andy

+1 A decent RODI is the cost of a couple of nice frags and will do more to keep your tank healthy than at least three "what's the best salt?" swaps. Did you know that every time you do a water change with city water, an angel's tank gets a brown algae outbreak? True story.

Great looking presentation, Rick -- I'm sorry I missed it.

Deleted due to excessive sarcasm.

My problem with them is the quality of construction. They're built using cheap plastic that breaks far too easy. I've had a couple of 2100s and the tabs holding on the volute broke almost immediately on both. As comparison, I've had pumps (Eheim, Tunze, Mag & Sedra to a lesser degree) that are near bulletproof. Gen-X pumps are cheap, and you get what you pay for -- for a few extra bucks (the cost of a frag), you can buy a pump that'll last a lifetime (Eheim). IMO. YMMV.

Experiences vary...

Anything made by Tunze or Eheim.

The submersible Gen-X pumps from PCI. Terrible, terrible quality.

Bumpity bump

Thanks Jay, I know how much work maintaining the site is and I really appreciate the effort.

Welcome back, Kim. I think we need a poll...

Like the hand-strap on that one... good idea.

I picked up the inCase Magazine Convertible today at Best Buy -- I like it, it seems like a good compromise between protection and portability.

I don't believe the deaths were your fault. I understand your reluctance to name names, but losing two hardy fish so quickly with the same relatively unusual symptoms is too coincidental for me. I suspect the fish came into the store stressed and picked up the illness somewhere along the way. YMMV.

The Otterbox Defender looks really cool, but maybe a bit too thick for what I want. I think I'll probably end up with the DodoCase...

I haven't chosen a case yet. I can't decide between the DodoCase, the inCase Convertible Magazine and the inCase Convertible Book. As far as apps go, here are my favorites so far: APPS: Dropbox - Cloud-based file storage; has Windows, Mac, Android and iOS clients. THE best way to get files in/out the iPad Kindle - Amazon's eBook reader software. Syncs across platforms (Mac, Win, iOS, Android) GoodReader - Document reader. Has built-in Dropbox support Evernote - Cloud-based document manager. Great for notes, scans, photos, etc. Syncs across platforms (Mac, Win, iOS, Android) 1Password - Password-manager. Has built-in Dropbox support and Windows, Mac, iOS, Android clients Friendly - A nice Facebook client Reeder - RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader Twitter - Twitter client Wikipanion - A nice Wikipedia client Pandora - Streaming music Netflix - Movie-watching client, only useful if you have Netflix (or are willing to get it) Adobe Ideas - Nice little sketching app Instapaper - Web-page read-it-later tool GAMES: Angry Birds Cut the Rope Plants vs. Zombies Fruit Ninja Carcasonne Things I haven't checked out yet, but will soon: Infinity Blade - RPG Rage HD - shooter on rails game iThoughts HD - mind-mapping app Papa Sangre - no-video video game Elements - Dropbox-based text editor Pages - word processor Keynote - presentation app

I have a Droid, will be upgrading to an iPhone when they come to Verizon. I like Android as an OS, but IMO the overall user experience and apps are FAR superior on iOS. I got an iPad for Christmas too :-) What are your favorite apps so far?

Regarding Facebook: Yes, I'm admin of the page. LMK if an Officer wants admin rights (don't ask if you aren't an Officer of the club, 'cuz I'll just mock you ;-) ).

Guess I must be an outlier -- I used to really like Rod's Food but it seems to me that now it is, for lack of a better word, "over-ground". Most of the protein has been reduced to a fine mush that my fish mostly ignore (my skimmer loves it though). Adding insult to injury, there is the occasional giant piece of krill or squid that only Moby Dick would like.

Merry Christmas!

http://www.savko.com

Merry Christmas -- I can't think of a better gift than your son coming home...

Mega-awesome: http://www.vanaqua.org/holidaycard/

Vantucky has a second one on 192nd. This is both good and bad.

No, I meant Ball Valves. The cheap ones will jam up over time as crud builds up inside them. Come on by my place and try and turn *my* 4 year installed cheap ball valves, then compare that to my 4 year old good quality ball valves. Decent quality ball valves, preferably ones with teflon seats, will last forever and will be as easy to open/close five years later as the day they were installed. The difference in cost now will be small, but if you have the tank up for more than a year or two your future self will be much happier. If it makes the extra cost easier to swallow, buy threaded ones and you can use them for the rest of your life.