barderer

frag tank

correction clear some hair algae from some rocks with coral on them

I need to use a sea hare for about 2 days to clear some rocks from some coral I bought. Anyone got one up for rent?

interesting effects. Sounds like a nasty experience. What type of zoo was it?

Yeah that seems like a repackaged version of the dow flake solution.

I am trying to decide how I am going to dose calcium in my frag tank and I want to use kalk because its simple and easy and I can use my existing top off system. Ca reactor is out the question because of up front cost. I wanted to do the DIY three part system using dow flake etc...but getting the materials in the south is hard and there are the concerns with the excess build up unwanted ions due to the powders lack of purity as needed per its intended application. I wanted to know what you guys thought of this. Dosing Kalk with vinegar

http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/breefcase/kalkwasser.html

Also, if I dose kalk do I have to dose magnesium as well? What is a good cheap DIY way with materials that can be found locally?

Thanks,

Nick

there is a slug that eats it and only it. If you can find it...that will solve your problem. Just scrap it off the rick with your finger nail and do a water change and its gone.

note some zoo eating slugs are rumored to eat aiptasia. Try placing the slug in a jar with a aiptasia infested rock and see what happens.

hmm that one looks different from the 1st one. The first one looked interesting because of the white tips it had which make it look like

http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=aeolstep

but I think since you are dipping your zoos and they are falling off its a good bet to say they are the zoo eating kind. Are you zoos disappearing?

At the meeting we discussed auto top offs and I brought up the gravity driven auto top off which is a good choice in certain situations like when you have a small tank or a large area for your sump, or don't care about looks. Oh and also its dirt cheap and probably one of the most reliable systems. I just constructed a super ghetto auto top off system for my super ghetto frag tank and thought I would post how it is done.

This auto top off has a snail guard, quick connects, and adjustable water level latch. If you don't include these extras you can build this for 8 bucks. But as is it is $15 dollars.

Materials.

2 1/4" quick connect to 1/2 screw in adapters - $3

2 1/2" straight to 1/2" screw PCV adapters - $.50

a foot or so of 1/2" PVC -$.25

1/4" tubing of choice, I like poly tube as it rigid and good for going through stoppers. $3

Number 10 stopper from the home brew store $1.50

5 gallon water jug from H.E.B $5

2 1/2" PVC snap tub holders $.50

1 blue PVC electrical outlet box(Perfect snail guard) - $.36

1 suction cup thing from a power head - $?

Tools

Drill with 7/32(the one right below 1/4) bit

number 3 metric alan wrench for pushing tube through stopper

silicon sealant

pvc glue

cutters

Step 1.

Drill two holes through stopper with bit. You want the holes to be as close to air tight as possible so drill with a smaller bit then lubricate the holes with olive oil/mineral oil and put alan wrench through hole. Place tube over end of alan wrench and push through. The alan wrench will give you nice leverage so the tube should slide right through. Run one tube long enough to reach the bottom of the jug, and the other just long enough to get through the stopper. Wipe off oil and seal the tubes to the stopper with silicon. You can attach a piece of spare PVC to the siphon tube so it stays at the bottom of the jug. Note: you can also just use rigid tubing to go through the stopper but, eh, I didn't have any.

Final stopper assembly

Step 2.

Assemble snail guard and water level control. Attach suction cups to the back of box. In my case I just made two cuts and slide the suction cup block on the box. Attach the two 1/2" PVC tube holders to the inside of the box. Assemble 1/2" PVC, quick connectors and caps into one short tube(siphon output) and one long tube(water level control). When you are done it should look like this.

Step 3.

Fill Jug with water, place above sump or in this case tank. Set water level by moving water level control tube up or down to the desired level. Snap holder shut. Connect everything and start a siphon with the siphon drain tube and quick connect it to the siphon drain pvc connection. Bam! your auto top off is running. Snails can't stop it, You can adjust water level control just by moving the PVC tube up and down, and it almost never fails. Some things to watch out for. Make sure you run the water level control tube long enough or high enough such that the vacuum created by the siphon can't draw water up the water level control tube. Make sure your jug is placed high enough such that your siphon is strong and won't break by sucking air once the vacuum in the jug is created.

I hope someone finds this useful.

don't know if its too late to RSVP but I am going to try and stop by. Will be my first meeting.

Nick

Is there a coating out there that one can apply to plexiglass or glass that prevents or inhibits condensation?

That clam is bigger than my tank . I agree its worth 300 in terms of time and money you put into it, ppl just don't like forking over that much for livestock for some reason hehe. I hope you get a good price.

N

that clam looks great! GL selling it at that price though.

there is no way you can positivly ident that from the underside like that. Although I do agree it was wise to remove it while its an unknown. It could be an aptasia eating nudi as well. Don't kill it yet, can you take a photo of the front and post it so I can id it for you.

http://www.berghia.net/market_size.html

Nick

you should post the user name of this guy so we know not to deal with him.

Thanks for the frag, mounted, polyps are out and it looks great.

Nick

where is the heart guys!

Hey Guys,

I am going to make a section of a frag tank completely devoted to growing macro for my other tanks/food/filtering etc. So if anybody has an excess of a particular species of macro I would love to come grab some and of course see your tank.

Nick

Does anyone have or know of a place I can get a good deal on used or basic MH fixtures. I am looking for something in the range of 150-250 watts. It does not need to look good it just needs to function well as I am using it for a frag tank.

Any tips/sites or info is welcome...

Thanks,

Nick

Yellow polyp under natural sun light. Hopefully I at least get a vote this time

Closed it's probably 2 1/2 inches. I'll try to get a photo of it tonight.

Dena

Can you post that photo publically? I am curious as to what it is

Can I suggest testing a mix of instant ocean to use as a baseline for comparison? Also, the same water source should be used in all the tests if they are going to be very few tests. If we collect many tests of the same mix than results from multiple water sources could be interesting.

found any live clams in there yet?

jesus...