fishcam

If you've got a Hydor Koralia controllable pump, could you please snap a pic of the label on the power head, and possibly the end of the connector? I'm trying to figure out if these can be driven by PWM or a variable voltage... so I don't have to buy the expensive controller! Thanks!

hey thanks every one! i changed the carbon and wished my pod population the best. if any do reproduce i guess my melanarus and cbb will have a field day!

EVERYWHERE... every minute I see another puffy cloud of ... love. Is this gonna screw up my tank? I'll snap a pick if I can... you perverts. thanks! d

LOL Hilarious. If only he had his weapon when he goes to see the Mantis!

haha holy crap I know! I'd do it just for his sump I'm waiting for one of those "hey take my 220 oceanic off my hands because of xxx reason..." Oh, i'll be there for that!

As for a recommendation for a butterfly, i'd go with a copper band! It will eat any aptaisia there. Kind of a picky eater though, so if they're doing flakes it might not survive on that.

So I guess I'm confused at the methods suggested above. One method is dosing CA and ALK with two seperate dosing pumps controlled by my ACIII. This seems to be the safest and allow the most control. The second is to put some sort of mixture in my top off water (where do I buy this powder, etc) and let my ATO (which is redundant) refill as water evaps. This method is more risky, but probably safe enough if I low dose and pay attention when starting out with tests. The third method is a kalk reactor/stirrer, whose function I'm not yet clear on, nor am I clear on how it works different from the above two methods. Am I right here? Can I get some clarification? Many thanks, esp before I potentially spend $140 on two dosers! -d EDIT: and it seems that even with a 55g full of SPS/LPS frags, a CA reactor is out of the mix, so that is AOK with me!

I'm thinking this is what I might do. Thanks for the advice. Also thanks for the heads up on the MG pump...

What are the differences? I dont know anything about how they work! I've just been manually adding ca, alk and mg! Thanks!

So I'd like to be able to automate my dosing of ca, alk and mg and I'd like to know what other folks are doing. Should I get two or three dosing pumps and program them with my ACIII, or should I go the calcium reactor route? (I'm not familiar with how CA reactors work, but I think I need a reactor, with a pump, and a co2 system, along with a kalk stirrer... and I dont know what the kalk stirrer does... ) Can someone help me with the pros and cons? My tank is a 55g with a 55g sump, with about a 102 total water volume. Most of my tank is SPS frags that I've bought off of folks on the forum, with two LPS. There are a few mushrooms and leathers as well, but I doubt they'd benefit. Eventually, I'd like to upgrade to a 120+ if that matters, but that's a while away. For the near future, I'll have the 55 display! Thanks for any advice!

Also theres now these at discount... http://www.petsolutions.com/Mag-Float-Cleaner+I90900030.aspx I have the 30 and I think it would be unable to hold a powerhead, but can anyone with a 125 care to take a guess? @10 each, thats 40 for the whole tank! Thanks!

I'm not sure. I ran some mags in my nano to hold up a piece of acrylic for over 6 months, and nothing happened. I didnt have SPS back then though, so I'm more cautious now with what I toss in the tank. I would think that hot glue is basically safe, but I'll look into whatever I end up using. When you say embed them into acrylic resin, what do you mean exactly? I've never worked with acrylic glue or anything. As for the mags, I think they're pretty strong... they're able to hold a static load of ~>50lbs, and are strong enough to hold through 1/4... so two of them with attraction should be OK for a MJ1200. You're probably correct, esp with the time involved. But I like to tinker. I just made a 4x80mm fan cooling device for a grand total of $20+ old computer parts. Marine depot charges about 200 for the same thing I think. Theirs has a mounting bracket and mine uses zip ties... but I'm thinking thats OK. Plus I love it. Plus I would love to post instruction and save some folks some cash later if it works out OK. If the mags are strong, for an hours work each, I could save people $15-20 per PH Plasticoat is something I thought about but thought would be more volatile than hot glue. I'll check it out none the less though, since its probably easier and cheaper. Yeah sir! Having ripped apart a hard drive, I think the mags in there are enough to hold onto a powerhead... so these ones should probably do the trick if they're as good as advertised. I'll check out your site! thanks. Same here, link doesnt work. But if these are the generic mag floats, then they could work as well. Petco has some slim ones that are gray with green pads I've thought about using. It might come down to this or the gray ones.

