astroboy

A month ago I used chemiclean on my tank, two doses, per instructions, 20% water change in between. A couple days later the foaming was still out of control so I did an 80% water change which helped some. I haven't had such problems with chemiclean in the past. A week after the last water change I mounted some corals with epoxy and a few days later did another 80% change. I also did charcoal for a week, changed that, then put new charcoal in a few days ago. The problem is a huge amount micro bubbles going into the tank. The skimmer doesn't really foam, just a lot of small bubbles in the water with a half inch of weak foam at the top. I've never had this problem before: after a few days and moderate water changes the skimmer foam is back to normal, for both chemiclean and epoxy. I'm really starting to wonder what the problem is. Checked the air hose to the pump, that looked fine. Has anyone had this problem? Or does anyone have an idea of what's going on?

Thanks. The heads died a few years ago, I think because the MH lights were going bad after just a few months (?). It would make for more complete coverage, so to speak, if I get tissue growing on them but not a big deal at all. I was thinking that for sexual reproduction new corals have to start from basically nothing and perhaps could regenerate. I remember a few years back Doug Arthur table sawed anemones in half and they did OK, just wondered if anyone had ever tried something like that with LPS like bubbles.

I should have been more clear. Is it possible to snip of a piece of the actual tissue (no skeleton) and superglue it, etc. I'll post a picture this evening. Thanks.

I've got a bubble coral with six heads, two of which have died. Is it possible to snip a bit of the living coral and superglue or rubber band it to the skeleton heads? And have it live, that's sort of important...

Free: I have an old Hamilton MH fixture that sits on top of the tank. Four feet long, I've had it on my 90 for years. 250W bulbs, need to be replaced. Also has two slots for high output CFs, they're not working right now, possibly the ballast is bad. It has a fan in it which keeps it quite cool but lately it's turning over too slowly. That can easily be replaced if need be. Requires Hamilton MH bulbs, or, at least, I've never gotten it to work with any other kind. Not the prettiest thing but it's adequate. Rather than fool with the CFs and fan I finally decided to go with LEDs and I'm hoping someone new to the hobby would like to have it.

The LPS of mt 90 gallon have grown so far out that i lost two elegance over time to the shade and possibly changes in current. I have two more corals not doing well for the same reason. I'm going to take out as much of the LPS (mostly Hammers) so that it won't be shading the bottom front of the tank. I'll be selling those as some poin. Id like to add some live rock to the tank. Two rocks will sit more or less on top of existing rocks so there should be no trouble there, but i want to attached a longish light rock to a 'cliff' to make a sort of balcony. What is the best way to use epoxy to join rock underwater? Ive been using the standard expoxies, like Two Little Fishes, coating both sides of the epoxy with superglued This works well on land, on water its only so so. I don't think it would work well for the cliff, especially if I did it underwater using my present expoxy-glue combo. Are there expoxies out there that once you apply they stick to anything and harden like rock in few minutes? Underwater ???? Thanks, Mrk

Hello, I need to get new lights for my 90 gallon tank. Mostly LPS but I have a few SPS in the central part. I'm thinking about getting a Maxspect Razor R5 but I'm not sure if the 200W or 300W would be better. Does anyone have any experience with these fixtures? Thanks, Mark

Six or seven years ago I ran into someone with a Wamas hat or T-shirt at the Northern VA Astronomy Club Almost Heaven Star Party (about 300 people go up to Spruce Knob for a long weekend for observing, lectures, hikes, etc., great fun). It turned out he was one of the original members of WAMAS, was very surprised to hear it was still in business.... Didn't catch his name....

I'd like to reduce the noise from my protein skimmer pump to zero. I'm tempted to cover all of it with Loctite Site Foam, seems like that would cut down on the noise a lot. There might be problems with it getting hot but since the core where the magnet is would still be immersed I don't think that would happen. What I worry about is the foam breaking down, or simply being toxic, and killing my entire tank. Just wondering, has anyone ever tried something like this? Does anyone who knows something about chemistry have an opinion? Loctite TITE FOAM Big Gaps 12 oz. Insulating Foam Sealant-2378565 - The Home Depot.pdf

Thanks. That's what I've read, I was hoping someone had had better luck. I guess it won't hurt to give superglue a try but I won't be holding my breath.

