thedude

Tunze pumps are solid. No real plumbing or drilling issues, low power consumption, audible alarm if the pump stops working. They truly are worth the huge price tag. That being said, this is a BIG reef, so why not do both? The wavebox is also awesome but I wonder if you'd need an extension for a tank that large.

Gabe got it, Natural Salt Water. One of my goals at home is to continually monitor my tank conditions and try to achieve something as natural as possible. This means for me: PH:8.0-8.3 Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate: 0 Calcium: 420-460 Alk: 8

I try to keep my magnesium closer to NSW levels at 1400. I also run calcium a little higher than 400 though at 420-450.

Those are great explanations. Many people also don't realize that Magnesium is the second most prevalant ion in saltwater, second only to salt. John

As far as I understand it, it doesn't play any real relationship with PH and alk, but most definitely does with calcium. Magnesium allows calcium to stay suspended in the water column and not precipitate out. I don't think an elevated magnesium level would cause any harm but try to drop it by about 100.

Done Mike, it's all yours and I'll call you when I actually have it in hand.

We can all see that this is something that the people in Austin are extremely interested in. We're at what, day three and we already have 20 member! Mad props again out to Andrew for getting this thing going and thanks for everyone singing up and spreading the word! John

Yeah I did get the media, just waiting for UPS to actually drop it off. And I'll have half a bucket or so left if anyone is interested. John

Yeah

Looks similar to black ich or marine velvet that delevops on tangs fairly easily... The main clown diseases are ich (not ich at least the common variety in this case), lymphocitis (large smooth white lesions... not this), or brooklynella which would be my only guess at this point. What have you been feeding him and what are you water conditions at? It almost looks like the anemone could have stung him as well. Are you feeding the anemone on a regular basis? Also, when was the clown introduced? John FYI: The reason I said Marine Velvet is the fish will often rub up against things and your clown doesn't show any real external parasites that I'm common with. This is a great read on marine velvet http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/...hl%3Den%26lr%3D

AA carries it but honestly, buy the bigger bucket as you'll save some serious money long term. Let someone up there know you want the 4 liter bucket of Hydrocarbon (I believe) and we'll special order some of the bigger ones in. Premium Aquatics and Marine Depot carry it as well, and the sales people at PA are just outstanding. John

Yeah the Aquamedic skimmers are a royal PITA to adjust. They also experienced some HUGE setbacks when their entire US inventory burned along with their warehouse in early January. They just know have been able to start shipping their products again. Let me know if you need the number or email for Aqua-medic and I'll see if I can find it. John

All, Recently, the new trend in high end SPS keeping is to utilize some type of probiotic filtration method. This originally was only accomplished through the Zeovit method (www.zeovit.com) but quite honestly, the technology behind doesn't make any sense to me, and there is way too good a chance of nuking your tank. Another factor is the hefty price tag. I've come across two new companies marketing new products and wanted to let you all take a look at them as well. The first product is called Prodibio and all information and sales are going through www.robsreef.com . Marc Levenson (Melev) of DFWMAS is currently experimenting with this method and I'm very curious to see it's effects in his tank. The second is called System Reef-resh and is distributed by a Canadian company at www.polyplab.com. They also have a high quality soft coral food that I should be receiving any day now. Check them out as I think they are quite possibly the next filter additive. John

I've heard of airgas but have no idea where they are exactly. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, John

I understand where you're coming from as if this skimmer is similar to his bigger brother, the shorty, it's a real pain to adjust the water level. The instructions are sparse and the "adjustors" don't really adjust anything. The only thing I've found is to put a ball valve on the feed pump to limit water coming into the body, and actually take the "adjustors" out and look at them. They're fairly easy to see the theory behind how they work. Another option would be to talk to Aquamedic tech support as they're based in Denver and should be able to help you. John

The only real problem I see with dripping anything into the fuge is because of the low current., things have a tendency to settle. You might get a settling of both calcium from the reactor and for sure any undissolved kalk. I've seen many people drip the effluent line into their skimmers input (to take care of any excess CO2) or their output to mix it into the water column. Kalk I usually drip into the overflow to get it to mix in the sump. John

For all of you that have taken my advice and made the switch to Hydro Carbon II by Two Little Fishies, the results are obvious, but I thought I'd post a link to the test that backs up what I've been saying. Take your time and actually read it as it is very interesting. http://www.pets-warehouse.com/carbon.htm