I've been reading more of that every day. I guess im one of the lucky ones. I've had that probe for over 2 1/2years, most of the time sitting in a cup of water in storage. I tried it out in a test sample and it was bang on.
Having said that, I think I will take the probe out of the tank when not in use and put it back in a container of fresh RO/DI water.


I've got sand, baffles, UV filter and the breeding tanks coming this week, I'll post some more pics this weekend.

Oh wow, you've gotten a nice long run with that probe. Uh .. don't listen to me then! Although that doesn't really surprise me. Generally speaking, doing whatever the opposite of what I do, is usually the better choice. :p

However, I would just say ix-nay on the RO/DI. I bought one of the first units and mine was defective from the get-go. Speaking with Lou Dell at American Marine, he suggested I soak the probe overnight in fresh water, try again the next day, and then call back and let him know if it worked. So I put the probe in RO/DI, followed through, and it still didn't work. (It turned out the problem was a bad solder in the controller unit, eventually I sent it in, Pinpoint fixed it and sent it back.) But when I called to say it didn't work, he asked "Did you use RO/DI? Tell me you didn't use RO/DI, because if you did, you just wrecked your probe." I said "But you just said freshwater, I just assumed RO/DI was the trick." So he said, "yeah OK, I should have warned you. I'll send you a new probe." That was nice of him to send a new probe. So anyhow, according to my conversation with Lou Dell, "don't use RO/DI to store these probes, use tapwater." For what it's worth.

Man I miss using mine. But it was something like $220 to order a new probe .. dang that stings. :(

I wonder why RO/DI would be bad for the probes, good thing i've been using tap water :D

Shipment of salt and sand came yesterday. Took 50 bags to give me a 3-4" sand bed

http://www.unitedconstruction.ca/giz...%20(Small).JPG

http://www.unitedconstruction.ca/giz...%20(Small).JPG

I'm thinking i'll be painting the back of the tank black to match.

I guess RO/DI has a strong affinity to strip out ions...

Black sand, black overflows .. seems a no-brainer to go black on the background. :) I have that combo on a FW tank and it's really sharp. Only thing is in a reef, the rocks shed so much crud, you'll probably be doing a lot of vacuuming on your weekly chores. Hard to beat the look of a tank like that though! :cool:

I found black sand to be highly magnetic with my 10G contest tank I had... Not sure if yours will act the same, but keep your magfloat away from it... :wink:

Very interesting tank build. Thanks for all the pics.

I am in love....

<looks around Awkwardly >

Your tank, Silly. Not like I have a weird fettish or anything...... I am just in love with your tank

These are the turbines i'm installing. It took some doing with the city to get them allowed, but all is good.
http://www.windterra.com/

http://spectroimage.com/solcool/imag...dterra-1_1.jpg

They stand about 2m high and 2m diameter. And no, thats not my house below.

http://www.yourgreenamerica.com/site...s/DSCN0336.jpg