geofloors

Michael, That is a good urethane you used. It will definitely hold up to the water but the big question is, are there gaps between the boards where water can seep under the floor? If so then the water can still get under the flooring and create problems. The silicone should come off easy with a putty knife down the road without damaging the finish. George

Here the PM is about 20" from the lense of the camera and in this pic the formosa is about 1/2" from the glass and the lense is on the glass George

I agree, I take all my pics in the auto mode and for most closer pics I take everything in macro mode. While in macro mode there is a flower icon. When the icon turns yellow this is where the camera can focus the best. I can take pics from 18-20" in macro mode in focus, and I can take pics from 1/2" in focus in macro mode. For full tank shots I just use the standard setting on startup. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to make by hippo tang look blue instead of purple. Other then turning off the actinics I can't get him to be blue. George

A few questions to start. Are there any large gaps in the hardwood floors where the tank will go? Have the floors ever been waxed to your knowledge? If the answer is no to both of these questions then the answer is apply more polyurethane. Your floors only protection again moisture of any sort on a hardwood floor is the finish. In your case I would recommed a marine varnish which will hold up to the salt water. It is thick like warm honey and will give excellent protection to spills. This is an easy project and I can do this for you if you want. You could also put a few extra coats of regular oil based polyurethane but you can only apply one coat every 10-12 hours because of dry time. Chances are eventually from the salt water this polyurethane will peel. If your floors have large cracks between the boards then the polyurethane will not seal up the cracks and spilled water will get under the flooring and cause cupping or crowning and worse case buckling. You must fill all the cracks with a latex filler before polyurethaning. If the floor has been waxed then the floor will have to be sanded down to raw wood to apply any type of polyurethane. Polyurethane will not stick to a waxed surface. It's not necessarily the flooring under the stand you need to worry about, it's all the flooring in the vicinity that can be damaged. Silicone will stop the water from getting under the stand but not between the boards. George

You're right, it is close to 30 cups per hour. I didn't do the math this morning but my post was supposed to say 10 cups per hr. George

There will be plenty of mix time because you run very little water through a calcium reactor per day. I think I run about 1 cup per hour, when you use a 200-300 GPH pump for recirculating there is plenty of contact time in the first chamber. I run 160 bubbles per minutes and 120 Ml per minute of effluent. The more CO2 coming from the reactor into your tank can lower the pH of the tank and aid in excess algae growth. I don't measure the pH from the reactor but the alkalinity of the effluent is so high that it counteracts the lower pH of the effluent once it hits the tank water. If your effluent pH is too low then you will probably see a lower tank pH because the media is less soluable if the pH in the reactor too low. George

The first chamber still is a recirculating loop and you need to inject enough CO2 to bring the pH down where it will dissolve the media. It doesn't matter how large it is, you still need to reduce the pH to dissolve the media. Through the output needle valve you control how much effluent leaves the reactor. In a 2nd chamber the CO2 which leaves the 1st chamber will theoretically reduce the pH of the 2nd chanber a little bit and dissolve more media. I have never used a single chamber reactor either so I can't comment on differences. I fill the 2nd chamber every other time I fill the 1st so I feel it is doing something. My reactor effluent flows into my refugium where any excess CO2 will be used up by the macro algae before it returns to the main tanks. George

Here's plumbing pics of my closed loop. http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=229941 George

If this is an older chiller with freon gas you might want to send it back to the factory. I know the freon will have to be bottled and disposed of,then you will have to change all the O-rings to accept the newer R134a. I know freon gas is very expensive so the conversion will be cheaper. If you have the R134a refirgerant then I would just call a local HVAC guy. Or you could take it to a small shop that repairs AC units and they should be able to do the conversion. Sorry I don't know anyone who could do this for you. George

Unfortunately the Iwasakis are not available in a 175w bulb George

I heard Sanjay speak about a year and a half ago at a CMAS meeting and he stated that with a 6500K bulb it is balanced in many colors of the spectrum as oposed to a 10000K bulb which has alot of blues but not much else. As the bulb gets older the bulbs spectrum shifts. With the 10000K bulb there is no other color for the bulb to shift to that is a usable lightwave for zooxanthellae. A 6500K bulb will shift from the blue and the coral can adapt to the other colors that are still present. I think I got that right George

I use 250w 10000K ABs on my prop tank. I get excellent growth from these bulbs. George

Here's a place that lists them for $65. I don't know what you get for the money but you could call to find out. http://sea-of-green.com/price.html You need to go back to the homepage for the telephone number. George

Exotic Aquatics doesn't stock A.R.M. but they can order it. I didn't even ask the price since there new store will be open March 1st. George

You might want to get the Radiums from Dr. Mac since he sells them for $78.99 with no shipping to the meeting. I'm sure AC doesn't have the ARM but EA might. I'm going to drop by there today and will let you know. Another thing is Ocean Encounter has the Radiums for $78.95, the AB 10000K for $95 ans 8# of ARM for $15.99. I didn't see the ABs at Marine Depot. http://www.oceanencounter.com/ George

I had the same problem with these mushrooms.They divide and spread so quickly that you can't stop them. When fragged them I would cut the top and place them in the 20g where they would attach to some crushed coral and then glue them to a larger rock. What I'm ding these days to remove them completely from the tank is I take the rocks out (which I can get out) and actually peel the foot off with a tweezers. This is time consuming but does work. I still have about 500 to go George

Mike, I got the rose shortly after the last time you were at my house. I got mine on September 23rd. Here's a recent pic George

Awesome! Glad to hear it... maybe one of these days mine will split also. George

Merry Christmas everyone!!! George

I believe they are moving to Perring Parkway Plaza. It's 2 exits farther north on the East side of the Baltimore beltway. I believe the move will be sometime in March. George

You're welcome to stop by my place if you like. George

Very nice! George

I don't even look at Reefs.org much any more. Everytime I go there and look at "view thread since last visit" I get 90% off topic threads that have absolutely nothing to do with reefing. It's very sad because IMO it used to be an excellent site. George

I agree schedule 80 is not needed but Lowes near me carries it. George

I was the last one out and the place was clean. George