Blog Comments

Dirt in the sump would be a concern as well. Plywood and a sheet of foam under the sump would be good, raising it up off the ground somewhat. That will keep things clean.

in my opinion starfire doesnt matter till you get past 3/8" thick glass

sump in a dirt floor basement scares me, is their a closet or somewhere else you could put the sump?

ive seen some really awesome things done with LEDs if cost of power is an issue. would require some work on your part if you get a diy'er kit. i just got one for my nano 29 that has mh with it. the heat and the cost to run it became a huge problem. so i opted for the LEDs from rapidled.com. you can really customize your lighting color and how it lights up. here are some links that may give you an idea:

http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.p...s-for-DIY-LEDs
http://reefbuilders.com/2010/03/09/d...e-xre-xpg-mce/
http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.p...-pendent-build

clr also works well and is less hazardous to handle

The problem with that idea is you lose the surface skimming. Animals can get into the Durso more easily, or you'd have to devise a strainer that probably woulnd't look good. Finally, if you ever have bulkhead issues, you have to drain the entire tank to fix it, and if you have a sand bed you'd have the sand to contend with.

It's a bad idea. If the tank is currently empty, clean them up well so they look new again. You can use muriatic acid and water to remove all calcium deposits.

If you want to be able to keep anything, anywhere in the tank...then 3 250W halides would be required...but not in addition to what you already have. And yes, 4 would be unnecessary overkill. If you already have the 150's maybe you could get away with using those and adding something like 4 T5's in there as well...just a thought, personally I would just buy 3 new 250W lights.

25.5 inches tall really isnt that tall. I think it comes down to whatt type of corals you intend to keep, and how high you will have the MH lights above the tank. I could easily see your 150mh light fixture being able to support demanding sps up top with lps and softies down low and in the middle.

I'd guess a testing error as well. If that's not the case, club soda can be used to safely lower a high pH.

Totally agree about calibrating your measuring devices, and recommend you take a water sample to your LFS or local buddy's home if he/she is in the hobby as well, to measure against your own numbers. I highly doubt you can maintain a pH of 9.1 unless you are dosing baked baking soda daily and are overdosing at that.

i've got a milwaukee Ph meter, and a salt water master liquid test kit.

OK, How long has it been since your Ph probe has been calibrated and how old is your test kit. What brand liquid master test kit are you using?

What are your water parameters? Nitrates, Phostphates, Alkalinity, Ph, Calcium... You should check these parameters first thing in the AM right before your turn the lights on and at night, right before you turn your lights off.

would a calcium reactor help to keep it down.

No, not in the sense you think it will. A Calcium Reactor with CO2 drives the Ph down inside the reactor to dissilve the calcium media. The amount of calcium that is released is controlled by the flow rate of water through the chamber as well as by the rate of release of the carbon dioxide bubbles. The dissolved solution increases alkalinity (carbonate hardness) to stabilize pH while replenishing minerals (trace elements).The CO2 lowers the pH in the chamber to an acidic level, which dissolves the calcium into the water.

i'm using melev's ro/di system with all new cartridges. i've got a milwaukee Ph meter, and a salt water master liquid test kit. i use red sea coral pro salt which i mix to a salinity of 1.024 with a refractometer. for a while my nitrates where high, so i was doing weekly 10% water changes, now thats back to normal. i've got a 50 gal tank that i use to age my salt water before i do my water changes in my 125 gal tank, with sump and an asm g-2 skimmer. i just kept checking my nitrates, because i thought that was the problem, but even the Ph in the 50 gal tank is around 9.1. so all my water changes were helping the nitrates and not changing the Ph. i just checked the Ph with the meter and it reads 9.0. thanks for your thoughts.

I don't believe your test kit is accurate, as pH kits and monitors don't seem to read tap water correctly - at least the ones I've tried. Odds are your anemones are dying for other reasons, such as the pollutants in tap water.

What is the pH in the reef tank? What is the peak of the day, and the low for the wee hours?

It's generally a bad idea to use straight tap water in a reef anyway. You have no idea what might be in it, possibly even copper from your pipes. Get an RO/DI filter. Well worth it in headaches saved.

When you look at a reef in a starphire glass tank, the water is crystal clear. A regular tank has a green tint to it, like Chris stated. To tell the different when looking at a glass tank, look at the end of the glass sheet at the seam. The glass will either be green, or it will be blue-ish. Green is regular glass, while blue is starphire.

I don't know what it weighs. Fortunately, it rarely matters. Once it is in place, you don't move it again. EVER!

Starphire is a low-lead glass that is much more optically transparent. Much more "clear" instead of "green" when compared to normal aquarium glass. It's also more expensive.

Really its similar to the vertex in 180. minus the bubble plate. It uses a threaded neck so not much has changed with them over the years. They do work well. I would probably spend a little more money and get the SRO 3000.

But not bad for the $$$.


Mojo~

It's the same guy that sells under the new name, it isn't different management. Jeff can answer any questions you have. I've not run this type, so I can't help.

Agree with chaeto. Whatever you do DO NOT use caluerpa, no matter how attractive people make it out to be. Very invasive, very hardy and can destroy an ecosystem (or tank) in short time if released!