it's finally begun... - Page 2

manderx · 08/22/2006, 11:04 AM

swapped out the iwasaki15ks for a new set of reeflux12Ks, even though they were only 3-4 months old. i think the iwasakis were too intense for my corals in their weakened state from the move and stuff, and i knew i was going to get the reeflux 12s for my next bulb anyway. now that i have good sets of blues and whites, i can swap them back and forth to experiment once things settle down. see if corals prefer megapar or mellow blue.

also got a new return pump, the eheim 1260 was too loud for me. not loud-loud but a low-pitched hum that seemed to resonate just right to be annoying. probably could have fixed it with better padding under it but didn't want to bother since i saw it as temporary anyway. went with a velocity T2, which is known to be silent, but heats the water more than other external pumps. i've been riding the edge of a heat problem so i was a bit worried about that, but i was betting that a hot external might still beat a cool submersible. temps seem to be pretty much the same, maybe 1/2 a degree higher. but it's well worth it for the step towards silence, and it's also *alot* more flow than the eheim put out so it's not an apples<->apples comparison. gallon-for-gallon it runs much cooler than the eheim. the new pump also makes so much more flow in the tank that i *really* want to get a wavey-sea (kinda like a sea-swirl) to swing it back and forth. but any more action on the credit cards and they'll melt. the vortechs are neat and can make lots of flow, but with only 3' i can't turn them up enough to fill the whole tank with flow without stirring up sand directly across from it.

i also recently got a new pump for my calcium reactor. it was using a cute little eheim 1048 that many calcium reactors use, but i feel it was too weak. plus any grit that formed from breaking down media too fast (ph getting too low) wore the impeller hub too much. with the panworld 30 i got, it has *plenty* of power and the shaft/hub are ceramic so it shouldn't wear as easily. the scary part of this swap was i wanted to bump up the plumbing from 1/2" to 3/4", which meant drilling out the hole in the pretty lid. i also drilled another hole in the lid for a pH probe. i also ordered a flow gauge for the effluent, but it's not here yet.

skimmer is still giving me fits. the pump that hummed weird seems to have settled down, though it still goes back to humming at around the same time every night for an hour or two then back to quiet. the other pump however has started chattering again. it had done that just a few times before when it was brand new, but just tapping the airline for a second would make it stop and i figured it would go away completely as it broke in (which it had seemed to until recently). i think it's not sucking enough air. when i blow into it, it stops making noise. i've never been able to run the airvalve on this pump because any restriction would make it chatter like this. i've gone through all the obvious cleanings but still chatter. so i'm only running one pump right now, which should be more than enough but the neck is sized for twice the air i'm pushing though it, so it's not doing anything at all other than blow-off the co2 from the calcium reactor. once i get the pumps working right i'm probably going to try to sell it so i can drop down to something smaller.

i put some rowaphos in and dropped my po4 from .07 to .01 in just a few hours. a little faster than i would have guessed or even wanted. though i do think the people who make it say to not let the po4 drop so fast say that as a boast ("our product works *too* well") and also an excuse to distract you from the real issue of dropping alk too fast, since it does that too at first. i was dripping reef builder anyway at the time, so no alk drop and corals all look fine. better than fine actually, they are getting exponentially healthier and happier every day. it's back.

tried to take some pics but they all came out way weird blue from the new reeflux 12Ks. i'll have to fiddle with stuff to get good pics. i generally don't believe in using white balance on blue bulbs (2 reasons- 1:why would i want to tell the camera something should be interpreted as white when it looks blue to my eyes? and 2:white balance on a blue bulb makes fluorescence look like real color so people use it to cheat), but the reeflux bulbs come out several times bluer on my camera than they look in real life. so i think i'll have to compromise and do something.

manderx · 08/22/2006, 11:06 AM

yikes, didn't look like i wrote all that much in the little reply-box...

Shivaji · 08/22/2006, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by manderx
yikes, didn't look like i wrote all that much in the little reply-box...

That's a lot of stuff all right, but thanks for sharing

Do you like the Iwaskis - I am getting ready to switch my 250W DE and would like suggestions.

manderx · 08/22/2006, 11:50 AM

i think it's the best white (10Kish) bulb out there. too bad it's only in 175w SE at the moment. though without plenty of actinic, i would prefer to go with the AB20K, or maybe the reeflux12 (no idea how it runs as DE but i like it well enough in SE).

