thedude

I also think the Coralvue skimmers are fantastic skimmers for the money but would NEVER use on HOB. They are a micro bubble factory.

Servo, Agree completely in that the vendor should not be held responsible for these problems. The bottom line, is that we are dealing with a live, wild product and that certain precautions need to be taken. This just further shows reefers to dip. John

You wrote CS135 twice, what new model is the 8-2?

Stephen, Their customer service at Aqua C is fantastic but their skimmers (other than HOB) are rather old school. I'm not a fan of injection style skimmers as they fluctuate with water tension and are often difficult to dial in. They also use much larger pumps and therefore more electricity to operate. That being said, custom becketts rip out some really great skimmate after they're properly adjusted. John

I didn't like Seachem Reefsalt at all. I experienced extremely high borate alkalinity levels which my corals did not appreciate.

Or spot feed corals more. The key to this is.... YOU NEED TO BE TESTING

Jebo skimmers, yes they are a huge piece of junk. Jebo, while occasionally putting out a decent product, uses very inferior materials and lacks all the research put into the needlewheel driven protein skimmers. They manufacture all their products in China which cuts down cost, but also quality. The skimmer in question uses an offbrand pump, that sucks in air through a venturi. This air is then "injected" into the water column and bubbles are produced. The thing that we don't know, is how much air is injected. Most large skimmer companies spend mucho dinero on R&D to get the most air/water mix into their reaction chambers. Deltec, H&S, and Euroreef ALL use patented needlewheel designs to chop any air going into the skimmer into tiny fine bubbles, increasing surface area thus skimming potential. If you're looking for a skimmer to replace a Prizm, I would go with either the Aqua C Remora Pro, or the Deltec MCE300. The MCE300 is a new product, of which only 25 will be coming into the country in October. It's rated for a 75 gallon tank, uses 6w of electricity, and has a pricepoint of around $255. The Aqua C Remora is also a very capable skimmer with great customer surface just utilizes an entirely different skimming method. It uses what is called "spray injection" I believe.

Ok since you add phosphate religiously it could be the exact opposite of my first statement, not enough phosphate. The only way to know is with a high sensitivity test kit.

Unfortunately it's no longer available. I'm going to be using it as a QT.

The calcium reactor was on way too much and boosted your alkalinity up. If you try one again, try putting the CO2 on a timer and running it only during daylight hours. Phosphate is another major contributor to brown outs. John

It was bad Gabe, if I had put those corals into my tank I would have been really pissed at myself. I'm going over dips this weekend before I even frag.

All, If you got a coral from MACNA, mainly from extreme corals, chances are you've let some parasites lose into your tank. Until I get an answer from Steve Bird about where some of his acros came from, I'll assume the infection was limited to the Extreme Corals tanks. I came home from MACNA with three frags for myself and 7 that I'm holding for Steve Bird. Working with Extreme Corals before and recognizing that they deal with MANY MANY wild colonies of corals, I decided an incredibly careful dip was in order. When I dipped, I found flatworms, acropora eating flatworms, and the best one... 25 or so montipora eating nudibranchs WITH EGGS chewing on BOTH colonies of superman montipora purchased from them. This is a warning to all of ya'll but I HOPE you dipped your corals. John

FYI, the vitamin supplements we used in our food last meeting contain B12

I have 2 guesses for you Stephen. The Prism isn't doing the job you need it to, and the water has serious phosphate in it. Unfortunately, I know the latter for a fact. Give me a call if you'd like to discuss it with me as I'd be happy to give you some suggestions. John

I'll be bringing about 50 free frags from my new business venture. I'll start a new thread about it with pictures soon. John

Oh Eric's presentation is probably my top priority for the weekend!

I'd really consider saving the extra hundred dollars and going with the 135. It also gives you plenty of room to upgrade in the future.

What used to be called the Euroreef CS 6-2 is by far their best skimmer in my opinion. I believe it's the first skimmer in their like that begns using the Sedra 3000. The skimmer I'm referring to is http://www.petstore.com/ps_ViewItem-Search...-Euro_Reef.html and hsd the perfect sized pump for the body making it the most efficient model.

Yeah hopefully I get to chop Joe's tank up

Yeah it all depends if I'd rather see the presentation or go to the demos. I'll be there all weekend and take notes to let you all in on what I learned.

I think everyone will be at the bar so feel free to meet there!

Actually I'm pretty sure Joe and I were going to do some kind of fragging demo.

First off, I want to know how many of you ARC members are planning on going, then those that aren't, what would you like me to report on? John

So... I don't think the Lowe's around here carries it as I looked for about 1 1/2 hours and couldn't even find an employee who knew ANYTHING about it. Another really fun fact is that the Lowe's computer system cannot search items by name. Gabe there is a good chance I'll be soliciting your help for one of these dontknow.gif

Marine Depot is also running a sale on Euroreef skimmers right now that you might want to check out.