Banner image

Marty's 450g (1 Viewer)

Upgrade 1 of 2 complete:

IMG_0231.JPG


Reef octpus xp-8000 internal. Got it new from a guy who never finished his build, pretty good price on it I think. It's pretty big. I really debated getting one of Bill Wann's skimmer (I wanne be be like Riley sing it now!) but in the end other priorities in life took over. Two items I could not get past is 1. Frigging expensive 2. In all reality there was a pretty strong possibility it would have been too big for my tanks. This one was ~20% the price and should do fine. I really wanted an external but gotta say firing this up was really simple.

At least I can stop thinking about skimmers for a week. My plan will be to always have a skimmer taller than my daughter so I can look forward to tomorrow's upgrades.
 
Last edited:
Looks like a nice piece of kit and more than do the job for you. where are the installed and running pics?
 
Jonty said:
Looks like a nice piece of kit and more than do the job for you. where are the installed and running pics?
Click to expand...

Running a little wet obviously. I need to get my sump level dialed in.

Skimmer break in is for wusses!

IMG_0232.JPG


IMG_0233.JPG
 
Is that the normal water level of the sump? Seems shallow for such a large area??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Using a kid for size comparison... way better than R/C Cola cans! :rotflmao:
 
Hopefully the kid isn't the part 2 of the upgrade.
And your massive sump makes that skimmer look small in that photo.

Is part 2 of the upgrade skinning your stand?! Huh... huh...
 
Last edited:
It's in 9" of water right now, yea the scale of the sump throws things off. I never planned for a in sump skimmer to the baffle is in the "wrong" place. With my ato running 2x a day I dont think fluctuation should be too bad as is. I needed to raise the sump level ~2" or it sucks a little air ever now and again.

It's just tall enought I should be able to reposition things and have it drain out into a bucket.
 
jlanger said:
Hopefully the kid isn't the part 2 of the upgrade.
And your massive sump makes that skimmer look small in that photo.

Is part 2 of the upgrade skinning your stand?! Huh... huh...
Click to expand...

Nope, that's part 3. Chop chop!
 
Day 2: no more wussy light tea colored skim. This thing can skim! Hopefully I can get my other skimmer offline this week (ETSS 800) and then it's solo for this guy and I can really see what it can do.

IMG_0234.JPG
 
Good to see you decided on a skimmer. I hope that one works for you. What's upgrade 2 of 2 going to be?
 
marty9876 said:
There is meant to be great sarcasm in all of my posts.
Click to expand...

Fixed that for you... or for all of us.
At least for those that don't understand great sarcasm.

marty9876 said:
Nope, that's part 3. Chop chop!
Click to expand...

I have a wood/finish sample to bring with me on Friday; black lacquer on a flat panel drawer front.
Do you have anything else in mind that you would want me to bring?
 
jlanger said:
I have a wood/finish sample to bring with me on Friday; black lacquer on a flat panel drawer front.
Do you have anything else in mind that you would want me to bring?
Click to expand...

Is black lacquer the same as black paint? I think we want the solid black color and not really see the grain (e.g. not black stain). Only really decision point I think is either shaker style or flush style. Not sure of the implications ($) of that decision.
 
jlanger said:
Fixed that for you... or for all of us.
At least for those that don't understand great sarcasm.



I have a wood/finish sample to bring with me on Friday; black lacquer on a flat panel drawer front.
Do you have anything else in mind that you would want me to bring?
Click to expand...

A bottle of Jack gets my vote.
 
Adam G said:
A bottle of Jack gets my vote.
Click to expand...

Lacquer... not liquor! ;)

marty9876 said:
Is black lacquer the same as black paint? I think we want the solid black color and not really see the grain (e.g. not black stain). Only really decision point I think is either shaker style or flush style. Not sure of the implications ($) of that decision.
Click to expand...

Black lacquer is opaque like paint, but has the hard protective qualities of a lacquer finish.
I'll bring a flat slab as well, but I think the flat panel (shaker-style) would look the best with your other cabinets.
 
Part 2; going to give bio pellets a try. Specifically, AIO Bio Pellets. (ok, so the AIO joke wan't very funny).

Objective, control nitrate to some reasonable level. Reasonable defined as sub 10, 5 being a happy happy joy joy target. Phosphate control bonus but not an expectation.

Background, I've read/heard so many pros and cons stories this wasn't an easy choice for me. That said, not doing anything ain't working. Vinegar either ain't working or ain't working fast enough. I've dumped ~ 10 gallons in to date (2+ months) with no consistent measurable effect. About the only real difference is I've got more weird stuff growing. I know it can take a long time to bring down a lot of nitrate via liquid carbon dosing but I just don't have a sense vinegar is doing it for me. Plus, I hate switching out the jugs/how quickly the 5 micron sock plugs which is on the downstream of the tank I'm dosing it/and it smells (I hate salad dressing too, don't ask).

The thing that really turned me around was all the whining about bio pellets "stripping" the water. I figure 1. I like strippers and 2. with the amount of food I feed something that strips a normal tank should hopefully make a dent in mine.

Why AIO versus regular pellets- blame Jonty for that one.

Went with a Aqualund http://www.aqualund.net/ recirc, kinda a custom model.

IMG_0236.JPG


For the "it ain't hooked up you suck" posters (of which I am one).

[video=youtube_share;PFAGCQ7CPZA]http://youtu.be/PFAGCQ7CPZA[/video]

Starting parameters: ~ 32 no3, .03 ph4 (someone went bat poo crazy with the lacl3 this week). Some hair algae in the tank, some cyno. Glass cleaning ~ 1x a week. Stil dosing ~ 660ml vinegar daily, will continue for the short term (until I run out or get bored with it).

3 liters of AIO bio pellets spinning away. Crap those things are expensive.
 
They need to tumble much faster than that
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top