Hawkeye's AGA 120

[pgordemer]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Water before RO: 345
Water after RO: 112
Water after DI: 0

Something is really wrong there if your RODI unit is plumbed right. Most membranes can remove at least 96%, and a lot get 98% (based on a 75 GPD membrane and correct flow restrictor), you should be getting around 20 after RO.

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Water before RO: 345
Water after RO: 112
Water after DI: 0

Something is really wrong there if your RODI unit is plumbed right. Most membranes can remove at least 96%, and a lot get 98% (based on a 75 GPD membrane and correct flow restrictor), you should be getting around 20 after RO.

astute you are! I re-checked the numbers today and I must've had a contaminated sample.

Water in: 345
RO: 25
RODO: 0

Is 25 still too high? I will do another test and try and get an average out of the RO.

Holy smokes, Phil. Are you going to feel comfortable using that sand? I'd be too scared, to tell you the truth.

Well - it's in the tank now...I guess if I need to get it out I could use a giant magnet.... But seriously - it wasn't all the sand and the mag float "barely" stuck to the bag. The tunze magnets on the other hand seem to grab gobs of the sand. I should have taken a pic. Anyways - I might write to the manufacturer and try and get a better understanding of the ingredients in the sand. It better not be copper! I guess the inverts on my LR would already be suffering if that were the case. So scratch that thought.

 

[panmanmatt]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Where are the pictures?! Where are the "this thread is useless without pictures" graphics?! You people are all slacking!!

 

[calaxa]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

I was gonna say...holy ****, 112 TDS after RO?

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Where are the pictures?! Where are the "this thread is useless without pictures" graphics?! You people are all slacking!!

I see someone is padding again.... ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I was gonna say...holy ****, 112 TDS after RO?

What can I say - I was an ignorant NY guy with great NY water. All of this RODI stuff is new to me! ;D

 

[REEFLECTIONS]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

don't worry phil copper is not magnetic...

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Thanks Roy!

I just saw this on candi's for sale thread - I thought it was really neat:

DIY PVC Burrow for Blenny/gobies

At 0.5 to 1.5 mm sand grains - my sand is probably too small and perhaps too shallow for a goby - but with the diy design - it's intriguing to me!

 

[REEFLECTIONS]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

i think i may have some barnicles laying around, i'm gonna cut a couple off for candi... if i do indeed find them, i'll get a couple to mav to get to you. should know by sunday

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

thanks!- I will meet up with mav monday to lend him my tds meter. I actually think I might have some of that fake barnacle stuff back at my parent's home in ny. We had that when we had a FOWLR tank...the yellow tail damsel amused us by making the barnacle his home.

Speaking of which - this is a desired fish list - it's not near as fancy as pnoy's (so beautiful!)

5~8 Threadfin CardinalFish
1~2 Goby - dunno what yet. I was leaning towards something from the pacific to keep the tank a pacific based home - but those yellow-headed jawfish I saw at AqOB were just so cool.
2 Clownfish - probably false or true percs. picassos look so great - but with my budget they will "look" great...at a dealer tank.
2 Firefish - not sure if I'd get the regular ones or purples ones

That's pretty much it. Low load I think. Oh and a Yellow Tail damsel. yes - my wife loved our little guy in the FOWLR before he was eaten by an uninvited lionfish. Long story.

I know i know the terror of the damsel. But being added last, and in a big tank, I hope his bullying will be limited (famous last words!).

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

No tang??!?!?!
pnoy's fish are outstanding if I hit the lotto we can try to match it
Still it is a pretty cool list.

How soon are you going to start buying fish?

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

I was thinking of getting some regular anthia and using photoshop to make them blotchy...do you think that would work?

i'm waffling on the tang - if I get one - it will be last in the tank. They are prolific eaters and poopers and while I have food ready (frag swap raffle!)- I kinda feel like I should have a skimmer in place before the big fish get added.

Plus I was meaning to ask you for some cheato...my sump is empty and looking for some green! I don't have anything to trade (some magnetic black sand?) so let me know via pm what you want for a small ball.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Well they have quickly become my favorite fish if you couldn't tell. But I hear you on the poop thing I was fairly (no super impressed) by the size the poop from the Naso. OK will redirect the subject a bit.
Maybe a Kole or Tomini for a slightly smaller bioload? Anyway like you the rest of my bioload is pretty small and I would like to think my mechanical and biological filters are pretty decent. Maybe you can add it later with your friendly damsel?

I know you are waiting for a skimmer to come your way at a good price so maybe the timing will match.

