Theron

Heck... if it is going to be custom made, you could could even do something in the middle. I cannot decide on the height of my tank either. I may go 27''. Theron

Ya know, I think I have the same thing from my turbo snails. They come out when the lights go out. Maybe they are some kind of pod, but they sure look like little snails. Theron

I think Raw mode is great and in some situations it is definatly worth the effort. It is a digital negative with the raw sensor data before the camera does any processing. You can make changes to the white balance, exposure, etc. But, inorder for it to be useful, you need a good software pachage. I have played with Photoshop CS2 and it has support for most camera raw formats, atleast it supports mine. It really makes it easy to import the raw file and make adjustments to the image. I am not sure if Photoshop Elements comes with support for raw images but that would be a cheaper solution, yet not free. You can download 30 day trials from adobe and see what you think. With that said... I do not use Raw mode very often. Only when I am taking a picture that I want to look really good, or I am going to be doing alot of editing. Jpeg works fine most of the time. It allows me to fit more photos on my cards. Theron

I am getting ready to install my chiller to the system, now that that the weather is starting to get warmer. I am trying to decide where I want to plumb the chiller. The display has 90 gallons with about 40 gallons in the sump. I know of two options. A) Add another pump to take water from the sump through the chiller and return to the sump. B) Plumb the chiller to the existing return pump in the sump. Take water from the sump through the chiller and back into the display. Both options will work for me. I already have an extra pump for the chiller if I chose option A. My sump return pump is alittle too much for my overflow so I have it dialed back, adding a chiller should not be a problem. Just wondering how some of you have plumbed your chillers and what is the best way for me to go. I like option B to avoid the extra expense of running another pump. Theron

Well, it does look like it is a digitate hydroid. Thanks, it is good to know. Theron

I have noticed lately that one of my corals has lost PE in some spots. At night when the lighs were off I was checking out my tank with a flashlight. I noticed what I thought was a worm move quickly into the rock when I shined my light in the area. The other day I finally got a picture of him. Here he is, a little blurry. This one I got better focus. It looks like he might be munching on the coral. Anyone know what it is? Is this going to grow into a Steve Weast worm? Theron

I am also running 400W XM 20K bulbs, with a dual PFO standard ballast. I really like them. I checked Sanjay's sight, and on a M59 ballast XM par is 128 and Radium is 90. That and the price were the main reasons I tried them. The XM were quite a bit cheaper. Theron

Sometimes I with I had a desel car. If I don't feel like paying $3 a gallon, I could just make my own biodesel. Theron

I believe the reason we have the 4x waste is to continuously flush the particles out of the system. Otherwise they would clog up the filter. You could reroute the waste water back in the filter but you would need a pump to do that and you would need a way to get the waste out of the system somehow. I imagine this is a cheap way for us to filter our water. There are probably systems that have very little waste but would be more complicated or expensive. Anyway... that is my guess. Theron

I don't know. I would open up the housing and see if there is something loose in there. Theron

So... Saturday I spend a good part of the day blowing all the crud from under the rocks and cleaned out the sump. There was a lot! I think I clogged two filter socks. Hopefully I will see some improvement after this. Next I am going to add some carbon. Theron

Thanks guys, Thanks for the link. Cyno... That is all I need in my tank right now. I might just wait awhile till I treat. It does not seem to be doing any harm to the coral at the moment. I just won't be trading any corals for a while. How many treatments did you guys do? How far apart where they? This brings another question. Do you guys quarentine your corals now? I have not been doing any quarentine or dips to any corals into my tank. What do you do to avoid this in the furture? Sounds like the acro eating flat worms are bad. Theron

Just was inspecting the tank today and saw what looked like small red dots on one of my acros. They were moving around so it looks like it is red bugs. I can only see them on the one coral. I have lots of SPS in the tank. I assume I will have to treat the whole tank. Looks like I will have to get some interceptor. Where can I get some? What is the best way to treat it? I heard that it will kill crabs and shrimp. What about snails? Theron

Ok, so I guess I will get some cerith for the tank. They eat detritus? Aren't they going to poop too? Ya, Krux I had a couple of rocks in there that had a lot of crud in them. I removed them about a month ago and replaced them with some freshly cooked rock. I think it is better now. I use a filter sock and I have only been replaceing them once a week. I will try to change them twice a week. I am going to start blowing behind the rocks once a week. Do you think that would be enough? What about running carbon? Is the best way to put it in a reactor? Theron

Ya, I did not mention my closed loop. I have a Dolphin 3K plumbed. I have good flow in the tank, the problem is there is no flow behind or underneath the rocks. Stuff settles back there and it is not easy to access to remove it. I have to blow it out using a power head. I have not been very diligint keeping up with it. My next tank will have plumbing under the rock to keep it from settling there.

Thanks Mike, My clean-up crew consists of 10 turbo snails, 5 hermits, 1 cleaner shrimp. Not too much but they seem to keep the tank clean except for the micro algea. It sounds like the problem is I have too much detritus collecting and I am not doing a good job of keeping it in suspension so that the skimmer can remove it. It is just breaking down and releasing phosphate and DOCs in the water. If I understand the BB system correctly, if I was able to keep the detritus out of the tank, I should not need any other filtration like carbon and phosphate removers. I hate to throw power heads in my tank. I was trying to avoid that. But maybe I will have to or else change my plumbing again. Just curious if other BB tanks out there are some other filtration systems like ozone, carbon, phosphate reactor, macro in fuge. Theron

Here is a photo of the macro that is growing in the diplay. It is really starting to spread throughout the tank.

I am looking for a little advice. I have a problem with macro algea growing in my display tank. I am also getting lots of hair type algae growing in the sump. Part of the sump is used as a frag tank, so it is lit with a 250w halide. Ok, so it seems that I have excess phosphate and nutrients in the water. The tank is a 90 Gallon BB tank, ~45 gallons in the sump, and a 30 gallon refugium (no macro) also plumbed. The skimmer is a AquaC EV400, which is rated for a 400 gallon tank. I have 3 fish, clown, 6 line wrasse, sailfin tang. Corals are mostly SPS. I have some xenia that is doing very well. I don't think I feed too much, every other day. Salifert tests for NO2, NO3, PO4 read zero. I do have detritus that does collect underneath and behind my rocks. I try to blow it out with a power head once and a while. How should I address this problem? I have thought of a couple of things. * Put some macro algea in the fuge. Not sure how much this would help. I like to use the fuge as a volume of water to drain when I do water changes. Also a place to aclimate fish. * I could run ozone in the skimmer. This might be costly but I have heard about good results. A little nervious about using it though. * Adding a phosphate reactor. * Adding carbon. Maybe in the same reactor as phospate. * Add UV sterilizer. Not sure about this one. So what are your opinions. Thanks, Theron

I have been pretty happy with my 400W 20k xm bulbs.

I'm a member Theron