madmax7774

you can get a really really good 1/3 horsepower chiller (Teco) at Blue Ribbon Koi for something like $899 i think? You would have to call them to confirm the price, but $1500 for a chiller is a bit steep. I have the teco 1/3 HP chiller, and it would have no problems keeping up with 300 gallons. I have had mine for over 1 year now, and I highly recommend them. I also looked into the DIY method, but unless you are an HVAC technician, I think it will just likely be a let down, and a waste of money. My chiller was the 2nd largest single purchase of my system, and It was a tough pill so swallow. Now that I did it, I'm glad for it. It gives you a peace of mind, and that is priceless. John

Bruce, I am continually astounded at your ingenuity. I surf regularly for reef-related sites to see new things, and learn new stuff, but your reef Kung-fu is unparralleled. I am yet again impressed. By the way, I have started dosing the calcium partion of the RHF 2 part mix. I hunted all over for the stinkin dow flake, but I finally caved and just ordered some off the web. Pretty easy to make. even easier to use. Thanks again for showing me that stuff. John

Nice Job Bruce. That will really make that skimmer crank. Did you do any mods to the needle-wheel, or the air intake at all? or was it just strictly a recirc mod only? Whats the flow rate on the smaller feed pump?

I leave my fuge light on until the bulb dies. Then it's dark for the week or so it takes me to get a new bulb. Then I repeat the whole process, I would like to find a bulb that doesn't die aftrer only 3 months though. You'd think they had long life bulbs or something!

I am definitely in for 2 of these 55G barrels. I will meet you at the April 5th meeting and pick them up form there. I will pay you cash at the meeting. Let me know if this is ok. John (703)627-5365 (cell)

Bob, A good friend of mine does that. He can accurately judge salinity by taste. I personally can't, but I have seen him do it. I once challenged him on it, and he got out a refractomoter and proved his assertions about the salinity. I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes... John

As a card carrying member of the Deltec Fanatics club, I would hav eto say go with deltec...

Bruce did you do the mod yet? Let me know if you need any tools or help... John

Same thing happened to my powder blue tang last month he was the king of the tank, then one day he stopped eating. 2 or 3 weeks later he died from apparent starvation. I have No idea why he stopped eating.

Deltec & GSA skimmers are highly regarded. You will probably do very well with either. Your equipment selections will depend heavily on how you sctructure your setup. Did you get a canopy and stand with your tank, or are you building your own? When I started in the hobby, I was strapped for cash and had to build my own stand. because of that I decided to buy a metal halide retrofit light kit and setup my own fixture. this is the best route in my opinion as you get the power of metal halides at a reduced cost. The pre-built fixtures tend to be very expensive. If you only want to buy your lights once, I recommend metal halide. Be mindful of heat issues with MH lights, they tend to be very hot. You may be forced into a chiller if you have insufficient ventilation.

FYI, be careful with a kalkwasser, they will raise your PH. you would do well to at least get a PH monitor to prevent an overdose. I use a controller on mine that automatically shuts it off if the PH gets above 8.4

Chip that is good ole murphy rearing his ugly head. My favorite coral in my tank won't grow at all. and it is not very close to any others. The ones that I don't care so much about seem to grow like weeds. And what's even more interesting? The corals that I thought would benefit from more light and thus put up higher in the tank seem to be less colorful than the ones that I put lower in the tank, for lack of a better place to put them. Sometimes I find this hobby to be downright confusing...

I am following the same line of thought as steveoutlaw. I am going to switch over to IO. No point in spending the extra cash for RC if the darn stuff is no different than IO.

I don't remember you owing me one, but I would certainly be willing to come over and go shopping at Chip's frag center... For some odd reason, the frags I get from you grow faster than anyone else's!!

