Sph2sail

Thanks for joining WAMAS. Spread the word... email yer friends. Nice post. steve

My reef is set to run at 80deg F. During really hot days when humidity is high, it can hit 84deg F. This is rare. Nominally, it moves about 2deg F based on the lighting cycle. From what I've experienced, 2-4deg F swings are OK if the reef is well fed and thriving. I've had bad days when the tank got up to 85deg F. Turn A/C on (usually it is off when this happens), open all doors under tank, turn up the fans, open the hood, it will settle down a degree or two in a couple hours. So far, never had a death through these events. I'm probably pushing it, but I am trying not to buy a chiller and fans seem to work. Forgetting to turn on the A/C for the house on those marginal days (80deg out, but suddenly warms up or humidity goes way up) are the difficult ones to manage. If humidity is high in the house, evaporative cooling does NOT work well. Only solution is A/C blown at the water surface. I'm not a fan of keeping temp below 78deg, as natural reefs are rarely this cool. These low temps helped slow parasites and other diseases in early reef systems, but they truly slow everything else down as well... coral growth, fish growth, etc. I recommend keeping the tank around natural reef temps. My diving experience throughout the world tells me that is between 80 and 82deg F. Good luck... s

I use the coral chow we made at the tank food party to feed mine. The bubble tip definately eats, even though my clowns are in it all the time. Yes, feed it 1-2 times a week. It will be very happy with you. s

Bill, I am going to support Michael and Robert on this one. Salt water reef systems are not quite like freshwater systems. Some key differences: - most fresh water fish breed easily and most supply in the LFS are captive bred, not wild caught - reefs are more like owning a dog, not a goldfish Everytime we kill something because we are just blasting along, we are behaving as if these animals are like goldfish with a "Oh well..." reaction when they die. Truth is, most marine fish come straight from an island environment, through a very difficult supply chain, into your tank. When you kill one, to me, it feels like we put a fox in the rabbit house. Someone got eaten, yet that was not the desired result. Please consider more carefully what/how you do what you do. WAMAS is a key resource. This society is here to help you get it right. All we ask, and I think I speak for most folks here, is that you keep asking questions. Please wait a day or so for answers before you make a purchase decision. This group is very responsive. We take pride in that. Please help everyone from the reefs to our local community. Make it a priority that your animals stay alive and are in a good home. We will ALL be proud of the society's combined result, and you will spend less money for a happy, healthy tank. steve

Michael, when building my sump, my experience was that cutting and gluing the same day are easily accomplished. If your cut list is accurate, it goes really quickly. Might be a better strategy to dry fit up one reactor first, confirming the cut list. Once done, rock and roll. Easy mcShmeasy. If the sheet already true (meaning square, 90deg angles all around), then you can get buy with a circular saw and a rip guide. That is what I have and did use on my sump. Worked nicely. I have Weldon #3 and #16 and a single needle applicator. Can donate if someone picks it up. s

Salty, I would tell you that you want to do more than window shopping. It took me weeks to get the generator properly wired into the house. If you have an electrician do it, longer. Acquisition of a generator when the storm is bearing down on you is the worst time to make the decision. Prices are high, and no easy way to bring the energy into the house other than extension cords, which is difficult at best. Do the window shopping. Do the calculations. Take your time. But do NOT wait for the next storm to hit before you pull the trigger. The best answer here is to have a backup plan that you are comfortable with. My generator (at 4200 watts) is too small. But, it will run my furnace (heat, not A/C), refrigerators, septic pumps and reef. Anything else is gravy. Keep looking into this. It is important to provide an environment that stays alive for our animals (fish and inverts and corals). It saddens me to hear the stories of dead reefs because someone hit a telephone pole and knocked out power for 6 hours. S

Lots of data in this old thread re: Huricane Isabel and planning... Isabel & back-up power systems s

I saw these reefballs folks at the US CRTF meetings. Very interesting approach. s