Charlie Davidson · 08/22/2006, 12:48 PM

not too long, Great info!

Somehow it reads better when it comes from people I trust

kysmith · 08/24/2006, 10:27 AM

Matt I can't wait till you get this thing completely setup and post some more pictures. Tank looks SMOKIN

manderx · 08/30/2006, 10:09 AM

got the actinics on, 4xT5 UVL super actinics driven by a icecap660. they are way brighter on the icecap than the triad that i had 2 of them on before on the old tank, but with that brightness they are also whiter, so i'm not entirely sure which i prefer. with the reeflux12s, i need all the extra intensity i can get, but when i switch back to the iwasakis i think i'll prefer darker blue on the actinics, so i might pickup another triad so i can do that.

corals are really getting color (some are already better than ever), though they are all green rather than the pinks/blues/purples they are 'supposed' to be. i hope it's just because it's a new tank and things need to settle in (nitrates are up at 5-7) rather than response to the lighting. not much growth yet, so far the only new growth tips are on a digitata, birdsnest, 2 acros, and (most importantly) a particular encrusting monti.

i keep trying to get pics, but they come out way too blue. and without a computer at home, it's hard to fiddle around and find the right settings/corrections to get it looking right.

manderx · 09/06/2006, 09:41 PM

the aquascaping isn't what i really wanted but i'm happy enough with it. i think i'll need at least a 4x4 to pull off what i really wanted.

reefdadx2 · 09/07/2006, 12:01 PM

Looks awesome! I think when you get the 4x4 you will be wanting a 5x5 then 6x6.

Can't wait to see it. Michael R

NANOFOOL · 09/07/2006, 02:06 PM

holy crap! thats awesome!

kysmith · 09/07/2006, 05:04 PM

FREAKING SWEET!!!

manderx · 09/12/2006, 11:40 AM

i put the iwasaki15s back on, so it's back to a 10K look on the tank. corals seem to be handling it just fine (scripps pink is already starting to develop some pink to it), and now i should be able to take good pics since it's not so crazy blue. bad thing is temps went up 2 degrees, so i had to crank up those computer fans a bit.

for those people at the meeting wondering about the flow meter i got for my calcium reactor- http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/pr...sp?sku=0323013
i didn't bother with any extra fittings, rigid airline jams in it perfectly, and then 1/4" poly fits overtop that equally perfectly. i would make sure to mount it after the valve though so it doesn't take any backpressure.

got a bucket of tropic marin while at marvin's to try out. the kids up in richmond swear by it and have such crazy-good color, i gotta know....and it's not that much more than IO anyway.

Charlie Davidson · 09/12/2006, 11:57 AM

Which luminarc's did you start with? I have 2- #3's looking for 3rd one. Also interested in your thoughts on tropic "Marvin" .. I really like it. (guess it will be a few months for fair trial period)

manderx · 09/12/2006, 12:13 PM

i have 4 of the luminarc3 minis. they are only 14x14(+ the PITA bracket). the full size luminarc3 is like 21x21 or something. some people would have put 1 big bulb over a 36x36 in a full sized luminarc3, but i don't like lighting a tank with just a single point source (shadows within sps branches), so i went with 4 small bulbs.

rbattle · 09/12/2006, 02:27 PM

That flow meter is crazy expensive!
Rush

manderx · 09/12/2006, 03:06 PM

yeah, 85 bucks. precision lab glassware ain't cheap. that's why the MTC is so expensive (since it comes with one).

but i wouldn't run a reactor without one anymore (unless i was driving it with a peristaltic pump). the effluent line on mine frequently clogs up with stuff and slows the drip rate. without pulling the line a few times a week and counting drops, i'd never know it was running slow until it was too late. plus i'm splitting the feed pump with 2 media chambers, and any adjustment to them throws off the pressure to the reactor feed. so it makes it easy to get back to the original flow anytime i futz with things. i have not had it long enough though to know how frequently it needs to be cleaned, since i'm sure any growth within the tube will affect the reading. and i need to get it in a cabinet, since i'm sure it'll grow all sorts of fun stuff sitting next to the window like that.

manderx · 09/26/2006, 01:51 PM

so much easier to take pics with the iwasaki bulbs...

superman-

brand new pink tipped table-

amazing under blue bulbs that make the greenish base and the pink tips glow like crazy.

jocoxVT · 09/26/2006, 02:13 PM

Those are some mighty fine corals there sir...where is the Fintastic piece?

reefdadx2 · 09/26/2006, 05:30 PM

Sweet shots!

