fab

No such implication was made or intended by what I wrote which is "why is it that BRK should refund money for a fish that died in your care?" It is a simple statement of fact, not laced with any hidden meanings. I'm sorry that you lost a fish. It is always sad and it is not without cost to us. The questions I posed in my post are serious questions that I believe all of us hobbyists need to bear in mind. fab

I find that a lot of people in this hobby are always looking for something free or very cheap. That goes against the grain of pragmatic business models that are required for a business to survive and profit. Whenever a customer thinks he should get his money back when something goes wrong, he should quickly answer the question: "How much am I willing to pay so I should expect a refund when something goes wrong?" then answer "How much should a store have to charge to make it to allow a generous refund policy?" I'll bet you can't come up with compatible numbers for the LFS business that is selling to aquarium hobbyists. Everyone wants a great LFS nearby. When an LFS can't make reasonable profits, it can't survive and we lose it. Therein is the basis for the conflict of desires in this situation. As customers we need to regard the value to us of having a viable a LFS business to work with and we need to understand we customers are very much a part of that business' ability to operate to standards we demand. Now why is it that BRK should refund money for a fish that died in your care? How much would you have been willing to pay so that BRK should refund your money? How much do you think BRK would have to charge you for the fish in the first place to cover the likelihood of having to refund yhour purchase in the event it dies? Which of these two numbers is larger? BTW, if you don't know the answer to the second question, then ask BRK. We all need to be realistic about LFS businesses and what it takes for them to provide us [/i] goods and services at prices we can afford an at which they can be viable businesses. Please recognize that the operative word in that last sentence here is QUALITY. fab

I think the article says not to be hung up too much on stability within a daily cycle. Rather make sure you have good buffering and aeration. Then look for long term stability, day-to-day stability, allowing for intra-day swings. Interestingly the article suggests that even fairly large intra-day pH swings can be perfectly acceptable. fab

Extremely clear, practical and useful article. Thanks for passing it on. This one is a keeper. I printed it out. This article alone is worth my entire membership fee for the year. fab

The Neptune Systems Aquacontroller temperature probe failure mode tends to be that it fails with a high reading. If you get a very high reading that doesn't make sense, unplug the probe and read the aquacontroller's temperature indicator. If it reads between 20-25 degrees F, the problem is most likely the temperature probe, not the controller unit. If it reads anything else, the controller unit is suspect. Neptune System's warranty is 90 days for probes and 1 year for their other items. fab

Definitely glue and screw. Liquid nail or equivalents should be fine. Home Depot is switching from Liquid Nail to another product that is supposed to be as strong as or stronger than Liquid Nail. fab

What is the pH of your freshwater source? ... and of your exchange saltwater? fab

I use a SpectraPure UHE RO/DI system with a silica buster resin in the last DI stage. UHE = Ultra high efficiency, their newest system. My raw TDS is about 300-340 ppm. I have obtained water reports fromn the local water authority in the past. fab

Treesprite: try http://www.aquaticspro.ws/shop/advanced_se...ywords=bio+rock

I use Tongs and Aqua Gloves that are very long. fab

Use a voltmeter. They are cheap at RadioShack. Put the red probe in the tank so its metal tip is submerged. Put the other, black, probe on a ground wire; not the grounding wire for your aquarium. Use something connected to the ground lug of your electrical circuit. Read the voltage. Switch the meter between DC and AC readouts. That will tell you if you have a so-called 'stray voltage'f leaking into your tank. If you see much voltage you can track it down by turning off everything and turning your devices on one at a time to see which one produces a significant voltage. Then you can look into how to fix or replace that device. You can do the same thing with your electrical devices. Instead of putting the red probe in the water, touch it to difference devices that are not submerged. Read the voltage, looking for anything not trivially small. Example: put the red probe on the hanging wires of your light fixture. If you see a large voltage reading it is probably not well grounded. There is no need to guess here. Voltmeters are cheap and easy to use. fab

A rimmed tank probably would not have prevented this for long. All the fish has to do is take off a few inches farther away from the tank wall and it will clear the rim. ... the voice of experience, here. fab

Here is a quick contrast between acrylic and glass aquarium construction. Acrylic: Light weight, optically clear, not as brittle as glass (easy to drill), soft material (scratches easily), not stiff (bends and bows). Because the material isn't stiff the bottom must be well supported as tanks get larger Coralline algae tends to grow more heavily on acrylic, mainly due to the scratches. Scratches provide protective valleys for the tiny buds of new coralline to get a hold on your tank walls and they increase the surface area for the coralline algae to grow. More expensive: Acrylic material prices depend on petroleum prices. Glass: Much heavier, thick glass shows 'coca cola bottle' green tint (not optically clear), brittle (more challenging to drill), hard material (difficult to scratch), stiffer. Stiff: Because the material is stiff, the tank's bottom support requirements for a stand are minimal. Heavy: My tank weighs 1500 lbs empty. It is a bit of a job to move it around. Optical purity: Starfire ( a brand) glass is made by a process that eliminates ferrous (iron) content in the glass. This rids the glass of the 'coke bottle' green tint and makes the glass optically clear like acryllic. Material costs about 30% more than regular glass. You will have to judge what thickness of glass produces enough green tint for you to notice. For me the threshold is about 1/4" thick, which means only shallow tanks are not green enough to warrant Starfire glass if the green tint is important. All sides don't have to be made of Starfire glass. You can get them made with whichever sides you want to view through made of Starfire and the other sides and bottom made of regular glass. Can't drill holes if glass is tempered. Much less expensive. Coralline algae will grow on glass, but is a bit easier to keep ahead of because there are no scratches to provide refuge for new (tiny) coralline algae. I absolutely prefer a good starfire glass aquarium for a display tank; using starfire glass on all viewing panels. Support tanks such as sumps, refugia, quarantine/hospital tanks don't have to look good. For these tanks use acryllic for ease of handling if the tanks are large. Use normal glass if support tanks are small ( less than about 75 gallons) for cost savings. fab

Where do you guys get selcon? fab

Here is a bit of clarification on the Neptune Systems serial cable and connector issue. The serial connector cable that Neptune systems offers is for the AC jr and prior AC models. AC3 and AC3 Pro don't need it because they are set up for ethernet connections. The serial cable uses the minidin 8 pin connector that is the old style Apple MacIntosh serial port connector. That is why they are not very common anymore.