madmax7774

Some of my mistakes were huge: A: I thought of the idea, gee why don't I clean the crap out of the sandbed. take a powerhead and irrigate your sandbed, you need to keep it clean, so the nitrates don't build up. M:took a plastic hose, attached it to a maxijet 1200, and irrigated my send bed to remove all the nasty dark brown stuff. Little did I know I was destroying the majority of my anaerobic bacteria, and hence destroying my tank stability. Hugely bad idea .... C: don't ever touch anything in the sand below the top 1/4 inch. Ever, Ever, Ever.... A: another dunb idea, who needs to do water changes.... M: made it almost 9 months with no water changes and no fish death.... (dumba$$) C: weekly 15G changes, well mostly.... A: skimmers sold in your average pet store is good enough for my tank M: Not! C: Found a real marine fish store, switched to a deltec skimmer, nuff said some of my mistakes weren't even from bad advice, just being stupid. like the time I turned the Kalkwasser to manual on, then left the house for the day to go to the Baltimore aquarium. Came home to a flooded basement, a ruined carpet, and some very very expensive dead fish. I like to think of it like this: new carpet: $2245 Tinkeri butterfly: $500 feeling like a complete a$$ for killing my prize fish after only having it for 3 months: priceless you live & learn

Doug, I have one that I will donate to WAMAS. Chris has it currently. (phisigs79) tell him I said to give it to you. It's similar to Dan's. John

I also have a "high tank", and I strongly recommend you consider the ramifications of your lighting choice with regards to heat, BEFORE you buy anything. I have the 110G tall tank and I have dual 250W xm 10K bulbs. heat was a problem for me. I ended up getting a chiller. you go with 400W lights, and you are assured to need a chiller ($800 investment) I don't know the exact dimensions of your tank, bur mine is the AGA 110G tall, (31" tall) the dual 250W lights are almost overkill. I really think 250W lights are plenty for a 36" tall tank. If you guys want to check out my setup, and talk about lighting, you are more than welcome to stop over. (We have actually met twice before at BRK) John

just as an FYI, if you can't locate a babysitter, I have successfully added tangs to my tank months after others were established. Do it at night with the lights out. If possible, move a rock or two before turning on the lights. yes they will fight at first, but it usually works itself out. I have a 110G established tank with a 4" powder blue, and a 4" sailfin. I tossed in a 3" yellow that I got a deal on. They beat him for a day or so, but now they are all best friends and often will cruise together around the tank. John

I had a remora it was ok. Long term, go deltec, short term, remora. CPR is not so good.

It has been my experience that 14K bulbs and 20K bulbs do not give as good of growth as 6500K or 10K bulbs. That being said, 6500K and 10K bulbs are very white, and you wont get the blue you are looking for. I used to run 20K bulbs, and loved the blue coloring. i went to 10K bulbs, and saw a significant increase in growth, but mourned the loss of the blue that I loved so much. In order to get more blue, I supplemented my 10K bulbs with 2 46.5" VHO actinic bulbs at 110W each. My MH bulbs are XM 10K 250W each. Be forwarned, that the heat from dual 250W MH bulbs is significant, and eventually led me to purchase a chiller, which was a very expensive but necessary investment. John

Dan you could get rich just patenting your hobby idea's!! I know I have personally copied you for at least 2 major items, (the auto water change, and the DJ panel). Nice work on the power center. Is that going to go into the area where your existing "fish room" is? John

Oh my god! I wish I had a video camera to film Bruce(bbyatv) Since he is a smaller guy than I am, I had him clinbing up onto my tank stand to reach down in and disassemble my rock tower one rock at a time so we could gently scrape the anenome off the rock it was attached to. What a sight to see poor Bruce balanced up that high diving into my tank up to his shoulders!!! Thankfully the anenome was able to be gently scraped from the rock, and I hear it has already attached itself to a rock in his tank. He will be starting his own thread to show the anenome off. And as always, credit goes to Chip (flowerseller) for graciously allowing me to have one of the children from his RBTA. These truly are the best RBTA's around. Thanks Chip!

Thanks guys, we are trying to exute the removal tonight, so I will let you know how it goes. Chip I still want the cap, and will contact you after MACNA for a deal. Thanks. John

Well, my prized "chip's RBTA" has split, and is doing very well. The old one has moved around to the front of the tank where I can see him (finally!), and the new one is still on the backside of my rock tower. I have promised one of the colonies to a good friend, but I have absolutely no idea how to convince it to let go of the rock so I can move him to his new home. Does anyone have any experience with this? I want to be very careful with this anenome, as I want to make sure I do not injure it while detaching it. Any pointers would be helpful. Thanks, John

Several Days ago, I stumbled onto a website of a hobbyist who was culturing his own phytoplankton. I have to say I am intrigued by this idea, and thinking of giving it a go. Does anyone in the club do this, an if so, what did you use to start the initial batch? I read on Melev's website that "supposedly" you can start a batch with some DT's. What have other used, and how have your results been? John

Carla, i know how you feel, several weeks back I turned on my kalk stirrir and forgot to shut it off. i left for the day to Maryland. When I cam home, it looked like a nuclear winter in my tank. I lost a several hundred dollar fish, and nearly beat myself to death over it. You will get past this, and you will be wiser for it in the long run. When you have things back under control, you are welcome to some free frags from my tank to get you back on track. John

George and Jess, It was great to get out and see you guys. The tanks are amazing. I am really impressed with them. Thanks for the frag, I have placed it in my tank. Under my actinics, it is an amazing mix of green and red. Was that thing some sort of Watermelon type of monti? I've never seen anything like it before. In any event, It looks amazing. I will shoot some pictures of it, once it encrusts and starts to grow out. PS - poker soon!

I usually just brak the frag off the plug, and use epoxy to affix the frag to something in the tank...

Jason, If the house was built within the 25 years, and is up to code, you can drive a large truck into the middle of the room without worrying. A 75G tank and sump is no where near enough weight to get concerned about. If your parents are giving you grief over this, tell them it is no different than the average queen sized water bed. today's houses are way over engineered, and are much stronger than people realize. (thanks to overzealous lawyer's, lawsuits....). The biggest risk is from unintended floods. I personally would not have a tank anywhere where there wasn't a drain nearby in the floor. Insurance issues will vary depending on your company, you need to contact them to find out what they offer. John

You know I am going to tell sean about this, and I may even pay him to bring you twinkies and those gay little pink and yellow easter things you love so much....

yeah, like you did with the Ice water bucket? hahaha

so short of having a medical facility with a submersion tank that can be used to calculate exact body fat percentage, how exactly do you propose to accurately determine body fat precentage for each participant?