Trailermann

I am starting to attach the dino without using a black out. First step of filtering the water through a filter sock did not work very well. Obviously I will need a much finer sock because 80% of the crap went right through. Starting the 2 week H2O2 regimen.

Many thanks to all of you. Great club we are in.

What is this greenish brown stuff? Grows very fast, and has attached to new frags within two days. How do I get rid of it? Sorry about the photo. I misplaced the filter gel I had.

I have an unused BRS single reactor that I do not plan on using. Interested?

I have a bag of Kaldnes media. Should work well. Google it and see if that can work for you.

Oh no, I will be away fishing (catch and release of course).

I can relate. My hiatus was 30 years. Another break like that and I will be dead.

I plan to go somewhere next year and need some advise. I have only done one dive trip since my recent immersion into reefing. Grand Cayman was beautiful, but the visibility was only about 50 feet (recent stormy weather) and dull staghorn and brains were about the only hard corals. Yeah, also fire corals galore. Tons of sponges. Now wondering where to dive to see acropora, blastomussa, acan, favites, goniapora, etc. In other words, I want to see WorldWideCoral.com live, in person. Thinking seriously about Palau. Already been to Coral Sea, Borneo, Fiji, Truk in past years. I will post this also in R2R but would put more stock in advise from PNWMAS.

I am not ready to apply @albertareef's chemical treatment yet, but I suggest you PM him directly. Good luck Oregonic.

Good information from all of you. I'll be considering sand bed change or complete removal. Cleaning with tons of turbulance of the back chambers of my AIO after three years could also help. Interestingly, I have a second 30 gallon tank that receives about the same amount of food. It only has a HOB filter and a HOB skimmer, but the nitrates are nearly undetectable.

Love to get a small piece of the birds nest. I will be a Hollys for the meeting.Love to get a small piece of the birds nest. I will be a Hollys for the meeting.

Yes, very helpful. I'll be adding those yellow things to my set up. However, I plan to stick with the DJ because of the clean look.

I did not expect to find motor heads and adrenaline junkies in this group.

Lex, thanks for the info and encouragement. Yes, I use RODI water, and an algae scrubber is on my wish list. My SPS are not happy and I suspect the "high" nitrate could be a factor. LadyS, my three water changes were within the span of eight days. When you say that you cleaned everything, are you referring to all the sand and rocks and refugium floor (if you have one)? Many experts in our club recommend leaving the sand bed alone.

Good news, just completed my third large water change, and the nitrates now measure only 5. My fingers are crossed that a forth change will finally get me down where I want.

Let's just say that I have bought a new nitrate test kit and the results are the same. If the live rock is leaching nitrate, wouldn't the nitrate level be rising between water changes? And what is the solution to those low-down, no-good nitrate leachers?

Even after multiple 25% water changes of my 30 gallon JBJ rimless, the nitrate remains at 10 using Red Sea Pro test kit (and repeated testing). I get higher readings in my live rock holding tank, and lower results in my other 30 gallon LPS tank. On top of that mystery, the nitrate level does not go up from 10 after a fortnight of regular feedings and no water changes. I am puzzled. If my readings are accurate, what can cause the nitrates to hold at a rock solid ten?

I used to be a devout believer in "he who dies with the most toys, wins" but hospital visits cured me. Now fly fishing, alpine skiing, scuba, auto restoration, white water rafting and of course watching my aquarium's alkalinity bounce up and down.

this zoa colony is overwhelming the adjacent blastomussa. They both are on a large live rock that cannot be removed from the tank. Can I cut each zoanthid off where the base meets the rock? If I do, can I just let the small polyps float away, die and degrade? Or, with all the current pumps off, should I suction each polyp up and discard? Is this species valuable and worth saving somehow? Am I right that this colony is a large zoa and not a paly?

I have 3/4 sheet of white.

Let's see if these zipped photos are view able.

Thanks for the suggestion. It never occurred to me to bypass the needle valve and bubble counter. Can you suggest a fitting to screw into the solenoid with a push-to-fit or slip-on end for the tubing?

I have been going nuts trying to adjust my bubble count with the Milwaukee MA 957 CO2 regulator. I set the needle valve for a nice even bubble flow, and then later, I have to open it up more for the same flow. This went on several weeks as I tried to adjust the effluent flow, the primary and secondary CO2 pressure gauges, and whatever else I could fiddle with, hoping to get a steady bubble flow. Finally I saw mention of a clogged needle valve and found this instruction: MA957 Clogged Needle Valve Repair Procedure Over time dirty CO2 gas flowing through the regulator will start to deposit dust and dirt in the small gas line located inside the needle valve. When these deposits become large enough the gas flow becomes restricted and eventually will stop. When you add more gas pressure, forcing the gas pass the inline restriction, the flow will start back but as the backpressure subsides the gas flow and bubble count will also diminish and will again eventually stop. This yo-yo effect causes the operator to apply even more pressure from the large black main regulator knob (Macro adjustment) until the backpressure is so high that the solenoid will not close, even when power to the solenoid is turned off. This high backpressure in the solenoid piston chamber will allow gas to continue to flow through the regulator dropping the pH to 5.5 causing a catastrophic effect on all biological life in a tank. Field repair procedure - Turn the tank off and take the regulator off the tank. Take the bubble counter off the regulator needle valve. Open the needle valve all the way open by turning the knob counter-clockwise until it stops. Use a 1/16” drill and go through the top hole of the needle valve and drill through the base of that hole until you feel the drill pass through into the main chamber. Drill time is only about 2 seconds at full drill speed. Turn the regulator over and tap the needle valve on a table to knock out the drill filings. Remount the regulator. Note: If 1/16” drill is not available then go to next size which is a 5/64” drill bit. Eureka, I found the problem. So I drilled out the valve and reassembled. ......Started out fine, but after a short honeymoon, it again slowly shut off the flow of gas. So either I did the procedure wrong, or something else is wrong. OK, next solution -- install the highly touted CarbonDoser. Should solve my problems, right? Not!!! The used unit I bought for $250 did not work. No gas flow. So I put it into a box and sent it into AquariumPlant.com for repair. Back to manual daily two part dosing. Crapola, solving our country's immigration challenge would be easier than this. FYI, I already know the answer to that problem.

Opps, I forgot to add the silly smiley face to establish that this was a joke. I am still new to "forum-speak".