trble81

Hi and Welcome!! What you've done is spent the best $20 you will ever spend in this hobby. This club is awesome. When I was reading you post, one thing jumped out at me. It was the fact that you said you're going to ditch your heater once you upgrade your lighting (because of the heat of the lighting). Salt water gets cold, FAST! Unless your heater is on the fritz, it shouldn't be running when the tank temp is higher than the set value. So, it would be best to keep the heater in order to control temperature swings. Welcome to the hobby...you're wallet will want a divorce..

What's a good way to store RO/DI water (with and without salt)? I was under the impression that using Brute plastic trash cans was good but I had seen some posts saying that chemicals from the plastic may leech into the water (because it wasn't intended to to be "food grade" storage). Is this true? Also, if there's an alternative, where would be the best place to get it (it's pretty easy to find Brutes)? As far as how much water I intend on keeping on hold, I was looking at two 25 gallon containers (setting up the new 90 will have to be done in "parts" but maintaining the two tanks afterwards will be no problem with the above plan...I think). As always, thanks in advance!

Charles, I got the same unit as you did (I think) from the group buy. When I looked at the instructions that night, I said to myself, "hmm....I'll deal with this later."

John, What part of Upstate New York are you from? My wife and I hail from Western New York (the Buffalo area). Welcome to the club! Best $20 (or $35 for a family membership) you'll ever spend in this hobby!

We had a blast! How cool is this club? Big props to the frag sellers who put up additional frags for raffle. When you have more frags than people who put in for them, you know you have generous folks.

If my future corals are half as nice as those, I'll consider myself really lucky. Great photos, man!

Josh, I've got a tank that's similar to yours (mine is a 35 gallon hex, but with all the crap in it it probably has no where near 35 gallons of water in it) set up right now. I've got ~40 lbs of good LR in it (and by "good" I mean covered in purple). I only have 2 clowns and 2 damsels (plus some snails and hermits). I don't intend on anything else in this tank (that's what my 90 gallon is for... currently under construction )! My advice to you: 1.) Check the boards and get some LR from some of the members (either find those who are selling it or post that you are looking to buy). More LR in your tank will only help you in the long run (even if you upgrade to a larger tank, you'll still use the rock). 2.) Purchasing fish that need a lot of room is a expensive thing. You may upgrade to a larger tank the next week but what if you don't. You'll stress the fish out, and that's when you get funky outbreaks (like ich). Also, you'll probably not make your money back if you have to sell it off because you can't house it any more (and god know that every dollar in this hobby is precious). 3.) I'm no clam expert. But I've been told that I shouldn't even consider a clam unless my tank is mature (+ 6 months in age). Now, I'm no expert in this hobby. All the experience that I've gained is only from reading up on the subject, talking to seasoned vets on these boards, and by attending the meetings (a good way to talk to some of the superstars that we have here and a good way to listen to experts when they come to talk). Please don't feel like people are getting on your case. I can't tell you where I would be without the valuable help that I've received from these folks. Any tank has the potential of being real nice, it's how you go about getting there. Also, this hobby tends to pay off if you stick with it in the long run. There's nothing like a sting of unfortunate events to make for an early exit. Best of luck and happy reefing!

Josh, I think what Raf means is that the tank that the anemone is in isn't mature, not the animal itself.

Marcia and Tom, Thanks very much for the info!

All, I've never worked with PVC plumbing with a tank before and I've got a question. I've got a piece of PVC, schedule 40, in a "joint". The joint says that it's 1 1/2" in diameter. I'm assuming that the piece in it is 1 1/4" (if it's a tight fit and is "chemically welded"). Now, I want to put a coupler on it, meaning I'll have to get a 1 1/2" coupler to work. Now here's my question, what are the steps to chemically weld the PVC? Is it you use the cleaner on the surfaces that will have contact, then the purple primer, then the cement? Any advice will be great. Thanks very much!

Burn

I've heard that play sand can have some serious impurities that could mess up your tank...

I should have said that I was talking about T5's, not PC. I was looking through a Dr. Foster and Smith flyer-thing and noticed that some of their T5 units had 420's and some had 460's. Just was wondering what difference, other than the wavelength, is there between the two. So if I understand your post, you noticed a change visually? I assume more "pop" to the colors under just actinic light, along with the "crisp white" overall look that you mentioned? Also, I plan on having 10,000k and 460nm T5 bulbs on the tank...just curious about the difference between the two, that's all... Thanks for the response!

I've got sort of a n00b question here: Other than the wavelength, what's the difference between a 420nm actinic bulb and a 460nm actinic bulb? I guess a better question would be what's the advantage of using one over the other? Thanks in advance!

I'll be there. I too need to pick up my AWI order from Bob.

The stand looks slick....good stuff man! --Mike

Scott, Now that you're a member, Bob is running a Group Buy for supplies from AWI (see Group Buy forum). If you wanted to get a unit to make RO water yourself, you might want to take a peek at the thread... --Mike

Hello, biggest clam in an aquarium I've ever seen... --Mike

If you feel like you're "infested" with them, you could always get a Harlequin shrimp. All they feed on is the tube feet of starfish and if you've got a never-ending supply, you should be golden. --Mike

Sweet Moses, mother of pearl is that a nice tank... --Mike

If I had to replace the whole thing, how would I get the pipe out of the bulkhead?

It's probably mostly luck for me but every peppermint shrimp I got from SCALES ended up eating any aiptasia in my tank. The thing is if the aiptasia are real big, you might be better off getting some Joe's Juice to use...

Thanks to everyone for the info! Like I said in my first post, I'm no darn good with plumbing. I was thinking of using a coupling but I needed some confirmation to see if I was even close to being right. --Mike

To move the tank over to my house, we needed to use a hacksaw and cut the PVC plumbing. See below pictures to see the cuts: So the internal diameter of the PVC that was cut was 1.5". My question is how would I go about reattaching this? Any insight would be greatly appreciated because I'm no darn good with plumbing. Thanks in advance! --Mike