LCDRDATA

When my daughter discovered that there was a family of corals called "chalice," and that many of them had names, she couldn't believe this name - the Chalice from the Palace - hadn't been taken. Now, thanks to Vince at Quantum Reefs, it has. We picked up a frag last night, and she immediately bestowed its new name. +50 cool points (others might say nerd points) to the first one to name the reference (WITHOUT googling it first ). Pics coming soon, probably this evening!

How about reefing and FOUR parrots (Blue & Gold Macaw, Yellow-Collared Macaw, Solomon Islands Eclectus Parrot, Blue Quaker Parrot)?

After doing the same thing you're describing -- more than once -- I puchased this leak controller/detector from Bulk Reef Supply. So far it has worked like a champ. The sensor is almost too sensitive; once I lost a couple of drops shifting the outlet from my mixing reservoir to my top-off one and it cut off the flow. The alarm is enough to get your attention without being especially obnoxious, and it resets easily.

I know I saw a list somewhere, but offhand I'm not sure where it was. Interestingly, on the actual Tech M bottle it only lists the Mag ingredients (magnesium sulfate & magnesium chloride).

The article forgot to mention the louse named after Gary Larson (The Far Side) - Strigiphilus garylarsoni.

A little over four years ago my wife (along with my daughter) decided I needed a hobby. We'd had a little 25-gallon saltwater tank while we were stationed in Hawai'i in the mid-80's (T-8 lighting, undergravel filter) that we enjoyed, so she thought that would be good. She found a 75-gallon reef-ready setup on Craigslist that someone was selling because they were moving. I'm confident she had no real idea what she was in for...

I have seen this clam. It's gorgeous - and ginormous!!

I'll say this much, it's well named.

You mean he's got a GPS that works underwater?

Well, the mexican turbos are having a limited impact on the stuff growing on rocks. They aren't touching the stuff on the sandbed, though, or what's growing between polyps. I'm thinking that maybe a small fighting conch might help on the former - any thoughts?

The bacteria will be good for your cycle, but won't include/produce pods. For those you'll either have to get some live rock/live sand that has them or buy the bottled version. The rubble pile is a good idea, one that I'll have to implement myself in the near future. Good luck and happy reefing!

Last tested a few days ago: pH 8.2 Alk 7 dKH ammonia/nitrite/nitrate all 0 phosphate 0 =/< x <.03 Calcium 500 Mag 1850 Bringing up alk with Kent Superbuffer dKH; it was low the previous test. Mag raised w/Brightwell Magnesion; I've ordered the Kent Tech-M that apparently is the only one that kills GHA.

Actually, I agree, and that absolutely is my longer-term goal. Right now, my priority is knocking it back sufficiently that I don't loose any more livestock while I work on the nutrient balance. There is one more that I think is a factor in my tank right now, and I'll talk about that below. Taking these in reverse order, my DT is a 75-gallon mixed reef that's been up a little over four years. Current fish include 1 each leopard wrasse, Kole tang, engineeer goby, Randall's Shrimp goby; 2 each green chromis, yellow-tailed blue damsel, false percula clown. All fish resident at least a year and at or close to full adult size. Corals include SPS (birdnest and montiporas), LPS (open brain, acan, aussie duncan) and softies (xenia, kenya tree, GSP, encrusting gorgonian, asst. zoas). Inverts include a derasa clam (~6"), skunk cleaner and coral banded shrimp, and cleaners (asst. snails, mithrax crab, etc). I'm feeding the equivalent of 1-1.5 cubes frozen once daily, some flakes or pellets and 1/2 sheet nori or equivalent every couple of days. Once a week I shut down the main return pump and add to the daily regimen another cube or two of rotifers/baby brine shrimp, ~20 ml Kent phytoplex, and ~10-15ml TLF marine snow. I let that circulate for a couple of hours and then start the return back up. I've been gradually cutting this back to the point that one or two fish started picking on polyps and then bumped up slightly. My rock came primarily from two places: dry rock from the original owner (who had broken down the tank to sell) and live rock from one or two reefers I found via Craigslist (this was in my pre-WAMAS days). Live sand came from Marine Depot. With roughly 70 pounds of live rock and another 60+ pounds of live sand, initial cycle was minimal; I didn't do anything in particular to prepare it. I have vacuumed the accessible parts of the sand bed twice since all this started, but it hasn't made a discernable difference. I use a four-stage RO/DI setup for water; I recently replaced all four stages and added a two-point TDS meter. Water off the membrane reads between 2-5, and 0 after the DI resin. I use Reef Crystals salt mixed to ~1.025, but haven't otherwise tested my input water. Regarding your three-point "reasons" listing above, I agree. I think there's an additional factor that may be contributing, and that sadly is dead livestock. I hadn't thought about it before, but right now I can't remember the last time I saw the large serpent star or sea cucumber I have (had?). Similar story with the last sea hare I tried. I'm now wondering if they didn't crawl into a hole or bury themselves, expire, and start decomposing in some inaccessible place in my tank. Any one of those would be enough to "overfeed" the tank for some time.

