ctenophore

Next time you have to do a plumbing job, be sure to get a few fernco fittings. They're rubber couplings with band clamps that I've found to be indispensable for aquarium plumbing jobs. For small pipe, use a section of black tubing with band clamps. My rule of thumb when dealing with too many fittings, especially threaded adaptors and unions: when in doubt, fernco it. At least it's all done now and you can get into the more enjoyable part of reef keeping!

They need to eat 3x/day or more, preferably frozen shrimp or copepods. They may wean onto pellet food.

I would definitely nix the P.hexataenia. way too aggressive for those anthias. I don't know much about P.tetrataenia but suspect it may be similar.

I have a 5 gal bucket of it

I still can't figure out if it is reversible. Can you create alternating 6-8hour gyres with the controller, or do you need to buy two pumps? If the latter, do the controllers know how to turn one side on and the other off? I'm considering using these on my tank, but I'll need a minimum of 3 per side unless they are reversible.

I would not, and have not, ever run a heavy sps tank without a calcium reactor. I've done two part (and currently use it on a softy/lps nano) and IMO it's not for very high demand applications. If you are a coral growing professional, make the time investment into learning about calcium reactors and the concept of balanced Ca/carbonate ion replacement. It is worthwhile, I promise. The low pH issue is unimportant IME, unless it gets down into the 7.7 or below range, which is tough to do. if so, balance that with kalk in the top-off water. Biopellets may or may not be useful depending on your input nutrient load. How many fish, how much food, etc. I'd stay away from liquid carbon dosing as Rob said, too easy to cause major problems. Put your frag plugs in a low light, very high flow area, and they'll get coralline pretty quickly. Lots of tangs to combat any green algae on the plugs.

Next time you're over here to get that sinularia, we can go over the waterfall food system. Mine isn't running right now but it's on my to do list. Having you over here asking questions about it will certainly be incentive to get it running again

Sorry about the delay everyone! Due to moving the shop this week (we had planned this to happen 3 months ago) we're a bit low on many products. But we expect to have all kits in stock this week! (Including CS1 kits) So there should be plenty to build on the 8th. We're going to keep it simple and do a 15% discount site wide from now until the day before the party. All of these orders need to be picked up at the party! No packing & shipping. Details: Party is Saturday 11/8 from 11am till ? Coupon code is WAMASBUILDPARTY It is valid until 11/7 at midnight (please help me out though and don't wait until then to order ) It is valid only for in stock items only- if something goes out of stock, we won't honor this price later on. Get your orders in early! I will be there to assist anyone who wants help building their project. So if you've never built anything from acrylic before, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn! Please let me know if I've missed any other important details. Looking forward to seeing many of you there. Thank you for your support! Justin

Those wrasses look great! I will get some big colonies of neon sinularia for you. That will add some movement and color.

Hopefully painting, plumbing and electrical go just as fast.

That's where the current shop is. This is 5 minutes closer to Rockville!

I have several small colonies of sympodium and found it is not at all invasive like Kenya tree or red sea xenia. I really like it and wish i could grow it out until large mats like star polyps. Maybe in a few years. It grows by extending pseudopod like arms from its base and sticking them down.

I had almost the exact thing happen with my apex, on the same date/time too. Wierd. The only way i found to fix the problem was to unplug all USB cables and eb8s. I have 3 of them, so all had to be disconnected from both the wall and each other. I left it all unpowered overnight, and when i plugged everything back in in the morning it finally all worked. Needless to say, my confidence in the apex is much lower now as this is not the first time this has happened. I'm working on removing any critical equipment from apex control. Had i not been home, this could have led to significant trouble in reef land.

It actually is a new lid. It's rectangular with two holes to act as a bracket to support the soft tubing. I've thought about doing exactly that on a skimmer. I think the problem is that the pellets will go everywhere as they get smaller, and they will definitely affect bubble size if they are in the bubble chamber.

I know a bunch of you have been asking me about these. Here are the details: http://www.avastmarine.com/ssc/do/product/Media-Reactor-Recirc-Kit We've tried to make it as simple and modular as possible, so you don't have to buy anything you don't already have. Optional pump & biopellet nozzle. Also a good combo price for the kit + pump + biopellets. Here's a quick video of it showing the variable throughput/effluent rate

I have a nice rose bush growing directly under an enormous tree. Not an oak, but it is just as shady.

