wreck

Here are some pictures of my RBTA just before or as it was splitting last week, it was hard for to tell if it was actually split: here's my Two RBTAs today, the little guy is wedged under the rock some but hopefully it will extend out or move into the open:

sounds good, but I would probably still soak it for a while to loosen the gunk in the bezel.

If you haven't turned the bezel for a while it may just have some crud holding it up. Try soaking the watch in some warm water for a while, i guess you could even add some vinegar to the water if you've been dipping the watch in your tank, and then turning the bezel while underwater. Wreck

YaaHooo, I just noticed my RBTA naturally split. I got this RBTA from Chip a few months ago as a fresh cut split about the size of a quarter. I now have two, one about 6" when open the other about 4". I'm psyched. Rick

don't know about the Coral Vue top off but the auto top off that I got from autotopoff.com was cheaper and has dual floats with snail guards, it has worked great for the past few months.

I think you need to have your lights and all tank equipment on a GFI/GFCI outlet. If you had the light on a GFI, power would have been cut off as soon as the light hit the water. Ask Holly, Hbh, she knocked her light into the water shortly after I installed a GFI for her and the power cut off instantly. I think you're lucky to only have gotten a minor shock, the ground probe may have grounded some of the juice. Wreck

What caused your death toll? Was it the tap water? Wreck

some tweezers can work to physically remove the algae, you can also cover the algae with a clamshell or something so it doesn't get any light and dies off. wreck

I didn't offer any xenia since you had lots of offers already. I have some xenia you can try again with and I'm in Bethesda. Wreck

try some dried nori seaweed, tangs usually love it.

you should also test for ALK, Calcium, and magnesium. If you want to test your hydrometer against a refractometer, you can by my place anytime and we can check it. Wreck

I believe the anemone you have is a green bubble tip. Anemones will roam if they are unhappy with their location, could be they are looking for more or less light, more or less flow, or unhappy with water conditions. The parameters you listed look fine so the anemone is probably just looking for a place with flow that it likes. Are you testing salinity with a swing arm hydrometer or refractometer? Hydrometers are notorious for being inaccurate especially if not kept clean and free of dried salt. Wreck

1. If the solenoid fails to close with a gravity feed then there is a potential for an over dose or major overflow depending on the size of the reservoir. 2 & 3. I don't use a CA reactor so I can't give any input here, but I thought with a CA reactor properly sized and setup there is no need for the addition of two-part. It looks like your CA reactor setup settings or something needs to be tweaked. 4.I do run a Kalk reactor that is fed by an aqualifter with an auto top off, all top off goes through Kalk reactor but I only dose it during the night otherwise my Ph goes too high and I don't have a controller. If I had a controller I would probably set it up to turn off the aqualifter, which is switched by the ATO, if the tank Ph goes too high like 8.6 or so. If you setup the Kalk reactor in way that it cannot start a siphon from the top off reservior and it can be shut off if the Ph goes too high like with a controller to turn off the feed pump you'll eliminate some possibilities of a Kalk overdose. I think most Kalk overdoses are caused by a siphon that gets started somehow and by faulty ATO switches.

Is your ALK low? Magnesium? Are you using a calcium reactor with too much CO2? If all that is ok maybe just start dosing some Kalk during the day too. Wreck

what's AEFW? I guess I've never had them.

Up until last week I was running a single 175MH on one side of my 55 with 4x 55w PCs. It was hard tell the difference in lighting and most people wouldn't even notice, you really had to stand across the room from the tank to see it. I added another 175MH last week to the other side because I was running out of space for the more light demanding corals that I placed under the MH. I think you'll be ok with the T5s and single MH for now, but I'm sure you'll want to add another one in the near future. If you already have 4- T5s, I would run all of them plus the 175MH. Taking a look at different light setups is a good idea to figure exactly what appeals to you. You did mention when you were over here that you like the water shimmer, I think you can only get that with halides. Good luck and do what looks good to you. Wreck

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First thing is to actually speak to a manager or someone with some authority of the vendor and explain to them your situation in a calm and polite manner. If that fails to get you an immediate refund you can always file a non receipt of goods/services with your credit card company. Good luck.

What are your tank parameters? What size tank and lighting are you using? My xenia tends to like Ph over 8.3. It also has moved closer to the top of the tank over time, I have 175 MH with PC actinic & 10k. I have also heard that Xenia does not ship well, hopefully yours will recover. Wreck

Did you already put the sand in the tank? If not that's probably the first thing you should do. Add the sand and then let everything settle down and maybe run some kind of mechanical filtration. It might take a couple of days for the water after adding the sand unless you add it very slowly. If you didn't add the sand yet, I was thinking that you probably shouldn't use that used silica play sand and use some nice aragonite sand instead. I know it's extra money but I think it's worth it. Wreck

Has anyone tried these Chinese Ph probes that they sell on Ebay: Ph Probe on Ebay Let me know if you've tried one. Thanks, Wreck

Test your Alkalinity, try to get your Ph at least over 8.0, ideally 8.3-8.5. You might consider dripping Kalkwasser, I was constantly fighting algae before I started using it, it will help bump up your Ph just be sure to do it slowly. If your sump/fuge is barebottom, try to siphon out as much of the detritus as you can when you do water changes. I think once a day feeding should be plenty, most fish are opportunistic feeders, show them food and they will eat it, doesn't mean they are hungry. Good luck.

Just let me know what time you're doing it, the earlier the better for me. Wreck

The first time I did it I used like 3/8" pvc pipe about 6" long and made like a triangle shape stack, two peices on the bottom and one on top and zip tied them together. I used two of these stacks per base rock. On my other tank i just used 1&1/2" pipe but had to put some sand on the bottom to keep the pvc from rolling around while I placed the rock. I find this to work well to keep the rock off the bottom and to keep the rock stable in case of sand sifting critters. Wreck

When I did my tank, I placed short pieces of pvc pipe on the bottom of the tank to rest my rocks on, then added my sand. My clownfish did a lot of fanning of the sand, down to the bare bottom in some places and my rocks didn't shift at all. Wreck