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Thanks. I hope it all works out. FYI, you can subscribe to a blogger, and any entries they make will result in an email notification letting you know so you can keep up to date.

I've found most of the necessary stuff, but not quite all of it.

I like the setup of this site. I wasn't aware that it was here until I was digging through some stuff on melevsreef and saw the link. Best of luck with your new tank.

Darren! Not Dustin. I'm sorry. I knew your username, but had your first name wrong. I do remember your thread, and I'm glad to see you posting over here.

You definitely need to go through your boxes to find things you need as back ups, emergencies, and regular maintenance.

Originally Posted by sedor

There is no way I could have convinced my wife to stir my tank regularly until I could get home.

Haha...She's a good one most of the time. She always says she wants to learn to take care of the tanks, but she's a bit ADD so when I try to explain the science of things, she quickly loses interest.....But, she's usually pretty willing to help with topping off and checking temperatures and such while I'm out of town.

There is no way I could have convinced my wife to stir my tank regularly until I could get home.

Originally Posted by melev

Hi Dustin. Glad to hear your wife could help out. How come she couldn't turn on the air pump? There's a battery powered one that is sold for about $15 (online) that turns on when the power turns off.

Well, we moved about 10 months ago, and much of my reefing gear is still boxed up in various places. I've tried to pull the items out that I'll be using as I come across them, but I've yet to find the battery powered pump. Suppose I'd better do that huh?

Not sure if you remember my RC thread Marc, but you posted in there quite frequently, as I'm sure you did many others. I had a 55 gallon tank at the time. Name's Darren by the way

Hi Dustin. Glad to hear your wife could help out. How come she couldn't turn on the air pump? There's a battery powered one that is sold for about $15 (online) that turns on when the power turns off.

....and a few more.

Pictures as promised. Next blog entry will have FTS and pictures of my setup. Sorry for picture quality. As mentioned, room is dimly lit, and I don't have a good photo editor to bring out true colors. Downloading PhotoShop Demo as we speak

dcombs44, Since my tank is in the office lobby I had a similar problem hiding equipment. I eventually added a cabinet beside the tank for all the stuff that won't fit in the stand. Including the sump and ATO equipment.

I'd like to snap some pictures of the zoas, as they have all opened up, but my bulb is an older Hamilton bulb. The blue really shows through in the pictures, and there's not really any ambient light in the room to whiten it up. I'm getting ready to order an Iwasaki 15K bulb that's supposed to look pretty stellar, so I may have to wait until then for pictures. I don't have a good photo editor, so it's hard to take RAW images and edit them appropriately to get true color.

Yeah. I meant to take pictures over the weekend, but got busy. I had plans to snap a few on Saturday, but got busy piddling with my top off kit and getting my phosban reactor set up and forgot. Maybe this evening......

This blog is missing something....hmm maybe pictures.

That's true, I just don't have room to hide it under my stand, so it'll be an eyesore. Maybe I can build a box around it that matches my stand to keep a somewhat clean look.

With all the tanks I've had, I've definitely concluded that I need an in wall tank to hide all of my junk and keep the look I want. Or.....a stand that's got serious room under it.

If I do run it, I think I'll set it to only run a couple minutes at a time on the ReefKeeper. That way, it can't flood my tank in the event of a switch/relay failure.

If you are going to run an ATO, you might as well run it full time as there is no real reason not to. It will save you a ton of work and prevent your return pump from running dry as well.

I've honestly enjoyed the beginnings of this tank, more than I've enjoyed any other tank thus far. I plan on setting up an ATO station with a bucket of RO/Di when I'm on vacations and such, but I can't decide if I am going to use it all the time.

I guess I need to check salinity right after a top off and then again at the end of the day, so I can see if there's enough of a swing to warrant a full time ATO.

Sounds great! I've been thinking of doing something very similar with some old small tanks I've got lying around collecting dust. I'd say an ATO is going to be a definite must on a set up that size. Otherwise you'll never be able to leave it for even a weekend.