drock59

I think people would rather spend the money on SPS than a colormeter.

Joel, will do. This still kind of baffles me. Now I am seeing a bit of lightening in some corals, which usually means I need to feed more. However, I dont want to feed more as I do not want the corals that are brown to become more brown. Such a dilemma.

Nice pics you two. I am surprised that more people have not posted. Now is your chance to show off. Reefgeek, what are the specs on your tank? Ive been wanting to go cubish for a long time.

I thought it was weird that just a few select corals are brown too. My reactor pH is already about 6.8-6.9. Ive had the reactor for about a month and a half but this problem started about 3 or 4 months ago. I dont think its the reactor. Maybe my skimmer isnt sucking in enough air to fully aerate the water. Seems like a stretch.

Well its been a bit over a week and I have yet to see any real improvement. However, my pH has been ridiculously low. I have a window open in the fish room and it is super cold, but lots of fresh air. Im dosing kalk, and my alk is up around 11dkh. What the heck? Anyway, I thought I would share some before and after pics. Before Today Before Today Some other brownies And lastly some corals that look decent a year ago: Full Tank:

Sean that is exactly what I was going to say. Solar HAS been really inefficient in the past but will become more and more efficient and less costly. Also, there has been a lot of studies done on the damage to wildlife due to wind power and the biggest concern that I read was birds. Apparently, they have fixed that problem. Seems to me that I would want to stick a couple turbines out in my corn field and sell the extras back to the power company. Couple of cool links on solar: http://www.google.com/corporate/solarpanels/home?gsessionid=NZZ6-gaUEBo http://www.physorg.com/news99904887.html http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=14932 Definitely some interesting research and development happening.

Reminds me a Civil War game about three or four years ago. Keenan Howry.........booo. Miles I understand you are bitter today, but punts returned for touchdowns aren't about play makers, they are about missed assignments. Also, Cal's QB is playing on one foot. You have a good point about the injuries, but the bottom line is mistakes.

reefgeek, it is my understanding that using electric cars is far less polluting. We are already producing pollution at powerplants. If everyone had an electric car, we would only be using one source. Therefore, we would not be polluting by using electricity for our homes,etc, as well as gasoline for our cars. Does that make sense? You are correct, that there would be an influx of pollution/emissions from electricity producing facilities but I think emissions would be much less than continued use of gas. I hope someone with more knowledge can jump in. True, but this is why I cannot understand why there has not been huge investments in solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and other "natural" or renewable energy sources. I dont think the sun is going away anytime soon and I think there will continue to be wind in many areas for a long time. If we as a country really wanted to make alternative energy happen, we would. Investing in renewable energy would create a ton of jobs and lead other countries to follow suit. However, most of these technologies will create some sort of pollution, directly or indirectly. The bottom line is that they will produce far far less than what we are currently using.....coal. Honestly, doesnt that seem wrong that we are still burning coal in 21st century? Twitter, you brought up another huge point. Think about our foreign policy if we were not dependent on oil. Would we have such a huge presence in the middle east? I dont think so. All of these things put together gives me a headache because it seems so logical what we need to do. However, the older i get the more I realize that the world is not logical no matter how much I would like it to be.

Thats what happens when you give up a punt return and interception for a touchdown. Kind of reminds me of another team.

Sorry dude, but there is only so much, um bull***t a team can take. Those refs let the game get WAY out of hand by not blowing the whistle and letting Washington do some nasty stuff. Then, when the game was out of control they started tossing people left and right for not doing much. Agreed, it shouldnt have happened, but I can understand why it happened.

Me too. I was just about to order a TDS meter. someone report back how well they work.

Mike, I have been looking for a while now. HandS is too spendy for my liking. I have had a Euro Reef before and loved it, so i will certainly be looking in that direction. Seems like the recirc models are ridiculously expensive. I am also investigating the bubblemaster but what has really piqued my interest is this little bad boy: http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SQ-OCT-PK200&Category_Code=reefflo That would work for a long period of tank upgrades. The bubbleking has my interest but again the price seems a bit high. People do rave about them though. Ive owned an ASM and a PCI RPS with mixed reviews on each. Neither is a bad skimmer, but I guess I am looking for a REALLY great skimmer. Something I dont have to fuss with.

Cool Miles, thanks for the input. I will try and get my Calcium up a bit more and I have kept my alk at about 11-12 for a long time. The pH thing is really annoying by the way.

Im looking to go a different route than the octopus skimmer.

I cut it by an hour and I will see what happens over the next few weeks.

I was just about to revive that thread. I take it you are pleased with your purchase? How about some links to specific skimmers?

Just wondering what skimmer you would buy for a 135g tank that needs to be heavily skimmed?

Obviously, this problem will not be solved in a short time frame but I want to recap what we have covered. Ph= fine as long as it not swinging Levels=A little low on the calc and mag but nothing drastic Phos=possible but going to be difficult to test. Lighting=I am still considering this possibility, but I hate to mess with it too much. New bulbs around Christmas. Still consensus that Phoenix 14k is the way to go on the DE front?

Nyles, you may have hit the nail on the head. I have been having constant and pH issue. I have tried all the suggested remedies over at RC and nothing seems to work. However, if my pH is not swinging a bunch, just hovering down low at 7.9-8.0, is that a real problem?

All good information. One question....if I there was excess phos in the water column, one would think I should have some other problems like bad algea issues, no?

We are talking acros. Some doing really well and colorful, others brown. Hmmm interesting on the phosphate issue. Ill have to look into it. I know that it ridiculously difficult to accurately test phosphate but could you elaborate on why there would be phosphate exiting the reactor? Temp swings from 78.5 to about 79.5. Also, it is my understanding that MANY people have had good success with Phoenix bulbs. i hope that isnt the issue or I will be annoyed. However, I am going to be due for a bulb change out in a couple of months. Ill keep investigating and see what I can find. I think for starters I will do a decent sized water change and lower my photoperiod a tad. I have been reading on RC that brown outs can also be caused by too much of the algea that corals are symbiotic with and I cant spell. xxooleellthalelea algea.

Yes my calcium is a bit low. I just bumped it up. I test weekly. I do run a calcium reactor and kalkwasser.

Rich, I have had some troubles in the past with light colored corals and found that this was due to not feeding enough. Now I feel like I feed too much but my levels are fairly good. What about lighting? Is it possible I am giving them too much light? Right now I am running about 8 hours 250w 14K Phoenix on HQI and 12 hours actinic. hmm.....