Brian Ward

It's going to be nearly impossible to get algae-free live rock. Control your nitrates and pick off the bubble algae and you'll be fine. If you insist on redoing, you can cook the rock to kill off everything and then seed it in your tank with other live rock or live sand. If it were me, I wouldn't worry about it - good husbandry will take care of the algae. As far as the asterina stars, you're going to end up with those too so once again, don't worry about it. Remove them if you don't like them as you see them around.

unfortunately, no. i need to get the PAR meter in order to do it.

I would PM dbartco and Almon. They both usually have active cultures.

Accusations and rhetoric with no scientific fact cited anywhere in the article. This is the same crap politicians pull all over the country to convince people of problems that don't exist. Taking a myopic view of an issue will always result in flawed analysis. Of course, this article didn't even provide analysis. It was at best an incendiary diatribe.

I switched to the Plus Rite bulbs as well. I ran the 400W and now am running the 250W, both 20k spectrum. I definitely like them.

I would contact NAGA here on the board. He does great work and has built tanks for many club members.

If they're regular flatworms, then flatwork exit works great. siphon out as many as possible, prep PLENTY of carbon, and then treat the tank. You'll see them shrivel up and float into the water column, your filtration should help out here, but feel free to keep siphoning. When they die, they release toxins, so when you see the number of dead worms start to get high, put in the new carbon to pull out the impurities. I did it successfully with minimal losses.

Agreed... your photoperiod is probably too short. It was probably too short even with the actinics, but they were providing enough light to keep everything happy. I would recommend upping your MH to 8 hrs/day (go up slowly, maybe 2 hrs/wk).

Mine always ran in the 280 - 320 range. I think it only really matters if you're dosing O3 - then you have to make sure it doesn't go too high.

The reason you can't use caulk or silicone with acrylic is because acrylic is actually oil. While it may hold in the short-term, it will not hold over the long term. What you actually have to do is create a chemical weld with a product like Weld-On #3 or Weld-On #4. In order for this to work, the joints must be perfect - no gaps anywhere. Melev's reef has some good DIY information on doing acrylic projects, but I definitely would not recommend that a sump be your first try. It's just asking for disaster. http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html

You'd be better off getting one from NAGA. If you aren't well-versed in acrylic fabrication, that can go horribly wrong.

Drilling tanks isn't hard. If you were using a 30 gal, that glass is pretty thin and you should definitely use at least some flex tube to cut down on vibration transmission. Any stress or flexing at all on the hole for that size tank will cause it to crack - another reason not to use hard plumbing all the way. Unless you're a master pipefitter, getting everything to align perfectly is nearly impossible. A 10 gal is even worse - incredibly difficult to drill without cracking since the glass is even thinner. I have successfully patched a cracked tank - look around the internet, just place a piece of glass on the inside of the tank completely covering the crack, hole, etc. and use plenty of silicone. I would recommend this since it's a sump and stick with the 30 gal rather than going to a 10. You can get pieces of glass from Lowe's.

FYI, 16 is considered HAZMAT so if you only order 1 tube, the shipping charge makes it way too expensive.

Piedmont usually has it, but call first. NAGA has said that he'll sell it to us, and I imagine Dan at Avast will as well.

Lowe's may have some SCH 80, but I've never seen much. Plumbing supply specialty store like Ferguson is probably more likely. I know there's a shop on Route 1 in Hyattsville that stocks it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/garden/19aqua.html?_r=1

I see no reason it wouldn't work.

That was my guess as well. Probably feather dusters.

Don't know about close to Ashburn, but Robert's Oxygen in Vienna will fill them.

That is a limitation of the Vendor News forum. This forum is for vendors to post news only, not for discussion.

I have my sump on high-capacity slides. I never use them because of the tipping issue and the hard plumbing to the pump, and now that they've been there a while they're becoming covered with salt creep. In addition, the occasional overflow has caused them to rust. I thought I could make it work, but I couldn't. I don't think I'll worry about doing something like that again.

i just bought 2 400W 20k bulbs b/c one of my radiums cracked. i also picked up 2 250W bulbs for my frag tank to replace the 2 radiums when they go bad... but I can always pop them in to get some readings... i'll see what i can do and report back.

Moving to 'General Discussion' forum.

They're routinely shipped overnight and most stores will package for 5+ hours. Just use a very large bag or bucket and plenty of water.

It's certainly a possibility. Continue with the hypo treatment we described previously. If executed correctly, it will rid the tank of ich. Hypo also has the added benefit of making it easier for fish to fight off an ich infection. If you don't have any inverts in your tank, I would definitely keep the normal salinity in the 1.020 - 1.023 range. This is high enough to avoid any kidney damage to the fish and low enough to help the fish fight off some infections.