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rsarvis

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About rsarvis

  • Birthday 09/15/1976

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  • AIM
    rsarvis98
  • Website URL
    http://

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Alexandria, VA 22312
  • Interests
    180g reef aquarium. Reef-ready AGA w/ 40g sump, ASM G3 skimmer, Aquactinics Constellation T5 lighting fixture.
    Member since 11'06.

rsarvis's Achievements

Master Reefer

Master Reefer (8/13)

  1. I'm selling my 180g set-up here: http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/44984-getting-out-of-the-hobby-nice-180g-setup/ Also, I'm going to Puerto Rico for the first time next week. Suggestions for things to see, things to do, places to eat, hidden treasures, etc? I have my PADI certification, if you have any particular dive suggestions (locales and shops b/c i don't have my own equipment). But any suggestions, land or sea, are appreciated...
  2. I keep reading about eating lion fish, since they are an invasive species in FL/Caribbean/etc. Does anyone know if lion fish ever gets served at any restaurants up here, or if you can buy some to cook? I'm curious to try some, but I guess maybe it's unlikely to get shipped up here in any sort of quantity?
  3. I see... so a) what causes them to become unstable (and why doesn't that happen in other motors?), and b) there's not much you can do about it other than buy a new impeller (or pump)?
  4. What is failing when pumps fail? And why is it hard to make pumps that are more reliable and last longer? Or am I just buying cheap, poorly made pumps? And is there no fixing a pump that's just stopped working (where there isn't any buildup that appears to be stopping it)? The sedra on my skimmer isn't working properly; I took it out and played with it a little, at one point it was working in a 5-gal bucket, but i put it back in and it didn't work... I've had several power heads fail (hydor koralia, maxijet, etc) and now the sedra.
  5. I'm definitely in the not-worth-the-effort camp. If you're a casual hobbyist like me, for whom too much maintenance would kill the enjoyment, I say go without. If you're more of a serious hobbyist and natural tinkerer, those types of folks often say filter socks definitely benefit in cleaner-looking water due to removing not just detritus but micro-bubbles. For me also, the only place in my sump where it would make sense to put the filter sock is just hard to get to, so I'm not gonna bother trying to get there every couple weeks.
  6. I have an airwaterice.com RO/DI system. I'm changing out the filters and it appears that it came with the water going from the 1micron filter > 5 micron > 10 micron. I would have thought it should go 10 > 5 > 1, weeding out the biggest stuff, then the medium size stuff, then the small stuff. Is that wrong? Or am I right and it came wrong? If I'm right, that would explain why only the 1micron filter looks really dirty? Anyway, also, how do you all know when to change the RO membrane and DI thingy? If my TDS is rising (used to be 0, now it's around 4), does that point to something in particular needing replacement?
  7. I have/had some bubble algae outbreaks and I get the sense they get worse when my lights are old, but I don't know if that's true. I actually think bubble algae, the big ones at least, are kinda neat, so I don't mind it much, but when I take pieces off, it's only the big ones, and you can wiggle and twist it slowly so it comes off without popping. If you're trying to get the little bubbles off without bursting them, that does seem like a difficult task to do without popping some. Good luck with it.
  8. Video-recording and video-editing has become so easy, I think it would be fun to have a video montage of wamas members' aquariums at each meeting. The way I would envision it working is quite simple... People who plan on going to the next meeting and who are interested in showing off their tank could send a newly made 20-second video clip to whoever volunteers to lead the video collection/editing for that meeting. The video editor would just string them all together (adding any features he/she wishes, like background music, or text showing aquarium owners' names, etc) and show up at the meeting, hook up their laptop to the projector, and play the video. (And upload to a wamas channel on youtube, so everyone can view at any time...)
  9. Yea, I live not far from Wally's and dropped in yesterday, only to find they're going out of business. It doesn't surprise me, given that everything there was pretty darn expensive (I guess understandably expensive, given the rents they must've been paying--current asking price is $23/sqft at 5400 sq ft, and that's in the middle of a bad economy). I always found it odd that they had no interest in having a Wamas presence or even in being particularly nice to customers; the only guy who worked there and had a good customer-service mentality was chefthomasr, who wasn't there long, presumably b/c he was too cheerful and eager to help... Anyway, someone mentioned three other LFS down the road. What/where are they? I only know of SuperPets, which everyone loves to hate. I'd love to explore the others nearby. I generally just buy stuff online or make the pilgramage out to BRK.
  10. Is a lot of vibration on the glass from a powerhead bad? I had a Koralia 4 die on me, and I had a modded maxijet whose suction cups wouldn't hold, so I glued the modded maxijet directly to the magnet of the Koralia and stuck it on the aquarium wall. It works much better now (in that it doesn't fall down) but I can feel significant vibration when I put my hand to the glass, and there's an audible buzz. Should I add a piece of rubber or foam or something b/t the magnet and the powerhead to dampen the vibration?
  11. Why are these bulbs so much cheaper than other brands? In my experience, the bulbs I get (36"/39W T5s) are in the $17-23 range, depending on day/white/blue/actinic. I'd love to hear that these are just as good despite being 1/3 the price. Am I missing something?
  12. I believe I am using the Drew's Doser pumps you link to. I can't compare them to anything else as they're all I've used; got them several months ago and they are definitely a great relief from having to manually dose regularly. I got two pumps and they are a little bit off in terms of the rate they pump at, but not by much (I needed to dose more Alk anyway, so I just used the faster one on that). I'm guessing that other dosers are just as good, so I'd not sweat the decision too much and spend my time worrying about getting the timers right so the dosing is what you want/need.
  13. Had power go out for a little over an hour right around 4am... I was woefully unprepared for the storm. I didn't even know about it until 10pm Friday night, when it had already begun snowing. Luckily, I was awake when it happened and I had miraculously had the presence of mind to save a bunch of styrofoam from a furniture purchase 18 months ago, so I put the tank into "shield mode" (pic below)... Even more luckily, power came back on not too long after 5am. Phew!
  14. rsarvis

    180g Reef Aquarium

    My aquarium!
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