FarmerTy

For plating corals, I just plan for knowing that wherever I place them, nothing will live below them unless I plan to frag a lot. I am toying with the idea of sponges below my plating montis. Sent via Tapatalk

Snorkel party at Ol Aggies!!! Sent via Tapatalk

Thanks bud! Zoa islands are a good approach. I've also already told all my SPS to honor the no touch rule. Don't touch your neigbors! If you do, I'll break your limbs off and sell them! That usually keeps them in line. Sent via Tapatalk

Ahhh great, I'll come home one day and there will be a bunch of you guys/gals sitting in my fish room telling me that you only want what's best for me. Sent via Tapatalk

Sometimes I just want to throw my Hanna meter into the ocean! Their batch quality on reagents drives me nuts, to the point that I almost don't trust anything coming out of it. I'm curious as to what discrepency you find between the EPA's method error and Hanna's. I wish I still had some of my old lab contacts so I could pick their brain about it. I still enjoy your debate you brought up regarding the interference of macro algaes into the result of phosphates. It's been a thought in the back of my head for some time now and it helps bring the issue to light. What does this phosphate result really mean? How much does macro algae in the tank affect phosphate results?

Reburn, I am impressed with your desire to be thorough. From a professional perspective of sampling for submittal to labs for a report used by government entities, Victoly and I had to adhere to some pretty stringent sampling protocols as well as documentation. From a hobbiest perspective however, I honestly think you aren't going to get too much of a discrepancy from using the C1 to C2 or C1 to C1 method. It's ingrained in my head to use the same cuvette as the blank and always face it the same direction to avoid any discrepancies in glass consistency effecting the results but in our hobbiest world, I really don't think it matters. Victoly may gasp (I've failed you!) but I carry this blasé attitude to my other sampling protocols and rinse with tap water instead of RO for cleaning the cuvettes and vials used for sampling. I don't bother storing the cuvettes in RO water either and it'll be a miracle if I even wipe the vials dry after I clean them. Just a good hard flick to get rid of water in the vial suffices for me. Are my results reproducible, yes. Do they have a possibility of a slight margin of error due to my 'laxed testing procedures, yes. Do I worry about reading 420 ppm of Ca versus 430 ppm, no. Will it affect anything in my tank because of the discrepency? Probably not... I surveyed my acros and they generally responded with 420 ppm Ca is just as good as 430 ppm Ca for them. Just like 0.03 ppm of PO4 or 0.07 ppm of PO4, while a higher margin of error in regards to how it'll affect our corals (mainly us SPS guys), to me I'm just aiming for the ballpark and it's not worth the extra effort of such stringent lab grade testing procedures. I often test 2-3x a week, it's already tedious enough so I don't want to make it that much more difficult on myself. Just wanted to share my thoughts on it. In a perfect world, I'd always want the most accurate data as I can possibly get but in this scenario and hobby, the amount of work versus how much marginally better data I'm getting is just not worth it to this lazy reefer. :-) Sent via Tapatalk

As I am clearing out some SPS to make room for others, I can't ever convince myself to get rid of the screaming green birdsnest. It's the one beginner SPS that is making a good case for itself to stay. Sent via Tapatalk

Thanks KimP! That's why I went on a rant earlier this year about more people taking videos of their tanks. We all have the technology to do it right on our phones these days so there's no excuse not to share anymore. I don't know about anybody else but I do enjoy looking at other people's tanks... hint hint. Sent via Tapatalk

Since I wanted to give KimP a chance to play catchup on her build, I decided to just enjoy the tank this weekend and take a ridiculous amount of videos of it. Feeding time - about how much I normally feed nightly 5x a week, the other two days I feed an assortment of pellets and flakes. Feeding response from my corals (mesenterial filaments from my acro, feeders from the LPS, and a couple shots of anemones) Dosing Red Sea Energy B aminos + vitamins (it's like TMNT secret of the ooze in there). It comes pouring out the spouts on the top left and right of the tank. I dose it into the return pump.

I know where I'm going if I need like 250 gallons of saltwater... stat!

Nice! I always enjoy growth pics! Tank is looking good Sascha!

Agreed, I've observed the same thing and believe it to only read at the end of the counter.

