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Well... I e-mailed Danner Mfg as I noted above. I received a reply in a days time from someone. The message was a notice of my request being forwarded to someone else. That is the last I received from them. I sent an e-mail to each party separately a week later to follow up. I then sent e-mail to both of them together about a week later. They never got back to me, so how is that for an answer? This is all I ever received from them. You questions has been sent to valf@dannermfg.com . -----Original Message----- From: David Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 9:24 AM To: billm@dannermfg.com Subject: Pump Pads Bill, I was talking to someone the other day and the subject of pump noise came up in regards to my MAG-Drives. They said that Danner has pads available to aid in the transmitted vibration noise. I have and use a MAG 5, 7 and 9. Could I get pricing and information for pads? Regards, Dave

Mike, The solvent isn't a high ticket item. The water thin solvents (3, 4 and 5) should run you around $6 for a pint. The sell them in 4oz, but as a group and at the price for a pint, might as well go with a pint. The difference in the three is 5 sets slowest, 4 is a little faster and 3 is too fast IMO. A pint should go a loooong way. The thicker material (#16) comes in one size that I know of in a squeeze tube. It is essentially solvent mixed with acrylic chips in a tube. You apply it in an area, the solvent cures out and leaves the acrylic. It will run you about $5 and will also go a long way... depending on how you use it of course.

It is base rock and as cured as rock can get... it is bone dry and dead. The good news is that it will become live once placed in a tank, especially if mixed w/ some beneficial bacteria laiden (*live) rock and/or sand. If you add it to an established tank I would rinse it, otherwise you will not have to worry about a spike and subsequent cycle.

People are selling their accounts? That's weird, but I imagine that would allow you to get just about any user name you wanted since the crowd is a select bunch. I think the current invitation only is because GMail is in its beta stage. After the beta (troubleshooting) anyone and their grandma's cousins will be able to sign up I think.

I will be ordering from Hirocks.com on Friday9/17/04. If anyone wants an order let me know. They have a program for volume orders I will include below. It would have to be a single purchase(my CC), but each order would be shipped direct to each person. Buy 2-3 boxes for a 10% discount,4+ for a 15% discount. We are at the 15% level at this point. Hirock.com Order/Pricing Page Order List: me - 60 lb. (big rocks) Leishman - 60 lb. (big rocks) dbartco - 60 lb. (big rocks) mutley29 - 60 lb. (big rocks) clownfish4 - 60lb. (small rocks)

Foreword: j i g is censored [crzy] There are two ways to cut the tubing that I know of. One is to create a to use with a table saw. You would fashion a trough you can roll the tubing in while using the saw's fence to get the right length. Something like a ripped 4x4 into 45's. I would mount the to the table so it would not jump around... since squareness is important for a good bond. For your build you would need a saw capable of a 20" cut. This method is kind of like cutting a flat sheet, except you are really rolling the material into the blade. The other is to use a chop/miter saw. The chop saw is the "easiest", you just need to pay particular care on having things square and cutting it quickly. A spinning blade through the full diameter will create more overall heat than using the and table saw.

Yes scratches can be repaired. I have never messed with scratched acrylic personally. From what I have read and the products used to remove scratches, it sounds a bit like car detailing which I am familiar with. There are a few places you can start at. This is mostly due to the severity of the scratch/es. The most aggressive would be wet sanding and the least would be a very mild abrasive followed by a polish. You want to start at the least aggressive stage as possible. For example if you have small scratches, starting with a coarser wet-dry sand paper could create a patch of scratches similar or worse than what you already had... then you have to slowly work the area with finer and finer abrasive paper/compound until it can be polished out. I don't like making more work for myself. I would start with a very mild abravsive compound and gauge it from there. Then if you decide you need to be more aggressive you can do so. I would also be careful about using power buffers or polishers, you can mess things up quick. I did a quick search and came up with a page that offers several options so you can see what products are available. http://www.tropicalfishstore.com/careproducts.htm

In a word and without going into a lot of detail.... yes. It should be considered mandatory and under standard electrical codes, any outlet within a certain range of water sources must be GFCI protected(kitchens/bathrooms/etc). Personally the safety issues outweigh any risks by a landslide. If you are worried about fluke trips of a GFCI, you can run two GFCI circuits to your tank. Then you could have some redundancy in the event of a "fluke" trip. If this isn't possible, I would still install the GFCI.

