rude944

It works, Keith

Wow, big wow. Lower heat, higher efficiency and programability. I expect it would be priced accordingly, however the materials should be cheaper, but you know, they gotta get back the engineering costs somewhere!

Well then, I am recently cultivating a taste for top-shelf gin. Tanquerey Ten on the rocks. Maybe with a splash of cran. It's like floor cleaner for the brain. Imagine; Pine-sol on the mind.

You know, you're always saying how much trouble you got in your tanks. Seems like it's doing pretty well. Good colors and PE to boot.

Pretty cool, Keith...

So what was the consensus regarding the elegance project? I never heard the end of it form borneman as the RC thread got killed.

Ok, I run my tank at 82. Jansen mentioned the reason, you raise the metabolism of the corals inside. This means to me faster growth rates. Other reasons too. -Less instance of disease. Ich will not tolerate high temps, other parasites are similar. -Lower fluctuation of temps in the summer months. I do have a chiller, but I can keep my temp in a narrow range when it gets really warm outside (and inside). When it gets above 80 outside, the tank will heat up substantially, and the shock is less severe to the corals when they are used to higher temps. For me, the upper limit is 84. Then, the lights go out.

I'm in a different boat here. I've been into Guinness as of late. Nothing better then a bottle of chocolate milk with the little "make more foam" floaty thing inside. If you ever go to a McMennamins, do have an Irish stout. It's their equivelent and it's on nitro. IMO, the best thing that has ever happened to beer is nitro. Yummy, creamsicle

They are likely charging a percent of the barrel, so if a barrel is broken down, then 40% is in obtaining the oil, 20% in refining it, 20% in transport, 10% in retailing it, and 10% profit. When oil on the market climbs to new highs, then the profit does as well. Do you really feel foolish paying for it? It's a limited natural resource and there are many consumers in the world for it. That's a lot of competition. Further, as someone brought up earlier, it is far cheaper here then it is elsewhere (well, excepting OPEC countries... but get this, Iraq's cost for gas is up here with ours, as they don't have the resources to process it). My thoughts are; if you really think the (our) regime has something to do with this, you're right. Our countries policies toward the middle east has brought some of this on us. But now I am just being a pig. Oh well... effin' oink.

Wanna be really scared? So far, our relatively strong economy has been able to endure oil price shocks pretty well, and the price for consumer goods was stable (not correlated to oil prices). It had appeared to the Fed (the people who control our nations money supply, ie, print dollars) that business was able to absorb the costs of higher energy. Consumers did not feel the price shocks in goods. The Fed on tuesday gave some notes from their meetings which suggest that the interest rate hikes are over, which is a signal that inflation may be starting to pick up past a comfortable place. If that is the case, then the consumer will pay for the higher energy costs in goods. That means that a gallon of milk will include higher gas prices too. Now think about all consumer goods: Shoes, cell phones, cars, houses. It's a big deal, this inflation stuff. Iran is on my crap list.

The other side of that arguement is that margins have not changed significantly. There were more profits, but this is becuase there was a higher cost of the oil. Does that make sense?

In the case that some people are not aware of the way oil is bought and sold, markets determine the cost of sweet crude oil. Here's a lesson in finance: Oil is bought and sold on the NY merchantile exchange. There are professional purchasers that work for... say Exxonmobil or even a company like United Airlines. They take the spot rate (the rate oil costs right exactly now) if they want to buy today. There is another market, however, called the futures market. This market sells claims on future oil. The stuff that is still in the ground that will be on the market soon. Oil 90 days from now. I can say, "well I work for Southwest Air and I want to make sure that I buy oil that I am reasonably sure will cost more tomorrow then it does today". So I pay a premium on this oil. But I am sure that it's still less then what oil itself will cost on the spot market in 90 days. This is called an option for a futures contract. Then I do something called hedging and make another investment in another commodity or security that will offset the extra cost of the oil I bought. The idea is that I can cut my present value (today's true price) cost of oil versus buying it in the spot market as I need it. The reason this all works is because there is risk in buying something in the future, and people are willing to compensate others for bearing risk (see interest rates). The net result of all of this is that there is simply a given supply and demand for oil. If people (corporations and banks, really) see that the cost of oil is going to go up in the future, they will buy more of it today. This of course raises the cost. At the present moment, oil is at a record of $75 a barrel. People drive more in the summer, but heat their houses less (with heating oil), but the net of that is still higher demand in the summer season. What I think is really going on here is uncertainty over the Iran situation (they are the 3rd or 4th largest oil producer) and high demand from emerging markets (China/India). Oil companies have seen record profits, but that is only becuase of record demand. They may not be the price gougers as much as people still really demand it.

