Day Off today so made a little progress. After soaking the MP40 wet side in vinegar for a few hours, hooked that up and had the same noise. Called Brett at EcoTech, he had me hold the phone up to the dry side and said there is something wrong with it. His remedy, he is sending me a new wet and dry side, I will put the old one back in the box and mail it back to him. Can't beat that with a stick. Have the quarantine tank up and running also am making water for the Top Off tank. The one thing I have learned in this whole process, when you think you have enough water made, make another 150 gallons. Kerry, had a friend tell me about the Mre Wages P. Lime, thats what I am using.
Just for My Fishtank.net
- Thread starter strout
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I use it with vinegar mixed in it. This make the Ca more soluble and you do not have all the white precipitate on the bottom of the container after its sets and settled. I use 60ml of vinegar to every 2 tsp of mrs wages per gallon. This makes the solution to full saturation. Some people use up to 100ml. To use this you prepare your water and set half of it a side because you mix all your vinegar and mrs wages into half the water then add the second half of straight ro water in the end. First you add all the vinegar first and mix it into the water, now you add all the mrs wages (kalk) and mix thoroughly. Once this is mixed you add the rest of the water and mix again. Let this set over night and its ready to go after its clear. I siphon mine out with small tubing so I do disturb the little that has settled to the bottom. I put this good clear Kalk into a separate container so I do not have to worry about disturbing the precipitate the next time I need it. Also the vinegar in the end ends up an organic carbon for your corals!!! What a bonus!! Also, I think my next batch I am going to increase to 80ml of vinegar per gallon and see how this works. Basically the vinegar makes the Ca in the Kalk mix more powerful. Before the vinegar my Alk would get higher then my Ca so I would have to dose Calcium hydroxide which I would rather only do every now and then versus a few times a month.
Edit to the above post: Before the vinegar my Alk would get higher then my Ca so I would have to dose Calcium Chloride which I would rather only do every now and then versus a few times a month.
Also note: Some people mix the Kalk and vinegar together then add it to the total amount of water. I feel either way is fine and seems to work the same for me if mixing with half the water first then adding the other half after. Its just one less container to need and clean. I feel IMO either way is OK.
Also note: Some people mix the Kalk and vinegar together then add it to the total amount of water. I feel either way is fine and seems to work the same for me if mixing with half the water first then adding the other half after. Its just one less container to need and clean. I feel IMO either way is OK.
I printed your post on the Kalk water so I can digest it when my mind is a bit clearer, thanks for that info. I used GFO in my 125g tank, could always tell when it was time to change it, algae started showing up. An Algae Scrubber will be in my future 
Ok on to the update some good some Bad Always the bad first,,, Took the 13 gallons Kalk water I made yesterday and put in my nifty Top Off tank, took the 32 Brute container I made the Kalk water in, back to the kitchen, came back to turn the Top Off Tunze system on and had water all over the place, the tank was leaking. Called my friend that made it, he will pick it up tomorrow and fix it. So on to the good
A Few new pics Went to a friends house today, picked up 2 Chromis for the tank, also got a piece of Live Rock, and a couple cups of sand. The white piece of PVC on the return line into the tank will be replace when the right part comes in.
Ok on to the update some good some Bad Always the bad first,,, Took the 13 gallons Kalk water I made yesterday and put in my nifty Top Off tank, took the 32 Brute container I made the Kalk water in, back to the kitchen, came back to turn the Top Off Tunze system on and had water all over the place, the tank was leaking. Called my friend that made it, he will pick it up tomorrow and fix it. So on to the good A Few new pics Went to a friends house today, picked up 2 Chromis for the tank, also got a piece of Live Rock, and a couple cups of sand. The white piece of PVC on the return line into the tank will be replace when the right part comes in.
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I am going to tweak the rock work on the right side of the tank a bit more, not happy with that yet, also added a well seasoned piece of live rock to the tank that I have to fit in somewhere. Have a question concerning Wrasses. When I quarantine a Wrasse that sleeps in the sand, should I put a sand bed in the quarantine tank?
Looking real GOOD. I am no Wrasses expert but, from what I hear they need the sand. Maybe you can get a shallow plastic dish and fill it with wet sand and slowly put in it the water. I would not put a sand bed in the QT. If a fish gets ich you need to be able to vac the bottom to get the spores off the bottom that get released from the fish.
I have read that the bowl trick is hit or miss, have read some people just put a pile of sand in one corner. The down side to that is you havw to keep pushing the sand back into the pile. Guess I will have to keep looking into this. I am in no hurry though, I think three Anthias will be first into the quarantine tank.
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Had a fellow reefer over to the house today, he got me all hooked up. He got my LED lights all programmed. He got the Apex Neptune hooked up wireless to my computer, he has the manifold pump in the Apex along with the return pump, skimmer and the heater and the temp probe. Couldn't set up the PH probe, Premium Aquatics was supposed to send me the two things I needed to calibrate the probe, they sent two of the same thing, no big deal, I can pick up the one I need from the LFS. The Apex is pretty cool, you want to do a water change, hit a button and everything shuts off, hit a button and its all back on, or you can just sit the timer, which he did, I have an hour to do water changes and then everything comes back on by itself. You want to feed the tank or take pics without the power heads on, hit another button. You can even buy a sensor, that will send you an email that tells you that you have water over flowing onto your floor so that you can go online and figure out what's wrong so that you can turn the right things off. Worked on my aqua scaping some today, not there yet but close.
OMG this is getting to be WAY over may head! I have been faithfully following your progress and set backs, but that doesn't mean I have understood it. My thoughts have been very elementary - like how were you going to keep all that plumbing clean and dusted (fortunately you have grandkids for a few years) and next - what happens in a a power failure or is that your next project? ( A $4000 automatic generator) I don't know where you live, but if it was in Western Washington, you'd definitely need it.
A bit of info that might come in handy.
I just made two screen tops for my new tank set up, display tank 48x30x25 and a 29g quarantine tank. The screen I ordered from BRS, the metal for the border I got from Lowe's with the 5/16 inch corner pieces. The 29g top was made first and came out great, the display tank, not so good. After I made the top on the floor and put it on top of the tank, the top was racked a bit because the 48' metal on the front and back of the top was sucked in towards the middle of the top because I was trying to get the screen as tight as I could. I went back to Lowe's to get a thicker metal, they didn't carry it. Home Depot on the other hand did have a thicker metal that took a 7/16 corner pieces. Remade the top, came out perfect.
I just made two screen tops for my new tank set up, display tank 48x30x25 and a 29g quarantine tank. The screen I ordered from BRS, the metal for the border I got from Lowe's with the 5/16 inch corner pieces. The 29g top was made first and came out great, the display tank, not so good. After I made the top on the floor and put it on top of the tank, the top was racked a bit because the 48' metal on the front and back of the top was sucked in towards the middle of the top because I was trying to get the screen as tight as I could. I went back to Lowe's to get a thicker metal, they didn't carry it. Home Depot on the other hand did have a thicker metal that took a 7/16 corner pieces. Remade the top, came out perfect.
