Origami

Yeah, my last MD order came in a MDL box bearing the notice that there were "Live Fish" inside. Of course, there wasn't - it was only a probe gland that I used to modify my calcium reactor with and a few odds and ends. I guess they're just using up their inventory of boxes now.

Hey, it's Sonny! Rik, where'd you get the picture?

Sorry to hear about the frustration, Phil. At least you're trying to save others from the same frustration and loss you've suffered. With any luck, the word will get around and they'll be forced to reckon with their delinquent nature. Good luck in getting something back.

The grain on that sheet is just gorgeous, Bob. Where'd you source the plywood? Cool bracket on that a center post. I've never seen an offset design like that on a cabinet latch. Most of the time it's just a metal plate for a door lapped over the frame. Neat idea, though, to have a removable post.

Reef Central has a lot on the subject. The only brand that's been tested and which has Randy Holmes-Farley's approval is manufactured by Dead Sea Works. Either flakes or pellets are acceptable as long as it's from DSW. Other brands may have other impurities that have not been characterized so you take on the risk of the unknown with other sources. Of course, you can also get magnesium chloride from other sources, like bulkreefsupply.com.

Sapphire's BC29R has been redesigned. The newer skimmer design (released late last year) is a recirculating skimmer and has a built-in gate valve to achieve some independence from the water level in the second chamber. I'm aware of 2 half-way decent skimmers that work in the second chamber. The first is the Sapphire already mentioned. It fits without any mod to the chamber (except to remove the false bottom). The second is a Tunze 9002 doc which requires a little bit of cutting so the cup can fit. Both skimmers get decent attention from BC29 owners. Oceanic makes a skimmer, but it's an air-driven skimmer. It's much cheaper and I can't say I've read much on it regarding performance.

I do, too. Once a month, I take a scheduled reading off of my RO/DI to make sure that it's not in need of unscheduled maintenance.

That's pretty high. Can you take readings from the RO output and again after the DI output?

Glad that you got it worked out, Al. That's great news. Yes, AWI is great to work with. They really have great customer service.

Search "Probe Mounting Gland" at Marine Depot and you'll find the right solution. It's a threaded fitting, so you need to drill and tap the lid of your reactor. (I've got a drill and tap if you need a hand.)

I've not checked my calcium, but I have checked the alk of my effluent: It's 40 dKH. Working the math: Since I try to maintain my water at 10 dKH (3.6 meq/l), the calcium reactor adds 30 dKH (or 10.7 meq/l) to the effluent (output alk = input alk + what the reactor adds). Since 1 meq/l balances with 20 ppm of calcium in the formation of (or in this case, the dissolution of) coral skeleton, that implies that the reactor adds 214 ppm of calcium to the effluent. And, finally, since I try to maintain my calcium levels in my tank at 430 ppm Ca (input calcium), this would put my effluent at 644 ppm. Mathematically speaking, of course.

I'm a newb with Ca reactors. I run both a reactor and a kalk stirrer. The Ca reactor is pretty much set up to the mfr baseline and my levels seem to be staying pretty well where I want them (alk 10, Ca 430) Internal pH is kept between 6.6 and 6.65 (I modded my Korallin c4002 for an internal pH probe using a 1/2 inch In-Line Probe Mounting Gland w/ Compression Fitting that you can get at Marine Depot) Tank pH hovers around 8.1 drip effluent - 25 drips per min bubble count 12 per min when on Controlled using an AC III. Since my Ca and alk are staying about where I want them, I figure that my settings don't need further tuning, though I am in the process of using the AC III log data to find ways to stabilize my pH and temperature cycles (I just put my frag tank on a reverse light cycle with my fuge, for example, which should have some impact on temp and pH stability.).

Beautiful work there, Bob!

As long as the siphon break is above the overflows, that should be about right. Rather than measure, just pull the power and watch. That's the real acid test, isn't it?

Personally, I don't trust them in critical applications. That's a personal choice, however. Debris or deposits can interfere with their ability to close under back pressure and you're hosed.

The height of the overflows are only part of it. If you're returns are submerged and are not equipped with a siphon break, they'll actually drain your tank down further through the return pump (which is off because of the power failure). Do you have redundant overflows, by chance? If not, another possibility that you should consider is what happens if your single overflow fails (for example, a snail gets into the opening). In that case, the water in the cavity that's housing your return pump will be pumped dry and you have to be sure that your display can take this without overflowing. This is a greater problem in systems that use siphon overflow boxes than built-in drains, but a consideration nonetheless. In the event of a power failure, besides the risk of flooding, flow and aeration seem to be the primary concerns. Heat is secondary as temperature will probably decline a bit more slowly. I don't think that I'd put a return pump or heaters on an UPS because most economical UPS units would not be able to run this additional equipment for very long.

