball mix.

Using a turkey baster to blow detritus up into the water column in a large tank is a waste of time. So I came up with this solution and it works great. Plastic tube inserted into 1/2" tubing connected to an MJ1200. Hang the MJ in the tank and plug it in. You can move the plastic wand wherever you want to blow the crap out of the rockwork and corners. I like to call it "The Poo Pummeller" or "Poo Pounder".

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/IMG_2020.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/IMG_2021.jpg

great idea lance but i think maybe the aquaruim enema may be a good name?

Nothing called the "poo pounder" has any place on a forum like this Lance LOL!

My vote is for the POOPELLER.

Yeah, maybe I should move it to a San Francisco forum huh? POOPELLER is good. I might patent that.

it doesnt suck.. it blows... for all the right reasons? sorry i just had to say it

:lol:

Whooooooo! Hoooooooooo! :whoo:

After 19 months of battling nitrates and phosphates in this tank, using every method known: large and frequent water changes (20% weekly); refugium with macroalgae; reactor running Rowaphos; reactor running nitrate remover; vodka dosing; Tailored Aquatics phosphate & nitrate destroyer; the Bio pellets are the answer. At times the nitrates would get as high as 30mg/l and phosphates were never lower than .05 ppm. Since using the pellets NO3 & PO4 have been steadily coming down. This morning I did my bi-weekly testing and the results are..... (.......drum roll please.....)

NO3 on Salifert kit = 0.00 NO3 on Elos kit = 0.00
PO4 on Hanna checker = 0.00 PO4 on Salifert kit = 0.00

Pretty damn good for an overstocked, well-fed tank. And, the pellets are saving me money as well: down to 10% water changes every 2 weeks; no more phosphate & nitrate removers; no more perfectly good vodka going to waste. And, as a bonus, the pellets couldn't be easier to use.

If I sound a little giddy and like I'm trying to promote the pellets: You're damn right I am! I love these guys!

Now, I think I'm going to sit back, watch the soccer game and sample a little, or a lot of that vodka. :drinking:

:)

A very pleasant surprise today.
It's the first hot day we've had this summer and I discovered the new light fixture heats the tank less than the old one did even with the extra 570 watts. Huh! (Fans only went on a few times today for short periods, and the temp. never went above 80.8 F)
Because the 400W MH's have way better penetration I have the fixture 15" above the water whereas the old fixture, (Aqualight Pro), was only about 5" above. This fixture also displaces heat much better.
And to think when I bought it I was worried about the tank getting too warm! :mrgreen:

Penetration, warm what? Maybe I should go read the whole thing. :redface:

Sorry Leah. No porn this time.

was this YOUR estimate or Joans? :redface:

I missed that one. :lol:

Darren. I was talking about the height, not girth. :mrgreen:

OH good! because if it was height then i was going to say she must be off by at least 50%. Darn women, ALWAYS under estimating things.

Even I'm feeling a little uncomfortable here. Nicely done folks!

Anybody ever consider the pervosity of Lance's username itself? I umm...haven't.

Pervosity or perversity? I didn't start it, Leah did. It was an innocent post about the light. They're the perverts!

Oh sure when guilty, point the finger at the innocent one. :wink:

This has been an awesome read. I laughed almost the whole 5 hours (this includes me being ADHD and going off on tangent threads as well as posting in them) It's a great setup and I'm glad it has turned out well for you... one thing I noticed that wasn't said anywhere in here is you had 12 Chromis now there is only 7 and when you say what's in the tank a few times it went down and never anything about them... are they not important because you had 12? Or are you trying to get that beagle to choke on a fish bone so you keep trying and just hope nobody notices?
(P.S. now I'm going to have to spend a day over there at some point to look at your guys' tanks)

Thanks for the compliments.:biggrin:
As for the Chromis: They are Damselfish and like other damsels they tend to not play well. The more dominant individuals pick on the weaker ones until you're down to a few. My twelve went down to five in about 7 months. The remaining five squabble a little but that's about it. An interesting thing: Once the school got down to five, they began spawning like clock work. I'm thinking the school is down to a harem-like group and that's why the aggressiveness is gone.

That makes me rethink the group I want to get... I was thinking of getting 20 of them... but if they are just going to rip each other to shreds... oh well

They don't rip each other up so much as harass constantly. But yeah, they're nasty little buggers.

P.S. Feel free to visit when you're in town. Doors always open to a fellow reefer.

Do they harass others or just within the school?
Wife says she wants to come with me the day I stay a few extra hours would a tues or a sat be better?

No, they don't bother other fishes.
Absolutely, bring her along. I'm off Sundays & Mondays. Tuesdays to Saturdays I'm usually home by 3:00pm

so Saturday works best?

Yup, Saturday's fine. Just PM me to let me know when you're coming and I'll make sure I'm home.

Okay maybe next week... but I'll pm you to make sure.

Maintenance Day from Hell! :twised:


I figured today was a good day for some long overdue tank maintenance. First on the agenda: Clean the light covers. Get screwdriver and remove 6 screws from fixture end plate. Place screwdriver and screws on floor, remove the covers and take them out to the sundeck for cleaning. Come back in the house to find the screwdriver and 2 screws missing. DAMN THAT BEAGLE!!! I find the screwdriver in her secret bone-hiding spot, but no screws. I hope she ate them and poisoned herself!

Next on the list was powerhead cleaning. Take apart the two MP40's, clean and replace them. Do you think I could get one of them to line up without rattling on max speed. I tweaked that thing for 15 minutes before it shut-up. Next up the Turbelle Streams. No problems there. And finally the Koralia Evolutions. After cleaning I put them back in place, plug them in and of course they don't go on. (These things are crap by the way. They never restart after turning them off). Take the pumps apart again: still won't start. Finally get them going and put back in the tank. One won't start again so I give it a good rap, it starts, the housing falls off and the propeller spins off the shaft and disappears behind the rock work. Grrrrr! I take the pump back out, calmly walk out to the sundeck and throw it as far as I can into the neighbour's back yard jungle!

Should I quit and try another day? What else could possibly go wrong? Right? So I remove the overflow covers to clean the algae out of the overflows. First one goes smoothly enough, so on the the second one. After cleaning it I notice a chunk of algae had fallen onto the rockwork beside the GBTA. I go to grab it and Uh-oh I forgot about Mama Clown! Whack! There goes a good-sized chunk of my arm. Get my bleeding arm out of the tank before the Tuskfish thinks he's a Great White and takes the rest of it. Unnnnhhh!
That's it. I quit because I was on the verge of digging out the shotgun and blasting the Beagle, powerheads and clownfish. :snipersm:



P.S. I'm really having a run of bad luck! Three weeks ago I ran out of gas, the Beagle ate the fish food and I plugged the toilet paper with paper towels and skimmate.
FML

Wow... that sucks... (note to self, never let the wife get a beagle).

p.s. You sure have a way of making disaster sound comical... sorry that I laughed at your misfortune.

Hey, no sweat. If I didn't laugh at myself I'd go stark raving mad. :silly: Or drink too much.:drinking:

LOL, that sounds like the kind of maintenance days I have when I decide to go whole hog on light covers/powerheads etc (minus the beagle but I would still manage to lose those screws or step on one and have it go through my foot). Probably why I don't do that kind of maintenance very often :razz: