zeotz

bros, may i know what type of bioballs did you guys use. were these the ones that are supposed to be able to host anerobic/dentrifying bacteria? I am still trying to find out if quality/type of bioballs makes a difference in contribution as nitrate factory.

skimmer tentatively reserved for viewing. will post again if not taken. thanks for the interest.

still looking ... the criteria of 8.5" max overall required width is critical. ht max 22". Thanks.

greetings to everyone. Selling the above as its too tall for my new cabinet. Skimmate is not great, but not bad. generally drier and darker than weipro's. also safe to use with ozonizer. Altho it can be used in the main tank as a HOB, I advise against it as the microbubbles will cause a lot of headache. Recommended to use in sump tank with at least one overflow baffle before returning to main tank. $75

Dear Bros, Anyone letting go a small AquaC skimmer or any other good skimmer that can fit into my 8.5" x 6" sump compartment. For 60Gal main tank. PM me with your contact and product details for consideration please. thanks!

thanks for the sharing your experience. so you mean you managed to control nitrates with it? how did you clean them after that incident? Would you say if one is running a good expensive skimmer, the bioballs/rings r more harm than good?

I would love to hear from fellow reefers your take on biorings and bioballs. I;ve heared a lot about them being contributors to nitrate problems. But at the same time, I also see some of them being touted as able to host anerobic, denitrifying bacteria. I once tot that if I prefilter the water (by pad/wool with regular maintenance) before it gets to the rings and balls, detritus wunt be trapped in them and therefore they can perform correctly, without the nitrate problem. So is it solely the decaying trapped detritus that is giving these bioballs and rings a bad name? I also see that denitrators use bioballs in them, but with lower flow rates. So gals/guys, share your tots and experience please. thanks!

I used to keep lionfish. Sometimes they do take frozen brine shrimp or even krill when they are floating around in turbulent current. but even if it does .. they only eat these if really hungry ... they are most happy with live food, which is y i gave up. I tried it for about 6 months and I must say they get more used to dead food as time goes by when they know the hand that feeds them has lazy feet to go buy live food every week. dangling stuff didnt work for me.

sori bro .. i am not sure if its full braced or not.

i bought the 3M super glue gel at the hardware shop inside Ikea building

yes, correct. the shop specialise in discuss, not marine. but he got a marine display tank. his LPS really big clumps. those who end up taking the tank .. mayb can leave one for me! .. cuz he didnt want to sell it seperately. The guys there are quite ok his discusses are really WOW! but i may not know how to judge discuss quality, only know how to appreciate what i see is nice. altho sumhow I am now contemplating starting a discuss tank .. hhmmm... Shop name not known, but from his receipt I see "Aquapet".

may i know what type of marine tank light and where is potential collection place.

This posting is just to inform fellow reefers there is this guy selling away his display 6' tank. the place is at 300+ Changi Road. Cant remember exactly the unit number, but its after the T junction of telok kurau road with changi road and if u travel from bedok towards geylang, its on the left. he is closing down the place soon. pic attached. if you need directions, can PM me, but more details of the tank u need to go there yourself to check out as i cant remember everything.

i;m using 820 on my 200L 4ft. appears that the flow is significant up to only 3ft across. So if yours is a 3ft, I guess it should be adequate. he SEIO's flow can also be adjusted, so if you get the 1100, you can probably adjust the flow lower if its too strong. however, when I tried to reduce flow on my 820 (there is a ring you can adjust to restrict intake opening), the outflow starts to produce bubbles. (meaning the pressure created on the liquid is higher than its latent pressure and therefore it sort of "boils") this may be because for the same force, you are reduing the input flow area (P=F/A)

I dont really get what you mean when you say "if my set up is going to be low maintenance, a weipro would be fine". I would put it as, a weipro skimmer would likely reduce slightly the maintenance required but not necessarily make it a low maintenance tank (dats up to a lot of things like lifestock qty/type, flow, LR, feeding habit .. bla bla bla). In my opinion, if you are going to put the skimmer in your main tank, the weipro is a better choice than the macro. Even if the macro is slightly better at producing skimmate, I felt not worth the hassle with the micro bubbles in the main tank. (I have used both btw) On the anemone issue, for the record (not that I am proud of it), I liquified 2 BTAs with my PH and another one almost. NEVER think they are going to stay put. Mine stayed put for 3 months at 4 feet away from the PH ... and one fine weekend while I was away ... (*&*^%) .. came home to a milk tank.

