madmax7774

you can get a really really good 1/3 horsepower chiller (Teco) at Blue Ribbon Koi for something like $899 i think? You would have to call them to confirm the price, but $1500 for a chiller is a bit steep. I have the teco 1/3 HP chiller, and it would have no problems keeping up with 300 gallons. I have had mine for over 1 year now, and I highly recommend them. I also looked into the DIY method, but unless you are an HVAC technician, I think it will just likely be a let down, and a waste of money. My chiller was the 2nd largest single purchase of my system, and It was a tough pill so swallow. Now that I did it, I'm glad for it. It gives you a peace of mind, and that is priceless. John

Bruce, I am continually astounded at your ingenuity. I surf regularly for reef-related sites to see new things, and learn new stuff, but your reef Kung-fu is unparralleled. I am yet again impressed. By the way, I have started dosing the calcium partion of the RHF 2 part mix. I hunted all over for the stinkin dow flake, but I finally caved and just ordered some off the web. Pretty easy to make. even easier to use. Thanks again for showing me that stuff. John

Nice Job Bruce. That will really make that skimmer crank. Did you do any mods to the needle-wheel, or the air intake at all? or was it just strictly a recirc mod only? Whats the flow rate on the smaller feed pump?

I leave my fuge light on until the bulb dies. Then it's dark for the week or so it takes me to get a new bulb. Then I repeat the whole process, I would like to find a bulb that doesn't die aftrer only 3 months though. You'd think they had long life bulbs or something!

I am definitely in for 2 of these 55G barrels. I will meet you at the April 5th meeting and pick them up form there. I will pay you cash at the meeting. Let me know if this is ok. John (703)627-5365 (cell)

Bob, A good friend of mine does that. He can accurately judge salinity by taste. I personally can't, but I have seen him do it. I once challenged him on it, and he got out a refractomoter and proved his assertions about the salinity. I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes... John

As a card carrying member of the Deltec Fanatics club, I would hav eto say go with deltec...

Bruce did you do the mod yet? Let me know if you need any tools or help... John

Same thing happened to my powder blue tang last month he was the king of the tank, then one day he stopped eating. 2 or 3 weeks later he died from apparent starvation. I have No idea why he stopped eating.

Deltec & GSA skimmers are highly regarded. You will probably do very well with either. Your equipment selections will depend heavily on how you sctructure your setup. Did you get a canopy and stand with your tank, or are you building your own? When I started in the hobby, I was strapped for cash and had to build my own stand. because of that I decided to buy a metal halide retrofit light kit and setup my own fixture. this is the best route in my opinion as you get the power of metal halides at a reduced cost. The pre-built fixtures tend to be very expensive. If you only want to buy your lights once, I recommend metal halide. Be mindful of heat issues with MH lights, they tend to be very hot. You may be forced into a chiller if you have insufficient ventilation.

FYI, be careful with a kalkwasser, they will raise your PH. you would do well to at least get a PH monitor to prevent an overdose. I use a controller on mine that automatically shuts it off if the PH gets above 8.4

Chip that is good ole murphy rearing his ugly head. My favorite coral in my tank won't grow at all. and it is not very close to any others. The ones that I don't care so much about seem to grow like weeds. And what's even more interesting? The corals that I thought would benefit from more light and thus put up higher in the tank seem to be less colorful than the ones that I put lower in the tank, for lack of a better place to put them. Sometimes I find this hobby to be downright confusing...

I am following the same line of thought as steveoutlaw. I am going to switch over to IO. No point in spending the extra cash for RC if the darn stuff is no different than IO.

I don't remember you owing me one, but I would certainly be willing to come over and go shopping at Chip's frag center... For some odd reason, the frags I get from you grow faster than anyone else's!!

Did the math for reef crystals, since that is what I use. here's the computations: Reef crystals instructions say to use 1/2 cup of salt per gallon. that works out to 114.96 grams(1/2 cup) of salt for 3,785.41ML (1 us gallon) divide both by 10 to scale down, and you get 11.49 grams of salt for each 378.5 ML of water. scaling that down for 7 grams of salt, comes out to 230 ml of water. Since they used less water than the reef crystals manufacturer recommends, then in my mind, that means that the values they published are actually a bit on the high side from real world results. That just sucks. What it really boils down to, is that since the salt product yields lower than expected results, then consumers have to use higher concentrations of it to get good results, which means the stuff doesn't last as long as it should. Seems like a benefit to the manufacturers as it probably lowers cost of production, and increases demand. That's just downright shady. :( :(