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Well, I think this is a really nice project. If you come the Baltimore way, let me know and I'll be more than happy to donate a couple of things. Alberto :D

The ones I ahve seen are in glass.

This is perfectly acceptable and doable. When I set up my 360 gal tank, I put probably 400 Lb of dead rock/coral skeletons and the 200 Lb of LR I ahd in my 125 on top of it. That was about 7 months at the end of April and now it is 100% covered with coralline algae and it is so well blended in that you would have a hard time picking out. Leave it there for a year and you'll ahve more life than you'll know what to do with. The only advantage of LR to this is that LR comes withh all the spores and few cell organisms attached to it that will over the next year start to come out. I have stuff grow out of my rock that was not there 11 months ago. It did not just appear, but rather has been there all along. Can't have that happen with dead rock ???

I have 400 watt halides about 2 inch from the brace edge. I was very worried about it for the same reasons given above. My solution to it was to place 2 small fans, one blowing to the bulb and another blowing to the brace. That has worked great for me for now, but I don't know the long term effects of the bulb being so close. The brace is very cool to the touch now. Eventually, I will elevate it some. Alberto

What is SDFF? What do you have for sale?

What is SDFF? What do you have for sale?

I may take up on the offer. I may have to come down that way to get some hardware from Coral Connection, so I could come that way. I'll let you know after I talkt to Leon again. For all I know he already sold it to someone else. ???

I am currently running radium 400 watt on e-ballast. They are due for a change, so I have been considering to get ushio 10k instead. Problem is I have never seen them on eballast and I want to see it before I spend the money on bulbs I may no like at all. I would like to borrow someone's ushio 10k to put in my tank for a couple of hours and see what itt looks like. Anyone? ??? ??? I would prefer someone close to the Baltimore area so I don't spend an entire day driving to DC and back for something I am going to use for 1-2 hours. Thanks, Alberto

David: I had one in my tank and did not pick on anything. At least that was for the 2 days it was there until it died and killed every other fish in the tank. It spread marine velvet, or how I like to call it marine ebola, to the other fish. Have heard of plenty of people keeping them without problems, expecially in SPS tanks. My $2000 yen

Dear ilustrious lecturing professor ROBZ :D :D : You are right, they won't touch the flat worms. As stated above, the only ones that will, and although it is a guess I suspect it is a hit or miss, are the ones commonly known as "greek goddess". The black with bright blue stripes. The ones you are refering to and the ones Dr. Mac sells will eat some bryopsis, extremely slowly and if the current or pump intakes don't kill them first. I finally got some more and they are working hard to make a tiny ding to it. Bryopsis grows like there is no tomorrow. Another note is that if you all are following some of the flatworm threads in RC, you will notice some people that have used the salifert flatworm chemical thing have had good results. I would be extremely cautious with that stuff since although I don't think the chemicals will harm your corals the toxins released by thousands of flatworms dying at once will. That is why people that have flatworms crash on them have their tanks nuked!. I personally would be more afraid of that than anything else.

sph2sail: Yes, I know, but thanks for mentioning it. This link will show you why I am looking at some other options local. Look at the prices. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog....d+Tanks snapper: Which are those you are refering to? I went to HD today and saw nothing but the garbage containers. 60 gal will be on the lowest end of what I am looking for as far gallonage, but it may just do the trick. Which section of HD. I looked in garden and just about everywhere in the store and saw nothing. I may try another HD tomorrow since the one by my house sucks. Alberto

Well, using 30 gal trash cans for water changes is not very effective when you are trying to make a water change in a 450 gal and soon to be 550 gal system. I need something that would hold at least 100 gal. What I would ideally like to get is a cylindrical drum or tank of about 30-35 inch diameter and as told as it needs to be with a lid of some opening at the top. Think of a water heater shape and you'll know what I am talking about. What I would do is to drill the bottom to put a bulkhead and attach the little giant pump I am using for water changes. That way I can use it to mix the saltwater and then to pump it in the sump when changing water. That sounds all fine, but I can't find such a tank anywhere, at least not for a reasonable price. Does anyone know of a place that may have these? I ahve tried a couple of farm supply stores all they have are open top container like stock tanks. One had something else sort of what I described, but instead of standing up it sits on its side with 4 built in little legs. That would occupy much more space than where I want to place it, hence the reason for something cylindrical and tall. Throw me a bone here. :D :D

This is completely the opposite of my experience though. I never get any deposits and mine dissolves completely. Actually, I reload my kalk reactor when it is completely out of media and not because it has changed colors or anything else.

Actually, I used Mrs Wages for months and mine was pure white. No problems with it. I did see some black metal shavings in the stir bar of my kalk reactor, but I have had the same experience with it as did a ton of people in RC and reefs.org with balls and kent kalk. Alberto

Rob, thanks for the shameless plug, but I sold the tank to a guy from work over 4 months ago and he has not come to get it yet. phillipw: If you want to get a new tank, I would highly recommend you get a 180. It is the same length as the 125, but it is 24" front to back, which will make all the difference in the world. Trust me on this one. :: The 180 is the largest standard male of glass tanks you'll find in any of the stores. Glass vs acrylic is really not an issue until you get to larger than 180 tanks. Anything 180 or smaller in my mind is a waste not to go with glass. Acrylic is clearer, weight less, and also much more expensive than glass in most if not all tanks smaller than 180 gal. I would go with a reef ready glass 180 from All Glass Aquarium. Cheapest place in the area will be The Aquarium Center in Baltimore. Just don't let them talk you into other crap you don't need like sand filters, undergravel filters, or 150 watt halides!! Tank and stand is all you need. The canopy you'll ahve to build or ahve it built by someone else if you want to house a lot of VHO or MH. The rest of the equipment buy online for the best prices. Hope that helps you. Alberto :D

