Big Country

I went from two part when I first started a reef, to dripping kalk out of one of those kent marine iv containers, to a kalk reactor when 2 part couldn't keep up with demand, to adding 2 part on top of kalk, to just hooking up my calcium reactor to use with my kalk reactor.

I used to have a rectangular trash can that held 33gallons, was tall and skinny, looked everywhere for one after I saw it in a pet store in Urbana. Finally found it at a Ace Hardware of all places, never saw one at Walmart, Target, HD or Lowe's

Kalk also doses equal parts calcium and alkalinity. You can have a kalk overdose, the trick there is to only put enough powder in the reactor to last a few days, that way even if things stick you won't have an overdose, maybe a flood if your refill water is large enough to overflow your system though, a problem with your salinity and a problem with your wife...lol. Light's on your refugium help with PH but my PH still drops around 0.2 every night on my system.

Sweet

It's not Rox 0.8 from Reef Choice that Avast sells, it's lignite carbon and the price is comparable to BRS. I'd buy the stuff from Reef Choice since he's in Alexandria and you can get up to at least a 5 gallon bucket if you want but it's a trip for me. It Filter Fine Aquatics that packages it is dschflier here on WAMAS, just send him a PM if you want to get some from him.

I use the Bulk Reef Supply lignite carbon, change it once a month

I dumped 2 bottles of hydrogen peroxide into my tank, 25ml daily, trying to fix a hair algae problem, slowed it down but didn't kill it all.

I've used magfloats for years, when I set up my 180 I bought a Hammerhead, it's a beast, no matter how fast I move it I've never had the wet side release from the glass and it does a great job of cleaning in one stroke. It's expensive but well worth the money

Not sure how many bags of sand you need but did you see those shipping charges? I think when I sat up my 180 I bought four special grade 50# bags for $40 ea from the LFS so you might check availability and price with some of the stores before you order, you might actually get it cheaper locally rather than paying shipping.

I've got two of the diamond gobies and they sift and move ton's of sand in my tank, of course they are larger gobies. With a smaller goby like a yellow or green goby, that I typically see paired with pistol shrip, I just don't know if you might do better with the select grade. I would probably call John at BRK and ask because he has the goby/shrimp pairs in his tanks all the time and could tell you how coarse his sand is and whether the smaller gobies have a problem sifting it or if they sift it.

Here's a website that gives you the specs on the caribsea sands http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/dry_aragonite.html I used their sugar sized sand one time and just blew around too much in my tank. I like their seaflor special grade reef sand in all my tanks, it's big enough to not blow around constantly, it does still move around some in my tank though, and it doesn't bother my gobies, wrasses or snails that dig and burrow. I'd heard in the past that the marco sand just created sandstorms but I haven't looked lately to see if they have a coarser sand now. I have a bookmark somewhere for a sandbed calculator that you put in the footprint of the tank and depth of sand you want and it tells you how many pounds you need, has been pretty accurate in my usage. If you want the link PM me and I'll send it to you since it's at home

I know they used to make something out of acrylic that held like a cup of carbon to sit on top of a skimmer, was like $70 if I remember correctly, not sure if they have any more since I don't see it on their website anymore. Bet if you contact Dan or Justin they would probably make you something though. I think from what I remember the one they had sat on top of the skimmer lid and had tubes that went through the holes in the skimmer lid or it might have just been something to glue down to the skimmer lid for all I know, I think they built it mainly to cut down on odor from people running ozone through their skimmers.

Talk to Dan or Justin, I had the same thing start to happen to my impeller and through them I got a pin impeller that worked every bit as good as the meshmod did and I didn't have to worry about it

I'm sure the price of the pump is a large part of it.

Sorry but 3 PM's not going to work for me, have grandson's birthday party to go to. Good Luck and be safe

I've got about 1.5" of sand in my fuge, don't like to see all the junk on the bottom and gives my mangroves some sand to root in. Don't know if that's a good amount or too much or too little just what I've done.

What time do you plan on being in Ellicott City to get the tank? Can't go to Reston but if the time works for me I can come over and help you load it up.

No problems here either with 2 mandarin's in a 180g tank with 2 RBTA's

If you're going to control the light with a timer or a controller why worry about it, hold the switch and turn the light on, push the switch inside the light and silicone over the hole. Plug the light into the timer and forget about it.

Never used a SCWD, I hooked up a WAV unit that bruce "bbyatv" here on WAMAS builds, liked the concept and it worked well but I made a mistake and plumbed it under my 180g tank and it's magnets could not handle the backpressure and started to skip, totally my fault, the unit worked great otherwise, just need to find time to replumb the returns on my tank to raise the WAV unit up to tank water level so it doesn't have any backpressure, this is going to be my winter project. Check it out, the website is http://mysite.verizon.net/vzezka94/wav/

I'm pretty sure that SurlyT has had or does have an Anglerfish.

Congrats Darren, kids are the greatest

ACIII here also. Alot of help available from other members, easy to program once you get the hang of it.

Best resource I found was a guy called grim reefer on reefcentral, has a monster thread about T-5's in the lighting section. Just log onto there and tell him how many bulbs are in your fixture and what color temp you are looking to replicate and he'll usually get back to you quickly with a bulb combo to try.

I spoke to Dr. Mac last fall when I was going down for bike week, he told me I could purchase corals on Friday or Saturday and pick them up on Sunday when he was at the shop taking care of things. Guess you'd just have to see what time he will be there, if I remember correctly it was in the afternoon sometime.