280 gallon tank project has begun!!!!!!

[Lunchbucket]

you guys are killing me.

tree hugging is for wimps...skimmer huggin is for men! all that skimming power!! you gotta show the skimmer some love and it's only a quite hug...not like i plan on humpin it. that would be WAY over the line. what naked Travis wants to do in his own time is none of my biz

Lunchbucket

[Ball]

You South Dakota boys are making quite a name for yourselves. I guess as long as "naked reefing goggle only wearing" and "skimmer hugging" dont happen at the same time, we wont have to much of a problem.

On the flip side, it would be intersting to get a fully clothed skimmer hugger picture of Travis and the BK400. It would be a great way to put the size of the skimmer in prespective.

[dgasmd]

What is next? Reading poetry by the sump while eating granola and drinking water from Walden Pond?

[slovan]

Originally posted by dgasmd
What is next? Reading poetry by the sump while eating granola and drinking water from Walden Pond?

Don't forget your patchouli insence and wear your Birkenstocks too!

[otolith]

Hey I like my Birks! They're great when you're on your feet all day.

Lunch, I'll take my chances with the tree huggers before I take my chance with a skimmer hugger.

[otolith]

Originally posted by Ball
On the flip side, it would be intersting to get a fully clothed skimmer hugger picture of Travis and the BK400. It would be a great way to put the size of the skimmer in prespective.

Agreed. And please, keep the clothes on.

[Travis]

Originally posted by melev
....unsubscribing now....

You should all follow melev's lead. At least he got out before it was too late. This thread is not for the weak hearted. I will try to get a pic of myself hugging the skimmer but I can't guarantee that I will be clothed, you know how I am. But I will at least try to have my goggles on.

[slovan]

Originally posted by Travis
You should all follow melev's lead. At least he got out before it was too late. This thread is not for the weak hearted. I will try to get a pic of myself hugging the skimmer but I can't guarantee that I will be clothed, you know how I am. But I will at least try to have my goggles on.

I don't think I'll ever be the same again! My mind has been tainted of bad thoughts and I'm not sure therapy would even help in this case!

Sorry to derail your thread Travis. It's still nice to have a little laughter at your expense every now and again!

In all seriousness, did it really ship out yesterday like it was supposed to? Did he give you a pro # or tracking # for it?

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by Travis
You should all follow melev's lead. At least he got out before it was too late. This thread is not for the weak hearted. I will try to get a pic of myself hugging the skimmer but I can't guarantee that I will be clothed, you know how I am. But I will at least try to have my goggles on.

I have to say, when I see the e-mail in my inbox that the subject reads the following : "Reply to post '280 gallon tank project has begun!!!!!!" I am a little hesitant to click the link as I am afraid of where you guys are going next, but it's like a train wreck, I have to look... Travis, let me just say that you have a way to keep your audiences attention

[maxxII]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
you guys are killing me.

tree hugging is for pussies...skimmer huggin is for men! all that skimming power!! you gotta show the skimmer some love and it's only a quite hug...not like i plan on humpin it. that would be WAY over the line. what naked Travis wants to do in his own time is none of my biz

Lunchbucket

"Mini-Me! Quit humping the "Lazer"


Ewwwwww, I feel dirty again......

Nick

[Lunchbucket]

LOL glad we all have some humor here on this thread. lightens the dark mood a couple pages back

maxx - LOL that part is hillarious

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

We all need some humor now and then.

Yes, the skimmer did ship out. I checked the tracking number earlier today and the skimmer was sitting in St. Louis. It will be here Thursday.

[Lunchbucket]

YIPPIE!!!

and please no naked skimmer hugging!

Lunchbucket

[arconom]

Travis give us all the link to the shipping number. I want to track it also

[Travis]

I got my Seachem Mg and calcium test kits tonight. I am letting them though out for a few hours before performing any tests. I did do another 90 gallon water change with the Seachem salt this past weekend. I tested the levels again and they came out a bit higher. Don't remember off the top of my head but I'll post them when I do the tests with the new kits. I've had another 100 gallons of saltwater mixing up since Sunday so it should be well aged and ready to test.

So far I do like the Seachem salt, strictly in regards to how I see my corals react to it. This is purely anecdotal, and possibly even wishful thinking, but I honestly feel that the growth spurts I got after these last few water changes were much faster and had more growth than usual. FWIW, I always notice a growth spurt after a water change. It usually lasts 2-3 days. However, since I've started using the seachem, I am getting some dark brownish/black algae growing on the coralline that has finally completely covered the back of the tank. This algae is choking out the coralline and causing it to flake off. I don't care about the coralline flaking off. I've always wanted a back wall completely covered with coralline, but now that I have acheived that I want a clean back wall again. But something in this salt mix has triggered the growth of this algae. FWIW, it seems to be the same algae that led to the demise of the rest of the living creatures in my FOWLR. Never once have I seen this in the 280 until a couple days after the first water change with the Seachem salt.

