JC Pollman

If you are lucky it will come in slow and not much: it gets to be a pain after a while.

My opinion - based on my experience: never trust the controller on a heater. Never! Spend the money to get a Ranco controller - you can get one for $80 plus shipping. Rancos are industrial strength and I have never heard of one failing. I think heaters are the poorest quality piece of equipment we use in our tanks - and the controllers are the worst part of the heaters. In the past two years I have gone through 6 heaters (four different brands - glass and titanium) - and only by sheer luck did I not loose anything significant. Well, actually not quite luck: I have a thermometer mounted on the front side of my tank so I noticed the problems fairly quickly. I also use a grounding probe which was essential during one of the heater problems. The worst problem I had was a heater that was always on, but the d@mn light was off! After getting the Ranco I sleep much easier. O, and getting a spare heater is also essential - though they will stick in the on position sometimes, as you have found out, they can also stick in the off position, so a spare heater, this time of the year, can be a life saver. Did I mention: I hate heaters!

Having tried (I think) all of the different types of skimmers, I am going back to the air stone counter-current type as I think they are the most efficient, both in skimming and electricity. I am in the process of building a 5 foot x 6 inch skimmer right now. As I have a fish room behind the tank, skimmer size is not an issue. I also am going to set up an ozone reactor as well: basically, the water will gravity feed into the ozone reactor and then flow into the skimmer and then into the sump. The ozone reactor will be exactly the same size as the skimmer and will work the same way - counter current. Now, if I can just figure out a way to stop my day job and my kitchen remodeling from interfering with my hobby, I might start making some progress . . .

for a picture of a hardford loop (scroll down to Orlenz's post: Hardford loop pic If you have a tall skimmer, a modification you can use: put another uniseal in the body of the skimmer, put a piece of PVC through the uniseal and connect it to the hardford loop via a T. Cap the PVC on the inside of the skimmer. This will give you some support for the hardford loop. BTW, what type and how big a skimmer are your making?

A hartford loop is just an inverted "U" that will keep the water in the main tube from changing. Use one of the expansion couplers (Lowes and HD sell them from about $4) and you can adjust the height of the loop a bit.

The cheapest place to buy a ph monitor is to buy one from someone who already has one: everyone I know who has bought the monitor, sooner or later, buys a controller. I would strongly recommend getting the controller first - I promise you, you will find a use for the controller part. To my knowledge, the calcium monitor is not intended for constant operation.

Uniseals are very straight forward: cut the hole the size they recommend, the uniseal will easily slide in, and then force in the tube into the uniseal. Usually you need some sort lubricant to get the tube to slide in as it will expand the uniseal to create the outer seal. I have used them and find them excellent - unless you are using ozone. Also, a gate valve is nice, but use a hartford loop as well.

For those of you lucky enough to still have a few Xmas dollars burning a hole in your pocket, check out this fish: http://www.marinecenter.com/fish/angelfish...nesepygmyangel/ Nice dwarf angel, with an even "nicer" price - O, and it is on sale as well :64:

I have gone the same route as you are thinking: SCWD powered by a Mag. From my experience - don't do it. 1. I burned out 4 Mags in less than a year running CLs - 2 Mag 7s and 2 Mag 9.5s. The company was fairly good about replacing them, but expect a month down time until the new one shows up. I have since changed to Eheim 1262s and could not be happier. They run much cooler than the Mags and have given no problems in over a year. Note: they use metric threads, but the 1260 and 1262 have 25mm threads for the input/output, so, with a liberal amount of teflon tape, you can use 3/4 inch PVC connections. I should add: I use a Mag in my sump and it has run 2 years without a hitch. I believe Mag pumps are excellent pumps if you keep them in the water. 2. The SCWDs are nice for smaller tanks, but to make a difference in one your size, go with the ocean motions products. Again, a bit pricier, but both my SCWDs stopped working at the year mark - and I religiously soaked them in vinegar every month. Actually, one of the SCWDs died in the first week of use and the company replaced it with no questions.

I had a similar problem with my softies, though my LPSes were thriving. I did a number of things, and not sure which one worked, but my softies are doing very well right now: 1. Assuming you are using RO/DI water, check your TDS readings. The DI beads will actually leach bad stuff back into the water when they get exhausted. 2. Do several major water changes 3. Clean any foam filters every day 4. Ensure your skimmer is working at max production 5. Reduce feeding to once a day. 6. Blow off your rocks every day Although this seems like a fair amount of work, my softies recovered in less than 2 weeks.

I have never found the Dow Flakes, and I had doubts about what was in the stuff at HD. Instead, I bought the Prestone Driveway Heat at Walmart - it is also listed in that article. It comes in a 9 lbs container and is quite cheap. I have used it for over a year and not had any problems associated with it.

