Chad

They halted production a while back, but this is the first word that it has been discontinued and will not be produced again.

My wife called this to my attention tonight. Novartis, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures "interceptor" has discontinued the product. I confirmed it by going to their website and seeing the message. I suppose this should fully push the reefing community into using a bayer dip. http://www.interceptor.novartis.us/

I already went with a peristaltic... I like the slow flow and reliability.

Hey Justin, I was thinking about this yesterday and this thread reminded me. Will the use of a peristaltic pump, or other positive displacement pump that doesn't really have a shut off head, overcome the mechanical float valve backup device? Thanks!

Yesterday, the Marine Aquarist Society of North America announced they will be accepting applications for scholarships in the marine science fields for the 2013-2014 school year. If you are an undergraduate or graduate student either pursuing or desiring to pursue a degree in the marine science field, apply! http://www.masna.org/AboutMASNA/MASNAScholarship.aspx

Most of them were not showing any symptoms, though a couple were starting to look a little "ragged." Mostly, I was alarmed at the fast-moving nature of the bug and responded as quickly as I could. So, most of the fish look fine and are doing OK in HT. Doing some googling, it seems mostly brooklynella and velvet treatments both respond to the formalin, so I'm going to go with this and see how it goes...

I have some cupramine, OK to treat with formalin and malachite green?

This progressed VERY rapidly, I did a very close inspection yesterday (I've had these fish for two weeks and was looking for problems exactly like this) and didn't see anything but a couple of split fins that I wrote off to the turf battles that were ongoing, at 4pm today there was five dead fish. The pictured one was still alive at the time of the picture, but dead an hour later. Some of the other dead ones were covered in a slightly milky but still transparent mucous. All fish remaining fish are in a 10 gallon HT (a couple that are in HT are looking pretty rough) and are being treated with a formalin and malachite green mixture (rid ich plus) since I think it's Brooklynella based on the speed at which it's moving. What do y'all think it is?

LOL... "Half a kilo!"

Check with Sean at Fins and Feathers.

Yes, they are... but at least it prevents the vulnerability of having a non-water resistant part on the outside of something that could potentially overflow! Also, vortechs are like ferraris... super expensive and maintenance intensive, but beautiful beasts... In the meantime, the tunzes will sit back and work fabulously and continually while only rarely requiring your thought!

I'm with Tom in having used them before, but having them get stuck. IME, it wasn't snails as the enclosure does a reasonable job at keeping them out. More, it's the general buildups that occur at air / water interfaces (combination of mineral deposits, biological deposits, and salt creep) and can cause sticking, that's why they offer and promote two switch systems - which does make it better.... I really think a pressure switch paired with a peristaltic pump is the best way to set up an ATO (like a liter meter III or avast switch with a BRS doser or similar).

I'm sorry to hear, Jim. Was the shipment insured?

Mike, yes, I plan on a few others, but really only a few. Probably just a tang and a few wrasses, mostly "working" fish left. This is largely it. I am going for a pretty specific look with this tank. I've had that grey / black bristle star for ~6 years now... it was part of my CUC when I set up the 58 for seahorses shortly after I first moved to DC! They are great.

i went looking for your build thread when you mentioned it in mine... Nice work! And having had both ecotechs and tunzes... I'd go with the tunzes again hands down. Other than being quieter, tunzes are practically bulletproof and do not need much maintenance; ecotechs need a bit to keep them running smoothly and wetsides almost need periodic maintenance. The 6105s are unbelievably awesome pumps (and they essentially plug right into an apex controller if you're planning on using one, so it saves that cost)..

Well, you inspired me to figure out how to take and upload a video... Frozen cyclopeeze mixed with a local version of Jan's food. Bornonius tend to prefer larger food than the cyclopeeze it seems... http://youtu.be/yoybGce0z20 I though I put music over the sucking sound of my return siphon stopping... I guess I didn't.

Thank you, I'm pretty happy with the three I have, hopefully they'll all acclimate and do well (they look OK so far - knock on wood)! Fingers are crossed on that one! You should go for it!

^I'm not sure... I'm not really a fan of the bare bottom look (or of the large ARM media that I put in for a bit and then removed), but the pumps seem at odds with my desire! I'm considering a few pieces of starboard with some sand glued down to achieve the look, but I'm not going to dissassemble any rockwork to get there. Any ideas on how to accomplish that? Otherwise, I'll likely get tired of looking at it as it is and remove the substrate.

Thanks, y'all!! Rob, I'm still tweaking on the light... Happy with how it's going, but I don't feel it has the test time in yet to put it into service... Soon enough! Marco, yes, I added them all at once (this is the third time I have done this - the previous two were successful - this one has good potential, but they've only been there for a week now, so it's still early)... I have found that anthias do best when added in groups of at least 6-8 all females, especially with the more pugnacious ones (which both squamipinis and bartlett's are, I added 8 of each). That way they can set an hierarchy without any one individual fish being "set" as the alpha male and none of them being established in the territory. It's a bit harder to acclimate small numbers of a more passive species to an established group. In anticipation of the group, I upped the feeding on the tank until I reached the amount per day that I expected to feed on an ongoing basis and I kept it at that for ~3 weeks (it's 4x out of an autofeeder and 1-2x of whatever frozen I happen to reach for - I have a lot of different types). You should have seen the copepods and isopods I had on the glass of a heavily fed, but fishless tank! My 50 gallon chaeto mass is growing pretty well and keeping nitrates and phosphates at zero. I sourced all of them from a LFS (Im generally a big "local guy" and always give them an opportunity first, it was Aquacare in Virginia Beach), he gave me a pretty awesome package deal that came with 2 weeks QT time in a specifically set up tank that was treated to my specifications and a guarantee. I love the Borbonius, I've been searching for a few of them for probably 2 years now (they have a pretty short season, some of you may remember me asking about them last year), the deal and opportunity just wasn't something that I could pass on and I'm really really excited to have them!

LOL, neither was I

A little blurry, but it shows there are a few new residents... (19 to be exact) Including a trio of one of my dream fish:

I also drilled mine with livestock in it. Lowered water, drilled. Stressful, but was really a non-event in the end.

+1, though I think the AVAST ATO is the best purpose-made unit out there (I use three of them in addition to the LM3 - one for my skimmate locker, one for my mixing tank, and one for my RO holding container).

I also shared with non-WAMAS reefers. HRRC (Virginia Beach area) did not know about it.

No problem! Glad to see it got some more use!