ReefMon

I used to do residential/commercial water treatment, and VA well water runs from fantastically clean to ridiculously nasty. What colors are the stains in your bathroom fixtures? Green = Acid Red = Iron Brown = turbidity Calcium deposits = hard water I'd suggest you call a water treatment company for a free analyses (Sears, Culligan, RainSoft, etc), but if your handy with a torch & pipe cutter you can buy & install the filtration equipment yourself for a fraction of thier price. As for the RO/DI water: What is the TDS of the incoming water? The RO should bring it down 90%-95%. So if the well water is running 1000 PPM, you will be in the 100-50 PPM output which is good, but running 100-50PPM through your DI carts is going to eat them up super fast. You may find after adding a water softener & acid filter things will improve. HTH Glenn

Aloha! I'm running dual 400 watt PFO M-58's and mine were bright crisp white from day one. If they give you a hard time about it, bring your's by (when I get back) and we can shoot some comparison pics to send them. G

Water changes, lots of carbon and a Poly-Filter Pad. What type of powerhead was it?

Yes, it should have a pH of 7, but because it's 99.99% pure there is nothing buffering it, and that makes it practilly impossable to measure.

When did you last change your bulbs? Old bulbs will shift red and fuel the algae growth.

RO/DI is 99.99% pure, it has no measurable pH. The only "buffer" you should add to your RO/DI make-up water is Kalkwasser, the commercial RO aquarium buffers are for freshwater and have no place in a marine aquarium. HTH Glenn

ACME Plastics in Alexandria will have it in 4'x8' sheets. I think USPlastics.com will sell ½ sheets. HTH Glenn R

I paid Chip for the plastic on my 2 units and the Kalk. I still owe for the pumps, fittings & etc. If you want I can PayPal you the $$ or get a check to Chip.

Acropora SP is the most delicate of the corals we keep in captivity. You must have a stable system and optimum water parameters IE: Zero Am, No2 & No3, Alk 8-10 dKh, 400+/- Ca, pH 8.0-8.4 and temp between 77-83+/-. They need intense lighting, most need MH, but some can survive under PC or VHO. Water flow is extremely important, lots of gentle flow, but no direct blasts, pointing a powerhead directly at one is a sure way to damage or kill it. Their skin is less than tissue paper thick, and it doesn't take much for them to stress out and either bleach (expel their zooxanthella) or to completely loose their tissue (dead) Temperature acclimation is the most important. **Personally I float the bags just long enough to equalize the temp, then mount and place them in the tank without doing any water acclimation, my thinking is better water conditions are much more important than slow acclimation. **This is my personal method, it works for me, but is generally not recommended!** I picked up 4 frags from Dr Mac at the meeting, all of them are doing fine in my system, and I didn't get them home until around 10:00 that night. A side note, the frags Dr Mac had at the meeting were the first he's grown out under 100% natural sunlight, and the coloration of them is so much better that anything I've gotten from him in the past (grown under 20K MH's)

6 lines are great. Copperbanded Butterflys have questionable survivability rates, and may pick on corals. Adding a new tang with a Powder Blue already in the tank my prove to be a problem, as PBT's are probably one of the most territorial tang's around and will put up quite a fight with any new tang. I agree with Miller, a pigmy angle like a Flame or Coral Beauty would be a nice addition. Just be sure the new addition is well quarantined before adding, as the PBT is a major ich magnet.

Tubastraea SP are non photosynthetic, so low light is good. Direct feeding them is a must, preferably the same time every day to train them to open up. Bob and Tamie (Cowrie) have been keeping one for a few years now, feel free to ask them for any advice.

You can get a pick-up truck from Enterprise, Budget, Avis etc for around $50 per day.

Welcome to WAMAS Andrew! Looking forward to meeting you at the Fragfest on Saturday! BTW, what are the LFS's like in the Richmond area? As I'd like to visit some on my next trip down to see my son at VCU.

Invoice were finally sent, and I will be bringing the shirts to the Fall Workshop!

I really don't want to admit this, but: 180 gallon Reef: 1200 W Halides 320 W VHO 90 Gallojn Reef: 500 W Halides 440 W VHO 50 Gallon Reef 360 W VHO Total: 2860 Watts

No problem, just let me know when your ready.

yep the 2 small tubes are for you, and the large one is all mine!

Common sense tells me it's not worth the chance. A new 40 breeder is like $60-70, is it worth risking your entire system? As for the science, ask Randy Holmes-Farley on RC.

Ditto! [crzy]

No problem, I was able to reduce my Weldon order to 2 small & 1 large tubes.

I think some gift certificates to Outback is a good plan for James & his Buddy! (unless they are Veg heads, then Indian or Sushi) We can order Weldon #16 for $2.75 a tube here http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=132& Looks like were going to need 6+ tubes. Chip, how much more #3 do you have? ($13.90 a quart at TAPplastics.com) Or maybe I can swing by Acme later this week...

I have a bunch of commitments for Sunday afternoon, but will try to drop by sometime between 3:00 & 5:00 to pick-up/pay/glue?

Krish, When you speak to them today, please ask for a donation to our Fall Workshop raffle. They can contact me or Craig at glenn@ or craig@ wamas.org Thanks!

Here are the unedited but resized pictures. Kalkwasser Reactor Photos As soon as the reactors are done we'll get a Reactor Making party page put up on the site!

I would prefer having 90's on the outlet of the reactor! Thanks!