Bevo5

What's the best way to pick these up? I don't even see these on your EBAY yet. I'd grab those shrooms from you at least....

I'm looking for a bit of soda lime so I can try out a CO2 scrubber to help raise my PH. I don't really want to invest in a huge bucket just yet since I don't know if this works etc. So I need about enough to fill a 2liter bottle maybe??? Anybody got some you'd want to sell? Or - if there were 4 or 5 of us looking we could split a bucket

+1 more of the 12000. Although that could all change any second when it burns up. For the price, you can get the pump AND a backup before you're even close to the cost of the other units.

Talk to brian first and you'll be done.

Can someone put up a recap or any interesting points? I was unable to make it out today.

Haha. Very true.

Why not just use a bucket??? Drill the lid. Easy and cheap.

I'm not a buyer - but how fast does that thing go? Just curious.

Man, freshwater filtration is the easiest thing in the world. Canister + some bio media...a few layers of sponge. That's all you need. Plus, it's all a closed system so you're not going to flood your living room. Well, I guess a seal can always break... My favorite tank is a Frontosa tank but it's hard to beat peacocks/haps when you want something showy. Everyone thinks a Malawi tank is saltwater with all of the colors etc. The only problem with malawi is that 95% of the fish are the exact same shape. Tangs come in various shapes and sizes so it's more interesting. NOthing beats saltwater for that though... We should probably stop talking about this....it'll make me fill up the 180 in my garage and I for sure do not need that going.

Man. I dunno if I would use a salt mix. It's obviously a very different mix. Cichlids don't mind a little salt in the water but it would start getting pretty salty if you want to buffer with it. But hey - maybe it'll work. I've just never tried it. You can get 5 pounds of Epsom and baking soda for $5. That would last you forever. Might be better as its a no risk set up. Vs trying out different salt mixes. I would put like 5 tablespoons of aquarium salt in my 180 just to help with slime coat. I dunno about going with higher concentrations. Shoot me a note if you want the filter. You should also bring s few buckets over and get the aragonite I have. That'll be free. It's ideal for buffering.

Yeah man - that will be fun. You'll be overloaded with fry in no time! I've got an EHEIM 2217 laying around if you want to turn that thing into whirlpool of filtration. Also - and I'm sure you're knowledgeable so sorry if I'm telling you things you already know - but you can mix up your own cichlid salt super easily. Just use pure epsom (no fragrance added) and baking soda. It will make your water nice and hard and keep the PH up. Much cheaper than using seachem or something like that. Since we never get to talk cichlids on this site (makes sense). Here are some shots of my old tanks. This was 240 frontosa/tricoti set up. And this was the beginnings of my peacok/hap 180. I ended up with 45 fish in there - was awesome. I was super bummed when I had to sell all of those guys when we moved out here....

If the feeder is still available, well it won't be for long because I'll buy it.

Oh man. Finally a topic I can help out in. I kept Africans for 20yrs before I moved out here and switched to salt. I don't have any info on breeders but I have a ton of stuff if you're still looking for the set up. What are you thinking about keeping? Depending on the fish, and my guess you want something more rare for a species tank, your best bet is to order. Southeast cichlids was my personal favorite as they got great fish and we're always packed and shipped safely. You probably won't find what you're looking for locally and if you did then you would have no where to unload your fry since the fish would be available already. Let me know what your set up is. I've got tons of aragonite and Texas holey Rock if you like that look. But a good wall of river stones is always a great look for mbuna. I've got a 180 nobody wants so I'm toying with setting it up as a frontosa tank in a few months. It's hard to not have any African tanks at all.

I'm getting chocolate chips from c&c as soon as he gets them. Jeff didn't get any in this week and with the holidays I'm stuck looking for a few stars to cover a couple days. I appreciate the concern, but all I'm doing with this post is finding something for him to nibble on until those chocolates comes in. And I dunno. Pulling 10 aterina Stars a day from a 29bc seemed like quite a population boom. He just plowed through it in a couple weeks.

I got an Harlequin shrimp a couple weeks ago to help with an asterina star explosion. Well, he's made short work out of them. I used to have a half dozen on the back wall...now maybe one or two small ones. I kind of like this guy though so I want to find him another food source. So - got any good size asterina stars I get? Or a chocolate chip? Or something? Let me know and I can swing by - Portland area...

