YBeNormal

In spite of my best efforts, it turned out OK. Pics are posted in the page linked in my signature block.

Welcome to WAMAS! (And it looks like we may have a guest speaker for an upcoming WAMAS meeting... )

Great description of the process Steve! I was very confused about this when I built the first bowfront canopy a few years ago and it would have been very helpful to have a simple, understandable writeup like yours to help guide me through the process.

Here are a few pictures I took yesterday. Procrastinating and trying to figure out excuses why we shouldn't try to move this monster: Moving the 70G tank to make room for the new addition: The stand is in place: Final pics of the proud owner and his cute little mermaid: It's funny, but the tank and stand do not look nearly as big in the pictures as they do in person. I can't wait to see this once you have everything plumbed and the tank up and running!

The only problem I saw with the HB suction cups, other than the almost universal hesitancy to rely on something so cheap to move something so heavy, was that the pressure switch is located in a place where it can easily be bumped (as happened in the case mentioned above). That only causes loss of pressure on one of two cups, but it would be much better if the switch was recessed or had a catch to lock it in place. That said, I would be comfortable using them again for future tank moves.

Final coats of finish are going on the doors now and we plan on installing them in the stand this Sunday. Here are pictures of a couple of the doors to show how the curly maple looks. Sticking with Roni's desire to maintain a visually simple design for the stand, the doors are a modified flat panel style with a recessed square edge on the floating panel to provide a little accent. I sealed the wood with dewaxed and diluted shellac with a few drops of dye to help pop the grain, then sanded the finish off, leaving the color only in the exposed wood grain. This was followed by a few coats of oil-based sealer to bring out the chatoyancy in the wood grain and will be finished off with an oil-based poly finish. It's a lot of work, but the results are spectacular and this will be good practice for the kitchen cabinets I plan to begin building this winter. Still pictures really don't show the beauty of curly maple very well. Maybe I'll take a video when the doors are totally finished...

Hello Soccer and welcome to WAMAS! I have to say that I am quite impressed. You joined and the first post you make is an offer of assistance for a fellow reefer. You will fit in very nicely around here! P.S. Nice looking nano!

Those locations are usually leased by the club (often one to several hundred dollars per meeting) and your right back at the root problem, finding volunteers to do the planning, setup and cleanup duties.

No, for better or worse, it's actually becoming quite common.

Radio Shack is another option. They have a large assortment of those switches.

Kinda hard to tell from your description. Any pictures?

Paul B: "Fish get Pop Eye all the time" I've been housing fish since 1976 and have never had a fish develop Pop Eye. Ich, velvet and a myriad of other ailments--yes--but never Pop Eye, a symptom I firmly believe to be caused by, or at least related to, poor water conditions and diet.

It's time to post some more pictures of progress on the stand! Picking up where we left off: Finished dimensioning the walnut and beginning to assemble the face frame. I use pocket hole screws for ease of assembly and for the added strength. Face frame is assembled and attached with finish nails and glue, then clamped to dry. Add the top and bottom trim. And it's finally beginning to look like furniture! Stain the walnut to darken it up a bit and to bring out the grain pattern, followed by a hand-rubbed oil-based finish. Cut out the opening for the plumbing and the tank is ready to be loaded up for delivery. The doors will be made of soft curly maple, slightly toned with dye to make the grain pop. Unfortunately the store is out of the dye I need and won't have it until next week, so installation of the doors will probably happen sometime during Thanksgiving week. In the meantime, I reverted to old-school ways and hand planed the maple edges to provide a good edge for the door panel glue-ups. It's a lot more work than using power tools, but well worth the extra effort. And today was the big day for Roni! Roni refused to climb into the tank for the traditional mermaid shot. Maybe once it is in the house and on the stand?

Just like puppies: - Consider what the fish will look like when it matures, not just what it looks like as a juvenile. This can work both ways. Some fish aren't real pretty when they are young, but color up as they grow older. Others have colors that begin to darken, mottle or fade with age and may not be as pretty as they were when they were young. - Consider how long the fish can be expected to live and make sure you are committed for the long haul.

