Rjohn

Doing the dumping thing should work with crushed coral too but I'm guessing as deep as you have it you've got at least two 5 gal buckets if not more and it'll be a lot of work doing a quarter bucket at a time and it is a messy technique.

Assuming my memory is correct, I used a 40lb bag of crushed coral which was almost a 5 gallon bucket full. I am planning to dump half of it. Washing half a bucket of CC a little at a time shouldn't be too awful.

When I move a tank to clean the sand without doing much damage to the bacteria I'll dump it into a bucket of salt water. DON'T DO THIS ON CARPET! I'll save the sand for the very last thing to take out and dump about a 1/4 bucket of sand into 1/2 bucket of saltwater. I like to do this at least 2 or 3 times if I've got enough saltwater made up. It doesn't get all the detritus out but does a pretty good job. This isn't real practicle though with a Juabert system or deep sand bed where you may have several buckets of sand, I'd be tempted to throw out part and get new live sand.

I am using crushed coral, not sand. However, I think my bed is too deep. It's about 3 inches. I am going to lower it to about an inch or so - more than a bare bottom but much less than a deep sand bed.

I would keep the livestock separate from the rocks and coralbed (maybe one or two pieces of rock for hiding places). You're going to stir-up an awful lot of detritus moving the rocks/coralbed.

I thought I would use this opportunity to clean up the crushed coral a bit. I don't want to recycle the tank if I can avoid it but I'd like to remove as much detritus as possible. I am also going to remove about half of what I am currently using.

Some people here have reported problems finding and getting 60'' bulbs. They seemed to be fairly fragile and arrived broken a lot. I think the cost of 36" bulbs is quite a bit less, isn't it?

If your talking about the ends being noticebly darker than the middle I'd say yes. Is it a bad thing? that's up to you, there's plenty of inverts, soft/leather and stony corals that will take the lower light. If you're building the fixure (s) yourself you could stagger the 48" T5s or use some 60" T5s.

You might also try 36" fixtures end to end.

I developed a small leak on my outflow bulkhead. It's on the bottom of the tank so I am going to take it all down, seal it, and put it back together. While I have it down, I want to change the outflow from just a tube to a DIY spillover box. I also want to change the inflow from a tube to something else. I am told the PVC tubes get very brittle after several years and I don't want to risk another leak or even a complete meltdown.

What I am planning is to get 2 or 3 fairly large containers from Walmart and offload all my rock, livestock, and some of the crushed coral bed into them. I will add a power head to keep the water moving and maybe a bubbler as well.

The instructions on the sealant say it needs 48hrs to cure before adding water back into the aquarium. Does anyone think this will have adverse affects on the livestock if they are in makeshift containers for 2 or 3 days? I know livestock is shipped but that is mostly overnight, isn't it?

Cool.

i just had to replace my cap a few weeks ago.it was an $18 part.

True but it is $100 emergency on a weekend service call.

what is a spray bar?

After reading some of the posts about sterilizers, I think I might give it a try. Has anyone got one, 9 to 18 Watts? If so, what do you want for it? I haven't got much in the way of frags for trading so an outright purchase would seem to be indicated. Let me know.

I normally keep mine stewing overnight but on occasion it has run 3 days with no adverse affects.

Great deal. Thanks Mike.

PM Sent

Ric, when i was using PC's(192w) i had a similar problem. i had it high in the tank and the polyps would not come out. it was slimy at first touch. then i moved it in front of my power head(K2) and the polyps started to come out and it wasn't slimy until i held it in my hand for a while.

Lamont - I believe he has a nice set up of T-5's.

I don't knpow how nice it is but I am using a Current Sundial, 216 watts plus a 48 inch tube of LED's. If we ever get a PAR meter, I would love to have them tested.

I think I am killing a chunk of green monti. It went from green to brown and doesn't seem to want to come around. Liz, what kind of lighting are you using?

Mine never bubbled enough to create a foam head, it dumped tons of micro bubbles in the tank and it was loud

ask prof about a HOB skimmer. Bet he has one.

Absolut_racer(Sara) had one as well I think.

Trying to keep it under 150 if I don't find one I will be buying the coralife 125 brand new.

Seriously, don't buy the Coralife. You can get a much better used skimmer for the same money here on the board.

You didn't mention it but are you using an auto top-off? If you aren't, then a skimmer will not work very efficiently. A skimmer is set for a water height in the skimmer or tank. When that water level drops, then the skimmer loses almost all of it's efficiency and becomes almost useless. I learned this the hard way.

price range?

Selling the cone thing already?

The headband is just so special.

Sorry. I was speaking from memory and misquoted the 850. I have 2 1050's in my 75 and it seems just about right. They don't seem to be as quite as strong as the older models, perhaps because they are controllable?

what about 2 of the smaller evolutions, the 850 for example?

I think that if you just walk away and the mortgage company repossesses and then sells the house for 1/2 what you owe, then (I think) you can be held liable for the balance. You might want to consider a bankruptcy. This is an area where I strongly recommend professional advice.

Good luck, Dena. 11% is virtually usury. I thought mine was bad at 6 and 7/8's. Have you considered just walking away?

Not being rude, I'm legitimately curious and un-informed on this topic.

But is salt water environmentally un-friendly? I'm not sure I see how it could be. The water extracted from water changes shouldn't have any caustic chemicals in it (being its supporting the life in your tank ). And salt is a naturally occurring substance.

There are low-lying countries whose farmland routinely gets flooded by sea water during typhoons. This makes them unusable for about 3 or 4 years, I think. The farm science guys are killing themselves to develop a strain of rice that will grow in briney conditions.

It WOULD be just like sea salt

Assuming you could get the fish poop out of it.