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[Aquarist007]

Interesting stuff on Reef Central

Are you prepared for a power outage

These little pumps are awesome. They only come on when the power is off and run for 6 hours on a D cell battery
You have to buy an airline and airstone for them but it has been suggested that you run them high up in your tank so they dont circulate organic laden water near the bottom of your tank. Assuming you don't have your pump on to get rid of it


For a very interesting thread for preparing for a power failure check out this thread. Its got everything from windmills to inverters

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1422969

[Aquarist007]

Quarantine Tanks
If you don't have one you should
A plastic tote, hob filter, heater and some tank water is all you really need.

This powder blue is in its 9th day of observation and looking pretty good


Here is an excellent thread on quarantining

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1420521

[raen]

Hey capn.....will this lil air pump be good for a trip home from Florida? 16 hours/ I would have to pack extra D cell batts.

[raen]

PS.....once again.................teaching all the noobs!

[Aquarist007]

Sera Spirulina Algae tablets
These stick to the sides of the glass very well and all fish and even shrimp love them
There is no mess to them like clips of Nori


Here is a few of my crew going to town on them

[Aquarist007]

No home should be with out it

Its actually a real toilet costing 299 dollars.
The back is a real tank
Careful not to flush your fish

[Aquarist007]

Koralia power heads are a hot topic



Having good flow in your tank is very benefical to the filtration system and the gas exchange esp on the surface of your tank
Read all about Koralias on this thread from how to place them to how to mod them and how to run them on interval timers

Did you know that you can get 3000 gph from a K4 by using the mod kit from a maxijet1200?

Its in this thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1359857

[Aquarist007]

Refugiums are a real asset to the filtering system in your tank.They also supply a good source of live food eg copopods for fish like mandarines

here is a thread on refugiums There is an index on page 8

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5&pagenumber=8

There is also a slide show and article in June's ReefKeeping Magazine
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-0...ides/index.php

My fuge setup

[Aquarist007]

Flukes


Are your fish experiencing these symptons:
1) Fish twitching the head side to side once in a while like if wanted to shake something off his head.

2) Discolored blotches of skin (Most people think this is velvet or some bacterial infection and misdiagnose it with antibiotics)

3) Frayed fins or tail.

4) Sudden loss of appetite. Fish was fine yesterday but today it’s not eating at all.

5) Cloudy eye(s)

6) Rapid breathing

Read more about it on this thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1260067

[Aquarist007]

Two Part B-ionics



Using a two part dosing system has brought great stability to my tanks water chemistry. Specifically calcium, alkalinity, magnesium and indirectly pH

Interested in starting? Here is one way to do it

first check out your mag levels and use kent tech-M if needed to bring them up to 1300 ppm
to bring up your calcium level try Kent turbo calcium--it is a chloride so it won't affect alkalinity levels

Here is a suggestion
bring up your alk levels with kent super dKh (8-11 dkH)
bring up your calcium levels with Kent turbo calcium(400 plus ppm)
and bring up your mag level to 1300ppm

Go on the suggested dose of two part for one week
Remeasure and adjust the amt of two part accordingly
Repeat for another week and repeat the above procedure
Continue for one month like this and you should have stable water chemistry

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by raen
Hey capn.....will this lil air pump be good for a trip home from Florida? 16 hours/ I would have to pack extra D cell batts.

I would also allow the storage tank or tote to aerate on its own--by taking the lid off occasionally

[Aquarist007]

Build threads with Personality
Here are a few threads that go beyond the pure reefing issues.
These threads add a personal touch and sometimes quite funny
but some how manage to go off topic and come right back on with another reefkeeping issue

Tswift's thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1417839

Raen's thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1420139

Schwe's thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1245206

[Dustin2]

where did you get those big bottles of part a and b?

[Aquarist007]

Protect yourself, your house ,your investment in this hobby
Make sure you have your electrical hooked up to ground fault protectors. These can prevent surges in power and electrical shock


Also installing a ground probe in your sump is a great idea for prevent stray voltage effecting the inhabitants

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by Dustin2
where did you get those big bottles of part a and b?

Those bottles come as a concentrate and you add your own ro/di water to them--by far cheaper then the already made up ones

That said they are easy to ship

try the US site for this cdn site--its great--mail order and you will receive it in two days
www. mops.ca

[Aquarist007]

Refractometers
These are much more accurate and easier to use then the swing arm hydrometers. If you are performing hyposalination for treating ich then you are bringing down the salinity to 1.009 which leaves little margin for the internal system of a fish (1.008)
You want to be accurate here.
Inverts don't like big swings in salinity either so its good to get an accurate reading here too

So this is cool


This is not too cool

[Michael]

great thread again scott, great stuff, you should have been born english

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by Michael
great thread again scott, great stuff, you should have been born english

My grandparents were born and raised in England and
I like your beer--does that count

thanks Mike
feel free to join in if you come across something interesting to add to the thread

[Aquarist007]

The turkey baster



What Can You Do With a Turkey Baster?
Directly feed sessile invertebrates, such as corals, anemones, and clams, and fish that may be having a difficult time competing for their share of food.

To reduce the amount of DOCs (dissolved organic compounds) that can build up in the substrate, which is the primary culprit for algae problems, every other day or so pick a small section of the substrate to clean by squirting the tank water over the media to fluff or stir it up. Once the particulate matter is free-floating in the water, it can quite easily be removed through mechanical filtration and/or skimming. This is also an excellent way to feed various types of corals, anemones, tube worms, bivalves, sponges and other filter feeding animals.

Lightly blow off sufficating sediment and organic matter that can settle on top of live rocks, corals, other sessile invertebrates and delicate organisms.

Blow off, suck up, and dispense of unwanted nuisance algae.

Remove small bugs or other things that might fall into an aquarium that end up floating around.

Acclimate livestock.

Remove water from the aquarium for testing, without getting your hands wet.

Suck up and remove smaller undesirable critters, like bristleworms.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aqu...a/aa020703.htm

And finally you can even play it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO0lk_eWMxA

[Michael]

calcium reactors and phosban reactors, amazing bits of kit we should all have, carbon and skimmers too, wow where does it end

[Aquarist007]

This Fish Compactability chart can be a starting point for your research


A bigger one is here
http://search.live.com/images/result...es%2FImg95.gif

[Aquarist007]

Phosban Reactors
Don't just run one--run two of them
Great for running carbon also. The advantage is that the water is forced through the entire carbon media rather then being able to take the easy way around the edges of it like a bag in the sump or hob filter. More carbon media used more effeciency in adsorption

Be sure to change carbon media every 2-3 weeks

Phosban can run for up to 3 months but initially it should be change out the first month of operation

the flow through a phosban reactor should just have the phosban media slightly heaving

in order to effectively use a phosban reactor with phosban you first need to curb the import of phosphates into your system

[adtravels]

why do you have a flatworm picture labelled as flukes? This could be very confusing for a newb, slow down.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by adtravels
why do you have a flatworm picture labelled as flukes? This could be very confusing for a newb, slow down.

oops I goofed thats for pointing that out

[Aquarist007]

Bryopsis--here is an interesting way of eliminating it

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1113109

One example of a magnesium product