madmax7774

Well duh, as the fattest guy in the club, I would be interested.... We have a very accurate scale here at work, that goes up to 400 lbs, and is supposedly accurate to within .1 lbs. It is used for weighing outgoing shipments. I just weighed myself on it, and I come in at a whopping 320.5 lbs. With relative ease, I could get back down to my average weight of about 280 lbs. That means a % weight loss of 12.5 percent. Think you can beat that? questions: 1 - what scale is going to be used? 2 - how exactly will things be calculated? 3 - Does Johnny know you are giving more of his stuff away 4 - when does the contest start?

Rebecca, Sorry I haven't responded sooner, I have been off the boards lately. The aqualifter pump will NOT stop a syphon when in the off state. I found this out the hard way. I had to add a John Guest style "T" fitting on the output side of my pump, and run a line up into the air about 5 feet. What this does is act as a siphon break so that when the pump stops, air can be drawn into the line, ans break the syphon. The trick is to make sure that the siphon break line is long enough to prevent water from spilling out. I just ran mine all the way up to the cieling. I know this probably makes no sense, but I can explain more if you need it. If you are still confused, PM me, and I can stop over one evening, and help you get it all working for you. (I don't mind stopping over, It's a great excuse to see your tank!). As far as your AC programming, I have not found an easy way to dump the whole program to a file yet, so it's probably quicker to just scroll through the timer programs and write them down by hand.(I have an AC jr, so it's computer connectivity is limited.)

I have a 125G system, and am probably going to have to invest in a chiller. I need to know which brands suck, and which ones are good. my temp goes to 84 lately, and I dont want that. I need to drop 4 degrees on a 125g. what do you recommend? (already running lots of fans, so that isn't going to cut it.) This chiller will be remotely located in the laundry room about 10ft away, and will require some waterlines and some sort of pump. a drop in is not an option. John

Rebecca, I had the exact same problem with my aquacontroller when I set mine up a few weeks ago, and I posted about it here: http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?show...mp;#entry116465 The guys above are correct about the problem, but there are 2 parts to fixing this problem. I went out of my mind tying to figure it out. The easiest way to fix this, (what I did) is to: (1)plug a grounded extension cord with several plugs on one end(think of the 6' white ones that many people use to plug in several strings of christmas lights...), from A4 on the DC8. Into the other end of the extension cord, you need to plug both the aqualifter pump, and a nightlight or small lamp of somekind. That way, when the aqualifter turns on, the light does too, and both items together draw enough current for the aquacontroller to work properly. (2)The second half of this issue,that the aquacontroller's have with the float switch, is called "hysteresis". You will probably run into that too. ( I did) Basically you have to tell the aquacontroller that once the float switch is in the off position, it is not allowed to turn back on for a few minutes (I use 10 minutes). If you don't add this, you will switch will very rapidly go on,off,on,off,on,off,on,off..... and it will keep doing this. The effect of this is that the aqualifter pump will 'seem' like it is staying on, which will further complicate and confuse things. I didn't even realize this was happening to me until I plugged in the nightlight, and saw that it was flashing on,off,on,off.... The code for this is max change 10M then H20 OFF this statement can be added anywhere in the programming. You can change the time in minutes to whatever you like. I started with 240M ( 4hours) but quickly realized that was too long. I settled on 10M and it works great now. I hope that my explanation is clear. If I have confused you more PM me, and I will call you and walk you through it. John

OK, the problem and solution has been found. The problem was the voltage on the aqualifter pump is too low for the ac jr. to make it work, I added a powerstrip with a nightlight to the circuit. this increases the load when the port turns on, and allows the ac jr. to be able to turn it off. Bizarre I know, but it works, so I'll take it... John

ok, maybe not. The program and the port work with a lamp plugged in, but when I use the aqualifter pump on the extension cord, it stays on. Here's where it gets really interesting. When I use manual control to turn the port off, it still stays on!!! I am starting to think I am cursed. I ran the diagnostic self test, and everything came back ok. I am lost on this one....

nice looking stuff Dan. John

OK, I finally figured it out (nearly lost my mind in the process, and seriously considered shooting the aquacontroller!). I had the program right, but I was missing one key concept. The aquacontroller was sensing the ph and float switch state rapidly. The problem was that the controller would turn the aqualifter on/off very rapidly. The end result was that it looked like it was always on. There was a "hysterisis" setting that says don't do that. I added that in, and set it so that if goes on, and then off, it must wait 4 hours before I t can go on again. the code is max change 240 M then KLK OFF thanks to Dan & John for your help John

