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Gimmito's 450 gal L-shaped tank

I thought I'd do a retrospect for the 2,000 post. The tank is in good overall shape, although there is a little rust on the stainless steel frame. The tank is still very young and is slowly evolving to a mix reef. Plans for the future is getting a anemone for the 4 clowns in QT. I also would like another small shoal of anthias to go with the 6 bimaculaus anthias in QT. Somemore pairs of wrasses would be nice (rhombiods, naoki, etc.)

Equipment:


Lights-250/400 watt lumatek selectable ballast w/lumenmax reflectors.

Protein Skimmer-H&S A250 in sump model.

Calcium Reactor-Geo 818.

Denitrator-not being employed.

Return Pumps- Water Blaster HY-1600 into 2 Sea Swirls.

Contoller-Profilux 3ex.

Water Movement- (4) Tunze 6205 streams, (1) 6100, Tunze wavebox.

Sump-100 gal Eco system sump.

Refugium-40 gal gravity fed fuge on the upper left part of the tank.

Fish:

(1) Sailfin tang

(1) Purple tang

(6) Yellow tangs

(10) Seale cardnialfish

(4) McCoskers wrasse

(1) Mystery wrasse

(1) Midas blennie

(1) Algae blennie

(1) Tiger goby

(3) Yellow assessors
 
denzil said:
It still boggles me that you have to do 100 gallon water changes... so much AquaVitro Salinity... =/.
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I'll give you a little advice D.

Salt is relatively cheap compared to all the additives out there or the alternatives from not doing them. ;)
 
Denzil you should come by my house when I do my water changes. I change more in a day than you do in a year! The solution to pollution is dilution! I use no fancy reactors, and I feed generously. Jim has seen.
 
Kensington Reefer said:
Denzil you should come by my house when I do my water changes. I change more in a day than you do in a year! The solution to pollution is dilution! I use no fancy reactors, and I feed generously. Jim has seen.
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Whenever you have a truck pump you 500-1,000 gal of saltwater...that is some serious water changes my friend !
 
I do
I get 500 or more gallons at a time.
I get pumped up to my holding tanks.
I use it here and at my accounts.
I am not carrying that many buckets of salt that far, that often.
 
denzil said:
Are you guys saying you just buy saltwater in bulk that's delivered to your homes? o_O
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I don't, but Erin mentioned it's pretty much the same cost as making synthetic saltwater (minus making all the water and mixing all that salt). ;)
 
Kensington Reefer said:
I do
I get 500 or more gallons at a time.
I get pumped up to my holding tanks.
I use it here and at my accounts.
I am not carrying that many buckets of salt that far, that often.
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Awesome... perhaps at some point that will be us in a few years, haha. I told Brandie that we'd do our own separate huge tanks at our dream house so this is more of an eventuality. :)
gimmito said:
denzil said:
Are you guys saying you just buy saltwater in bulk that's delivered to your homes? o_O
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I don't, but Erin mentioned it's pretty much the same cost as making synthetic saltwater (minus making all the water and mixing all that salt). ;)
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That's good to hear. At least there's another benefit for going bigger on tanks!
 
2000 posts... way to go Jim. So how many posts before salt water touched your tank though? :D

Also take it from someone who doesn't like to do water changes, philosophical, ecological, and economical reasons, you can get away with smaller water changes, just need to make sure to keep the pollutants in check. Jim aiming for the entire cast of Finding Nemo in his tank however is taking it in a different direction... although I can't wait to see Bruce go in!
 
gimmito said:
denzil said:
It still boggles me that you have to do 100 gallon water changes... so much AquaVitro Salinity... =/.
Click to expand...

I'll give you a little advice D.

Salt is relatively cheap compared to all the additives out there or the alternatives from not doing them. ;)
Click to expand...

Hmm. Instant ocean is about $48 for 200G.
So roughly $1,250 a year. Not cheap, but in perspective for a tank that size, not too bad at all.
And all the other equipment really adds up.
A single little Rio-2100 pump is about $80 / year in power.

About the only mistake you can make is mixing it wrong.
 
sfsuphysics said:
2000 posts... way to go Jim. So how many posts before salt water touched your tank though? :D

Also take it from someone who doesn't like to do water changes, philosophical, ecological, and economical reasons, you can get away with smaller water changes, just need to make sure to keep the pollutants in check. Jim aiming for the entire cast of Finding Nemo in his tank however is taking it in a different direction... although I can't wait to see Bruce go in!
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Hrm, isn't it theoretically possible to run them all on the same water without any water changes with the right equipment? That would be more sustainable IMO and the only addition of water would be from the ATO. Of course, I could be speaking blasphemy to the rest of you folks. >)

While it may be blasphemous, it's definitely more eco friendly to all but I'm not sure of the economics of it saving you money in the long run if it's going to require that much more equipment and media to maintain it. :)
 
Water changes are all about removing pollutants and to some minor degree putting back in "trace minerals" what ever the hell they might be since you don't know if that magic bottle of **** brand "Essentials" are actually doing anything for your tank :D

Calcium, Alkalinity can't be kept up with water changes unless the salt mix you're using has more in it than you want (I think Salinty might be the one of the few out there that does this), it's basically a math problem, you start with X, you lose Y over a certain time averaging in by adding more X isn't going to get you to the original X value.

As for the pollutants there are certainly ways to keep on top of it. Fish free tank is an excellent way, no fish food, no fish wastes. However it's often hard to just stare at a coral tank without something moving in it. Jim mentioned a denitrator that's one way to deal with nitrates, a refugium where you actively harvest macroalgae is another way. I'm hesitant to say there's a full proof way to remove all pollutants without water changes, but then again water changes won't remove all pollutants either.

Don't think of it as blasphemous to do something different, it's not. And I'm sure most will agree with me when I say there's no single right way that you can run a reef tank. The only time I think it's fair to get on your case over something is if your method continuously fails (or has for others) and never shows prospect then maybe you're being hard headed with your approach :D
 
sfsuphysics said:
2000 posts... way to go Jim. So how many posts before salt water touched your tank though? :D
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Probably a good 250 posts. ;)

sfsuphysics said:
Also take it from someone who doesn't like to do water changes, philosophical, ecological, and economical reasons, you can get away with smaller water changes, just need to make sure to keep the pollutants in check.
Click to expand...
I've done various water changes from 5 gal daily, to 20-70 gal a week. The larger water changes have made the most difference IMHO.

sfsuphysics said:
Jim aiming for the entire cast of Finding Nemo in his tank however is taking it in a different direction... although I can't wait to see Bruce go in!
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I thought about that...but getting those 3 sharks and all those turtles will be tough. Maybe Parker (H20 player) can. :D
 
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