Who's still Reefing Ol' School?

[Genomecop]

We're still using Tunze Turbelle. Great pumps!! To bad they are not making spare parts anymore(the motor will never give up but the plastic parts will unfortunately).

Find someone to 3D print them for you.

 

[Katrina71]

I reef old school. No dosing. Very simple equipment and just water changes.

 

[ScubaShane]

How many of you are keeping an sps dominant tank with acros and an algae free display with tap water? Just wondering? I know they grow under the old Metal Halide lights, I just can't afford the extra electricity itll take to keep the house and the tank cool. It's already in the mid 90s here until November and my HVAC is running wide open.

Not SPS dominant but Two large Monti Caps, Red Planet Acro, Cats Paw and a large birds nest. Tap water treated with Start Right. Black Box LED's.

 

[Todvod]

Too funny, I've often thought of saving up for my Limewood driven skimmer back in about 1992! The new tech has definitely improved there!
I'm trying to make a go of the LED's this time around, really due to heat in S. TX, but not all that happy with them so far. IMO MH are SO much easier.
JDA what CA RX?
My last system, which was fantastic, I ran MH, some T5 and VHO, giant skimmer, and super concentrated Kalkwasser on a constant drip 24/7 just slightly below evaporation rate. Worked perfectly.

How did you set up that constant drip for kalk?

 

[TexasTodd]

I used something that isn't available anymore. Champion Light Supply used to sell a Reef Filler pump, which was a chemical pump either 1-3 or 1-7 gallon per day adjustable. It hooked to fridge ice/water line tubing and would pump 200' in any direction. I want one badly but called and he can't get them anymore. The kalk was then adjusted up in concentration as needed...it was more of a slurry, in a 90 gallon can with Ehiem 1260 stirring constantly. Looking at doing similar with paristalic but it won't be nearly as durable and they can't pump very far.

 

[reefwiser]

Reef Filler pump was just an industrial peristaltic pump. I would pick up a Stenner model if you wanted to get one.
The come in single and dual heal models I use them at my work and used them for water changes when I use to do that.
http://stenner.com/products/pumps

 

[TexasTodd]

Fantastic Ed, thank you!!! So was there a piece of soft tubing inside the pumps? The tubing used was ridged and only connect to the in / out ports on outside of the pump. I will say the pump would easily go 2 years between pumping kalk but the tubing would eventually clog.

Okay, so I looked and those I see the paristaltic part, the Reef Filler did not have this. It had a cycling up and down type noise it made, not like a paristaltic pump

 

[Genomecop]

Not SPS dominant but Two large Monti Caps, Red Planet Acro, Cats Paw and a large birds nest. Tap water treated with Start Right. Black Box LED's.

I knew someone would finally post their tap water tank...good for you.

 

[reefwiser]

Fantastic Ed, thank you!!! So was there a piece of soft tubing inside the pumps? The tubing used was ridged and only connect to the in / out ports on outside of the pump. I will say the pump would easily go 2 years between pumping kalk but the tubing would eventually clog.

Okay, so I looked and those I see the paristaltic part, the Reef Filler did not have this. It had a cycling up and down type noise it made, not like a paristaltic pump

The reef filler performs similar to this design.
I use the Stenner pumps in water treatment and it’s not the greatest environment. [emoji3]
But it will pump fluid quite a ways
The reef filler squeezed the line inside the pump and preforms the same as the Stenner. I used that style of pump before switched to Stenner for bullet proof operation.

 

[ScubaShane]

Now and days it seems everyone is trying to one-up everyone else. Crazy plumbing schemes with matching sumps. Every kind of automation gadget. Custom LED backlit controller displays.

 

[ScubaShane]

Who still uses GSM Skimmers?

 

[fish farmer]

Who still uses GSM Skimmers?

Do you mean ASM? I just replaced mine with a Reef Octopus last fall, but still have it operating on a 120 gallon FOWLR, the Odell tank I mention earlier in this thread.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

here’s my 75 build. next build I’m going UGF.

 

[ScubaShane]

Do you mean ASM? I just replaced mine with a Reef Octopus last fall, but still have it operating on a 120 gallon FOWLR, the Odell tank I mention earlier in this thread.

Yes, it was supposed to be "G3 ASM" skimmer!

 

[ReefGeek90]

I do use RODI and a refractometer, but I still use light timers instead of a controller, buckets for top-off (no ATO), calcium reactor from 1992, large skimmer, 3" sand bed, real pacific live rock, metal halides, Ranco & Jagr heaters and Instant Ocean salt.

One of my tanks is an old Oceanic from 1992 with the large glass center brace.

In all honesty, I would have upgraded to any newer stuff if I thought that it was better. I could get behind a more-foolproof ATO, but I have no need for a controller, LEDs or any other new gadgetry.

How did anybody leave off a Limewood driven skimmer... which worked pretty well for what they were.

Best tank I had till this day was a used 120gal oceanic with the glass brace in the middle. I was a broke college student and everything was DIY and budget equipment. When I went to meet up with the seller it was sitting in the back of a liquor store in Houston collecting dust. There’s no telling how old it was by then. For some reason everything I put in that tank thrived. Fish and softies no QT for either. It’s not that I don't think QT is a great idea I was just so ignorant about all that back then and somehow it all still worked. Unfortunately when I was overseas the structural integrity became compromised and my family had to take it down.

Spoiler alert. My lack of QT procedures on other builds finally caught up to me and it wasn't pretty, but I’ve been changing my ways and I think it’s gonna work out!

 

[Belgian Anthias]

"Old school" in the context of " methods which have proven its value " or " using things or and methods of which one does not know what the outcome will be exactly." ?

 

[Hot2na]

here’s my 75 build. next build I’m going UGF.

some of the best tanks I saw in the early 80's had trickle filters ,bio balls,dead coral skeletons as the reef base and caulerpa IN the display tank as a means of nitrate control...where did we go wrong ? lol

 

[Belgian Anthias]

some of the best tanks I saw in the early 80's had trickle filters ,bio balls,dead coral skeletons as the reef base and caulerpa IN the display tank as a means of nitrate control...where did we go wrong ? lol

Probably it started with the banning of the biofilter ( blamed to produce a safely stored nitrogen reserve) which forced reefers to passive nutrient management and a low, not controllable carrying capacity. The following "live rock" hype, a big business, changed nothing.
Notwithstanding modern technology and computers take over from humans and in the last decades a lot of knowledge has been acquired about who and what is responsible for what happens and how it happens, the questions asked remain the same. Suggested solutions live there own life on the internet.
Dieter Brockman, one of the driving forces behind the Berlin method, said in an interview with Roger Vitko in 2004: “The Internet is as much a curse to hobbyists as it is a blessing.” "It contains many false statements and badly thought out hobbyist experiments accepted as fact."