December 2010 Tank of the Month

[chingchai]

Originally Posted by rigleautomotive

poor quality but a look at the fish feeding

Thank you.

[shiloh7]

Congratulations, that is an excellent looking tank!

[rigleautomotive]

Thank you

[gary faulkner]

Congrats Dan,

I'm interested in how you run your calcium reactor. you say in the write-up, "A pH monitor is used to measure calcium reactor effluent. I test alkalinity often and ignore calcium unless I sense a problem. The alkalinity and calcium remain in balance given the reactor method of control. I manually adjust the reactor periodically and do not use the solenoid to cycle the CO2 on and off. This is mainly due to the failures I have encountered with several brands I have tried. In the past the valve would eventually stick open or closed and this was not something I wanted to take a chance on. The reactor may need a bit of tweaking once or twice a month but this keeps me more in tune with the alkalinity and calcium demands."

So how is the reactor turned on and off or is this just a product of the ph of the effluent? And if so what ph do you try to maintain.

Thanks and congrats again.

Gary

[rigleautomotive]

Originally Posted by gary faulkner

Congrats Dan,

I'm interested in how you run your calcium reactor. you say in the write-up, "A pH monitor is used to measure calcium reactor effluent. I test alkalinity often and ignore calcium unless I sense a problem. The alkalinity and calcium remain in balance given the reactor method of control. I manually adjust the reactor periodically and do not use the solenoid to cycle the CO2 on and off. This is mainly due to the failures I have encountered with several brands I have tried. In the past the valve would eventually stick open or closed and this was not something I wanted to take a chance on. The reactor may need a bit of tweaking once or twice a month but this keeps me more in tune with the alkalinity and calcium demands."

So how is the reactor turned on and off or is this just a product of the ph of the effluent? And if so what ph do you try to maintain.

Thanks and congrats again.

Gary

Thank you .
The reactor is not turned off and on and IMO this is what causes failures so I did away with the solenoid.The solenoid will eventually stick in either the on or off position creating instability.I use a PH monitor and keep the effluent ph at about 6.5 to 6.3 .I do this by just setting the bubble counter and it runs constantly.I measure alk twice or so a week and usually the reactor needs no tuning for a month or 2 if all is going well.If my alk starts to drop over time i turn the bubble count up a small amount or if I am at my minimum ph(6.3) i speed up the drip rate.

I also believe when I tried to over automate my system I would loose touch of the parameters and health of the animals over time and the over all health of the system would decline.I try to stay on top of the weekly alk demands etc... and not over automate the very things I used to love taking care of and tweaking as necessary.

[gary faulkner]

Originally Posted by rigleautomotive

Thank you .
The reactor is not turned off and on and IMO this is what causes failures so I did away with the solenoid.The solenoid will eventually stick in either the on or off position creating instability.I use a PH monitor and keep the effluent ph at about 6.5 to 6.3 .I do this by just setting the bubble counter and it runs constantly.I measure alk twicek or so a week and usually the reactor needs no tuning for a month or 2 if all is going well.If my alk starts to drop over time i turn the bubble count up a small amount or if I am at my minimum ph(6.3) i speed up the drip rate.

I also believe when I tried to over automate my system I would loose touch of the parameters and health of the animals over time and the over all health of the system would decline.I try to stay on top of the weekly alk demands etc... and not over automate the very things I used to love taking care of and tweaking as necessary.

Great info Dan. I'm definitly gonna give this a try when I get my calcium reactor back on-line.

Thanks for the help.

Gary

[rigleautomotive]

Originally Posted by gary faulkner

Great info Dan. I'm definitly gonna give this a try when I get my calcium reactor back on-line.

Thanks for the help.

Gary

Glad to help.if you need any help tweeking it when u get it going drop me a pm.GL

[TRIGGERMAN NYC]

WOW definitely worthy of tank of the month for sure. An amazing set up man congrats on having such amazing growth.

[knockout]

its sad that I live within 30 minutes of this tank and I have yet to see it in person, my fault, Dan has invited me many many times... one of these days I will make the trip, spectacular job Dan, you're a great guy and an inspiration to me and many others, well deserved! congratulations.

see ya soon!

