Sph2sail

unbelievable. are blue zoos that uncommon? certainly something I have not seen before... s

I think the $4mm/year is probably achievable, if you look at total marine inventory flowing through: - live rock - fish - inverts - corals I suspect that live rock is a larger part of the business than folks are discussing. I'd love to learn more about the business of LFS. Michael, if Houston has it so good (in terms of store quality), how could we arrange to learn more about them? I would love to see a high quality store in the area. s

Concur with Nathan. A refugium exports a lot of nutrients in a natural way, avoiding the chemical process need. s

Drat. Son is in the VA State Gymnastics Meet in VA Beach on Sunday, 29th. Dunno if I can make this, as we may be driving on to the meet. Please confirm date/time. I'll show up if I can, even for a little bit, to encourage, photograph, meet, greet... Sweet! (but stinky!) :p Steve

I just participated in the survey and recommend we all do it. Steve

I-66W to I-495 South I-495 South to Braddock Road West right off their website... Directions - From 495, take Route 620, Braddock Road West. Go approximately 2 miles, take a left on Guinea Road. Follow to first light, make a left to continue on Guinea Road. Go approximately 1/2 a mile, make a left on Sandy Lewis Drive, look for 5609 on the left.

Kimo, you really need to find the source of your phosphate problem. What kinds of food are you feeding? How effective is your skimmer? What kind of Kalk are you using? Is it phosphate free? How does your source water measure for PO4? I found the trick being Mrs. Wages. Some using Balls Pickling Lime have no trouble w/phosphates. Heavy feeding of flake foods will load up phosphates as well. RowaPhos is a good measure, but I think it better to find out the real cause and evaluate what you want to do about it than to use a chemical solution full time. steve

cyanobacteria is red slime agae. actually not an algae. nasty stuff. I get it in my system whenever I overfeed the tank. then have to wait and let the system settle out. cyano also dislikes high pH and lots of water movement. Increasing water motion may help. s

Are the bubbles caused by water flow stuff (e.g., micro bubbles coming in from your returns, powerheads, skimmer, etc.) or caused by something growing in the tank (e.g., cyanobacteria breakout on rocks)? Agree w/Nathan, not yet enough info here... s

I have Michaelg's pink centered zoanthids, and from other sources... yellow zoanthids, pulsating xenia, anthias. Way too many of all. If it is done properly, they can be cut out of my tank and mounted onto some rubble in your rock then they should do well. Too much of a good thing! steve

Here's to a world class effort on the part of the officers and in particular, Nathan Gaub, who spent buckets of time taking in ideas and turning them into some stellar content on our new website. The latest SW level on Ikonboard should give us more features, better performance and a much easier user experience. Thanks to all the contributors to date! That said, no web project is ever finished. Please do not hesitate to post ideas on what we can do better... Steve

You can pick up a 12V DC supply from radioshack. I had power supplies from my Icecap fan purchase as well (they are 12V DC as well). I'm using one of the Icecap variables in my DIY ballast box to cool it. Works well. I already have 4 of the fans you listed. 2 are in my new hood. 2 are sitting on the shelf. I was just posting as I thought they were rather cool as compared to price of Icecap. s

Be careful with the medical dosing pumps. 1. not designed to run 7x24 2. make sure you can get replacement tubing that goes in the pinch rollers I had the Ross Flexi III and there was NO supplier for the drip kits other than the OEM. At $7/ea and each one lasting around 2-3 weeks, it is a pricey option in the long run. I had leaks galore periodically when the tubing cracked. steve

See DIY MH Project. I installed a way cool hanging system for the whole hood. Got it from SunlightSupply's Hydroponic side of the business. I think my lamps are now 8" off surface of water. Fans are critical to ensure good cooling... s

Sensflow 12v DC 3-1/8" $4.95 ea 34dB noise 2-3/8" 12v DC $0.99 ea 34dB noise Small fans, seem equiv to the Icecap variable I have for $35ea. s

check out DIY MH Project thread. contains discussion on use of PFO Parallel reflectors and shows installed pics of them. s

Traditional angle iron rusts quickly. Did you take any steps to protect your tank's water from salt etching the angle iron and getting rust into your tank? s

I ordered from Buckeye Field Supply. Got non-color changing resin, as the dyes in the color changing resin can make it into your water, so why do it if you are using a TDS meter? Looks to me like the DI Cartridge I got from them WAS a refillable cartridge. An added bonus. s

From Cruising World: Hands On Sailor column on noise abatement, their is a nice definition of cavitation: Would seem to me that cavitation can not cause lots of bubbles in a pump's effluent, as the low pressure point/lowered boiling point would not last too long. Glad you found the air leak. s

I have a 32G reservoir of RO/DI water. MJ1200 pump in it. LifeReef float switch w/Solenoid (to stop syphon) to control pump based on Sump level. Flows from reservoir through my DIY Kalk Reactor (Nilsen) into the sump for all evaporation make-up water. Only hassle is making sure I remember to refill the reservoir and not run the pump dry. This has happened a couple times to me. Ugh. Need to add one of those strips that tell you if an LP tank has gas or not (detects temp difference between liquid and air in tank). I do get pH swings, though, as all make-up water flows in during high evaporation periods (kuz lights/fans are on) during the day. I may yet add a calcium reactor, as Michael has, to handle calcium needs and to balance out pH issues. The nice thing about this setup is it really does help suplement calcium hardness in the water. Not as high as what a calcium reactor puts out, but about 2/3's there. s

I used Mrs. Wages pickling lime for about 9 months in a Nilsen reactor. Two issues showed up over time: 1. It is very course and chews up the impeller on the MJ400 pump used to circulate the Kalk. Had to replace the impeller every 2-3 months. Pain in the butt. 2. It was high in phosphates. My PO4 readings were off the chart. I switched to ESV Kalk and got two results: 1. impeller lasted about 10 months 2. No more phosphates. zero. bupkus. nada. Personally, I would only use a Kalk product that states Phosphate/Nitrate free. I find that getting the 4lb containers is about 3x more expensive, but what the heck. I load 1.5 cups per month. This lasts quite a long time. For the reduced cyano blooms and health of the tank, I've switched to ESV. s

I know it's a bit late of an idea, but what the heck... I think this is where PFO Parallel reflectors might be a real help. They mount along the length of the tank, not across the width. That said, you could put (2) 24" PFO Parallel reflectors in w/400W lamps. This would spread the light rather effectively along the entire 3' segment on either side of the tank. I used these on my 4' long 90G using 250W bulbs and am quite impressed with the light coverage. s

I forget the dimensions of the 150. I would tend towards using two MH fixtures if it is around 48" wide, spaced evenly over the main openings. Just push the wattage up as needed. If the tank is 24" deep, 250watt bulbs may be enough. 400watt may be really cool to fill in space if it is a really wide tank. s

Some of the eBallasts out there (Blueline comes to mind) put out so much RF noise that it totally wipes out the ability to use X10 gear throughout the house. SDBDRZ has some experience with this. Keep this in mind if you are looking at the Aquacontroller, as it uses X10 to control stuff. s

Found this in the minutes of MASNA board...