Coral reefer’s 360 gal system. 225 display and frag tanks

[max_nano]

So true..

All the equipment companies are on that new wave of willingness to pay pricing instead of pricing based on margin. And with hobby equipment not having any obligation to provide a product at an affordable price since it’s all luxury goods they’ll charge as much as the market will handle.

it just gets a little silly when places like Neptune Systems can get away with selling a rebranded auto feeder for $100 just by adding a dollar worth of hardware for it to interface with their ecosystem.

 

[Coral reefer]

If I used 26 ml of vinegar per day it’s like $7 per year. Can’t beat that. I would like the lights out ph bump of a fuge, but that’s the only real reason I’d want one. Maybe someday I’ll figure out a spot for one. Maybe.

 

[ofzakaria]

All the equipment companies are on that new wave of willingness to pay pricing instead of pricing based on margin. And with hobby equipment not having any obligation to provide a product at an affordable price since it’s all luxury goods they’ll charge as much as the market will handle.

it just gets a little silly when places like Neptune Systems can get away with selling a rebranded auto feeder for $100 just by adding a dollar worth of hardware for it to interface with their ecosystem.

Most of apex and other common products in the market are rebranded products. Many of the vendors are the same, just rebranded Chinese products. Each of these vendors will post a pic of a table of plastic assembly and say we are building in house while in reality its custome plastic wrapped a standard chinese product.
Pumps and power heads are from hipool motor Inc. in shenzhen
Modules are cheap 2 layes pcb wrapped in a cheap plastic
Cables all from China
Sensros and floats all bull buy from China
Feeder rebranded feeder that most use and you can find it at half price unbranded "retail"..
Very few do actual in-house build. Royal exclusive, ghl, abyzz and few others do.
Look at mindstram they had to do it in house they went out of biz.. u need scale to build in house and the hoby is not that big..

 

[ofzakaria]

If I used 26 ml of vinegar per day it’s like $7 per year. Can’t beat that. I would like the lights out ph bump of a fuge, but that’s the only real reason I’d want one. Maybe someday I’ll figure out a spot for one. Maybe.

I used vinegar while while back. This thing work man..

 

[max_nano]

If I used 26 ml of vinegar per day it’s like $7 per year. Can’t beat that. I would like the lights out ph bump of a fuge, but that’s the only real reason I’d want one. Maybe someday I’ll figure out a spot for one. Maybe.

You could dose some kalk for the pH boost at night?

 

[Coral reefer]

You could dose some kalk for the pH boost at night?

I could, but I don’t even have a ph monitor so I haven’t bothered worrying about it. My garage isn’t sealed well and the sump is down there with two open top frag tanks and a largish skimmer. Something is like to get to eventually. A controller with ph monitoring isn’t in my near future I don’t think. I’m still doing things the dinosaur way for now.

 

[svreef]

What kind of vinegar? How did you get to 26ml? I’m in the same boat - but with a much younger tank. How often will you test for nitrate and phosphate so you don’t bottom out?

Teach me...

 

[Coral reefer]

I think it’s distilled white vinegar...will have to check later. 26 ml is a conservative guess based on what Ive been hitting a couple clients tanks with. I think I’ve been doing 12 or 14 for an 80 gal for awhile. Still use gfo on that tank, haven’t tested nitrates there in a long time. If corals look good and not getting pale and I’m not struggling with algae then I don’t usually bother with nitrates.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yeah regular vinegar works fine, you could also use vodka too, that's the only reason I have a bottle of it in the fish room ... no seriously I don't have a problem! Just if you do vodka do NOT do the same dosing amount as vinegar, much more carbon in vodka apparently.

 

[Coral reefer]

Yeah regular vinegar works fine, you could also use vodka too, that's the only reason I have a bottle of it in the fish room ... no seriously I don't have a problem! Just if you do vodka do NOT do the same dosing amount as vinegar, much more carbon in vodka apparently.

I think it’s like 8x more carbon from brief googling around. I just can’t waste the liquor like that. And it’s still more expensive unless you can get a pint of vodka for $2

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yeah the stuff I got was some serious low end stuff, but I don't think it was anywhere close to $2/pint. That said what's it cost $3-4 per gallon for vinegar? x8 is $24-32 per gallon of vodka equivalent, don't think that's too far off, want say $10 or so for 1.75L, but this was a couple years back probably more today. Either way I think my mentality was not cheapness, OMG finally!!!!, but it was more not wanting to put vinegar in the tank (although I'm sure that small amount really isn't going to affect the pH by any appreciable amount, and more for minimizing what I wanted to dose. The reality is I should have done vinegar and just dump it in with kalkwasser if I cared that much.

 

[Coral reefer]

$4 for 2 gal at Costco

 

[sfsuphysics]

Ok no fair using Costco they're just too cheap sometimes

But yeah, talk all the pharmaceutical grade stuff out there, Arm & Hammer baking soda for 2 part is cheaper than dirt cheap.

 

[Coral reefer]

FInally put this together today.

Been meaning to make an additional structure for more acros for several months. Had most of these pieces in my sump for awhile.
Still need to cement some more rocks I already have in display into one more structure, then make a third one to replace one that has been overgrown by orange zoas.
I’ve tried the nyos cement before, but hadnt really liked using it much. Today changed my mind. It dries really quick and I guess I finally got the mixture right.
The emaco I have and used before is old and maybe no good anymore, or maybe I just didn’t get the mix right with it when i tried it last week.
The nyos stuff is not cheap, but if you don’t have a ton to do it works well id say. I think one more small containers of it should be able to get the two structures done that I want to make still.

 

[Coral reefer]

Random shots with the polyp lab lense

 

[tankguy]

I could, but I don’t even have a ph monitor so I haven’t bothered worrying about it. My garage isn’t sealed well and the sump is down there with two open top frag tanks and a largish skimmer. Something is like to get to eventually. A controller with ph monitoring isn’t in my near future I don’t think. I’m still doing things the dinosaur way for now.

same here

 

[Coral reefer]

A co2 scrubber controlled by something with ph probe does sound attractive... that and a skimmer restart delay would be the only things I can think of I need a controller for tho.

 

[Coral reefer]

 

[max_nano]

View attachment 18749

What are the schooling fish you have? Anthias? Tank is looking good!

next time you’re fragging and have bone cutters near the tank you should cut the excess ends on the zip ties

 

[svreef]

Looks awesome, but why is Gumby sitting on your rocks?