robe

If I may..... a series of questions to think about............... Between two skimmers with the same reaction chamber size and foam tube: What do you get if you have a skimmer of lets say 10 litre reactor chamber and have an air water mixture of 50/50 as compared to a skimmer with a 30/70 air to water mixture? Will you get better skimming with the 50/50 or 30/70 ratio? If you have a 50/50 mixture in your reactor chamber do you think you have a high throughput on your skimmer? waht is the volume of water going through your skimmer.. On the otherhand if you have a 30/70 mixture you have more throughput through the skimmer. based on the amount of water passing through the chamber. Now which do you think is more efficient? The only thing that i can conclude is that pumping more air into the skimmer does not address how good a skimmer will be. It proves nothing! So what if a skimmer can draw more air into the reaction chamber, it still does not mean that it is better than the skimmer that draws lesser air. It may be the other way around..... The only thing it addressed is throughput.

Again I'm intrigued by all this review and I guess I don't have experience in using any of the phosphate eliminators or comparing them against each other. I don't test phosphates anyway...... (all I do is look at my SPS whether they are doing well or not, growing or retarded) Max, since you have daringly put yourself in the line to preach Rowaphos why not post the test results online and let the reefers judge for themselves on the test results or better yet why not conduct a test scientifically here in Singapore. How it may be done: 1. Create a phosphate laden container of water and have it tested by a laboratory for phosphate content 2. Measure equal volumes of the water in containers 3. Measure equal weight of phosphate remover (from the various brands available in singapore - note that the sample should be based on weight not volume) 4. Put the phospate remover media into a glass cylinder or pipe or any material that is know to be inert and does not leach phospate . The container should be equal in diameter and lenght. The bottom should have a sieve to prevent the media from dropping 5 Pour the water into the column holding the phospate remover. Please note the phospate content should be higher that what the remover can absorb for the given volume of water. ( the remover should be activated by pouring only hot deionised water - again no gas stoves should be used to heat the water) 6. The water poured through the media should be collected in a glass container again ) container must be cleaned prior to test to remove residue from surface (no detergent to be used to clean any of the containers- detergent contains organo phospates) 7. The water collected from each brand of remover should then be analysed for phosphate content. 8. the water sample that has the least amount of phospate is the winner... Since this involve some cost, maybe the various LFS touting their products can defray the costs of the test as well as provide the sample for testing. (All media remover sample should come from a previously unopened off the shelf stock) Care for any phosphate remover distributor or dealer to take the taste test???????

I forgot something..... for Beckett skimmers the biggest pump to be used is an Iwaki MD55

Hi Max, Since you put it so succinctly how Delteq outperforms the rest of the skimmers in the market why not conduct a real test based on actual performance. On behalf of the Beckett skimmers fans in Singapore and all the needle wheel skimmers fans, there should be a challenge between skimmers see who can outlast the rest.... here's how it could be done..... 1. Find equivalent rated skimmers (tank volume) from each type or brand (Beckett single injector, direct injector type (AquaC Ev240) , Deltec (needle wheel), H&S (needle wheel) - The logistics "Max would be able to provide both the AquaC and Deltec, for the beckett skimmers (need some volunteer -hmmm Danano you have not used your new skimmer yet right?) For other branded needle wheel ( Any H&S or Euroreef owners who is willing to volunteer their skimmer for the test?)" 2. Install the skimmers and configure it to skim from the same tank and at the same time 3. Load the tank onetime with whatever bioload 4. Start skimming - (note all skimmer collection cups should be washed with dishwashing liquid and rinse very well to remove any residue of organic material layer on its surface) 5. Run continuously 24 x 7 (skimmer cup will be emptied and cleaned by rinsing of water only at the same time, meaning they will be shutoff the same time, cleaned and restarted) The Winning Skimmer!!! How the skimmers will be judge: 1. The skimmers will be judge on the basis of how much skimmate they can produce over the test period - thick dark liquid and sludge 2. The best skimmers will be the one that is still skimming after the others have stopped skimming - (this means the skimmer can still suck out those waste even though the others cannot) 3. Best throughput - the skimmer that can process the largest water volume per unit of time So Max care to conduct the trial on behalf of the Sgreefclub and prove what you have implied ? Volunteers! Please help by lending your skimmers for this trial! Hep Hep Hurray!!!!!

In condensers it is more efficient to draw the air from the other side of the coil and through the coil and out from the fan side. That means the fan ahould suck in air from the condenser heat exchanger fins. There is a more even air ditribution throughout the condenser whereas most chiller design seems to push air out through the coils which is less effective. I don't know why they never learn from commercial air conditioning systems? IF they have followed commercial style air conditioning we could be saving some money by hving a more efficient condensing unit.

