TrueTricia

Sylvia ...Earle.

This is incredible!!! I am a huge fan of captive breeding, and I love that we have someone within our community willing to put in such work, learning how to do things better, and sharing that information with our community.

I always smile when one of his videos mentions the awesome Lynn!

It was a great episode. I thought about starting a vlog when I set up the new tank, but I knew I didn't have the time to put in. I could definitely understand and relate to your content in this one! Keep up the great work!

Listening to you on Rappin with Reefbum! Congrats on the great YouTube collaboration with him! For those of you that haven't listened/watched yet, go check it out and support one of our local hobbyists!

I also have "plugs" for my drains, just in case I ever need to completely shut them down. I've mounted the plugs to PVC pipe so they're easier to use, but to your point, most of the time, you could just use a longer piece of PVC and bring your drain pipes up high enough that they drain out completely with the return off. I've got a one-way valve and then a shut off valve right above my return pump as well. I like the redundancy. The one-way valve I got is a PVC ball that's set completely in dark PVC so that there's no algae growth, and it's also got unions. I'll probably clean it once a year, and my only complaint is that the ball floating on the inside is a bit noisy, but it's less likely to fail. Looking forward to seeing the final build.

I need the help of someone with a 3d printer please! I need to make a custom shelf for my Neptune AFS in my tank. Suffice it to say that the way I've built my stand won't really allow for the normal AFS mounting system. Currently, I'm just using a scrap piece of plywood that spans across the back corner of the tank as a shelf, but that seems like a poor idea in the long term. Is anyone willing to work with me on one? The design would be pretty simple, with just a front lip on the shelf and two holes for screws. The ends would have to be angled to accommodate the space, but that's about as complicated as I'm looking for. Alternatively, I'll buy a piece of acrylic and use it, but I hate trying to drill through acrylic...I always seem to crack it.

So I am probably waaaaaaay too late for any plumbing advice, but I always put shut off valves just below my bulkheads. I find that this is extremely useful if you ever have a leak, need to make plumbing adjustments, etc. The chances are you'll never turn them, but they provide a valuable option if you ever need to.

If you manage to keep them alive, I definitely want one! I'm so excited and on the edge of my seat to see what happens with these little guys!

I hear you! It's a 30 min drive for me, and I find that tedious at times.

I recommend Reef Escape for LFS option. Dave is adamant about their inverts being separated from the fish so that it minimizes the chances of fish disease transmission. I find that their prices are decent considering the work that they put into the tanks.

So cool!!!!

Oh my heart goes out to his family!!

Hey guys! So I was doing some shopping on Amazon the other day (well, really, every day), and I did some price comparisons on salt mixes. I had IO Reef Crystals on a subscription, but even with the 15% discount, I was still coming out to about $1.77 per gallon. But then I found Red Sea Coral Pro 55-gallon on Amazon for $41.48, which is just $1.33 p/g! So if anyone is looking for salt and can't make it to one of the local stores, this is a great salt at a great price! https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YIYTIC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

I LOVE my SCAquariums tanks. They are really well-built, crystal clear glass, and not very expensive. I would send Steve an email and see if he either has something in your size or can make it for you.

Hey All So I bought a house! Yay! So now it's time to plan the aquarium. We'll be putting the aquarium in the front room, which is directly over a basement storage area. This way I can reinforce the support beams and easily run plumbing, etc. There's a bathroom right there too, so I'll have access to plumbing for RODI, drain, etc. I'll get to have a fish room again! We're planning on doing a built-in surrounding the aquarium with bookshelves. I'm still wavering between a 150g and a 110g. Obviously, I want the 150g, but... We're planning on using unfinished cabinets as the base for the bookshelves. What do you all think about using the same for the tank stand? If I went this route, I would reinforce the cabinet extensively. Basically, the cabinet would just become the "skin" of a durable stand, not the stand itself. On top of the cabinets, we'd use wide planks of wood to help distribute the weight across the entire surface. Going this route helps to make sure that the entire face of the base is consistent. The other option is build a stand, and put the kitchen cabinets on either side, and order separate matching doors for the front of the stand. But it maybe harder to get it exact. We get the keys at the end of January, and need to be out of our places at the end of February...so reinforcing the cabinets vice building and then trying to match the skin would be more time effective. This way I can have the tank set up (even if the bookshelves aren't finished) and move the livestock directly in.

Yeah, I've watched that video and am still struggling. I've got a fuge, which helps. I live in an apartment building, and there's no way to run lines to the outside without doing permanent damage to the apartment. I do leave windows, etc. open when possible, but again, weather, so that's not a long-term solution. I'm using alk supplement that raises pH per BRS. I've tried all the "easy" solutions as I'm not a NOOB, but am struggling regardless (and hence why I'm asking). The pH dropped to 7.6 one night, and several of my corals melted. I woke up and my montis were just dying. Some other SPS later that day. Other corals took weeks to come back to looking normal. So I can't just leave the problem alone. I have tried increasing the surface agitation, and that has seemed to help. It could be that there's not enough air exchange happening, and less that the air in the house has too much CO2. This could be exasperated by the fact that I'm not running a skimmer, and thus am losing the air exchange aspect. It would also explain why I'm having that issue in this tank vice my old tank. I'm also going to try the airstone, but am trying one thing at a time to track success. Thanks all

