victoly

does roland cut you a commission check?

0.25 for phosphates is pretty high. Continue with the GFO in a bag until you can get a reactor, reduce feedings, water changes, skimmer if you've got it. The diatoms generally outpace what would be coming in through RODI water and will starve themselves out. Just give them time.

Diatoms feed largely on silicates. GFO will not address silicates. Ive also found that the effectiveness of GFO is greatly amplified if you pass water through it (i.e., BRS reactor) as opposed to having it sit passively in a bag. What are your PO4 levels at?

you dont *need* lights. you *need* beer.

it probably will be.

I'd be willing to finance and work a deal with you pal.

I'd still keep your chiller plumbed in though, just as an insurance policy. You could set it at 84 degrees, and it would rarely run.

Custom kegerator. I could fit 2 corny kegs in here with a CO2 bottle. Includes a ranco controller if you want to temperature control your ferment. Also rigged up a fan to keep the tower cool to reduce foam. Only thing not for sale is the two pulls (i may still have the stock ones lying around somewhere). $300

i can always cut a frag from the mother colony.

What's the sump volume you're considering keeping in the garage? The reason I ask is, you may be able to get a fair bit of evaporative cooling going via fans, however you'll be putting tools/cars at risk from rusting with the salty air. You may be working against yourself by keeping the sump in the garage, as opposed to keeping the sump inside and simply running evaporative cooling *inside* with the chiller outside and LEDs to keep the temps down. It also is going to depend on the temperature that you keep your house at, as to how much heating/cooling you're going to have to do to the water.

picked up these. http://www.amazon.com/Sensafe-Chlorine-Water-Check-Strips/dp/B0026DURIO/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1360011670&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=sensafe+chlorine when I get them in, I'll let you know my results. SCIENCE!

yeah. I have one. they kind of suck.

I've been very happy with my red sea combo kit (PO4 and NO3) in terms of accuracy and precision. I double checked my zero readings with RichardL's elos (or salifert?) and API kits to confirm my readings because I didn't believe them. I also picked up a hanna PO4 checker that I like a lot. Thread successfully derailed.

PO4 wasnt listed, so I won't put the ULNS crown on it yet. In addition, lots of the nitrate kits out there suck. badly. by suck I mean that if you are above a certain threshold, your readings will show zero. you have to do a dilution and then multiply your results to get a true reading. it takes quite a bit of work and some serious export to get in that 0-1 ppm nitrate range.

i was going to go in and edit mine to say that the second that I posted, and got sidetracked. but good point. however, IMO 5g water changes are going to be insufficient to get you into that "ULNS" bracket.

having a BB tank doesn't really export nutrients though. It removes a nutrient sink, but it doesn't export any additional nutrients. How else besides the LR are you getting rid of NO4/PO4?

It really all comes down to what you want in your tank. If your goal is to get the pastel sticks of acropora and have a totally algae free, ultra low nutrient tank, a skimmer will probably be part of your toolkit. If you're just going to have zoas, and other soft corals, skimmer isn't as much of a necessity. I certainly won't make the claim that it's a necessity, I just view it as another piece of the puzzle for me. Other methods to get you where you need to go are, biopellets, macroalgae, carbon dosing, low stocking, large water changes, deep sand beds, etc. Anyone who uses a single one of these as a panacea is probably in for a bad time.

I should do another one of these...

Pmd

I can't imagine what that's like :/ Back to my off topic thread jack, I was basing my opinion on a RHF article on chloramines. I want to "field verify" if you will, but I've always considered randy to be the godfather of reef chemistry. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rhf/feature/index.php

Be prepared for a variation of opinions. I run my lights 10 hours and skim 24/7.

Time for me to get a Hanna chlorine drop checker

Weird. I've never had an issue and the city of Austin uses chloramines. I just change out my carbon block more frequently than the recommended schedule. I also run carbon in my tank which would help presumably.

That's awful. Shouldn't your rodi unit have taken out the chloramines ? Standard carbon takes it out pretty well. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD