JC Pollman

There are two places on the net that have sterling reputations: air water ice http://www.airwaterice.com/category/18/ and Buckey: http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/aboutus.asp

I think a monitor is a waste of money. When it comes to ph, there are only two things you want to do: 1. Check it every so often. In which case a full time monitor is overkill. 2. You want to control the ph - either the ph of your tank via kalkwasser, or the ph in your calcium reactor. A monitor will not control anything, and in the end, you will have to buy a controller. So the monitor was a waste of money again. And get the lab grade probe - they last almost twice as long and stay in calibration better.

If you want a really sure fire way to get rid of them - get a raccoon butterfly. Mind, you won't have any corals left, but I guarentee you will not have any aiptasia 24 hours after you put it in :wink:

You can not take it apart. Nothing to clean but the disc. And the air never "touches" anything but the disc.

I bought an Aqua Medic ozone generator about a month ago, and have been quite pleased with it. It is very small in size and weighs next to nothing. The manual says to take it apart once a month and clean it. So, I took off the metal plate that the air hoses hook up to - and was surprized to see that the only thing I could clean was a white plastic disk. After reading the manual again, apparently the disc is the only thing that needs cleaning. This is about as user friendly an object that I have come across in a long time.

An older, but fairly in-depth, discussion on building, and improving, a garf plywood tank is at: Improving the Garf Plywood Tank As for cost, for just the tank: Item Description Purchased from Cost 500 lbs playsand Home Depot $50 2 X 4s for stand Home Depot $24 Screws for stand Home Depot $9

I have never heard of a plywood tank bursting/breaking - at least no one on the net has admitted it. There are several stories about these tanks lasting 20 years.

I should have taken more pics when building it, but here are a few: The jig I built to build the tank - since you build it upside down: here I am painting the epoxy: This is the tank, with glass, on the stand Here the wall is up around the tank: Here is a reasonably current front view: Here is a view from the topside of the back: And here are some of the DIY filters:

If you have the room, an air pump driven counter current skimmer is a very good option - particularly when the air pump is only drawing 60 watts. It is what I am using - and I am very happy with it. For a good run down on how to build one, all sorts of measurements, and full discussion: 5 foot air pump driven skimmer

Anyone is always welcome to stop by and see my tank - basically built following the garf info: 8' x 2' x 19". It has been up for 2 1/2 years. I live in Burke.

The Eheims are made in Germany and have metric threads. Fortunately, the 1260 and 1262 threads are just a tad bit smaller than 3/4 inch. There are some companies online that will sell converters, but the threading is close enough that I would not bother. They also come with barbs if you want to go that route. To get an idea how good Eheims are: Cleaning an Eheim

Been there and done all that. My strong advice: get an Eheim 1262 and an Ocean Motions squirt. Cost is a bit more initially, but I promise you: you will not regret it. Mags don't last, Mags get way to warm, and SCWDs die after about a year. Danner Corp was always very good about replacing their burned up pumps, but do you want to go 3 weeks without a pump? And if you buy a spare, you are up to the cost of a Eheim anyway.

In case you have nothing better to do tonight at 8 pm: WETADT (PBS high definition) has a show: Window to the Sea. Documentary, 2005, a look at aquariums and how they provide links to the undersea world Unfortunately it does not look like it is on the regular PBS stations.

Note: Bluechins have a noted tendency to jump - that is how I lost mine after a year in my tank.

I have had a blue jaw and a niger - both were reef safe. The worst that happened was my 8 inch niger would grab a snail and swim around the tank with it in its mouth until it got bored with it. Neither one ever touched a coral, though my cleaner shrimp never came out during the day. That said, I would not put another trigger in my tanks. Both of mine were rather skittish: if I were the only person in the room with the tank, they would come out and beg for food, but if anyone one else was around, they would hide. Also, although the niger was scarred of my arm in the tank, when I was doing tank mantenance, it would still race out and try and bite me and then race to its hiding hole again. From what I understand, this sort of behavior is typical of triggers as they get older. Also, the niger, at 8 inches, was by far the biggest fish in the tank, but it never bothered any of the other fish (even a 3 inch coral beauty) - but it killed every new fish I tried to add.

I usually take my pumps apart every six months to clean them - and to exercise the ball valves. In particular, I have two Eheim 1262s. Since I cleaned them last January, I figured it was time, and I had nothing else to do today. Even bought a new jug of vinegar for the occasion. Below is a picture of the impeller fresh out of the pump. Notice: no calcium - just the usual slime. And here is what it looks like after running it only under water: A final note: both my Eheims run close loops and are external. Since air is no where near as efficient as water for heat dissipation, you would think the pumps would be just about one block of calcium by now. Also, I measured my calcium just to make sure I was not out of tolerance: 425. Eheims: quiet, low wattage, and very well made. There are times when buying quality is worth every penny.

You want to get rid of aiptasia? Why do it the hard way, get a butterfly (racoons are the best) and your aiptasia will be totally gone in just one night. Mind, some of your coral might disapear as well, but heck, the aiptasia is history and you have a new and unusual fish

Exactly - which is why I would like to do it now through the end of August as I figure the water temp here should be close to the what our tanks are.

Why NSW? First, when I was in Hawaii, all I used was NSW and had very good results. Also, Paul B has been doing it for 35 years - including water and mud right out of the tide pools on Long Island, and he has some substantial creditials: a 100 gallon tank setup for something like over 20 years with only undergravel filters and never a crash or nuisance algae. What I really want are the organizisms in the water for biodiversity. I believe we start out with a less than optimal set of organizisms when we setup our tanks, and over time, we end up with few and few species. I believe this is one (and only one) of the reasons why so many people have nuisance algae out breaks after the cycling period (say, after nine months). So, I guess I am not interested in large volumes of water - probably 10 gallons would be fine - I just want to recharge my real clean-up crew.

Although introducing bad things to my tank is possible, I thing the issue might well fall under the heading of the urban myth. Paul B has been doing this for 35 years and never had problems: http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16547 In any case, no one has suggested a place near northern Virginia to get the water.

I use carbon 24/7 and change it every week because it is part of my ozone system. I buy it from AES - 15 lbs at a time: http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseac...d/4681/cid/1625

If you are looking for Salifert test kits, here is the cheapest I have found: http://www.aquatictech.com/misc.html

I will be on vacation this next week and thought I might take a drive in the area. I figured it would be worth the effort to collect some natural salt water along the way, but I do not know if there are any places nearby (Burke, VA) that would worth my while to collect from. Any suggestions?

for a reference: Mrs. Wages Pickling lime on the net costs $3.85 a lbs plus shipping: http://mrswages.stores.yahoo.net/mrswagpiclim.html

Most butterflies will eat aiptasia. I was actually trying to grow some before I put the butterflies in to help ensure they would eat. Well, I put the fish in, turned off the lights for the day, and the next morning all the aiptasia were gone. My guess is that the raccoon did most of the work, but who knows.