IanJ

You may want to check out the Honda Jazz, more economical than all thats been mentioned, better to drive, more practical etc etc

Kh 5, Ca 500+ reducing from 700, N03 10-20PPM. Suggest you read up on keeping SPS, put into practice and get your tank in order before you try any more frags

Alentino I have been using small powerheads for this. Much quicker and effective. In all my years i have never found a negative from using this method

Anthony Nice looking tank. From the pic that shows you skimmer, it looks like it may benefit from a higher throughput

Just got home and found the stream hanging in the tank, the clamps nowhere to be seen. Since i will be travelling for 2 weeks i urgently need the replacement clamp. Part No's 3000.24 and 3000.243 Does anyone know of a LFS who is stocking spares?

All depends on the reflector. My compacts are said to give a 40 inch spread 10 inches above the surface

250W is 250W, makes no difference if the bulb is 10000K or 20000K, only wavelength difference, same heat output. Try the fan, for 1 MH you may well be ok

Maybe a little close to the water. Try 8-10 inches for 250W MH, should be just fine. My sps are no higher than 5/6 inches from the surface

I have used several chillers over the last years ranging from Teco to Haliea. Due to the unexpected demise of the 880 Haliea I needed to find a new suitable chiller. Tank is 60x27x24, sump, 854 watts of lights, approx 300 watts of pumps. From previous experience I knew that a 0.5hp chiller would not be able to cope with my tank heat input. The chiller feed/return is not ideal but has to suffice, feeding and returning to the sump. After approaching Pacific Cool there appeared to be only 2 options, a not powerful enough 0.5hp and the expensive to run 1.25hp. Pacific Cool kindly lent me a 0.5hp model to test my view that 0.5hp would not be suitable. The chiller was very quite, low heat output, but as expected could not hold the tank temp constant with the lights on. After further discussion and my objection to using a 1.25hp model, they agreed to make me a custom 0.75hp model with a larger heat exchanger. The advantage of such a set up is a running load quite similar to the 0.5 model, but the compressor uses the environmentally friendly R134A gas. I have now run a few tests on this model and I am satisfied with the results so far. Since I feed from and return to the sump there is a temperature differential of 2 DegC from the chiller reading and the tank temp when the chiller is cooling. When the desired temp is obtained and the chiller switches off the chiller reading stabilizes to the actual tank temp. The chiller is feed by a Ehiem 1060 (2280 Lit/hr) the sump/tank return is Iwaki MD55(4200 lit/hr?).To compensate for the temp differential I set the chiller start temp to 27 DegC and the cut off temp 24 DegC, this gives an actual tank temperature of 27 DegC on start up and 26 DegC on cut off. With all the lights and pumps running, from 26 DegC it takes 65 min for the tank to rise 1 DegC and the chiller switches on. The chiller switches off approx 90-120 mins later with the tank at 26 DegC. These set times allow a reasonable chiller running time so the room does not get too hot(keeps the wife happy) and a very stable tank temp(keeps me happy). It’s a little noisier than the 0.5 model, but not so intrusive. For those of you who look for a chiller between the usual 0.5 and 1.25hp models, you may want to contact Pacific Cool since this may become a standard model in the range. My thanks to Kwok, who provided an unquestionable first class service.

Might need to change to a new chiller soon. Minimum is 0.5hp, max 1.0hp, so let me hear your views on what you think is best and why

AT, perhaps you may wish to enlighten us on which shop is run by EL, for those of us who dont know, so we may obide with your wishes Thank You

Reason it works better as a hang on is that water is being feed to the skimmer directly from the tank, prior to any pe-filter. If you dont have a prefilter than there should be no difference. The skimmer has 2 outlets which give a self levelling water level. You should never need to adjust this. If you have the 2 plastic adjustable plugs that go in the top of the water outlets, try taking them out, they really should not be necessary. If the air flow is blocked/reduced the output of the pump(water flow) increases which could give rise to overflow of the skimmer. I dont quite understand what you are saying about why the water level in the skimmer is effected by the sump level. Check the air passage first, make sure the pump is as close to the skimmer inlet as possible(mine were only a few cm) if it is too far away, the flow is higher, the air lower.

Wire, allen keys and such do no damage. The hole is several inches long and in my experience once the air inlet is restricted, hot water alone will never clear it. When badly restricted it can take quite an effort to clean it, i found it best to use a wire or allen key of a similar diameter to the passage. Take out the needle wheel and clean from the impellor side For regular maintainance it is, as suggested, useful to allow the airpipe to suck in hot water to help keep the passage clean. Its the one weakness of this skimmer.

