ctenophore

Got my hotel reservation made. Who else is going?

Oh, I forgot to add: Always QT corals. You will get burned eventually if you don't. I prefer to visually inspect frags and small colonies instead of always immediately dipping them. If something develops in QT (inspect every day) then dip it. I always dip large colonies or maricultured corals on rocks though, especially if there is any dead skeleton, fresh or old. Basically, dip when there is any sign of past or present infection or infestation, but just inspect if a) no rock/base and b) all tissue looks healthy.

Try adding additional water movement, such as a maxijet-mod pointed at an angle to the surface so it causes the water surface to roll. This will provide good gas exchange in lieu of a skimmer. Next, cover the tank at least part way to reduce evap (but still allow for air exchange). That should help with pH, salinity, and flow. Keep a ball of chaeto in there to help with nutrient export. The light may be a little weak for acros unless they are right at the surface. Keep them on an eggcrate 1" under the water, directly over the powerhead boil for maximum flow and light. Lastly, try putting a small filter bag full of carbon where it gets bounced around by the flow a little bit, this will help with dissolved organics and any residual flatworm exit, dip compounds, etc. Also, make sure your heater is working well, +/- 1F is good. Hope this helps Justin

Sent you email. Justin

How do you refill the bottle? It seems like you need to unscrew the cap and break the siphon to refill it. Even my 29 gal tank goes through more than a gallon per day of topoff water, so this would need to be done daily. Am I missing something? This is clever but seems a bit unwieldy. A bucket with a JG bulkhead in the bottom to a $10 mechanical float valve accomplishes the same thing without the need to reset a siphon tube. Just pour some water in the bucket and you're done.

The glass installation went pretty well this afternoon. A huge thank you to Dan and Anthony; we got it done in almost exactly 2 hours. I think that may be the first time ever that a tank project took precisely the estimated time to complete. Here are Dan and Anthony doing the heavy lifting while I take pictures: 300 lb piece of glass: Dan, looking like he sniffed too much silicone. Yes I am underneath a piece of glass in this picture: 11 tubes of silicone later: Next report will be in about two weeks, after the silicone has a chance to fully cure. Hopefully this thing will hold water!

I was originally thinking low-light/nonphotosynthetic as in tubastrea, gorgonians, etc. I need to play with a few plankton dosing ideas first though. Can't be coldwater, as it will be tied into the greenhouse tanks. My plan is to use this tank as the introduction point of a lot of planktonic food, which can then disperse into the other tanks. I need to do a lot more reading on plankton reactors though. I may just chicken out and do zoas, gorgs, ricordeas on the bottom and sps near the top. Depends on how the aquascaping comes out. I am walking distance to the shopping center there, just go north on Georgia and left on Norbeck.

Thanks for the offer. The wood is 5/8" 7-ply I believe. It has several layers of woven mat and chopped glass, plus the foam. Add the resin and gel coat and it ends up being pretty heavy. It is still far lighter than an all glass tank or even an acrylic tank though. I did not build it; I had it done by a fiberglass shop in FL. It was still much cheaper than a glass or acrylic tank, probably 1/2 the cost including the starphire front. Saving money was certainly nice, but the real reason I went this route was durability and insulation.

The tank still weighs a lot more than the glass. Probably 400-450 lbs. Glass arrived today; to my relief it was cut precisely to my specified dimensions. Silicone arrives tomorrow.

It is fiberglass with plywood and 2" foam core. I am going to put it in my garage so I wanted it to be as insulated as possible. It's built the same way as Dan's sump except I don't believe his has plywood in the core, just foam. I figured that since it is nearly 4' deep, I would need as much strength as possible on the sides. Excellent, thanks for the offer. It looks like Sunday evening is the best time. I should be able to round up at least one more person, but I wanted to ask WAMAS first since I figured everyone here would be more interested in this project than other non-aquarist friends. I'm not sure how to lower the glass evenly with the furniture dollies once it is centered, but maybe it won't be as much of an issue as I've been thinking. I know you're a smart guy so I'll take your word for it, especially if you have the dollies.

