SkullV's Aquarium Adventures

[angelf13]

Thanks! When I saw it I had to have it. I believe we actually had one from New Fish in the past:

In other news, I got a Tunze Care Magnet (long) today. What an amazing algae scraper! Cuts through coralline with the plastic blade and comes with a stainless blade just in case its really tough stuff. I can't believe I went this long using these POS Mag Floats!

100% I bought mines about a year ago and still works perfect


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[SkullV]

Swapped out both of my RW8s for a Maxspect Gyre XF150 today. Not sure how I feel about it yet. I will definitely have to play with the angle of the cages a bit but overall I can see how people could appreciate this thing on a tank this size. The flow on the far side is a little lacking but if I turn it up any more the sand gets blown around in the middle of the tank (weird). Hopefully I can mess with the cages a bit and get this thing dialed in properly. If not, I'm already picking up a pair of MP40s next week so I'll have those to mess with. Sorry about the purple video, need to figure out how to get a good white balance with a video.

 

[#theMatrix]

Video link wont work.

Did you use the img tag or the video tag?

 

[SkullV]

Video link wont work.

Did you use the img tag or the video tag?

I used the YouTube tag. It's working on my phone and laptop. I'll post the direct link here in a second.

 

[SkullV]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqOrz3756uo

 

[Sawdonkey]

Swapped out both of my RW8s for a Maxspect Gyre XF150 today. Not sure how I feel about it yet. I will definitely have to play with the angle of the cages a bit but overall I can see how people could appreciate this thing on a tank this size. The flow on the far side is a little lacking but if I turn it up any more the sand gets blown around in the middle of the tank (weird). Hopefully I can mess with the cages a bit and get this thing dialed in properly. If not, I'm already picking up a pair of MP40s next week so I'll have those to mess with. Sorry about the purple video, need to figure out how to get a good white balance with a video.

This is exactly my issue with my gyre. It don't get flow tongue far end but my sand in the idle gets blown all over the place. Yes, weird!

 

[SkullV]

This is exactly my issue with my gyre. It don't get flow tongue far end but my sand in the idle gets blown all over the place. Yes, weird!

Messing with the cages has helped a bit, I have the cage closer to the front pointed more upwards and the cage closer to the back pointed so the flow passes right over the top of the rockwork. It's starting to get a little bit better but will have to play around some more. Everything seems pretty happy with the one pump other than the gorgonian right below it. Hopefully it'll get used to it. Right now I have it set like this:

Starting to get the hang of taking photos with the LEDs on too:

 

[SkullV]

So to update this, I raised the position of the left cage a bit and centered the Gyre on the wall about 6" below the surface. I also turned it down one notch to the "15m" mark. Now there seems to be great flow along the top and bottom of the tank, but the middle seems to be a bit lacking. Any thoughts on how to combat this issue? It seems like it might be an inherent property of the "gyre design" but enough people seem to like them that I'm hoping I can change something to make it work.

 

[ultimatemj]

Regarding the tunze care...be prepared to sharpen or replace the blades. Mine worked great the first 2 or 3 times I used it...like nothing before it! But coralline dulls it fairly quickly

I'm hosed because my tank is acrylic, so I'm still using it...just don't get that "wow" feeling anymore

 

[SkullV]

Regarding the tunze care...be prepared to sharpen or replace the blades. Mine worked great the first 2 or 3 times I used it...like nothing before it! But coralline dulls it fairly quickly

I'm hosed because my tank is acrylic, so I'm still using it...just don't get that "wow" feeling anymore

Thanks for the heads up, I've noticed that its effectiveness definitely stems from the type of algae it's scraping. I scrape often enough, and have low enough nutrients, that I rarely have any calcified algae on the glass. Maybe a combination of the magfloat for general use, and the tunze for more "occasional" use is in order. I also haven't tried the steel blade yet as the plastic blades cut through everything on my glass without issue.

 

[ultimatemj]

Curious how you avoid calcified algae...my P04 is 0.00 on the Hanna checker and N03 is less than 0.25 on the RedSeaPro test, and if I don't clean the glass/acrylic during the week I've got coralline by the weekend, and it spreads fairy quickly if I skip 2weeks I'm having to put my arm in the tank to scrape it off! One note, it starts at the sand and grows up. Wonder if that says something about my sand bed being loaded up...


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[SkullV]

Curious how you avoid calcified algae...my P04 is 0.00 on the Hanna checker and N03 is less than 0.25 on the RedSeaPro test, and if I don't clean the glass/acrylic during the week I've got coralline by the weekend, and it spreads fairy quickly if I skip 2weeks I'm having to put my arm in the tank to scrape it off! One note, it starts at the sand and grows up. Wonder if that says something about my sand bed being loaded up...


