rooroo

From my limited experience, 24" VHO bulbs are 24", so the total length is like 25.5" with endcaps. I couldn't fit 36" VHOs into my 36" canopy, but I can fit 3' T5 bulbs in there because they are only 34.5". I would imagine 48" or 4' VHO bulbs are the same way.

I just picked up my Canon Rebel XTi last night. It came with a 50mm 2.8, a 75-300 4.0, and an 18-55 3.0. I tried taking pics with the 18-55 last night which came out decent. Since its not a great f-stop, I have to have the shutter speed a bit lower than I like and it tends to show the movement of the corals. I know one thing I can do is turn off all the pumps, but I'm just curious which lense(s) you all use? Also, I'm having trouble setting the white balance. In the past I've filled the entire frame with the sand, but now I have much less sand and its not exactly white anymore. What do you all use to get a good white balance setting? Also, how do you get good pics of fish? Mine are pretty shy and fast moving. Do you feed them while taking pics?

Those are awesome.

You can buy Silicon grease from a hardware store. Some aquarium stores might have it too. You'd want to reapply to the o-ring each time you clean the pump. To coat the outside with silicon sealer means you can't open the pump easily to do maintenance.

You can get a brand new Euroreef RS80 from Marine Depot for ~ $180. Its made of extruded acrylic so the manufacturing costs are lower, so the end price is lower. I have one in my sump and is of great quality. I would also second the Tunze 9010, I almost bought one but decided to try the Euroreef first. The Tunze is around $300 though, but I have heard nothing but good things about it and I rarely see a used one for sale. Which says alot about how much people like them.

I had the same issue with my zoas. I thought it was water quality, but everything checked out fine. I sat and watched the tank for a few hours one night and finally figured it out... my Bi-Color angel was nipping at them. I stepped up feeding but it was too late, he had a taste for the zoas. So I took him out and since all my zoas have recovered beautifully. He was also nipping at my LPS. Even though I still love angels I'll never have another in my tank.

I like my Euroreef. There was no way I was going to convince my husband to spend the money for a Deltec, as much as I'd like to get one. I almost bought the tunze skimmer but decided to give a Euroreef a try and unmodded, its probably been the most important factor in clearing up the hair algae problem I once had. So I personally think bang for buck is a Euroreef, but if you've got the cash you should definetly go with Deltec or Grey Sea Aquatics.

I have the Aqua Medic Niveaumat auto top off system on my tank. It's just a peristolic pump with a float switch. It's worked flawlessly for 6 months but just recently it stopped moving water through the tubes. The pump still rotates and all the inlets and outlets have been thoroughly cleaned and tested to ensure they are not clogged. I replaced the airline tubing and the peristolic tube in the pump (replaced it twice actually) and nothing seems to fix it. The water in the tubing just moves back and forth as the pump compresses the tube, but it never moves forward down the tube. So does anyone have any ideas as to what I should try next? I happen to have a spare SP 3000 dosing pump, which is the same exact pump without the port for the float switch, so the only thing left I can think to do is to swap out all the internal components of the Niveaumat for the unused dosing pump. I've also emailed Aqua Medic but they take a few days to get back to you and I will be away this weekend so I was hoping to get it working very soon so I can be sure its functioning properly. Wow, quick response from Aqua Medic. They told me to reinstall the check valves I thought were useless other than to clog the lines quicker. Hopefully they weren't the reason the unit failed in the first place otherwise I'll be overnighting some tomorrow.

They get clogged up pretty quick and if you use them too long they'll add nitrates to your tank. It's not the greatest option. I might consider a canister filter with a mircon cartridge instead, like a Magnum 350 or if you want one inline you can buy one for a pool at a pool store. They're kinda big though. Or you can buy a Rainbow Lifeguard mechanical filtration unit and stick it inline. All of the options will add nitrates to your tank if you allow the filter to become biological, as in leave it in the tank longer than 2 weeks.

I bought two of the K1s and have been very happy so far, only wishing I had bought 2 of the K2s or K3s but I bought when they were having recalls and stocking issues. I love mine, very easy to install and direct, good dispersed flow. And they don't get clogged up too easily.

I bought a skimmer from Signal7 on reef central. Really nice guy. If I wasn't at work that day I'd come out and help. As for the hand truck, just be careful that you're putting all of the weight of the tank against that metal lip on the hand truck, so you could shatter the glass easily. If you have a hand truck that folds flat that might work better. I really think the only way to safely move it is by hand. Good luck!

I currently split between VHO and T5. I am not completely sold with this combo. I may just go for all T5s soon. I use two 430s and have it set up so that the VHOs are actinics and do the dusk/dawn thing with them. It's almost time to buy some new actinic VHOs and I'm thinking about just buying some new T5 endcaps and reflectors and a big batch of T5 bulbs and getting rid of the VHOs. Or still running one actinic VHO. We'll see. Also I was having a problem with my bulbs burning out very quickly with the T5s until I switched to UVL bulbs. Thus far no problems, though they probably will not last a full year as advertised. I am running 2x39w on each 430 ballast, I have heard that the shorter the bulb the shorter its lifespan when overdriven.

Email sent.

Good luck!

