Greg Hewitt-Long wrote:

I hear what you're saying - but do you scuba dive? I've got about 6
months underwater time - reef margins are full of bubbles. I was very
careful to make sure that we used large bubbles, not micro bubbles.
While I appreciate that this MAY have an impact on some fish, I'm not
100% sure that it can kill.... the reef margins up to say 4 ft of
water often contain bubble that I've seen wild fish play with.

No, but I do snorket, and you are right about the zillions of bubbles. However, the fish do have
the *option* of swimming out of that environment if they so choose, which they can't do in a
contained environment like our tanks. Let's just say that my advice isn't perfect, but I do try
to err on the side of caution.

I was looking at the quad models from amiracle - the theory seems
sound, make the watter flow 4 times the distance to increase the time
that the bubble are in contact with the water... if you have a better
model, I'm all ears. I want to buy one skimmer, not one a month until
I get it "right".

I would say that EuroReef gets the best approval rating from hobbyists, and the Aqua C line isn't
far behind. I'm not familiar with the Amiracle line of PS, but that doesn't mean they are no
good. The EuroReef skimmer (and there is a knockoff, btw) uses a needle-wheel impellar to make
super fine bubbles. They are built like a tank, and aren't hard to fine tune. The Aqua C uses a
spray injector system, it is what I'm using on both of my tanks.

The next agenda involves hermits as cleanup - these little fellows
don't require heavy duty lightning, right?

Crabs don't care about lightning or lighting. grin I was referring to corals mainly, which are
invertibrates. Some kind soul reminded me here, not too long ago, that inverts don't have a
backbone.

I cranked up the temp - about 1 degree every couple of hours - I'm not
sure if that wasn't a little too fast, but I see the shaving brush
algaes on my LR have grown about 1/8 inch in the day - the new growth
is a much lighter green color.

That'll be okay. I've had a tank down in the 60s (during a move) go back up to 78F as fast as the
heater was able to do it, and the fish were starving for food within mere hours. I was sure
they'd be in a state of shock, but they seemed very happy to be warm again, and ready to eat!This
is my biggest fear - the LFS said to put them right in - the more

I look around, that's NEVER the advice I see. While I see
contradictory advice on almost everything, the aclimation almost
always involved a staged water exchange.... this is COMPLETELY the
reverse of the LFS advice - which may not be too bad as long as our
water was up to temp.

Okay, so you know how to acclimate now? Good. Never rush it. Some things need to be acclimated
extremely slowly, such as some starfish that like 10 to 12 hours of acclimation, while other
things can be introduced within the hour. I tend to take 1.5 to 2 hours when I acclimate
something new, because I'm online and distracted. I'll remember to get back in there, and add a
little more water. Finally I introduce the new creature to my tank.

Btw, some things can't be exposed to air during acclimation either, like Sponges. Those have to
be acclimated in the bag, and then the bag will eventually need to be submerged and the sponge
pulled out of the bag and placed in its new location without ever making contact with air. If the
LFS pulls it out and puts it in a bag, walk away.

The yellow gobie has become "active" - he's still a hider, but last
night he was out of his favorite coral head, and all over the tank -
he even sat basking in the return inflow - almost pushing him off the
coral head. He's grown orange/pink cheeks - and I think he looks
about as healthy as I've ever seen him.

Is this a yellow Clown Goby? I had one for years, and he always reminded me of a frog the way
he'd perch on anything, even a flimsy mushroom head.

It was taken before the lights were on - I've checked it again in the
afternoon, and the lights had been on for 2 hours - this time it was
8.0. I had no idea that the lights could affect the pH like this.
Would someone who paid attention in chemistry care to explain...
tia...


Test your pH right before the lights go out. Also, keep in mind that when your CO2 level rises in
your home, especially in the winter when you never let fresh air in, this can depress your pH
levels.

