classclownfish

Sounds like a lot of fun. I have no kids but I'd want to do that myself. How often do they do this?

Thank you. I didn't get a reply right away so I ended up just adding 2 to my order on Marine Depot. I prefer giving local shops business if I can, but I needed some soon as I may be getting a foster animal in my tank this week. I've done the knot in air tubing but I am a big fan of spending a few bucks to make things easier. It was only like $8 for it and if it works well then it's money well spent. Any device that makes adding fish easier is always a plus but especially if the device allows me to start a siphon without risking getting water in my mouth ;-)

And please forgive a few of the awful typos/grammar errors. I posted as I was multitasking my damage control/clean up efforts.

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind

Since I am in an apartment I have an indoor work bench I took my first attempt at using a router with acrylic today. (good news) It worked great (good news) No matter how many power tools you have used inside I don't recommend using a router with acrylic indoors. I have acrylic specs in almost ever corner of my 10X10 office (bad news) But the teeth are in my baffles are turning out well. But I know for next time. Thank good news I own a shop vac since I do other tool work in my home office. lol

Does someone here know which shop in town might have one of these in stock or something similar?

I'm glad I live in the middle of town. I wouldn't have even know we HAD a storm if it wasn't for the wet ground this morning. I heard some rain hitting my bedroom window in the middle of the night. Correction my dog heard it and decided to wake me up to let me know it was raining. But other than that brief time I woke up to hear rain hitting lightly my window I wouldn't have even known it was raining, more less a big storm/tornado. There were no leaves blown or trees down or anything like that. Looked just like a normal rain storm occurred this morning when I woke up.

My google-fu is failing me. I have seen pictures before but for the life of me, I tried googling and tried checking all of my relevant bookmarks and could not find an example . I am putting together my new sump/fuge. I recently picked up a new skimmer from an ARC member and I need a way to lift the skimmer up 5" from the bottom of the sump. I have seen people constrict small little stands underneath it using small pvc/pipe parts. The skimmer is a AquaC EV-180 for size reference. Can someone please post links, pictures, how-tos or whatever on how to put one together? Thank you. Kevin

Did you have the pump paired with the skimmer on your setup? I was looking for a used skimmer but wasn't planning on spending quite that much right now.

I figured some of you would appreciate it. To memorialize my life long love of marine life, aquariums,etc. I finally got my (Ray) tattoo done today that I have been wanting to do for a while.

I wouldn't miss it! I am a big fan of Mark's work.

My current and last tank were DSA tanks. Nice looking and no issues with either.

I know when working on my 29g sump I went very simple. I used to do wet/dry and decided going all wet with a good skimmer worked just as well for me. I didn't use a sponge (they can be a nit factory if not maintained so to min maintanance I just kept it from the equation), and no bubble traps. I'm not against bubble traps. In fact when I set up my 280g I'm sure I'll use them on the big sump for that. But since I was converting an old tank I wanted to conserve space and also I'm not quite the master DIY yet. After a couple errors while trying to sillicone and hold in the bubble trap baffles I decided to go with my gut and put mirrored toothed baffles (with a split flow going to each side and the return pump in the middle chamber) and with a conservative (but not too low) flow rate through the tank. I haven't had any issues with microbubbles though if I did, a sponge filter over the intake of the return filter should fix that (at least in my setup), YMMV. I'll be posting pictures soon becuase I'll be re-doing my setup a bit since my current sump/fuge got cracked when I moved :-(

The way I help against this is when I spec out a return pump I make sure I am somewhat conservative. I'd rather be slightly under with my pump and just add a closed loop or add a power head if I need more total flow in my tank. Also the flow from my over flow into my sump/fuge is split. 25% of the total flow goes into my fuge (to keep fuge flow low) and 75% of the flow goes into my tank with my skimmer. Using this method I currently do not have to tee or reduce anything in regards to my return pump.

Eeek! each to their own of course. But I never throttle pumps down. Worst case I tee it back into the sump but throtteling down the outp put of a return pump can wear down the pump much faster and also causes excess heat build up becuase the pump is working harder. Actually for my 280g I'm specing out right now I am looking at just using dual small pumps for redundancy but also to minimize headloss from taking a big return pump and splitting it to two returns.

For comparison. I am running a 70g with a 29g sump/fuge and my return pump only does just shy of 600gph.

Today's meeting was great! I enjoyed meeting some new people in Austin who have an interest in the hobby like myself. Thank you for opening up your home to allow us to have the meeting. See everyone next meeting.

As the K rating on the MH goes higher it will get more of a blue color. It varies somewhat per manufacturer but generally a 10000k bulb be be white with (sometimes) a bit of a yellow tint to it. A 20000k bulb is generally really blue. I have a 15000k bulb on mine now. It's a nice in between. It has a light blue tint to it. I like my tanks really blue so I usually stick to 15000k-20000k. The final choice will come more from preference and what your corals need.

This is purely for my RODI system so +/- 1ppm isn't bad. I had read some place the handheld ones were better since they were protable though I saw the inlines will measure line from my source and the output so I can gauge the PPM of my RODI water but it will also give me a ncie baseline for the PPM prior to it be filtered.

It shouldn't hurt anything. I have a sharp nose puffer in my main display tank which doesn't bother most of my hermits except some of the smaller ones. I Put the smaller ones in my fuge as a clean up crew and also allow them to grow a bit befor emoving them to my main display tank. I think it really boils down tp preference.

I finally picked up a RODI unit and I am wondering what type of TDS meter I should get. I see several types. Anyone have a preference or suggestion as far as type and/or brand I should go with?

I know a few people back around Dallas/Tamayo myself. Nice area. It's one of the areas I am looking to buy a house actually.

There not all scary. In fact I ususally order some online to add to my tank to keep my sand mixed up.

Totally agree with you on that!

You referring to Austin Aqarium or Austin Aquatic Innovations? I think I recall a notice from the landlord after Austin Aqarium was selling things. I was there the last day it was open a couple of months ago with AAI and I'm pretty sure there was no live rock left (it had all been sold during their clearance sale). So it sounds like you are describing the firs tthe that location shut it's doors, not the final time under the second owner.