Rob, thanks for the shameless plug, but I sold the tank to a guy from work over 4 months ago and he has not come to get it yet. phillipw: If you want to get a new tank, I would highly recommend you get a 180. It is the same length as the 125, but it is 24" front to back, which will make all the difference in the world. Trust me on this one. :: The 180 is the largest standard male of glass tanks you'll find in any of the stores. Glass vs acrylic is really not an issue until you get to larger than 180 tanks. Anything 180 or smaller in my mind is a waste not to go with glass. Acrylic is clearer, weight less, and also much more expensive than glass in most if not all tanks smaller than 180 gal. I would go with a reef ready glass 180 from All Glass Aquarium. Cheapest place in the area will be The Aquarium Center in Baltimore. Just don't let them talk you into other crap you don't need like sand filters, undergravel filters, or 150 watt halides!! Tank and stand is all you need. The canopy you'll ahve to build or ahve it built by someone else if you want to house a lot of VHO or MH. The rest of the equipment buy online for the best prices. Hope that helps you. Alberto :D

Funny, that same shape and size tank has been my dream all along. Too bad the price tag that comes with it is absurd to say the least. Making one of those is a custom acrylic job that will cost a pretty penny, but nowehre near $50K They seem to be a store specializing in setting up stuff for other people with dead corals and wet/dry filters. Check this link from the e-bay description. http://www.chandlersaquatics.com/photogallery/view_all.nhtml Nice bikinis. By the way, the dream tank also involves 2 girls like those minus the bikinis, discus, and stingrays swiming around all day too :D :D

Funny, that same shape and size tank has been my dream all along. Too bad the price tag that comes with it is absurd to say the least. Making one of those is a custom acrylic job that will cost a pretty penny, but nowehre near $50K They seem to be a store specializing in setting up stuff for other people with dead corals and wet/dry filters. Check this link from the e-bay description. http://www.chandlersaquatics.com/photogallery/view_all.nhtml Nice bikinis. By the way, the dream tank also involves 2 girls like those minus the bikinis swiming around all day too :D :D

Now, let me ask this for anyone that may know the answer. Why is it that MH bulbs have to be 6-8" above the water?? The closer to the water, the higher the intensity of the light reaching the water. As a matter of fact, according to Sanjay if you double the distance to the water, you cut the intensity by half and vice versa. So, if you don't have water surface splasing, why not just hang the bulbs 2-3 inch from the water? So long as you have enough air circulation to keep things cool, why not?? Actually, I believe this is what Dr. Mac does in his holding and propagation tanks. Look at the pictures in his site and you'll see it. Alberto

Scott: I thought about the extension cords with the heavy gauge wores, but then I though that I would ahve 2 problems instead of one because now I ahve to cover the connection from the original cord where it plugs in to the extension cord and then the end of the extension cord as it plugs in the wall. If there is a really easy way of covering the connection of the cord to the extension cord, I will build the panel in a couple of weeks and mount it on the wall above the sump. That should be somewhat simple to build I think. I'll talk to you more when you come by. Alberto

Scott: Yes, I am talking about the mess of cords, extension cords, power strips, etc. I posted a picture in reefs.org of what it is I am trying to cover if you want to take a look at it. The problem with mounting it on the wall is that some of the cords coming from the pumps and such are short and won't reach. I would hate to start adding more extension cords or splicing cables together to make them longer. Sort of defeat the purpose I think. If I was t do this, I would build a large pannel with wall recepticles that have GCFI, put a lid on it, and run all the cords to it so that every 2 items ahve their own dedicated GCFI. Just a thought. http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=226918#226918

As you know, I have a 360 gal tank with a 100 gal sump and soon to add another 100 gal sump/refugium/LR. As you can imagine with all the equipment involved, I have tons of cords, extensions, plug ins, and electrical connections and they are all around the sump, skimmer, and all other equipment. Some of the plug ins get some salt spray and water spray for time to time and I find myself cleaning it or trying to work out why the GCFI tripped. I would like to avoid all this. Is it possible and more importantly SAFE to wrap all the electrical connections with some form of plastic like cellofane paper or transparent plastic? I have heard pepople talking about heat shrinking wrap, but have no idea of what it is and where to get it. This is all eventually going to get redone, but for now it is all sitting in my garage. Eventually, I will isolate all electrical connections and equipment to one side of a wall and leave the wet end of the equipment in another room. For now, I need a more inmediate solution. Thanks in advance for all the help.

Unlike popular word by some, for fish you are better off going to Roozen's Nursery. I believe the number and address is in the links section of the web site. Their fish are autoclaved, but they do have a tremendous variety and prices are somewhat fair. Not extremely cheap as some people would say. Also, don't be distracted by the not so high tech and boutique appearance of the place.

Last time I was there it was no longer there. Whether it died or was sold is beyond me........ :p

Just to offer another choice. While IceCap ballast are pretty good, I personally think they are way overpriced for what they are. Another option to explore is the the www.hellolights.com VHO ballast. http://www.hellolights.com/vhoballastkits1.html They are electronic, run just perfect and cool, and come with wiring and all ready to go. I couldn't be happier with them (had 3 sets) and they are considerably cheapper than IceCaps. One of the reasons I think IceCaps are so highly thought of is that 10 years ago when they were the only thing around the block there wasn't very much competition. Now that there are so many more reliable and cheapper choices, one should really ask: What is it that I am getting for my money really? At least that is what I do since I actually have to work hard for mine. Hope that helps some. Alberto