AlexKilpatrick

I'm going to be up in Dallas. Can you drive up and drop off my order?

Weird story related to this. My mom was an ICU nurse; she retired in the mid-80s. They used to have a lot of "expired" blood because it has such a limited shelf life. (as an aside, a HUGE amount of donated blood is not actually used) Some of the nurses used to take the expired blood to put on plants. They said it was hugely beneficial. Dunno if they still do that now, but I doubt it.

I haven't looked, but it doesn't seem like it would be that hard. NaCl is NaCl. It just needs to be relatively pure.

I thought you were supposed to calibrate it with a solution because it is not linear over the entire range, just over the smaller range (say 1.020 - 1.030 or so). I had a problem initially calibrating mine because the solution was using different units than the refractometer. I had water at something like 1.018 for a while and couldn't figure out why corals and snails kept dying. Fish didn't care, though.

This is a clever idea. I wonder why no one thought of it before. http://reefbuilders.com/2010/03/18/neomarine-kalibrate-saltwater-premix-brightwell-making-seawater-bulk/ The idea is that they can ship and store saltwater mix much cheaper if they don't include the salt, which is 80%. You can get the salt locally. I would love to not have to deal with those huge buckets.

Mark, you do video work for a living, right? How can you watch that? It's horrible.

I would advise getting a simulator (about $200 or so) and do lots and lots of practice. Helis are pretty challenging to fly.

Here is my order: Scolymia $899.99 (ok, just kidding) http://www.vividaquariums.com/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=10-0450&Category=Coral%20And%20Invertebrates:WYSIWYG%20LPS%20Colonies&SortBy=Price $32.99 Large Green Brain $16.99 Tiger Tail Cucumber $49.99 Naso Tang (medium)

Wow. I can't imagine playing at that level. Was that just a ridiculously high pot, or did you have a huge buy-in to begin with. I agree with you, though. I just wanted to advocate $10 or so buy-in over nickel-ante type stuff. I can't imagine any reefer is put off by $10 for a night of entertainment.

Is it possible it was sold and just not recorded properly? Have you thought about just having a simple camera pointed at the door? Also, it was entirely possible it was just stolen by someone who happened to be looking for an opportunity to steal The idea being "if it is big it must be worth something" It wasn't necessarily a local reefer. I actually have this same sump, but mine is old and scummy so nobody report me.

I don't know if I would call a $10 buy in "serious" But I think there is a balance to be had between completely farting around and playing poker. I have played nickel-ante poker and it was fun, but I don't know if it really captures the flavor of poker. When I played nickel-ante, it was almost impossible to bluff because people would call on just about anything because the amount of money involved was so trivial. Bluffing is an important part of the game, IMHO. $10 seemed like the sweet spot to me. With $10, the pots are decent enough to represent "real" money, but not high enough to where you are really sweating it if you lose.

I recently played in a hold-em tournament with an entry fee of $10. It was my first time, and a lot of fun. However, it seems like it would be a little hard to play without re-buys. Otherwise if you get knocked out early you are just done for the night. At the tournament I played, they had a cash game for the people who were out of the tournament.

Did you know the iPhone software for interfacing with aquacontrollers is not connected to Neptune in any way? It was just written by some guy.

My philosophy is that you don't need to have more flow through your sump that your skimmer outputs. For example, let's say you skimmer outputs 100 Gal/hour. That means it can only take in 100 gal/hour. If you have more flow than that through your sump, you have more flow than you need. You can use something like a vortech in the tank to handle all the flow needed in the tank without having to have a huge pump shooting water through your sump at 1200 Gal/hour.

My order was cancelled (most of the stuff I wanted was not in stock). So don't worry if you don't see it.

I agree this is not a hobby for people who are trying to save money. But why spend $80 on a dosing pump for top-off when a $25 osmolator pump (or similar) works just fine. Yes, it adds water a little faster than a dosing pump, but it is such a tiny percentage of the overall tank volume that there is no way it will make a difference. If you are worried about back-siphon you can just add a $2 check valve. (aqualifters won't back-siphon, by the way) Not to slight dosing pumps in any way -- I use them for two part because I want really precise control. But personally I can't see any use for them as top-off pumps. Sometimes in the hobby it seems we have a perception that the more expensive equipment is better, and if you want the best for your reef you should not be cheap. Sometimes the more expensive equipment is better, but not always. Is the $2300 bubble king really better than a $230 skimmer? There are lots of examples where things just seem to be more expensive for the sake of perceived quality.

I did a couple of months ago and then had to retreat a second time. They seem gone now, though. The only think I have noticed is GSP being retracted. Everything else seems ok. I have read that skimmer production is usually low for a while after treatment, but I didn't see much difference. In fact, my skimmer production has been UP for several weeks after treatment. I don't know if that is related or not.

This is anecdotal, but to me the fish are more aggressive about pursuing the food when it is moving around a lot. I guess it is an instinct thing.

Just placed my order. About $57. <br class="Apple-interchange-newline">1 Reef Pods 2Pencil Urchin* 20Nassarius Vibex 2Hawk Wing Conch* 11 Penny Macro Algae

He is probably attached, or he would be bouncing around the tank. If you have any current at all, it will push an anemone around unless it is attached.

I'm curious. What kinds of things do these services provide?

They are weird creatures. My RBTA will shrink up to the size of a quarter at night sometimes (much to the chagrin of the clowns) but then be the size of my outstretched hand during the day. The main problem signs you want to look for are: 1) Mouth "gaping" open 2) Not attaching to anything Generally, when I have seen those signs, it is all over.

I use a aqualifter and a JBJ ATO and they work well together. The nice thing with the aqualifter is you just plug it into the ATO. The Tunze pump is nice, but you have to go find a DC power supply for it, and wire that up. Also, as I recall they use 3/8" tubing. When my aqualifter kicks on, it only adds a few ounces of water at a time. The float switch is pretty sensitive. I can't imagine this would make a difference in anything by an nano tank. I think if i used a peristaltic switch, it would have to run pretty much all day to keep up.

Just be glad you aren't on vacation.

Can you just run an extension cord to a different plug? That would allow you to keep running. You would just need to be careful when you are working with the tank because you won't have the GFC protection. That will give you time until you can investigate further. You can also get a GFCI extension cord as a different test. In my experience, GFCI's pop immediately, or not at all. Is a heater kicking on?