AlexKilpatrick

The calculation is pretty easy: 1) Take the number of watts you have: 400 2) Multiply times the number of hours per day you run your lights: 10 3) That gives you the number of watts-hours per day: 4,000 4) Divide by 1,000 to get kilowatt-hours per day: 4 5) 1 kilowatt hour is around .06 (I think, check your bill) 6) Therefore you lights cost 4 *.06 = .24 per day to run Adjust as needed. You can also get devices like the kill-a-watt that will measure it directly. This is a little bit of an approximation because there is some loss in the ballast, but you get the idea.

You should really try Salifert flatworm exit. I treated with this when i could see hundreds of flatworms. About 5 minutes after putting it in the tank, I saw thousands of dying ones. They came out from everywhere. I siphoned them all up and had no worries after that. No impact at all on the rest of the tank.

Mark (or anyone) how do you soak mysis in garlic? Do you defrost the mysis first and then drip in the garlic? With or without extra water? I am just nor sure how much garlic the actual mysis will soak up. It seems like I am just making a solution of garlic-water that they are floating in.

What lens were you using?

I have a PM redline and it works great. But it is really finicky on the adjustment. It seems like a tiny (like 1/16") turn on the adjustment pipe makes a huge difference.

I bought one since they were cheap, and I thought it might be interesting to see the data. A couple of things to note: 1) It takes about 2 weeks for them to become "broken in" This has something to do with the way the probe is made 2) They inversely vary with Ph, somewhat. Mine drops about 20 points (normal is ~350 for me) when then Ph rises during the day 3) It does seem to be somewhat of an indicator of water quality. When I have noticed it drop, there is usually something wrong with my skimmer I'm not 100% convinced it is useful, but it is worth the small cost if you are interested.

Why is the water level so low on that sump? That's weird.

Well, just to provide a counter-point. I had this kind of setup wit a CPR overflow for over a year, and I never had a flood. However, the general iffy-ness of the setup made me decide to get regular overflows so I wouldn't have to worry about it. On a tank with regular internal overflows, there isn't any single point of failure. Typically, one overflow can handle the load of the pump, so if one overflow gets clogged you are still ok. I have never had an internal overflow get clogged, though. The only thing I can think of is a really big snail.

Well, it still begs the same question :-) Does a small D-cell powered air pump add enough oxygen for a 100 gallon tank? My hunch is no, considering how the small column of bubbles looks lost in a big tank. It would be nice to know how many are really needed.

I think that is the same thing I was using. It would work on one battery. Do you know how long it will run on a pair of batteries? However, I have no idea how to scale it. How many do you need to have enough water movement for a 100 Gal, etc.

I actually bought a cheaper version of that battery-powered pump at Petco today for $18. It works the same way -- you plug it in and it only comes on if the power goes out. It uses 2 D cells,so it is probably not as powerful. It did the trick in breaking up the surface, though.

Nevermind! Power finally came back on after about 6 or 7 total hours out. The tank only dropped a few degrees. Everything looks fine.

My power is still out for about 4 hours now. I have some battery powered air pumps. But it is going to start getting cold soon. How long before I have a major problem? Anyone have a generator I can borrow?

I read some stuff on RC about doing effectively 100% water changes by changing 1 or 2 gallons of water every day. There was a big analysis about it, and it wasn't as ineffective as I would have thought. One 30 gallon water change is more effective that 30 one gallon changes, but not by a huge amount. And lots of smaller water changes are less stressful than big water changes. You could mostly automate that, I expect.

I do 25 gallon changes every week on my 20. Some people say you can't change 25 gallons on a 20 gallon tank, but I take out all the water and then dehydrate the tank in the oven at 250 degrees for 6 hours. After the dehydration step, I have to add in 5 gallons before it even starts accumulating as water in the tank. My corals are a little bleached, but my nitrates are always 0. Dilution is the solution to pollution, as they say...

Holy cow! $120 a month??? That's crazy. I have never understood why anybody would not use an RO/DI, even on a small aquarium. It is an easy equation with the cost, but the hassle is even a bigger factor. I hate lugging around bug heavy containers of water. I would go crazy if I had to make a trip to the store to get water, even if it was free. One suggestion -- get a float switch with your RO/DI. It should only be a $15-$20 add-on. A float switch is a mechanical switch that you mount into your RO container (trash can, whatever) and it will shut off the water when it is full. If you don't do that, I *guarantee* you will forget about it and have a flood. Luckily, an RO flood is going to be small because the amount of water per unit time is small, but it is still a hassle.

Just to clarify a little more. Aggressive skimming means you skimmate looks kind of like tea. "Dry" skimming means it looks more like coffee. You should be able to tweak it by adjusting the water level in your skimmer. Depending on your sump design, you may need to have an automated top-off in order to keep the water level consistent.

Thanks again to Mark for his great work organizing this. We should double your pay! My PBT started eating as soon as he hit the tank. Looking good so far, and I am going to keep my fingers crossed. (big green chromis, not small tang. They are both about 4" long.

What does a cleaning service do? I'm not interested in hiring one, but I am curious what they actually do. Clean the glass? Empty the skimmer?

What is this? I've never heard of it.

Didn't realize it was already time for the order. Just sent in my PayPal. If it is light, let me know. If it is over, please keep the difference.

I have heard of a few lucky people who have been able to get by without skimming, but I am not one of them. Almost universally when my tanks starts to look bad, it is because something is wrong with my skimmer. I fix the skimmer, and everything quickly starts looking good again.

I started running carbon on my system and it did wonders for clearing things up.

I have run carbon for the past 24 hours. When I went in to check on the tank this evening I thought something funky was up with the lights because the tank was a lot brighter than I am used to. Then I realized it was just the extra clarity of the water because of the carbon. My ORP has also gone up after running carbon, but I not sure how reliable that is. Pretty cool.