beatle

Me too.

As a Hokie, I have a lot of maroon and orange around the house. Since corals come in every color under the sun (sorry, reef pun) I'm hoping to find some VT inspired corals out there for my tank. I know there's orange monti, but what about maroon and orange zoas or some type of acro? Miami has their own chalice, why not VT?

Any reef computer will do that. Something as inexpensive as a Reefkeeper Lite will do what you're asking. I have my heaters come on at 78.0, turn off at 78.5, and my fans kick on at 79, off at 78.6.

You did a pretty good job at cleaning the tank up, Max. I think you'll have a very blue looking tank with that bulb selection, though maybe that's what you're going for. You may want to mix in some daylight or 6500K bulb(s) into the mix. They're also very high in PAR. Maybe check with some of the bulb geeks on RC for their opinions as well. When I experimented with fluorescents years ago, the order of the bulbs mattered big time. Shift bulbs to the back to "dim" their effect, bring them forward to increase their effect. I may have some light rail stuff left in my basement that I can bring to the meeting. Otherwise you might have luck in Lowes for sliding door hardware if you don't want to deal with McMaster.

Depends on your configuration and environment, really. Though it's only April, I'd been running two 150w halides over my 40g breeder without much impact on temperature. Tank is open top. I'm running two 250w halides over my 120g now (enclosed canopy) and I have a couple cheap clip on fans that I use to keep heat at bay. They cycle on and off. So far no problems. T5s can be more efficient, and I've run them as well with good results, but I'm a sucker for the shimmer lines of a halide and can't turn back now.

Filters are also cheaper than you think. A package of 1 sediment and 2 carbon blocks from AWI is only $20. DI refill might cost you another $10. If you wear out a membrane (I think you'll get several years out of one), they're $25-$40 depending on where you shop.

Fish, though I'm glad I don't have to choose. I also started with fresh (African mbuna) and enjoyed them for several years before I figured I had "topped out" when they were breeding like crazy and I was raising fry. I also had a nice planted tank going for a about a year. I enjoyed it until it became too much work to keep looking nice. Even fast growing corals have nothing on some plants. I had to prune and clean my planted tank on an almost daily basis. Once I reached an imbalance in nutrients, plague algae dominated the tank and suffocated everything in it. Eventually I could not grow anything and sold it.

I locate my refugium after the skimmer so the water is somewhat cleaned before it could possibly be trapped. I'm also using a very fine DSB so worst case, I can still siphon off detritus if it accumulates. Why cryptic and not lit for macro?

Not this time, but we've lost electricity during weaker storms, underground power lines and all. A generator will be your best friend.

No carpet. It's laminate, though I'm thinking about drilling it anyway. The 3 tubes were run through the wall. It's an insulated exterior wall which made finding the fish tape (no pun intended ) a lot of fun. The current tubes are hidden behind the tank. To get another tube/wire down the wall would have to be a bit more obvious in sight as I can't move the tank out of the way again.

I've thought about that. I have an extra DC8 anyway, but I'd have to run a cord to the basement through the wall. Had I been smart enough when I was running the RODI lines, I would have recognized this deficiency.

Peristaltic pumps like those used in the LM3 in general cope with head pressure very well. The LM3 will pump water with a "draw height of 12 feet or to a delivery height of 60 feet."

In the design of my 120, I'm going to be using a Litermeter3 to provide all my water changes, and I'd hoped to use it for ATO as well. I have RODI and salt reservoirs in the basement directly below my tank, and I ran three 1/4" lines plus a vinyl line for the pressure float switch for the LM3's water exchange module. I also have a GSA kalk stirrer and an AC3 that I plan to incorporate and tie into my AC3 with a PH probe to avoid a possible kalk overdose, but this is where it gets confusing. The LM3 and its pumps were to go to be in the basement and pump all the water up to the sump. This keeps additional equipment out of the stand and is one less thing to hear. However, even with the LM3 being somewhat set-and-forget, I don't see how to incorporate it into a PH based failsafe with the AC3, unless I also run an extension cord through the wall to allow the AC3 to shut off the LM3 in case of a PH spike. I'm considering going with an Avast ATO and a digital out to the AC3, and then have that control a dosing pump that can pump water from the basement through the kalk stirrer and into the sump. That would leave me with a useless LM3 pump, but maybe this is my only option. Any other ideas for this?

I had a few floods with my 90 back in the day. Some were just like yours: - ATO tube pumps water onto floor. - ATO reservoir overflows when float valve sticks open - UV sterilizer barb fitting breaks I also had my skimmer overflow several times, though it was in the sump. For this reason I never wanted to run a HOB skimmer on my 40 which is sumpless. I then got a Prism skimmer for free and said "oh what the H-E-double hockey sticks" and hooked it up. It was fine for a month and a half, then it turned into a foam cannon and overflowed behind the tank. Fortunately my wife was actually in the room when she heard the trickle of water and we were able to stop it before it poured more than a cup or two out. That was the end of the skimmer!

Fairfax County uses chloramines for 9 months out of the year. From April 1 to July 1, they switch to free chlorine. You'll notice the smell in the first week of April. If you request, they'll actually call you and tell you when they make the switch. 3-5 years is pretty good for a membrane if you've gotten a lot of "mileage." Measure your tap's TDS and then your post-membrane TDS and see if the rejection rate is significantly above the rating (usually 96-98%). Membranes usually conk out pretty quickly when they get exhausted, from what I understand.

Is this a 20g long?

The deep dimension tanks are interesting, but IMO a 6 ft tank has much more presence than a 4 ft tank, even if it's 3 ft deep. Working in a tank that's not as deep should be much easier as well. You can, however, create some very interesting aquascapes in a deep tank that aren't possible otherwise, but getting to all the locations for coral mounting or (gasp) catching fish would be a bear.

Turns out it's nothing to write home about. Keep your receipt or you're SOL. I'm just glad the transformer was only $20. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1990696

Dan, can I pick up locally?

David, thanks for the troubleshooting last night. Good news - my Litermeter appears to be fine. The transformer is just toast as I expected. Time to see how Spectrapure's support is!

Which AWI unit were you comparing it to? The compact reefkeeper is only $140, and the Typhoon III is only $190. They're even cheaper with the club discount.

I'm plumbing a "herbie" overflow and I need a 1" PVC gate valve. Lowes and Home Despot have failed me. I did this before on a different tank, but I forget where I bought it. I've checked BRK, Pristine Aquariums, Petland, Marine Scene, and even Superpetz (ugh) with no luck.

I have an old Litermeter 3 that doesn't power on. I've taken a meter to the transformer and I'm not getting any voltage. Does anyone have one somewhat close to Springfield that I could come by and check out?

Our power here in Springfield has gone out several times since we moved in last June. We've lost power a couple random times last year, and then we lost it for 23 hours during the "big" snowstorm earlier this year. Picked up a generator shortly thereafter and actually had a chance to use it a few weeks ago when we lost power again for 3 hours. Who said underground power lines were reliable?

Bump for a question on attaching the switch to a controller (I have an AC3). Do you need to buy the breakout box for the AC3 or does this simply plug into the controller? I have an Osmolator which works great, but it requires another $60 option if I want to use a peristaltic pump with it to pump topoff from my basement. It also has no way to send me alarms via email if something goes wrong. As far as reliability goes, have you noticed any issues with salt creep around the opening affecting reliability? I'm guessing for something that goes in and out of the water, this would be a problem, but it seems like reliability is one of the chief benefits of this switch in that it's not affected by coraline or salt creep.