ErikS

Sorry to hear Bob finally lost his battle...........thanks for letting us know Steve.

If we're doing statistics we'd have toss both of them as outliers Graph that out & any reasonable person would see they're so far out they have to be discounted.

It's not a "problem" - it's simply a quest to become the worlds expert in setting up & taking down tanks (see, it's all about the viewpoint.................being a married man I figured you'd know how to spin this stuff ) Me? Last ten years? One tank. (see Steve, aint' anyone asking about stuff attached to the tank)

Been using it for a decade or so - what do you want to know? Given modern circulation choices I'd recommend against it. I know the "power heads" are ugly line of thinking but they're better than extra holes in your tank.

Maybe a nice lion fish

Welcome my *ss...................let's get the tar, feathers, and pitchforks!

Then you need to update the signature Mr. Outlaw Professional &*^% Disturber Though if we're having a contest I'm throwing my name into the ring

Well if you go to the documents section @ Bulk Reef they'll have a calculator & pretty much everything you'll need to start with 2 part dosing. Calc is here - http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator Videos & instructions are here - http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/ The most confusing part of the whole deal is figuring out which of their kits is the most cost effective. I have all the dosing pumps & containers so I just buy 1 gallon Soda Ash & Calcium Cloride which lasts me 6 months or more.

Well that's kind of where they made their bones = they're fine. They are not however the cheapest game in town. For example you can bake baking soda & get the PH increasing ALK additive, DIY is cheaper. I use them, it's just not that expensive. I get a jug of each & it lasts a long time. 2 cups/gallon for ALK & 2.5 cups/gallon for CA = doesn't take much. 1 gallon = 3,785.411 ml so you can see if you're dosing around 100 or so per day that's 37 days for each gallon batch. It's relatively cheap & effective = why it's popular.

Okay, I gotta ask.......how did you kill an Eheim pump? (that's what I was referring to, not the mod.....hence the bold)

Nope, gotta go with Steve on this one - *sshats. They have in fact done fresh water w/ salt added later. Yeah, they've changed a bit......a small bit. They may use prepared water but they still put WAY too many fish in a tank. There are many who track these jerks - last time I looked they had about 10% of the show tanks still up & running.

Good luck with that

I can pretty much vouch for all of them.........and no matter how careful it seems one is it's likely to happen again, just accept it. 1) Yep, that seems to be a recipe for disaster &/or near disaster. My most common & recent was forgetting to turn the ATO back on after working on it or a related part. Most recent was coming home after work & seeing the return spewing bubbles............#$%^&* that's not good. Lucky for me it's a small pump area & Eheims are tough as nails. 2) Again, yes. Made the mistake of cleaning/replacing/checking everything the day before going on vacation..........turns out one of the newly cleaned parts failed = oops. Now I do it far enough in advance if something goes wrong it's caught early & not when returning after a week. 3) I say this & #1 go together - it's often when something else distracts you that you get in a hurry = not good. What I've learned in countless years? Soup is going to happen.......accept it & try to prevent it the best you can. Also there is no such thing as "foolproof", no matter how many backups something can & will go wrong.

We're going to need more details on this one...........I have an old solenoid lying around & would dearly like to automate the fill. Best I've got in my "idea closet" is to use a timer with a guess as to how long & often to run it (I have a float on the tank, simply use excess waste water)

Or it could have just failed - I've never had one of these last or work correctly for an extended period ot time.

Exactly - only in America would one assume to put our "ethics" on others................of course it's the same country with ads saying "don't feed fido that food with grain etc" - yeah, okay, an animal that eats it's dropping needs only the best - LMAO Yep, what's the diff?

Which can balance out quite nicely for those who use two part dosing.

Here's a video showing how it's done on a Dart, I used these when I attempted to do mine...........mine was a failure as there was no way to remove the impeller. This includes days of soaking & everything Chris (from Reeflo) & I could come up with.............to the point I destroyed the impeller trying to get it off = nothing. Procedure should be about the same. Nothing really tricky about it.

LMAO - yep, as is the case with all these "brand name" corals.

Ugh, don't even get me started on the hackzi-jets, what rubbish. Never owned the Vortechs but I've had Tunzes for years. Had both the new model (6105's) and the old ones.................one failed, once, just under two years. So close to the end of warranty point I had to 2nd day ship it back. Roger fixed it up & I was back in business -> under a week. Yep, they ain't cheap but often in this hobby you get what you pay for.

I can give my opinion on that - yep, it's way different than it was 5 years ago.......way different than it was 10years ago.......some changes are better ,some are worse & some are just different. Pretty much the same as any organization. Overall I'd rate them as significantly better. I don't know any other way to show it than describe my 1st meeting, at the old church (IIRC) in Vienna. This is where we ALWAYS had meetings. I walked in - nobody at the door, folks just milled around (maybe 20) and you had small groups that knew each other talking. There was a refractometer/hydrometer testing...........this happened while everyone milled and talked - if one didn't see it you never knew it happened. I had setup a few frag purchases (the old BBS).........how would I know who the H-E-double hockey sticks I was supposed to meet unless I went around to every single person & asked. I went home & told my wife I doubt I'd ever go back, waste of time, disorganized mess. This was in the early days & it was growing fast, it was just beyond meeting in someone's basement. So yeah, they've come a LONG way. I guess some have NO idea how much they owe to some of our fearless leaders. Well self editing can be a good thing..............as is often said "think before you post" (I try but at times fail ) While that's real nice in theory and it is a good goal.................but way to much discussion & information gets lost when the pendulum swings too far into the "kum-by-ya" realm. There are quite a few people who can't even begin to deal with any form of direct speech. The hot house flowers drag the entire forum down to rubbish. At times discussions get a bit heated - this is just the nature of a good exchange. Now I'm not talking about insulting or calling names, just direct information. Reminds me of a member (former?) who was a mod............what an @ss, couldn't have any type of discussion w/o this yuck a puck dropping a hammer with his "authority". Much better since they've been gone (really I'd say good riddance to bad rubbish). Overall I'd say folks here do a good job with a tough assignment. And yes this fits into the edit of "don't say anything you wouldn't want your family to see"

Kind of the ying & yang of hobbies in general. For whatever reason you get burnt out or tired of all that comes with a hobby = time to step away, hobbies are for enjoyment if that's happening then what's the point? I agree with pretty much everything you said - seems to be the case with all the hobby related forums I'm on................and this one is way milder than most. I do admire (they've posted in this thread) those who have the patience to keep answering questions (like for years) - I can't do it, for one reason I'm not really sure I have any answers (other than don't do this). It's not too late.............could you run for Gov? Better yet are you busy in 2016? Mean? LMAO - yeah, don't ever be direct & offer an opinion. But then you'll hit the lazy (yeah, I said it, tough) factor. Some people (myself among them) will do a google, forum, and then just read before asking a question. I never post on a forum unless I've made a reasonable attempt to see if the topic has already been covered. Many people couldn't be bothered, just throw up a post. On the other hand I'm not a "here let me google that for you" or "search is your friend" type - if it's easy enough I just don't post. On the other hand as usual you're a better man than I - at least you're coming up with ideas

Some say his blood is actually composed of zooxanthellae Some say he can tell the health of a reef tank just by smelling the skimmate Some say he can tell the ph of wate simply by tasting it All we know is........................................................

I'm amazed...........a couple of pages & yet you folks are still going back & forth with a software bot. He doesn't exist.............he's a legend, it's just software keeping the legend alive. Sightings? Just like Elvis, happen all the time.

Same story - sooner or later the solenoid will fail, electronic is the way to go.