gastone

Scott, just like the radiums, the AC are mogul lamps that are spec'd for a M80 ballast. I'm no lighting expert, but I've spoken to guys online who are and they claim that these lamps will have a shortened life if used with an electronic ballast. This is just what I've been told mind you. Then again, Chris T. uses radiums with an electronic ballast and he swears by them (I don't know how often he changes out his lamps). I know of a guy down this way by me that was using the ACs on clam tank. He still had them lamps after like 18 months of use. Again, this was on an HQI ballast. Personally I love the radiums. I doubt I'll use a different lamp after using them, as I can't imagine a lamp producing a better color than them, and though the par numbers may not be as high as some of the 10k lamps, nothing that I've put under them has suffered from light deprivation IMO. G.

Research. I probably have the spectral output somewhere, or you can get it from Sanjay's site. On an HQI ballast the AC put's out the same amount of par as an XM 10k DE lamp does, but the spectral plot is so much nicer, IMO. I would put it up for you, but I'm limited to what I can access here at work and can't get on a hosting site to upload the plot. They are also spec'd for an HQI ballast so you can expect to get from 12-14 months out of them (which is good, cause they ain't cheap). G. Edit: In fact, I was just looking at the plot and the XM has a big spike in the "blah" portion of the plot and the AC has a big spike in the 450nm wavelength. Me likey blue.

Scott, I don't run them, but they are par monsters with a great look. I use radiums at the moment and will continue to do so, but if I was going to do an SPS system with clams I would seriously consider the AC. Garrett.

IME the only eradication procedure is the actual removal of the rock (or piece of the rock) to which the hydroids are attached. If you expoxy over them, they will grow under, around, through the epoxy. If you kalk them, they will scoff at you. Take out the rock and chip off, cut off a good size portion around the hydroids. Tossing it all together is probably the safe bet. Garrett.

I went through a lot of carbon when running ozone. I jerry-rigged up my skimmer cup collection lid to hold about 1-1.25 cups of carbon. I also added a filter sock to the bottom of my skimmer ouput pipe and added more carbon there, as well as to the top of the level adjustment pipe (old ER) skimmer. Lotsa carbon. Instead of using silica dessicant, try this stuff: http://www.drierite.com/default.cfm?gclid=...CFQgRFQodEEGT3g Garrett.

Yes. Not only possible, but they can thrive under pc lighting. G.

Anthelia, kenya tree, capnella, etc.... I refuse to add this to my tank/system and I refuse to pass them around to newcomers. In fact, I recommend that newcomers don't add these things to their tanks. Much like caulerpa, aptasia, bubble algae, these corals are a bane to me. Once established, they are almost impossible to eradicate and control. I have seen beautiful tanks overtaken by 2-300 + frags of these corals, each one growing into a mother colony that will drop more buds. I know newcomers are excited by the fact that they are getting free corals (as many people give these things away), but I would strongly advise against accepting them. The novelty will of the free brown coral will wear off. You'll want to add "prettier" more colorful corals in short order, but you'll have this plague in your tank. Garrett.

I do an iodine dip using providone iodine from CVS on all zoas that I add to my tanks. It will take care of nudis no problem. I do like to do a freshwater dip after the iodine bath just to remove as much as the residual iodine as possible. Someone gave my a ton of zoa frags once (with a few nudis as well that I was totally aware of). I did the iodine bath, but didn't rinse in a separate bath afterwards. The residual iodine caused havok in my tank with the LPS. The nudis however were taken care of. G.

Is your fixture for SE or DE lamps? I'm assuming SE in which case a shield *shouldn't* be needed. It could be faulty lamps (once maybe, but twice in so short of time I doubt), or a shoddy ballast. What ballasts are you using and where are resting (build in to the hood, under the stand, inside a bucket of topoff water - that's not good by the way)? Garrett. Edit: after reading back, I'm not even sure what hood you are talking about. Are these hallide lamps, T5 lamps, incandescent lamps???

Neal, you want to let the kalk settle once the water has been saturated. Don't use the crispy stuff off the top, nor the cruddy stuff off the bottom. It's easy to avoid adding either. Just keep your feed line off the of the bottom of the resevoir by an inch or so. (I'm making that number up btw). So if your resevoir is 14" deep, extend the feed line 13" down from the top. That way the crud on the bottom won't get sucked up. As far as the two-part, you can't mix them together in the same container. If ya did, it'd be one part and we'd all be doing it. But it's two-part, so no go. If you need more clarification go here and look around. This guy know's his stuff and can tell you all the stuff you need to know. Otherwise contact Chip (Flowerseller) who disagrees with the good Dr. and can back up his own reasoning with a beautiful tank that grows corals so well he has to break down his tank on occassion and give stuff away. G.