If this is a recent transfer of contents to the new tank, that might help explain the high NO3. You have stirred up waste that was trapped in the sand and rocks and also disturbed the anaerobic bacteria in the rocks and sand bed, basically creating a new tank syndrome. Water changes, increased filtration, and time should allow the NO3 to gradually go down as long as you do not overfeed. My experience is that most starfish are pretty sensitive to high NO3 and will show this by hanging limp, eventually dieing or beginning to lose legs if the condition is not corrected. If he appears to be stressed, I would do at least a 50% water change and be prepared to do more over the next few days/weeks (remember, you will be removing a smaller percentage of the remaining NO3 with each subsequent water change). You might even consider having someone hold the starfish in an established tank until you get things back in line.

Salifert test kits have had a pretty checkered past, with some periods where folks were receiving bad batches of test kits and even the "good" test kits were giving pretty wild readings. Search WAMAS and RC, especially for posts about three years ago, and you will see what I'm talking about. Consider the NO3 readings you are seeing to be useful in comparison to what you normally see when testing your tank water rather than a specific reading that is good or bad. If you normally have readings of 5-10 and now have readings of 25, you can safely assume nitrates have risen considerably (or that your test kit has gone bad). Whether the actual reading is 20, 30, or 40 really doesn't matter at this point. You should also look at the tank itself to see if there are signs of elevated nitrates (e.g. hair algae growing more than usual or sensitive corals beginning to show signs of stress). Unless you are seeing signs of severe stress in your fish or corals, I would not panic about the 25ppm readings you are seeing. The elevated nitrates were there before you conducted the tests and unless your fish or corals are showin sever signs of stress, the nitrates will be fine until tomorrow when you get around to doing a water change. More important is figuring out why the nitrates are so high in the first place so you can address the root cause. Otherwise you will spend a fortune in water changes only to temporarily dilute an issue that will keep coming back.

I always used a small glass to test TDS, thoroughly rinsed with RO/DI before each test. My experience is that use of plastic containers tend to result in increased TDS readings, especially if the water is allowed to sit in the container for any length of time (e.g. in the 50G Brute storage container). Since we're talking about TDS, keep in mind that TDS is not necessarily an indication that there is anything harmful in the water, only that there are charged ions of some type in the water. Some of these impurities can be identified using home tests, but many of them cannot and they are often nothing to worry about. Zero TDS also does not indicate pure water, only the absence of charged ions in the tested sample. It is entirely possible to have water with very high TDS readings that is perfectly safe to drink or to use in our reef tanks or to have water with zero TDS that could contain harmful chemicals such as pesticides. Read this article for more information on this topic.

OK, sounds like you are getting it all figured out already. FWIW, RO membranes will only remove ~90% of nitrates from source water. DI resin should mop up the rest if the resin is not exhausted already. If you are reading nitrates in the effluent after the DI chamber, I would recommend taking a reading just after the RO membrane for a comparison. Same or similar NO3 readings after the RO membrane and after the DI chamber could indicate either a bad test kit, exhausted DI resin, or a contaminated test container.

Welcome to WAMAS! If I'm not confusing you with someone else (I never asked what your screen name was), I met you at the BRK social and we discussed upgrading to a 40G breeder, although I still thing a 75G is the ideal starter tank. Take advantage of all that the club has to offer and don't be afraid to ask questions or to ask for assistance. This is one of the best groups of people you will ever meet and everyone is more than willing to lend a hand.

Lots of things to consider here... Which Salifert test (assuming you are testing for something other than TDS since Salifert tests do not check for TDS AFAIK)? How old is your membrane and DI resin? What is the TDS of your source water vs. the output? Are you measuring RO or RO/DI output? Are you using any intermediary containers for the water that you are testing and all are containers rinsed well with RO/DI water before capturing the water to be tested?

Thanks for hosting another great event Johnny (and team)! Here are a few random pictures for those who couldn't make it to the social:

I saw the acro colonies yesterday--looking good!

Maybe we can work out a deal to rent the super sucker for some of the club tanks!

I did a quick estimate at 10# per square foot and figure the tank will weigh between 650 and 700lbs. Roni on one end and two or three people on the other end should suffice.

Glasscages.com! Perfectly cut glass, smooth edges, excellent and very smooth seals and a warranty that can't be beat! {Just kidding... }