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.

The ground isolated serial connector breaks up ground loops between your PC and the AquaController. Electrical ground loops form when a serial connection is made with your computer and can cause erroneous pH and ORP readings. This occurs because your computer chassis ground and your aquarium ground are most likely slightly different from each other. That means there is a small voltage drop between your computer ground and your aquarium. That small voltage difference is what throws off the readings of your pH and ORP probes. Unfortunately, the error in your readouts will not be constant, so you can't calibrate out the error. The voltage fluctuates and shows up in your readings, so you have no idea how much pH or ORP error you have in your readings. That pretty much obviates the whole purpose of having the controller and accurate probes in the first place. Install a ground isolated serial connector in the series with the serial cable from the AquaController to break these ground loops and eliminate this contribution to error in your probe readouts. It always amazes me how people want to scrimp and save on items that control the water quality that very expensive aquaria content depend on. Don't try to go the cheap route in the wrong places. Buy both the cable and the ground isolated serial connector. fab The minidin 8 pin connector is used for Apple Macintosh serial ports. This connector connects to the Aquacontroller. The cables can be extended with cables that have db-9 connectors, easily found in any computer store. fab

The serial cable is just a computer serial cable. You need to use the ground isolated serial connector to avoid seriously biased pH readings. Unfortunately, this is not a cheap item. The lab grade probe is NOT more accurate or precise. It is just better built to last longer. I think it is worth it. The AC jr is a nice unit until you outgrow it. Then you will wish you had the AC III. Only you can judge that issue. I think dhoch's comment about the 12 timer limitation is significantly important and you should regard it carefully. Please PM me. fab

Good explanation at: Aquasurf

I used a few peppermint shrimp and a Copperbanded Butterfly fish. Aptasia were gone within a few days and I haven't seen a single one since. Unfortunately, I don't know whether the shrimp got them or the Copperbanded Butterfly fish did, but they are gone. Frankly, I don't care who got them. fab

I do not understand how a PAR meter helps to determine how much useful life is left in a metal halide. What makes a metal halide bulb no longer useful is a shift in the power spectrum it emits, not the total amount of light energy it emits. I thought that PAR meters simply measure total emitted energy. In order to know the distribution of power has shifted within the spectrum I would thing that you would have to have a device that measures the light energy coming from the lamp at different wavelengths. Does the PAR meter have a bank of wavelength specific filters to allow you to make such measurements? fab

What is the probem with pickling lime? What do you know or observe that leads to this statement? thanks, fab

1. Ich has no "T" in it. Ich is slang for Ichthyophthirius. 2. This is a protozoan parasite disease. 3. It would be a good project for you to do over the Christmas holidays to study up on the life cycle of the culprit parasite and learn why people keep saying to move affected fish into a quarantine tank and leave it there for 3-4 weeks. There is a specific reason for this that relates to the length of the life cycle and the phases within the cycle of the parasite. Most write-ups I've seen with good diagrams of the life cycle and of the parasite are only a few pages long, so it is not a huge undertaking, and the result will be new knowledge that you will use a lot in this hobby. 4. The use of a UV sterilizer fits nicely into the story of the life cycle, particularly during the so-called swimming phase. The UV will zap the little buggers as they get drawn into the UV illumination tube. BTW, a quarantine tank should simply be a glass or acrylic tank with water in it, heated and filtered and, optionally fitted with a UV sterilizer. You might throw in a couple of pieces of PVC pipe or fittings big enough in diameter for the fish to hide inside. The tank can be totally austere and do quite well. good luck, fab

Corals are not concerned with the ambience of their surrounding environment, other than water quality, light and food. They do great in penetentiary style quarters. When I scuba dive on shipwrecks I see corals in places that are not at all attractive but are well lit. Often these wreck sites look worse than penetentiaries and the corals and the fish are just as happy as can be. fab

Handle simple things simply. Don't rush to panic. I've had these kinds of problems happen to me as a seller. UPS does lose packages. You can request the seller initiate a trace via UPS. That will put him in touch with UPS and will help him figure out the tracking number with them. Just ask the guy to call you and talk on the phone. If you can't get him to call you then you have a problem. Do try to work it out with him. Fear and hostility will get you nowhere with internet purchases. You can also request that he refund you the money. Just tell him you can't wait any longer. He has the problem that he has supposedly shipped product to you, so he won't want to refund. But just asking him may spur him to more action. Later, tell him you may have to file a PayPal dispute. You can look on PayPal to find the answer to your question about how long you have to file. It's not a short time like a couple of weeks, it is much longer, but check it yourself on PayPal's website. Also, try UPS yourself at www.ups.com. Their tracking numbers start with "1z" so what you have isn't quite right, but UPS may be able to help you. Ask him to work through UPS. He is the shipper and UPS prefers to work with the person who paid them for the shipping. fab

Quiet One pumps. Very quiet, very reliable, submersible. You say you need about 1800 gph. But at what head pressure? Pumps ratings are published for 0 ft of head pressure. It is unlikely you'll operate it at 0 head. The Quiet One 9000 is rated at 2300 gph. At 4' of head it is about 2000 gph. It drops to about 1800 gph at 6 ft of head pressure. The next Quiet One pump up is the model 14000 which drops to 1800 gph at about 8 ft of head. fab PM me.