Your doing a 33% water change every two weeks, which isn't horrible, but like you said params can get way out of whack if you do that large of water changes. I try to do 10% weekly at the minimum. That seems to work well for me. So for you thats a 1.6 gallon water change weekly, which might be hard to do. What you can do is mix up a 5 gallon bucket of salt water with a powerhead and heater, and that will last you a month. Mixed water won't go bad in a month. Then you can easily scoop out the 1-2 gallons for a water change at a time. Or you need to get your new salt water closer to your tanks water params before dumping it in. Which means mixing for a few days and buffering it before it goes in the tank. This may actually work better for you and result in a more stable tank environment.

I do 5-10% water changes weekly so I guess I really change salts slowly too. But yes, I would imagine if the cause were the salt, switching back to the other salt would make things worse, not better.

Reef Crystals is Instand Ocean, just with a few extra trace elements (I think, unless I'm getting my salts mixed up). So I wouldn't think the salt would cause the issue, I could be completely wrong though. FWIW, I switched from IO to RC to Oceanic, then to Tropic Marin for a long time, then back to IO with no adverse affects at all. Except maybe feeding an algae bloom when switching from TM to IO. I also don't have SPS, so that may be how I can switch salts around. I try to not make a habit of it.

I read one of those threads. Seems like an interesting theory. I don't think I'd try it in my tank without trying everything else first though.

'Ric are you an engineer? (Schmuck as well )

There wasnt any information on my deed about the building quality. If you know who the builder was you could certainly contact them and request the information. It is possible that you can find that information in public records, but I don't know what to look for. Your best bet if a bunch of schmucks opinions on an internet forum aren't substantial enough (it wouldn't be for me in most cases ) is to find a structural engineer or a general contractor, pay them a few hundred dollars to have them come out and tell you its ok and what direction the joists are going. Or if you have a contractor friend, thats even better.

I will try to drag my husband out there with me if we are not busy with home improvement projects!

At roughly 8lbs per gallon, a 75 gallon tank is about 600 lbs water alone. You're looking at less than 1000 lbs for the tank plus all equpiment, rock, etc. Thats way less than the rating. I think you're safe.

In all honestly I did not verify which way the joists run when I put my tank where I did. I now don't even know which way they run. I wonder what the building code is for how much weight per square foot a residential floor must be able to hold. If we can find that out, we can certainly calculate how much weight per square foot a 75 gallon tank with a 30 gallon or so sump will have. If you're at all worried about floods, go sumpless. That eliminates a lot of the potential problems with floods. Thats why you have the autotopoff on a timer! Don't know how often sumps just randomly crack... if you drill a hole in the glass it makes more sense that it would crack. Just a general observation that it seems disasterous faliures don't occur that often. But I could be totally wrong. And I better knock on wood otherwise I'll go home to find 15 gallons of water on my floor. But see, its only 15 gallons. Damage wouldn't be THAT bad.

Generally when tanks spring a leak its a slow one so you have time to remove and take down the tank before 60 gallons of saltwater seeps through your floor. The disasterous failures are few and far between. Though it would be interesting to find out how many club members have had a disasterous failure. A more major concern is accidental flooding caused by an overflow clogging or an auto-top off being stuck on. And this can usually be avoided by compartmentalizing your sump and redundant safeguards. The only reason my tank is not on the 1st floor is there is no room for it there, and it is not in the basement because the basement is unfinished. So it stays on the second floor in the office. Some day I might convince my husband that there is room in the living room and then take over part of his woodshop for a fish room (sump through the floor), but I don't know that I want to move the whole tank anytime soon and I can't see holes in the floor as being a positive when we sell the house.

#1- I live in a 16 year old townhouse and the tank is on the 2nd level. Tanks under 100 gallons are fine on any floor as long as you place them along a load bearing wall. Load bearing meaning outside walls for townhouses. Actually, I had my 65 gallon in the middle of my old apartment with no problems. How to convince them of that? Maybe you can contact a structural engineer or know a contractor that can tell you if a wall is load bearing and convince your parents it will be fine where you plan to place it. I will warn you though, its not fun lugging buckets of water up any number of flights of stairs. If you can have your RO/DI unit on the same level it will make you much happier. #2 and #3- Homeowners insurance often does not cover floods of any kind. Some may cover pipe break floods. Best to check insurance documents. I can almost guarantee if you do not take out a separate policy on the tank alone, your insurance will not cover any damage done to the house by the tank. And I doubt you can take out a separate policy just for your tank. A flood policy covers disasters such as a river flooding your house. So after a slightly long winded answer, the short answer is no, your insurance will not cover anything that has to do with the tank flooding your house. Best to put as many safeguards on the tank as possible to keep floods small to non-existant. I've had my tank for 3 years now and never had a flood. I do this by keeping the area the pump pulls water from small so only so much water can be pumped into the aquarium before the pump runs dry. So if the overflow is clogged, or I forget to refill the top off container, only the pump will overheat and seize up. Now if the pump catches fire from getting too hot after seizing (not likely as it would be sitting in some water to keep it cooler or put out the fire) and my house burns down, that will be covered by my homeowners insurance as it has nothing to do with flood damange. Aquariums and linked equipment are standard in homes, and they did not ask me if I had one, so its not likely that they get many claims that an aquarium burned down a house. The did ask if I had a pitt bull, rottweiller, doberman, german shepherd, akita, or a mix of one of those breeds because they get lots of claims of dog bites from those breeds.