I just wanted to say what an excellent job you have done with the Podcast and the Website Rob. I have just started subcribing to your Podcast since I purchased my Ipod and I'm only up to episode 20 and I can't begin to thank you for providing such a bastion of knowledge to a beginer such as myself. You stated that you aimed knowledge without the punishment of ridicul by seasoned Aquarist and let me be one to thank you on accomplishing that goal. I am fairly new to the world of Marine Aquariums and have become addicted. I'm 24 years old and live in Bronx, New York where I house my 180 gallon all-glass aquarium. Since listening to your Podcast I have started to see the errors in my quick judgements on filtration, lighting and other aspects of my tank. I am also a victem of impulse buying and not completing all of the homework that I should have down before a purchase. However, from listening to your show I now see the error in my judgments and decided to take the necessary steps to provide my aquatic buddies the best possible environment. From the advice on your Podcast I have decided to plan my redesign of my tanks filtration, lighting, etc. based on an order of priority. As you stated within your Podcast no matter what city your in RO/DI water is preferred. I shelled out the cash and purchased a 4-stage 75gpd RO/DI water purifier and I'm curious to know how much water (in gallons) should I change (the original water within the tank is distilled tap water) and at what frquency I should change it in order to replace the tap water currently in the tank with RO/DI water without sacrificing large amounts of beneficial bacteria and restarting my tanks cycling process. Your advice is greatly appreciated. Keep up the great work.

NYC n Da HOUSE!!! Welcome to TR ZeroKool. Hope you enjoy your stay.

DjGonza69, thanks for the welcome. :-)

ZeroCool,
thanks for all the kind words.. it great seeing stories like that..

regarding your water change.
not sure what you mean by distilled tap water.. that's like saying clean tap water...lol
they two dont go together...

any ways, if it IS distilled water thats fine. you can use distilled water without issues, but, its awesome that you have your own RO/DI using, as the long term cost of water will be much less now. so regarding changing the water out, if you are using distilled, just do normal water changes with the RO water.. nothing special to do.

and last but not least,
Welcome to Talkingreef... :D

Rob, its great to hear from you. I will continue with the normal water changes as you instructed. However, I'm having a few issues with setting up the 4-stage RO/DI Purifier. It seems that I may not have enough water pressure coming from the kitchen sink where it is installed resulting in plenty of waste water but a slight trickle of Purified Water. Are their any solutions that you can provide me with. It would be greatly appreciated. Also a side note will you be focusing any of your podcast on aggressive fish only with live rock aquariums? Thank you for all the help. Keep up the great work. Maybe I will make it on the Podcast interview one day. :-)

yes, i saw your other post about the pressure issue, and everythign sounds pretty normal, check there for details

about the show, i will see what i can come up with, thanks for the suggstion

Rob, thank you for the advice. I currently have an Aggressive Fish Only with Live Rock and I'm thinking of eventually transforming it to include polyps. But this transformation is somewhere down the road. I will keep you posted about the pressure issues. Maybe a Podcast on RO/DI units installation/troubleshooting should be considered for newcomers to the hobby such as myself if one has not been made. (I have yet to catch up with all the Podcast). Thank you.

that's a great idea..
i actually have a little video i will be doing on RO membranes..
will be a short fun one.. and should be soon.. (well soon for me, is not the same as soon for everyone else...lol)

Great video idea Rob- I *need* that one, maybe you got the idea from me? I was on the phone last night with one of my reef buddies and he was trying to explain the different chambers and stuff and what they do. I just hook it up and make water and haven't tried to understand it! Also I need an idea of which ones to change and when- and I know it depends on how much ya make, but a general guideline to follow would be wonderful!!

Thanks Rob!

p.s. I haven't changed any filters in my RODI since I bought the unit about a year and a half ago, but I will be changing all of them soon AND buying a TDS meter :mrgreen: My poor skimmer is working overtime trying to keep up with that yucky water!

gwen_o_lyn, I'm glad a spawned a new topic. :-)

Welcome aboard TR ... looking forward to your inputs etc. We are a happy bunch and glad to have you aboard ... even if there is a 50/50 chance that your a Yankee's fan ;)

The "Bad Boy From Bah-stin"

Dave

JustDavidP, thank you for the welcome. It is greatly appreciated by this Yankee fan. :-)

gwen_o_lyn, I'm glad a spawned a new topic. :-)

yeah I wreck every thread... it just happens :confused:

ZeroKool failed to say Welcome to TR in your other thread, so I'll say it here. :)

hmm..."zerokool" sounds familiar....by chance from a movie back in the 80's? Or totally unrelated. :rolleyes:


Gwen, I think the recommended change on the prefilters are like 6 months.... :oops:

Yeah I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overdue!!

Scott, thank you for the welcome to Talking Reef Podcast. It is very much appreciated. Gwen_o_lyn, order new filters for you RO/DI before you next batch of water. ;-)

Gwen_o_lyn, order new filters for you RO/DI before you next batch of water. ;-)

i agree!!!!!

and just yelled at her about this a few days ago.. lol

bad gwen..
your grounded..
you are getting a 24 hour delay on the next show... ;)

ouch! :( I've been getting the hook up previews this week!! I don't always get to listen before they are released, but sometimes I do... and it's only like an hour or 2- no big deal!

Filters: I just gotta listen to Matt complain about me spending money when I order stuff. I did order reef books in Jan, and Matt never found out about that- ha! I can be sneaky again!! :mrgreen:

Qwen_o_lyn, I also got a talk from my girlfriend concerning the money I just spent on the RO/DI Purifier. I just listening and nodded attentively. :-) I'm still moving onto my next project SUMP FILTRATION when this is done. :-)

Zero- I just noticed you have a stonefish- livin on the edge, huh? http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10/10_1_5.gif Didn't know people actually kept them as pets.... so do ya hand feed him!???!