Michael R

Shivaji · 09/26/2006, 08:21 PM

Real nice shots.

I put in a new XM 15K 250W DE in my tank and was surprised to see how much less bright it looks compared to the old XM 10K bulb. Don't know yet if I like it. I guess that is why you mix the bulbs - looks like you cannot really get a good color balance with just one.

kysmith · 09/28/2006, 08:03 PM

looking great Matt!

ade · 10/17/2006, 08:03 PM

Any more pic's from the cube.

manderx · 10/18/2006, 09:32 AM

i'll see what i can do this evening. i disconnected the calcium reactor last week and have been running reef builder/advantage and things are already looking much better. just got the b-ionic in yesterday and am going to try that for a while just to see (luckily i have a spare pair of dosing pumps i can control with my LM3). i think i'm depleting some element that the calcium reactor is not providing. there's enough talk about low K these days, causing the problems i've been seeing, that i'll try to track that down as soon as i can afford yet another test kit and supplements. i did notice on the reef builder's ingredient list that potassium was the only thing on that list that i had not tried recently.

Charlie Davidson · 10/19/2006, 05:36 AM

Did you ever switch over to tropic "marvin" ? If I remember right you use IO?

manderx · 10/19/2006, 10:18 AM

yeah, i'm 3/4th into a bucket of TM. seemed to maybe notice a difference at first with the first 10% water change, and was hoping things would get better and better as i got more of the total water volume switched over, but it didn't really. i think i might try the pro next, for the Mg.

08/22/2006, 12:48 PM	#30
Charlie Davidson Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Deltaville , Va Posts: 10,977	not too long, Great info! Somehow it reads better when it comes from people I trust __________________ Richmond Reef Club Current Tank Info: Doing without for a while :)

08/24/2006, 10:27 AM	#31
kysmith Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 600	Matt I can't wait till you get this thing completely setup and post some more pictures. Tank looks SMOKIN __________________ GO HOKIES!! Current Tank Info: 29 gallon

09/07/2006, 02:06 PM	#35
NANOFOOL Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: BLACKSBURG VA Posts: 239	holy crap! thats awesome! __________________ "your unique, just like everyone else" by ME Current Tank Info: 58 gal reef, 280 watt hqi, g-2 skimmer, 20 gal sump and 20 gal frag tank

09/07/2006, 05:04 PM	#36
kysmith Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 600	FREAKING SWEET!!! __________________ GO HOKIES!! Current Tank Info: 29 gallon

09/12/2006, 11:57 AM	#38
Charlie Davidson Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Deltaville , Va Posts: 10,977	Which luminarc's did you start with? I have 2- #3's looking for 3rd one. Also interested in your thoughts on tropic "Marvin" .. I really like it. (guess it will be a few months for fair trial period) __________________ Richmond Reef Club Current Tank Info: Doing without for a while :)

