bigJPDC

cyano is a bacteria, not algae that snails eat. schif - I found exactly what you are saying to be true. I was doing 4 gallon water changes a couple times a week even with no change to my nitrates. The first time I did a 13gal change my nitrates went down. Two more and they were at zero. Now I only do monthly 13 gallon changes and am still at zero. I've never run phospahate remover and don't plan on it - using chemical filtration is only masking a problem like overfeeding or poor RO\DI - stopping the cause removes the neccessity of it. HTH jp

. . . . plus a stuck float switch draining your ATO plus the volume in your overflow in case of a bulkhead failure. Also, many skimmers have an optimal water level for operation, which can determine how high you make your baffles.

ETD - that is an excellent article - I just bookmarked it. jp

AC70 stuffed with chaeto and a clip on light - that's it. I dump and change the water about once a month when I prune.

I meant like buying raw seafood at the grocery store and blending it up, that's what I mean by 'for people'. I got really tired of the skimmer going insane every day at feeding time and there is no way the fish know any different. lanman - how many fish do you have that you use four cubes of food per feeding?

nice! The last one was awesome - free beers and SPS frags at ridonculous prices.

probably less work to stop overfeeding than micromanage a few drops of liquid you think has phosphates in it - which you can't even accurately test for and has less to do with any algae issues than regular water changes and good RO\DI water. I know I took nitrates from 40 to zero by cutting my feeding in half and not using seafood meant for people. Not to mention there is so much oil in fresh shrimp, scallops and clams that my skimmer would go insane for an hour after feeding.

that 10g is so small to be putting baffles and a pump in I don't know if you are really buying yourself anything.

seriously? My eductor would blow that cube right through the overflow teeth if I left my return plumbing on and all that crap would be in the skimmer. I have awesome surface agitation but I leave my closed loop on so the food gets blown around and touches various food eating corals - picked that up while tank sitting dbartco and the fish love the workout.

way to go out on a limb there. should be ok most cases there isn't a scenario that doesn't apply to your criteria.

man that's a lot of work. I just drop a frozen cube of mysis in a cup of tank water long enough for it to dissolve and then slowly pour in with the return pumps off. Never had an issue with algae or cyano or phosphates. ETD - what are you hoping to remove by draining the liquid? Why not switch to flakes or freeze dried foods instead?

you kill 'em, we grill 'em!

just think if I knew how long 40cm was.

indeed - that makes me want to call my nano a wet shoebox. Lookin awesome man, like many have said your attention to details and appearance make that look like a museum piece. kick *** jp

incredible! Do you have a pic of those tanks lined up? YB has a similar gravity thing going with his setup.

Thanks Almon, there are flatworms in other parts of the tank, but this is the only place I have a reference picture. Bob - I couldn't find your thread to reply to, but I tried the 6 line based on your experience. I thought dbartco had knocked all of them out for me with the pig sauce, so hopefully this will work out. jp

I hate posting so soon, but can't help it. Here is what a section of my tank looked like on the 26th. You are noticing flatworms: And now after 2 days with an obviously hungry 6-line: This fish is a lot of fun to watch too. So far so good. jp

many folks will tell you that check valves all fail - mine hasn't yet and I use it every day at feeding time. What you should plan on is for your system to be able to withstand a failure that would draw back into your sump and still not allow flooding. In my case, I have about 12 gallons free in my sump, which could handle a stuck float switch that would drain my ATO, a bulkhead failure which would drain my overflow, and a check valve failure, which would suck through my return plumbing until the siphon broke. In your case - none of that applies because you would be draining your tank, and killing everything in it. When I have seen such types of returns, they were for closed loops, so not siphonable, unless there was a large leak, in which case you are sol anyways. See if you can work your return over the back instead and maybe add a small closed loop in the rockwork. The good news is that since you are going acrylic you can drill anywhere. jp

so - how do you break the siphon on the return in the case of a power failure?

pretty cool tostii - I have a life-sized mj1200 on my screen! Nice surface agitation, should be awesome. How about pushing the rocks off the the sides and making a trench?

nice lookin' stand. I always get nervous when I see notched 2x4's, glad to see you used the whole board. Good luck, jp

what is a 'nuby'?

????

might just be time for fresh batteries in the wireless keyboard - mine does that when it's ready to be die. anyways - I'll mix mine the night before a wc with a PH pointed up like flower says and also a heater. After I mix I come back in an hour or two and agitate any pockets of salt on the bottom of the can if there are any, and then repeat until there are no visible solids remaining. If you are talking about a 10% or 20% wc, then I doubt that's enough volume to harm anything even if you are not fully dissolved, in the event that you are asking because you have an emergency wc to do. In that case I would just make sure the temp was in the 70's and swish the living heck out of it, testing your sample before adding to the tank. HTH jp

Good luck and be prepared for anything - I have shattered a big piece and also made nice frag mounts in a piece 1/4" thick somehow. Remember it's pretty much the exact opposite of using a drill press on a flat piece of wood. I used a spade bit but am guessing the YB's call on the masonry bit is the best.