LadAShark

I have access to tropical oysters for rather cheap ($43 for 50 of them) and was wondering what you guys think about using them for filtration?

https://www.petcha.com/gavage-tubes/ Although the thread talks about sharks, you can use gavage tubes to force feed fish that refuse to eat. Especially useful for some of the rarer/more expensive fishies. http://z8.invisionfree.com/Sharks_and_Rays/index.php?showtopic=616 In case anyone wants to make their own salt. From my experience and from what I hear it works well. There is a link in that thread to even more precise values. and how to make kalkwasser:

I can take it, but I won't be back till Thursday as I mentioned before in text x.x

Looks nice. doesn't help that everytime I read the title "I am 10" pops up into my head and I skip the post haha

Well if you still have it in a week I'm working on a puffer tank.

I'll take them all. buut realized I'll also need someone to hold them because I will be gone for a week...

I think it has to do with the size of the setup and the lump sum of $1500. While it's a great deal I guess it's hard to manage that.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CFBYTHM/ref=pd_aw_fbt_199_img_2/136-2166181-0356556?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TTZW7XV03Q9B5X81KVEX Give this a try. It's really cheap, quiet, and powerful, just make sure it's doing what it says it should be doing! Send back ones that don't work so great, and you'll eventually get one that's perfect. Usually don't have to send them back but I've heard some people had ones that broke early/didn't produce as much flow as advertised.

Yep. wonder if it would be possible to coat acrylic with something that would make it scratch resistant without compromising its view quality... hmmm, I'll be right back

I'll take the live rock.

Some things happened, ended up not expanding my house as expected. Might end up moving to another house. Before that settles, I will be establishing a temporary 600 gallon pond. Will keep you guys updated.

Both. If you want the stuff to make that amount of dip, it would be 2 grams of potassium iodide and 1 gram of iodine crystals. Neither are very soluble unless the other is present. You mentioned iodine crystals so I thought you might only want one of those two components? Which is why I said "I might have misunderstood." Otherwise everything up to that point was about potassium iodide+iodine crystals (what's needed for the dip).

Waiting on the second update with actual designs. Might consider setting one up if impressed.

Too violent for youtube children. Leave the body paint videos there though. Those aren't too mature for children ?

I began typing up a wall of text and then I got signed out sooo. You normally put 40 drops of lugol's solution per gallon of aquarium water. 20 drops is roughly 2 milliters. Could potentially be more or less. General guidelines are less when dipping chalices and lps, more when dipping softies. So, grams per gallon of water would be too much haha (I made that mistake first time!!!). That comes to about 0.012 grams per gallon of water (math might not be perfect, you might want more). So not much of the crystals are really needed for a dip. Now, those are the guidelines, ideally, you want brownish water with sensitive critters and pretty brown water with less sensitive creatures. I will have to do some better math and you'll need some really sensitive scales if you want to add crystal form to make the dip. It's usually easier to make some solution with DI water, then dose the dip. Anyway, I can bring the crystals. As for how I would price it, hmm. How does $5 for 3 grams sound? Roughly enough to make 2 oz of lugol's, and, if my previous math isn't wrong, 250 gallons of dip. (Probably more like 100 or even 50, because I used the eye dropper drop as amount per drop, but the guidelines don't specify that, they just say drop haha). Anyway, 3 grams of crystal will make a LOT of dip. In case that sounds silly, while testing it out I added around 6 grams of crystal across 50 gallons of water and made it dark brown. I might have misunderstood though, do you only want the iodine crystals? Or would you like the crystals needed to make the solution?

Yeah what they're doing is quite funny! However, we don't know enough to dismiss that as nonaggression. Fish can die of stress, and that seems like something that could very well cause lots of stress. Still really funny though

Interesting in the Botyrocladia if you still have any. Actually, would love any brightly colored macros people are willing to share!

Woah I never expected back in organic chemistry I could use mass spec and the other methods to identify chemicals on water for such a profit! Still, really interesting!

Fair enough. I was just sayibg because I see sps, lps, softy, etc., but nothing for the more aggressive fishies.

Can sell more of it for cheaper than Kent's Marine lugol's iodine. Basically there's fewer issues with distribution and paying people to make the stuff, so less actual cost to you. 1 oz of the stuff is 10 dollars. I was going to be selling like 4 or 8 oz for that price, or less. I assure you if you read the label they make it the same way I do. Potassium iodide plus iodine crystals plus deionized water equals iodine solution. (Don't try dosing it yourself without knowing ratios to mix it however!). Not just Iodine though, I can make any of the chemicals dosed into the aquarium. I'm not trying to run a business, just trying to go the middle ground between giving it out for free and acting for profit.

Iodine is a highly used chemical by several invertibrates as well as some fish (sharks being notable examples). Corals and molting shrimp both highly need iodine. If you're doing constant water changes, however, you probably don't need to dose it. Your protein skimmer also takes iodine out of the water, so that will also slowly consume what iodine you have in your aquarium. All in all, you may or may not need to dose it for optimum growth. You may even find that you might reduce water changes if Iodine was the problem making your tank critters like Iodine changes. BUT! As hard as it is to determine whether dosing is good, it IS a good first method to fight coral disease. By taking the suffering coral out and putting it in a bucket full of its original water, with some iodine solution added, you can help it recover regardless (for the most part) of the disease. You see, iodine solution is put heavily into use in one other area— surgery. It is a good antiseptic, killing fungi, protists, and bacterias, while sinulatebously not hurting your coral. If you look into iodine dipping you'll find it is a good way to try to save coral that is dying of unkown causes.

Sadly all of the above is true. Study to be a scientist and you make a little more than you would have if you hadn't... if your field is hiring non PhD degrees. Same thing goes for chemical engineering, though the pay is better. Go through hundreds of interviews during job season, and if you're lucky you'll find one. Many of them want grad school, and if you have grad school, then they want 3 years minimum in the field. Seriously ridiculous. When I was little I dreamed of being a marine biologist. The more I found out about it the less I liked it. I had (and still have) a chance to go to med school, but after talking to doctors working 80 hour weeks while still on call, bot to mention having to spend 25% of their time doing paperwork for insurance companies, I couldn't help but get cold feet.

I can mix it whenever needed. I can even supply just the amount needed for the deionized water you have if you want to make it with your own water as well.

Yes! There is some beauty that is missed due to the strict requirements of Reefs.

So I am affiliated with Oregon State University, and I was going to most likely be buying live specimens from http://www.gulfspecimen.org/purchase-live-marine-specimens/ They have a lot of interesting critters and fish there, maybe not the brightest, but definitely the weirdest. Also a good cheap alternative for some types of puffers, eels, gorgonians, sea fans, etc.. I may or may not be able to facilitate a group buy, is anyone interested?