Having fought ich a number of times over the years, and having read every bit of info on the subject I can find, I pass this info on - for what it is worth: 1. There are different strains of ich - including a strain that lives in brackish water. As such, some remedies work on some strains and not on others. Even hyposalinity will not work on the brackish stain. 2. If your fish survives, it develops a certain level of immunity. It is not a perfect immunity as it can get ich again, but it will likely not get it as bad. Also, I do not know how long the immunity build-up is lasts. 3. Ich does not go dormant, but once it is in your tank, it probably remains in it for as long as fish are in the tank. My SWAG (scientific wild a$$ guess) is that the ich continues to infect the fish, but the fish have enough immunity to easily fight it off and not show any indications of ich. It would be interesting to examine the gills of a fish from a tank that had ich a year ago but has not had any infestations since. 4. The magic ingredient in garlic is very unstable. It is released/created when the garlic is crushed and usually lasts less than 20 minutes. So you want to use fresh garlic, crush it and let the juices sink into the food for 5 minutes, and feed immediately. Also, the garlic must be ingested to work. From my personal experience - this is just me and might not have anything to do with anyone else's aquarium or even reality B) I had two cases of ich in fairly short order, and both times the fish responded well to the garlic treatment. Later, my better half decided to surprise me for my birthday and put a new fish in the tank for me to "find". The fish had a particularly virulent strain of ich and 8 of the 12 fish quickly died - even with the garlic. The other 4 fish were so covered in ich that you literally could not tell their regular colors - I gave them less than 24 hours to live. By chance I read on line about someone using ginger to treat ich, and having nothing to loose, mashed up some ginger, soaked the food, and threw it in. In less than 36 hours, my fish were visably 100% clean of the ich and swimming like nothing ever happened. This is the closest thing to a miracle I have had in my life. Although I still have those 4 fish, every fish I have added since, including quarenteening the new ones, have died of ich. I draw 2 point from this: 1. Ich does not leave the tank even though you can not see it. 2. Fish do develop a certain level of immunity to a given strain of ich I am now planning on setting up a q tank for my 4 survivors - even though they are currently quite healthy looking, and letting the tank go fallow for 6 - 8 weeks. Although I am not looking forward to this, I guess it might be a good time to remove the DSB as well :bigcry:

I got mine at Walmart. It is called: Prestone Driveway Heat and comes in a 9.5 lbs container. Look in the auto section. Been using it for a year with no problems. I do not have SPSes, but I use a kalk reactor, so keeping the calcium up is not a problem. I used it initially to raise the calcium, but after that the kalk has pretty much held it steady. I only check calcium about once a month and make adjustments.

I like Salifert test kits, but they can be rather pricey. The cheapest I have found: Aquatic Technology they have the alk kit for $8.29 plus shipping. Note: I have nothing to do with this store except I like their prices on some goods.

I picked up my majestic angle today - I am nothing but pleased: not only is it in great shape with a great price, but it was even eating pellets in the store! This is the best store in the area in my opinion. JC

I had one - got to over 8 inches (with the streamers). I really did not care for him that much. He was a real scardy-cat: even when I came into the room he would hide. On top of that, he would try to bite me when I was doing maintenance: hide -> zip out and try and take a nip -> hide again He never bothered any of the fish in the tank when he was added - including a 3 inch coral beauty - but killed any other fish I tried to add after him. He never bother any of the corals, but he would grab a turbo snail and run around the tank with him every so often. He never hurt the snail - just took him for a ride. I had the niger for a year, and so how my 2 peppermint shrimp survived - but they were in the tank befor him. All in all, I was rather disappointed with him. I had a blue chin for a month before it went carpet surfacing :bigcry: It was an ok fish, but it looked too much like my naso. It also never bother anything.

I bought a powder blue from John 2 weeks ago, and it is doing unbelievably good: not a single spot of ich and it is eating like a pig! I have not seen a store with fish in this good of condition - and prices that match the internet without the shipping. This is my store from now on!

You might want to consider getting the ph controller instead of just the monitor. I bought the monitor at first, but found that I used it to keep track of how much kalkwasser to add. In the end, I bought the controller as well and used it to control a $50 DIY Neilsen reactor. My ph has been rock steady ever since. Unfortunately I wasted $80 on the monitor to begin with. I ended up giving the monitor to a friend who has since also bought a controller. JC

My 2 cents: I have burned up way too many MAGs when run externally - don't do it! And if you do, buy 2 pumps, so when the first one dies, you can replace it immediately and send the other one back to Danner. I really hate waiting 3 weeks for a replacement pump. I have switch all my pumps over to Eheim and Pan World and am very happy. The Eheims, in particular, are really well made: I have a 1050 from 1995 that is still running! I also have redundancy in all my water circulation, so any pump could die and it will not grossly affect the the tank.

I want to put 200 lbs of crushed coral on top of my sand bed. Where can I find that much cheaply - or any other alternatives? Thanks, JC

Been there - done that. Do not use a MAG on a CLS. In one year's time I returned 3 of them. They all eventually get too warm and warp. If you are running a MAG in the water - they are great. In the end, I have switched both my CLSes to Eheims - I could not be happier.

Mags should not be used external - I do not care what Mag says. I have used a Mag 5 internal for many years without a problem so I am not anti-Mag, but I have had a Mag 7 and 2 Mag 9.5s fail on CLS in less than a year. When they get hot the pump's main body starts deforming and they die. One good thing: Mag has always replaced my pumps. I have sinced switched my CLS pumps to Eheim - they run so cool that I can not even tell if they are on by touch - really room temp. Although more expensive, if you shop around you can get pretty good deals: I got a 1262 for $125 plus shipping. Considering I have a 1250 that has been running without fail for 10 years, I would say they are worth it. For what it is worth, Superfish store has the 1260 for $113 - maybe twice the price of the mag, but the security of knowing it is unlikely to break down any time soon is worth it. http://superfishstore.com The only drawback to Eheims is their non-standard connections - I use tubing and clamps to connect to them - which I do not like - but works ok. JC

My 2 cents: I think the biggest problem with buying on line is that we try to minimize the shipping costs - and so we buy way too fish. You do not buy 5 fish all at once from a local store - so do not do the same from an internet store. Also, having tried them all, The Marine Center is the only place I buy from now. With shipping, they are probably as expensive as the local shops, but their quality can not be beat. They are the only ones I know that quarentine their fish in their own facility. http://www.themarinecenter.com/index.htm JC