How low she goes depends upon your setup. In most cases, the limit is going to be set by 1) the height of your drain or 2) the depth of your return. (2) is generally below the surface in your display, so it's the worst case. To mitigate this, we often drill a small hole that functions as a siphon break in the return, above or just below the water line, that is designed to break siphon in the event of a power outage and to limit flow back to the sump. If that break isn't there, or if it becomes clogged, you'll siphon back more water to the sump than would normally be the case. (This is a good reminder to make cleaning the hole out as a regular maintenance action.) In the end, to make sure, there's nothing quite like pulling the plug on your system and seeing how things fare. Better you know now so you can take corrective action than to find out the hard way!

Definitely in need of a good bit of trimming!

I couldn't give you that advice, personally. My guess is that your fish had this when he arrived and the stress of transferring it to the new system just made it vulnerable to loss. I suspect that you're set to try another fish without leaving the tank fallow. Bacteria are ever-present - they're in the water, on the rock, and in your organisms. I don't think you have a bad situation - you just had a (rather normal) loss. Remember, fish go through a lot to get to you and the losses can be high. Each transfer is stressful. For wild-caught fish, this means being caught and put in a bucket or hold, moved from a hold to transfer tanks, from transfer tanks to boxes where they're shipped across oceans to somebody else's holding tanks, then into boxes and shipped to your LFS, then from your LFS to you - all in a matter of days (if your LFS isn't quarantining). This is just one of the reasons why a good quarantine practice is something that you should implement early on. In this case, it's your first fish, so your display might double as a quarantine to start. However, as you add fish in the future, my advice is for you to set up a quarantine that allows you to not only make sure that the livestock that you bring in (in the future) is not diseased, but also to give the fish a chance to settle down and get stronger.

Thanks, all. I think I'm going to put a flame fin tang in my frag tank just to keep things clean.

I'm neither a fish doctor nor do I play one on TV (or anywhere else for that matter). I just happened to do some brief research and this seemed to fit the symptoms observed. If you'll notice, though, vibriosis is a bacterial infection - not parasitic - and, apparently, one that takes hold when the fish's immune system is compromised (possibly through stress or some other means).

Vibriosis? From http://www.saltwater-aquarium-online-guide...treatments.html Vibriosis, ulcer disease Causes Vibriobacteria Symptoms Variety of symptoms are associated with this disease. They can include lethargy, darkening of color, anemia, ulcers on the skin and lower jaw, bleeding of the gills, skin and intestinal track, clouded eyes, loose scales, pale gills and sudden death. Treatment This bacteria commonly go straight to the intestinal tracts of a healthy fish. They become dangerous only when stress allows infection. Poor water quality, crowding, excessive handling, and copper treatments are common causes of stress in saltwater aquarium fish. Immersion treatments with antibiotic compounds have met with some success.

Just a couple of interesting sites that I stumbled upon today and thought to share: http://www.starfish.ch/Start.html An organized photo gallery of reef organisms. Over four thousand underwater photos of fishes and invertebrates, reptiles and marine plants - take a look! http://www.fishbase.org Aquatic database. ( 31000 Species, 272600 Common names, 47100 Pictures, 42500 References, 1630 Collaborators, 33 million Hits/month ) . Great information.

Has anybody here every tried this? I read about this the other day - acclimating black mollies to saltwater and using them to control soft algae (like hair algae) - and was curious if anybody here has tried it.

I've only got enough water in my reservoir for about 3 days worth of top-off (about 10 gallons on a 300 gallon system). That's the hard limit. In addition, the peristaltic pump can only deliver 1 liter per hour, or about 6 gallons per day. If it were to get stuck, it would deliver, at most, 10 gallons over 1-1/2 days. And, like Chip, I only put about 1-2 weeks of kalk powder in my reactor at any time. I'm also running a calcium reactor, yes. But I also run kalkwasser to keep my pH running higher (since a calcium reactor can drive pH down). Right now, kalkwasser is dosed at night but I'm tracking my pH swing with my newly set up ACIII to determine if this is the right approach or not (since I also run a reverse photoperiod refugium).