aqua-ed

Are you thinking to have this for only Eugene? If not, I would love to use it as a communication source with my upcoming classroom if I can get a tank going. I'll be in Dallas, so I'm fairly isolated, too. Excellent idea, hope you can get 'er going. Let me know what I can do to help. I don't have wiki experience, but it is something I hoped to work with.

As an incoming science teacher, I would be interested in participating. I have bits and pieces I could donate, but would need help getting the other stuff. Let me know what I can do to help, I think this would be a great thing for schools and teachers!

Hehehe...looks like you've been misquoted. At least it wasn't something derogatory or harsh. (laugh)

How far ahead of time does everyone mix their saltwater? Is there a shelf-life? I do weekly (or bi-weekly) 5gal changes for my tank. I usually mix it up a day ahead and get it up to temp. Is it feasible to mix a month's supply (20g) at once and keep it cool until I need it? Will anything break down or lower the beneficial nutrients?

Welcome! Hate to agree with every one, but yea, that scallop is gonna die (flame) I had one for a few months, he looked happy, but then again, they don't have faces, so what is a happy scallop. The long short of it is (anyone recognize that quote?) they are used to feeding on plankton which is in abundance in the real ocean, but not so much in a tank. I tried feeding mine plankton once a day, but it was adding too much nutrient to my tank. Plus, they are used to a constant feeding of plankton, not "meals". But heck, they are cheap and attractive, so why not? Just keep an eye out, one day your going to come home and find a rotting mass of meat and shell, and your littler flamer will break your heart (sad) On a happier note, what size is your cc? I have cc in my tank, but the pieces are very small, most .5cm or less. I had a watchman goby that was perfectly content with the that size cc. However, I would recommend a shrimp goby. They look about the same and tend to not make a huge cloudy mess in your tank. Anywho, welcome to the club, post some pics, and hope to see you around!

more nooks and cranys for fish and water to move through. Like dsoz said, at least a "table" shape would look and work awesome. If your anything like me, arranging the rocks is one of the funnest parts. I moved my tank last week and got the opportunity to rework my rock structure. Ah, the bliss of reef keeping

Welcome! Great looking tank. I'm with dsoz, make yourself a nice little structure with those rocks. If you get a goby, he'll thank you for it. Good luck, and don't hesitate to come to the board with questions!

I like the idea of quarterly, or even biannual. At once a month, we'd probably run out of tanks to fast. To remove the fear of "having" to host a meeting, would any sponsors be willing to donate coupons to the winner? Or a free PNWMAS shirt? My crummy little low budget tank won't be entered any time soon, but I think TOT(quarter/term) would be fun, especially for us teachers. Once I've got my class tank, it would be a good goal to set for my students who help out.

I still have two frags of sun polyps (tubastrea), too. They are rescue frags that I have revitalized and are looing healthy. One is 6 heads and the other is 30+. [ATTACH]2546[/ATTACH]

Bada Bing, a hole in the return. Absolute genius, I knew you guys wouldn't let me down!

Some Devils hand sounds great. See you there!

Wow, it finally happened to me. Today, the power went out and the return pump from my sump stopped running. I have it all plumbed with 0.5" PVC. When the pump turned off, it created a little thing called a siphon that sucked the water from my tank back down into my sump. It kept sucking until the water level dropped below the return. By that time, about 5 gallons had emptied onto the floor. Unfourtanetly, I was not home to witness any of this and stop it from happening. My question is, how do you prevent this siphoning? Is there something I can use to prevent back flow? Or do I just need to keep my return high enough so that the water it siphons isn't enough to overflow my sump?

Anytime. Thanks again!

Oh, and I have a bunch of Blade Caulerpa (Caulerpa prolifera) if anyone wants some.

I've got some zoas and palys I want to trade off. The palys are a light green are reproduce like crazy. I have a frag of them with about 8 small heads. The zoas are bluish with a green mouth. They have spread to various parts of my tank I have the mother colony of those I'd like to trade off, it takes up too much room. It has about 30+ heads I'd say. The attached pictures are of the paly's mother colony (not the frag) and the zoa mother colony (the one for trade) I'd like to get some LPS, but I'd take some softies, too. -Lee [ATTACH]2540[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2541[/ATTACH]

PM in the box

Do you have picture of the tank and stand? Is the stand built to handle a sump?

It's about 2000 gals with 2 mechanical/bio filters and a UV filter. It's never run through a winter, so I couldn't tell you about freezing. I assume it will if it gets cold enough.

I've been putting in a garden pond at my parents house for three years now and am finally ready to start giving it life. Does anyone else have themselves a pond? I'm looking for some plant life and algae eaters to get the nutrient levels down. I went to wilco and got some lettuce and hyacinth, what else would you recommend? How about fish? Would they help it "cycle" or should I wait on those? Also, if your looking to thin some of your plant life, I may be interested in buying it off you. Thanks! -Lee

Still need one...if no one has a used one, any suggestions on a new one?

It's a Rio 2100, 692gph, 25W

Where would one go to buy pump parts? I have a pump that needs a new thingie that goes over the dilly-ma-bob. If you don't know what I'm talking about, does anyone have any links to pages that sell pump parts? Also, is it worth it? It's the plastic guard that holds the impeller in place. For my money, would I be better off getting a new one?

Awesome. I cleaned that puppy up and she's purring like a venturi kitten once more. A soak in some vinegar water and some TLC with my roommates toothbrush get her back in shape.

If you are going to be laying the pipe horizontally, why not just cut it in half (into half circles)? This would cut the material costs in half and prevent the stagnation.

geez, I really have no idea. I don't even know what my current pump is. what is the rule of thumb? twice the tank size per hour? triple? If you've got something that might work for me, that'd be great!