Charlie

I stopped by Outdoor World this weekend on my way south, which is a usual place to stretch my legs and happened to wonder into the restaurant side. They have an absolutely stunning 15,000 gallon reef tank. This is in addition to their huge fresh water tank (which houses some bass and monster catfish) and the pond out front and pond by the elevators (both house trout). If you've never been down there, it's worth the trip, particularly if you need outdoor gear.

I just use the calibration fluid and turn the knob appropriately (I have to check the bottle, but I think that it's 1.030), then I rinse it with RO water.

I was trying to use a floating hydrometer. It worked great on set up, but as far as water changes and testing went, no so much. Having a refractometer made my life lots easier. HappyFeet's idea is right on the money, particularly when you consider how cheap refractometers are, eBay has them for around $30, or about the price of a weekend's worth of beer.

I believe that it was the premium kit. It was the on that comes with three switches (that way if I screw one up, I have a back up).

Not to mention things like broken fingers and splinters in your eye.

Not to sound like your High School shop teacher, but if you decide to go beatin' on any kind of rock, be sure to wear eye protection. That said, you should be able to shape the Marco rock any way that you want it. Some of the LFS carry a similar product in their stores. I know House of Tropicals in Glenn Bernnie does and I think that some of the Virginia stores carry it as well. Also, Pristine Aquariums in Alexandria has cured(ish) live rock in store most of the time. Sure, you can save $ by ordering online, but you can pick out EXACTLY what you want locally.

Many LFS sell RO/DI water. Pristine in Alexandria sells theirs for .50 / gallon and so does House of Tropicals in Glenn Burnie. I don't know where you are, so I can't advise much more than that, but if you're buying 30 gallons a week, it might be better to go to the LFS (I'll warn you that it take lots of discipline to leave a LFS with just water). Both of those store also sell mixed water (they claim that the SP is 1.025). That is definitely an alternative, at least until you see if you really want to be in this hobby. Then you'll want to get your own RO/DI system, even if you have to set it up at home and carry the water to work.

RapidLED.com has several kits availible (depending on how many LEDs you need) that are dimmable. That and solid channel would make some really effective moonlights. I believe Chuceli recomended using a 50-50 mix of Blue and White for normal lighting. You could run all blue for your moonlights and they would be very effective. El Camaron was running similar for his tank (I believe that he was turning off the whites and leaving the blues on, then turning the blues off leaving a very dim blue LED for his moons). I also don't believe that these would be that hard to wire as they just go in series. We could get together after Memorial Day Weekend and order what we need, and do a build together.

Basically, what I just ordered.

I just have the one Carbon. Is there some place locally that I can pick that up reasonable?

So the RO/DI filter that I just bought has (in order of flow) Sediment -> Carbon -> RO Membrane -> DI -> Inline DI Filter. What do I need to change to account for Chloramine?

I just ordered the Aquahub kit and I'm looking forward to getting it set up this weekend. I was shocked that it arrived in about 2 days.

Darn, kind of disturbing to actually look at what's in "Drinking" water. Makes me glad that I drink beer instead. Seriously, I just ordered a RO/DI system (no more runs to the LFS for water, which always costs more than the cost of the water), is there a special cartridge that I should be using?

And drinking Ammonia is better? Wow! At least windows won't streak when you wash them.

What does Prince George's County use?

I was kind of thinking the same thing. While I'm not an electrical engineer, I'm pretty good with a soldering iron. I don't have a drill press either to drill the holes (although, I've been thinking of getting a cheap on for my LED project). I'm sure that we could do a bulk order for the channel and LEDs.

Of course, if we knew the area in which you lived, you might get more help. In other words, finish filling out your profile.

It's a new braile system to confuse blind reefers.

the idea of drilling a tank that is use scares the heck out of me. Maybe it's because Murphy lives in my shirt pocket. Just thinking of that makes everything that could go wrong rush through my head like a run-away freight train.

Noob, I don't need a law to tell me that I should recycle my soda cans or wear my seatbelt, even though many places have laws to that effect (which I don't support at all). My choices are to do the right thing and I prefer not to buy wild caught corals or fish. I chose to use cultured live rock. I may be pretty Libertarian, but I CHOOSE to do the right thing, even if there are people in the world that either don't care or don't see a problem. One of my favorite foods in the world is Weiner Schnitzel, but I don't eat it anymore because made a commitment not to support the veal industry.

I ran into the same thing Tom. I figure that it's just safer and more responsible to buy propigated stuff, like what Justin sells.

That's alright, Colonel Sanders wasn't a Colonel either. Besides, I prefer Bojangle's chicken and enven though they have a cajun sounding name, they're from Charlotte, NC. But I digress, my objection to selling something that is labeled as "Japanese Zoos" is that peopel might get the wrong idea about the ethics of the LFS. I believe that I might label them something like "Demestically propogated Japanese Zoos". This would convey the message that not only is the animal something exotic, but also environmentally responsible (which is something that we should all strive for).

With the selection of stunning corals availible legally and through propigation, I fail to see a good reason to break anybody's laws to add something cool or interesting to our tanks. Furthermore, if having that ONE coral in our tank is that important, I'm sure that there are places that sell legal specimens that either come from near by islands or from frags before the ban.

Yeah, but it's really thin.

He's been running laps like an Olympic swimmer (ok, that's a bit of an exageration) since I did a rearangement of my rocks. Everything else seems to be doing well, I was just wondering if it is common for anemones to do really, really dumb things (I know that their brain requires a microscope to see).