fab

tygger, Have you tested the backup switch recently to see if it still works? fab

I've seen a very interesting tank layout that you might try using a single tank. There is a live rock mount in the middle ( actually a bit off-center looks best). The mount actually extends vertically above the surface by 1-3 inches as though it is an island coming up from a lagoon. The mount extends horizontally from the front glass to the rear glass. It doesn't have to be in a straight line from front to back. The mount totally separates the two sides of the tank, except for small holes and crevices within the structure of the mount. You could build this strictly out of rock, using some ties to lash rocks together or using acrylic rods as tie-bars to hold rock together. Or you could use egg-crate material in the middle, left to right, of the mount but hidden within the rock structure to improve the barricade value of the mount as a divider. You can use plastic cable ties to tie rock to the egg-crate to add stability. You can use live sand on neither, either or both sides, as you prefer. The mount slopes down into the depth of the tank with a slightly concave surface to a relatively flat area on the FOWLR side. The mount slopes down to the reef structure on the reef side. Water flow through the reef moves from the FOWLR side to the reef side and then switches direction so the flow alternates direction every minute or so. You can disrupt the alternation of the flow so that it flows only from the FOWLR side when you want to feed or do floor cleaning activities. You need a long enough tank to give up about 18"-24 in the center to the structure of the mount, depending on how deep your tank is. If you want to line up two tanks side-by-side you can do a variation of the center mount by having the rock in the two tanks come up to an equal elevation against their adjacent walls so the geometry appears to flow continuously between the two tanks. The tank that I saw that uses this scheme planted mangroves and other plants near the top of the mount. I did not particularly like the look of the mangrove plantings because they seemed to be out of scale with the size of the mount. There were other small plants used that looked really good. They were small and more to a compatible scale. Sorry but I do not know which kinds of plants they were. fab

do you remember where you read that iodine supplemetation was 'necessary' or even 'desirable?' fab

If you look directly (normal to) the glass there is no reflection. You see straight through. When you look at an angle (off-axis, or off-normal) any reflection you see, however faint, will not be your own. It will be of other things, things that are on the other side of the point of incidence of your line of sight with the glass. Mainly though, until you achieve a very shallow grazing angle to the glass you will see through it. The index of refraction would produce a lense effect (magnification and distortion) were the glass curved. But the glass is not curved in most tanks. It is curved in bows, circles and arcs, and wavy tanks. lanman: I'll bet you won't see yourself when you get down into your tank and look out. Let us know, it will be interesting to know for sure. fab

When a fish approaches the glass, why would it see a reflection? Is the glass backed with reflective material? fab

I will be interested to find out if the fish actually is colored the way the photo shows it is. It looks to me like the photo was shot with Fuji positive film under special lighting conditions. Underwater photographers often prefer Fuji film because of its high degree of color saturation that sometimes give almost cartoonish coloration relative to Kodak films which usually yield gentler colors. I've dived with these fish many times in the Red Sea and many times in various locations around the Indian and the Indo-Pacific Oceans and have never noticed them to be colored any differently from their cousins anywhere in the Indian Ocean, even as far away as Australia. I do hope your fish comes in with these fabulous colors as it would be an unusually beautiful specimen. Good luck, fab

Dan, You haven't disclosed why you are asking for this data, so I don't know what problem you are trying to solve. I do have some thoughts for you, based on my guess at what you might be trying to determine. If you are trying to determine the consistency of Instant Ocean Salt across a number of different batches or different folks' salt mix, then you would do well to obtain samples of the salt from everyone and run your own test using water from your single source. That would rule out variances in source water and in mixing ratios and in test kits. Come up with a 'standard' test quantity to use, e.g., 1 cup of salt for each test to eliminate variances in mixing ratio. I'd bet that you could get everyone in Wamas who would give you this data to give you a sample of their salt, enough to do your standard test. They could take it to the BRK social next weekend in a ziplock baggie marked with the info you need and there name and contact info. In fact, if they have already run the test and have the data, you could ask them to write their data on the baggie, also. fab

dhogan, Thanks, good post. I was missing that information. So the construction of a Single Ended MH bulb has a built-in UV Filter to protect against exposure and the shield is not a UV filter. It is just a mechanical protection for splash. But with the double ended bulbs the shield is the UV Filter. That's valuable information. I've seen folks with MH lights elevated so the lights are clearly visible and have worried about the UV exposure. I hope everyone will take this information and be very careful when using the double ended bulbs. The damage can be severe. fab

On your other note... about the lights and the UV shield... Why wouldn't you use the shield? UV is not eye-safe. It could play havoc with anyone who looks into the bulb when it is on. Plus if you work underneath the lights you risk skin problems that could lead to other serious complications down the road. The problem is you don't realize it is doing severe damage that takes a while to manifest. Then it's way too late. I doubt even a good pair of UV protection sunglasses would be adequate to protect you from those bulbs. Is there something I am missing here? It seems patently obvious that you should use the UV filter shield for personal safety, particularly if there are kids around. That said, maybe there is something about the bulb construction I don't understand that makes it eye-safe. fab

with an "o" http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=homosote with an "a" http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=homasote Home Depot: Alexandria #4603 400 S Pickett St Alexandria, VA 22304 (703)823-1900 Homosote in stock in lumber department, 4x8 sheets 1/2" thick (gray looks like compressed paper ) Took 3 minutes to get this info, including phone call to lumber department. Hope it helps, good luck. It's great stuff. If you ever want a dart board, this is the best stuff there is for a backerboard. Just cover a 3x4 piece with indoor outdoor carpeting with a low nap. You can use contact cement to do it. Fabulous dart board backer. Also makes a great work surface for a lot of projects. Cheap, disposable after a while. fab

