On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 23:24:28 -0500, KurtG
wrote:

It's odd. I bought two plastic trash cans of the same size. I mix salt
water in one, and then siphon off water into the second of the same
amount. But, when I refill, I'm always 2-3 gallons short?

The same thing happens to me as well. I do not know why it does but it
does. I use a magic marker and make a dot at the point I use to do my
routine water changes, but I iusually go way over this point anyhow.
Lots of water to play with since I use naturally collected seawater,
and stocre up to 3, 55 gal drums.

I spent some time vacuuming the sand. Man, it's amazing the amount of
crap (literally) that I pulled up. I'm way under my livestock limit,
but there's no lack of detritus.

IMHO and others as well I think yur better off NOT syphoning your sand
as is typical in a freshwater aquarium. The action of cleaning the
sand removes lots of beneficial stuff. Perhaps a more diverse cleanup
crew would help. I have a bi color blenny (certainly not considered
part of a cleanup crew) who just has a penchant for eating other
fishes waste. Its not unusual to see a fish go, and have him snatch up
the waste before it hits the bottom. And whatever goes in his mouth is
never ever seen to get spit back out. Its like he just swallows stuff
and never tastes it. He does a great job of cleaning all kinds of
junk off the tanks bottom. The dwarf Zebra hermit is also a good
cleanup member as is the bumble bee snails and ceriths....and of
course lots of brittle serpent stars.

Just sharing...

--Kurt



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I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!