What rules of the hobby do you break?

[reverendmaynard]

FWIW, R H-F and I just had a discussion on the use of windex in the chemistry forum...

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=856787

[Pattylucylaura]

I bought a seaclone it doesn't get worse than that.

Oh yeah well I currently run one of the Jebo PS75's you see all over ebay and think it is the best 40 bucks I ever spent it pulls out plenty of crap for me.

I also bought my MH bulb for 20 bucks of ebay non name brand works great for me.

Water changes whats that?

I also used to dump a half gallon of kalk into my tank as top off.

[Jeremy Blaze]

Originally posted by jnc914
Just a comment on the use of Windex. This can seep into the tank, but not through the glass, rather through the silicone seals. Even if it doesn't appear that there is a space where the corners of glass are sealed together, there is a minute space where the glass panes meet. Windex will still be able to seep into the silicone and eventually into your tank. As some one else mentioned, it shouldn't matter as a tank cycles ammonia, however this is concentrated ammonia and has the ability to wipe out a tank. when I started in the hobbie several years ago, I wiped out my 55 gallon when I decided to use windex. so if you are going to use Windex, stay away from the corners of the tank with it.

That is wrong. Read the link provided. A chemist once told me that the molecules of windex are larger than water, so if windex could get into the tank, water could get out.

[Jeremy Blaze]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=856787

[boomsticks]

I ate my anemone. Good...good..

[Bri Guy]

I had kept my 12 reef for 5yrs without the use of RC.

Wouldn't ever live without it again!!!

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

One comment to add for newbies thinking of following some of these ideas...

Beware that certain of them may extrapolate to your situation, while others may not. Think carefully about whether they necessarily do before deciding to take the cheap/easy/etc path.

For example, tap water. Some folks have tap water that might be fine as is. Others would be fine if treated for chlorine. Others may have unsuitable water for any number of reasons (for example, copper), and your next door neighbor may have totally different copper levels than you do, not to mention the guy 2,000 miles away.

So in my opinion, that is one that can never be extrapolated. Other ones may depend on the personality of a particular fish, or the amount of carbon dioxide in your home air, or the humidity in your climate, or how strong your skimmer is, or how often you do water changes, or what salt mix you use...

The list goes on and on.

[jaymz101]

party pooper......

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

party pooper......



I spend too much time in the chemistry forum cleaning up the cases where "it" didn't work out.

[J4Life]

Originally posted by Randy Holmes-Farley
party pooper......



I spend too much time in the chemistry forum cleaning up the cases where "it" didn't work out.

And we do appreciate that very much. Cheesing with no wine here. So what rules does Mr. Holmes-Farley break????

Cheerio!,
Bill

[omni2226]

For anyone anywhere in the world I reccomend a whole house water filter. These have a sediment filter followed by activated charcoal/carbon.
Cleans a lot of the gunk out of the water and makes it a lot safer for human use, forget the fish.
And water changes are the number one, numero uno , best thing anyone anywhere can ever do for water quality in aquariums.

Now how often and how much of a water change is a 100 page thread in and of itself.

[Jeremy Blaze]

I agree with Randys word of caution.

Being the topic starter, I guess I should have given a disclaimer.

Personally, these rules that I break are only done from the years of expreince, trial and error, etc... and I do not recomend them all to novices.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So what rules does Mr. Holmes-Farley break????






I rarely measure anything except salinity and pH. I've learned on my system that if those are OK, the others stay OK for quite a long time.

I cured a couple of hundred pounds of Tonga branch rock last year by adding it to my existing system.

I dose silicate to my tank.

I cool my tank water with cold tap water circulating through plastic tubing.

I keep fish in one of my "refugia".

I spend at least 20-50 times as much time on RC each day as I do on my tank.

[JBlades]

I too have a seaclone.
Running on a 60 gal cube which is sumped in with a 75 gal, with a 30 gal sump/fuge.

Oh yeah it's a seaclone 100.

[GTR]

My rule is if I can test for it I don't add it.

SteveU

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Forgot this one. When I do water changes, I usually do 50% at a time, exposing any corals at the top half of the tank to open air for about an hour before I refill the tank. This includes, LPS, SPS and even sponges.
They all survive fine.

[10" Red Devil]

This is a cool thread, but ya know I would like to hijack a little and ask what rules SPS keepers break?

[Jeremy Blaze]

I am an sps keeper.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I have some SPS. Monti Caps.

[FSOL]

Originally posted by Jeremy Blaze
The ammonia thing is a myth. Unless you are spraying it in the tank.

I have heard people say that if you clean the glass with it the ammonia will seep through the glass into the tank. This is total BS.

Ammonia doesn't seep through, but it slowly dries the surface of an acrylic tank, which can cause it to slowly develop micro cracks from being too rigid.

[FSOL]

I don't wear gloves. My hands are in the tank almost every day, either flipping fallen snails over, or cleaning the front glass.

[FSOL]

for some of you guys who post some ridiculous "rules you don't follow", I'd like to see your tanks. Maybe if you did follow the rules, the tank would look a lot better. JMO.

The rule I don't follow is the " 1 inch of fish/5 gallons of water". I have 15 fish in my 180g SPS/LPS tank, and everything is happy.

[Jeremy Blaze]

Here are some pics of my 125 that I just took down, and am moving into a 120.

[omni2226]

Left side picture. Notice the "nitrate factory" Emperor 400 with the biowheels still spinning. Yet to detect any nitrates.



Right side picture. Have a nice cyanobadteria bloom going. I had 20 pounds of crushed coral on top of the sand and decided to seive it out. After sifting it out the water was so murky you couldnt see the rocks let alone anything else. So lots of fertilizer. I thought for sure my tiny colony of hair alga would grow but noooo. It refuses to grow no matter what I do.


Oops wrong pic. Corrected.
Coralife 65 skimmer set very dry, but I am strongly thinking of removing it so more nitrients remain in the water.

Omni, junior keeper of water that sometimes has a fish in it.

[omni2226]

By the way there are several colonys of corals in there, just small.
Palythoas, zoanthids and fungia.