FarmerTy

Filters usually every 6 months, membrane every 3-5 years, and DI resin will vary depending on your water but it's every 6 months to a year usually.

I'd do all 3 prefilters and resin just to be safe. The prefilters are the only thing keeping your membrane from getting all clogged up so I think it's a small price to pay for insurance. Plus, I've noticed if those filters sit for more than a year, they start getting bacterial/fungal growth and that's probably not a good thing.

Mine ends up around 8 months to a year before they need changing. If you're reading TDS, I'd change them out.

In case you had an infestation of birdsnest? Pocciliopora?

I only have my hawkins for now but I was this close to bribing Jake to send you a frag of birdsnest and me keeping the ice fire. [emoji57]

I saw that Ice Fire in the store before he shipped it out. Very nice specimen for sure! It makes me happy to see your pictures are not all crazy blue LED anymore and under some soothing T5s!

I'll trade you your bucket of Triton media for an Apex?

I remember vaguely reading somewhere about running them for at least a certain number of hours per day to "season" them but my memory is awful.

I'm just making up for the lack of money spent on the current setup. [emoji14]

Sorry. I'm just naturally sarcastic and I was being so then. But I actually use the Triton method to monitor annual trends of my parameters. In light of additional information into the ICP analytical process, it appears that though the accuracy of the results are in question for some of the analytes, the precision is close enough for me at least to warrant it for monitoring annual parameter trends. I've even used a correction factor for some of the results using Reefs.com analytical results of their study. Do I put any stock into the numbers to do anything to my tank? No. Do I feel like useful information can be gleaned from the results? Yes. At least enough for me to warrant the cost. I would feel more comfortable if Reefs.com did an additional study where they submitted samples through varying days as well to account for daily calibration drifts but I'll take what useful info I can take for now... with an asterisk in my mind at least.

I already had it on pre-order! Triton awesome, here I come!

Yes sir... that and I knew it was just a drop in the bucket as to its ability to remove nutrients from my system. Even though it was about the size of a large turkey, for it to make a considerable difference on my size tank, I'd probably need a 75 gallon tank full of it. I did enjoy the other benefits such as a place for cleanup crew and pods to reproduce but it started out losing it's usefulness when a coral frag section seemed more useful to me... and more fun.

A few things: 1) removed all my chaeto (about the size of a large turkey) from my sump (goodbye like 200 brittle stars... I'll miss you guys) 2) Setup my new/old frag setup in the sump. Got some tester pieces in there now. 3) Bought all the plumbing parts necessary to plumb my UV sterilizer (hello weekend project) 4) Fish are being remitted to the DT next Wednesday! Woohoo! I may hold back my tangs though and perhaps think about restocking the ones I lost and QT them all together so I don't have territory issues. I might also be letting go of some that are not in my final stocking plans. On another note, I noticed my alk was dipping a bit over the last few weeks so I've been bumping up the CARX. Lo' and behold, I took a look at the media this morning and I realized, I had melted almost 2.5" of media in the last 45 days... not to mention the 1" that melted in my secondary reactor (both reactors are 5" in diameter). The reactor was filled to the top 45 days ago! That's like melting the equivalent of a large tub of butter of CaRX media for size comparison in 45 days! Wow! I guess things are happy now. If this keeps up, my plans on building a DIY giant CaRX may have to be bumped up.

Calcium is fine. The corals aren't too picky about Ca level as long as it doesn't fluctuate much and is anywhere from 380-500 ppm.

Not bad numbers at all. How far off was the alk to the API test you've been using temporarily? Just keep in mind for PO4 results that there is a +/- 0.04 ppm potential read error so I wouldn't read too much into a 0.05 ppm difference unless it's consistently reading that number.

Well I sold the Arabian horses, but you are right... maybe I need to reevaluate my life.

Why all the questions? You interested in a job? I don't think I can afford your consultant rates though! [emoji6] I've run across a couple of builds like you've mentioned where there is a team of people that take care of the tank. It's lost on us but for those that have the money, I'm sure it's a nice distraction from time to time.

Very valid point. I'm planning to add other doodads too spice up my equipment list resume! Who wants to go in on a group buy for a autoglass cleaner?

It's like farmed fruits or wild fruit... classification makes sense depending on the reason it is there and the intent for its use. Sure, they grow in the same environment... Farmed fish or wild caught fish is another example...

Nametags! Username... real name. Boom!

I've read the emperor aquatics recommended flowrate and their recommendation of 180,000 micro watts to kill protozoan such as ich. I've looked at AquaUVs ratings to kill protozoan and they have it at 90,000 microwatts. Since I'm using their unit, I went with their recommendation. I called just to confirm for my tank size and the tech recommended 1,000-1,200 gph so that's what I'll run with. Sadly, neither one of them supply research to backup their recommendations so I'll have to trust AquaUVs recommendation for now until we get some results from Timfish's veterinarian friend. I don't think we can be conclusive of anything yet as to its ability or lack of ability to destroy pathogens and parasites yet. You'd be surprised too how many tanks actually use UV. Take a look a couple of the bigger reef setups on the larger forums and read their equipment list. You'd be a little surprised at the number that run UV. While that is not conclusive in itself, I typically aim to do the same things that successful tanks do... especially if I'm trying to mimic them. Anyways, I don't think there will be tangible results from my experiment. There's not enough control over the experiment nor do I have the proper equipment to pull any usable data, like protozoan/bacteria counts, so my results will be mostly anecdotal. It's still fun to do though so I'll share my thoughts.

I honestly find the scheduling in advance as the main disconnect. Here's the order of priority I see: 1) Schedule in advance so plans can be made 2) Topic of interest to everyone (if the discussion is about hermit crabs, don't be too surprised if I'm not in the audience) 3) Location 4) Day 5) Door prizes and food

He's on island time. It's a whole different lifestyle. I'd give it some time.

Don't get me wrong... I love my reef tank. But when it comes down to football or my reef tank, move on over corals. The combined football watching coral meeting sounds good in theory but I'd start getting irked if I was watching the game and then someone came up and tried to talk CARXs (calcium reactor) with me. C'mon man, you made me miss the TD! [emoji33]

The flow on my biopellet reactor isn't much at all. Probably 200 gph at the most so it's going to be not enough flow for the UV. That's not a bad idea at all if the gph's matched up better.