OldReefer

I have 6 Bartlet anthias that are doing great. They eat anything that hits the tank. I would suggest soaking flake with Selcon. It makes fish go crazy and it is really good for them as well. I do that at every feeding when I am around to make up for the times I have to use and automatic feeder.

I am the CEO of a good size 501©3. You can get in more trouble by advocating a letter writing campaing sometimes than writing and informative letter to decisionmakers. I think it is acceptable for us to inform Congress of the state of the hobby and our goals to support the hobby in a sustainable way. You can inform without requesting specific legislative action. I have walked this line many times including testimony to Congress. Let me know if I can help at all with this. Bill

I am a broken record but I really like this stuff. A little bottle of Brightwell MicroBacter 7 will help burn up some of that more quickly. But remeber some diatom blooms and even cyano is pretty much inevitable. It is all part of the process.

I have a couple of 1" LocLine eductors I am not using if you really want to put some crazy flow in your tank.

FWIW here is a picture of my cover over my 150. It took about 15 minutes to build with parts from Lowes. I got the netting online. Minnimal light loss. No carpet surfing yet.

hbh - thanks for that.... I only have chaeto now. Diversity is always good.

I have 6 Bartlett Anthias, 2 McCosker's Wrasses, 2 Perks, a Hippo, a small Copperband, and a six line.

Just an update with most of the livestock in. I have stuff in here from at least 4 vendors and a dozen WAMAS members. Thanks to everybody for the help. Nothing to do but keep it stable and let it grow.

Looks like a great build. I have a CO2 tank laying around if you need one for that reactor.

+1 on MB7. It is amazing in a new tank. You will get a nice baterial colony in 24 hours and can feel comfortable about adding livestock. Your ammonia will dissappear in hours.

+1 for netting. The clear plastic netting doesn't sacrifice much PAR and it keeps my wrasses in the tank.

I have used kalk and Ca Reactors together. It is a great way to keep the pH up while gaining some calcium. Like the others have said, you have to be careful. I don't know anybody who doses kalk that has not had some sort of disaster with equipment of human failure. For me I am using BRS 2 part with dosing pumps. It is safe and fool proof (at least so far).

I love mine. They are great when used with a controller>

I would sure like to add a little shimmer on my ATI Power Module. Do you thing a dozen of those white leds spread across 5 feet of channel would do it? I might need some tight optics to keep it from being washed out.

Thanks for that. I had a dog until last year, it died at the age 18. darn near immortal! It supplied Interceptor for 3 tanks. I will start with the vet I used for that dog and go from there. I wonder if a vet could get in trouble for prescribing for a different purpose than it was approved for. I think they call that prescribing "off label". It is a shame we can't get this sorted out in the hobby. Just a lot of decent folks trying to take care of their animals. I bet it takes a mountain of paperwork to make this use of interceptor legit. If anybody knew how to take a run at the root problem, I'd be happy to help. Thanks for the advice.

In the spirit of doing this the right and legal way.... Could anybody provide referals to a Vet that would subscribe this to somebody that doesn't have a dog? If somebody has a reef-educated vet in Nova, I would rather go there than try to explain it to a newbie.

That is so classic for Dubai. Everything is built quick, cheap, and shiny. I was there during the first rainstorm they had in 3 years. Every marble hallway was lined with Home Depot buckets catching the leaks.

My last tank was a 180 and I regretted going with pendants. Much less PAR than my previous tank running moguls and VHOs. Based on all of Sanjay's data, the best possible PAR is 3-PFO parallel reflectors with moguls. I am amazed from the data how much less PAR comes out of many of the DE fixtures. Just something to think about. Some of the old-school stuff really rocked.

If you are going with mag drive pumps consider they do much better with big pipes. I would even thing about using 1.5 spaflex up to the 1" bulkhead. They do very badly with any flow restriction. Whether it was on a reef or a pond, I always regretted anything less than 1.5" with a mag. I am thinking a Mag7 would be OK if you plumb it right. Maybe a Mag 9 at most. Too much flow through the pump gives you microbubbles and lots of drama if you press the capacity of the overflow (normally 1000 gph with a 1.5 bulkhead). It is better to get flow in the tank with powerheads and keep the turnover to the sump relatively modest. It just makes life simpler.

I'll take the undata on the left for 15

I have used both on the AC3 and I like the cheap probes from Bulk Reef Supply the best. FWIW...

I'll take one each: Pokerstar/Supergirl Monti Rainbow Monti Green Chillipepper Monti Emerald green pocillorpora I can paypal ahead if you like.

This is a tank that I ordered but wouldn't accept because of the cracked trim. It is a beautiful new starfire tank if you can live with the busted trim. I wasn't going to at full retail of about $900. 11093.AQUARIUM OCEANIC 156 AQUARIUM ULTIMATE 60W X 24D X 25H, HAS A CRACKED TRIM

I was thinking of a shelter for the generator. I thought you might have to have something to protect the portable generators from the weather while it is running outside.

Bob, Good to hear there are no problems with those little inverter units and return pumps. They seem to put out much better power than the square sine wave that comes out of a computer UPS. I have been thinking 2,000 watts would take care of my system pretty easily. My return pump takes 90 watts when it is running. Even if my house gets down to 40-50 degrees I suppose 400-500 watts of heaters would keep my 150 gallon tank warm. Sicce skimmer pumps are and Vortechs would probably use less than 100 watts all together. That would leave me with enough electricity to watch TV or run my computer. Now I just have to consider that my wife would have other priorities (like running the furnace and the refrigerator). The transfer switches don't look too expensive to buy, but I sure would want a pro doing the install with proper permits. It looks like quite a job (maybe $500+).