madmax7774
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Posts posted by madmax7774
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Actually, I found a nice cheap and easy way to deal with this problem. Goto Costco or home depot or walmart, etc. and get a DC to AC power inverter for your car. They are around $40 to $50 and are invaluable. From this you run a long lead into the house and to the tank. if you get one that supports 1000 watts, then you have enough juice to run your return pump, and a heater, which is all you need to keep your tank alive for days on end. You don't even have to have heater and pump running all that time, you can just go out, start your car and run things for an hour, and then shut down for a hour and keep repeating that cycle. It's the simplest most cost effective way to endure long power outages. Generators are nice, but expensive to buy, and a PIA to lug around or borrow. The battery operated air pumps are not really effective for much, so they are a waste in my opinion. With a full tank of gas, you outa be able to last for days...
John
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They are actually rather hardy corals. It was one of my first corals, and due to my inexperience, I was very rough with them. They will handle a good scrubbing from a toothbrush just fine. If you are getting algae growing on them, then they likely need a little more flow. also, if you manage to break one of the arms off, just attach it to a rock somewhere to start another colony. They don't grow very fast, but they are pretty tough.
John
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I can frag several frags each of Green Pocillopora, Pink Birdsnest, Yellow polyps, anthelia and green Zoos.
I am looking to trade for other Frags of SPS or LPS or Ricordia
PM me for details.
John
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set mine up last night, and these things kick but. No more unplugging stuff for me....
wheee!!
It just looks cool too...
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check with dandy7200 I think he does stuff like that.
John
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when you are pulling stuff out of the tank by hand, i would think you shouldn't have to worry about the spores in the water, as long as you have the UV hooked up and running.
John
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I just went there on my lunch break. I bought one of the power strips for $29.99 plus tax. When you account for shipping costs for Web orders, it actually ends up being cheaper to buy locally. They had 2 when I went there today, and I bought one. There's still one left...
John
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I couldn't tell you the exact quantities of the critters he sold me, but it consisted of several large groups of various sized snails and hermits. 4 or 5 sally lighfoot crabs, and 4 or 5 emerald crabs. 2 cleaner shrimp. I have since added 5 peppermint shrimp, and 1 fire shrimp to that mix, and they have been slowly cleaning up my aptasia issues. I scraped maybe 33% of the algae out by hand, and the rest was devoured by the cleaning crew.
overall, I am extremely satisfied.
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Does anyone know a good way to coax a Fire shrimp to be a little more social? I really like the way they look, and I added one, but all he does is hide in the rear behind all the rocks where I can't see him.
:(
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depends on how desperate you are. If you are doing a WC to save your system then use it, if you are just doing a routine wc, then get better water. Thats what I would do...
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Went there again this weekend to check things out. Once again, great experience. They are just the best LFS around!
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You know I looked at the bleached area really closely last night, and my wife says that it is turning green. Maybe it is still alive...
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Here's the thing about skimmers, When you first start out, you don't know any better, and you get the cheapest thing you can find, (I did) They all work to one degree or another, it's just a question of how well they work. On a beginner's tank with a light to normal fish load, without a large amount of expensive coral, it will suffice until you are ready to upgrade. Lots of people are going to tell you things ranging from "oh my God that one sucks!" to "that is the best model on the planet!" I went through this myself recently. I started with a 75G tank and a coralife 125 superskimmer. it worked ok for what I was doing, but once I started wanting to get into the fancy corals (read expensive), I realized that I had to graduate to the next level to keep them alive. I then bought a Euro-reef which was a good skimmer. Then I upgraded my tank, and needed a bigger skimmer, and decided that enough was enough with buying skimmer after skimmer. I got tired of farting around and went for the biggest baddest skimmer I could find. I bought a Deltec 851. I have since learned 3 things about skimmers;
1 - Based on my own experience, Recirc skimmers are more efficient than regular skimmers
2 - You can't have too large of a skimmer, so buy the biggest one you can fit under your stand/afford.
3 - To me, Deltec skimmers really are worth the ridiculous price they charge.
When you are ready for an Upgrade, talk to Dandy7200 about his new line of skimmer' which are modeled after Deltec.
John
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is it white on the underside or on top?
Totally white on the underside, and 75% of the top turned white over a 2 day period. The other 25% is still orange, and the white has stop spreading on top. It has been this way for several weeks now. I swear it looks like it is still growing. It's weird. At first I was convinced it was dead, but honestly, I'm not so sure anymore...
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If a Montipora Cap bleaches white over a large portion of the cap, does that necessarily mean it's dead? I swear it looks like this things is still growing. Anyone know for sure?
John
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ok, I'll play, I say we are going to have no major, and 3 minor hurricanes
John
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As many of you know, I have been fighting to reduce all the crap that is floating around in my tank. I thought it was a combination of sand and microbubbles, but I am realizing it more than that.
To combat the sandstorm issue, I laid down a 1" thick bed of crushed coral over the top of my sand bed. This prevents the currents from blowing the sand around in a sandstorm. Doing this cured maybe 15% of the stuff in suspension in the water. Next I tackled part of the microbubble source by baffling my sump, which has cured about another 15% of the problem.
Next I completely sealed up the anti-siphon hole in my return which as cured maybe another 20% of the problem.
So all in all my problem is about 50% better.
There is still a ton of crap in suspension floating around. I never had this level of stuff in my old 75G, and I am running out of idea's on how to fix it. I think that one possible source is a fine layer of silt that has been kicking around in my sump, from when I added a DSB/ refuge to the sump after baffling. Anyone have any good ideas on how to get this silt layer out of the sump? I almost need to come up with some sort of way to vacuum it out of there.
I tried running a filter sock on my drain line into the sump, but it didn't seem to make a real noticeable difference, so I gave up on it after a month. Has anyone ever tried to use a maxijet with a long tube on the intake as a sort of vacuum system, and then run the output side into a filter sock to catch the silt that gets sucked up? Well, that's my idea anyhow, and I'll let you know how it goes.
On another note, is this something that running ozone would help to clear up? Just curious.
John
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I would enthusiastically support a donation of $2500 from the club to this cause.
John
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If you are willing to come and get it, you can fill up from my RO/DI, I will give it to you.
John
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By the way, I also had the coralife as my first skimmer, and I had the same problem repetitively. after that I moved up to a Euroreef, and then to a Deltec. do yourself a favor, and when you can afford it, move up to a recirc skimmer by either Euroreef or Deltec. It's worth the cost.
John
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take it out, and clean everything thouroughly. Soak motor parts in vinegar. check the airline for kinks/cloggs, check the plastic piece where the airline tubing attaches, as Coralife skimmers are famous for clogging there.
John
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I have wondered the same thing, as my current tank has only been in place for about 2 months, but the contents came from my previous tank of 1 year.
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Dan, talk to me for free webhosting....
John
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Thanks Dave. Good info. I will consider these as well.
John
Power Outage
in General Discussion
a computer UPS will most definately work for handling a power outage. however, being a computer geek, and being familiar with UPS systems, I can tell you that you are going to need a fairly large UPS for it to have enough amps to drive a heater & return pump for any appreciable length of time. unless you get lucky and find a good deal on a decent sized UPS, it's not a very cost effective solution. Plus, most UPS's are sold when the batteries are shot, and need replacement. If you go looking for used UPS, be wary of how much life is left in the batteries...
For example, the company I work for spent something like $400,000 for a UPS battery system, and then never bothered to cycle them or test for nearly 5 years. One day the power went out, and so did all the servers in the data center. Everyone was stupified that the UPS system didn't work, well it turns out the batteries were all dead...
(yet another reason why I am switching jobs!)