Blog Comments

I always just put the waste down the drain. Remember you are outputting the waste of the cleaned water into the waste so the waste TDS will be about double what it is before you ran it through the RO/DI unit. I personally would not drink it though some folks do. and If I won't drink it then I would not give it to my pets. If you produce any amount of RO water the waste will become a big pain to empty unless you have big containers. I run about 5 gallons per day so that about 20 gallons of waste per day so you can see how it can become cumbersome to controll. I would try to come up with a process that is more automated than not. My system has a waterline that is always on, and has a timer that I turn on every day or two for two hours. the RO water goes into a 55 gallon container that is sealed as Deionized water is a magnet for contaminants out of the air, and the waste just goes directly down the drain. then the RO water is used for my auto topoff system.

-SR

I have one of Marcs units and it has a little deal in line that looks just like this.



It is an auto shutoff and when you shut off the valves on the output side of the system the water shuts off for the whole system. If you have something that looks like this then when you shut off the output of your system it should all shut down. If not you may want to get one.

I only run about 8 to 10 gallons of DI water at a time so I pull the output and drop it in the washer and wash clothes with it. As far as plants and stuff you have removed a lot of particulate and all the chlorine which is likely better for them anyway. As far as your dogs, I have no idea. . . guess would depend on what the output levels for tds is at. I know that the EPA doesn't allow anything over 500 for human consumption.

As far as storage time. . . I have no idea.

The best reflectors I've found for PC lights are from www.ahsupply.com
They're 4" wide per lamp though, so make sure you have enough space.

If they was no official announcement made, does that mean that you two may do special one off shows. If not get him on a reef addicts pod cast, and an beer review.

Yes, that is the correct pump. I would pump the output back to the display side.

http://www.petstore.com/Tom_Aquatics...AQFIOV-vi.html

This pump melev?

So one end attach to the overflow box and dump the other end into the sump or tank?

No, no official announcement was made. It just faded away. Evan is still alive and well, focused on his marriage and career.

It isn't a siphon you can count on. It will help remove trapped air and then later water, but if the powerhead is exposed to air, that air will flow back via the tubing into the overflow and drain the inverted U section, breaking the siphon you rely on. I'd suggest you use an AquaLifter pump instead. It is $11 online, uses 3w of power, and should do the job nicely provided it doesn't suck in little bits of junk that could clog the diaphragm. This is what CPR uses for their overflow boxes.

just out of curiosity, what light fixture were you looking to get. also what kind of corals are you looking to keep. Like what sedor said in this hobby you really do get what you pay for. for the most part you cant expect a high light acro to do well under pc's or even under low bulb quantity t5 fixtures. so my suggestion would be to really figure out what you want to be able to keep and base your light off of that. even if it takes a little longer to get

It will pull some water, but not a significant amount, and that will also represent a small part of your overall flow anyway.

Its not that it wouldn't work, but in this hobby you get what you pay for and there is very rarely a product that happens to be a quarter of the price but performs the same than the higher end fixtures. If your just looking to light your tank and not grow anything to intense then i'd say sure go for it, but you'll likely end up replacing the unit in the near future either because your not satisfied with it, or it simply stops working. When you invest in a higher end product you get something well build that is going to last you a long time and probably last someone else a long time when you decide to sell it. Sometimes its better to just start putting some cash aside and save for what you really want than to just get the thing that fits the budget at the moment, but that is just my two cents.

its a standard 55g so thats 18 inches deep

t5 output per wattage is better than power compacts. how deep is you tank?

Enough for a cheap used light to work better I am sure. And you can polish aluminum on your own easily just take a little time and elbow grease. Even a white painted surface would probably work better than what you have now.

Yup, way easy...I know folks who polish their own for homemade MH reflectors.

regular aluminum? I was looking at polished aluminum but it was so expensive. Do you think i can polish the aluminum good enough ?

To me it looks like the reflectors are galvanized steel rather than aluminum. But it is just flat material so I would think about something like this if I were in your shoes, http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant...915&top_cat=60 then polish it up a bit and cut to fit your needs. If it does have a couple angles put into it they can be made by clamping the piece to a table and clamping a piece of wood to the sheet that hangs off the side of a table to make a rudimentary break, it should allow you to get pretty close to the original angles.

not that I ever found....Melev? Care to shed light on that

Was there ever an official announcement about what happened to Reefcast? Or Evan for that matter?

Hi chbix, and thank you for writing. I'll be watching for your entries as well.