Thanks all - I realize I left out key information, making this hard to give opinions on. The tank is a 200g with a 48x20x20 sump. I have a skimmer in the first chamber. It's a beast - Reef Oct. 5000. To be honest I think it's too big, but it's in there now . I might downsize soon. So the first chamber of the sump is full. The second chamber is just wide open space, then the return. My main desire with that space is nitrate and algae control....hence the idea of getting a ton of chaeto and throwing it in there. But I would then be pretty limited in what else I can add to the equipment. I probably have 8in of open space in the stand before the media cabinets. SO putting in external reactors and stuff like that will be a big challenge.

I've got a space that's about 20x20in space in my sump that I'm sorting a plan for. I originally was going to put a bunch of chaeto in there and fuge it out. Problem is I don't have much room left under the stand or in the sump so I won't be able to add much more equipment wise. So my other option is to leave that space open for a calcium reactor etc. What are some opinions on those two options? Thanks.

Ok - got it. So if you have 1in drains. That's a lot better than .75in drains - small difference that makes a big difference in the amount of water flow. I wouldn't try to redrill those holes....and they're probably not spaced out in a way to make that possible anyway. I'm still not knowledgeable enough to tell you which system to run but it seems like you were set up for a Bean Animal with the three holes in the overflow. A herbie system is just two - one main drain and one emergency. ***People really need to check this idea and chime in before you do it - BUT....here's what I would do: -Two full siphon tubes placed in overflow about 6 below water line. [Cap each with a tall strainer, not a flat one) -Each should lead to a union and then to a high-quality gate valve (Spears, Cpex). At least one should have the valve.....I guess both? -Then these lead to your filter socks. -The third overflow hole should be right up at the water level and then be as straight a shot as possible to your sump. It doesn't have to go to a sock as this should only get water it in in an emergency. No valve etc. Just hope this one never sees water. The returns are a bit trickier since they are 1.5in each...which is weird to me. But anyway - run a 1.5in line out of your return pump. Have it go to a gate valve if you want so you can turn off the backflow if needed. Then get a Y connector that splits the return into two. From there it's a straight shot to each of your return holes. Depending on where your returns are you might consider putting a valve on the line closest to the pump. That way you can trim off some of the flow from that return so the other gets equal amounts of water.

That's looking real nice. I'm curious what the clothes in the closet smell like. Are those battery backups you built in? If so, what advice would you give if I wanted to do something similar? I have a big closet directly behind the tank that I wanted to put some battery stacks in but I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.

I'm by no means an expert and I might be wrong about this - but if you have 1in holes then you're going to be using .75in bulkheads right? If so, that means you probably need at least two of those to run full siphon to get your turnover. That leaves you with one emergency drain which might not be able to handle the full load if needed. That would just be something to keep in mind when figuring out your pump size etc. You would run two full siphon and then one dry/drip emergency line. That's gonna cut it close if you're turning over 10x...which might be too much anyway. Someone else probably has better answers for that.

You can get netting that they use to cover stuff so birds don't land on it. I forgot what it's called but Home Depot has it. Bird netting. But it's super flimsy and doesn't provide much strength. The screen netting on bulk reef supply is like a clearish white but it's much stronger and smaller openings which is good. Stores will cut the screen door stuff for you also. So figure out how many tops you want and what you need to get them to cut it all clean. I went with three separate panels on my 80in tank so it's easier to work on smaller areas. Stuff like that.

The issue of voiding your warranty should be considered as well. The quiet drives are what? 6 months old? Who knows what problems will pop up.

Y'all are braver than I am. Why not just cut a path in the shelf and build it back on. Then you can remove the pump controls in the future if need be. Seems better than cutting and soldering every time you need to move or replace or add or whatever. I cut out a larger box and just fit it through. Doesn't look as clean I guess. Or cut the hole and cover it with the control bracket.

Here's a question - I'm almost cycled on my new 200g. I have a biocube with a few fish in it now but lots and lots of corals. I wasn't going to move the corals over until I had a good system going in the new tank. That limits my quarantine options. My first thought was to get a good number of fish (not too many to overload obviously) and just throw them in the 200g and treat that as my quarantine. But treating 200g with Prazi seems like a lot of waste. Plus, will it have any negative effects on my brand new bio-filtration abilities...as in, a weakened bio load capacity? Will running carbon really remove it all from the system and make it safe for corals etc? I guess I could put them in and only treat if there seems to be an issue. The other option is just to get the water levels in the 200g nice and steady and go ahead and move everything from the biocube into the new tank. Then use the biocube as my quarantine. What do y'all suggest? I'd obviously like to get big fish in the big tank vs. having them stuck in the biocube for too long.

ha. that settles that.