Max Ivers

Found a few hundred of these guys in my refugium swimming around last night....enjoy! Ps they are the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen.

Yeah I have let mine go up to 8.06dKH (after -18% adjustment) and now things are doing really well. I was saying that when mine was supposed to be 6.8 but really was 5.9 I was having issues. I'm going to mix up some solution to see once and for all where I am at. Gotta love having access to MCPS lab equipment such as digital pipettes that go up to 1L in increments of .01ml and all the digital scales and glassware I can break by accident and not worry about. I'll report my results when I finish.

I have a dwarf angler that is a bit bigger than a golf ball and happily knocks down 2 sally's frozen flatpack krill every 3 days or so. I make small batches of them soaked in selco then stick em in the coldest part of the fridge. Waste depends on how large your angler is and how much you feed it. FWIW I don't even have to dangle the krill in a pair of tongs anymore, just drop em in and he comes right up and snatches em LMK if I can answer any specific questions for you.

I read that article about how the Hanna checker reads about 18% higher in dKH than actual...and since then have been adjusting my results for this. I run a super ULNS with both zeovit and biopellets and so I try to keep a low alk (6.5-7.5) and so I really don't have much room for error in terms of going lower in alkalinity. I have been keeping a calendar with my test results and observations since I started my new tank in August '11 and so I went back and re-crunched the numbers. I found that the times when I thought my alk was perfect at 123 (6.8), my corals stopped growing, began to recede, and my coralline did the same as well, my alkalinity after re-calculating was only 5.6dKH The number I've been at lately is 175 (8.06dKH after adjustment) and everything looks much happier to say the least Tom, how exactly do you make your reference solution??? found the link after some digging, but Tom you really ought to sticky it in the DIY or General Discussion forum so it's easier to find haha!

I'm pretty sure that the water coming in about an inch below the teeth is due to the little U shaped plastic sections on the sides that you can punch out to put loc line through. If you look really close they have 3 little spots where they are still attached to the main overflow but there's a gap all around that U. Check out the top left part of the overflow really carefully in this pic http://imageshack.us/f/542/img0941.jpg/ (the pic wouldn't embed, it isn't mine).

Bethesda MD 1 mile north of downtown Bethesda

Sorry to hear this happened Chad. But I guess it's a good lesson to everyone about safety in our hobby. The other day I dropped a light in my tank while my hands were in it...got a decent shock but my GFCI saved my life. Hope everything goes smoothly for you from now on, good luck!

The frag disks look like thin mints....mmmmmm

My torch coral (same color) has bubbles around the mouth from time to time. It's no big deal at all in my opinion, but keep an eye on it just in case. In fact I've noticed that since I started observing the bubbles it has grown faster.

Hi everyone, I recently had a chance to use an Apogee PAR meter and got what I believe to be pretty good results off of my TEK 8x54w T5HO system with ATI bulbs over my 120 gallon reef tank I will post a photo later this evening with the readings at different locations, but with bulbs that are approximately 9 months old, I read nearly 240 on the bottom of my 24" deep tank next to my Maxima clam and around 400 about 8" down from the water line where my highest Acros are. My bulbs are 16" off of the water to allow for access to my tank. I'm curious to see the results that others have gotten when they have taken their PAR readings. Please post your results and any comments you have. Thanks!

Try the Hydrat-Mg from brightwell, I used it to knock out some bryopsis I had. Pretty cheap and worked like a charm. It's hydrated magnesium salts (like Kent Tech-M the "miracle" cure to killing GHA/Bryopsis) and therefore you can raise the concentration much easier.

Try Petland in Fairfax...I'm pretty sure I saw a bottle when I was there this past weekend.

If you have the cash, go with a Red Dragon pump. They're a pretty penny but they can be run internal or external, and don't have seals to leak when run externally. They're also SILENT (~28dB that I saw in a youtube vid)

A key about internal pumps is that the electrical components are underwater....common return pumps like Mag Drives can leak current which can give you a good jolt if you aren't careful. FWIW I love my Reeflo Dart/Snapper Hybrid External...it's incredibly quiet, never has leaked, and moves a TON of water. Also for an external pump it is pretty small (not red dragon sized, but not red dragon priced...) A final thought...if you put a check valve on an external pump and prime it once, it should stay primed even if it's above the water line. Reeflo provides a diagram of how to plumb their pumps like this.

+1 ^ ChingChai's tank is just beautiful. He is a perfect example of how to do a project that is that large and well done (equipment/expenses) in a tasteful and non overwhelming or pompous manner. Plus his collection of fish is to die for.

If you want to drop the $$$ for it, the new HOB super reef octopus line is really nice, definitely would be the best option out there for a HOB skimmer.

It's a good sign, it only shows up in relatively clean, high calcium level water. IME it grows for about 2 months to ~2" long and then dies back and resprouts elsewhere

Is the skimmer still up for sale?

Where'd you get it?

^ +1

Interested in the stunners, but your box was full!

Oops! Sorry I guess I didn't check a box or something...but now it won't let me edit the poll. Hopefully more people will chime in.

Hey everyone, I'm curious to see if anyone else in the club uses a Zeo system, I'm using one now and I really like it, but I'd love to learn from other people. Thanks!

I figured it was lanthanum chloride, but I wasn't sure since I've only ever heard of it being used on very large systems such as public aquaria. I'd be interested to see what your results are...definitely keep us updated!

I'm planning on bringing a folding table to the meeting to setup my frag tank on, just wanted to see if anybody was interested in the other half of it. I'll have a 20L and the table can easily hold another tank with plenty of room. Whoever calls it first with a post HERE will get first dibs, but please let me know if you aren't going to be there at the beginning.