Dog named Ori and 2 cats, Jack and Bella. All were rescued and have unique problems. Everyday is a new struggle to have a clean and well sorted household!

Someone needs a carnivore tank!!!

Sounds like you've possibility beaten whatever factor was causing it. Keep this thread alive and tell us your progress.

Have you heard or seen AEFW in the Pacific NW?

I read his post on RC and it was really interesting, thanks for the link! I can't say I agree or disagree, and those are just his opinions/questions and there are no studies that back up his arguments (of his questions) in the body of the post. That said, I feel this way: How have we contributed positively to our earth? I think I am hard pressed to find ways that we are sustaining our world. I do recycle, keep my car in a good state of tune, try to limit my consumption of finite resources, and otherwise try to do good. But the fact of the matter is that I use more then I produce, and the things that I use are resources that may not be reproducable. In effect, I have an affect on the world's environment, and while I try to limit it, I live in a society that values the destruction of our resources over the preservation of them. Any way that we cut this, we are living on borrowed time at our present rate of consumption. To answer your question "Why the spin", I think I know why, and the answer is; Personal feelings of guilt. (anyone care to comment?)

IME redbugs will cause the polyps to not come out at all. I did not have have any tissue recession at all with redbugs. HTH.

That Tyree link was a pretty good call, John. I don't think that there would be anything awfully bad about increasing biodiversity, save for the initial expense. What were your thoughts about getting it started? Order a bunch of rock for your sump?

I always thought your picture WAS from your wedding.

I felt that many people who took my class were not strong swimmers, that said, I can't imagine getting the cert passed if you could not swim well at all. There is an element of danger inherant in diving, and this is complicated by people not being in good shape. So, if you feel that getting across a pool is a difficult task, then diving may not be a good idea right off. In my class, you really had to be on your toes. They would suprise you by pulling your mask off at the bottom of the pool and you had to get it back on, clear it, and then do the ok before you were passed. Think about this. There you are in the bottom of the reef @ 60 feet. There is a strong current and you hit a rock and your mask falls off (It's not going to happen on every dive, or even one in ten, but it could easily happen). So do you either chase down your mask as it floats to the surface cause you need it to see (and get the bends) or you just decide to die. That's my reality too, as I wear contacts. It's not really that serious, but you see how it can get complicated pretty quick. I got into pretty good shape for a while and scuba diving was streneous even then. But is anything worth getting into shape for like seeing the reef in the wild? I'm going to Kauai in a month. I have 2 shore dives scheduled, perhaps a boat too. I'm totally amped, and nothing is making me happier right now! So overcome your swimming issue, and partake!!!

If you have a problem with dissolved oxygen, all your inverts will go to the top of the tank to get closer to oxygen evtering at the surface. Are the two additives you swapped comparable? Ie, does one Buffer and the other add a trace element or stronium/calcium? I dunno as I don't really dose much besides Iodine and amino acids.

Someone suggested having the effluent drip instead of submerging the tube. I don't understand how that helps with gas exchange, but it can be done. Perhaps run the c02 into a fuge with macro to try to limit the co2 going to the display. The other way is to add a second chamber to the reactor to try to dissolve the media to calcium bicarbonate further. CO2 is not the only thing that will make the PH fall tho. Think about things like over feedings, undiscovered dead fish/inverts, or lack of buffer. The Kalk should start you on your way back up. That stuff has a PH of like 11! Use an additive to get it back into a tolerable place initially, but over a long period of time, say 24 hours. Drip the solution or something like that. I would get on the water change thing and do a couple of 25%ers in a week at the least on my tank. Change some of the substrate. And test again. And test your test kit.

Depends on the anemone, I guess. Condy's will live in a shoebox under tungsten incandecent. I had a Macrodalaycta Dorensis (long tentacle anemone) under PC's for over a year. He liked it.

Low PH, hmmm, did you read my recent whoops? Perhaps your (do you have a...) calcium reactor is pushing too much C02 to the tank? That will definately do it. The things that usually contribute to a higher PH are the substrate, rock and levels of Alk, O2 and other chemicals in the tank. You may consider renewing some of the hard calcium (rock, sand). Are your dissolved levels of oxygen ok? Is your bioload pretty high? Are you brewing kalkwasser at all? Any new additives?