Well, the last few months have been really. . . hectic to say the least. I don't want to really whine about things so I am going to try and stick to what has been happening with the tank for the most part.

The biggest thing that has happened right now personally is I lost my job working for someone I thought was my friend. One of those things, it just happens sometimes. He is a real jerk and I know what goes around comes around so I'm not worried about it.

Well was thinking about a few things after a spoke with a couple yesterday at Petco who just got a saltwater tank.  They had one "a long time ago" but were going to "hit the books" to learn a lot more things.  I told them to check out reef central for a lot of information and hopefully will see them at the next COMAS meeting as I told them about that as well and they are actually not far from where the meetings are held.

So anyway I figured it was about time to write a few things down that I have dealt with in my own RO/DI system and some of the things I have looked up while trying to figure out how to use my system at maximum efficiency.  Hopefully it helps out a few people who have had a lot of the same questions I have had.

Why do I need an RO/DI system?

And while you are at it you may want to look at the RO/DI filter information i have compiled so far.

RO/DI filter comparison.

My wife and I joined our local reef society, COMAS, at the late end of last year and have made most of the meetings so far.  It really has been nice to go chat with a few people about the tanks and has been great to learn about things dealing with the salt water tanks and their husbandry.  I have also been pretty lucky so far this year.  They have a membership drive in January where a lot of items are received by the club to raffle off to the members and almost monthly they have a few items that they raffle off.  So far I have won a gift certificate for Village Frags and last night I was able to get a Blue Pocillopora frag from Aquarium Oddballs in Tulsa, OK to add to my tank.

But it has really been a great thing becoming a member of COMAS and even if your club does not have a lot of raffles I would still recommend checking out a meeting and joining your local club and gaining the information that the people have available not to mention that often times they will have things available for loan that are likely too expensive and just not used often enough for you to purchase on your own like a PAR meter and often times when you are having problems with your tank or need help moving it your local members will pitch in and give you a hand.

If you are in the Oklahoma City area I highly recommend joining COMAS they generally meet once a month at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond and if you don't mind traveling to a meeting or two you should still check it out.

Well have been busy lately, not too much to talk about tank wise.  Still have a problem with the bulbs not lasting as long as they should and have at least one out right now that has to be replaced.

The real major development has been in my personal life, I have been busy doing some things to help a friend and was on my way back to help him out some more after being home a couple days and was running a really high fever.  Finally got warm and was still really sick the next day so headed to the ER.  Had a really bad staph infection that was running rampant through my whole body, ended being treated as an outpatient through the ER for almost two weeks with the first seven days receiving an antibiotic called Vibativ to help knock the infection down.  I also learned that I am allergic to Bactrim and let me tell you that itching and burning from head to toe really is no fun when you plain just don't feel good.  The infection site was also lanced a few times to help keep everything draining which is absolutely no fun at all.  The main reason why I was not treated as an inpatient is because the IV antibiotic lasted for about 24 hours.

I am finally starting to feel better now, besides a few minor things, being weak and tired for one and still a general feeling of blah.  Not anything that most people would be interested in but I do want to say that if you do end up having an infection of some sort of infection and start to notice problems get yourself checked out right away, I waited because I figured it was nothing really and it almost ended my life.  So please learn from my mistake on this one had I waited much longer I would not be saying the same things about getting better.

Well we decided to head out of town for a few days this last week.  Wasn't anything really major took our little RV down to Lawton on Wednesday night so I could do a few things and then headed to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge for a couple days of relaxing and making a few fixes and adjustments on the RV.

Here is some links to my DIY stuff beyond my major tank builds which are already documented.

I will add things to this page as I do things and document them as best as possible.

My super simple siphon auto top off system.

Last updated 10-14-10

Since Halloween is just around the corner I figured I might as well get in a little bit of the spirit. . . maybe I should build a haunted house for my damsel to swim through??

Nah she is a devil on her own but I did make a little animated gif for the site, and hopefully I can come up with a little theme change for Thanksgiving and Christmas, LOL.  Who knows. . . anyway the header is on a bout a minute loop.

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Ok, since I got some new stuff from CRASE I guess I need to get some pictures posted.  I took them a day or two ago and just pulled them off of the memory card.

They really are looking like they are all doing good and my first two polyps frag that was picked up about a month ago now has a total of four polyps and I think some of the frags that I received on the 18th have a couple new polyps growing out as well.

I got to go have a fun time yesterday, had to get up a bit early (I am a night owl) and headed off to downtown Oklahoma City to catch the CRASE Oklahoma Marine Aquarium Show.

And make sure that you click on read more below so you don't miss any pictures if you are viewing this from the homepage!!

Looks like Marc got some really good pics taken of the CRASEy event so check it out as well if you haven't already.

OK, got my RO/DI unit in today and after picking up a couple parts from Home Depot and a couple hours of tinkering off and on got it up and running.

My setup is just a bit unique though. I picked up 25 feet of clear 1/4" tubing and plumbed my refrigerators ice maker in line as well. The supply of water when first turned on his enough to make ice but I doubt you would want to stand there to get a glass of water. To do that you would need a check valve and a pressure storage tank. You can see I also used a piece of clear tubing for my RO water, I have a 2.5 gallon jug that sits in the fridge for drinking water and don't want to worry if my wife grabbed the wrong line to fill the jug up with should she choose to do so.

If I make any large amount of water I am going to just pull the waste water line and drop it into the washer and wash a load of clothes while I am at it rather than run 30 or 40 gallons of water down the drain. I also picked up a TDS meter and tested my water today. The Oklahoma City water where I am at is running at about 369 TDS right now. After the RO it is running at about 49 and after the DI it is 3, huge difference in water quality. Hopefully I will see those numbers get a little better after the RO because the water still being that high will make the DI take a huge hit quick.