New member from across the Pond!

[philldw]

Hi,
I have just registered as a new member.
My name is Dave and I live in Havant, Hampshire, United kingdom, and have been involved with marine fishkeeping for about 20 years (on and off)
Things sure have changed in that time with marine reef fishkeeping!
It was under gravel filters, then high tech trickel filters, now most people have a variance on the Berlin or refugium systems.
My tank is currently an acrylic cube shap holding about 60 litres of water.
It has some live rock & artificial rock in it for decor.The fish are one picasso trigger (about 3ins long), two black & white clowns, and an iridescent wrasse.Filtration is a CPR Bak Pak which I had to modify as using the venturi was like listening to a sherman tank coming up a gravel road! I stopped using this and enlarged the hole in the skimmer cop and fed an airline through using the skimmer chamber with a limewood aerator. The biological chamber also houses the heater thermostat.
There are several problems I have found with this acrylic tank, maybe because it has an 'enclosed' top as part of the structure with some holes in it for access, that any 'hang ons' such as protein skimmers create a lot of vibration and therefore noise. Also there is a rapid spread of coraline growth which is difficult to remove without scratching. I remember reading somewhere that Julian Sprung has made refrence to this as acrylic has minute 'holes' that coraline growth can get stuck to and difficult to remove! I have left it on the back & a blind side of the tank.
Currently I am debating on setting up a nano tank after reading the excellent 'Coral' magazine Vol 1 Issue 2, also our recent edition of 'Practical Fishkeeping' had a good article on the same subject.
or...get a four foot tank after all!
If there any members in the UK I would be pleased to hear from You! Dave

[Rougiem]

to RS Dave!

I have a CPR bak pak too. Mine is not bad on the noise except when a snail moves next to my max jet pump! What modifications did you make to it?

As far as cleaning coraline off the acrylic, I have had success using a mag float to take it off without scratching but it takes some time.

Do you have any pics of your tank?

Cheers!

[Woodstock]

Welcome to Reef Sanctuary Dave~~~

[Cougra]

Welcome to Reef sanctuary. We do have a few members from the UK and hopefully they'll join in and say Hello as welll.

[sarah]

to RS dave...im from nottingham in the uk. Nice to have anothe uk member here .

Sarah xxx

[KimPossible]

Welcome to Reef Sanctuary!
Glad to have you.

[philldw]

Hi.
The modifications I did with the CPR Bak Pak were as follows:
(1) I could not use the existing pump as I bought the unit from the USA via Ebay and the voltage was set to 110v and we use 240V in the UK. I replaced it with a minijet 1200 but kept the 'cone' that was part of the venturi in the intake otherwise the the output vents lots of bubbles hence noise!
(2) I enlarged the hole in the skimmer lid so that I could feed an airline down in to the skimmer chamber and attach a lime wood aerator and attached this to a sperate airpump. This gives me the 'agitation' I need to retain the protein skimming facility .
(3) I removed some of the bio bale supplied for the biological chamber so that I could fit in a heater/thermostat.This gives me more space (albeit small) in the tank.
I do not have any photos lacking the digital facilty on my pc. thanks! Dave

[Rougiem]

Thanks Dave!

I have the same pump in mine. I would take all the bio bale out of there if I were you. It only serves as a nitrate trap. Mine works great without it.

Cheers!

[philldw]

Hi,
i have removed the bio bale from the biological chamber & the poly filter need a change too.I will replace that as I think they are good at removing impurities.I thought i would look at the pump at the same time, dropped the venturi cone, and have spent the last 30 mins gropping for it amongst the rock! What's the old saying ..'if it ain't broke don't fix it!'....yeah!
I am due to do a water cahnge this week so will measure the nitrate afterwards as its always been a problem despite using R.O water & regular changes...
I get my R.O from a franchise outlet called Maidenheads which is about a mile away on my bike with 2 containers in the panniers that hold about 10 litres each....the place is up a steep hill so have to get off and walk some of the way...great ride coming down with the extra weight!
good brakes required! till later.... dave

[Woodstock]

I've had a chore getting my nitrAtes from 20 ppm to < 10 ppm over the last week.. I vacuumed my sump, overflow for starters...then did a 30% water change daily after blowing the rocks. My tank is uber clean now!!

...but my arms and back could use a massaging~~

[Craig Manoukian]

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

[tally]

hi ya dave, have you tried to put photos in your gallery yet? i've tried a few times and it keeps saying file is too big so i put the photos down to thumbnail and it still wont work, i'm not the best person in the world when it comes to computers either. thanks dave in warrington.

[philldw]

Hi, we do have a digital camera but a problem with our computer software. we have arranged to have it fixed in the near future so hopefully i will be able to do so soon.....Dave

[Woodstock]

Originally Posted by tally

hi ya dave, have you tried to put photos in your gallery yet? i've tried a few times and it keeps saying file is too big so i put the photos down to thumbnail and it still wont work, i'm not the best person in the world when it comes to computers either. thanks dave in warrington.

Try reading this --> Uploading photos