08/22/2006, 11:04 AM	#26
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	swapped out the iwasaki15ks for a new set of reeflux12Ks, even though they were only 3-4 months old. i think the iwasakis were too intense for my corals in their weakened state from the move and stuff, and i knew i was going to get the reeflux 12s for my next bulb anyway. now that i have good sets of blues and whites, i can swap them back and forth to experiment once things settle down. see if corals prefer megapar or mellow blue. also got a new return pump, the eheim 1260 was too loud for me. not loud-loud but a low-pitched hum that seemed to resonate just right to be annoying. probably could have fixed it with better padding under it but didn't want to bother since i saw it as temporary anyway. went with a velocity T2, which is known to be silent, but heats the water more than other external pumps. i've been riding the edge of a heat problem so i was a bit worried about that, but i was betting that a hot external might still beat a cool submersible. temps seem to be pretty much the same, maybe 1/2 a degree higher. but it's well worth it for the step towards silence, and it's also alot more flow than the eheim put out so it's not an apples<->apples comparison. gallon-for-gallon it runs much cooler than the eheim. the new pump also makes so much more flow in the tank that i really want to get a wavey-sea (kinda like a sea-swirl) to swing it back and forth. but any more action on the credit cards and they'll melt. the vortechs are neat and can make lots of flow, but with only 3' i can't turn them up enough to fill the whole tank with flow without stirring up sand directly across from it. i also recently got a new pump for my calcium reactor. it was using a cute little eheim 1048 that many calcium reactors use, but i feel it was too weak. plus any grit that formed from breaking down media too fast (ph getting too low) wore the impeller hub too much. with the panworld 30 i got, it has plenty of power and the shaft/hub are ceramic so it shouldn't wear as easily. the scary part of this swap was i wanted to bump up the plumbing from 1/2" to 3/4", which meant drilling out the hole in the pretty lid. i also drilled another hole in the lid for a pH probe. i also ordered a flow gauge for the effluent, but it's not here yet. skimmer is still giving me fits. the pump that hummed weird seems to have settled down, though it still goes back to humming at around the same time every night for an hour or two then back to quiet. the other pump however has started chattering again. it had done that just a few times before when it was brand new, but just tapping the airline for a second would make it stop and i figured it would go away completely as it broke in (which it had seemed to until recently). i think it's not sucking enough air. when i blow into it, it stops making noise. i've never been able to run the airvalve on this pump because any restriction would make it chatter like this. i've gone through all the obvious cleanings but still chatter. so i'm only running one pump right now, which should be more than enough but the neck is sized for twice the air i'm pushing though it, so it's not doing anything at all other than blow-off the co2 from the calcium reactor. once i get the pumps working right i'm probably going to try to sell it so i can drop down to something smaller. i put some rowaphos in and dropped my po4 from .07 to .01 in just a few hours. a little faster than i would have guessed or even wanted. though i do think the people who make it say to not let the po4 drop so fast say that as a boast ("our product works too well") and also an excuse to distract you from the real issue of dropping alk too fast, since it does that too at first. i was dripping reef builder anyway at the time, so no alk drop and corals all look fine. better than fine actually, they are getting exponentially healthier and happier every day. it's back. tried to take some pics but they all came out way weird blue from the new reeflux 12Ks. i'll have to fiddle with stuff to get good pics. i generally don't believe in using white balance on blue bulbs (2 reasons- 1:why would i want to tell the camera something should be interpreted as white when it looks blue to my eyes? and 2:white balance on a blue bulb makes fluorescence look like real color so people use it to cheat), but the reeflux bulbs come out several times bluer on my camera than they look in real life. so i think i'll have to compromise and do something.

08/22/2006, 11:06 AM	#27
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	yikes, didn't look like i wrote all that much in the little reply-box...

08/22/2006, 11:50 AM	#29
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	i think it's the best white (10Kish) bulb out there. too bad it's only in 175w SE at the moment. though without plenty of actinic, i would prefer to go with the AB20K, or maybe the reeflux12 (no idea how it runs as DE but i like it well enough in SE).

08/30/2006, 10:09 AM	#32
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	got the actinics on, 4xT5 UVL super actinics driven by a icecap660. they are way brighter on the icecap than the triad that i had 2 of them on before on the old tank, but with that brightness they are also whiter, so i'm not entirely sure which i prefer. with the reeflux12s, i need all the extra intensity i can get, but when i switch back to the iwasakis i think i'll prefer darker blue on the actinics, so i might pickup another triad so i can do that. corals are really getting color (some are already better than ever), though they are all green rather than the pinks/blues/purples they are 'supposed' to be. i hope it's just because it's a new tank and things need to settle in (nitrates are up at 5-7) rather than response to the lighting. not much growth yet, so far the only new growth tips are on a digitata, birdsnest, 2 acros, and (most importantly) a particular encrusting monti. i keep trying to get pics, but they come out way too blue. and without a computer at home, it's hard to fiddle around and find the right settings/corrections to get it looking right.

09/06/2006, 09:41 PM	#33
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	the aquascaping isn't what i really wanted but i'm happy enough with it. i think i'll need at least a 4x4 to pull off what i really wanted.

09/07/2006, 12:01 PM	#34
reefdadx2 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Salem, VA Posts: 941	Looks awesome! I think when you get the 4x4 you will be wanting a 5x5 then 6x6. Can't wait to see it. Michael R

09/12/2006, 11:40 AM	#37
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	i put the iwasaki15s back on, so it's back to a 10K look on the tank. corals seem to be handling it just fine (scripps pink is already starting to develop some pink to it), and now i should be able to take good pics since it's not so crazy blue. bad thing is temps went up 2 degrees, so i had to crank up those computer fans a bit. for those people at the meeting wondering about the flow meter i got for my calcium reactor- http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/pr...sp?sku=0323013 i didn't bother with any extra fittings, rigid airline jams in it perfectly, and then 1/4" poly fits overtop that equally perfectly. i would make sure to mount it after the valve though so it doesn't take any backpressure. got a bucket of tropic marin while at marvin's to try out. the kids up in richmond swear by it and have such crazy-good color, i gotta know....and it's not that much more than IO anyway.