Hey everyone, I was wondering if some of you might be interested in helping me set a pane of glass into the new tank I am building. I think I'll need about four people to make it easy. I'm hoping to do it mid to late this coming week. Here is the tank: The glass that needs to go in it is a 1" laminated starphire piece measuring 64"x46". It weighs about 300 pounds I am told. The glass company is providing suction cups for me to install it. My plan is: 1) Put the tank up on about 2 levels of block, face down as shown. 2) Do one last wipedown/surface prep of inside frame 3) Install 1/8" spacers at corners and midpoints to prevent glass from squishing out all the silicone 4) Run the bead of silicone (planning to use black dow 795) 5) Put glass on a towel-covered wooden platform supported by a hydraulic car jack centered in the frame. This is where the extra hands will be very helpful- getting the glass carefully onto the jack since our leverage is reduced while leaning into the tank and setting the glass down. 6) Use the jack to slowly lower the glass into position, then let gravity do its thing One minor problem with this plan is that I don't own a jack. Does anyone have one I can borrow? I expect this process to take roughly 2 hours. I will probably try to do it in the evening but of course that depends on everyones' availability. Thanks very much for any help! Justin

Chip, Thanks for having us over tonight. I really enjoyed meeting you and many other members. Your tank is amazing! It's always nice to see mature, natural looking tanks with enormous colonies. I look forward to seeing more of those baby banggais too! Justin

I'll be there Justin

Count me in, but I would prefer to not miss the wamas meeting (it will be my first one). Let me know where and when. Justin

Make sure they get blasted with random, alternating flow. Moving colonies is always very stressful; they grow to fit their flow and light patterns. Flow IMO is probably more important than light for most sps, especially when moving colonies. Expect them to brown out a bit before they recolor under their new lights. Justin

I haven't been to IMAC yet either. I've heard that it is a bit smaller than Macna and easier find time to talk to the various speakers. I just made my flight + hotel reservations; I've been told that the hotel is about 1-2 days from filling up for those of you thinking about going. Justin Thanks scott, be careful, with the aquarium projects that I will be starting on after we move into our house, you may find yourself being called on that offer!

Thanks everyone- sorry I couldn't make it on Sat. I am currently back in G'ville for a few days taking down my tank. We finished last night at 2am after starting Sat. 8am. Bemmer, all of my colonies were fragged down about 3", then everything transferred to our greenhouse. So all corals are now safe and happy under the sun. I will start my new tank in MD from these frags. The colonies will probably just live at the greenhouse from now on. Are any of you going to IMAC in chicago in June? Go Gators! Justin

Hello everyone! My name is Justin Casp; I have recently moved to the DC area from sunny Gainesville, FL (home of the Gators!). My family and I will soon be living in Rockville MD, somewhat near Manor country club on Norbeck Rd. I've been keeping marine tanks for about 17 years, and have hopefully made just about every mistake possible in the hobby by now. My first salt tank was a 45, using an awesome undergravel filter with powerheads rather than air stones in the lift tubes. Luckily, I was young and eager to learn, and issues of FAMA quickly taught me everything I needed to know about wet-dry filters and countercurrent protein skimmers. My next tank was a berlin style attempt, complete with bare bottom, a closed-loop spraybar on the bottom, and a big pile of live rock. Looking back, this was actually a decently advanced reef tank for 1991 or so (although I didn't know what an alkalinity test was). Then came the deep sand bed rage, and my next tank was an air-driven 110 with lots of sand and a macroalgae refugium. That tank worked pretty well except I really never got good coloration out of my stony corals. I ended up adding a bigger skimmer and more light, and the corals responded beautifully. My current tank is a 325 acrylic tank, back to the bare bottom approach. This one is getting broken down in the next few days and the movers are going to pack it up and move it up here. You can see some of the pics and write up about it here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...hreadid=1012738 Photos of animals and equipment can be seen here, along with a few pics of my old 110: http://flickr.com/photos/ctenophore I'm actually contemplating selling the 325 and getting two smaller tanks built instead. Our new house has a basement and I don't want to put all that weight on the main floor, which is the only place this tank could go in the new house. Other tidbits about me: - I have two kids ages 4 and 1. Both love the tanks; the 4yo helps me make frags and the 1yo splashes in the frag tank. - My wife and I are huge Gator fans; my wife just graduated from UF with a PhD in immunology and a law degree. We are sad to leave Title Town at the peak of Gator glory! - I own Wavespring Aquaculture, a coral aquaculture facility based in Gainesville. We sell 100% captive propagated corals to aquarium shops primarily in the Southeast, and to online retailers. - I enjoy just about every water sport there is, along with some terrestrial sports as well. I am looking forward to the strong sailing community in the Bay area, and would love to meet other reefer/divers in the area to coordinate scuba trips. - I am also an independent software engineer by trade; I have focused on that much less though since going into aquaculture. I am familiar with many modern languages and software development methodologies. I am anxious to meet all of you, and hope to lend my skills and experience where possible. Thanks for reading this far! Justin