An elegance that I've had for five years detached itself from its shell today. From what I can read there's no hope. Does anyone know of anyone having success reattaching it with superglue?

An elegance I've had for five years detached itself from its shell. Apparently this happens sometimes and from what I've read there's no hope for it. Has anyone heard of reattaching an elegance to its shell with superglue and having it work?

Does anyone have an opinion on Reef Roids?

Three or four years ago the Chesapeake Cichlid Club had a speaker on using rock wool in a way analogous to how a DSB is supposed to work. There have been some big studies in Europe on this for sewage treatment, seems to work great. The basic idea is that you get a much bigger anareobic zone with a rock wool sump sort of thing than you do with a DSB. Also, flow volume is more easily controlled. I'll see if I can find the articles, there are a couple of PhD dissertations on the sewage treatment aspect of this. It seems you can get nitrates down to zero fairly easily. There were a few saltwater people at the talk. They were fascinated by this; the freshwater people not so much at all. You can do it with freshwater systems but it seems to be easier with saltwater. I tried it. I had two problems. 1) I was using a 5 gallon bucket, I think you need something like 30 gallons for it to really work. 2) I was too cheap to get a peristaltic pump, you need a turnover of 6-10 hours and I was doing more than that. In the end, I just didn't have the space for the set up. I never had much luck with a DSB in my display tank. I've since gone bare bottom and I'm much happier with the results.

Interesting point that fish don't care for white things. It sure makes alot of sense.

Thanks for the post, Paul. I think you make a very valid point. It sure seems reasonable that alot of the problems we have is from an imbalance of bacterial populations. It would be interesting for BRS to do an experiment on that although I'm not sure how you'd go about it....

About 20 years ago I bought a 75 gallon tank that I'm going to use to house killifish, which are great jumpers. I need a glass cover for it. The measurement for each opening (minus the center brace, of course) is 23.25" x 16.75", appx. For the life of me I can't find a glass canopy of that size, everything is about 22.68" x 17". Does anyone have any idea of what the make of the canopy I need is? There are no markings on the tank to say what it is.

I was mixing up a batch of salt water in an 80 gallon food grade plastic barrel. I had run the pump for 36 hours to mix up the salt (35 ppm). When I checked the salinity I noticed an ozone smell. It turned out the extension cord - pump connection was in the water. I can't imagine why it didn't blow a circuit breaker. What a hoot. I can't imagine I was that stupid. Question for someone who knows more chemistry than I do. Did the copper from the wires end up in the water? The prongs were nice and shiny and smaller than they had been, so I figure some copper did go into the water. Would this have been likely to have precipitated out? I'm figuring the ozone is not a problem; it can be rinsed out. But, is it likely that the copper permeated the plastic of the barrel. Can I use it for salt water mixing in the future? I filled the barrel with hot fresh water and a gallon of vinegar and am running a pump in it. I figure it can't do any harm, perhaps the acidity will make the copper inert somehow or help it leach out of the plastic, assuming it's in there. I have two barrels. If worse came to worse I figure I can use the 'contaminated' one for my freshwater tank, the small amount of copper that might be in there I don't think would harm freshwater fish although it might not be good for inverts? Anyone have a feel for that? As always, thanks in advance. The insights and advice I get from WAMAS posts has been a vast help over the years. Mark

Any luck with the wand? Tried raising the Mg for the bryopsis? I should say, in my experience when I raised my Mg to about 1600 I recall the bryopsis dying off within a week. Probably wouldn't hurt to do frequent water changes when that happens.