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I clean my glass every couple of days regardless of what I see on there. Over the years I've found that this is the best and easiest way to avoid coralline on my front and side panels. I also never clean the back glass no matter what is on there, so maybe that creates a "breeding ground" which is more favorable for the coralline.

In the last few months I haven't had the time to scrape as often as I would like though, so I do have some green hard spots on the front and sides (and always around pump magnets on the glass). Hopefully this weekend I'll get a chance to try out the metal blade on the care magnet.

 

[ThePorkchopExpress]

hey i got the same magnet...did you get the "strong" one? was pretty expensive but i got it during BRS's cyber monday deals and got a good deal on it...even then magnet isn't quite as strong as i'd like, going around a corner and sometimes the blade will detach and fall to the bottom...my only gripe is that the handle is too shallow...it hurts my hands trying to use it since its barely a ledge to hold to....other than that it works great and i too barely get coralline on the glass because i think most of it goes on my back panel which i never scrape

 

[SkullV]

hey i got the same magnet...did you get the "strong" one? was pretty expensive but i got it during BRS's cyber monday deals and got a good deal on it...even then magnet isn't quite as strong as i'd like, going around a corner and sometimes the blade will detach and fall to the bottom...my only gripe is that the handle is too shallow...it hurts my hands trying to use it since its barely a ledge to hold to....other than that it works great and i too barely get coralline on the glass because i think most of it goes on my back panel which i never scrape

I went with the "long" since I only have a 40br. The magnet is pretty strong for my glass thickness. I think my plan is to tie some fishing line around the inside magnet so I can grab it if it falls off. I'm only going to use the Tunze once a week and the magfloat more often. This should keep the blades on the Tunze useful longer and the glass clean.

 

[SkullV]

Well, got the gyre all sorted out. The flow on the top 1/3 and bottom 1/3 of the tank is insane. My sand is spotless and my skimmer is pulling way nastier gunk than before with no change other than the gyre. Unfortunately the middle 1/3 of the tank is lacking flow in my opinion. I do have 2 MP10wES to play with as well. I'll probably put them both on the back wall in the middle 1/3 of the tank and run some sort of alternating program between the gyre and MPs using the APEX I'm getting this weekend. Here's a short video. If anyone knows how to take a video with correct coloration I'd love to hear your method too!

 

[SkullV]

Took some photos to get shots for later growth comparison.

Rainbow Monti:

No Name Milli - This one was starting to color up really nicely and then I moved it across the tank. Brown city:

Sunset Monti from [MENTION=636]Gary[/MENTION] - This guy made the trip across the country with me:

ORA Palmer's Blue Milli:

ORA Red Planet, weird coloration. I know its ORA, pulled it off the black plug myself:

WCR French *****:

WTF Tierra Del Fuego:

WWC Somewhere Over The Rainbow Milli:

TCK Pikachu:

ORA Hawkins Echinata:

Cosmetus Wrasse with ORA Miami Orchid in the background:

 

[Gary]

That's awesome. I don't any any montis right now. So sad

 

[ultimatemj]

Flow looks great!
For everything except the 2 torches that look like they are in the Windy City lol


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[SkullV]

Flow looks great!
For everything except the 2 torches that look like they are in the Windy City lol


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Haha yeah, the torches and Duncan's don't seem to mind it but the acantho had to be moved back into the cave. My plan is to run my flow like this:

• Gyre forward 40%/ MP10 Pulse 10% - 40min
• Gyre reverse 100%/MP10 reef crest 100% - 5min
• Gyre forward pulse 70%/MP10 0% -15min

This should stir up the detritus every hour and have it stay suspended until it can get pulled into the overflow. In sure it'll require some fine tuning, and possibly split up the pulse/constant on the gyre a bit more as well.

 

[Sawdonkey]

Haha yeah, the torches and Duncan's don't seem to mind it but the acantho had to be moved back into the cave. My plan is to run my flow like this:

• Gyre forward 40%/ MP10 Pulse 10% - 40min
• Gyre reverse 100%/MP10 reef crest 100% - 5min
• Gyre forward pulse 70%/MP10 0% -15min

This should stir up the detritus every hour and have it stay suspended until it can get pulled into the overflow. In sure it'll require some fine tuning, and possibly split up the pulse/constant on the gyre a bit more as well.

Doesn't gyre reverse create absolutely no flow, or do you have opposite blades installed? If so, your flow is cut by 50% because only one blade at a time?