Integral9

I went in August and while I didn't see much cyano, the corals looked offal. All the SPS looked dead or dying and the LPS wasn't very happy at all. The Trumpets were melting and the raccoon butterfly was feasting on a gigantic brain coral, of which there was not much left. The only corals that looked good were the softies. Also, I didn't see the mandarin in there that I saw the last time I went. It was like 6" and only came out when the kids stop beating on the tank , which wasn't happening with all the kids in there that day. I did like the jelly's (although I can't figure out how they keep them from getting sucked up into the pumps, and I'm happy they've opened the Dolphins up as a regular exhibit and aren't "showing" them any more. It's nice to see them just swimming around and playing with things on their own.

congrats! ps. When you are ready to rejoin the hobby, take your kid to the Aquarium.

My center braces broke when my wife dropped one of the doors of my hood onto them. Fortunately the tank was empty at the time so I replaced them. I regret doing that. Should have bought a new tank. But anyways. Good thinking about the cabinet clamps for your tank though. If the light shut off immediately after falling into the water, you probably have a chance to save it, but you'll probably need to take it completely apart and rinse every piece with fresh water. Then let it dry before trying to fire it again. Also, while you have it apart, inspect every electrical contact you can find. If there was a burn, it will probably be at the contacts. If water got into the ballasts before the power shutoff, you will probably have to replace those. If you run into some part that's stubborn and won't let go of the water inside of it. Set your oven on low and put it on a cookie sheet for about 30m to an hour. The heat should evap the water out of the part. Just let it cool before trying to use it again. fyi: sodium chloride conducts fairly well when wet, not so well when dry, but as a dry substance it tends to pull moisture out of the air and become wet. So it's very important to remove all the salt you can find. Good luck.

No, that's fine. To be honest, I had never looked into UV filtration before. So w/out knowing much about it, I wasn't going to just go out and buy one. Now that I know what I would need to put a UV on my DT, I am (I think) interested in adding that to my setup. However, my wife just had a baby and our expendable income is being redirected towards diapers and formula. So that's why I just want the one for the QT now.

That's very interesting study, and makes sense to me. Corals grow in tropical regions and while many are near the equator, the angle of incidence of the sun on the water would reflect much of the light for most of the morning and evening hours. Thus reducing effective light penetration to about 8-10 hours or less Add into that corals growing in places which are relatively far from the equator (but still tropical), have varying amounts of light and darkness throughout the year. Thus the amount of useable light is reduced further in the winter months and increased in the summer months. So it makes sense to me that corals would have adapted to thrive in shorter photo periods and while somewhat longer photo periods aren't particularly detrimental, extreme photo periods are. I would hypothesize that it may be due to a build up toxins released by the algae performing the photosynthesis. I'm going to adjust my lighting and see what happens.

I'm not sure if I want to keep going down this road as I don't feel there are any good exit ramps. I'm just disappointed with their follow up responses. But for anyone out there looking for information on UVs, here is the web page on their site that was linked to me. Lots of very useful and helpful information on it: http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html in particular these sections were pointed out to me: http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html#flow http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html#dwell_time But I recommend reading as much as you can understand on that page.

Well, I am not particularly impressed with these guys anymore. With what started out as a good conversation with Devon, ended with a "Sounds good..." "Good Luck" response. My original question was asking which UV would be better suited for me to provide Level 2 sterilization in a 29 gallon tank. The response I got back was very long and had many links and included a question about whether I had UV on my main tank. So far, so good I was thinking. I read the links and what occured to me was that the site was very much geared toward a total UV solution, not just for a QT. So when I replied back and told him that I do not have a UV on my DT and that it was not a concern of mine as the fish in my QT had never been in my DT. His response was "Sounds good..." "Good Luck".... Since I still needed an answer to my original question and he responded to me at 11:30pm on a Sunday, I replied back asking for that. Then I got a response from Misti telling me to buy the Vectron becuase it was the best and replacement parts were readily available. No mention of why their "Terminator" unit which comes with an OTS pump and plumbing and more for the same price as the Vectron, isn't suitable. After all the reading I did, I thought that would be their recommendation, just at a higher wattage than I originally asked about. I feel like Devon didn't want to deal with me because I wasn't interested in buying 2 UVs and Misti is just telling me to buy the most expensive one on the market.

I did send him an email to their customer service line and got a response back already, from Devon though. Very informative. But he has more questions for me that I need to answer before he will recommend a unit for me. So far a very good experience with these folks. I'll let you all know what he says.

Thanks. I am trying to decide between a TMC Vectron 2 200 8W and the Terminator 13W model. It's for my QT / HT and so I want to kill parasites, not just clarify the water or kill bacteria.

I've been searching around for a suitable UV for my QT / HT and not surprisingly I have not found much. At least until I ran across http://americanaquariumproducts.com The amount of information on their site regarding the pro's and faux's of UV filtration is quite compelling and I really learned a lot (or I have a truck load of misinformation). And well I am compelled to buy one of their products. But before I do that has anyone else used their products or have opinions on them?

