Reefer82

We'll be there.  Not sure what I'll bring for food.  It'll be tasty though!

I ordered a batch of them for myself and a few members a couple years ago from someone on reefcentral.  They worked amazing, wiped out well over 100 aiptasia from my tank. I think I did 12 in my 100, took several weeks but they got every single one I could see.  Not cheap...  i think we paid somewhere around $10 a piece and ordered a couple hundred dollars worth to get that price w free shipping.  They have to be overnighted from what I was told.  

Thanks for having us!   Craig and Connie definitely take the win for best food at a meet!

Great tank that is coming along quite nicely in the coral dept and the most impressive part was the fact it was virtually silent.  That's tough one one of that size.   What's you're secret?

Will try to make it, at least for a bit.  It's been a little crazy the past year and just we just welcomed our daughter Kara to the family this weekend and a nice break outside in the sun on that deck just might do the trick!

I'm off for a couple weeks, if weather cooperates I'll try and smoke something tasty.

Posting this for another member that can't sign in...

He has a pair of DC12000's that after a storm the night before last are just dead.  The controller appears to power up and will let you select speeds but the pumps are unresponsive.  

Does anyone have one of these that he could possibly bring his pump/controller over to try and see what exactly has failed?  He has a 240 that is on life support for now and trying to figure out what has happened because they both went out at the same time and have the same issue which seems odd given the controllers appear to be functional.   

He is in Brownsburg, not sure where he would be able to travel too but if anyone has one and can spare a little time for him to come by shoot me a PM please.  

Thanks!

A little update...

The RW8's are still going strong with no issues aside from the original DOA pump I received.  Not gonna lie, I've cleaned these pumps like once.  I'm amazed they still do the job and have stood up to the abuse.  Pushing 3 years and change now.  For the money...amazing performance and reliability.  

Finnex titanium is the only one I've never had an issue with.  

Previously I liked the Neotherm but after having one melt and burn under water I'm over them.  That smell took days to completely leave the house and about 40g of water and 2lbs of carbon later I had stress inhabitants for weeks.

I have both power supplies that you need if you haven't found any yet.   I used to have some 6105's and have a prime hd on my 20.  If you wanted to swing by one evening to test just shoot me a text.  

Being this is practically behind work I'll do my best, I may be a bit late but I'll be there at some point.  

Should be there for this one.  Even if I'm stuck working it's close enough I can get away for awhile.  

Going to try and make this one.  Working till 3, I hope...

My ph has always been relatively low, hasn't really been an issue though as it's consistent and stable.  I don't really keep any sps though so my experience may not compare too much.

Are you experiencing any calcium precipitation?  Sometimes the PH supplements can cause problems, that coupled with reasonably high alkalinity could explain the issue as a fair amount of mag can go with it.  Just a thought.   It seems like it would be something tank related given two different salts are giving you basically the same results.

I've never really had to chase mag myself, if it's low it's generally because I've been lazy with regards to dosing but again I don't have a large collection of sps to suck it and calcium up.  

Have you tried another test kit or had another member test to rule out a bad kit?

I've been using led for a few years and really like it.  I feel like my old Tek T5 fixture had slightly better overall color but like you Luke, find the efficiency and adjustability of led outweigh the difference.  

I have a few reefbreeder's fixtures over the tanks.  Basically 0 issues in about 3 years.  The 2 24" photons don't stay exactly sync'd as far as time goes but it takes about 15 seconds to correct when it becomes an issue.  I'm sure that's much better with the V2's and the new controller.

My lighting costs are easily less than half of what they used to be and gets cheaper every year I don't have to buy bulbs.  Being able to run the entire tank on that tiny harbor freight generator I got from you is also a huge plus for peace of mind.  

I don't really do much in terms of sps, not like you anyway but everything in the tank grows without an issue.  

I used a modded Salinity bucket.   Drilled 2 holes in the lid and put rubber grommets in to feed the tubing and wires from my Tunze 3155 through and with the ratcheting lid it's sealed, less worry of kids ever putting something in and it stays clean.  They hold close to 7 gallons.  I think I have about $2 in that thing.

I have one under my 100g and my 20g frag tank.  Frag tank top off only needs filled like once every 2 weeks.  Big tank about a week.  

The only negative about a huge ato is if something malfunctions you can end up with a bit of a flood or worse hyposalinity if it's really big.  I always check the back up float on mine when I fill the ato container.  It should never overflow with exception if I just fill it and I were to lose power immediately I'd end up with about a gallon on the floor.  

I was at Wal-Mart earlier and back by automotive is a new in box Coleman Powermate wx5400 generator on clearance.    $349 down from $500 if anyone is in the market.  

It's 6750 surge watts, 5400 rated, 7gal tank, has 30amp and 2 sets of 120v outlets.  

