350 pic, work in progress

[t gallo]

thanks to everyone who replied to this thread, great motivation here at reefs.org.
i recently installed a kalk reactor into my system and i have finally reached the water levels i was hopeing for, ca 450, dkh 11, my ph drops to 8.15 at nite and climbs to 8.27 in the afternoon.
now if i start doing more frequent water changes, i mite get rid of this brown small turf hair algae.

 

[esmithiii]

Beautiful pics! Let's see some more!

Ernie

 

[t gallo]

lets try again.

 

[t gallo]

i highly recomend one, it has done wonders in keeping my ca at 450 and conter reacting the ph drop from the calcium reactors effluent.

it has a removable screw off lid, the white section on top for easy refills with kalk powder.

bought from www.barraquatic.com

 

[gman2]

Tony

Your tank looks sweet!!!

I too use a calcium reactor and a Kalk reactor. What I have done was took a fish specimen tray and drilled a 1/2 hole in one side where I placed an elbow barb. On the opposite side I siliconed about 1" from the side a 3" piece of acrylic to make two chambers inside. One chamber is for the Calcium effulent which drips over the partition to the oter side. In the ofer side I placed an airstone which I read helps burn off the excess CO2.

Well the outcome is, the PH is about 6.5ish in the effluent chamber and the overflow portion its rasied to about 7.9 before it drips into the sump. THis seems to work fine and keeps my tank phi to around 8.2-8.25 at all times.

Just an idea that I got off this board at one time and made my own twist with it.

Good luck
Tony

 

[tgallo]

thats pretty cool gman, i love diy projects.
the extra effort pays off when everything runs smooth and corals and fish seem happy.

 

[t gallo]

most of the corals are original and have grown large in 9 months, side shot from the right.

 

[MarkO1]

Wow, looks wicked cool!!!! (local lingo)
Really looks like it's coming into it's own. Any more shots?
_________________
Honda NS500

 

[hillbilly]

Ahh.... I do love a forest of sps. Good job!

 

[Unarce]

That is BEAUTIFUL!

 

[Anonymous]

So jealous...also so poor...i think its time to start selling drugs to support my reef habit... :lol:
FREAKIN AWESOME TANK!

 

[hillbilly]

:lol:

 

[pcragg]

Tony,
I just moved to Silver Spring. Is there any chance of seeing your tank in person?
Phil

 

[Aquaengineer]

Looks good, I have somthing similar but with a DIY calcium reactor. Tired of sniffing glue yet. Another thing, I hope that PVC cement can hold the back pressure of the main tank full of water. Did you calculate how much head pressure is above those bulkheads? I elected to use threaded elbows.

 

[Len]

Hey Aquaengineer!

 

[dgasmd]

Tony:

WOW. The color things have taken is amazing! Now that the tank has been up for a year, are you getting much of any scratches? You need to post some pictures in the CMAS site man. That is amazing. What bulbs are you using now?

 

[t gallo]

thanks alberto.

scratches, i do have some vary fine one's wich aren't a big deal and are not noticable.

i'm still running four 400 watt 20k radiums and over driving the hell out of them on a hqi ballast.

 

[dgasmd]

Dude, post some more pictures. It is looking real good. How often are you changing your radiums?

 

[Mogo]

Very nice job Tony.

 

[t gallo]

the bulbs are changed @ 7 to 8 months old.

my old calcium reactor is having a hard time keeping up with the alk and calcium demand and i just about have pushed it to it's limits.

I broke down and invested in a high quality reactor, deltec PF600S, i have spoken with other owners with high demand tanks and they swear by them, lets see how this pans out, it's only money and you cant take it with you.

thanks mogo for the kind words.