For the last three years I've used four Hydor Koralia Evo powerheads in my 90 gallon. They're hooked up to a Red Sea Wavemaster to randomize the circulation. The problem is that eventually the front housing (chamber) of the powerheads lost parts of the front grid. Also, there's a small plastic peg of sorts on the inside of the front grid that the pump blades impact on which causes them to rotate in the correct direction. As near as I can figure out is that when powerhead starts up the blades/axle are as likely to turn in the correct direction (outward flow) as in the incorrect direction (sucking water into the powerhead and ejecting it from the sides). As I understand it, the peg forces it into the correct direction. Unfortunately, the pegs break off in about 18 months. Having the front chamber losing parts of the grid also encourages reverse flow. I'd been able to kludge together a fix using bits of cork instead of the peg, etc., which worked to an extent but now I think the impeller magnet has been demagnetized in such a way that it's stuck in reverse flow for two of the four powerheads and I expect the others will follow. I think the powerheads would be fine if they just were turned on once and ran continuously but they just aren't designed for an off/on random flow generator. Does anyone have any advice on powerheads that work well with a Wavemaster? Would the 3rd generation Koralias be an improvement? (I was thinking about putting some airline tubing around the peg, that would absorb some of the shock when the blades start turning, and perhaps that would prevent damage to the peg and chamber grid). Should I get rid of the Wavemaster and use a different system? Thanks, Mark

I have a Majano wand that shoots a small electric current through the tip, something like a taser. It's for aiptasia but with a little persistence it will kill mushrooms. You can borrow mine if you'd like. I think I paid $20 for it when Paul B, who invented it, gave a talk at a meeting some years back. You can buy it from Marine Depot, perhaps other places. There's also aptasia-gone or something similar: with a syringe you can inject it into the mushrooms mouth and that will also do the job after a little while. I prefer the wand, no chemicals.

These past six months I've been growing daphnia for coral/fish food. Question: does anyone know how big in diameter an egg is from the usual daphnia you get (Daphnia major, I assume). I do water changes by putting a 100 micron filter sock into the water and siphon from within that, on the premise that daphnia, baby daphnia and eggs can't get through, but stuff like algae and the debris you get can. I'm not 100% sure it's working that way.... Also, I've had not much luck get large populations indoors: two toppers, about 22 x 16 inches, filled 2.5 inches deep. Low bubble air stone and plant light 10 hours a day. However, I put about a thousand daphnia outdoors into a 4 foot diameter kiddie pool a month ago and the population exploded. Unfortunately not to the point where I could scoop a few ml out every day for food. Does anyone know, is there some population density beyond which it's hard to grow daphnia? Bonus note: I normally put spirula from Whole Foods into yeast mixture I feed the daphnia. By accident a few days ago I poured too much into the kiddie pool and the water developed a remarkably bad smell. Never again: I'll stick to yeast which after all are alive and won't decay if you overfeed...... Miss the meetings and the WAMAS folks. Thanks, Mark

I'm a big fan of Ehiems. I was thinking most of the noise came from the skimmer/skimmer pump, but after putting in a gel pad and otherwise fiddling with things I see the main noise comes from the return pump in the sump. The skimmer setup seems to have a slightly higher frequency which the foam insulation I put inside the stand deadens fairly well and isn't as annoying as vibration noise. The pump itself (PSK 1000) is nearly silent when you cut off the air intake, the noise, such as it is, must come from the bubbles being thrashed around. I'm sure there's alot of science to that, cavitation or something perhaps? I should say, my setup is quiet, my unreachable quest is to have it completely noiseless. I swapped in my trusty Eheim 1260 and that reduced alot of the noise but the flow is a bit too high. Which, now that I recall, is why I swapped it out five years ago. I'll have to shell out for a new return pump at some point, the current one might be 10 years old now, can't complain if it's gotten a bit noisy. It will be fine for mixing saltwater and doing water changes.

Thanks Jon, I've got it up on thin sections of cork wine bottles but I bet a silicone pad would be a big improvement. Mark

I thought about that, but I was thinking the flow of water through the pump would be sufficient to keep it cool. I'm using an Eheim, I've run it fine outside the sump, never noticed it getting warm.....