AlexKilpatrick

You don't want an Apex?

Thanks for a great meetings. It was neat to meat a lot of you for the first time and thanks for all the frags.

Actually, it is pretty amazing that this has never happened for real. I have never heard of a stand collapsing, and even a split seam is *extremely* rare. Given how much weight and pressure are on these things, that is nothing short of amazing. However, as I read your initial description, I was wondering how a collapsed tank would make your live rock "disappear"

Sorry, just $$. I can't afford $$$.

Bringing a Coralife external pump, sufficient for a 120, but never been used. Also a couple of brand new T-5 ballasts. Willing to trade for frags, and will also be bringing $$ for frags.

I have a 150 that has been set up for about 2 weeks now. It has rock that has been fully cycled (via trash cans) for a couple months. Nitrates, nitrities, ammonia, are all 0. I have a skimmer that is sized for a 225 gallon, and I am essentially getting no output. I have a 2" of so layer of "froth" but nothing anywhere near enough to climb up the neck, etc. The only thing I have in the tank right now is a couple of chromises. Is this normal for a large tank so lightly loaded?

Those are awesome. Are you available on Saturday? Please save a few of the big ones for me.

Look online for pictures of aptasia. That's the one you want to avoid. They are pretty easy to spot, and are sort of clear-ish compared to other similar poylps.

I had a full size RBTA pop out of some live rock I bought. Amazing how that happens.

This is for the sump. I basically just want a box that is to a specific dimension so I can maximize the amount of RO water I can store (minimizing the time between refills). I could just buy a simple $20 aquarium, but none of them are sized very well for the cabinet, wasting a lot of space. I would want a top as well to minimize evaporation.

There was a movement a few years ago where people were making homemade skimmers 6' tall out of 6" PVC. I even made one myself. I can't say it actually performed better, but it was impressive.

Bard -- I am considering having something built for my top-off water. How much would you charge for a simple box with a top that is about 2x2x2?

Just curious, why are you on the Austin Reef Forum if you are in Chicago? You are certainly welcome, but I always wonder why people do this. Is it because the "national" forums are too big?

From my rough measurement is is about 2X. From what I have read, there is no point in having a flow that is greater than your skimmer. I don't have any easy way to measure my skimmer output, but from what I can feel on the output line, it is a lot less than that the current flow rate of my return pump.

I am planning to be there. Hope it is ok to sell frags as well. I don't have anything to trade, but I would like to buy some. Interesting aside -- I think I started the first Austin reefkeeping "club" about 5 years ago. It started as a bunch of group orders for Flying Fish Express (which I think is no longer in business). From there we graduated to a yahoo group, had a bunch of meetings, etc. I ended up having to do a lot of travel and got out of things for a while and it looked like MAAST took over. I am glad there is an Austin group again, though. Nothing against MAAST, but it is nice to know everyone is local, especially for buying/selling. Look forward to meeting all of you.

In order to minimize noise, I am looking at scaling back my sump pump output pretty dramatically. I am guessing (hard to tell), I might take a couple of hours to turn over all the water in the tank. I have two vortech MP40s for water movement inside the tank, so I think I am ok there. From what I have heard, this might actually increase skimmer performance because it has more time to work on a particular "chunk" of water. Are there any gotchas I might need to know?

Even if you aren't doing corals, live rock helps with filtration. You can buy "dead" rock for around $2/lb. Dead rock will become live over time. Ideally you want rock that is light and porous.

I am starting up a new tank with a bit of live sand and of course I have silt everywhere. What's the best way to deal with it? 1) Turn off all pumps to let it settle? 2) Let the pumps run and try to filter it out? 3) ??? Thanks

seconding the GFCI. You don't even have to install one. You can get a GFCI "power strip" These are an absolute must where you have water and electricity together. Next time it might not just be an annoying shock. You can be killed. My stupidest one was recent. I calibrated my refractometer wrong, so it was reading about .02 high. I was wondering why the local stores had everything at 1.030 and snails would die immediately when I put them in the tank. Fish were fine, though. (my tank was 1.010)

So his colony is worth thousands of dollars?

I was wondering about this myself. It seems like it would be a pretty easy project, and probably a lot cheaper. I would be interested in whatever you find out.

The easiest (but expensive) way to control temperature swings is with a chiller and a heater. You set the heater to turn on if your temp is below 77 (for example) and the chiller to come on if it gets above 78. Without a chiller, you can do the same thing with your fans. Have them come on when the temperature gets hot and turn off when it gets low. Or you could combine fans with a chiller. If you don't have a controller, then you can just have your fans come on with the MH, then run for a while afterwards (depending on the temp of the room). Then you add in a heater just in case it gets cold in the evening.

Actually, moderate would be good too. We are just not looking at large (Dallas/Houston/etc.) type agencies. Where does he work?

Hi ARK folks, I am working for a new startup company that is building a product targeting smaller local law enforcement organizations (think Round Rock, not Austin) If there are any law enforcement folks on here that would be willing to have a chat in exchange for dinner or something, please let me know. We aren't selling anything; just looking for someone to bounce ideas off. If you know of anyone else in law enforcement, I would appreciate a contact. They don't have to be local, but it would be good if they were within short driving distance. Thanks Alex

Thanks for the great frogspawn. It has expanded hugely. I had to move a few things to get out of range of its reach.