From work to your reef: what is unique about your reefing?

cb684 · Mar 5, 2016

Broadfield said:
My organization and fabrication skills, from doing high-end car audio installs for the last 23 years, probably show up in my reefing. This was actually my very first time setting up a reef tank or doing plumbing of any sort... it was a lot of fun!

My "control center":

IMG_4008 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

Behind the control center:

IMG_5282 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

Sump plumbed with manifold etc:

IMG_5428 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

Mixing and water change station in basement:

IMG_4021 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

Great work...The attention to details is evident! I try hard but there is no comparison...

Maybe one day... LOL

cmcoker · Mar 5, 2016

Vet tech of 16yrs, have brought home interceptor(snagged it soon as heard of manufacturing issues), IV lines to drip acclimate stuff, various needles/syringes for testing, injecting pests, Potassium Chloride for diy refractometer calibration, empty blood tube boxes - make excellent test tube holders, various specimen containers.

Have also made use of the microscope at work. Just like looking at random stuff, but also found this parasite after freshwater dipping a wrasse and was able to have it IDed.

cb684 · Mar 5, 2016

cmcoker said:
Vet tech of 16yrs, have brought home interceptor(snagged it soon as heard of manufacturing issues), IV lines to drip acclimate stuff, various needles/syringes for testing, injecting pests, Potassium Chloride for diy refractometer calibration, empty blood tube boxes - make excellent test tube holders, various specimen containers.

Have also made use of the microscope at work. Just like looking at random stuff, but also found this parasite after freshwater dipping a wrasse and was able to have it IDed.

Yes, vet clinics have a lot that can be used in a reef tank! And a good microscope not only can be a lot of fun, but also can help so much to get the diagnosis of common problems we deal with in this hobby. Those are nice pictures. What was that?

DeniseAndy · Mar 5, 2016

Monogeon fluke?

cmcoker · Mar 5, 2016

cb684 said:
Yes, vet clinics have a lot that can be used in a reef tank! And a good microscope not only can be a lot of fun, but also can help so much to get the diagnosis of common problems we deal with in this hobby. Those are nice pictures. What was that?

Yeah, lots available. And other nerds who think my fish parasites are neat.. Lol
Id'd as neobenedenia sp., a monogenean flatworm

DeniseAndy · Mar 6, 2016

sorry. Was on my tablet. It corrects my spelling wrongly quite often.

cmcoker · Mar 6, 2016

DeniseAndy said:
sorry. Was on my tablet. It corrects my spelling wrongly quite often.

No apologies needed.. I always have to look up the spelling myself...

revhtree · Mar 7, 2016

Cool thread!

mikeandkerry · Mar 7, 2016

Broadfield said:
My organization and fabrication skills, from doing high-end car audio installs for the last 23 years, probably show up in my reefing. This was actually my very first time setting up a reef tank or doing plumbing of any sort... it was a lot of fun!

My "control center":

IMG_4008 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

Behind the control center:

IMG_5282 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

Sump plumbed with manifold etc:

IMG_5428 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

Mixing and water change station in basement:

IMG_4021 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

That looks amazing man
Nice,clean hope I can get mine to look like that

cb684 · Mar 7, 2016

I guess another thing I bring to my reefing is similar to what cmcoker. Actually, is the other way around in this case. I took some samples from the reef to look at the microscope a few months ago...

Unfortunately this is what I found:

Diatoms an dinoflagellates.

That is ok, I was able to win the battle in about a month with H2O2 and 3 days blackout. Despite of all the debris and the "bad news" I really like this picture. There is so much happening in our tanks we don't see...

DMan · Mar 7, 2016

My story is taking my reef experience to the work site. Im a caretaker at a high school, but I had to fill in at a school for children with special needs. They have a large swimming pool that is used for therapy and are very picky ( they have to be ) about water chemistry. Obviously Chlorine is a concern but also alkalinity and ph. So what happened was their Co2 kept running out. And the ph of the pool was getting to high. I located the leak by (DON'T DO THIS ON YOUR TANK) by spraying the lines with a soapy solution. It ended up being a John Guest connector ( like that on our RO sytems) which I replaced. Then the problem of rising ph. We tried muriatic acid ( the pool is closed at this point) which worked a bit. But at the end of the day it was back up. They were afraid the pool would be closed the next day. I remebered the trick about opening windows to get rid of the Co2 build up and raise ph. So after I gave them a brief explanation about what happens to ions when ph changes ( they all looked at like " who the hell is this guy" ) I suggested that all the air handling units be shut off for the night so no fresh air would come in. The humidity would shoot up but that was ok for a day. Sure enough the next morning the ph of the had dropped and it was perfect for the kids. It felt like a sauna when you walked in but at least it could be used. The co2 was delivered later that day ( the vessel is the size of a hot water heater) and since the leak had been fixed it all was back to normal operation. The engineer at the school asked me if I had take a pool course, so I whipped out the phone and started showing him pics of the reef tanks.
It's funny sometimes you know things that you didn't even know you knew. Huh? Felt really good to be able to sound like I knew what I was talking about. Lol

Minnow · Mar 8, 2016

I love the lone shrimp in your sump! I used to have one of those.

Very clean setup.

adroc718 · Mar 8, 2016

cb684 said:
Here is another one:

I got this 500 - 2,500 uL pipette about one year ago from eBay. It is like a smartphone, I am not sure how I used to live without one of those....

Thats pretty cool.....Is that a type of mechanized syringe?
do you use that for dispensing the reagents or the water sample to be tested....or both?
Disposable tips i assume?

cb684 · Mar 8, 2016

adroc718 said:
Thats pretty cool.....Is that a type of mechanized syringe?
do you use that for dispensing the reagents or the water sample to be tested....or both?
Disposable tips i assume?

Yes, but if used correctly far more accurate. I use that for both for the water to be tested and for reagents when applicable. Also I use to dose small volumes solutions to the tank (i.e. potassium).

The tips are disposable, but I use them several times. For example, after getting the water to be tested, I rinse it a few times on RODI water, and use next time again. That is ok for this purpose. In the research lab they are thrown away after each use.

More information on how they work