I'd love to see pics of your tank and fish. Talking Reef has a photo gallery *hint hint* :mrgreen:

-gwen without the "q" ;)

Qwen_o_lyn, I also got a talk from my girlfriend concerning the money I just spent on the RO/DI Purifier.

Just let her know that you can use the RO water for drinking water too...and it's probably healthier than your regular tap water.

I pulled my brita (2 gallon dispenser) out of the fridge after getting my RO unit. Granted I got a sink type faucet with my unit along with a 3 gallon tank.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e102/Jasonanatal/th_DSC00109.jpg (http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e102/Jasonanatal/DSC00109.jpg)
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e102/Jasonanatal/th_DSC00110.jpg (http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e102/Jasonanatal/DSC00110.jpg)
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e102/Jasonanatal/th_DSC00113.jpg (http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e102/Jasonanatal/DSC00113.jpg)


Gwen_o_lyn, the Stonefish was a recent addition into my Marine Aquarium about 2 weeks ago. It seems that I have a fascination for aggressive/poisinous fish. The fish store where I got him from stated that I would only be able to feed him live food which presented a slight problem since my Puffers are hungry/greedy as a natural combination. He normally stays buried in a favorite spot or lands on top of the sand disturbing it and naturally stirring it around which solved my issue of finding a fish that would stir the sand but not become a meal for my Puffers. I would never hand feed him because he is lightning fast. I use a feeding stick to pass frozen food by as he whats under the sand and WAAAM the food it gone and he hits the feeding stick with powerful force. I don't even see him leave the sand and go back in. I have read that you need a high speed camera to catch their feeding movements and I can definitely confirm that.

I was hoping to get better camera equipment before adding photographs of my aquatic buddies and setup to the site but to make you happy check out the photographs above. :-)

Scott, I wasn't sure if I was able to drink the water but I guess now I will start to do so. :-) Thank you for the advice. I think I might purchase some rubbermaid water/juice containers to place my RO/DI water in so I can just drink from the refrigerator. Are their any containers that you would recommend to store RO/DI water so that it does not evaporate before getting inside my Marine Aquarium.

if the water is RODI, it's going to taste real funny. I actually split off before my DI so for drinking it's just RO water....and the water I use for the fish is RODI. But, I know Rob has mentioned he drinks RODI.

I know we were talking about drinking it and the taste over here.
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=325&page=3

As for storage, I personally don't as I have a 3 gallon pressure tank with my unit. But I believe others just use a rubberized garbage can or some other type of large container. Maybe even a 5 gallon bucket.

That is one sick fish! I'd love to see a video of him! ;)

Gwen_o_lyn, I will see if their is anything that I can do in order to get a video of him so you can all see the wonderous Stonefish. :-)

Very cool- thanks!

That is one sick fish!

I get a kick out of you... our own little teeniebopper. My kids say that things are "sick". :) When I brought home my seahorses a couple years ago, my oldest said "wow Dad...those are sick". I got all worried, looking for bacterial infections or something... then I realized.. I'm soooo out of the "lingo loop".

D

lmao...

i thought things were "wicked" when your from the new england area...lol

btw, welcome back dave, havent seen ya in a few days.. :)

:rolleyes: Actually... the most recent use of the "lingo" is "Wicked Sick" *sigh* IF someone or something was wicked sick, I'd call 911 :)

Thanks for the welcome back. It's been busy in my world. Work is crazy, baseball season (and therefore my coaching) has begun..

http://www.myba.org/images/cr05_10b.jpg

http://www.myba.org/images/2005Central_Rotary.jpg

And I'm trying to catch up so I can enjoy my trip to Atlanta in June.

Off to a meeting...see you all for lunch.

Dave

wait..
no fair.. you have leaves on your trees... :p
thats "wicked sick"...lol

pssst.. last year's photo.

Though..it has been in the 60's and 70's lately and the cherry blossoms are out. The trees have the lil' green buds on them and the grass is growing. I opened the koi pond and it's running full steam ahead. Now it's time to get the boat in the water...

D

lol.. ok, thats better...the same as here.. :)

Right now in NC it is about 85 out, and all the trees are wearing their spring green:)

scott, i find that RO water seems to get some texture back after airating it, for drinking anyways, although i did have a quiet chuckkle awahile back in regards to RO, someone had gone to all the trouble to treat the water, only to airate it and add back god knows what with the dirtyist pump i have ever seen.
it equates to the need of a someone standing behind tree to pee, in the middle of no-where with a population of 0 !:)

0_cool,---- im making the assumption of the hackers movie?

that is by far the coolest specimen of a stonefish u have there.
nasty to the point of loving it! just a running thought. to feed dangerous fish, i use a pvc pipe with 45*deg at the end, and drop my feed in! a U bend over the tank, because its higher, and all i do is blow the stuff out of the pipe. k.i.s.s is my moto.

but the idea was that if ur stonefish friend sits in the same spot of the tank, maybe run some clear tube or something so that u cant see it so much and prop the opening so it spits it out infront of the fish. how u deliver the backpressure to clear the tube i leave to u!!!!! just a thought!

I get a kick out of you... our own little teeniebopper. My kids say that things are "sick". :) When I brought home my seahorses a couple years ago, my oldest said "wow Dad...those are sick". I got all worried, looking for bacterial infections or something... then I realized.. I'm soooo out of the "lingo loop".

D

he he Dave!! I do need to grow up.

Thanks for the pictures too- ya looking great!! I guess I owe ya some back now, huh?? :rolleyes: