Brian Ward

I never understand how the card gets charged in these instances. The merchant terms are really clear that you can authorize the card but cannot actually charge the card until the order ships.

I also like the Avast ones. They are virtually the same design as the Deltec.

i have like a 3 or a 5 you can borrow - don't exactly remember which it is.

He looks good in there. He's about the same size as your pbt which should help prevent any aggression issues.

yep, flatworms. Flatworm Exit works well. Be sure to have plenty of carbon on hand.

I think you mean Weld-On. #4 and #16 are the 2 most commonly used ones. Avast typically has them and will sell just the glue in small quantities. It goes bad over time, so you always want it to be as new as possible when you use it. Also, #16 is considered a hazardous material so shipping is usually quite expensive. Piedmont Plastics up in Howard County, MD also used to have these items. I'm not sure if they're still in business or not.

I've definitely seen cubes from NAGA up to about 2x2 so I'd definitely check in.

I saw one of these at copps' house. Not worth the money IMO.

I have never heard of adding vinegar. I scanned through the explanation and I understand. Basically you're diluting the kalk powder so you can add the solution directly instead of needing to add only the effluent - preventing the chance of a kalk overdose. However, having the resulting free carbon as a bacteria source can be very dangerous. If you cause a bacteria bloom it will eat all the oxygen in the water and kill your fish. I recommend doing kalk with a kalk stirrer that runs at low rpms. This will allow you to add effluent without adding the undissolved kalk powder directly. You basically run an auto top-off system through the kalk stirrer.

I believe there is a carbon-lid that you can buy which will absorb the smell while still allowing the air to come out.

James, If you get my pendant, I can give you some 250W Radiums with minimal burn (few months, under a year) as well as an awesome $15 bulb that I actually liked better. I ran the radiums with iceap electronics.

Oh, as far as closed loops in general go, I love the clean look. I did have a small leak once, but I tightened up the bulkhead and it went away. Strategic use of unions is an absolute must for maintenance purposes.

Remember that drilling the bottom is usually only possible if you go acrylic or have the tank custom-built. Most manufacturers temper the bottom glass and you can't drill tempered glass.

Hopefully no one has this amphipod variant in their tank http://gizmodo.com/5881882/researchers-pull-enormous-amphipod-from-the-depths-of-new-zealands-deep-seas

I don't remember if we enabled commenting. I see the comment box at the end of the full article, but that could be because of my permission set.

I know BRK sells the pumps. They may have an impeller or would be willing to pull the part from a new pump for you. Not sure about any of the other vendors.

Chad, I'm not really sure how to do it, but if you find you need a high-temperature torch, I do have an acetylene torch at the house.

+ on meanwell to + on first LED in the string. - on meanwell to - on last LED in the string. It should form a complete loop.

We're actually going to close this account, so don't worry about it.

$130 sounds too low and I'm not a fan of the 100gpd membrane. You want to be sure you have a dow filmtec membrane, and they don't make one in 100gpd. There are several features you want - pressure gauge to see where you're running as low pressure will reduce your product to waste water ratio and high pressure will damage your membrane (high usually isn't an issue unless you're running a booster pump). You want an auto shutoff valve (ASOV) so you can attach a float switch and let the system run to make water and turn itself off when you're done. You also want a reverse flush valve as flushing the membrane is occasionally required to maintain peak performance. A nice-to-have is a dual TDS meter so you can see the TDS after the RO and after the DI stage. After the DI is critical as you want to be sure you're getting 0 TDS. After the RO is important because you want to be sure the RO membrane is working and not exhausing your DI resin prematurely. Also be sure you're getting a filter pack that's set up for chloramines. Chloramines result in free ammonia in your product water (bad for fish) and they also destroy RO membranes. You should look into Air, Water, and Ice - they're a sponsor here and quite a lot of us have their systems. It's around $180 for the Typhoon III which is what I would recommend. The Typhoon III Extreme adds some of the nice-to-haves for an extra $50 or so. www.airwaterice.com - check their forum. I think there's a coupon code for 10% off.

POTM and TOTM are dependent on volunteers. TOTM has been suspended until we can get a committee together again. Not 100% sure on POTM. We did have a fall meeting and social in October though it was lightly attended. Winter meeting should be in January.

There's quite a lot of work that goes into finding and writing on topics. I don't think increasing the number of issues is on the table at this point. This is actually the most consistent we have ever had a newsletter despite several attempts to do so. I have several tech projects that I would like to work on that hinge around the newsletter and if I can ever find some developers we'll probably tackle them - which will make this content more accessible and improve the SEO rating of the site.

Like Tom, I was terrified when i read the first couple sentences of your post. Good to hear that things are moving along well!

Avast will ship you a small amount for a few dollars.

For clarification, are you rebuilding or getting out of the hobby?