The multi 1000, if that's the one you talk about is a great skimmer. Overpriced here, i think so also. I have used 2 of these for many years. They work best in hang-on mode but also work from the sump. Firstly there is very little to go wrong. The first thing to check is to see if the air hole in the pump is blocked. Dismantle the pump, pull off the air pipe and push a thin piece of wire through the hole in the pump to ensure it is clean.(this needs to be done every few months or so for peak performance) The next step is to keep the pump immersed at a depth so that the length of connection pipe is as short as possible to the skimmer. This reduces pressure and increases air flow. There is not much else to do, my guess its a blocked air hole

Before rushing out to buy and install an R/O unit, you need to think about the supply pressure. Most of the water will go to waste if the pressure is not sufficient since the water will be unable to be forced through the membrane. Working correctly the pure water to waste is about 1 to 4 or 1 to 5 In a country that will continue to increase water prices, its something to think about. The last thing to consider is that an R/O unit should run continuously for peak performance, some units have a stop valve that allows the unit to be switched off for a few days at a time. Longer, or exposure to the air causes bacteria growth on the membrane.

Joe i would stick to MH's rather than switch to all T5. No question that you can get a result with T5's, but you will find a significant drop in intensity for T5 blue bulbs over a 6 month period. If you take the replacement cost of 8 T5's vs 1 MH 250W, its no contest in my opinion. Fine to use the T5's to compliment the MH

Try 44 Kallang place, 01-02

As far as i know they are still located at Kallang, in the same building as the fourstar mattress company.

Roidan It would make sense to use the manufacturers recommended pump for any Beckett skimmer in the test, the same would also go for the feed pumps for others. Such a test is then simply evaluating how each skimmer performs under the same test conditions. Eack skimmer type should be the optimum recommended size for the volume under test. From the test results the consumer can make a decision. The total purchase costs and running cost can the be considered in conjunction with the test results and individuals can choose which one meets their expectations, in terms of result, price, running cost and sometimes of more importance, where and how such a skimmer can fit into the system.

Its the responsibility of the manufacturer to correctly rate their products. We buy skimmers on that basis. Many factors effect how good a skimmer works, size of reaction chamber, flow, salinity, collection cup length, temp, etc etc, the power consumption is not a factor since it is a constant for each design. Becketts use more powerful pumps, so what, its the above combination that you should think about, dont get hung up on power consumption.

Interesting stuff. Dont think you can really test on a power consumption basis, but only on a equal rating basis as suggested by the manufacturers. Would be interesting to see aquamedic 5000 twin(long reaction chamber) vs short and wide Deltec(2 pumps) vs equal rating beckett. Of course you can always use the most popular skimmer - Weipro- as a control

Max True, i have no figures or measurements and my purchase was on a visual basis only. However i did see them running side by side in a UK shop on the same system and listened to the (non biased, from people i trust) experience of the shop. There was not so much visual difference, the Aquamedic reaction chamber is bigger. The Aquamedic 5000baby produced a drier foam and was more hands off in operation as far as i heard from other users. 50% more air, Hmmmm There are many Deltec vs Aquamedic arguments in the UK, at the end of the day, some people swear that one is better than the other, others can not see any differences in results. Just thought prices of both Deltec and Aquamedic were rather high here in Singapore which has limited the appeal

Hi Max An early start to a subject which will bring lots of opinions. So here's mine. Deltec are great skimmers, they are the skimmer of choice in the UK, its just that they do not out perform the Aquamedic's. Take the AP850 vs the 5000baby, not much to choose between them, some people claim that the 5000baby has a optimum bubble size leading to better skimming, who really knows? Same goes between the AP600 and Multi 1000. Ive seen a few becketts and they do seem to pump in a lot of air, the question is, is the extreme turbulence really the way to attract all proteins to the surface of the bubble? Ian

Schuran are venturi and not needle wheel, build quality is first class. Aquamedic also produce good needle wheel types. In UK , its always between Deltec and Aquamedic, some circles say that the Aquamedic produces a more "ideal" bubble size. Both are good, the Deltec way too expensive here.

Weileong Whilst i was reading up on Ca reactors i remeber reading that it was not such a good idea to heavily airate the output from a Ca reactor. Cant remember all the details but its something to do with a potential reduction in the DKH and Ca levels