There are a few ways I think may work for mounting a colt coral. I imagine SuperGel doesn't work so hot since they are pretty slimy. You can put a toothpick through the base and then use a rubber band to hold the two ends of the toothpick against a rock. After it attaches you can remove the toothpick and rubber bands. Another option would be to sew a few stitches around the rock through the colt's base. After it attaches you can remove the stitching.

Good news and maybe good news. I checked both Food Lion's in town with no luck. My wife checked one on her way home, three cans... whooopeee! I got a call back this evening from someone in the 540 area code that supposedly carries the Mississippi lime. I will have to call him back in the morning to check it out.

Reefgeek has a nice inline TDS filter that measures before and after the water filter. Last check it was $30. Anyway, I think the initial wait time is mostly due to chemicals on the filters. Any other time after than I would say just let it run for a few minutes since supposedly the first amount of water isn't as pure as what you will get a few minutes later. Having said that, I run mine into a trash can and have never tossed the first few gallons when it is making new water. Call me lazy... but I haven't noticed anything adverse to not tossing the first few gallons. I do use about 20 gallons on average per week, so my filter is working off and on. I also back flush it frequently, which I think helps in the grand scheme of things.

You are the second person that has told me Food Lion has it. I will check the Food Lion's close by. I'll let you know if I run across any. I am also still interested in acquiring Mississippi lime. I could buy a ton for $168 + ship charges direct... but 2000lbs. is just too much. I don't think that is individually bagged either... that would run $233 + shipping charges. My wife may very well commit me if I did either.

It appears that Balls is no longer offering pickling lime. There is some still around, but they are now replacing it with Pickling Crisp, which is Calcium Chloride. The only other place around here that sells pickling lime (Ms. Wages), has been waiting for a new order that is two weeks over due. I have read the wonders of Mississippi lime, specifically their CodexHL. Has anyone in the area been able to source it? If so, I'd like to know how. I contacted one guy in CA who says he actually buys it from a store that makes tortillas and uses it as a preservative. I called the Tortilla Factory in Herndon and they said they don't use it. Otherwise, I'm trying to source it myself from a distributor in MD at the moment.

For those down my way, the Warrenton Pet shop has quite a saltwater section. Livestock health condition and presentation were very bad though. Ever seen a tank with coral for sale with so much hair algae you can hardly see the corals? Then you had LPS skeletons here and there.... It is now under new management and the last trip in looked like they were trying to turn things around. That has been a few months ago. Ex. Coral tanks were completely broken down and added MH's to the mixed coral tanks (some SPS/LPS) - formerly two 6' VHO's w/ abundant hair algae. I haven't been in for a while, but it looked like they might be a place I would buy something from eventually. Prices were another issue, so we will see. BTW, where is Wally's?

I hear ya... don't mention that little comment if I ever find my way over to see your tank with the wife... PLEASE. As far as being out of town, I try to automate everything I can. I went away once and my water topoff system at the time went kaput. My neighbor was nice enough to dump enough water to keep the water above a line. I left him pretty detailed but simple directions. I have a better system now with 10 gallons or so in reserve. Other things to think about are items like the overflow for you skimmer or any other items that fall into the potential trouble category. The biggest item for me was water topoff. When I'm out of town all I need is for someone to drop in some flake and a piece of Nori every other day or so. I'll be gone a week at the end of August and I have a house sitter.

Bill, Just a few passing thoughts. To start with I would get more rock, maybe at least 20 more lbs. If you are going for a Deep Sand Bed, 50lbs. of sand will not be enough. Off the top of my head I'm thinking that would get you an inch or two in your 55. My next question is what type of filtration system do you have in mind.... skimmer, wet/dry, etc. As far as lighting goes, I prefer VHO's over PC's. Craig hit on some points I agree with aside from the fact I just like VHOs better. I did a 2 x 110W VHO setup for less than $150 including bulbs. This would certainly keep the leather your mom wants to see after the tank has cycled and everything stays stable for a while. VHOs would be a good start and when you decide the tank is going well,(ready for LPS) then you could add two MH's. You could then use the VHO's as supplements to the MH's. BTW, I thought PCs outlasted VHOs in terms of bulb life?