[Travis]

Sorry, I won't be giving out the tracking number. I've had some pretty malicious things happen to me in my lifetime. Not that I don't trust any of you following this thread but there could be that one person lurking along that takes my tracking number and uses it to call the company and have the skimmer rerouted to them.

[arconom]

WOW very true Travis.

[Wayupnorth]

I am going to try switching over to the new Seachem salt after Christmas so will be interested in what your tests come out at Travis. I have been using a salt mix in my 230 called Formula, which is made in Japan but can no longer get it. FWIW I really liked the formula and would have continued to use it if I could have. It consistently tested at 400ca/ 9-10DHK and 1200-1250 mg. No detectible PO4. I have also used this salt in my Nano's. For my new 190 that I set up about 4 months ago now I just started out using Reef Crystals (this is the BK tank) because I knew I was going to run out of formula.
Anyway please keep us updated on the salt and the BK - hopefully we are over this hugging, naked stuff and can move on with the tank set up.

Ruth

[Lunchbucket]

Travis 0 hope it isn't the algae that you had in the 75 FOWLR. crap i hope it isn't the salt. guess that is why i'm sticking w/ RC now. i learned my leson when i switched ot Oceanic and the high PO4 in some of the bad batches killed EVERY coral but one

let us know what he tests show compared to a salifert

Lunchbucket

[IBASSFSH]

I had that same brown algae and devastating effects when I did one water change with the Oceanic salt.

[Travis]

So I go to do the tests on the salt tonight only to find out I need to get some distilled water just to use the tests. I tried them out with RO/DI but they didn't not come out right. Never realized there were test kits out there where you don't get everything you need in the box. So the tests are postponed until I go get some distilled water.

[Lunchbucket]

that sucks!!! are the tests supposed to be high end or cheapy??

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

Ok everyone, I highly recommend that you stuff something like a sock in your mouth before reading to keep from biting your tongue, as I am now.

All samples were mixed to 35ppm specific gravity with Seachem Reef Salt. Specific gravity measured with refractometer. First 3 batches were tested with Salifert kits. The last batch was also tested with seachem kits.

....................................Alkalinity in..................................
........................................meq/L............Ca...............Mg
First 100g batch.................3.38............350............1120
(Salifert)
Second 100g batch............2.91............375............1215
(Salifert)
Third 100g batch................2.86............375............1170
(Salifert)
Third 100g batch................6.80............420............1713
(Seachem)
Seachem Claims.................142(???).....442............1317

Notice the alkalinity and magnesium readings I got with the Seachem kits. For those that don't usually measure alkalinity in meq/L I will let you know that 6.80 meq/L is equivalent to more than 20dKH. I put the (???) behind the 142 for the value that Seachem claims their salt to be at for alkalinity because they don't specify what type of reading it is.

Now something is obviously rotten in Denmark. Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure if ANY of test kits used (Salifert or Seachem) are truly accurate would be to take a sample of water to a lab and have them test it. This will run up some hundreds of dollars so don't count on me doing that any time soon. Well actually my sister in law just started working as a chemist again so maybe she could hook something up.

I will be emailing these results to Seachem and I'm very interested to hear what they have to say.

[Travis]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
that sucks!!! are the tests supposed to be high end or cheapy??

Lunchbucket

I really don't know. I would not consider them cheap as they are priced higher than Salifert. I also would not consider them high end as they are not all that expensive. I know price isn't an accurate way to determine this but it is all I have to go by.

Here are my opinions on the Seachem test kits after using them:

-I will never spend my own money on one.
-There is no way they can be as accurate as Salifert. Salifert gives you the little tip thing to put on the 1ml syringe when performing a titration. Seachem gives you the same syringe but no tip. With Salifert, you can add down to .1ml at a time. With Seachem you can only add down to .5ml at a time. This is a HUGE difference.
-The calcium test was just as easy as the Salifert.
-The magnesium test sucked and was kind of wierd. You actually have to filter some of the sample through a cotton ball. This test took about 4-5x as long as the Salifert equivalent.
-The alkalinity test flat out su(ked. I mean it su(ked the big one. I think it took me about 15 minutes to do it. Add some of this, add some of that, let the sample sit for 5 minutes (not lying about this one) add some more of this, shake a bit, blah blah blah. Now you have your total alkalinity. Now start all over again and measure your borate alkalinity. Now subtract the borate from the total and you have your carbonate alkalinity. FWIW, I got a reading of 8.8 meq/L total and 2.0 meq/L borate for a reading of 6.8 carbonate.

The calcium and magnesium kits did come with reference solutions so you can do a reference test to make sure the kit is reading properly. I did not do any reference tests tonight after how much time I had already spent on the initial tests. If I'm feeling ambitious I will probably run the reference tests tomorrow night.

[nolofinwe]

Travis, were you using the Seachem salt in the FOWLER before your reef?

Did the tests freeze on the way to you?