I have added a Grey seas aquatics kalkwasser (shameless plug for Dan!) to my setup, and I can't get my aquacontoller to behave. It turns on fine when the float switch is low, and if the PH is below 8.4, but nothing I do shuts it off. I have a PH probe, and a float switch. the float switch is wired into the serial port per the instruction manual, and it seems to work OK, by itself. my code: OSC 002/001 ON/OFF then KLK ON if PH > 8.4 then KLK OFF if switch OPEN the KLK OFF I have tried numerous variations, of this code, but no matter how I change it, it never shuts off the aqualifter pump. I thought it could be the fact that the aqualifter is about 12 ft. away, on an extension cord, but I tried plugging a lamp in it's place to have it turn the lamp on and off, but it stills doesn't function. I think it has to be a code problem, but I can't find the problem. I can list the whole program, if it helps... John

goto Blue ribbon koi $5.99 /lb fiji, and it's decent quality John

one of them is mine too! They look great dan!

ummm. Lovely. I have quite a large patch of these bad boys in my tank. Or at least they appear to be the same thing. I guess as long as I leave them alone, all should be well. Note to self: no boiling the rocks....

seen chip's tank in person. He runs UV 24/7. has nothing wrong with his tank, in fact it's one of the best tanks I seen in a while.

I realize you aren't feeling well, but when you are feeling motivated, could you snap a picture of the offending zoas so I can have a look at them? I am curious as to what they look like. John

I also got one of these pyramids from BRK, and mine is doing fantastic. (knock on wood). I know that BRK keeps their fish in hypo salinity while they are there. You guys acclimated right? John

good idea, I added the code to turn the halides off if the temp>84F I am going to have to address the cooling situation thought. I guess I will I try an additional fan over the sump

1 heavy duty fan blowing across the top of the tank. the system is a 125G total

My tank starts the morning off at 79.9F by dinner time, it is usually, up around 82.5F and occasionally has climbed to 83.5F My question is, how much of a swing over th course of the day is too much? I already have a fan on on my aquacontroller that kicks in when the temp hits 80.8F so the fan is on for a good portion of the day. I am reluctant to spend $800 for a chiller if I can avoid it, but I will if I have to. what does everyone else see in their tanks on a daily basis? John

I recently bought an Aquacontroller Jr from BRK, and I love it. I bought it so I could control a kalk stirrer/ top off setup for my system, but I switched my lights over to it, and a fan as well. It is worth every penny in my opinion. I originally started my setup with simple cheap light timers, and for my 4 powerheads, I used a red seas wavemaster pro. THey worked fine for me, but I needed a ph controller, they are almost $200 so figured I may as well go the extra $100 and get the aquacontroller setup. They are simple to program, and easy to use. I highly recommend them. John

600 gph rating for a return is super conservative. I have a genX6000 on my return which is rated at 600 gph I am getting closer to 1000gph from my return. Works fine. Go with the bigger pump, you will not sorry. John

I got my cleanup crew for my 110G from Johnny at BRK, and I could not have been happier. His wealth of knowledge is invaluable, and you can be sure of the quality of the livestock there. His prices are very competative, and in my opinion, his shop is the best around. John

my real problem is that my RO water sits on a 4 ft high shelf about 10ft away from the tank, and the kalkwasser will be sitting on the ground. I am pretty sure that once I start the pump to feed the kalkwasser, it will work fine, but when the cotroller goes to turn off the kalkwasser pump, it will siphon the RO water, and I have a disaster on my hands. I can't think of a way to stop the siphon action. Putting the RO tank of the floor is not an option at this time. I am stumped on this one.... :(

I have a situation with my setup that would make it much easier for me if I could just use a small powerhead to draw saltwater from the sump, and feed it through a kalkwasser back into the sump, instead of using RO top off water as the water source. Is there any reason why I should not do this? does the water going into the kalkwassser have to be RO water only? can I use saltwater from the sump to introduce the kalk into the system? I am not worried about overdosing kalk, as I have an aquacontroller and could set that up to monitor PH and stop the kalk system if the PH starts to rise.

uggh! that bare bottom is nasty. I am so not a bare bottom kind of guy... well unless you talking about...umm nevermind!

I think you'd have to get palytoxin directly into your bloodstream before it becomes and issue, and I don't think that would happen from what you describe. Also, palytoxin symptons begin with numbness from what I have read. Sounds like you not panic unless you experience numbness, loss of sensation or diziness/lightheadedness. Either way, tell someone what you were doing so if you get really bad before you can explain to a doctor, someone has an idea of what you up to.