Wally's Aquarium was around back then. His was the high-end place to go. There were several tropical fish stores on the Virginia side, even then. And yes, the department stores had a tropical fish department. Things have really changed. I used to supply Wally's Aquarium with a lot of fish back then. Wally's was near Wilson Blvd and Glebe road in Arlington, Va. in a small stand alone building. I guess I-66 might go through the old site now, not sure. fab

Glass or acrylic? If glass, 1.) two credit cards of gap in the middle is a lot. 2.) one credit card of gap is still possibly too much. The tank has to bend and warp to make up the difference. That ends up putting a constant directional static load on the glue joints that adds to the forces when the tank is loaded. Unfortunately these forces produce bending moments that are trying to break the bottom. A great way to help mitigate any final minor irregularities in the stand surface is to use a layer of 1/2" thick homosote board between the plywood and the tank. If you really want to, you can put your foam pad on top of the homosote. Homosote is cheap at home depot and is extremely easy to cut to shape with a saw, best to use a circular saw of some kind. fab

If I understand what I've read above, it sounds like your tank sits on your stand in such a way that it appears that the stand has a hump somewhere between the ends of the tank. Is that correct? If that is a correct interpretation then if you rock tank on the hump so that one end of the tank is flat to the stand, how high above the stand is the bottom of the other end of the tank? That distance, however small determines the stress you will put on the glass and the seams as the weight of the tank's contents tries to bend the tank to conform to the stand's surface. This also presumes there is only one high spot that you are dealing with. fab

Treesprite, I started with freshwater about a hundred years ago. At one time I had 55 tanks running. Several were display tanks, most were breeding and experimention tanks. That was during the early 70's. I had a couple of adjacent rooms and most of a nice basement directly below those rooms dedicated to the hobby. Bred a lot of fish: Guppies, Gouramis, Betta Splendens, Angelfish and others. I was the first person anywhere near our area to breed Black Lace Long Veiltail Angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare), late 60's and early 70's. In fact, in those days those were extremely rare fish to find at all. Eventually, I grew pairs that overcrowded a 55g tall with just the two of them in the tank. Their dorsal fins lay on the surface while pelvic and anal fins reached to the bottom. Had to build custom tanks to get the height right for them. They ended up breeding like clockwork. I never had to separate the fry from the parents. I and a friend experimented with breeding multi-generations to develop traits systematically. I don't think acrylic tanks existed back then. Of course, we used stone tools then. Our tanks were built with metal frames, glass sides and slate bottoms. I made some with glass bottoms and was considered an outlander for it. I actually got snubbed by folks who saw them. They believed fish could not live over glass bottoms; rather they had to have slate. According to them (opinions, not knowledge) glass bottoms were unnatural and the fish would freak out, stress and die. We glued these monster tanks together with a black tar like paste that oozed when it got warm, was hard to get off your hands, impossible to get off your clothes. It was particularly bad when it oozed after a tank was built and had water and gravel in it. Of course it would ooze out of the bottom seam onto the table or stand. Dem's were de good ole days... I will probably put up a Neon Tetra tank like treesprite's, black back and substrate, mirrored sides, bright green plants and a school of dozens of neons, but no slate and tar construction. fab

You must use very strong lemonade (normally about ph= 3.8) in your tank. Isn't a pH of 3.1 acidic enough to rust glass! Coca Cola runs a pH of about 2.8. That'll rust your stomach. fab

Go all the way... 8'x4' x3' tall. You will love the 4' from front to back. Then you can justify a lot of nice sized support tanks. fab

going into Warrenton from which direction? fab

They probably just fuse the glass. I've seen Cube Masters Nano tanks that have fused seams like this, except they do seam the bottoms. fab

What does this mean? What material did you use for the bottom under the stand? How did you make the 'lip'? ... out of what? thanks, fab

What size tank? They get big. fab

ORA fab

What is the white liner at the bottom of the stand? Looks nice? Could you provide some details on it, please? fab

From the link you provided above: Looks pretty clear to me that you should expect these guys to eat your fish. Lobsters are omnivores. I've never heard of a lobster that was not mainly carniverous. fab

What is the difference between a landslide tumbling down directly onto the glass versus onto a piece of plastic that is lying flat on the glass? The total force of the rocks falling will be transmitted to the glass bottom in either case. I doubt the presence of a plastic sheet will reduce the forces felt by the glass enough to matter. I suppose you could argue that some kind of sandwich or egg crate material might abosrb some of the energy in stopping the fall so that it does not transmit into the glass bottom. I rather doubt, though, that the energy absorption would amount to much, percentage-wise. fab

You are welcome for the "read." Also, please note the condition I cited in the first sentence... It appears in your situation, these conditions are not met, so the equality of evaporation rate ( inches / day) would not hold, just as your experience shows. Your original question does remain unanswered. You say you are doing water changes to control pH and calcium buffering levels in a tiny ecosystem. How much swing do you think you are observing without water changes? Use that information as the basis for figuring out what quantity of water change you need to keep the quality parameters in check. I can only guess that a quart, which is about 12% change in your 2 gallons of water, is a pretty hefty size change if done on a per week basis. When you get up to 2 quarts you are replacing 25% which is a huge amount. It is unclear whether you gain anything on a net basis by performing such large water exchanges, much less so frequently. Try letting your tank go for a couple or a few weeks so you can monitor the parameters frequently, daily, that you are trying to control with the water changes. Then figure out what you need to do. Of course, if the parameters start getting bad during this observation period, then stop monitoring and fix them. BTW, It will be interesting to see the results of a monitoring period like I mentioned above. If you do this activity, please share the parameter traces and your conclusions. good luck, fab