Aquariareview

We would love to have you be a member. The meetings are great and the cost is small. At the last meeting I brought home frags that would have cost 10 times the cost of my membership. I apoligize but the rules of the membership is what I have to follow (I don't make em I just follow them).

You are a BB member but not a WAMAS member Go to the Join Us button at the top of the page fill out the form and check the Student member button. As soon as that is done we will switch you on the system and you will see a lot more forums and you will get a logon for the gallery

This forum is not for trading or selling . There is a forum in the members only area that is the only area where that is allowed

This forum is not for trading or selling . There is a forum in the members only area that is the only area where that is allowed

Great article.. Along with being a good tank food it also adds a nice taste to sushi.

I spoke to him yesterday and so... Stand design is changing. I am now running 3 small steel i-beams under the tank. They will form a triangle resting on the three center columns. will post plans as soon as they are done. I am trying to have this on the stand by mid Nov. Grav, I have owned 3, 240 gal tanks and as soon as I saw it I knew it was a lot larger than those. I made inside measurments and ran it thru the Reef Central Tank Volume Calculator (see first post) I was going to put the tank in a school but it too large, so i am moving my setup into this tank then putting my old tank in the school. I will Keep everybody updated but I am pretty low tech nature based in my system design. Stay Tuned

There is so many schools of thought on this but a couple of things are for sure. The stuff on the live rock need some light. The wrong things (algae) will grow if the right spectrum is not present. You dont need a lot of light just the right light. Since I don't know how large the system will be I can't tell you which system to use, but I can recommend an concept. If the system is large, go with 10,000k NO bulbs, Mix them with Actinics and you will see a better color in both your fish and your rock. standard tubes. You can buy the new Allglass... triple tube strip The unit has electronic ballasts and polished aluminum reflectors and comes in 36 in a & 48 in Lengths

My main tank is a my new 360gal but I have a JBJ Nano in my office. They are a great little tank. Here is my system

If you want your Zo's to grow feed them every day. I feed mine a mixture of: Sprung's Zoplan Marc Wies ComboVital Boyds Vita Diet DT's Phyto Plankton Garlic Oil I direct feed the mix with a turkey baster right into the Zo's

Welcome to the group I im the webmaster for the group and I think I can help you I am in Dale City and have a lot of very live sand. If you can get a ride I can give you some to jumpstart your system. Call me to set up a time 703 926 4147

More soon

Here is the log I am going to post for the new setup. I will keep posting new photos and information to the same post so you can see it all in one place. Some one wanted to give away a 240 gal Glass Cages with a leak. I took a few friends to get the tank and when we got there I knew this was not a 240. Less than 30min (and a few injuries) we had it in a truck. After I got it in the house I measured and i was right Using the following input parameters Tank Length = 98 inches Tank Width = 32 inches Tank Height = 26 inches Tank volume is calculated as Tank Volume = 353 Gallons I found the leak and fixed it Next step the stand Since I dont know how long I will live here and any stand I build for this monstor wont go through a door. Here is the plan Due to the weight of this thing I need to be real solid so I am going to build a stand out of Cinder Blocks. 4 blocks high and layed out as shown below. I will top it with 3 layers of 3/4 plywood laminated together with liquid nails. Cut out for the overflow The sump is a 75 gal tank with plexi baffles as shown Plumbing is simple, since I have made the decision to use Tunze Streams for water movment. I am looking for a pump for the return. I have not made a decision on what I need yet. I am aquiring parts for the next few days. but I will post as soon as I start setting up..