The ph controller should be in the tank instead of the reactor. The controller is to prevent the tank ph from going too low. I have never used a controller in my reactor. I just drip 24x7 and the tank ph is around 7.9 in the morning and around 8.3 -8.4 by the time the lights go off at night. There are a lot of reefers in RC who does not use controllers as well. In a well aerated tank the ph dip should not be a problem. The effluent should be dropped to a high flow turbulent section to enable the excess CO2 to dissipate. The best point of introduction should be in the output of the overflow pipe .

Has anyone tried eductors in their tank whether it's DIY or original?

Probably one thing that most people left out is turnover of water through the skimmer. Why most people who are into SPS uses beckett type skimmer is turnover. You need to have a higher turnover in order to clean the water faster. I have used a venturi RSB skimmer before and using an Eheim 1060 at 2200 lph. The output from the skimmer is at most a 1/3 of the eheim rated flowrate. It cannot even come close to my DIY beckett in terms of skimmate production and throughput using a 3000 lph Halida pump. The becketts foam riser tube is 3 inches compared to an RSB's 1.5 inch (400% bigger area) For a needle wheel I cannot comment as I have not tried but maybe those who have it can comment on the throughput of water out of lets say an H&S or Euroreef. The original beckett skimmer designers rated their skimmers in terms of how much water it can turnover in an hour.

Hi Joe, I'm planning a 4' x 3' x 26" with no internal overflow. Now looking for a tank maker that can do fully customised tank at a reasonable cost and able to drill 2.5 inch holes in glass... Robe

why don't you order from Amazon directly?

The frags will be migrating to a new tank in the coming months....so that they have more room for growth. That frag took some time to start its encrusting probably adjusting to the new environment but once it starts, it can grow rapidly.

Hi, DO you know any Mares authorised service centre here who can provide original parts? Thanks! Robe

note the lower right corner frag..... one of the remaining survivor from Tanzy's tricolor. It took a long time to encrust and grow.....

march 04

the 3 month old frag way back in aug 03

my gold maxima with electric blue stripes. The pic not too good though with the light reflection

My input on the RSB classic which I used way back from 2000 to 2002. In a way it is a good design as compared to others way back then but it is good only for at most a 3 foot tank especially if you have heavy bioload or keeping SPS. I replaced it with a DIY beckett skimmer which can put out double the skimmate over the same period using a 3000 li/hr pump. Whereas the Berlin have stopped skimming , the beckett can still put out skimmate during a test I made in my tank. After that the RSB has been delegated to my cupboard when I maybe decide to keep a nanotank someday. In my experience it is good for around 300 litre tank only.

I'm still observing the effect of the Coral plankton as I have never fed my corals before. A few more weeks time then I will be able to say something that will be more credible.... I have never been a believer in feeding SPS so this will be a test of my belief as well....

IMO whether the effluent from a CR can be as high a 7 or as low as 6.5 depends a lot on the reactor media. Maybe Tanzy can give his input as to what ph levl will a 100% pure calcium carbonate media will start to dissolve. On another aspect, if you have more surface area in the media that you use then the corresponding effluent will have a higher concentration of dissolved carbonate if let say you have two similar calc reactor and running the same volumetric flow rate (recir pump). The more surface area exposed to the low ph liquid the better and that's the difference between a fluidised reactor from Delteq versus the conventional design. A media that is constantly churned by the water circulation will have more surface contact, while a media in the conventional reactor is normally static and flow through the media is limited as channelling will occur as the reactor media settles down. The effect of channelling will mean that the water flow can only maybe contact 60% of the media surface versus a fluidised reactor which may have as much as 80%. This is hypothetic but if you want to go down to exact characteristics you need a supercomputer that can recreate and simulate fluid dynamics across irregularly shaped and sized particles..... Efficiency is dictated by how much the reactor media comes in contact with the recirculated low ph water. On the output ph of the effluent, it will depend on the type and characteristic of the media......just my thoughts

Most 5 x 2 x 2 tanks in the market uses 12 mm glass as well as some 6 x 2 x 2. I'mm planning to build a 4 x 3 x 2.5 tank as well.

You might want to consider transmittability of light through the thick glass as normal glass have a greenish tint. The thicker the glass the more obvious the tint. Unless its float glass it will also have imperfection in its surface that can distort images on the other side.

Just make sure you use an acid neutralizer in your chiller after use.

CO2 attacks silicone thus do not use silicone tubing for your tanks . Use the normal pvc plastic air hose. For regulator you can use a normal oxygen gas regulator with a Nupro Swagelok precision needle valve. ($60 for the regulator and $100 for the valve) The solenoid brand is Burkert and is German made. Very reliable.

after 16 months

Here's mine though not the latest