Great experiment Reburn! Way to help advance the hobby! Just let me know when you are available and you can swing by to give that reference standard a try. Several things that I have observed over the years from using these Hanna meters (both phosphate and phosporus). Batch quality has always been an issue with the powdered reagents so I'd highly recommend testing the same water with one packet from your old box and one packet from your new box to compare the reading differential. If you already have the phosphate meter, no need to go out and get the phosphorus meter instead. On that note however, the phosporus one does read in the range we as marine enthusiasts care more about. The best way I have found to maximize your time for the reagent to dissolve is exactly what Victoly said, after it asks for C2 (the curvette with the reagent dissolved into it), you have roughly 1.5 mins before it auto shuts off. I take that 1.5 mins to dump in my reagent (I've already pre-prepared the packet of reagent for this step), invert the tube continuously (don't shake vigorously or you will introduce microbubbles), and right when my 1.5 mins is almost up, I'll then depress the button and hold it down to initiate the 3:00 countdown. I continue to invert the tube over and over during this process. Typically, all of my reagent is dissolved by the time it reaches 2:00 to 1:30. Then I lay the tube horizontally and run the large air bubble along the sides of the glass to discharge the microbubbles that have accumulated on the glass walls during the inverting/mixing process. Lastly, I put the curvette into the meter and wait for the countdown to cease and read my result. Hope that helps! Sent via Tapatalk

That's great news! How's the tank looking? I know LEDs are sometimes hard to photograph or at least capture the true essence in person. Yeah, no direct advice but just to start it low, especially since you came from PC bulbs. Keep an eye on your corals and watch their reactions. If any look negative, just dial it back a bit. Maybe some LED users will chime in on your public build thread but the general consensus I hear is that LEDs look a lot dimmer than an equally lit (par-wise) fixture of MH or T5 so even though it looks dimmer, you're actually pushing the same par. Some make the mistake of bumping it up visually to the same brightness, not realizing they are pushing more par and cooking their corals. Sent via Tapatalk

Jeez, I take a break from ARC for one night to enjoy some spooktacular entertainment and this happens! If you guys missed out on the meeting I hosted in the Spring, then you missed out in spring rolls and egg rolls I had brought in. I'll try to host again this Spring. No naso sushi on the menu though... they're too pretty... maybe a lawnmower blenny or something. Page 50? How come Tapatalk says 99? I wonder who will be the magic 1st post of page 100 of all this gibberish that is my build thread. Maybe there will be a special treat... or trick. Sent via Tapatalk

I'm a sucker for food! Sent via Tapatalk

You're correct, you'd be celebrating your tanks 10 birthday waiting for that Oregon Tort to get there. Cali torts grow much faster and definitely slimers of any sort will grow quickly (almost ridiculously quickly). Digitatas grow quickly as well but there vertical growth is more spread than I prefer. And once they get that vertical, they tend to break very easily.

Funny, as I am reading this post Shawn, the two people that mentored me through my vent fan installation and wiring are both reading this as well. Probably a completely obvious question but I'll ask anyways, have you called the manufacturer and talked to their tech support? May not be that first time this has happened with one of their units being integrated with an Apex. That's about all I can offer.

That will be what pushes me over the edge into the LED camp... how much do I have to peddle if I want to keep the 400-watt halides? Uhhh no thank you. Leds it is.

I've already cashed in all my upgrade tokens for this house with the wife. Hmmm, I did watch this TED TV video where a guy built a wind generator out of an old bike....

My Apex was in my ear the whole time yelling at me that the CO2 was too high. I don't think I could have tried to ignore it for that long! Lol! Thanks Clay. I'm looking forward to that day too but if you know me well enough, that's the day I'll get bored with my tank and start gardening or playing ultimate frisbee.

Sometimes, there's a fun mystery to solve... like why my CaRX effluent pH shot up when I enclosed the tank... and then when you get to the actual reason, you realize... well... that wasn't as exciting as what I was hoping for. I hit the knob for my regulator and lowered the PSI going out... I wish it was more exciting than that. Sorry to disappoint everyone.

Aw yeah, I got the Tia Carrere of reef tanks!

I don't do manual labor Victoly!

Just for fun since it was framed up so nice.