Topic: Reverse Osmosis system
started by: Liberal
Posted by Liberal on Feb. 14 2012,12:02 pm
My wife talked me into setting up a saltwater tank after a 15 year break from keeping fish. After setting up a new cube shaped tank we put some cheap fish in the tank to cycle it. Cheap is sort of relative term when you're buying saltwater fish since the 5 damsels I bought cost me nearly $40. About a week later the tank was cycled so we went to the fish store and picked up a Picasso trigger.Then last week my wife decided that I should get some corals, so we picked up a half dozen coral frags and as soon as the corals were put in the tank the Picasso trigger started bothering them enough that I had to put corals in a floating egg crate basket at the top of the tank. So now I've got to set up a separate 30 gallon tank just for the trigger, and considering all they do is swim and eat he'll outgrow that 30 in a year or two.
With two tanks I really need to put an RO system in. I figure I could use one of the cheap GE units at Home Despot because they will put out 11 gallons a day and I could easily get by with that amount, but I was wondering if it was cheaper for the filters if I get a bigger 50-100 gallon a day system, or do the filters just clog out after a certain number of gallons are run through it?
Anyone got any ideas on what I should use? I could do it the old fashioned way and fill 5 gallon containers at the grocery store, but just to fill the 30 gallon tank it would take 6 five gallon buckets and at 8lbs a gallons that's 240lbs of water to be toting around.
I guess another option would be to sell the Trigger and just keep one tank, but I really like the fish. He's got a lot of personality and he will eat shrimp from your hand. My girls have even named the fish, his first name was Elvis, then it was changed to Frank, and now they've settled on Pablo. Personally I don't name fish, I just call him "the trigger fish", or "the fish formerly known as Elvis".
Posted by grassman on Feb. 14 2012,5:22 pm
I used to raise tropical fish and they tend not to grow larger than what their enviroment will allow.
Posted by canvasback on Feb. 15 2012,11:35 am
I am curious as to what type of filtration you have for the aquariums? I have years of experience with freshwater and marine aquariums. I might even have some filtration and lighting for reef systems you could have...cheaply. 
Message me if you need any further info.ps...never used RO water
Posted by Liberal on Feb. 16 2012,9:44 am
I'm using a 10 gallon sump with a refugium that gets about 1/3 the water, a protein skimmer in the middle of the sump that gets the rest of the water, and then the baffles to stop any micro bubbles. I ordered an auto top off valve for the sump, and I was in the process of building a calcium and alkaline drip system, but everything I've read seems to say that the tubing clogs up quite a bit in the DIY drip systems so it might be best to just buy a dosing system. I also have 2 power filters hanging off the back until I can move the trigger because he's such a sloppy eater I was afraid he would cause an ammonia/nitrite spike. I had never heard of anyone using reverse osmosis until about 15 years ago when the owner of Saigon Aquatics in Mason City told me that using it was a good idea, and the person I got the coral frags from said it was a must have if you want a healthy reef.
Posted by hymiebravo on Feb. 23 2012,7:53 am
Neat looking fish. Filters are going to be an issue no matter what system you get.
A water filtering system might be good for everyone, too.
If the people at city hall don't drink the tap water. That should tell you something right there. lol
Posted by Liberal on May 27 2012,12:09 am
I was doing some water tests last night and realized that I had a phosphate test that worked for freshwater and saltwater, so I figured I'd test the tap water.It turned out that my tap water was between 1ppm and 2ppm and the water from the RO had less than 0.25ppm of phosphate, so I'd recommend an RO filter over our local tap water for any fish tank.
Posted by hymiebravo on Jun. 09 2012,8:30 am
QUOTE
so I'd recommend an RO filter over our local tap water for any fish tank.
I'd recommend a filter for humans as well, Albert Lea tap water isn't fit for human consumption, it's nasty.
You'd think they could offer something better all things considered. lol
Posted by mrugly on Nov. 26 2015,8:18 pm
How are your fish now? Still have two tanks?
Posted by Liberal on Nov. 28 2015,1:59 am
My trigger got huge and was eventually beaten to death by a maroon clown. I got rid of all my damsels except clowns because damsels started damaging soft corals. We have one left that has avoided every trap you can imagine. I left a fishtrap in the tank for 2 weeks and that fish never went on that side of the tank. I bought him as an iridescent green damsel but he's blue with lightblue stripes and 4 or 5 times bigger than any green damsel I've ever seen.We have two main tanks now one is a 75 gallon reef with 30 gallon sump and refugium in the basement. The other is a 40 gallon reeftank filtered with live rock and lots of current and a large UV sterilizer. It only has soft easy to care for corals but they really light up under the moonlight leds.
This is the 75 gallon reef tank.
Posted by Liberal on Nov. 28 2015,3:05 am
My wife made me move a rock into that tank that had a half dozen large maroon frilly mushrooms that I really didnt care for. The next moonlight cycle came on and the bluer lights in that tank lit those mushrooms up like they were fluorescent so I'll likely start propagating them. They're probably the easiest coral to keep and If you cut them off a rock their stalk will become a mushroom coral or sometimes a ring of small mushroom corals. If you take the mushroom and lay it out like a pizza and slice it into wedges. In 30 minutes they'll look like mushrooms again. A couple days later they'll be good as new
Here's the maroon frilley mushrooms under moonlight leds.