astroboy

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.....

For years I've wanted to make my skimmer pump inaudible. I saw this stuff at Home Depot today: Loctite Tite Foam. You spray it into cracks or gaps in concrete, wood, around plumbing, etc., and it expands into a foam that hardens up. It seems to me that if you covered a pump with it, except for intakes/outlets, of course, it would dampen any noise pretty well.. The question is, is this stuff inert, or does it gradually break down into something a reef tank would not be happy with? Does anyone have any experience or chemical knowledge?

This past week I put some frogspawn frags in a 10 gallon filled with salt water that had sat in the barrel for a week. They look fine, so I guess the concentration of disgusting pepper is low enough for me to use it in my display tank. I was thinking yesterday about how I talked with Bob Fenner about coral allelopathy after a WAMAS talk, and it occurred to me if corals could put up with each other's poisons more or less OK they shouldn't be put out by pepper smell. I'm very sorry to hear just now that he passed. He was the real deal. A gentleman and a scholar, those words describe him better than anything else. He'll be missed for a long long time by those who knew him and the reefing world in general.

Such a nice guy, I'm very grateful I had a chance to meet him when he gave a super WAMAS talk after reading all his great advice since the earliest days of the internet. The world is a poorer place without him.

Sounds like we got our barrels from the same place. I don't want to even try to imagine what yours smelled like. I used bleach and even put in a gallon of muriatic acid and 10 gallons of water and let them sit on their side for a few weeks, helped a bit but not too much.

A while ago I bought two 80 gallon food grade plastic barrels to mix and store water in. Unfortunately, they'd been used to ship peppers from Greece and the smell was enough to bring tears to your eyes if you're not a peppers fan. I left the barrels outside for a couple of years and now the smell is greatly reduced, still obvious but nothing overpowering at all. Does anyone have a guess as to whether they'd be safe to use now?

For the last couple weeks I've had a low grade itch over my whole body. Don't have any allergies that I know of. Anyway, I got some Nizoral shampoo (dandruff killer) and put it all over my body for about 5 minutes, relief was immediate. Repeated for two more days. Itch all gone. Worth a try, I suppose.

I've had a couple cultures of daphnia running for a couple of months but without great success, doing the lighting, water changes with old aquarium water, feeding with yeast/spirula etc. so I don't think those are the problem. In the tubs there's a fair amount of grey-greenish algae, not a solid mass but very fragile filaments. I can't find an answer anywhere: is it a good idea to siphon this stuff out. Some reading I've done seems to say that's where the daphnia eggs are laid. Thanks. Mark

If you want to PM me where you live and what would be a good time to pick it up, I'll be there. I'm tied up for the rest of tonight, though. Mark

I'd definitely like to have it. If you prefer not to take cash is the some sort of liquid payment you'd accept?

Excellent! Can you send me a PM about when we could meet up and how much you'd like for it? Thanks! Mark

I'd prefer to swap out ballasts in the existing housing, partly for reasons of space and also because I don't trust myself 100% on wiring. I'd just like to pop something in of about the same size with the same color wires. Thanks, Mark

That would be great. Thanks!

Hello, I have an ancient Hamilton Technologies lighting fixture on one of the 250W MH electronic ballasts has gone bad. It can be found at marinedepot at the link below, but it seems to be no longer for sale. (Sorry, I tried to upload the webpage image but it wouldn't work). https://www.marinedepot.com/lighting_metal_halide_icecap_250_ballast_information-ap.html Does anyone with a knowledge about ballast think whether this would be a suitable replacement? Or if anyone has a good idea for a replacement I'd appreciate it. I need something along the dimensions of the ballast in the link below. https://www.lightingsupply.com/universal-1110-246c-tc.aspx?gclid=CjwKCAiA66_xBRBhEiwAhrMuLUWy7T0RPH3vJN4JtJ3fW9krqOvCAM8tevfRh1uYhIUu79lCw8p5QBoCTgEQAvD_BwE The bulbs I have are 250W 14000K Metal Halide Bulb - Hamilton, Mogul Base. TIA, Mark icecap.pdf new_ballast.pdf

I think Money Machine is called the Federal Reserve. The electric steam punk is a true work of art.