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 State of the Tank: (cont.) |
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‘vets’ really seemed to like. As I explained to Brent, I have to go custom because of the huge amount of flow I’ll have going through it, along with my desire to eliminate microbubbles. I also had to stay within a relatively small footprint in order for it to fit in both the room and through the door, and finally, to fill a request that it have an inclusive refugium area so I can change out my current ‘fuge to more of a frag/private viewing tank in order to hold a few things I can’t keep in the main tank. That’s all.
I sort of expected never to hear from him again but I must say he seems to be a man who likes a challenge. Not only did he get back to me, but also after just a few prototypes, he got back to me with this  . I suppose the most ironic thing here is that instead of just using one micron sock, this thing can utilize up to four! But unlike before, the sole job of the socks now is to simply control microbubbles. Therefore, they need not stay in long enough to ‘fill up’ or become nutrient sinks. Of course, my goal is to try and run the thing without any micron socks at all and hope my bubble problem is solved…talk about your Holy Grail…but, if not, at least I’ll have the option.
So after a few more modifications, I gave Brent the go ahead, with the additional news that he could feel free to take his time. By now, you see, winter was |
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approaching quickly and the last thing I needed was a huge sump delivered in the middle of a driving snowstorm. All it was going to do was sit in my garage until spring anyway, meaning my car would have to sit outside. Though I guess I could ask my wife to sacrifice HER car…
Nah.
Better to wait. And it was while I was waiting that I noticed yet another problem beginning to develop; the efficiency of my skimmer. For the last year or two, it seems like the venturis (it has 4, by the way) were getting clogged more and more often. This would happen even after we’d take the whole thing apart and soak it in vinegar as recommended. I really can’t say what the cause was but more often than not, I’d come down in the morning to at least one clogged venturi. This, as you know, severely cuts down on the effectiveness of the unit and that could start quite a miserable chain reaction as water quality decreases.
Several reefkeepers had been trying to sell me on the effectiveness of Beckett style skimmers for awhile now but I was always of the ‘If I ain’t broke…” school of thought when it came to reefkeeping. Well, maybe now it’s finally broke. So once again, more resear…oh heck, this time it was pretty much a no-brainer: |
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