Derry

I'm in the early planning stages of a new tank, and I'm interested in doing a Calfo instead of a full-height overflow. I'd love to hear from those of you who are using them. Please give me the pros and cons in your experience, and photos would be a bonus! Of particular interest would be anyone who has cut down the back panel of a tank in order to install an external Calfo overflow off the back of the tank.

C'mon, guys - where are the rest of the moray fans out there? ;-)

Thanks for the skimmer, Greg! I've gotta make a couple of sump mods to make room, but I can't wait to set it up.

Yeah, unfortunately for Jake, he's got two of the most aggro eels possible in that tank. I'm looking at some milder-mannered species for my tank.

Ok, I can't sleep tonight, so I may as well throw this out there... I'm in the process of planning a 75-gal predator tank, and I would really like to have a moray eel included in the stock list. My three front-runners, in order of preference: a jeweled moray (Muraena lentiginosa), a golden-tailed moray (Gymnothorax miliaris) or the omnipresent snowflake eel (Echidna nebulosa). My question is, what are some good tankmates to go with an eel? I'd like to have a lionfish and a trigger of some sort. If I get the sizes balanced out so that the eel shouldn't(?) eat the fish and vice versa, will this list work? What are some other options that people have tried? I'm aware of the inherent risk of combining fish with an eel, especially the jeweled and golden-tail, but I'd like to hear the experiences of those who've tried this before. PS - Anybody else been to RCA recently and realized that the green moray in the display tank by the front door ate the 9" Desjardin tang the other day?!?!?

Guys, my intention is to eventually run this through my Milwaukee pH monitor/controller, but the controller is moot until I get consistent output from the CO2 and effluent, right? What's the controller going to control if my CO2 is out of control?

Pm sent.

Hey, Josh - check your PMs, plz!

I'm looking for advice on two different problems I'm having getting my calcium reactor dialed in. The reactor is a Knop C being fed by an Aqualifter pump. The CO2 value is a brand-new single-stage Milwaukee with a solenoid and needle valve, connected to a 5# tank. The first problem is that I can't get a constant bubble rate from the CO2 valve. I've got 800 psi coming in and 20 psi going out. I'll set the bubble rate at about 20/min, but when I come back a couple of hours later, it's dropped off to 10/min or less. I can't find any kinks in the tubing, so I'm at a loss as to why the bubble rate won't stay constant. The second problem is with the effluent drip rate from the reactor. There's no built-in effluent value on the Knop C, so I've tried a couple of different approaches. I first ran the effluent line through a simple ball valve, but fine adjustments were tricky, and the flow rate would drop off over time. I next tried a simple air line valve to the end of the line to control the drip rate. Same problem - the drip rate falls off over time. Anybody have any suggestions for me (other than going back to dosing two-part)?

Does it know how to host in an anemone?

PM'ed

Has anybody out there used Water Weld, the two part epoxy putty by JB Weld? It says it's safe for potable water tanks, which makes me think it would be safe for reef tanks as well, but I wanted to see if any brave souls had already safely used this product in their tanks.

I've tried making my own food a couple of times, but I've never been happy with the results.

I saw on GlassBox that PE Mysis finally came out with blister packs, so they're definitely on my to-try list.

For starters, please don't take this thread down the "I hate frozen, and here's why..." path. I understand that there are pros and cons to using frozen, and I've made the decision to accept the cons for the sake of the pros. I'd rather save the use frozen/don't use frozen debate for another thread. Having said that, what's your preferred frozen food (specifically, which brand/vendor) and why? I've been using SFBB varieties with good results, but I'm looking for something that uses fewer binders. I'd like to hear others' experiences with other brands.

Likewise! Can't wait to see how these guys do.

Bump - each is now free, but trades are welcome!

PM'd for Red Planet.

I've got a couple of extra bulkheads floating around that I'd like to get rid of. One is a standard tank bulkhead. I'm not real conversant with how these are sized, so I took pictures next to a ruler. I can break out the calipers if anyone needs the hyper-specifics. Both sides of the bulkhead are slip. The other is a probe bulkhead designed to hold a 1/2" probe. I was going to use this to hold my pH propbe on my Ca rx until I discovered that the lid of the reactor is too small to accomodate the bulkhead. Warning: the threads on this bulkhead appear to be metric, fwiw. I'm MORE than happy to trade for these - I just want them gone. Free, trades welcome.

Amen!

I recently changed out all of the bulbs in my light fixture (two 250W MH and four T5 actinics), and I'm in the process of acclimating the tank to the new lights. However, it's always bothered me that I've only been able to "eyeball" the light intensity, which I know isn't real reliable, so I bought a $20 lux meter off of Amazon and have been playing around with it. I prefer to use layers of screen when acclimating new lights instead of messing with the photoperiod, mainly because I find it easier than dorking with my light timers. Below are some numbers I pulled using various common screening materials. The percentage is the reduction in light caused by each screening material, using incandescent light sources directly overhead. I make no claim to these numbers being uber-scientific, but I got roughly the same percentages using two different overhead lights of different intensities. All numbers are rounded approximations. window/solar screen - 40% 1/2" white egg crate - 15-20%, increasing as the angle of incidence of the light increases 1/2" deer/bird screen - 5% The number that surprised me was the egg crate - I wasn't expecting it to block quite that much light. My plan at this point is to figure out a way to run layers of deer screen across the top of the tank without using egg crate as a support. Then, the next time I change out some bulbs, I'll take a reading with the lux meter using both the old bulbs and the new ones. From there, I can calculate the percent increase in light from the new bulbs, and therefore how many layers of deer screen I need to reduce the light from the new bulbs to the level of the old bulbs. Once the screens are in place, it's just a matter of removing a layer every five to seven days until all of the screens are gone. Now, before I get pounced on, I do understand the differences between lux, foot candles and PAR. Basic lux meters are easily afforable; PAR meters are not. I was simply looking for an inexpensive way of determining a rule of thumb that would help me more effectively reduce the risk of light shock to my corals when I replaced bulbs. Hopefully this provides some ideas for others to chew on and generates some interesting dialog regarding light management strategies.

PM sent.

How's $10 sound?

Have the issues with email notifications been resolved as well?

How about one the size of a silver dollar ?