Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread

[eidillitih]

eidillitih - can't wait for what? Your own frag swap?

No, my bad! I'll be moving to Bedford in 2 weeks, I was stating that I can't wait to join in on the culb activities.

[Travis]

Originally posted by jnarowe
Geez Marc, what a cool swap! The Geek-O-Meter must have been off the scale!

Marc, it looks like you had one heck of a successful frag swap. I am dumbfounded by the sheer size of your club. We have a guy in our club that moved here recently and used to be a member in your club. I had asked him what size your club was down there. I just threw out 100 people for a number and he said it was much larger than that. I totally believe that now. Ours is small but we are getting there. Our first meeting was in November and there was 3 of us. Our largest meeting was in March when we had it at my house and there were close to 30 people at that one. We are having troubles keeping the numbers in attendance up in the summer as so many people have other priorities. We only had about 8 people at our meeting yesterday. Does your club see large declines in attendance during the summer months also?

[jnarowe]

Oh I have the ear plugs, special ear canal speakers, etc. but it just gets too weird when people try to talk to me and I can't hear them. I get really jumpy with action all around me too. Especially kids that move and make sounds in an unpredictable manner...kind of like a fish in a tank with stray electrical current.

Speaking of which, I am losing a flame scallop and I can't figure out why. It is in the same place it has been for 2+ months and was always quite healthy. I have noticed the flatworms (benign) and pineapple sponges on its shell, but I don't figure either of those as hurting the scallop. Any thoughts on that?

[melev]

Laurence - people do their best to trade corals, but selling occurs especially for new people that don't have anything to trade yet. I sold tiny frags for $3 and $5 each, and used the money to buy some SPS from others. I know some will only trade, and many tend to trade in advance via our message board or get something set aside before it officially begins.

I would really like to make it fair for all each time, and request no-one trade or sell until everyone has had time to walk around and get a preview. This lasts 30 minutes usually, and everyone is asking when can they finally start. We do rely on the honor system as this is just supposed to be a fun event, and we don't actively police what occurs.

C. Taylor - can I get your first name? Will you use the same username on our message board? Feel free to drop in now to introduce yourself. Just go to www.dfwmas.org, and navigate to our message board. Our next meeting is on July 12th at Franks Tanks, which happens to be within walking distance of my house. Yesterday's Frag Swap was easily an hour away.

Travis - when I joined DFWMAS, I think we had 100 members, maybe less. Meeting attendence was about 40 people, at best. The winter social had more show up, where about 90 attended. The club currently has about 400 members, and because our meetings move around the metroplex, we have a core group that will be at every meeting, and then people from that area will join us as well. Meetings tend to have about 80 people show up.

We are about to convert to a centralized meeting place, and will be meeting in a quiet room instead of a LFS. We can all sit down comfortably, and everyone can hear the presentation without distraction. We hope to make the meetings more informative. We want to do power point demonstrations mainly, which helps. I also want to get whatever equipment we need to put a camera 'on the action' that is displayed on the wall for events like fragging demos, gluing PVC, displaying closeups of new products etc. The room will seat 100 people easily, and because it is central to the metroplex, my hope is that more members will choose to attend on a monthly basis.

Jonathan - flame scallops are notoriously hard to keep. I used to have one in my refugium and it lived about 7 months maybe, but I fed phytoplankton every other day.

[eidillitih]

Marc, first name Carl, I'm already a member on the DFWMAS but my user name is hitillidie instead of eidillitih. I have browse through the site several time looking for deal and see what people are talking about. We have the house already just waiting on the wife to finish up.

[jnarowe]

Yeah I feed mine often too. Not sure what the problem is but they do seem difficult to keep. I got some "flexible spa tubing" from Custom Aquatic that turned out not to be PVC...It's some other type of material and doesn't glue well to PVC.

I only bring that up because I decided to do some research on Spa Flex and when I googled it your Super Sump installation page came up in 3rd position! Very nice detail of the sump build BTW and I liked seeing more shots of your tank room as well as someone else admitting to design errors.

Too often people only post what is their best work and I feel that is a bit discouraging to real DIYers out there. I know other reefers that just give up when they see stuff that is "DIY" but built with a CNC router or whatever. I will be posting my revised "Ode to Weatherson" collection cup system as soon as my Stainless screws come in.

PS. I also got four 1" bulkheads from Custom that turned out to be ABS! I can use them on my skimmer collection cup but they also don't glue up well with PVC. I wrote them a nasty-gram but I doubt they even read their email.

[Micki]

Marc, some of the things on my list that "haven't allowed me to join a frag swap" are things like being close to my grandson being born. Wasn't going to miss that for a frag swap!

[melev]

A grandson is forever, while a frag swap is an occasional event.

[Nu2SW]

HOLY CRUD MAN.... This has over different thread from all the splitting.... DAMN... Its gonna take months to read everything.........You are a popular man.

[Micki]

Originally posted by melev
A grandson is forever, while a frag swap is an occasional event.

Exactly! Which is why I wouldn't have missed it for anything!

[melev]

Originally posted by Nu2SW
HOLY CRUD MAN.... This has over different thread from all the splitting.... DAMN... Its gonna take months to read everything.........You are a popular man.

