stevil

I changed the filters on my 6 stage RO/DI unit yesterday - and now it is leaking. It is actually just the very last stage, the "taste filter" that is leaking. Somehow the filter cracked just a little tiny bit and now I can't get a tight seal on the screw-in nozzle thing. I used GOOP silicone to seal it up, but that didn't work like I thought - now there is just a pinhole leak that is squirting water out. Any ideas on how I can fix this?

Yes, it is very normal and common to put your heater in your sump and in one of the back chambers of your aquapod. In addition to my 90 gallon, I also have an aquapod, and that's where my heater is. You should be turning over 5-10 times the amount of water in your display tank through your sump every hour. The water will get heated just the same in your sump or in the display tank. You're asking great questions! Don't stop - seriously - you're asking intelligent questions. If nothing else, you're helping out 10 more folks who are too shy (or too stupid) to ask! Go buy the Concientous Marine Aquarium by Robert Fenner. Great book and is probably your missing 'owners manual' for your tanks.

Sure enough, that is the glue that I have. I'm not in the mood to experiment on myself tonight, but I think I will be avoiding that glue for the forseeable future. By the way, I don't have shellfish allergies, and my seasonal pollen/grass allergies have never bothered me since I've been in Virginia (4.5 years now)... I think whenever I have any kind of allergic reaction it takes me back to the years I spent in minnesota where I had terrible spring/fall allergies, with little to no relief (I've tried everything...).

John - thanks that's really good insight. I did get some new superglue that morning and was using it. I'm not sure what it is made of but I'll check when I get home. What I'm most afraid of is if the allergy would be like what you describe, like a shellfish or bee allergy - the more you are exposed, the worse it gets! To my knowledge, I'm not allergic to shellfish, but when I did a quick google search on "coral + allergy" - the top hits were about people who had shellfish allergies and they were advised to stay away from coral-based calcium supplements as a result... it made me a bit paranoid. Out of curiousity, I'm wondering if there are any people that have known shellfish allergies and if they are concerned about their tank inhabitants in any way?

I had a pair of Firefish - Sid and Nancy... well, Nancy committed suicide (should have seen that one coming...) and now Sid is out and about. Before they used to hide in a hole together and only come out to eat.

I did a bit of research, google search and reefcentral, and of course, found some conflicting info. One person said that it only worked with a pressurized storage tank, another said it didn't link. A good diagram showing how it is installed here. Purely from that diagram I'd say you could use it without a storage tank. The vendor on CMAS also is claiming that you can use it without a storage tank. Some people are recommending booster pumps over a permeate pump. The idea being that increased pressure on your RO membrane will cause it to be more effecient. From what I can find the permeate pump reduces the BACKpressure on your membrane, causing it to be more efficient. The nice thing about the permeate pump is that it requires no electricity (unlike a booster pump). I've also read that you might get an increase in your TDS, especially if you are pulling out small amounts of water at a time. My guess is you'd have higher TDS if you were using this as part of your auto-topoff system. [quote name='from airwaterince.com via reef central' Permeate Pump: What if you want to save water AND improve performance? Then you want a Permeate Pump. The permeate pump increases the pressure of the water stored in the pressure tank. It also reduces the backpressure caused by the storage tank. With little or no back pressure, the membrane becomes very efficient. In fact, you can save up to 80% of the waste caused by a normal system. Better water, more water, and far less waste.

If you don't have one of these books, I highly recommend getting at least one. "The New Marine Aquarium, A step-by step setup and stocking guide". It's an easy read and pretty short. "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner. I still use this over a year later. The first one walks you through setting up all your equipment and provides great checklists for different types of tanks. The second one does the same (but to somewhat less detail on the setup), however is an awesome resource for the continued maintenance and stocking of your tank. I would then follow it up with the "Natural Reef Aquarium, Vol 1" by Anthony Calfo and Robert Fenner. I just got that book and wish I would have had it a year ago. It's definitely more technical with regards to live rock, filtration, refugiums, plumbing etc but also is very in-depth with regards to marine invertebrates. If you've already got a tank running, I think it would be very good to read as you embark upon designing, acquiring and setting up your next tank.

Yesterday I had a mysterious allergic reaction, very hayfever like - sneezing, watery eyes, wheezing, that escalated as the day progressed. I started my day with a pick-up of a new coral from BRK, acclimated it and then glued a couple of existing coral frags to some rubble. I didn't really get coral slime on me, but did have my hands in my tank on and off for about 30-60 minutes. My day got progressivly worse - a respiratory allergic reaction (not hives or welts or rashes or any burning itch sensation) - watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, headache etc... Has anyone else experienced this? They might not have anything to do with each other, but I can't figure out what else it was that I was exposed to that was any different than any other day...

Group discounts available too: One costs 69.99 Buy 2 or more and save $8.00 on each item. Buy 3 or more and save $10.00 on each item. Buy 6 or more and save $12.00 on each item.

I don't know if cutting them will have a positive or negative effect. I have good luck just injecting them with white vinegar or cider vinegar. Get some needles & syringes from your drugstore and go to town. Tell them it is for veterinary purposes if the pharmacist asks. I think you'll have trouble cutting the heads off since they retract very quickly when approached. That's why I think the needle works so well. There are times when I don't even inject them, just squirt vinegar around them and they seem to shrivel and die. I have never been able to 100% eradiacate my aptaisa, but have kept in check for over a year and have never had more than 2 or 3 dime sized stalks at the most.

That's right.

http://bhphotovideo.com. They have an excellent used department.

