Hey Everyone,
Sorry about the huge gap in time but several things have taken place.
1) With all the heavy rains out here, that put some delays into progressing with the test. The rain has been so much it actually was affecting the salinity in the system
2) I had spoken with H&S and they were going to bring down an H&S skimmer for the competition. So I was dragging my feet a lil bit to get the H&S down. However, after several phone calls, with no response or call back it appears H&S will not be appearing.
3) Round 3 was intended to be Euro-Reef / Via Aqua and Aqua Medic. Jeff the owner of Euro-Reef - Who Graciously donated a new dolphin pump for my personal Euro-Reef, offered to upgrade/swap my EuroReef 8-2 for his newly upgraded recirculating model. So I dragged my feet again, in an effort to get the new Euro-Reef. Jeff's last email said he was sending the skimmer on Jan 20th. But it has not yet arrived.
4) I was really excited with the webcam I got for my display tank. So I wanted a second one for the outside system. With the viewer controllable zoom, I thought this would be great since people could see the skimmers closely (down to the bubble size) and how each skimmer was adjusted. So I bought a second Canon VB-C10. So people can aim the camera at each individual skimmer. However, getting the camera online was a wee bit of a delay. The camera is up and running (
www.o2manyfish.com/skimmercam.htm). If anyone is an IT wizard, the Java portion of this camera is the pitts. In house the FPS when viewed directly is 30+ and when viewed in house via tha JAVA drops to under 12. And over the internet it seems most people get less than 6FPS.
5) In the middle of January I got a contract for a big job. Contrary to rumors and Internet myths, I do not make a living from the Reef Hobby. So when my real work calls I have to go. As a litigation consultant when I get into a project, it is a 7 day a week job that sometimes consumes greater than 18 hours a day.
My trial wrapped up this past week after a 3 day push at the end that consisted of 66 billable hours out of 72.
6) After getting off work on Weds evening, I went to sleep for almost 18 hours. On Friday I noticed some stressed corals in my display tank. After some research I discovered that I had a leak in one of my outdoor tanks. My auto-Topoff had done it's job and kept the topped off. However between Superbowl Sunday and Friday my salinity went from 1.026 to 1.010.
I have so far lost about 50% of my SPS population - Approx 500pcs. I have lost my purple monster colony, my efflos, my torts - The depressing list goes on. And the losses are continuing. I have not lost any fish, or any of my Clams.
7) So what does that mean now.... Well as of this morning (Sunday) the new skimmer cam is setup outside. I have in the skimmer tank right now the Deltec 850, and Bubble King, and the original Euro-Reef. At this moment (Sunday at 11:30am) all the skimmers are foaming like crazy. So nothing has been dialed in or adjusted.
I will be placing an EZ-Up tent over the outdoor system, tomorrow (Monday). Starting Tuesday we are supposed to get 5 days of rain, a couple days off and then a really big storm. I will try to keep the skimmers in view of the camera - But no promises.
If you have questions regarding the skimmers please post them on this thread. Please do no post comments regarding the tank losses here, or any of the other factors contributing to the delay in getting the skimmer comparison underway. I have left the webcam on the display tank up. This is a difficult loss, but these things happen.
Dave B