lmeyer

He had a tank build thread that was closed on RC. He was having a feud with Mitch of Inter-American. There were also some questions about him possibly logging in with multiple names to give rave reviews for his tanks. Regardless, it looks like he does good work and he is still an RC sponsor. His website is http://www.aquariumobsessed.com One reason that I am hesitant to go that route, he has a reputation of being late on delivery and I imagine that your legal remedies for issues will be more difficult in working with a Canadian firm. Of course dealing with American firms may be no fun either.

Thanks, guys! I had it right, but wanted a sanity check before I filled the tank. Started filling it this morning and all looks good. Great, I always like to know the correct terminology!

The real question is do you need sealant or is it just screwed in place and kept water tight with pressure? Glass tank if that matters.

What's the big deal, doesn't everyone use that size mix?

While we're at it, how much do you weigh, how old are you, is that your natural hair, what is your salary? I can't answer that question, the boss (wife) might see! Then the answer would be a big fat $0

I have to go with the urchin for removal of coralline, that is just what my rock looks like after one of my urchins has a go at it.

Rebecca, You're right, I was thinking of Inna's tank. I agree that the Lavender Tang is as similar to the Tomini as the Kole is. I do have a Foxface, but not the Siganus doliatus, I have the Siganus Lo. It eats some algae, but is not a voracious eater. Only downside is that he is the dominant fish in the tank. When food goes in the water, the foxface gets first dibs. Anything he misses is available to the rest of the tank. I'm okay with that, he is neat to watch. Be careful if you do wind up using the sugar method. I think it does work short term (from personal experience/anecdotal evidence), but watch the health of your tank while doing it. I just finished dosing sugar for about a month. My overall algae was reduced considerably, but I think it was a little bit like chemo for some of my inhabitants, you are hurting them, just less than the problem algae. My hammer, frogspawn, and candy canes loved it, they thrived with whatever was happening in the water. My fish, favia, favite, and platygyra seemed indifferent. My bubble, and all of my soft corals hated it and were withdrawn the whole time, I was worried that they might not survive the treatment if I continued. Also, my cucumber and shrimp were especially unhappy with it at the beginning and tolerated it later.

I was surprised to see you had a problem with bryopsis given your Tomini Tang. I had a bryopsis problem many years ago, added a Kole Tang and that was the end of the bryopsis. They are so closely related, I would have expected the Tang to deal with your problem. I did find a good thread on RC, http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=167632. Good luck!

You might check w/ Bemmer, she had a barracuda for sale about 3 weeks ago.

I'm in.

You could also check this out (from Steven Pro's Greenhouse thread). http://biz.googlepages.com/pageadimg/imgad...BMgiH-NKwJeCLVw

Southdown has seemingly disappeared from the market. Occasionally a bag or two comes up, but not any consistent supply that I am aware of. Borneman and Calfo are having a discussion about sands on marinedepot (http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic59884-13-1.aspx), but I haven't really been following it. Steven Pro just bought sand for his greenhouse aquaculture system from http://www.aragonitesource.com. He hasn't posted any analysis/opinion of the sand yet. It looks like this is for commercial use, so I think it would only work as a really big group buy (they talk about truck load or ship load on their website).

Could be alleopathy. You've got three very noxious corals in close proximity, collimorphs, gsp, and sinularia are all known to fight dirty. Are you running carbon?

I couldn't agree more. It is so much fun to have my six year old staring into the sump, looking for mini-stars living in the live rock. She is almost as excited about that as she is in the inhabitants of the display.

I've got mine connected to the cold water inlet in my laundry room. I put a Y on the cold water inlet to the washer, feed both the RO and the washing machine.

Gio, Really nice work, the tank looks great. I'm looking forward to seeing it in person. Larry

My two favorites: Turn off the pumps and feed the corals. The frogspawn will generate a mucous net that covers nearly the length of the tank to try and catch any free floating food. Looking in the mouth of my male Banggai Cardinal and seeing baby Cardinals inside waiting for their time to come out. Unfortunately I'm just not set up to try to rear them (yet)!

Never had any first hand experience, but the Kent Marine instruction guide (http://www.kentmarine.com/assets/004/8637.pdf) says "Do not let the membrane freeze" (top of second column on page 2, emphasis theirs)l. Sorry, I suspect the membrane has been compromised. Do you know what the TDS generally is coming out of the membrane at the school? You could always run some water through the system and measure TDS as it comes out of that stage.

I've been told in the past that past 24 inches depth you might want to consider 400s. I'm planning on going with 250s, but I'm planning on having a 30" tank with a 6" sandbed. Don't forget operating costs when you compare the price of the 250s to the 400s. Initial cost is only $36 more, but you'll be paying far more than that over time. If you are running your 175s with a 10 hour photoperiod and paying $.07/KWH, your lights currently cost $7.35 to run per month or $89.43 per year. Increasing to 250s, your running cost will go up to $10.50 per month or $127.75 per year. Increasing to 400s, your running cost will go up to $16.80 per month or $204.40 per year.

I'm going to take a different tack. If you want to go with a small tank, by all means do so. I still have the 20 gallon tank I bought from a co-worker almost 15 years ago. Its in the master bedroom and requires almost no maintenance. I do water changes when I think of it, change the filter media almost as infrequently, and use the standard flourescent bulbs that work with the hood that came with it. Yet that tank is highly successful. The reason . . . very low bioload. I have 3 small fish and thats it. If you are willing to live within the limits of a small tank and stock it wisely, you can have great success. You may want more quickly, however. In addition to the 20, I have a 225 gallon reef and am looking to upgrade to 375. I don't know about LFS in Columbia. There is one in the mall, but it didn't get good press the last time someone mentioned it here. I have no firsthand experience with that store. The closest store I frequent near Columbia is SCALES in Cloverly. Andrew (one of the owners) is both knowledgable and helpful. They have a pretty good selection and give a discount to WAMAS members. There are a number of LFS on the way to Baltimore, but I don't get there enough to give you advice on them. As has been said, read and visit as much as possible. I like the WAMAS site (of course), reef central, and wetwebmedia for on-line info. I like the Tullock book someone else mentioned. I don't keep many fish specific books and I don't know if it is still in print, but I also still like **** Mill's Encyclopedia of Marine Fishes. The book is somewhat out of date, but I always liked the fish compatibility chart it contained, and it gives nice pictures of some of the more commonly found fish for the hobby. Good luck and enjoy!

You might want to keep an eye on http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=970884. Its been inactive for a few weeks, but maybe it will come back up.

First action should be to re-do the test to confirm that level. I might even take some water to someone else and have them do an independent test.

I had the good fortune to see these in person the other day. The pics don't even do them justice. Simply amazing!

Any need for a second chamber on your ca reactor?