Well my suction cups are giving in to the coraline algae, and I need some magnetic holders. Unfortunately the major magnetic brand that marine depot carries is somewhere near $20-$25 for each powerhead which seems excessive, considering the price of a MJ1200. However, I'm married to the brand, because I have a Wavemaster Pro, and overall I've been happy with the performance. Here are my thoughts: 1. Buy a set of koralia powerheads (nano or 1) at about the same price of the magnets, and mod the koralia magnets to hold up a MJ (this doesn't save me any money, but I get some powerheads with which I can do whatever I want later.) 2. Get some magnets, and seal them in a reef safe material (I'm thinking hot glue? anyone whose more knowledgeable with materials please chime in) and use the existing suction cup bracket to mount them to the powerhead. The benefit here seems quite large, as these magnets I've found seem to be quite strong, and able to support the 1/4 glass on my 55. http://www.magnet4less.com/product_info.ph...products_id=139 or http://www.magnet4less.com/product_info.ph...;products_id=42 What does everyone think? I've also read that some folks bend acrylic rods and have success there, but that seems a little less elegant that hot-glue embedded magnets Thanks for any thoughts! -d

Man, I really like your idea for overflow and the rear horizontal pipe for water circulation. I've been thinking about something similar for my tank. What sort of pumps do you have providing flow to all that plumbing? Looks real great!

guess that means my masters is out too lol.

Is this a submersible pump?

Same here. Actually... another question: how long should that carbon and phosphate remover generally last? I've been replacing every two weeks... but maybe I'm wasting media?

This is also what I've heard... so in the units of heaters... either 2x250w's or 2x300w, since I have this thing about matching components. This is definitely my strategy. Just looking for a decent brand! Thats pretty much all I needed to know... I've only ever used the pet-* brand, and the temperature on those dials never really seems to be right. If the stealth's are accurate and as good as folks say, then unless someone can convince me otherwise, I dont see the need to spend the extra dollars. These will be controlled by an ACIII as well. Many thanks.

Well its getting a little chilly for the tank, and I'm not really trusting my current heater at this point (a used stealth). My question to everyone is: What are the nice brands of heaters folks are using? Visi-Therm Stealth seem to be the combo between price and quality, and are Via-Aqua Titaniums the primo brand? They seem to have a digital dial, which is sweet, but the tank temp is monitored via ACIII. I dont have the room to do anything in-line at this point, so its going to have to be a drop in. For 102 gallons, I was thinking maybe 400-600 watts of heating power? My house is about 68, and I like to keep the tank at about 78-79. Many thanks for your advice and brand recommendations! -d

Thats a real innovative way to make a float switch. Nice job. I actually just bought one of these http://www.rabbit.com/products/RCM5400W/index.shtml and I'm playing around with making my own controller. I wonder how many folks here know how to do some embedded programming?! Nice job! If you have any more diy electronics, I'd sure like to see it! d

I emptied my sump last night to replace it. I just used a m1200 with flexible tubing on either end. Took about 10 mins to empty a ~25g

I'm gonna spend the better part of today re-plumbing my new 55g sump into my tank. The increased water volume is about 25g's. Is there any strategy for increasing the volume of the water safely? I'll check the ph, temp and salinity... but what about anything else? does it matter much? thanks! d

oh awesome! thanks man! This site is way higher tech too... cheers!

it seems 2partcalculator has been down for at least a week! What should I do?! Thanks!

Hmm awesome. I'll check! Thanks.