madmax7774

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. :(

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...

Went there again this weekend to check things out. Once again, great experience. They are just the best LFS around!

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...

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

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...

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

ok, I'll play, I say we are going to have no major, and 3 minor hurricanes John

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

I would enthusiastically support a donation of $2500 from the club to this cause. John

If you are willing to come and get it, you can fill up from my RO/DI, I will give it to you. John

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

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

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.

Dan, talk to me for free webhosting.... John

Thanks Dave. Good info. I will consider these as well. John

Rascal I apprecaite the info. I am always looking for ways to cut costs in this hobby. Dave - my concern with the kalkwasser was that I would push my PH too high. My ph naturally resides at 8.2 and fluctuates from 8.2 to 8.4 seemingly on it's own. I thought that a kalk reactor naturally raises PH, or is it not a severe reaction? as you can tell I have 0 experience with either form of reactor, and am looking to learn. Kalk is definately alot cheaper to start with, but is there limit to it's effectiveness? I don't have a lot of SPS right now, but like most others, I am slowly aquiring them, and plan on the long term to grow them quite a bit. Does kalk raise the alk as well as the calcium? John

my alk will drop to 5-7dkh and calcium drops to 320-340ppm in about 2 days. To get it back to 450ppm i have to add 4 full capfuls of bionic calcium & 4 capfuls of alkalinity. ( I don't know off the top of my head what that equates to, but I can check it when I get home. It seems to me, that Reef crystals is low in calcium as a general rule. ( like 350ppm) So that means I should be adding 2 capfuls of each every single day. ( 60ml ?) I think I remember the capful is 30ml) System is 110G display with 30G sump 125 lbs live rock ( 14 months old) combined sand bed of fine sand, crushed coral, and aragonite from old sand bed. refugium with 6" deep sand bed & various algae deltec ap851 skimmer 4 mj1200's on wavemaster for circulation dual 250W 10Kmetal halide lights RO/DI system for all water. TDS meter reads 0 As far as water changes, I have a loose schedule now of 15 gallons every week or two. The new saltwater is mixed at tank temperature for about 4 or 5 days before the water change. Water Parameters: 1.026 salinity 80-82' F (working on a fan system to get this a little more stable) ph 8.2 ( verified with 2 different test kits) Ammonia 0 (verified by BRK) Nitrite 0 Nitrate less than 5ppm phospate - not detectable by testing (verified by BRK) alk - try to keep it around 10 or 11 dkh calcium - try to keep it around 450ppm magnesium - I test this occasionally, and it always come out right in the middle of the recommended range, but I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head. I also have a bottle of coral-vite, which has alot of trace elements in it, which I add a few drops from every week or so to suplplement my trace elements. unfortunately I don't have all the test kits for this, but I been doing this all along, with no ill effects yet. My current Bio-load is very light. 3 small fish and Goby. Several peppermint shrimps, and a cleaning crew. I hope to add 3 tangs, a dwarf angel, and some other fish in the next month or two.

My system is over 14 months old. I transplanted almost everything from the old tank to the new tank except for about 1/2 of the original sand bed. I have been monitoring my calcium frequently, and I seem to be hovering around 350ppm which is too low for what I want to grow in my tank. I have to add quite a bit of B-ionic to keep it up, and I am tired of doing that. I want a mostly automated additive system, and if I have to keep dosing B-ionic at this rate, then I want a calcium reactor.

I am looking into a calcium reactor as a way to boost calcium. Initially it looks like a $650 investment just to get setup without a PH controller. My question is this: Do you need a PH controller? Is it a nice to have, or is it necessary? I know that if I go for a PH controller, I may as well go the extra mile and just get a Reefkeeper2, or an Aquacontroller. This will add another $300 to 500 to the cost, which I am hoping to defer that cost till later on this year. What is the opinion of the experts? John

I was there today too. Did you see that "sea apple" thing in the QT room in the bottom corner tank? I had no Idea something like that even existed. It was really neat!

building a rectangle stand is very easy. Working from that design, it should be fairly simple to modify one side to account for the Bow of the tank. If you cut off the curve on the front of the tank, and imagined it as a standard rectangle tank, what are the dimensions? Length x Width x height (including any plastic bracing on the bottom) John

Arrgh. I am so frustrated right now. If I had explosives, I would nuke this darned tank. I have a microbubble problem, that I can't for the life of me figure out. last month I upgraded to a 110G tall, and now I got microbubbles. Lots of really fine ones. I have completely sealed the return pipe with teflon tape at the joint where the flexible nozzle is, and I have PVC glued all the rest of the pipe joints all the way down the return to the bulkhead fitting in the bottom of the overflow. The return pump is completely submerged, and has a simple clear flexible hose from the pump to the bulkhead. There are no bubbles getting near the return pump, the water on that side of the sump is very clear and calm. The only thing left I can think of is that in the return plumbing, there is an anti-siphon hole drilled on the inside of one of the 90' bends. It is above the water line in the overflow. Could this be drawing in air somehow? The plumbing used in the overflow is the kit that comes with the tank from the AGA manufacturer. I would assume that they would know where to place an anti-siphon hole so as not to cause problems.

not being able to see whats actually going on, how about drilling a small hole into the magnet. screw small machine screw into the hole and use it as handle to pull on the magnet and possible get the magnet out. Or use a small flat screwdriver as a chisel and break the magnet into small pieces to be extracted with needle nose pliers. Or detonate a very small harmonically balanced specifically shaped charge of micro explosives which will cause the magnet to desintegrate.

did you have any issues when you switched to Tropic Marin? I have heard horror stories about switching salts causing real problems. John