The tank I got is pretty good. I already fixed the leak and it was just a small piece of silicone that had been pulled out of the seam. The tank is a lot bigger than I expected. I knew as soon as I saw it... it's not a 240. I was going to put it in a school but it was too large, so I'm going set it up and put my old 180 in the school. Here is the size Tank Length = 99 inches Tank Width = 32 inches Tank Height = 26 inches Tank volume is calculated as Tank Volume = 353 Gallons

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Water chemistry for those of us who flunked high school chemistry Ok, You have some algae and some kind of red or brown junk growing everywhere. What now? If you are new to reef keeping and you think you think your tank is growing stuff you don’t understand. Maybe you did a water change and the growth got worse. What now?…There is hope. You need to manage your water chemistry. I promise that I won't throw anything from the periodic table at you, so this is not going be as hard as you might think. We are going to talk about how to keep the bad stuff that makes bad stuff grow, out of your water. All of the bad stuff (Algea and Cyno) grows on fertilizers in the water. The major fertilizers are phosphates, ammonia and nitrate/nitrite. So we need to keep them out and get rid of the ones that are there already. First where does your water come from? If you are using unfiltered tap water you are playing a suicide game with your tank. Every day the water company makes changes to the system to adjust the chemistry of the system and they use stuff that will kill your system. Buy A filter! RO/DI OR TAP FILTER …The problem with tap filter is the capacity of the filter and the cost of replacing it. A tap water filter will only produce 50-100 gallons of water before it is finished. An RO/DI will make 2000-3000 gallons before you need to replace the DI cartridge. The cost of the replacement cartridge is about the same. In a very short time the extra up front cost of the RO/DI is met. A good filter takes out metals and phosphates. Next what do you feed your tank Most new reefers feed too much or the wrong kind of food to there system. If the food contains high levels of pollution in its composition, they will end up in your water. Probably as phosphates. if there is a lot of filler in it that will go right through your fish and end up in your water. Even if it is all eaten. Buy good food I have tried a lot of commercial food and have only found a few worth feeding to my systems. Boyds Vita-Diet: Boyds is the company that makes Chemi-Pure and they have sold millions of packs of that product over the years. Vita-Diet an aquaculture fish foods infused with their vita-chem formula (made from real marine & fresh water organisms). I checked around and a lot of fish breeders use the Vita-Chem product, and most had good things to say. This is a commercial food that is worth feeding to the critters. http://www.boydenterprisesonline.com/pages/1/index.htm Freezerbar Cyclopeze: This is a micro-crustacean that adds a lot of food value and low levels of pollution to the system. It is High in Protein, High in HUFA’s, Easily assimilable High levels of color enhancing Astaxanthin. It also remains in suspension long enough for all filter feeders in the tank to get some. http://www.freezerbar.com/ Two Little Fishies ZOPLAN: This is a dried plankton food that is a real low pollution and great for feeding small zo’s and polyps. http://www.twolittlefishies.com/ Shut off your pumps and target feed all of your critters. This keeps all of your waste levels low. Another option is to make your own food. I have a great recipe on my site. Clean your system: Vacuum the tank: Every time you change water. But you can vacuum without a water change. Just get some 3/8" flex tubing....or whatever size you want and put a fine mesh bag or a nylon on the end of it and rubber band/tie it on. Then stick the end w/ the bag into your sump. Start the siphon as mentioned below and vacuum away! The bag will filter all deitritus /flatworms/ valonia/ cyno whatever and let the water pass right thru. Scrub the system: Take a dog toothbrush and scrub the rock while you vacuum. Clean your skimmer, your sump anywhere there is dirt. Clean your system at least once a month Clean your water: This is the easiest part of the program. Clean out the skimmer so it can work right. Mix 2 tablespoon’s of white vinegar with hot RO water and let the air intake of your skimmer suck it in. This will clean any salt creep in the venturie..Clean the collection cup and the inside of the skimmer. Check your carbon. Get a phosphate test kit. Test a small sample of fresh water. Put 10 grains of the carbon in a small sample of water. Test that water. If the second sample has a higher phosphate level get a different carbon product. Switch to a better media. I recommend using Boyds Chemi-Pure and Polyfilter. • 1 pac of Chemi-Pure for every 40 gal of water. • 1 Poly-filter for every 30 gal of water. Place them in the water path Change the Chemi-Pure every 60 days and the poly-filter when it gets dark. Also if you have a sponge in your overflow, take it out. Nitrates will grow in it. Put it in during water changes or cleaning to catch junk that gets blown around. Take it out as soon as the water settles. Add some macro algae: If you don’t have a refugium, add one. Macro grows on phosphates, metals, ammonia and nitrite. As you harvest the old growth of macro algae out off the system, you are removing those chemicals from the system. If your system is small get a hang on system. If it’s a large system you should have one in the sump. Do some water changes: If you have not been using a RO/DI, do small water changes (10%) every 5 days for a month, then do 10% every other weekend. The constant water changes will reduce the levels of nutrients in the system. The every other week changes will help keep them low. To recap 1. Put good water in. 2. Don’t feed with junk food 3. Don’t feed too much 4. Clean your system at least once a month 5. Switch to a better filter media. 6. Add a refugium, and some macro algae: 7. Get a good water change schedule going. If you follow this kind of schedule you will see most of your problems go away. The green, red and brown algae will die off as you deplete the nutrients it needs to grow. Also your coral and fish will get better looking as the water chemistry gets better and the pollution levels drop.