09/12/2006, 12:13 PM	#39
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	i have 4 of the luminarc3 minis. they are only 14x14(+ the PITA bracket). the full size luminarc3 is like 21x21 or something. some people would have put 1 big bulb over a 36x36 in a full sized luminarc3, but i don't like lighting a tank with just a single point source (shadows within sps branches), so i went with 4 small bulbs.

09/12/2006, 02:27 PM	#40
rbattle Premium Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Blacksburg, VA Posts: 363	That flow meter is crazy expensive! Rush

09/12/2006, 03:06 PM	#41
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	yeah, 85 bucks. precision lab glassware ain't cheap. that's why the MTC is so expensive (since it comes with one). but i wouldn't run a reactor without one anymore (unless i was driving it with a peristaltic pump). the effluent line on mine frequently clogs up with stuff and slows the drip rate. without pulling the line a few times a week and counting drops, i'd never know it was running slow until it was too late. plus i'm splitting the feed pump with 2 media chambers, and any adjustment to them throws off the pressure to the reactor feed. so it makes it easy to get back to the original flow anytime i futz with things. i have not had it long enough though to know how frequently it needs to be cleaned, since i'm sure any growth within the tube will affect the reading. and i need to get it in a cabinet, since i'm sure it'll grow all sorts of fun stuff sitting next to the window like that.

09/26/2006, 01:51 PM	#42
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	so much easier to take pics with the iwasaki bulbs... superman- brand new pink tipped table- amazing under blue bulbs that make the greenish base and the pink tips glow like crazy.

09/26/2006, 02:13 PM	#43
jocoxVT Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Charlotte, NC Posts: 339	Those are some mighty fine corals there sir...where is the Fintastic piece? __________________ Jonathan Current Tank Info: Elos Mini

09/26/2006, 05:30 PM	#44
reefdadx2 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Salem, VA Posts: 941	Sweet shots! Michael R

09/26/2006, 08:21 PM	#45
Shivaji Premium Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Radford, VA Posts: 369	Real nice shots. I put in a new XM 15K 250W DE in my tank and was surprised to see how much less bright it looks compared to the old XM 10K bulb. Don't know yet if I like it. I guess that is why you mix the bulbs - looks like you cannot really get a good color balance with just one. __________________ Shivaji Samanta Current Tank Info: On hiatus - "tankless" for now.

09/28/2006, 08:03 PM	#46
kysmith Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 600	looking great Matt! __________________ GO HOKIES!! Current Tank Info: 29 gallon

10/17/2006, 08:03 PM	#47
ade Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Smith Mountain Lake Va Posts: 3,285	More pics please Any more pic's from the cube. __________________ Everything digital has analog parts. Current Tank Info: 33 Cube and 45 ML Cube reef.

10/18/2006, 09:32 AM	#48
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	i'll see what i can do this evening. i disconnected the calcium reactor last week and have been running reef builder/advantage and things are already looking much better. just got the b-ionic in yesterday and am going to try that for a while just to see (luckily i have a spare pair of dosing pumps i can control with my LM3). i think i'm depleting some element that the calcium reactor is not providing. there's enough talk about low K these days, causing the problems i've been seeing, that i'll try to track that down as soon as i can afford yet another test kit and supplements. i did notice on the reef builder's ingredient list that potassium was the only thing on that list that i had not tried recently.

10/19/2006, 05:36 AM	#49
Charlie Davidson Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Deltaville , Va Posts: 10,977	Did you ever switch over to tropic "marvin" ? If I remember right you use IO? __________________ Richmond Reef Club Current Tank Info: Doing without for a while :)

10/19/2006, 10:18 AM	#50
manderx Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Christiansburg, VA Posts: 4,893	yeah, i'm 3/4th into a bucket of TM. seemed to maybe notice a difference at first with the first 10% water change, and was hoping things would get better and better as i got more of the total water volume switched over, but it didn't really. i think i might try the pro next, for the Mg.