Yes. I would mount as much of your electrical stuff as possible outside of the stand and away from the tank if possible. The humid salty air near the tank will always be a problem. Some people build a box to put it in, others find ways to remote it. I secured mine to the back of my stand with what I call a drip shield (piece of wood mounted above it).

I'd like to add that I never had a problem with my T5s tripping a GFCI until I went to a really big T5 fixture. I don't know how many ballasts it has in it or what kind they are, but it's got to be at least 3 as there are that many leads coming out of the fixture to power it and the number of feet of fluorescent bulbs they drive (12 - 18), means to me that they are not the small kinds. 2 of the plugs run 4 bulbs each, and the third plug runs 6 bulbs. If anyone knows what ballasts Aquactinics puts in their fixtures, I have the 72" Constellation fixture, maybe they can post it. fwiw: The supak (iirc) ballasts I have on my 48" 4-bulb DIY fixture and the same brand that came in my 24" Outer Orbit Pro (4 x 24" bulbs) did not trip the GFCIs I had them on.

Also, FYI, when plugging in flourescent fixtures into GFCI circuits. There is a tiny amount of current leakage in the ballasts and given enough of them, they will trip the GFCI. eg: 14 x 36" T5s is too much, 10 is not though. I'm not sure what to do with this, the lights hang over my tank, but a GFCI isn't possible. So they are on a regular circuit for now.

+1 If just putting it in the tank doesn't work. chase them around with the net a little bit. If they still go after you. Just put them in time out. Net em and leave them in net while you are working. Suspend the net from the top of your tank leaving the bottom part (where fish is) in the water of course. If you are afraid they'll jump out, leaving the fish less room will stop that. They need a running start to get very far out of the water.

I personally feel the garage would be an excellent fish room. Oops, 50gallons on the floor?! No big deal in there. But it really all depends on how well the room is climate controlled, but it probably doesn't have to be greatly climate controlled. Also, you might to try to avoid any smoke / exhaust from cars or lawn equipment in there. So if the garage is large enough, it might make sense to build a closet for the equipment to hide in / insulate it a bit more. Depending on when the house was built, there may be little to no insulation over the garage. My parent's house which was built in 1945, has absolutely no insulation besides the cinder block walls and plaster ceiling. While it doesn't get below freezing in there, it's probably not adequate for a fish room in the winter w/ out a space heater and the summer time would probably require a window unit air-conditioner.

fyi: flexpvc.com sells it by the foot.

if you are willing to wash the heck out of it, i have a 50g tote about 1/2 full of mostly special grade sea floor sand. has some bimini pink and a little bit of crushed coral mixed in as well. the detritus is also free as is all the bacteria. it still wet, so technically still alive i guess. it's the sand from my 55g, 20g fuge, 30g and 5g fuge all combined. if you want new sand. i'd just buy it dry in 40lb bags from a LFS and seed w/ bacteria packets. shipping is hefty on those bags.

yeah, other than the parasite and lesion on it's side, the hippo would be in great shape. the powder brown seems to be responding very well to the treatment. won't stop swimming around though, so it's hard to get a good look at him.

Got some better pics of the white stuff and spot on the hippo

The ich is looking better today, but the hippo still has the white thing coming out of it's back near the back of the dorsal fin. And then there is the spot on it's side, could be excessive scratching? Pics of my hippo (and powder brown) excess scratching?

+1

The fish are still eating well still, so I suppose I can wait a little longer. I am trying to get a pic of the hippo (worst looking) to post. I am concerned it may have developed velvet or something else as well. Saw some white stringy bits hanging off it and now it has some black spots (about pea sized). I am not sure what the black spots are, but the white stuff could be velvet or something else. I did put a piece of rock in the qt for the fish to scratch on (which they are, heavily). it had been sitting out of water for months and is about as dead as it comes. So I am thinking the black spot could be some over zealous scratching. the white stuff I am not sure about. saw it coming off the fish near the back of the dorsal fin, but it was gone before i could grab my camera.

The rest of my fish are not showing any signs of infection. Woohoo, but I am confused about this hyposalinity treatment. I feel like I shouldn't be seeing anymore ich since: the water is now toxic to the invertabrate 1.008sg and there is no sand bed for them to reproduce in. However, it appears my hippo and powder brown are getting worse, not better. They have been in the tank at 1.008sg for 2 weeks now and the parasite seems to be getting stronger. uggh... I don't know what I am doing wrong, but if I don't start seeing some signs of improvement soon, I am really considering raising the sg back up to normal levels and starting a copper treatment. I would be very upset to loose another hippo. I've waited years before purchasing another one.

Indeeed. I think the slopping down and the asymetry are your problems. You could replumb the whole thing, but might end up with different problems. For a quick fix, you might consider adding a T to the horizontal line pointing upwards. Then attach a small piece of plumbing so it rises up above the tank rim. Then take a PVC cap and drill a hole into it (about 1/8" should be fine). Then put the cap on the stand pipe. I wouldn't cement the cap on until you get the hole the right size.

The 7KW generator costs about $2000 depending on the model and brand you get and figuring installation will cost another $1k, that's about 3k. Dominion (and I'm sure other power utilities as well as just about any electrician) sells and installs them. Just check out their website and from there you can request a quote if you are serious