Did the math for reef crystals, since that is what I use. here's the computations: Reef crystals instructions say to use 1/2 cup of salt per gallon. that works out to 114.96 grams(1/2 cup) of salt for 3,785.41ML (1 us gallon) divide both by 10 to scale down, and you get 11.49 grams of salt for each 378.5 ML of water. scaling that down for 7 grams of salt, comes out to 230 ml of water. Since they used less water than the reef crystals manufacturer recommends, then in my mind, that means that the values they published are actually a bit on the high side from real world results. That just sucks. What it really boils down to, is that since the salt product yields lower than expected results, then consumers have to use higher concentrations of it to get good results, which means the stuff doesn't last as long as it should. Seems like a benefit to the manufacturers as it probably lowers cost of production, and increases demand. That's just downright shady. :( :(

For those who are interested: Aquariumwatertesting.com has done an independant and unbiased review of the majority of popular salts in the hobby. They results are linked below for your reading pleasure: http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages.com/AW...alysis_0208.pdf I must say that I found this to be very interesting. On another note, I find the service that they offer to be quite intriguing, and was wondering if anyone here has tried them out? what did you think? thanks. John

I also have the GSA kalkwasser and it rocks. I have the best results with ESV brand kalk. I highly recommend it.

Is it normal for a black spiny urchin to hide all the time? I got one recently, and as soon as I put it into my tank, it made a hasty retreat and I have not seen it since. Are these things usually hiders?

Hey Johnny, I know you are always looking for new products to carry. I would like to know if you can get one of these for me. It would go along way towards satisfiying me home energy requirements.... http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/19/toshiba...or-your-garage/

the back pressure comes from the float valve that you should have in your trash can. That way once the water level reaches the float valve, it shuts off the incoming water flow (which slowly causes the pressure to increase in the RO/DI shutoff valve) and trips the RO/DI shutoff valve. It's not very clear when trying to verbalize it, but a picture makes it a little easier to understand.

http://www.spacearium.net/

I have a significantly larger fishload than you, and I don't feed anywhere near as much. Several large water changes over the course of a week or so coupled with a severe cutback in feeding, should help clear things up.

I was having a discussion with some wamas folks the other day, when we were moving Rocko's new tank into his basement, and we were wondering who had the biggest tank. That then evolved into who has what sized tank. so I will start the Thread off. How big is your display in US gallons? (none of that silly metric crap!) How many gallons do you have total (with sumps and frags tanks, etc.) mine is 110G display with ~35G sump for a whopping 145G total...

don't worry about it, that's not off that much. Just don't make sudden changes. change it slowly over time is the key.

having been through your exact situation, here's my thoughts and regrets. 1 - Buy local, and support your Local fish store. I bought mine at BRK, and Johnny gave me free tech support, and helped me get mine setup properly. You can't really get that from a web vendor, and I mean really, the price difference is not all that much. maybe $10 or $20 at most. I prefer to deal with a human, and if it ever breaks, I know Johnny will help me get the vendor to make things right. 2 - PH probes drift over time and become innacurate, and need to be calibrated. A lab grade probe will hold it's calibration longer than the standard grade. with that said, I bought the standard grade, and it has served me fine for the last year. Save the $20 and get the standard one. 3 - can't help on this one, as I never had a pinpoint monitor, but I'm sure someone has tried it before... 4 - there is nothing special at all about the cables that are provided by Neptune. I made my own cables from computer parts, for both the AC jr, I used to have, and the AC3 I now have. They work fine, and if you want to use float switches, you end up having to make your own cables anyway. the ones from neptune are overpriced. 5 - I started out with the AC jr, and used it for almost 1 year. Very quickly I regretted it, as it only has room for 1 PH probe, 1 float switch, and no email/webhost capabiliites. I thought I didn't need the more expensive one when I got the JR, but I was fooling myself. The thing is, if you plan to stay in this hobby for a while, you will inevitably want a calcium reactor or an auto top off, or a kalkwasser or some combination of those things. I did. I bought the AC3 package for $300 + change (don't remember the exact price) and within a year, I had to shell out another $399 for the AC3. Now granted I did keep the ph robe and the AC8 from the jr, but if I had just gone with the AC3 to begin with, I could have saved myself some cash. Unless you are 125% sure you will never never ever want more than the AC jr, then just save yourself some cash in the long run and get the AC3. PS - the single biggest reason to get the A3 is the email alerts. it's more than just a cool factor, it can really save your @$$. I personally was saved when the pump I used to circulate water to my chiller siezed, and my temperature spiked. I had a statement in my programming that shutoff the lights when the temp got too high, and emailed about the problem. If that had happened when I was out of town, I would have never known till I returned. You can setup all kinds of alert conditions with the AC3 that makes it invaluable. when you have years of time, and thousands of dollars invested in your tank, it doesn't make sense not to have the AC3. John