The Reef Central Corner Club Thread

[Fingers68]

I have this tank sized at 620 ltr so I guess it would be 15mm min glass? rocketlily yes this is pretty much the same design. I am supprized there is no top bracing on your tank, unless there is and I cant see it.

What are the dimentions of yours?

[Fingers68]

EDIT to above

Totaly got the sums wrong, the tank is 460 ltrs not 620.!

[Michael]

if its 460 ltr and a corner 15mm2 glass will be fine, but id use 20mm2 for the base

[saltydude]

What kind of angel is that on pg 3? its dark in color.

[HumanIMDB]

So here is the finished product...


We will eventually add two 24" T5 Actinic Bulbs with Single Bulb Reflectors off a Hagen GLO T5 along the side braces (just below the fans) and maybe a couple of moon lights for at night.

I have to say that I love the shimmer effect.

[Hookup]

Looks very nice and clean.

[HumanIMDB]

Thanks.

[Misled]

I agree very nice, and vagely familiar!!!!



How I covered mine.

[joeychitwood]

Nice, Jesse! How does the black front hood cover attach to the braces on the wall? Does it screw on? Does it take long to uncover?

[Misled]

There are 3 screws on each side. There's really no reason to remove it. The bulb is very accessable. The nice thing is with the top completely open and about 10 inches between the cover and the tank, things stay cool. On it's own, it creates a chimmney effect and draws the heat up. I still have enough room for a couple 24" VHO actinics. I may add them later.

[flipsideleo]

Hey guys,

I got my ATO completed, finally! I totally copied Melev, but you know what they say about imitation being the best flattery. LOL!












I picked the container up at Wally World for about $20. Those wheels are useless, but they help a little. It holds about 13g and is air tight. Schweet! What do you guys have setup for ATO, and where do you stash your water? I'm lucky enough to have the space to store mine underneath the tank now that I built the remote stand for the sump.

[HumanIMDB]

Here is what we're (going to be) using for our ATO...

I found a 6 gallon container; $9.84 at Wal-mart.


We'll be going with the Aqua Lifter pump from Oscar Enterprises and a JBJ ATO Unit.

We just got the light and canopy so the ATO will likely be the next major purchase.

I'm still calculating the evaporation rate now that we aren't using the glass lid and have two 120mm (4") fans blowing over the surface but so far it looks like it's going to average out to 3 gallons per day.

Still haven't decided if we'll be using kalk in the top off or not, but considering we're looking at getting one or two clams, we likely will use kalk.

[Misled]

I drip kalk water from a 5 gal bucket that's in the top of the closet behind the tank. Evap is about a gallon a day.

[gawf4fun]

Here's what I use for my auto top off tank: As I've got no room in my family room for any further tank equipment and my stand is absolutely maxed out, my wife "allows me" to put the top off container in the dining area, behind and above the tank itself. The container was bought, oddly enough, at "The Container Store" and holds about 12 gallons of water. I get about 1.5 - 2 gallons evaporation per day. The basket in which it sits was approved by the missus as it looks like furniture. She picked it up at TJ Maxx or some such place. I had to configure an air break in the hose to eliminate a siphon issue which could cause an overflow into the sump, but it works great. I keep a second powerhead inside the container for aeration purposes. I too am considering dripping kalk, but haven't figured a good way to make it happen yet. Any ideas or suggestions? Mark

[reefscape15]

Nice DIY's everyone! Jesse, you really like to change up that avatar huh?

Kelso - Here is the link to " the Frogfish Files" thread if you want to take a look. There is some very good info, and the people on here will be able to answer any questions you have.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=613227

[bigbenji]

Good job getting the OK from "she-who-must-be-obeyed". I have the same issue.

[SimonSKL]

Originally posted by flipsideleo
Hey guys,

I got my ATO completed, finally! I totally copied Melev, but you know what they say about imitation being the best flattery. LOL!

I picked the container up at Wally World for about $20. Those wheels are useless, but they help a little. It holds about 13g and is air tight. Schweet! What do you guys have setup for ATO, and where do you stash your water? I'm lucky enough to have the space to store mine underneath the tank now that I built the remote stand for the sump.

Leo, Nice ATO setup! I am envy of the space that you have under the tank to accommodate a 13g container. How do you fill the container? 13g should last you more than a week before filling.

Mine is just a 4g and I routed one of my RO/DI outputs directly to it. It has a float switch to shut off in case I forgot to turn off the water. My wife was so mad at me for flooding the carpet so many times so I finally installed the float switch. I told her it was pure water so it shouldn't do much damage to the carpet but she didn't buy it. I fill it about every 3 days.

[flipsideleo]

Originally posted by SimonSKL
Leo, Nice ATO setup! I am envy of the space that you have under the tank to accommodate a 13g container. How do you fill the container? 13g should last you more than a week before filling.

Mine is just a 4g and I routed one of my RO/DI outputs directly to it. It has a float switch to shut off in case I forgot to turn off the water. My wife was so mad at me for flooding the carpet so many times so I finally installed the float switch. I told her it was pure water so it shouldn't do much damage to the carpet but she didn't buy it. I fill it about every 3 days.

Haha! I just noticed what you have as an occupation!