If you don't mind my asking,where do you get yours? I'm also looking to replace the bulbs in my 'fuge fixtures - both 4-pin CFLs, 24 and 18 Watt - and most of the prices I'm finding are around $20-$25 for a 6500-6700K bulb.

I think you've put it better than I could have myself. I know checking the poll that only one respondent does not use a controller, and only two checked the box for "wasted my money." So if you're out there, what did your controller not do or do badly - or break down, etc. - that it was a waste? As far as the "best" controller goes, I suspect it's in the eye of the beholder. Since I don't have the level of equipment many members do (multiple sets of lights on separate circuits, ATO, dosing pump(s), kalk stirrer/reactor, etc) I'm looking for a fairly limited set of functionality, and that more on the "monitor" than the "controller" side. So, temperature, salinity, pH - possibly for two different tanks ~ 10-15 feet apart - and maybe a pump or two. Expandability in case I get more stuff probably more nice-to-have than necessary at least at this point. 250 options all controllable from a smart phone, not so much. That being said, I'm getting some good ideas from this thread so far and I'm happy to hear experiences (good and bad) and best practices while I try to figure out what I "need" vs. what I can afford.

No, they're part of our cleaning crew. They feed themselves.

I added a couple of Mexican turbos and it seems that they are at least nibbling on the stuff so I added four more - we'll see how it goes but that's the first bright spot on this in some time. I'm going to order some Kent Tech-M as well, since apparently the brand/composition of mag makes a difference as well as the level. I also just added about two gallons of brand new healthy chaeto (courtesy of OldReefer) to my 'fuge and I am running my light 24/7. This brings up another question: it's a CPR fixture and comes with a 50/50 (10K/actinic) power compact. I am thinking I would get better growth with either 10K or 6700K - does the actinic component add anything in terms of helping chaeto grow? Thanks!

One other question - is it possible to monitor a given parameter (pH for example) with two different probes in two different neighboring tanks? Which controller(s) allow you to do that? Thank you all again.

I'm appreciating the feedback, which largely seems positive (18 of 21 votes "Can't live without it" or "Very Useful") - please keep it coming . On the parameters monitored question, (pH/temp/ORP/salinity/Alk-dKH/other), I see temperature and pH as the big winners. No votes for alk/dKH - is there no automated monitoring, or just too expensive? What are the "Other" parameters that people are watching via the controller?

+1 Also, I can't see NOT having your equipment plugged into a GFI (ground-fault interrupt) circuit/outlet.

So I am thinking it may be time for me to bite the bullet on this one and get a controller. On a quick look, it seems the difference between the least and most expensive units is number of outlets controlled and level of programmability. As my lights are all on timers now, and a basic wavemaker switching powerheads, a bunch of programmable outlets might be a nice to have but isn't necessarily required. Even the simplest units seem to monitor pH, temperature and ORP - the last of which I haven't used so far and about which I've seen varied opinions regarding its value. Are there any that monitor alkalinity/dKH as well? - Salinity? - anything else? What are your experiences? Thanks! Also, I've tried to make a poll to go along with this - I'm not sure if I did it correctly or not.

Oh, I don't know, it looks like it's already BEEN a long time...

Tuxedo urchin, pincushion urchin, sea hare all been tried and failed I'm seriously considering a rabbitfish, but with what I've already bought that was "supposed to" eat stuff like this but wouldn't I'm somewhat hesitant to go that route. I'm also corresponding with John at ReefCleaners now, and hoping he can come up with something. I'll probably put phosguard and/or neo-zeo in my small canister filter again, but as it didn't seem to make a difference before; I'll probably get some Tech-M as well. Do you "inject" that straight out of the bottle or just generally in the tank? I don't to "destroy the village to save it." Thanks all!