Smiley's Salt System

Smiley

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#86
#86
My el cheapo ATO finally failed me... the line popped out and filled my sump to the max. Good thing i needed to lower my salinity eh? So this brings up a question..... what is the best ATO to use with an Apex? Or should I get a standalone? ive read anything from autotopoff.com to avast to tunze to jbj.... im at the point where im not sure what to use....
 
Smiley

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#88
#88
small update... I added another EB8 as well as some supplemental lighting. I have a 75g in the back room which I am turning into a sump to replace the 46 I have now. As it stands now with the system, when power goes off, my 46g sump fills to the top. Im afraid of a flood once I add the 90 I snagged for my office... only problem is the 90 has a nasty chip on the outside corner. not sure if i trust it enough to fill it with water. It was full when i got it but I dont know how long it will hold. I added some hermits, a few trochus snails, and some pods both from ORA and from AlgaeBarn. The Prolifera is growing pretty... A friend from Cali is sending me a macro sample pack as well. Might end up removing the Prolifera after I get the sample pack but not sure. Depends on what she sends me. I added a few shrooms and a zoa frag I got from Great White. They seem to be doing great and have increased color since I added them. I will be switching salts here this weekend as we got a pallet of the best salt ever in at GW. Microbe-Lift has been an excellent salt for me for the past few years so I will stick with it. I love it due to the higher levels of alk, calc, and mag as well as being consistent from bucket to bucket. It can be used almost immediately after mixing without cloudiness or precipitation. Much better than Aquavitro Salinity.
 
Smiley

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#90
#90
from what I experienced, Salinity had to be mixed for at least an hour before use, it had a cloudiness to it, and if you didnt use it in 24 hours, it would precip out alk and kalk thus causing issues in my system. I also noticed that with Salinity that one bucket would mix out to high alk with ok calc but the next bucket would be opposite or worse, too low. With Microbe-Lift, I could use it after 30 minutes of mixing, and I could let it mix for a week with no issues. Also Microbe-Lift would be the same specs from each bucket. Always had Alk around 10, calc around 450, and magnesium at 1350+. Prices seemed to be about a penny per gallon less than Salinity as well... I swear by Microbe-Lift... Its all I will use and Im glad we are starting to carry it at GW. Right now we carry 140g and 200g buckets. I need to see if they have smaller buckets for people that have nanos since 140g bucket will last them a lifetime.
 
jahmic

jahmic

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#92
#92
Smiley;224614 said:
I need to see if they have smaller buckets for people that have nanos since 140g bucket will last them a lifetime.
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They must not do water changes because I went through over 200g in just a year :p

PM me a price on the microbe-lift when you get a chance...I wouldn't mind trying it out once I'm done with this next bucket of Salinity (in about 6 months, lol).
 
cdrewferd

cdrewferd

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#94
#94
Yea, what's the price on the Microbe-Lift?
 
09bumblebee

09bumblebee

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#95
#95
Just to add to this but I usually mix 120g worth and let it sit for about 2 months before its gone. I had an issue this time where my salinity dropped to 1.020 even having a power head in there. No build up in the bottom. Not sure what happened. I'm done with salinity.
 
Dbarnes

Dbarnes

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#97
#97
Smiley;204580 said:
Here is my ceiling... notice it is all ready to add a sink since it has hot/cold water and drain access. The copper line that runs to the left feeds the dishwasher. Right above is the kitchen hence the water/drain. Question is, to the left of the pipes is a space between floor joists that i would like to put the exhaust fan. I have brick on the front of the house that sits on top of the concrete block wall so in order to vent the fan, id have to cut a hole in the brick. Is that easy?

View attachment 9872


here is the basement layout...

View attachment 9873

and here is the crap in the rest of the basement.

View attachment 9874

Im not sure if humidity will be an issue or not with the furnace in the same room, anyone have experience with this?
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Your furnace runs very little air through it from its surrounding, that what the cold air return ducting is for in your home, it draws the postively pressured air from the rooms it is heating. Its not a good idea for it to be 100% humidity in the either but it wont effect anything in the system. my furnance is in my fish room and i installed a standard bathroom exhaust fan that runs a 4" flex pipe out the wall the the ajoining storage room, this both reduces the humidity because i supply the room with via the furnace and it dosent pump all that air outside in the middle of winter just so i can draw in cold air and pay to heat it. i hooked mine up to my apex and it runs on a cycle that keeps it warm and dry in my fish room. like i said though i never had problems and it would be very unlikely you would have promblems even without a fan. Masonry is easy got get a 10$ diamond grinder blade from HD and put it on your grinder and it will go right through the brick no sweat...
 
Smiley

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#98
#98
bah, im going out to dinner at Coopersmiths... all you can eat walleye tonight.... will take pics when i get home...
 
Smiley

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#100
#100
haha found my list of corals i want to collect. Im sure there are more, but this is a list ive had for the past few years and been adding to as i find nice ones. If anyone has any of these, please let me know... would love to get a frag.

Zoas:
24k Zoas
Rainbows
Alien Explosion
Bam Bam Orange
Black Hole Sun
Black Hornets
Blue Hornets
Blue Orgasm
Blue Magicians
Campfires
Candy Apple Reds
Cat eyes
Captain Americas
Darth Mauls
AoG
Emeralds on fire
ElectricStrawberries
Fruit Loops
LA Lakers
People Eaters
Purple Hornets
Rastas
Red Hornets
Red Death

Montis:
Emmas Jedi MindTrick Undata
Reverse Pokerstar
Mystic
Rainbow
Pokerstar

Digi:
Pink polyp digi
Green digi
Orange digi
Purple digi
Blue digi

Chalices:
Pink Chalice
Tubbs BranchingChalice
OME
BGM
Darth Maul
Tyree Watermelon
Orange Sherbert
Acid Trip
Aspera
Blood Red
Miami Hurricane

Birdsnest:
Ponape
BoP

Milli:
Pink
Blue
Sunset
Crayola
Bubblegum

Acans:
any

Acros:
Garf Bonsai
30k Lokani
500 Dollar Efflo
Bali Tri Color
ORA Borealis
Oregon Torte
Cali Torte
Red Prostrata
Blue Dragon
Red Dragon
Strawbery Shortcake
Mark the Shark Acro
Silver Surfer





 
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