Hellolights sells various reflectors made of Miro 4... I think. Miro 4 is a highly reflective anodized aluminum and makes a nice reflector. You won't find it at Lowes, Home Depot or anywhere else I know of. If you are looking for something simple, that(hellolights) would be my suggestion. They generally come with holes on the ends for VHO/PC/T5 mounting holes along with MH mogul mounting holes spaced around 2'. Pop rivet your moguls and end caps on and you're good to go minus a little wiring. I looked at their 36" reflector real quick and it only has mounting holes for one MH. Nothing a drill won't fix in a few minutes. http://hellolights.com/ref36in.html IMO, I like VHO's for actinic supplements to MH's better than PC's. I've never used T5's, so I don't know much about them other than what I have read.

My wife and I are going on another cruise in a few weeks. I talked her into snorkeling on one of our trips in Cozumel and she really enjoyed it. I've already got her talking about getting certified for SCUBA, woohooo. Anyway, does anyone know of any good local shops or online sites to buy some equipment to use for snorkeling? Rentals work and I don't need anything fancy, but I think my wife having her own equipment might make her feel more at ease in the water... and more apt to join me in a little under the water exploration. She is also pretty dainty, so it would be nice to get her a mask that fits properly. I think they make dry snorkels which would probably fit the bill on getting her below the surface... provided they are really "dry".

I'm partial to gadgets. The idea of having a central monitor and control definitely peaks my interest. I think I'm going to check out the Love Controls "Digital Temp Switch". Looks like a nice solution to something I have been thinking about.

Joe, Do you know what they are using for the spray bar? Are we talking something with holes drilled in it or a nozzle... ala AquaC? I just happen to have some 1/8" clear acrylic on hand and might make one for a 12" cube that is also my daughters tank.

One of the easiest ways to test the setup is to establish some "known goods". Have you tried each bulb on each ballast? Do you know the bulbs are good? Do the mogul sockets have a loose conection? If you can establish that something works or should work... then you can eliminate that from the list. If the problem appears to be inside the box and with the ballasts themselves, my guess would be the capacitors.

I will be using my EV-120 with a MAG7. The skimmer chamber (far right) is designed especially for it. One thing I forgot I need to do is build a little stand to raise it a bit. As of now the center section is for the return pump. I could use an external pump with a little modification, but today I am using a submersible.

I cut it at a friends house since the panels exceeded my table saw's max rip size. I bought the sheet at Read Plastics in Rockville. I made the refuge wall the height of the sump for a few reasons. Running the full vertical length adds more sturdiness. Another reason was if the water level were to rise that high in a return pump off situation... floating macros would still be blocked from going cross lots. The water level should never be that high with this tank though... not enough excess water volume according to my calcs. Since chaeto is the macro floating it doesn't really block flow. Floating a plastic bag in the refuge and going upstairs for a sandwich is another story... yes it happened. I'm not really worried about macro blockage. In my current setup I've had the teeth covered with macros with no level change. Drilling a 1/2 or 3/4" hole if this proves to be an issue would solve it though.

The water will come in the right hand side(skimmer). My current setup is with a split return line. One way goes back to the main tank, the other goes to the refuge. I have ballvalves on each path for flow control. I could split my overflow to feed the refuge, but my return pump is too much for my single 1" overflow plumbing. I don't like the idea of restricting the return pump, so I am diverting some of its flow. Plus modifying my return plumbing a little is easier. Call me lazy. You cannot see them too well, but the refuge chamber has overflow teeth routed in where the water level is.

I built a new sump to help me organize my space better underneath my tank. I have an inwall tank between two rooms, so space underneath is at a premium as I gather more gadgets. It is a simple design... skimmer chamber, refuge and return. Overall dimensions are 32" x 10.5" x 17.5" I may add some supports on the top, fabricate a "holder" for my refuge light, something to put probes in or a float switch. Checking for leaks now.... It came out pretty good.