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3x 250Watts MH on main tank 1X 55pc watt on sump 1x 55pc watt on amazon tank 1 32watt on soft nano tank in office 892 watts total

Was me place was Roozens They have them often and their turnover is so high that you can almost always get them within a few days. another source is Dr Mac He is a local and one of the best sources in the country for quality livestock

dr fosters smith they have it for 49.00

You guy know I review products on my site and once in a while i find a real cool toy and share it on the forum. Aquatic Research and Development - Spectra pro mini IceCap's - LED Mini Moonlight 1 watt 455nm Blue LED Self contained fixture with lens Mimics nocturnal reef lighting conditions Shimmering moonlight effect Promotes lunar spawning cycles Mountable with included brackets Measures 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 7/8" high This moonlight is built by Aquatic Research and Development and sold by IceCap and ARAD. Selling for around $65 I didn’t expect much. The device was a small square pendent with a bent reflector in it and an AC adaptor type plug. It came with a mounting bracket to mount it to the hood. I mounted it over the center of a 180 gal tank in my den. I plugged it in and stood back and waited for the halides to go off. The first thing I saw was the coral in center of the tank looked different. The halides were still on and the moonlight was causing the coral glow. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. How could a single LED even be visible in a field of halides? Then the timer cut the MH system. WoW!!! I could not believe my eyes. I was looking at about a 28 inch wide section of the tank that was on fire with fluorescent blue light. It glowed like a dance club under a 60’s era black light. Mounted 6 inch off of the surface it was covering the center 40% of a six ft tank. There was a world of reef life that we just miss in a tank. The night life. My sun coral opened up, pods came out, all of the peppermint shrimp I thought died a few years ago came out (I counted more shrimp than I remember having). All of the night life in the tank was out to party and it was stuff you don’t see during the day. I have looked at a lot of moonlights and have never been blown away enough to go out and buy a system. Most look like a blue low intensity bulb and do not cause the coral to open like this little guy does. I have made the following change to my system. Changed the timer to cause the MH system to come on earlier and shut off at 8PM instead of 9PM I run the moonlight 24/7 it adds a little fire to the bright colors during and brings out the best in the tank at night. This is the best lighting gadget I have found. My tank loves it, my coral loves it, I love it. All of my tanks will have it soon.

Here is a page that I put on the site with some great trade show photos that I got from an attendee from Maine (Ewan, real name Rob on RC. [nana]Macna Photos

Steve, Glen, Craig and Myself are at MACNA IN BOSTON... We have been talking to all of the vendors that are in the trade show and we are going to have most if not all of them at the DC Macna.... We have even had groups that are here but not showing want to be in DC.. Being here brings us to a new level of excitment about next year ... more news soon...