Amphibious' 135 gal Reef - Page 3

gwen_o_lyn · 04-05-2006, 12:01 PM

You just can't say that last paragraph too many times- it's so true and needs to be stated over and over!

**Amphibious** · 04-05-2006, 12:49 PM

I totally agree, gwen_o_lyn, thanks.

There are products that people can buy to supposedly hurry the cycle along but, I have never found one that works better than LR and LS. Adding chemicals to hasten a natural process seldom results in a positive outcome in reefing. Usually you can't quantify the results, essentially waisting your money. The offering of a product on the market doesn't automaticly guarantee positive results. Unless, of course, your measuring the profits derived from the sale of such products. There's a lot of junk out there.

Dick

**Amphibious** · 04-12-2006, 04:48 PM

Decided to buy some of my cleanup crew from a couple of LFSs whose owners are members of the local club. Gotta support good LFSs, don't forget them. Got 12 large Turbos, 6 Astria and 6 small Turbos (Tiny is a better discription.) 18 hermits, 2 Emerald crabs, a clump of 3 macro algae, Gracilaria, Chaeto and Codium. Then I spotted some Zoos I just had to have. My chiller came in and is operating great. Pictures below. First the parameters.

Temp = 79 F
Salinity = 1.025
PH = 8.5
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
Calc = 380
Alk = Hmm, have to get that test kit one of these days.

First picture is the chiller. A 1/4 hp Current Prime Tower. I liked it because of the small foot print. It seems like a good unit so far.

The chiller fit under the stand but would have forced me to re-plumb the pump. By turning the MH ballast 180 D, I could put the chiller in front of it and it worked out fine.

The next pic is a shot as the plumbing, filtration, skimmer, UV and chiller set up turned out.

It came out pretty clean. If I re-piped the pump I could have fit the chiller into the stand but I'm a huge advocate of doing it the easy way.

Next pic is the Large Turbo's and the fantastic job they do.

The area in the center was covered in algae just as heavy as the rest of the tank until I dropped the Turbos in that spot. They went to work as though they hadn't eaten in a week. What a contrast, eh?

The next pic is a rock with large polyps on that suffered in a bucket for nearly a month while the tank was being set up and cycling. It's amazing they survived.

These were given to me by a friend who asked me to play auctioneer at our club meeting. She was down sizing her tanks and sold off her 70 gal loaded with beautiful corals. She offered me anything I wanted but my system was in the plumbing stage and not ready for water. I took these because she said they were the toughest corals she'd ever seen. Apparently she put them through H*ll and they survived. Well I did the same and they came through.

Next two pics are the Zoos I couldn't resist yesterday.

Screaming yellow with light blue tenticales, about 36 polyps.

Beautiful blue with screaming yellow mouth. I love them both. I'll be offering them for sale when they spread.

Thanks for all your comments, I appreciate them very much.

Dick

Scott · 04-12-2006, 11:00 PM

WOW!!! Dick, those new Zoo's look awesome!

Reefbaby · 04-19-2006, 05:46 PM

Helllllooooo Dick!!! You're tank is looking fabulous! Glad to see your cycle is going so smoothly and that you've started out with your clean-up crew! Wow! A lot happened while I was gone.
The zoos are beautiful! :-)
Just curious - do you run a phosphate filter during your cycling period?

(be looking for an email soon...I've got some pictures for ya!) :-)

**Amphibious** · 04-21-2006, 09:46 AM

Christi

Welcome home, I missed you!

Thanks for the tank comments. The tank cycled in two weeks. Added the zoos at three weeks and now more turbos, A cool branching Daisy coral (Alviapora ?), Green mushrooms and ten limited edition corals from Steve Tyree of Reeffarmers.com. Cool frags but most are tiny. I'll post pics later.

My Granddaughter, Kehly (18 going on 25), from the state of Washington is staying with us for a week. Guess who gets ALL my attention. Don't get to see her often enough or long enough. She is a wonderful and interesting story in our life. Suffice it to say for now, she adopted me, a total stranger, as a grandfather figure eleven years ago. I'll have to share "The Rest of the Story" with you by e-mail. What a wonderful gift she has been to Sue and me. Here's a pic from an afternoon at the beach....just after a wave caught her off guard and slammed her into the surf.

Later in a more relaxed state.

Speaking of e-mail, I'm anxiously awaiting the pics from your vacation. Thanks in advance.

**Amphibious** · 04-21-2006, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reefbaby

Just curious - do you run a phosphate filter during your cycling period?

Forgot to answer your question. No, I've never run a phosphate filter.

kj_yoda · 04-24-2006, 08:50 AM

Dick,
The tank looks awesome. and your "grand daughter" looks like she is having a blast at the FL beaches.

**Amphibious** · 04-27-2006, 01:14 PM

Kevin,

Thanks For the awesome comment.

Yes, Kehly and I had a ball at the ocean beachs. She's an awesome young women.

cheng21tang · 04-29-2006, 01:55 AM

hi dick
names cheng.

been keeping up with your journal it's great. pictures are very informative. and i like the idea of the pvc risers inside the tank to raise the LR off the sandbed. i wanted to ask you about your plumbing.

i hear alot of folks say don't use pvc too much. and when you can use flex tubing inside when plumbing because it helps with flow better. at least with the return line. i love your plumbing though. it looks great and it seems the person that plumb that system knows what their doing and about plumbing.
is flex vs pvc any better in flow (with less loss in gph) or is it very little to not too noticeable.

also i see the plumbing. i just don't get exactly what you did. and where everything goes. i would love to see a diagram or something to see where all the lines go. if that's not too much trouble. because the picture is a bit hard to see where things are going. other than that great tank.

**Amphibious** · 04-30-2006, 12:25 AM

Hey cheng,

Thank you for the kind words.

It's true what they say about the difference between rigid PVC and flexible PVC. Each fitting increases the restriction on flow rate and you will lose some amount of flow. However, you can't use flex if you have to turn a 90 degree corner in a short distance. I am a retired pipefitter with forty + years experience plus I've piped hundreds of aquariums over the last 38 years I've been doing saltwater tanks. I've done the piping in several LFSs also.

I'll work up a schematic drawing of my system in the next few days and find a way to post it here.

Thanks again, Cheng.

Dick

cheng21tang · 04-30-2006, 02:42 AM

wow. haha so i can't hope to accomplish in my plumbing like you have. thanks for the bad news. haha jk. have you ever experienced both flex and pvc and tested the flow downfall. i know RC has a head loss calculator and it has inputs for elbow turns and such sorts. i wonder how much research went into that.

so i know who to come to when i plumb my system. you can do the check proofing.
your truly an asset to the forums dick.

**Amphibious** · 05-02-2006, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheng21tang

wow. haha so i can't hope to accomplish in my plumbing like you have. thanks for the bad news. haha jk........
so i know who to come to when i plumb my system. you can do the check proofing.
your truly an asset to the forums dick.

Of course you can accomplish your plumbing system like mine. You just need to learn some of the skills of plumbing.

Thanks again, cheng.

Dick