Tank Journal Archive
WOW your tanks all look amazing.
The ice bubble tips in the Redsea 130 and ones in your anenome tank all look insane.
I'd love any off them if your keen to ever sell one.
I love how your tanks all do auto water changes and if love to see more details on how its all set up so could look at doing it myself.
The ice bubble tips in the Redsea 130 and ones in your anenome tank all look insane.
I'd love any off them if your keen to ever sell one.
I love how your tanks all do auto water changes and if love to see more details on how its all set up so could look at doing it myself.
Hi Sam,
Fantastic setup you have there. Sitting here more than a little jealous!
Thanks for sharing how you do things. I learned a lot just from watching and listening.
After 1 tank it is a slippery slope. I would love a nem/clown tank and a frag tank (plus the obligatory QT tank would make it 4).
J
Fantastic setup you have there. Sitting here more than a little jealous!
Thanks for sharing how you do things. I learned a lot just from watching and listening.
After 1 tank it is a slippery slope. I would love a nem/clown tank and a frag tank (plus the obligatory QT tank would make it 4).
J
Sadly, my house config will never allow me to have a fully automated water change system like yours :( though could be a good thing given the slippery slope that has been mentioned earlier!
I have decided that I want to start keeping some SPS this year. Plan is to:
* have all SPS on one bommie, making it easier to provide proper lighting and flow to that one area of the tank
* take it slow and grow out from frags or small colonies
* start with some 'easy' ones
Couple of questions, if I may. Have never really needed to test for CA/Alk in the past as no SPS and water changes have sorted it out. The few times I have tested the levels have been in the sweet spot of what I read is desirable. I am guessing that regular water changes will keep up with CA/Alk needs for a while, but I am wondering longer term about dosing options (main options seem to be: off the shelf ready made prod, kalk, Randy's 2 part, calcium reactor - all with their own pros and cons).
* firstly, if I had a single bommie grown out with a selection of SPS in a 450L system, any idea roughly how often and how much water would i need to change to keep up with the CA/Alk?
* based on my research so far, main two dosing options I would lean towards are 1) Randy's 2-part or 2) the calcium reactor. Generally have read that (1) is cheaper to initially setup, but a bit more expensive over time, while (2) is the opposite, more expensive initial outlay but cheaper in the long run, especially if over time the tank turns into a more SPS heavy tank than described above. Am I right in my general understanding? Could you give me an estimate of setup and running costs of the two options? Which option would you recommend given what you know of my situation? And lastly any hardware recommendations (eg. brands/models that in your experience are great bang for the buck or worth paying extra for)?
Thanks for any wisdom shared. J
Ok - firstly, tell me why your house configuration will not allow for an automated water change system? I've installed more than a dozen of these setups now and pretty much every person has a list of reasons why it won't work - only for me to explain why that isn't true. Sounds like you might be next? :P
SPS, speaking of slippery slopes..... LOL. Yes your plan sounds good. Water changes will keep things in control for a fair while. It isn't until you get some pretty decent growth that you will strip out alk/cal/mag quicker than your water changes are replenishing it. But yes, at that point you'll want to either go a doser, cal reactor or even a kalk reactor.
Whilst I love calcium reactors, I'd recommend starting off with dosing. Pickup a used doser and feed randy's through it. Cheap, easy and a good basis to get your head around it. When you get to the point of dosing a couple litres a day of each, it's time to setup a calcium reactor and you'll understand the how/why so much more than that it will be a much easier path.
To give you a comparisons, here is what I would estimate the costs to be:
Doser ($150), Containers ($20), chemicals ($50) - $220
Calcium reactor ($500), bottle ($150), Regulator ($150), Media ($60), ph controller and solenoid ($150), assorted plumbing ($40) - $1150
Big difference!
SPS, speaking of slippery slopes..... LOL. Yes your plan sounds good. Water changes will keep things in control for a fair while. It isn't until you get some pretty decent growth that you will strip out alk/cal/mag quicker than your water changes are replenishing it. But yes, at that point you'll want to either go a doser, cal reactor or even a kalk reactor.
Whilst I love calcium reactors, I'd recommend starting off with dosing. Pickup a used doser and feed randy's through it. Cheap, easy and a good basis to get your head around it. When you get to the point of dosing a couple litres a day of each, it's time to setup a calcium reactor and you'll understand the how/why so much more than that it will be a much easier path.
To give you a comparisons, here is what I would estimate the costs to be:
Doser ($150), Containers ($20), chemicals ($50) - $220
Calcium reactor ($500), bottle ($150), Regulator ($150), Media ($60), ph controller and solenoid ($150), assorted plumbing ($40) - $1150
Big difference!
Maybe I am nrxy
Re: auto water change. Not impossible, but difficult and expensive enough to aim to spend our limited tank funds elsewhere. Happy to have my mind changed if there is a way to do it that I haven't considered.
* my house is on a narrow sloping block with a driveway we share with the neighbours. The fish tank is under an open staircase on the driveway wall, but running pipes through the wall is not possible as they would exit underneath the ground/driveway. To get them high enough up the internal wall would make them ugly and too visible from the lounge room and while walking up stairs.
* Only other option would be to plumb through the other wall into the laundry, but it is tiny with no room for any fish related equipment. :)
* if I somehow managed to get the pipework outside the run to the water has lots of obstacles. Also no room for IBC in backyard, so 3 x 220L barrels out back next to shed.
Thanks for all that info. Very helpful.
Re: auto water change. Not impossible, but difficult and expensive enough to aim to spend our limited tank funds elsewhere. Happy to have my mind changed if there is a way to do it that I haven't considered.
* my house is on a narrow sloping block with a driveway we share with the neighbours. The fish tank is under an open staircase on the driveway wall, but running pipes through the wall is not possible as they would exit underneath the ground/driveway. To get them high enough up the internal wall would make them ugly and too visible from the lounge room and while walking up stairs.
* Only other option would be to plumb through the other wall into the laundry, but it is tiny with no room for any fish related equipment. :)
* if I somehow managed to get the pipework outside the run to the water has lots of obstacles. Also no room for IBC in backyard, so 3 x 220L barrels out back next to shed.
I’d need to see the layout, but you know these systems use 6mm flexible tubing with all assortment of fittings yeah? If a sparky can get electricity to your tank, we can get auto water changes to it. But yes, it’s not a cheap option (although I’d rate it about as or more vital than a skimmer, so would budget around the same cost if not some more for AWC.
These litermeter setups do come up used on eBay America pretty often, I snapped up two sets in the last three weeks cheap :)
@Sam Parker what a state-of-the-art !
Question: where did you get the fan from? And if it's clipped to the tank, do you think the vibration might have an adverse effect on the glass?
The reason I asked is because 5 years ago, i got fan clipped on the tank and one night, it just shattered. Not sure if the vibration caused it to break.
Question: where did you get the fan from? And if it's clipped to the tank, do you think the vibration might have an adverse effect on the glass?
The reason I asked is because 5 years ago, i got fan clipped on the tank and one night, it just shattered. Not sure if the vibration caused it to break.
haha thanks mate, it's far from state of the art - but does the job.
I have some fans that mount to my hood and some that clip directly to the tank. The ones that clip to the tank are quite small and produce next to no (if any) vibrations so I doubt they'd cause any glass issues. Never know though! Should be significantly less than any wave maker mounted to the glass?
Members online
No members online now.