Boomer is our resident chemist, but fwiw, when the lights are on, photosynthesis takes place and
oxygen is produced. This raises the pH, and when the lights are out, there is less oxygen
exchange in your water. A protein skimmer helps in this regard because it is a column of
airbubbles in the reactor, making contact with the display's water column. Having a refugium
connected to your tank with the light on during the night hours can help stablize pH levels,
because the macro plants in the refugium are producing oxygen which is then pumped into the
display tank.

heh.. that's how my thunderbird tank works... almost! Stays above the
full for about 100 miles, then plummets to about 1/3 over the next 50
miles, then take another 200 miles to use the last "third" of the
guage! and "Yes!" - it's annoying as hell!

Well, there are other kits out there. I prefer Salifert myself.

I'm seeing that these are around $100-$120 on ebay for a 5 or 6 stage
RO/DI unit - which I'm definitely considering... however, on of my
work colleagues keeps freshwater, and he suggested walmart has RO
water for about $0.33 a gallon - which would work for top-ups - now
water changes are going to be different ball game... while I'm on the
subject - the LFS is recommending 20% change about once every two
months - I've seen people say 10% every week (which would dictate an
RO/DI setup of my own) - given that your reefs appear to look rather
good - what say you?

Sure, you can buy RO water and your LFS, usually for $0.40 a gallon, or premixed with salt as well
for $0.80 a gallon. I like the availability of RO/DI water in my home, where I can make it as I
need it any time of day or night. Plus I don't have to haul it from a store and into the house.
I carry it about 20 feet to my tank, which is nice. And I've had local reefers call me up in a
panic because they needed water, and I was able to help them out.

The suggestion I prefer is 25% monthly, but I don't even do that myself. My tanks are stable and
water quality is good. I'm able to wait longer between water changes. However, changing 10% of
your water means 90% of the impurities are still there. The next time you change 10%, you leave
90% of the dirty water again. With a 25% water change, you'll leave 75% impurities. This makes
more sense to me. Always match salinity EXACTLY, and temperature within ONE degree.

I realised that after purchasing the rock - it was such an attractive
piece - but since almost everything died on it , I'd have been better
off waiting and buying it cured. I won't make that mistake again
until I get my own curing tank, bucket, spare skimmer, heater setup.

Just buy cured rock, and you won't have to worry about such things. Costs a little more, though.

No - I never seeded it - the LFS told me it wasn't necessary.... again
- starting to suspect the LFS advice....

Seeding your DSB is a good thing. And you can do it anytime you like. You can do it several
times, by getting samples from different people (assuming their tanks look healthy). LR will seed
your DSB, but seeding it in addition to the LR would be a little quicker and more effective, imho.

Would you scrape/scrub it off?

Yep, clean the glass you look through. I never clean the back wall, but I do clean the front and
sides. The stuff you release into the water will be eaten by stuff we can't see, as well as your
fish (which we *can* see). The reason I don't clean the back wall is so my snails definitely have
something to eat if the algae thins out too much. They need to eat something! The stuff you
knock off the front glass is pretty similar to zooplankton, so rather than thinking of it as yet
another cleaning task, think of it as your way of feeding the tank natural foods.

My "new" acclimation process will be much more gradual - the temp has
been raised to about 78-80 - this appears to have made my existing
livestock a lot happier... which makes me happier.

Great!

I'm going to hold off putting in anything new until next week - with
the birthday on Friday, I've got everyone clubbing together to get me
bits and pieces, plus a cleanup crew - I've selected exact items and
circulated the list - but no-one is supposed to have anything for me
until Tuesday next week (I'm leaving town for the weekend, so I don't
want to introduce anything before I leave).

You'll need some type of creature to keep your DSB stirred up *a little bit*, and a Fighting Conch
is a good choice. One conch needs 2 sq ft of surface area to dine upon, so look at your tank and
figure out just how much sand it actually reachable to a creature meandering around your
substrate. If you put too many in, they'll starve each other to death. I have one in my 55g that
does his thing, and quietly grows. It does submerge into my sand for 2 weeks at a time, but that
is normal. It eventually gets back to work.

Marc


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