Enjoy the read. It is an interesting trip, that is to be sure.

[melev]

Originally posted by Micki
Exactly! Which is why I wouldn't have missed it for anything!

You're twisting my words on purpose.

[SERVO]

Originally posted by original-reefland
Wow.. you have more people at your frag swap than I think went to IMAC this year! And a nicer coral selection!

Yah, but no one had the big $500 dollar clam

[melev]

Got my new Ikea light up last night. Btw, Denmark ceiling fixtures apparently don't match American ones. I spent a couple of hours installing one neato light.





I needed something I could raise up and down, so as not to bash stuff into it when working on the table's surface, and this fit the bill. It costs $60, and uses four 20w bulbs. The dimmer control works perfectly with it.

I sit at this table and enjoy my reef, viewing it from the end panel.

[jnarowe]

I told my wife to NEVER get anything that attaches to the house from Ikea again! After 6 ceiling lamps and various sconces, shelves etc. I have had enough. I am a bit amazed that they export such a large quantity of items to the US but do not convert to our standards like other companies do. Having to re-drill everything is a total PITA!

That lamp looks very nice though...how does it raise and lower? Does it have springs?

[Micki]

Originally posted by melev
You're twisting my words on purpose.

Well Yeah...

[melev]

Originally posted by jnarowe
I told my wife to NEVER get anything that attaches to the house from Ikea again! After 6 ceiling lamps and various sconces, shelves etc. I have had enough. I am a bit amazed that they export such a large quantity of items to the US but do not convert to our standards like other companies do. Having to re-drill everything is a total PITA!

That lamp looks very nice though...how does it raise and lower? Does it have springs?

The white handle has thumbscrews at each end. Loosening these, I basically lift the wiring upward as I pull on the white handle downward. If the cable was oiled it would slip more easily, but I'm working gently with it.

I don't plan to move it up and down all the time, but when I'm working on a sump it is nice to get some headroom. I hit the old chandelier enough times as I stood it up on end. It's amazing I never broke any of the glass panels.

Ikea should include one extra universal part that fits their product and then attaches to our electrical boxes. Maybe if enough of us complain, it would help.

[jnarowe]

Ikea should include one extra universal part that fits their product and then attaches to our electrical boxes. Maybe if enough of us complain, it would help.

You don't think a million people have complained already??

[melev]

You'd think. I didn't call up to gripe today, even after all the trouble I went through last night. Maybe a million US citizens are mad, but 15 made the call.

[Cprowler]

Nice, that's quite a difference from what you had. Have you gotten used to it yet? How long did you have that bamboo stuff on the wall?

Looks like your getting some work done around the house, looks good. Too bad there isn't a project you could do.....say in wood.

[melev]

You guys just don't get it. The woodwork will get done If I did finish it, you'd not have anything else to tease me about.

So basically, I'm providing you guys a service here. I'm the straight man to all of your ribbing.

The bamboo stuff was there forever, as far as I can tell. It may have been there for over 30 years, as it was behind baseboard, door trim, cabinets and there was no indication that anything else was ever behind it.

I love the new look of the room, and it just gets better and better. While I moved in over 5 years ago, it is starting to really feel like home finally because it looks like my place. Before my stuff was in the house, but it was the same old walls and lights. Over the past few years, I've replaced all the carpeting and installed ceramic tile flooring where it made sense. The 280g 14 day project was quite a hurdle, and some other changes were made in a couple of rooms. If the previous homeowner came over, I think they'd really be surprised.

I'd like to replace the kitchen counters with something new. I can't afford Corian, but Ikea has butcher block cutting board counter tops that are very affordable. I'm leaning that way because I think it will look nice, but I don't know how it will hold up against stains, hot items, water and other liquids.... any of you have any feedback on that? Home Depot has a knock-off version of Corian stone counter tops that might work out, but the butcher block from Ikea will run under $100 per counter. A bargain.

[jnarowe]

With your DIY skills, why don't you try cement? It takes a little practice but I bet you could pull off a nice polished cement with none of the drawbacks of wood or plastic. You could also do a granite tile deal but I feel that cement is easier and you can get a nice clean look.

[melev]

Heck, I'll just make it out of 1" acrylic and call it done.

[Travis]

Originally posted by SERVO
Yah, but no one had the big $500 dollar clam

Yeah, what was up with that anyway. Sure the clam looked nice but for $500 I just laughed. I couldn't believe someone actually bought it. I guess there is a sucker around every corner. I hope whomever was dumb enough (or should I say rich enough) to buy that clam had a top down viewing tank because I looked at that croce through the side and you couldn't even see those fluorescing colors.

Sorry for the off topic rant.

[rdmpe]

Originally posted by jnarowe
With your DIY skills, why don't you try cement? It takes a little practice but I bet you could pull off a nice polished cement with none of the drawbacks of wood or plastic. You could also do a granite tile deal but I feel that cement is easier and you can get a nice clean look.

I have a friend in this business and his work is great. He's in the Atlanta area - LMK if you want to see any pictures of some of his work.