I am just going to mostly repeat what the other bros have said to drive the point. if you are thinking of the macro .. make sure you consider how r u going to get over the micro bubbles from the output cuz it can make you pull your hair out. After so many trial and error, the only way i cud control the bubble was with 2xdouble baffle in the sump tank. the so-called macros' "bubblestopper" aint what its reckoned to be. About the more upscale skimmers (about 4x the price of a macro at least) .. this is where the reality sets it on cost of sustaining a marine tank. frankly .. i think the prices are .. dare i say .. as filthy as thier skimmate.

thats because the type of bacteria cultivated in the bioballs are of the aerobic type nitrifying bacterias and therefore cannot reduce no3. but I have seen some bioballs being sold as able to house both aerobic and anaerobic bact. the ones i;ve seen looks more compact than normal and have another ball inside a bigger ball and costs about $1 per ball. Not sure if it works tho .. nvr tried it. i;ve used chemipure before and wasnt successful with regard to nitrate reduction. and dunt forget you need to change them once it is used up. i am quite uncomfortable with stuff that have to be changed after it is used up cuz dunno when it is actually used up. for carbon OK cuz its cheap so jus change once a month. frankly i am still fighting the nitrate war. I was just reading up on the zeovit system .. appears to b very good from their website .. but so difficult to follow the instructions/system.

my 2 cents: with regard to materials, I used acrylic sheets and cut them to size. I used silicon (make sure it it the type design for aquarium use) to stick them to the inside of the tank. Acrylic sheet one medium size panel is about 10$ and silicon is about 5$ pertube. should be enuf for a 2ft sump. can also use glass but possibly more expensive than acrylic and you are likely to have it custom made to size. Also, glass heavier and so the silicon needs to be applied properly and you need proper temporary support to hold the glass while the silicon cures. as for the layout, you need to figure out what you want in the sump. the website referred above is quite good to see various configs. also make sure the compartment is big enuf to put in your equipment like pumps and skimmer.

just in case the point has not been made, as far as i know, carbon cannot help to alleviate nitrate problems. it is thus interesting that the guy who sold you the carbon said that it can (could you just double check the packing says reduce nitrate and not nitrite?). If you are successful in using carbon to reduce nitrate, please share that experience with all of us here. removing biorings may help reduce rate of nitrate production. If I undertstood what I have been reading for the past 2 years correctly, it is best that the guys responsible for reducing ammonia and nitrite be the same ones or in the same quantity as those who reduce it to nitrate. you may also put things in to take up the nitrate, like macro algea. otherwise, you got extra guys making nitrate but no one to break it down or use it up.

thanks kelmen .. so i guess an upgrade is not really required. I think worth a try with a second ph. but mayb get a smaller sieo just to counter the first. I tried directing the return from my sump against the seio, but not so effective. Seems that the flow pattern from seio overides all other laminar flow.

currently i intentionally direct it towards the rocks. If I let it flow unhindered and at max setting, I can see the debris being pushed for about 3ft and then it flows up or down and backwards towards the pump again and it gets caught in this loop for very long time. of course some of it do get out and flow towards my overflow weir, but most of it is being circulated.

I am using an 820 on my 4x1x1ft tank. I notice that the debris seems to be flowing in eliptical motion, always drawing back to the seio pump so much so that it cant flow to the other side of the tank into my overflow weir. Could it be that the 820 is underpowered in a 4ft? Meaning, even before the water pumped out can get to the other end, it is already being drawn back to the pump. Any other reefers having similar trends? DO you guys think putting in an M1100 can help solve the problem or worsen it? Thanks!

pmed u. need to know if your Rio can pump at least 1500l/hr at 1m head and if it runs quiet. Also need to know collection place. Thanks

i had/hav the same problem as u. for the bubbles... they do sell the bubble stopper, but in my experience, its quite inadequate and does not solve the problem entirely. my solution was to do a double baffle in the sump. which is the flow goes from top, down and up again. I have two of these baffles in my sump before it goes into the return chamber. zero bubbles by the time it gets returned. I have read and tried a few other methods i hav seen/read about, like putting a coconut squeeze filter at the outlet ... but prone to problems after awhile and need maintenance. for the skimmate tuning, i still have the same problem. although when there is an obvious bioload (like something died or i am rearranging my live rocks) the skimmer will start producing skimmate even at medium settings. but otherwise, it simply doesnt skim even at high settings, or if too high .. the skimmate is very very wet. So if anyone knows of a good solution, share please.

i notice the same thing with some of my life rocks. but there are certain type of life rock which are more prone to erosion/breakage than others. I know the fiji rocks i hav were the most durable. i suspect low alkalinity may hav induced the rocks to dissolve/weaken but not sure. With regard to porosity, i think its related to the same thing, slow dissolving of the rock. anyway, bottomline is it makes me wonder if the rock at the bottom of the pile will fail and make the whole structure collapse.