Coralline should grow with your parameters as-is. Do you have any rocks with coralline on them? It takes coralline to make coralline... If it doesn't exist in your system, it won't grow. It may also be growing slowly for now. eventually, when it takes over your tank you may end up cursing it for how often you need to keep your class clean :wink: .

If you serious about an SLR, you will, in my opinion, soon realize that your camera is an accessory to your lenses. I've invested over $3500 in lenses for my Canon setup and only about $800 for the camera bodies I've had (10D, Original Rebel, Rebel XT). I was able to do this by trading up on my camera bodies at the right time - found good deals, and was still able to sell the camera body for a little under what I paid originally through ebay. I decided to go with a Canon SLR setup primarily due to the overall quality and rating of Canon glass (which, in my opinion is of slightly better quality than Nikon) but the flexibility and range of 3rd party lenses was also a factor. At the time, I was also considering a Caonon digital video camera that could also use the Canon SLR lenses which ultimately made my decision. Although at this point I think all the 3rd party manufacturers make lenses for both the major brands (Tamron, Sigma, Tokina), but their quality is still dubios (although Sigma isn't that bad). If you aren't going to invest in performance lenses, then seriously, just get a point and shoot with non-interchangeable lens. If you have nothing invested, flip a coin and buy a Nikon or a Canon setup. Your eye will ultimately determine if you are a good photographer, not your equipment...

I'm curious too... If you do decide to buy - let me know I would likely also want one. That is a good price and I need one. Maybe we could get a discount on shipping or something if we buy 2?

I do something similar to dhoch, but I have a 90 gallon with a 20 gallon sump and I change 5 gallons a week. I just have 5 gallons in a old salt-bucket constantly being stirred by a small pump, I don't bother to heat the water, but it does get warmer than room-temp because of the pump. I put a T in my return line and have a rubber hose going off of that with a valve I can turn on and off. When I need to do a water change, I just stick that hose in a 5 gal bucket and turn it on. The water takes the path of least resistance and goes out the hose instead of back up into my tank. Because I have a corner over-flow system, about 5 gallons will drain down into the sump, so my pump never runs dry. Once the 5 gal is filled with old water, I just pump the 5 gallons of new water back into the system and mix up a new batch. This whole process takes me less than 10 minutes.

My hammerhead coral fell and landed on my blue tort and horrida, it was probably there for at least 24 hours. I've pulled it off and away from the corals. I'm pretty sure the horrida is totally dead as it's bleached nearly completely now. My blue tort has some bleached tips, but is still 90% there. Should I do anything to ensure its safety? Cut off the bleached tips? Frag a healthy chunk and jus thope for the best? or just leave it alone?

Do you have a sump? Does your tank have an overflow that goes to it? You might be getting bubbles from that. You could put some live rock rubble in your sump which would help catch the bubbles before they are returned to your main display tank. Or are there just bubbles in your tank (on the glass and such)? If so, I'd suspect they'd dissapate soon.

That's a good rule of thumb as well. You might be able to add some soft corals sooner, but again patience is KEY to success. The 6th month rule is good to follow because it allows your tank to mature a bit, plus it gives you time to learn how all the various parameters work. Personally I waited 1 year before I got into hard corals.

I was just reading about this in Vol 1 of the Natural Reef Aquarium series... Calfo/Fenner suggest using liquid bandage to cover the area that you were stung in and then peeling it off. That will get out the bristles. Duct-tape might work to

Did you acclimate it? How? What kind of lights do you have? How far away is it from the lights?

I set up my tank with rock and sand from two established tanks. I never saw a spike, but I waited 6 weeks just to be 100% sure. Patience is key - I'm a totally impatient person, but this hobby has forced me into being patient, and I don't think I'd have been successful had I not been. One of the things I found extremely cool was just observing my tank with rock & sand in it for all the life that actually came out of the rockwork - worms, featherdusters, coral, coralline, copepods, ampipods - while I was waiting for the spikes that never ocurred.

Make a wishlist of what you'd ultimately love to have. Fish, inverts & corals... do some research... if your list is HUGE then think about the types of fish, inverts and corals you'd like to have - that might help you weed out the totally incompatable species - e.g. Puffers and clams and that sexy shrimp you've always wanted... Generally, you'll want to add smaller fish first and larger fish last. However, that's just a general rule of thumb... Do you want a full reef (corals) or fish only with live rock (FOWLR)?

I think the important things are gallons per day (GPD), reservior (and capacity of the reservoir), the rejection rate of the RO membrane (which is generally inversely proportionate to the GPD and water pressure required), consideration as to if you have enough household pressure to support a higher GPD with higher rejection rate (higher rejection rate = 'purer' water) and therefore a 'booster' pump. How big is your tank? I have a 100 GPD unit (but it definitely does not produce that much, mostly due to my water pressure I think), and it is adequate for my maintenence fills and water changes on my 90 gallon tank (100 gallons total system volume). I don't believe you lose quite that much water, but it all depeneds on the efficiency of the RO membrane. The 3 variables are Rejection Rate, Gallons Per Day, Water Pressure required that determine how much you get and how much waste water there is. Personally, I believe it's all about the membrane - regardless of the manufacturer of the overall unit. I believe there are only 2 real producers of membranes anyway and they are just re-branded. Obviously there are quality differences with regards to longevity of the unit (leaks etc....) but the membrane really determines what comes out. You may or may not need a plumber. Needle valves are the typical way to install them and they are very easy to do (you just attach the valve to your incoming water by twisting a screw).

Once bacteria begins to grow that will also help minimize the cloudyness. You will experience a "sandstorm" effect as you work on your tank in the meantime.