Not much info in the link but there you go.  It says unavailable for order online but it was there 15 minutes ago sitting right next to the tool boxes.  

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Powermate-Wx5400-Portable-Generator/45013830

I'd have picked this sucker up but I'm saving for a 10kw dual fuel model.  Even Harbor freight can't come close to this price.

The problem with smart things is there's no logic to it. It does what it's defined to do, nothing more. Sure you can see a room temp or manually check in on a temp with a camera and thermometer but what can you do? Turn a heater off is about it unless you want to buy $150 worth of outlet modules to control every single piece of equipment. Better off buying a used apex Jr or something at that point. It could then intervene on your behalf. If you're away you may not have cell service or may miss the notification all together.

And I just read through Splix's last post finally. Lol. You get the picture though

Apex... so much easier to use with fusion. I should have had one years ago. Would have saved me about $1500 in livestock losses due to a bad heater.

Planning on it. I may be late, but I'll make it

Aren't those like $1k? Wonder who got fired for that? Lol.

Anyway, awesome looking addition you have there. You need to host a meet for 2018!

Being the 3w bridelux diodes I'd suggest reading threads regarding the reef breeders photon and evergrow IT series fixtures. They aren't the exact same configuration, they actually have about 20% more leds in them but use the same type and should at least loosely follow the same settings. It appears you would actually have a finer level of control with 4 channels as opposed to 2 so you should have no problem there.

I run my photons at about 50% and 35% for my blue and white channels. I don't keep sps. Everything else seems to like it and there is plenty of PAR, over 150 on the sand in a 21" deep tank. Lights are approx 6" off the water and have 90 degree optics for reference.

Lower TDS doesn't necessarily mean healthy/more safe.. it likely is but not a guarantee. If you're bored have the samples tested one day. Might be surprised. Flowing well used to be a LOT better than it is now. I'm talking 20 some years ago before there were even any houses in the vicinity. I remember going there as a kid. All that was there were pipes coming out and a concrete pad around it with a sign.

The brs 6 stage universal plus is where it's at in terms of efficiency and total long term costs. The dual DI will allow you to use to it's full potential reducing overall costs in the long term. It also has basically everything you need to get running as far as connections go.

The dual carbon blocks are also nice especially if you have a water company that uses Chloramine, which most around here do. You'll get about 1500g of product water out of the system before those will need replaced if the levels are similar to mine from Indy. If ypu onky habe chlorine to worry about theyll last much, much longer. Theyll probably clog up before the carbon is depleted.

I've been running this system for a few years and its fantastic. It's fairly large so you have to plan for that but in terms if tco is the best I've ever had, I've tried a few different types over the years. The only thing I would say you could consider is a booster pump to boost production and generally get a better waste to product ratio. Its pricey though.

I have incoming tds of about 315, the 99% rejection membrane usually takes it down to 3 or 4. I can usually get a couple thousand gallons out of my DI before they both need replaced. It lasts me a LONG time even with a 100g and 20g system. One thing I do that drastically improved my DI life was install a 3 way valve off the membrane before it hits the di. Not only can I pull drinking water from this but I run it for a few minutes to bring the tds creep down that you get from leaving a system just sitting around after use. Instead of my DI getting hammered by 100+ yes water for a few gallons it rinses most of it out and saves a tremendous amount of resin.

The GPD really just has to do with how long you want to wait for water to be produced. There's a lengthy write-up I made some time ago in the education section with some of the math behind it all to give you an idea how to figure it out based on your specific setup and water quality.

I just made about 200g of RO/DI for the swap and myself. I burnt through maybe 1" on the resin in the first cartidge....they were pretty close to new. My water bill will probably go up about $8. I used probably 600-700gallons of water. Fortunately for us my sewer is fixed price but its also super high like yours. It's $60 whether I use no water or 100k gallons. The water company refuses to let the sewer company in brownsburg monitor usage to give estimated bills so they said ok screw everyone and you all pay 60. Don't like it, tell at your water company. It didn't do any good...

I'm part of the Tunze ato crowd. I habe the 3155 and the 3152 on a frag tank. Both have functioned flawlessly since I've had them. The 3155 is the larger one and has two types of control. The first is an led sensor much like the smart ato Alan has and it uses a backup float as well to cut it off in case that were to fail. I like this setup as I am able to put the backup float higher up to allow from the water that drains back when return goes off for feeding without getting an alarm every single time.

The 3152 only has a float, which still has done well for me. They both have a fairly loud alarm should you be too full.

I have a few bits as well, forget what size bulkhead they are for but if you get me a measurement I can check. I'll likely never use them. I meant to drop these off at the swap for a donation to the club anyway. Only one has been used if I recall.

I probably will do it today. Oddly I was charged about $3.50 less than the auction price when I looked at my bank yesterday. No idea what's going on there.