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Well - brief update on the black sand question. I posted a question to the good Dr. Ron Shimek over on the MD forum and he provided the following answer:


I also have black sand in my tank, it presents a very natural appearance. As regards the magnetic sand, as the saying goes, "Negative perspiration!" It is not a problem at all. Some of the sand grains are the black mineral hematite - which is an iron oxide that is magnetic. It is also largely insoluable and will not harm your tank.

Black hematite sand is a common enough component of many of the world's shallow water zones that some animals have adapted a need for it. In the Pacific NW, the newly metamorphosed juveniles of a species of sand dollar sequester hematite particles in their guts, apparently to function similar to a SCUBA diver's "weight belt" and keep them from being blown away in the currents.


So I am very happy not to have to siphon out the 80#s of sand and will resume course with adding another bag of sand. Yay!

Hey James - question for you - I've always known tangs to be grazers and just wondering if you have any feather dusters? I have a TON of them (thanks to nyfireman) on my LR that I'd like to keep happy. I was just wondering if a grazer like a tang would irritate the dusters too much. Anyways - it may be though that I will pick the tang over the humble dusters- but I'd like to know if they coexist or not. These are "bite-size" dusters...lol.

 

[calaxa]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Tangs won't bother the feather dusters. I have over 100 in my tank.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Haven't seen it yet. I have a few little ones and one good sized one haven't seen any problems so far. Both tangs are becoming more and more social, naso is just about eating out of my hand again. Glad to hear about your sand...you would think they might give you a little warning though. So many pumps have magnets, or just cleaning magnets for that matter.

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

JR - it was nice to meet you again. Next time maybe we'll have more time to break bread or something. I'm sure my kids would love to run around with yours.

Anyways - only update is that I set up my Titanium Ground Probe. Does everyone have one of these things? never used on before and it seems rather simplistic...but anyways I'm plugged in!

I'm going to post this one the other 120 tanks - but I'm curious - how much evap everyone goes thru?

Right now I believe I'm losing 2 gallons a day. My tank is on the cooler side (speaking of which I got to go buy me a thermometer...tsk tsk.)

 

[JRWOHLER]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

You get to go to AO and buy a 2 dollar thermometer and then proceed to spend your budget on other stuff....oh wait that is what I did.

I loose about a gallon a day...think as the furnace is on more it is increasing a bit.

Certainly we should get together...we can plan a tank warming party.

 

[Baxreefs]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

I am a nut for monitoring tempurature throughout the system. I have many digital termometers one it each vessel of the system, plus ambient temps in the office and fish closet. My situation is a bit extreme as my tank is not in a house but in my very industrial office space. During the winter, ambient temps can swing 15-20 deg in my office. And in the heat of the summer getting it into the high 70s can be a real challenge. So the system equipment has to deal with that. Hopefully, your house is a bit more stable

That said, I average 2-3 gallons a day of evap. That can spike to 5 g during seasonal temurature swings when it is either too hot or cold in the office and I am not there to adjust the ambient temps.

 

[Phyl]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

When we had the sump under our tank we didn't evaporate much at all 1/2-1g a day, if that. Now that it is in the basement we're evaping 6g a day summer or winter, probably mostly from the fall from upstairs combined with the fan over the sump for CO2 removal.

 

[Hawkeye]

Re: AGA 120 (very few pictures and lots of dull writing)

Well it's been 4 weeks since LR was introduced into the tank. not a whole lot of things in there - the usual cast of mini brittle stars, asterina stars (which I've been removing), a few bristle worms, a feather duster rock (i call it that because it's literally covered with them like the way a cantalope is covered in veins), and before I could take a pic - a very small shrimp. I'll have to ask nyfireman if he ever had any shrimp in his tank.

So today's topic - my PSEG bill arrived.

Based on the change from what I used to pay - so far the increase is about $100.
Not bad at all. Of course I've been running pretty lean since i don't have much set up. Anyways - $100 is still $100 - especially in these lean times and I am not trying to brag that it isn't a lot of money. But I knew going into this hobby that besides paying for the obvious (salt, water) - there are other costs to being in this hobby. As more equipment gets added, I'm sure the costs will rise further. I believe I've been able to keep the wattage down by paying more for the equipment up front.

Tarpon pump 175 watts
Tunze Pumps x3 152 watts
Solaris Light (250 watts estimated)
Heaters x2 200 watts (i think i might have to bump this up).
Phosban Reactor 5 watts
Total watts: 782 watts per hour
Total hours: 24 hrs per day or 720 hr per month.

This calculator is pretty neat - http://www.handymath.com/cgi-bin/electric.cgi?submit=Entry

Next up:
Orca re-circ Skimmer (thanks for the tip jrwohler)
Kalk reactor
Auto Top off (been real lazy here).