I use fernco fittings to isolate pumps. Those are the rubber couplings with twin band clamps available at hardware stores. Typically used for DWV (drain, waste, vent) applications. They can also be used on the pressure side of pumps IME. They are soft rubber, easy and very fast to install, never leak, and never crack or harden. Truly an aquarium plumber's best friend. They only come in 1.25"+ sizes though, so will not be applicable for small submersible pumps. Also try not to use any 90deg bends in your drain piping. 45's or less will allow the water to fall with less obstacles, leading to less noise. I prefer one drain pipe that is sized so that it is a continuous siphon carrying 90%+ of the water, and another much larger one that carries the remaining 5-10% but is wide enough to carry 100%. Both will be silent in typical run configuration.

The main things I noticed about that tank were that the sohal tang never moved except for food, and the purples were jousting with each other and all had torn tail fins. Way too little swimming space, IMO. Nice looking corals though, just needs about 1000 gallons worth of volume around and above that patch of reef to give the tangs some space.

Use a tripod to eliminate camera shake. This allows you to use slower shutter speeds, which means higher depth of field (i.e., tighter aperture/larger F-stop number) since the shutter is open longer which lets in more light. A corollary to the tripod, use the timer function so your hand doesn't move the camera when pushing the button. Even better, if you want to get good timing for fish, use a remote trigger. If you want really killer shots of coral, figure out a way to use a tripod with top-down shooting. This typically means some DIY handiwork to create a tripod "arm" adapter for your particular setup. A length of T-slot aluminum is usually a good starting point for many situations. Re: flash, only use it if you have an indirect, remote flash setup. Otherwise it will bounce off the glass or create shadows. I never use one for coral, but it will probably be necessary to allow a high shutter speed & small aperture for a fast moving fish. Also turn off all pumps/water flow when shooting coral.

Hmm, running by gravity feed is a great idea. You essentially have a living filter sock that you can tear up and throw away, and never have to wash. I think I'll build one too.

Also on the topic of the gyre pump, I think it has potential if used properly. The aquascape must be designed with a gyre/laminar pattern in mind. The pump creates a moving sheet of water and has a nice slim form factor. But I didn't see anything different in the current it generated compared to a row of small nanostream-class pumps. But one thin pump certainly looks nicer than 4 round pumps and 4 cords. The gyre pump will be useless in a fruit-stand style aquascape, but will excel when placed behind or near the bottom of an elevated rock structure that has equal space between the front & back glass, whether horizontal or vertical gyre pattern.

I've never run LaCl, but I was under the impression that it must be dosed in a reactor, and the precipitate should be trapped by very fine filter media before it can escape back into the system. So the LaCl never actually reaches the tank inhabitants, except in immeasurably low amounts, like ozone in an ozone reactor. My personal approach to achieving good water quality is focused on water flow. This includes both the overall amount of in-tank circulation, the quality of the current patterns around the obstructions in the display, as well as the turnover through the filtration system. I have found this is a tough problem to solve on aging large systems with a high fish population. I am currently in the process of reworking my filtration loop to increase the system turnover. Lots of fish means very high local nutrient levels (think fish poop in eddies or areas of lower current near rocks) even when filtration loop & in-tank circulation flow is considered adequate or even high. I think it lingers long enough for nuisance algae to trap it, even though test kits say zero. I have noticed in different areas of my system (display, two large lit sumps, frag tank) very different growth rates and coloration of the exact same coral strains, much of which I attribute to differing degrees of quality water flow and filtration loop turnover. For example, in my frag tank, which has 6x 1500gph prop pumps in 60 gal water volume (many would consider this a very high flow environment), my acro frags really haven't maintained the color and growth that they do in my lit sump. The sump gets less light, but much higher turnover from the filtered water loop. I think part of the difference is that the sump has a constant laminar water flow pattern that flushes everything into the return pump and into the filtration loop nearly 10x/hour, while the frag tank has a measly 1-2x/hr turnover rate and very chaotic flow that seems to be impeding coral growth & coloration. Anyhow, enough rambling, but the point is that everyone should think about their water flow patterns and how efficiently it is moved through their filtration systems, whatever that may be.

I try to keep mine on the low end. If it's balanced with calcium, that should put calcium below 420. High calcium equals more frequent pump cleaning, and I've never observed any difference in growth rates by having it high. Consistency is key.

It only draws about 2-3 watts, so very possible. I'm not sure what outlet mine are in.

Yes, I think it should work fine. We are getting ready to release a recirc biopellet reactor that may work well with sulphur media. If you already have a MR5, we have a retrofit kit that will use the MR5 body. I'll send you PM with details.