[rigleautomotive]

Originally Posted by TRIGGERMAN NYC

WOW definitely worthy of tank of the month for sure. An amazing set up man congrats on having such amazing growth.

Thanks,I appreciate it

Originally Posted by knockout

its sad that I live within 30 minutes of this tank and I have yet to see it in person, my fault, Dan has invited me many many times... one of these days I will make the trip, spectacular job Dan, you're a great guy and an inspiration to me and many others, well deserved! congratulations.

see ya soon!

Thanks Kelvin.Very nice thing to say bud,I feel a bit misty here,lol.Anyway we will get together soon,when we are both not burning the candle at both ends and we get a spare minute.If not before Jan 29,2011 then at the swap. at least there we can chat a few minutes hopefully.Lifes been busy bro

[Fernando Chang]

Dan congratulations from Panama !
great tank however I need the information abt the lights. what is the distance from the surface of the water to the metal halides bulbs ? not the canopy. I have an aquarium with a similar size like and have 3 x 250K 14K MH running.
thanks in advance yr reply.

Regards
Fernando Chang

[wilsonreefs]

Dan,

Like others have said your tank is awesome! I've just got my sps and lps corals going in the last year. I have a 240 gallon closed loop system with a 125 sump. My corals are growing like crazy, but they've not filled out the tank like I want as yours has. I did find that Digi's and Monti's do not like to touch each other though....
I'll also have to add that the presentation was well done also!
Good job on the whole thing, keep up the good work.

Carl

[Crawfish00]

Very nice

[rigleautomotive]

Originally Posted by Fernando Chang

Dan congratulations from Panama !
great tank however I need the information abt the lights. what is the distance from the surface of the water to the metal halides bulbs ? not the canopy. I have an aquarium with a similar size like and have 3 x 250K 14K MH running.
thanks in advance yr reply.

Regards
Fernando Chang

Thank You
Sometimes I forget how many RC reaches with its long arms.This is awesome hearing from you from panama.The MH lamp is 9 inches from the surface of the water.A bit of an issue with salt spray eventually staining the lamps and them requiring a wipe down weekly but with the 250 watt bulbs I feel I needed them pretty close to get the punch I wanted.If i were to do it again I would probably use a glass shield on a reflector making this choir easier but hind sight is always 20/20.

Originally Posted by wilsonreefs

Dan,

Like others have said your tank is awesome! I've just got my sps and lps corals going in the last year. I have a 240 gallon closed loop system with a 125 sump. My corals are growing like crazy, but they've not filled out the tank like I want as yours has. I did find that Digi's and Monti's do not like to touch each other though....
I'll also have to add that the presentation was well done also!
Good job on the whole thing, keep up the good work.

Carl

Thanks,the grown in look is a long process and it took several years to get to that point with mostly aquaculture corals(frags) being used.IMO corals that grow from frags to mature size within close proximity of another will not fight nearly as bad a larger coral placed right next to another large coral that did not grow up together.They tend to tolerate each other to a better extent.

But I should say I have reached a point where it takes constant prunning to slow the aggression and I am due for a rip down and re build.The bases are starting to really get shaded and the growth of the colonies are starting to look un-natural(from constant cutting) to me which will inevitably require a reaquascape and start over with frags/mini colonies of the mothers.Then the few years of grow out again to fill in.Long term my reef has really been in a constant state of flux.

[rigleautomotive]

Originally Posted by Crawfish00

Very nice

Thank You

[sailmastergf]

Dan, I was so impressed with your tank that I am setting up a 75 gal to copy yours. Folks are telling me to run my 250 Radiums SE bulbs off a Aqua Medic's Reeflex HQI ballasts instead of the ARO. What do you think? Also how many pounds of rock did you use? Waiting your reply.
Thanks,
Gil

Great job by the way!!

[Fernando Chang]

Good dat Dan, thanks very much for yr reply my lights are abt 11 inches from the surface of the water to be bulb. I will lower now the 9 inches and see what happens.
I startes few months ago with the sps and have abt 4 frags purchased from Miami. I can not get the sps in the local pet store in Panama.
thanks again.