Lots of discussion on this one. Points of consideration: Speed of mixing and clearing. How long does it take to dissolve and clarify? Alkalinity, Ca and pH levels. How high? How close to sea water and what we want in our tanks? Trace elements. What does it have? Consistent w/sea water? Bad things. Does it have lead, mercury, or other heavy metals that are detrimental and accumulate over time? Price. How much for a 200Gal mix of seawater? Most of us locally use Instant Ocean. Easiest to get these days, but price is starting to go way up. It has not done as well in consistency. Some say it has higher levels of heavy metals. I'm not a chemist, so I can't say. Dissolves and clears in a couple hours. Lot of discussion around the new Oceanic Salt. Seems to have Alk, CA and pH on the money with nice high levels where you want them to be. Also dissolves and clears nicely. I'm thinking of switching to this if I can find some. Previous newcomer was BioEssay Marine Mix. Shimek rated it well for captive breeding some fish he was working with. Not as clear that it is a great basic salt for reef keeping. Lots of folks switched to it and had major die offs. Seems that the mix is sufficiently different that you must acclimate your reef to it. Those that did very minor water changes over longer periods had better luck. For nano's, some use that Ocean in a Box product. Natural sea water. Apparently awesome stuff, but the price for larger systems would be rather high. Again, I've used IO for about 2 years now and am considering a switch to Oceanic. Drivers on the decision are price and Alk/Ca/pH levels after mix is ready. I've always heated/aerated my water for about 24 hours and will continue this practice if I switch. I do believe it takes a bit of time for the ionization process to finish. Hope this helped. I'm sure other opinions will surface shortly. s

Be careful where you put the hydnophora (green plating coral). It is rather vicious with its neighbors. Other than that, it is a way cool coral. Nathan has really done a good job getting stuff out of my tank for ya! :D s

Nathan, you can take him a bunch of stuff from my tank... s

Since you found us, you might want to meet some folks here. We are having a pool party at my house (go to the MEETINGS page). Stop on by and meet the local reefing community... You'll learn a lot about the region and what we have around us. s

bloody english majors want everything spelled out for them correctly so they can unerstan... 8-]] lol2]]

Jamie, can someone pickup the golden pearls from you somehow? Anyone near ya? We need em... will give ya some food... s

Free comes to mind... Especially since Andrei gave me the parent for free! What goes around, comes around. s

Typically, the return needs to be 1" or 1 1/4" to handle the flow from a 3/4" feed. You may need to simply increase the size of the return to allow flow. The feed is under pressure, the return is gravity/siphon, hence the sizing differential is very important. s

If you are making the trip to the asian food market, please do get the following: 1 whole (large) mackeral 1 large bag shredded nori (dried, no additives, not baked) If you come early, I'll go with you to Loto in Fairfax Circle and we can enjoy the opportunity to look at all the stuff that is available... steve

A reminder for all.. this is a potluck. You bring your own beverages (non-alcoholic) and main dish. Share a side dish. Grill is available for the main dish. Do bring chairs. I have quite a few, but with this crowd, not enough. Club is providing plates, napkins, cups, etc. Quite a crowd forming. This is going to be a great WAMAS event! s

Not enough rock fish, but a better solution is to get a whole mackeral to add to it. That's why I added that to the list. Thanks clownfish4 and ireland. Mahvelous! s

Don't forget to bring your own main dish. The shared stuff is for everyone. Grillables are best... dogs, burgers, chicken, steak anyone? s

Still looking for: 3-4 squirts of Vita-chem 2-3 squirts of selcon 60-80 cc of garlic extract "sushi eggs" aka fish roe half teaspoon of shredded garlic one large krill frozen pack one large brine shrimp packet one frozen pack of blood worms need some of this Tahitian Blend 3-4 tiny spoons of ESV freeze dryed plankton

a dozen will do.

anybody want a nice BTA? If I can figure out how to remove him from the tank, it's available... s

Yeah baby... I'm a Dad again. Andrei, your BTA is a splittin/clonin fool. Check out what I just found in the back of my tank behind the other anemone that is hosting my clowns... Wahoo!

Wow. I'm gonna call these guys. Could be a real value. Can be ordered with an ABS housing + Switch... I'll find out a bit more about the life expectency of tubing over the rollers, as that is the biggest problem with the medical pumps. s