Ron Popeil

well...more like....a sponge filter made for QT tanks or fry tanks...

does anyone have an established sponge filter theyd be willing to part with?

ha. brilliant. i will have to dabble in some of that. michael, i stopped by lowes in salem late last night, and they either had no idea what i was talking about, or they just didnt have any. is it called something else at hardware stores?

thanks michael, ill check tomorrow. but if anyone has any laying around that i can use to seperate a 20 gallon into sections....let me know. thank you!

anyone have any?

i run a pair of lumenarc reflectors, and i really enjoy them. the one thing i should have done initially (and will do eventually) is get a glass plate to protect the reflectors from water splashing. i have a handful of water spots on my reflectors, and i dont like it, i assume eventually it will hinder the ability of the reflector. so either get the enclosed one, or try to enclose it yourself (the lumenarcs have a slot to slide in a glass plate).

i think the addition of live rock will be more benficial than adding aged water. what benefit does aged water have over fresh new salt water? the live rock and the addition of the skimmer will provide your filtration, and new saltwater will still have all the minerals and additives that used saltwater may be lacking, it may even contain nitrate. either way, used saltwater or new saltwater, with what youre doing, i dont think there is need to let anything "age". your liverock and the rocks the corals are on, will help break down any organic contaminants (ammonia, nitrite), and periodic, if not infrequent, water changes will help dillute any nitrate; which will be next to nothing due to the extremely low bioload.

there it is! well done!

no! sigh. oh well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKRkP43R8pY a brilliant success!

i figured thats what it must be. and how do you know when thats toast?

so either silicone grease or food grade silicone spray? either of those will work? if all goes as planned, ill use monday afternoon to do some greasing then....

thanks guys, ill fiddle with it tonight and see what i can produce.

one of my sea swirls has an annoying noise it creates while it turns. i assume it just needs more lubricant, but what is safe and/or best to use? or is it a signal of bad things to come? will WD40 work? or is there something better? and will this fix the problem? ive looked at the inside of these before, and even replaced a motor, but never had this creaking noise i do now. any ideas? suggestions?

anyone is corvallis want to come over look at my RO unit and tell me whats going on with it? i just replaced the RO membrane after not needing it replaced for...well over four years. i replaced it with a 50 gpd membrane, which i believe is what it had in their before. now suddenly one of my three chambers below doesnt fill but halfway, and the TDS readings are coming out between 2 and 5 typically, but today theyre at 22. any suggestions? i have two knobs to turn. one knob is right as the water is exiting the filter. the other one appears to be directly connected to a pressure gauge and the RO membrane. the canister that doesnt fill all the way is split into two parts, the top half has what appears to be some sort of gooey orange fluid above a blueish solid like substance. why isnt that chamber filling? why is my tds reading numbers now when it used to be reading zeros? and how long can the inline TDS meters go before needing to be replaced?

well....i just took this tonight...but....

this is the heteractis magnifica and amphiprion nigripes tank. this tank houses two magnifica anemones, a pair of amphiprion nigripes, a bicolor blenny, a psychadelic mandarin, a pistol and goby pair, and prior to my recent power outtage four dispar anthias. just a random tenticle shot well, thats it. thats my system. things that im looking forward to adding in order to complete the system: - four line wrasse - six more chromise for the nigripes tank - three to four more dispar anthias for the nigripes tank - more pom pom crabs - several more smaller nigripes clownfish after that, my system will be complete. and hopefully with some breeding, ill be absolutely content. thanks for letting me share!

here is the system from the left and i nice full tank shot here is my purple heteractis crispa with pair of amphiprion chrysopterus clownfish. this tank has a bicolor blenny, six blue green chromis and a flame hawkfish.

here is the emergency overflow tank the sloppy and packed sump

this system finally came together in august of 2006. its the first part of a future dream system of mine. currently the complete system contains nine individual clownfish consisting of three species. eventually i would love to have a huge wall of similar designed tanks with one of each species of clownfish. for now, this is the system i get to enjoy. the two cube tanks drain into a common sump below. the sump is connected to a 75 gallon refugium by a mag 5 pump. on the left is the 45 gallon a. chrysopterus/h. crispa cube. on the right is the 60 gallon a. nigripes/h. magnifica cube. the 50 gallon sump below houses an ASM G4 skimmer and a PM calcium reactor. also present is a PCI 300w heater, along with a pH probe and wireless thermometer. two acrylic lids to my previous system function as baffles to limit the large amount of sump bubbles from reaching the main displays. from the sump, a reeflo dart pushes some 3000 to 3200 gph of water into a T which then divides again into dual sea swirls above each tank. in the chrysopterus tank there are two 3/4" sea swirls, and in the nigripes tank two 1" sea swirls. the two tanks run a single corner overflow, silenced by a stockman standpipe. the refugium is illuminated by a 4x96w power compact hood. connected to the refugium with a small 60 gph pump is the 10 gallon frag tank im finishing, and this is circulated by 300 gph powerhead. once i figure out a 175w halide, ill be able to start using the tank for growing frags. over each tank is a pair of lumenarc reflectors housing 400w 20k bulbs. two moonlights illuminate the tanks for the duration of our full moons once a month. my photo period stays around 10 to 12 hours, with each tank coming on about 6 hours apart. this helps keep heat down, but i still battle temperatures above 84 periodically. because of some poor designing, if the power cuts out, the main tanks backflow a few gallons, but the refugium drains considerably. my sump has a highwater level in order to handle the amount of flow going through it, so i do have a large amount of excess water to displace during an outtage. this has been remedied by a 10 gallon tank connected to an overflow bulkhead from the top of the sump. my top off water comes directly from my RO unit. i let it run about 12 hours during the night every three days or so. water changes had been very infrequent, but with a recent magnesium depletion, ill be keeping up a 50 gallon water change once a month, instead of once every three months. i dont dose. i feed an incredible amount of food several times a day. i harvest 5 gallons of algae about once a month. here is a side view of the length of the system the refugium and soon to be frag tank my wiring. its amazing. with a healthy dose of danger.

you did good kid. real good. love that flow!

....if you dont want...ill take.

http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~patek/shrimpMechanics/index.htm watch these videos. in particular of the cavitation and the the mantis hitting the force sensor. incredible. ...did i already post something like this before?

the more sand the better. your pistol shrimps are tremendous diggers, and move a lot of substrate. they often dont stay in one place either. they will construct burrows and tunnels through out your tank. the deeper the better, and if there are larger pieces mixed in with the substrate, it will help strengthen what they dig, also providing a lid for their burrows at night.

dan "mr upgrade" rothwell, keep your hands out of the cookie jar.