I'll try the agitation and air stone. Easy enough. I'll try these two. While it's a great suggestion, I don't want to buy a kalk reactor... I have a ton of extra equipment currently sitting in storage and can't justify a new piece. This tank is a short-term tank, and in the long-term, will get upgraded sometime in 2021 when we buy a house, and my sump will have room for the skimmer again (downgraded from a 120g DT/40g S when I moved from Norfolk to DC, so lots of equipment, but too big for the space I've got right now). THANK YOU

The DT surface water gets agitated by the powerhead, but not nearly as much as the skimmer would provide. I am mostly using kalk right now rather than 2 part for just that reason. Still doesn't seem to be enough. Suggestions for gas exchange then?

Good morning everyone I am having trouble keeping my pH up. I've not had this issue before, or at least not to this degree. I'd appreciate any advice. I think part of it is living in a smaller DC apartment vice the larger spaces I previously lived in, plus not having a skimmer. My cat eats live plants (and then pukes them up all over the place...darwinism at its finest), so I haven't added live plants. 66g tank with 20g sump. Klir filter, macroalgae reactor, biomedia. Dosing 2 part, and have kalkwasser in the ATO (a previous suggestion). There is NO skimmer. My rocks are 2+ years old, and I have no nutrient issues. pH will range but does not go above 8.1 and can get below 7.8 at night. I had a drop down to 7.6 a few weeks ago and lost several corals. In order to keep my pH high, I've had to maintain a 10+ dkh, but even that isn't working as well anymore. I'm considering trying CO2 scrubbing media and using an air pump on a timer to pump scrubbed air into the water during the night (since I can't connect it to a skimmer). Any ideas? Thank you!

My new tanks bulkhead has a slow drip. I've loosened it, cleaned the gasket, and retightened. What should I do? Cut the pipe and start with a new bulkhead? Really don't want to do that. I'm really frazzled with this, so any help appreciated. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Good afternoon WAMAS! I recently bought a two Trigger systems ATO containers for my new set-up. One's from the Crystal line and the other the Sapphire line. I recently moved back to the DMV and went from having a fish room to NOT having a fish room (whomp whomp). Which also means I've gone from a 10g brute trashcan as an ATO to a smaller slim 5g Trigger ATO. The second container is actually for new saltwater for my AWC system. Both come with the standard 1/4 tubing holes. The RODI system will not be connected to my Apex (due to spatial issues, so solenoid and breakout boxes are not feasible). The Trigger ATO will be next to my tank. So here's my question...how do I install a float valve on the 1/4 tubing holes??? The BRS RODI float valves I had before require 1/2 holes to install. Do I simply drill the holes larger? Or just use some weird MacGuyver method to get the float valve setup completely on the interior and suspended by using standard RODI tubing through the hole and connected to a John Guest valve above and sitting flush against the top of the reservoir to keep the float valve suspended at the correct height? Something I haven't thought of? HELP please!

So I'm trying to invest more money upfront in my equipment to support long term healthy livestock. To that end, planning what to do in a power outage is always a concern. TBH, I don't think I've lost power for more than 4-6 hours before at my place, but of course, there's always the possibility for something worse. I do live on the coast, so hurricanes are possible, if not probably. I don't have a generator, nor would I want to run one at my place. I've got an automatic air pump that charges via USB and automatically turns on when the power cuts. The airstone is deep in my tank but situated next to the weir to be pretty hidden in general. This should provide critical oxygen to my tank with some, if minimal, flow. I don't think heating the tank will be a problem generally, although in the case of a long-term power outage I would have trouble. So I'm wondering what everyone does for their power outages beside generators? What do you consider critical and why?

Has anyone else watched this video? I absolutely love Dr. St Leger and am a huge fan of Rising Tide. I'll be honest that a big checklist item at MACNA for me was meeting her, so I was so disappointed when the hurricane forced me to cancel my plans. I really like her discussion of ornamental aquaculture here. I'm also really excited for the development of aquacultured wrasses! I feel like there are so many good options now across various species, but still so few wrasses! Also, to all of our local happenstance Bangaai breeders, I took the pledge! Send me your babies! Hahahahahahaha. But seriously, I really appreciate that Dr. St. Leger talks about so many ways to support aquaculture, the various levels at which you can support it, and how aquaculture helps the hobby as a whole. She also says she's happy to send out Rising Tide speakers to the local clubs. Thoughts for future meetings????

Question for you guys. I'm connecting my skimmer cup to drain into a waste water bucket from AWC so that the skimmate gets added to the old saltwater. I've got a Neptune PMUP in the bottom connected to a drainage line. I've also got an optical sensor at the top that tells me when the bucket is full. So here's my question, I want to add a sensor to the bottom (in a PMUP stand awesomely printed by @brobak ) but I'm questioning what kind. I have an optical sensor I can use or a float sensor. My concern with either is that the skimmate will be thicker down at the bottom. Will it obstruct an optical sensor? Or will a float sensor get stuck? Or am I being completely too paranoid?