Derry

You'll find more info than you can digest at one time over on the forums at seahorse.org. There's also a core group of really knowledgeable folks who are cool with beginners asking lots of questions. I got my two erectus in January, and seahorse.org was invaluable in helping me get things set up.

PM sent re 50/50 bulbs.

How big is he?

My tank came with a Coralife dual timer, which has performed just fine for 2-1/2 years until last night. One of the timers is stuck in the "on" position, so I'm looking for a replacement. I'm a little hesitant to get another Coralife, though, because I've read of so many people having trouble with them. I'm running a combo light rig with MHs, actinics, moonlights and fans. I need something that can run all of those independently, and I want as few boxy timers as possible. Anybody have any suggestions for me? How are you running your light rigs?

My understanding was that aqualifters weren't submersible. Do you just have a length of tubing going from your tank/sump to the aqualifter, then on to whatever device you're supplying water to?

I need some plumbing advice, plz. I picked up a Mini-Jet to run my Knopp C calcium reactor. My question is how best to mate the 1/2" Mini-Jet outlet to the 1/4" calc reactor inlet, preferably with a ball valve in between to fine-tune the flow rate into the reactor. Thanks! Derry

Dave, some digging in Google revealed that silicone loses 20-30% of the CO2 due to its permeability and is generally listed as the least-preferable option for running C02. I dont' doubt that it will run the reactor, but you might be burning through more CO2 than necessary from the gas diffusing through the tubing.

I'm looking for about three feet.

Anybody know where I can pick up some 1/4" CO2-compatible tubing locally? I need it to finish setting up my new calcium reactor, and I didn't see any on the BRS site for the latest group buy.

I'm in for one bucket of Red Sea Pro.

I've got a closed loop driven by a Reeflo Dart (Snapper? The smaller of those two), with four outputs controlled by an OM Super Squirt. There's definitely stronger and more random water movement when it's running. To watch the food particles in the water column, I get some really complex interactions between the water movement created by the closed loop and the water moved by my two K4s and return pump. I don't know that I'd list a closed loops as a gotta-have, but I know my big tank (140 gals) looks "happier" when the closed loop is running.

FWIW, I've had two rock anemones from Port A in my tank since last July with two onyx clowns and two mandarins, and I've not had any trouble.

You can get in a LOT of trouble with the wrong snails, esp those that eat other snails. Be sure to do your homework.

Title says it all - where do you run your calcium reactor, in the sump or externally? Please list the pros and cons of your choice. Also, what do you use to supply water to the reactor? If it's in the sump, do you just let it draw on its own? Thanks!

Hey, if my screw-ups can help someone else not to make the same mistake, I'm all for it! Glad to hear that it helped you out.

You mean Randy's article that I linked to in my last post? Can you tell I'm feeling punchy after staying up until 2:30 babysitting the tank?

Well, by the grace of God, I seem to have dodged the bullet on this one. By 11pm, the sulfur smell had dissipated dramatically. I moved the K4s up closer to the surface to increase agitation there, and I kept the skimmer going full bore. I put two cups of new carbon in the media reactor, I added another two or three cups to the skimmer chamber in a bag, and I already had two cups of GFO running in another reactor. I did a 15% water change once the new water temp matched the tank temp, and I'll do another 15% this evening just to be safe. Lessons learned: If there's a problem with a closed loop, find a way to keep it limping along until the full fix can be put in so that you don't end up with stagnant water in the pipes. (I don't know why it never occurred to me to simply reinstall the super squirt - at least it was still moving water!) According to Randy Holmes-Farley, aeration, carbon and GFO all help remove hydrogen sulfide from the water (good call, Z), so it's good to have an emergency stash of carbon and GFO on hand. If at all possible, have a batch of new SW mixed and ready to go. If that's not practical, at least have a plan for how to get some mixed up in a hurry (which was the route I had to take).

And, yeah, I meant hydrogen sulfide, not sulfur dioxide.

My closed loop went down about a month ago when the motor on my OM Super Squirt burned out. I just got the replacement motor today, installed it and restarted the CL. You could IMMEDIATELY smell the sulfur from the water that had stagnated in the pipes while the CL was shut down. I just did a full changeout of my carbon, and I've got good aeration from the overflow, skimmer and surface agitating K4s. What else can I do to prevent a full carpet-bombing of my tank from the sulfur dioxide?

+1 They're pretty, but they're EXTREMELY territorial. By the time I got rid of mine, the biggest of the four would keep the other three pinned down among the live rock, strafing anybody who dared stick his nose out far enough to be seen. I made a deliberate point of NOT putting them in my main DT.

Mitchell, I don't have any pics of my rock anemones, but here area couple from marc levenson of the rock anemones he brought back from a Port A trip with MAAST a couple of years ago. Mine have more blue and red in them than these pictured.

PS - Everything was caught on the jetties using a hand net. The shrimp were caught at night on the big jetty at Port A using flashlights to pick up their eye shine. The various fish and crabs were collected from both the big jetty one night and from a smaller jetty in the state park the next day. I just worked the pools along the sides of the small jetty. BTW, you can find rock anemones in surprising colors deep in between the rocks on the big jetty in Port A. I've got two - the oral disc on the smaller one is about 1", and the bigger is about 2". They prefer things a little darker, so they've made nice accents in the shadows. They've got a MUCH stronger sting/sticky factor than my BTA, but they've not created an problems. I've even got a mandarin in there, and no issues. We found that the trick to collecting these guys is to find the ones that are attached to smaller rocks that you can remove, rock and all. Trying to coax them off of the huge granite boulders didn't work very well. Once you've got them home, take the rock out of the water and repeatedly tap the rock with a hammer near the anemone. Something about the vibrations makes the 'nem let go on its own, so you don't have to worry about tearing the foot. They'll then quickly reattach to whatever new rock you offer. I'd love to hear of someone trying the hammer trick on one of the jetty boulders to see if it works in the field.

The peppermint shrimp have slowly whittled down to about half the original number, but I think that's from internal population balancing (ie, killing each other off ; ) more than anything else. I've almost always got at least one pregnant pep in the tank at any given point in time, so the remaining shrimp must be fairly happy. I also brought back three hermit crabs and five juvie sergeant majors from that trip. They lived in my smaller tank for four months, and the fish each almost doubled in size before I cleared them out to make room for seahorses. I took care to acclimate everything well on arrival, but I also brought back a bunch of pretty bullet-proof critters, so take all that into consideration as well.

I brought back about a dozen last summer using a battery-powered pump and airstone in an empty salt bucket. I drilled a hole in the lid of the bucket for the air tubing to minimize the slosh factor. Everything went through a night in the hotel room and two water changes at the beach before driving back to Cedar Park the next afternoon with no losses.

I've got a Knop calcium reactor on its way, and I'm looking for advice on setting it up. Any tips, lessons learned, mistakes made, etc. that I can learn from those who are running calcium reactors?