The lid for my container just pops right off, and has a hinge on the backside of it. I just prop it up, and dump the RO/DI in there. I use 5 gallon water jugs (the kind that you put on water coolers) and set the timer for 45mins. When it goes ding, I fill 'er up. It's pretty simple, really. Oh, and with the wheels on the container, it's really easy to push back into place. When I skin the stands, it's going to be a whole different ballgame though!

I'm leasing a house right now, as my family and I are new to this area. When we build/buy a house, I plan on having a room behind my tank(s) with a sink in it so I can just setup my RO/DI unit and ATO's directly to the sumps in the fishroom. Right now, I don't want to tick off the landlord. Much like my moving real slow with my reefin' hobby, I'm taking the househunting in a stride, too.

Thanks for the compliment! Means a lot coming from you!

[flipsideleo]

Hey Mark,

That's very creative and your wife has great taste! I wouldn't even have guessed that as being your ATO, unless you said something.

Have you just tried adding some kalkwasser to the water directly? A lot of guys just dump it right in the ATO reservoir.

[SimonSKL]

Originally posted by flipsideleo
Have you just tried adding some kalkwasser to the water directly? A lot of guys just dump it right in the ATO reservoir.

I have a calcium reactor but it sure brings down my PH in the main tank. So once in a while I run some kalkwasser in to bring my PH up. I thought about adding that directly to my ATO reservoir but I don't like all the precipitates which means I have to clean the ATO container often. Also don't you have to stir the water to keep the kalkwasser in solution?

[reefscape15]

Jesse - Any recent pics of the frags you got? I think the last i saw they were still on the eggcrate. Did you find spots for them all?

[gawf4fun]

Originally posted by flipsideleo
Hey Mark,

That's very creative and your wife has great taste! I wouldn't even have guessed that as being your ATO, unless you said something.

Have you just tried adding some kalkwasser to the water directly? A lot of guys just dump it right in the ATO reservoir.

Thanks Flipside, I'll tell her you said that, it might buy me a few more brownie points to exchange for that blasto colony I've had my eye on...

I suppose I could dump it right in like you say. I'd imagine the powerhead would keep it in solution. I'd always thought a drip was preferred based on all the discussions and threads here on RC, but for simplicity sake, it's worth a try. I wonder if there would be any downside, other than possibly needing to disassembe the top off reservoir for cleaning more often. Hmmm.

[SimonSKL]

I almost lost my Hawaiian Yellow Tang this week. I saw it spinning around in the corner of the tank Monday afternoon with tearing or damaged fins. I was lucky in catching it and put it in my quarantine tank. The tang went horizontal and spinning around endlessly on the bottom of the hospital tank. Its whole body was rigid and really couldn't control its body orientation and direction.

Because of the damaged fins and the fish looked it was dying, I put some Melafix in the water and hoped for the best. Monday night was the worst for the fish. Just watching the tang spinning horizontally and endlessly was exhausting to me. I didn't expect it to live thru the night

Tuesday morning the fish was still alive! but not much better. I did a 30% water change with water from the main tank. Gave another dose of Melafix. Did another water change in the evening.

Wednesday morning - the fish finally stop spinning and was able to get upright part of the time. I did another water change and gave another dose of Melafix. In the afternoon, the fish was fully upright. I tried to give it some seaweed and it started eating it. I now think the fish might have a chance to make it.

Thursday - the tang is doing a lot better and kept on eating the seaweed that I put in a clip. I gave it some mysis shrimp and it ate them all. The fins are all healed up and the body is once again flexible and it can swim easily in both directions.

Today, I decided to "discharge" the tang from the hospital tank and back into the main tank. I went thru the same acclimation process to re-introduce the fish into the main tank. It went hiding immediately. I was still able to see it with my flash light (the lights were not turned on yet).

20 min later, I saw the tang's top fins started to split. I did not see any fighting between the tang and other fish. It could be due to the stress related to moving.

My question is: do Hawaiian Yellow Tang split their fins under stress? Anyone got a sick tang and then recovered like this. My past experience with sick fish has always been 100% fatality. This is a success story, I hope.

[Michael]

Originally posted by SimonSKL
Also don't you have to stir the water to keep the kalkwasser in solution?

no not at all, when you add kalk to a resevoir you should basically add 2 spoonfuls of kalk to every gallon of ro-di, then stir it in thoroughly, once the water is saturated the waste sediment drops to the bottom and is no longer useful, the water is still saturated and so i cant see the point of just stiring sediment into saturated kalk, its saturated and wont get any denser, i use kalk myself all the time in a resevoir which is supplied via another resevoir via my top off, i think my method will be adequate for most reef aquaria except the very most bioload systems, then a reactor will be required

[flipsideleo]

Originally posted by Michael
no not at all, when you add kalk to a resevoir you should basically add 2 spoonfuls of kalk to every gallon of ro-di, then stir it in thoroughly, once the water is saturated the waste sediment drops to the bottom and is no longer useful, the water is still saturated and so i cant see the point of just stiring sediment into saturated kalk, its saturated and wont get any denser, i use kalk myself all the time in a resevoir which is supplied via another resevoir via my top off, i think my method will be adequate for most reef aquaria except the very most bioload systems, then a reactor will be required

Thanks for chiming in Mike!