Brian Ward

Sorry for the delays. Seems the rebuilding took a little longer than in our dry runs. Hopefully everyone is able to find their way around. We upgraded quite a few versions so If you find anything not working please let us know.

Mid-day bump/reminder.

All, WHAT: Site Outage WHEN: 11/20/2012 @ 5pm DURATION: 2 hours WHY: Upgrade all IPB software to the latest version (forum to 3.3.4) This is to let everyone know that we are planning a site outage for tomorrow evening beginning around 5pm and lasting for about an hour. The purpose of this outage is to upgrade the forum software to the latest version. We have targeted this time as it is during commute and dinner time for most people and will cause minimal interruption while not requiring those doing the upgrade to stay up until 2am. The goal is to have it up and running no later than 7pm. If you have any data from the forum that you expect to need during this time, please write it down as the site will be unavailable. We do not anticipate any loss of data between when the site goes down and when we bring it back up with the new version.

I've found them to be opportunistic predators as Tom mentioned. I've never had an emerald crab catch and kill a healthy fish. I have had my clean-up crew devour a fish that has died within an hour so this is normal behavior for the crabs and snails in your tank.

I turn inside-out and run through the washer.

Lumens isn't a good predictor of ability to support corals. PAR, or photosynthetically available radiation, is the common metric used for aquarium lighting. 48 10k & 16 Actinic (maybe Royal Blue?) LEDs is probably enough over a 90 but the price is suspect. Typical prices are closer to $3/LED for the high-quality CREE LEDs. While I don't have any personal experience with the cheaper fixtures, I'm not sure many would recommend them for a reef tank. The PC lighting will probably make it tough to support a reef and I'd recommend upgrading to T-5 if cost is a primary driver. 6 T-5 bulbs should give you enough light to keep certain SPS near the top and softies & LPS toward the bottom of the tank.

If you don't have cash for that chiller, you probably don't have cash for a 6,000 gallon tank either We sponsored that tank with the proceeds from the MACNA we hosted a few years back. It's in an unfortunate state with respect to its condition, but we're working with the National Aquarium to get it into better shape.

Avast also sells small quantities. Not sure if you could pick up from Justin or not, but worth an email ...

I'd recommend that you reduce your 1" returns at the end and use 3/4 loc-line. That will allow you to still adjust the output direction later.

Doug will be there. I believe copps is going as well.

Pretty well. It's where our cash reserves came from (is what I understand). We also bought the Guam tank that's in the NADC.

The risk is that WAMAS is paying for everything, so you have to attract people and get tickets sold in order to pay for it all.

We definitely discuss it from time to time. I'm not sure it's been long enough since we last hosted for everyone to forget how much work it was

You have to be extremely careful when you get down to these sizes. The bigger tanks - 90g, 120g, etc. are much more forgiving due to the thickness of the glass. You'll probably be able to drill the holes as long as you're careful - make sure the holes are as far apart as possible. I would run into issues with the glass splitting between holes when they're close together. You'll also need to be careful when connecting the plumbing. I would recommend ensuring you have flex tubing in your runs as these dampen vibrations and are more forgiving when it comes to connecting to the bulkheads than PVC.

The smallest tank I've drilled is a 40G long and I had trouble with that. I was able to drill all the holes, but when connecting the plumbing the slightest stress on the bulkhead would crack the glass. I wouldn't recommend trying to drill that. For that size, you can probably have Jeff (NAGA) make you something relatively inexpensively. He usually has scrap plastic around to do little jobs like this.

The other thing I didn't like about covering the overflows is that when your fish does jump over, he will get cooked on the cover rather than swimming around in the overflow.

I've always fished them back out. I wouldn't recommend covering the overflow because if the teeth get clogged, the water will go over the top of the overflow rather than overflowing the tank itself.

Please keep things on topic. Forum is for Vendor Experiences, let's not venture too far beyond the initial experience and Wayne's response.

Yea, the BRS stuff is compatible, they're standard cartridges. AWI is pretty competitive on price though so dont discount them. Remember there's a coupon code for awi.

I have a 2x4 stand that will certainly support it but it's just 2x4s - no finish wood, doors, etc. It will work if you don't get anything else.

Yep, copepods or amphipods. They're definitely good for your tank.

For the size you're looking for, you can do acrylic or glass. Both need to be fully supported along all the edges (so bowfront needs a support that matches the bow of the tank) but acrylic requires the entire bottom to be supported rather than just the vertical edges. NAGA is a vendor here on the board, located in Annapolis, that does good work. I recommend sending him a PM. Since you want it to be viewable on both sides, you will definitely need a custom tank.

When you say max width is 10" do you mean the front-to-back distance is 10 inches? making it narrower than a 55 gallon (13 inches front to back)? If this is correct, I would recommend rethinking placing it in the wall or at least placing it entirely within the wall. The cost of building the tank you have spec'd out just won't be worth it IMO. See what you could do with something commercially available in a 60" length and about 18" front to back. That will provide much better depth which is visually more appealing, will allow for better aquascaping, and more areas for the fish to swim and hide.

You need to remember that he's using a commercial Cart tool. It's not something that he can do code updates for. I suspect these limitations are outside the capabilities of the site engine he's using.

That's what the authorization is for. You authorize the card to ensure the card is real, that the amount to be charged is available, etc. Visa, Mastercard, etc. all prohibit actually charging the card until the order ships.