rsarvis

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...

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?

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)?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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...)

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.

are you always online, dave? lol

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?

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?

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.

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!

I got these... http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Plumbing-and...oduct_info.html I don't have the experience to compare them to anything else, but they're silent and appear to be doing their jobs. They are slightly different in speed, so I put the faster one on the part-B, b/c my Alk is always lower than my Ca.

What I got recently was Drew's Dosing Pump at Bulk Reef Supply. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Plumbing-and...oduct_info.html It is silent, as advertised. One thing is that the two pumps I got, if my initial measurement was correct, pump at slightly different rates. I put the faster one on the B-part, b/c I'm always lower in Alk than Calcium. Anyway, I'm new to using dosing pumps, so I can't compare these to others... I'm satisfied with mine so far, though maybe there are cheaper alternatives that I was not aware of.

Something similar appears to have happened in my tank. I originally got one male and 4 females. I lost the littlest female a long while back. The largest female started turning male, but not all the way, it seems. The original male is bigger and the typical color of a male. The newer male appears to be in some sort of half-way state or something, like he's stuck in an awkward stage of puberty, kind of orange-purple, but with the fin-shape and fin-dots of a male. That transition happened quite a while ago and he's been stuck there for a long time now.

I got two dosing pumps recently for dosing two-part. Wow, what a convenience! I'd resisted for so long getting them b/c they're kind of expensive (to me, at least...), esp. considering you need two, but now I wish I'd gotten them sooner! They really make life nice. Between auto-top-off and dosing pump, I'm pretty happy with the convenience; my only daily task is now feeding, which is more fun than work. I might get a larger auto-top-off tank so I can go longer than 5 days without worrying about water. And then all I need is an automatic feeder, and I can happily go away for a week without worrying too much! Anyway, if anyone still doses manually and is thinking about getting dosing pumps, I recommend them...

I've been adding two-part for a long time, but not magnesium. I decided I might as well start, since my original batch of two-part from bulk reef supply came with it. So I mixed up a batch, but I'm wonder how dosing ought to work. I recall reading somewhere (just did a search but couldn't find it on these boards) that it's not that important to dose it slowly like two-part; is that correct? If I'm way low on magnesium, can I dump in quite a bit at a time, rather than having to do it a little each day over the course of many days/weeks?

i also found i got cyano when my lights were getting old...

If you are at all interested in the 120, I have one sitting in my garage; bought new and never used, sticker still on it, reef-ready with two overflow kits. I also have a NAGA sump I won at a raffle still in shrink wrap. Meaning to sell it, will probably put it up for auction soon, but if you were interested, let me know.

No objections, so Sunday at 11 it is... all are welcome... leave a note in the thread if you plan to stop in..thanks! 4713 Major Court Alexandria, VA 22312 510-681-4996