I do... I think. I haven't looked at it in quite some time, but I remember looking at the wiring diagram off the ballast when I got it and going, "what in the name of God is that????" I've wired my share of standard magnetic hallide ballasts, icecap 660s, workhorse, aro and the like, but this thing really confused my simple mind. That was right around a year ago (mas o menos) and to date I've had no problems with it firing. Ergo I'm assuming I got it right (or close enough). G.

Tom, never thought about using a siphon break on the output as you describe. That's why I'm glad I'm a member of WAMAS, all you smart guys make my life easier. The aquamedic is a peristaltic, but it has design flaws and doesn't work very well, which causes the back siphoning at times... If I ever got another I'd go with the litermeter or a medical grade dosing pump. G.

I use a dosing pump that I wouldn't recommend (the aquamedic triple doser). The problem that I've encountered is back-siphoning. Two solutions (neither of which is ideal) are to use a check valve (guaranteed to fail at some point) and to keep the feed line from actually entering the body of water you are intending to fill (again, guaranteed to back siphon at some point). Of course keeping it out of the water means you are going to have to deal with kalk buildup/precipitate which could clog the line. I'm sure you can negate this buy buying a good peristalitic pump (unlike me), finding a good check valve (good luck with that one), and/or doing regular maintenance to make sure that the supply long doesn't get clogged. G.

It's too easy to say that you've never seen problems therefore they don't exist. We should treat against that which we don't see as well as that which we do. For the sake of argument let's say you purchase a juvenile clown. Don't quarantine, just throw it into the system. The fish doesn't show any obvious outward/behavioral signs of disease, yet dies 2 years later (from an unattributed cause). Do we just write it off as fish dying just because "they do that" or can we assume there was an underlying cause? Clowns should live quite some time... 10+ years. Scott could probably lay out a comprehensive quarantine procedure for us, and correct all of my erroneous errors. In addition to a 6 week visit to quarantine (for all applicable fish), I have Prazipro for external flukes, and Anti-Parasite (a Jungle product containing praziquantel) for internal parasites, metronidazole, and the ever popular (and no longer easy to find it seems) levamisole. Of course you can treat specific ailments or species specific diseases as needed. In the past I've had fish perish for both obvious reasons, and un-obvious reasons. In the future I hope to just keep it to obvious (and preferably old age). Garrett.

Neal, I run my kalk through a "Chippenstein" kalk reactor. Even utilizing a dosing pump I've encountered kalk mishaps. There are people who add kalk directly through their top off and swear by it. I've done that also when my reactor pump has frozen and didn't suffer any ill effects (again, my top off is via doser). What is your evap like, or what do you figure it to be like. My suggestion would be to adjust your top off resevoir to hold enough to replenish 3 days or so of top off. That way if there is a malfunction (there will be at some point), you will only dump in a few gallons of saturated kalk, as opposed to having a thirty gallon resevoir on a 30 gallon tank. I don't know which link Cliff sent you, I figure it's probably Dr. Randy (knowing Cliff propensity to read good material). He adds his kalk directly to his top off. Good stuff, good read. Garrett.

Just using a general idea of flow rates coming out of UVs I would say that it would be too much. You could always T off of the output, put on another ball valve and use that to feed the reactor though. G.

Depends what kind of media you are using, and what you are intending it to do. Generally it is recommended that phosphate remover utilize a slower flow rate than carbon. I piggy back mine so as to use just one pump. I find that a maxijet dialed down more than suffices to "tumble" the phosphate remover. G.

It's a pretty simple concept. I've never DIY'ed a media reactor, but I can't imagine it would be a big deal. I utilize a few of the phosban reactors as for the price they can't be beat. There are larger ones available and I'm sure you could either construct one cheaply or for a nominal price have a nicer job done by one of the local fabricators. Garrett.

That's 2. G.

Jon and Maureen, Sorry that I've missed this as I've been incognito for quite some time. Beautiful tank and terrific aquascaping. Let me know when I can come by and check it out in person. Garrett.

Let's ask Rik how he ships frags. He does it quite frequently and I'm sure could offer his considerable knowledge. G.

Marine Depot and Premium Aquatics are my online favs for dry goods. The nice thing about PA is that they are located in Indiana and shipping is quite quick... usually just 2 days, 3 max. G. Edit: I've never had a negative shopping experience with either. To boot, ReefGeek is awesome and has expanded their inventory. Greg is extremely knowledgeable and friendly to deal with.

There are a few of us down this way. Depending upon what kind of help you need might dictate which of us to talk to. (Or which of us to avoid talking to as the case may be). Garrett.

Is kalk out of the picture for adding to your top-off? Will help to maintain levels for a few days if you aren't already using it. Garrett.

Kristen, did you know Brad Whitney (Nvert on RC) from your Tech days? Garrett.