Digi Forest Resurrection

[Chrisfish]

Hi and thank you! My tank is a custom 1" thick acrylic 100G half Cylinder. It was made by a friend of mine.

Really beautiful!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Loving the comeback bro!

 

[Electrobes]

My first surgery in my life... [emoji29]

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

My first surgery in my life... [emoji29]

Dang did I miss something? You ok?

 

[dbl]

My first surgery in my life... [emoji29]

No offense Christian...but the last time I saw you, you looked a little better:eek:. Praying everything goes/went well today and for a speedy recovery. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help....David

 

[Electrobes]

Ha-ha, my wife posted this!!! Dang it, it was just a bunion correction and tendon elongation surgery.

It went smoothly but anesthesia did a number on my stomach.

Thanks all!! The worst part is not being able to put any weight on my foot, leaving me without being able to work on my tank!

[emoji29]

 

[Electrobes]

Though not reef related, I found this amusing. It's 4:30am, I'm in pain and my awesome wife is helping me move into a new position to relieve some pain. She also convinced me to take a prescribed pain reliever, and though reluctant (I've only ever taken percuset once in my life for a finger accident and it freaked me out.. One and only hard drug I ever took) I took it.

While taking it, I looked on my phone and joked with my wife about posting as me in the forum about my foot surgery. She said she didn't do it.. That it was probably me.

Apparently when they gave me drugs during pre op, I was a "happy sappy drunk". I don't drink much ever (I get really sick easily with it), but when I do, again I am a happy sappy drunk. The best part? I remember none of this... Just the nausea post surgery.

She left me alone with the phone for a while and I was happy and sappy there too. The nurses and docs thought it was hilarious. My wife kept trying to shush me in embarrassment!

 

[Electrobes]

So despite still being temporarily cripple, after sitting and staring at my tank, enough was enough. While I can't do everything I want right now, I did get a good few things done:

- Made and started using my own filter socks
- Cleaned out my sump when I FINALLY completed a water change.
- I added Matrix to my sump. I made a movable wall to guide the water through the Matrix holding basket, after passing through the filter socks.
- I replaced my Temp probe, but still need to install my new pH probe.
- I cleaned out the skimmer
- I finally got most of the tank walls cleaned.. Just can't do the bottom until both my legs are back in action.

Things I want to do, but can't yet:

- I want to remove my temporary Tunze 6095 (On the right, when facing the tank) and the return output, and replace it with my 1" Sea Swirl I recently bought and cleaned out.

- I want to move my entire dosing setup. I want the three outputs closer to the return, after the skimmer not before it.

Here are some more terrible pics:

 

[Electrobes]

I forgot to mention that the rock in the middle with the Green Digis will have a slight change. The left side of the rock will be stripped of the Green Digis, and replaced with Orange Digis.

The empty rock on the right will hopefully be populated with a Yellow Digi, as soon as I can obtain it.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

It's on it's way! Looking good!

 

[Electrobes]

Thanks Rev!

Today, I am thankful for having back ups! My old psk-2500 skimmer pump stopped working. I was a little panicked as its hard for me to pull out the skimmer with my cripple situation.

I had to run to Lowe's and get an adapter to fit my back up pump, a brand new PSK-1000 with needle wheel.

Though initial micro bubbles are pretty bad, I am surprised at how different it is from my old pump. I like it so far.

Of course, when I went to inspect the old pump, it looked flawless. I plugged it in again after a minor brushing and bam! It kicked back on! Oh well!

 

[dbl]

...I plugged it in again after a minor brushing and bam! It kicked back on! Oh well!

Well then Christian, the positive side is you still have a back-up! Wishing you a speedy recovery.

 

[Electrobes]

So today is a nice relaxing day (Supposed to stay off foot), but being near my reef, I figure I should get some other long overdue things done. I just finished calibrating my Kamoer Doser (3 head Doser):

- Pump 1 (Alk) was pretty spot on after two months of not being checked. It was off by a total of 4mL.

-Pump 2 (Cal) was the exact same as Pump 1, go figure.

-Pump 3 (Vinegar) was waaaaaaaay off, by a whopping 20mL total. I have no idea why this is, so I readjusted my dosing to total 28mL per day and will eventually climb back to 40mL. Don't want to freak the tank out.

I want to share a cheap but great purchase I made a couple weeks back, that I use a lot now (calibration included):

It was 20 bucks on Amazon, a set of 7 plastic graduated cylinders. It suits a lot of needs for reef stuff!