Regards
Fernando Chang

[rigleautomotive]

Originally Posted by sailmastergf

Dan, I was so impressed with your tank that I am setting up a 75 gal to copy yours. Folks are telling me to run my 250 Radiums SE bulbs off a Aqua Medic's Reeflex HQI ballasts instead of the ARO. What do you think? Also how many pounds of rock did you use? Waiting your reply.
Thanks,
Gil

Great job by the way!!

Hi Gl,Thank You for the nice comment.
I will not recommend a product that I don't prove with personal use to be worthy,that being said I never tried the ballast you are referring to.I will say I have tried to drive these bulbs with about a half dozen different combination's and found the ARO to provide the best color and consistency over all.The life of the bulb in usefull time is somewhere around a year with the bulbs still having good color and par at 14 months.The HQI may drive them a bit brighter but life may be shortened(some will argue) but my first hand experience tells me this.The HQI may be right for some that are trying to squeeze every ounce of par from there 250s but for me the ARO is very affordable and reliable with Radium Moguls

Originally Posted by Fernando Chang

Good dat Dan, thanks very much for yr reply my lights are abt 11 inches from the surface of the water to be bulb. I will lower now the 9 inches and see what happens.
I startes few months ago with the sps and have abt 4 frags purchased from Miami. I can not get the sps in the local pet store in Panama.
thanks again.

Regards
Fernando Chang

Please be careful with lowering,my system is unique to yours and running 14K you are getting a bit more par and I do not want to see you damage your corals.I have done this in the past with trying to copy the former TOTM tanks in every detail only to find that everyone's tank is different and very gradual changes can be made but with caution.

[panther1]

everytime i login to this site and see the tank of the month, a wave (ocean of corse) of inspiration splashes over me, and at this point i have about two inches of acro all together, and sometimes because of its scarcity i cry myself to sleep some nights. i just started to davle in sps again since the first attempt from which i was able to murder about $300.00 worth of sps frags in my day, was a failure....but now that i have another year under the belt its time to dive back in.--it wont stop im married to the reef and did not sighn a pre-nup and dont beleive in divorce

[rigleautomotive]

Originally Posted by panther1

everytime i login to this site and see the tank of the month, a wave (ocean of corse) of inspiration splashes over me, and at this point i have about two inches of acro all together, and sometimes because of its scarcity i cry myself to sleep some nights. i just started to davle in sps again since the first attempt from which i was able to murder about $300.00 worth of sps frags in my day, was a failure....but now that i have another year under the belt its time to dive back in.--it wont stop im married to the reef and did not sighn a pre-nup and dont beleive in divorce

GREAT POST Thanks.,LOL.Me too.I said the same words a few times many moons ago and got smarter and better after each failure.Learned a whole lot thru the years and now I try to give back to the ocean for all the ones i killed in the early days. GL

[Fernando Chang]

Dan, thanks very much for yr good advice and I just lowered one inch now is abt 10 inches distance. I have 3 x 250W 14K ELLOS brand. I will watch carefully the few sps frags that I have.
Dan, in Panama we do not have much information abt the reef care, all info come from outside. so my system is under trial now with the sps. no problem with the softs corals.
thanks again.

Regards
Fernando Chang

[ehutchby]

Dan, just as the others have said. Very impressive system and beautiful colonies..
Today, I finished tearing my tank down to re aqauscape and reposition the colonies. Lot's of work, but should be rewarding long term..thank you for some inspiration..

[rigleautomotive]

Originally Posted by ehutchby

Dan, just as the others have said. Very impressive system and beautiful colonies..
Today, I finished tearing my tank down to re aqauscape and reposition the colonies. Lot's of work, but should be rewarding long term..thank you for some inspiration..

Thanks
The rebuild is always the best part.GL

[smoyer]

Hey Dan enjoyed the video I cant believe that the copper banded eats out of your hand.

[rigleautomotive]

Originally Posted by smoyer

Hey Dan enjoyed the video I cant believe that the copper banded eats out of your hand.

Thanks,yea the fish have really became quite tame.he is fearless when he sees mysis