Aquariareview

Looks good tony

The main reason we don't have a high end shop here is the high cost of doing business in this area. we live in an area that has one of the highest sq ft cost for business and retail of the country. we also have some of the most business unfriendly local govs. in the nation. The return on this kind of business is a margin that doea not work in this enviorment. If I were opening a retail fish & coral store I would go to tx, fl, ga, any state with morebusiness friendly regs. Friends of mine with a small chain of pet stores (8) in central Fl, looked at going all up the east coast. As they did a profitibility study on 12 stores in NY, MD, NJ, VA, PA, they found that the cost of doing business was so high that if they did the business that they thought they could do out of each store the net profit on all 12 stores was less than any three of their stores in FL. They opened 4 stores in FL instead of the 12 up here. Any place that the gov. over regs business, narrow margin business's are destined to fail. I work in the automotive business and this area has almost regulated it out business. I dont understand how any small business can really profit here. ps. What do you feed the rubber coral and what kind of light do they need

I started switching about 3 months ago now I am up to 10% changes with no problems. My inverts seem to be doing well

What kind of filter do you want to build chem mech bio I have made a charcoal filter from a salt bucket before but it was hard to maintain

I have friends in FL who are running a 90 with 2 ice cap 660 and 8 54watt t5's with ind. reflectors. (4 act-4 8800k) Besides a lot of softies, the tank has green slimers and 2 maxima clams and purple edge monti and a large galaxy. To my eye it looks great. he has had growth and he has the best color I have seen in a while. the system has been going for 16 months. He had 6 110watts vho bulbs before and when he switched he had to raise the hood 5in because it was too bright. He has since lowered it to about half of that. they now sit about 41/2 inch off the water. They are the real deal. the Germans have been using them a lot and many of them think they are better than MH if the tank is less than 20 in deep. Biggest cost is bulb replacment. About $30 per every 10-12 month. but some of the german mannfactures are making bulbs with a longer life but they cost a lot more.

Very Nice I want a piece of the sarc if you have a spare

We Will keep growing as members send us links :D

I have done this (before I went to large refugia) and it is pretty easy. get some marine goop 1:drill hole in side at top of unit for input 2:drill hole in side at bottom of unit for output 3:seal bottom to a flat plate of plastic with goop this gives you a stand. 4:glue the hose barbs into the side holes, use a lot of the goop. 5: put a quick release union fitting on the top 6:fill a bag with media and drop it in the top 7: drive a small power head from your sump into the unit and drain back into sump. Flow should not be to fast or it all comes apart and the media needs time in contact with the water. If you have the space for lots of macro you wont need this unit at all. I had a version of this and I have not used it for 2 years. lots of macro makes your system a lot more forgiving and pulls all of the nutrition from the water that gives you problems.

I will go fix the F@%$^&* thing Its done, post the word H-E-L-L for a laugh.

THERE IS ANOTHER OPTION Large amounts of macro will also uptake a lot of phosphate. Ferric hydroxide is routinely used in public water filtration application, particularly for asenic removal. There are a lot of published literatures on it, Phosphate removal is its other use. Giving it a name (Rowaphos,phosban or whatever), and putting it in a nice package, put a 20X markup on it, does not give any economical reason for buying it. We may want to check scientific supply or filtration supply for ferric hydroxide in bulk. Maybe a group purchase? im almost out.

Need a little more info 1: what kind of skimmer and/or filter do you have on the system. 2: how deep is the sand bed 3: Is the water returning from the filter fairly clean of bubbles

you should get an email with the password then you can go in and change it to whatever you want

they may not be far from that ## I have been there when they were 20 customers deep at the check out and when you had to stand in line to get help in the back

I have a lot of coral from roozens and I have only had 1 piece die. IT looked bad when I got it and they gave it to me to try and save. I believe that they do a lot of trans-shipping to LFS's all over the northeast. The problem with that kind of business is that you get a lot in directly from overseas sources and the mortality rate is high and at a facility like theirs its all out in the open. All stores have some death rate in marine life and the dead go in the trash in a back room, before anyone sees it. The wholesalers are not out in the open at all but the ones I have had some contact with have a lot of DOA and a lot of sick on arrival livestock. I think Roozens have no more or less than any middle man seller... where it bothers us is that they also sell retail and we see the death. One of the reasons that we need to grow as an organization is so we can have an impact on the whole scene. Roozens will buy coral from local growers as they are healthy and pull a good price. As we grow and educate people, we can change the paradigm to make the market better for the seller that sells aquacultured coral and everyone wins. The buyers win because they get coral that will live. The sellers win because they dont have to throw away a lot of dead animals (,that they paid for) and the reefs win because we took less. After all of that long winded blustering what I really meant to say was: I go ahead and buy from Roozens because I can't get the stuff any where else locally. I Choose carefully, quarantine, and worry about something else (like the election or the price increase at the hair club for men)

Those of you that know me know that I am a big fan of the Mud based filter system. I have been doing a combination of deep sand bed in the tank and deep mud in the refuge for more than 10 years. Here is a plan to convert a 55 gal tank (that old scratched up acrylic tank you have in the garage) to a mud refuge that works so well that you may find that a lot of the other equipment in your system is unneeded. Here is a parts list 1- 55 gal tank 48x12x18 Plexiglas pieces 2- 12'x4' 1- 12'x15' 1- 5 gal aquarium 5 gal Mud. I like the Kent bio-sediment or Eco-System mud You can size this system up or down to fit any size tank you wish to use. My past experience has shown that the system/refuge size relationship must be at least tank=100% refuge=20% water. Your refuge is not going be full, a 55gal tank will have about 30-35 gal of water. That will filter a tank of 150-175 gal real well. You can go larger but not smaller. One more factor, a deep tank is not as good as a long tank. You need surface area for the substrate to interface with the water. I am using a 5 gal aquarium as a return chamber to keep mud out of the pump. This is cheap and easy to clean out. If you are doing a very small system you can sub this with a powerhead hung on the side of the tank. Putting it together 1: Clean the tank and glue in the Plexiglas pieces using aquarium silicone as shown in the image linked below. 2: Fill the intake chamber with bio-ball or some other media to break up the flow of water (I use whole oyster shells). 3: Place the mud in the main chamber. 4: Set the 5 gal aquarium in the tank at the far end from the intake side 5: Set pump into 5 gal and plumb to the return 6: Place some Macro algae into the mud 7: Start System 8: Light this system 24/7 with white light, NO or PC will work 9 Add crabs and snails to keep it clean. You can add a small fish or two to stir the mud a little. With a mix of Kent and Eco-System Mud I run: Calcium levels of 430 mg/l Alkalinity 9.7 dkh Magnesium of 810 mg/L This is without a reactor and with almost no additives.

Lionfish is a friend of mine. Has a nice reef going but needs frags soft coral or xenia. If any body has frags let him know. he doesnt have much to trade yet.

I use it to hold rock together like this 1:mix a fair size piece (if it's too small it work ) 2:check how the rocks fit together. 3:let it set a few min to start to get stiff 4:place it and push the rocks together 5: jam some sand or crushed coral into any showing area of the epoxy

I plan on attending

Most safeway stores have it in the Woodbridge Area

main system 220 gals nano 12 gals prop system 100 ga total 332

I feed mine shrimp like michaelg but I also feed mine small pieces of raw salmon and squid, I rotate through the foods