I dunno, I'm the one who didn't know what a flange was. Anywho.. my tank is taking shape, still unsure what to do about lights. It's got sand and some rock in it though, salt too.

Doug

oooo, pics? :cool:

I thought you were doing reef Doug that's why I was asking about bio-balls.

All you would have to do is drill some holes, make a gasket, and get some wingnuts and you wouldn't have to silicone your lid anymore.

I am going reef but a few fish. I've used bio balls before and rather liked them. It's hard to break the habit when things work.
I've actually got the nylon bolts and wing nuts it's the gasket material I've had trouble with. I'm thinking of now just using a large O Ring.

Doug

Christy pics to come soon.

O ring will work, just put it between the flanges and tighten securly.
You definitely want something to mix the kalk though have a look at his one :http://www.canreef.com/photopost/sho...cat=507&page=1
Also the reactor looks a little short, you don't want the powder going through, just the clear water at the top.

Dick, Yes that's a good point, one mistake I made was adding the whole container of Kalk (figured if it was going to be closed for a while...) The O Ring Idea is a good one I was hoping to find some gasket material though but I can settle for the O ring for sure.
I'm thinking that I'll take some of Jack's advice and add some vinegar to my make up water, see how that works, Oh and I'll add the Kalk in smaller portions.

Doug

um..make flanges for the top and get a way to mix it.. don;t worry about vinager or the other stuff.. large amounts is fine, you just go longer between adding but it needs to be stired a few times a day real good or you will not have a saturated mix.

Steve

Steve, see that's what confuses me, if I bump the tower I get a cloud of kalk, it's not settling down and compacting. I suppose I could add a powerhead etc to it but that just makes for even more work. Maybe I'll just go back to adding Kalk water to my top off water.

Doug

it isn't suposed to compact. every time you mix it shoudl fluf right up again and then slowly sellt out untill the next time. I do this 4 times a day with a mag 3 for 1 minuit.. realy mixes the hell out of it.. :rolleyes:

Steve

Wow yeah that would mix the hell out of it. How do you keep it from putting the cloudy water into your tank though? I figure if a tank is going to have evap it should be mostly during the day right? So what about just having a power head come on for a few minutes at say 5am once a day. Wouldn't that mix it up enough?

Doug