 

[Electrobes]

Happy to report my tests came out fairly well:

Alkalinity: 6.4 (Readjusted to 7.2ish)

Calcium: 425 (Where I want it)

Magnesium: 1400 (A tad high but whatever)

 

[Electrobes]

So a package just arrived from Amazon, and here is one of the items:

As some of you know, I carbon dose using Vinegar. I don't do anything else, dosing wise minus Alk and Cal. So why am I using Prodibio products? I should point out that I am only using BioDigest, and that's it. I just wanted the Bacteria of theirs. As for the reason for now adding this bacteria, it was after reading this article:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/3/aafeature

It's pretty long and can get pretty techie or theory, but based on my interpretation it has, at least for now, convinced me to give "variable bacterias" idea a try. I chose Prodibio because I only have to dose it once every two weeks. I don't feel I need Bioptim as I already provide the carbon source via Vinegar.

I bought a 30-pack, enough to last me about 15 months. When I try something, I do try to be complete about it!

 

[Electrobes]

This morning was busy!

Went to my appt today for the doc to finally tell me I can start walking again! Great news!

Aquarium-wise here's what's just been happening and done:

- My Apex was warning me all night to what I thought was a power outage.. In my sleepiness I just ignored it. Turns out my heater broke and the tank dipped to 73.8F! Ack! I've since replaced my heating element and its slowly getting back to 78F.

- I replaced my Temp and pH probe. It was definitely due. All has been calibrated and we are good to go.

- I purchased a used Avast CS-1 from a fellow reefer. I want to try it out for several reasons: a) The pump is part of the skimmer (below it) making space more available in my sump if I need it (think a Phosban reactor for emergencies). B) It comes with the swabbie, but I don't know if it will fit of not.. We'll see. If it does I will try it out, and make my own skimmate locker.

Future things:

- Now that I can start walking, I should be able to consider installing the Sea Swirl soon. I am going to hard plumb the return to it, to better free up room behind the sump.. For either the skimmate locker or the dosing reorganization. I'll have to think about it.. Or tinker.

Sump walls are a bit messy here...

 

[ksfulk]

- I purchased a used Avast CS-1 from a fellow reefer. I want to try it out for several reasons: a) The pump is part of the skimmer (below it) making space more available in my sump if I need it (think a Phosban reactor for emergencies). B) It comes with the swabbie, but I don't know if it will fit of not.. We'll see. If it does I will try it out, and make my own skimmate locker.

Firstly, things are looking up! I thought the digi forest was a cool concept and have been lurking on your tank threads for a while. Cant wait until this gets growing!

I run the Avast CS-3 on my system, and I love the skimmer. I have the swabbie and large skimmate locker on mine as well. I was running a Vertex 150- Omega before hand and while it did a good job, the CS-3 pulled out gunk that looks just like black tar. Quite amazing. Setup with a pressure switch that kills the skimmer if the switch closes (and the locker is full) and I get a text from my Apex. Really nice piece of equipment, Im sure you'll love it! :D

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Glad you're getting better bud!

 

[Electrobes]

Firstly, things are looking up! I thought the digi forest was a cool concept and have been lurking on your tank threads for a while. Cant wait until this gets growing!

I run the Avast CS-3 on my system, and I love the skimmer. I have the swabbie and large skimmate locker on mine as well. I was running a Vertex 150- Omega before hand and while it did a good job, the CS-3 pulled out gunk that looks just like black tar. Quite amazing. Setup with a pressure switch that kills the skimmer if the switch closes (and the locker is full) and I get a text from my Apex. Really nice piece of equipment, Im sure you'll love it! :D

Hey just the person I want to ask some questions to! Out of curiosity does your skimmer cup drain ever get clogged while going to the skimmate locker?

I'm wondering is the swabbie ever gets chunks that floats up and over into the cup.. To eventually clog the drain?

 

[Electrobes]

I forgot to mention that today is the first water change day using my new salt: Aquaforest Reef Salt (NOT the probiotics salt).

It mixed clear and so far so good! I change two gallons every couple hours during the day for a total of ten gallons (Once a week).

I have no idea if the salt is better than IO, I bought it for several reasons:

- Its parameters better match my tank than IO does. Lower Alk, slightly higher Cal, normal Mag.

- Though I don't get the bucket with the salt, AF is pretty cheap and definitely competitive with IO in terms of price.

And here's my saltwater mixing bin for giggles (I use a WP-25 to mix the water, its the only Jeboa product I have.. I have trust issues.) :