Achilles Tang

Not too sure.. but as long as there is a silica source (diatom's main food)... they will be there!

Hmm... the Ehiem specs look very good. I am an Eheim fan. Good stuff! My next dream acquisition is a chiller doser. Dosing of phyto, frozen/chilled foods... anyone heard of them?

Well, silicate sand is ok to use... but you may have to deal with perpetual diatom blooms?

Cookie... pm'ed you!

It looks super fine to me. But its definitely sand right?

LOL! Ok... will tell my once-a-week-drop-by maid to feed midweek!

You want to run two cal reactors at the same time? switch parts? why?

Time to buy a good auto-feeder. For pellets and flakes and nori bits. Going out of town this Sunday till next Friday... going diving in Trang! Everything's taken care of (calcium reactor, water top-up, light timers, water overheating prevention). Can anyone recommend a good auto-feeder with price range/best LFS to buy from? Things I look out for... preservation of food freshness. My old one was not airtight enough and the food actually turned mouldy and didn't fall out because of clumping. Also, it couldn't drop flakes. or was it pellets? Thanks! AT

You built two? Or is it a double-chamber design?

the 60cm/6inch diameter cylinder should hold around 18kg if you have it like 4/5ths full.

You have to think like Bwilly to understand.

What's your CR specs? If you built it to specs, no reason why the recommended pump shouldn't work. I am using 1260 on my 1m tall 8 inch diameter CR and using small grain media.. I see the top grains moving around... indicating water flowthru.

What's that? Talcum powder? Heroin? Flour? joking! Seriously... you have to describe it a bit better or have a close up of the sand grains if you want advice/faster response.

Huh? I thought I stated quite clearly? 15 mins minimum... more if the LFS water is very different. Inverts should be acclimatized just the same. A shrimp is an invert. Corals... probably you have to. I mean, some people do, some don't. It depends also very much on the LFS water/packing water, esp. temperature. It's still debatable.

Buying 2nd hand or buying new?

Pressure???!! LOL!!! Hello??! Is our reef tanks more than 5 metres deep? What pressure? LOL!! Sorry... that is the biggest LFS joke I have heard! The fastest way to kill inverts is NOT to acclimatize them properly before putting them in your tank! If you measure the salinity and PH of the LFS' water... you may be surprised to find that there is actually quite a substantial difference. Sensitive inverts may go into shock and die if they go from one set of water parameters to another set. Proper acclimatization means you have to slowly introduce tank water into the bag until they equalise in terms of water parameters like salinity and PH and temp. This has to be done slowly bit by bit with at least 15mins minimum timing. The longer the better until the livestock has adapted or acclimatized itself. Don't pour the bag water into the tank/poke holes and place bag in tank... you never know what parasites or medication could go into you tank. Pls double check with reefers before listening to LFS advice - they have proven themselves dubious.

Reef Relief/Titanium chillers are quiet and good. If you have a lot more money... Teco's good and quite quiet too.

Go to dpreview.com. Excellent site for digital camera reviews. From there, you have to search around for U/W casings and the strobe/accessories/lens needed. With the speed digi cams are improving, I find it so painful to have to keep using the one you bought and the casing which cost the same price as the camera... and newer and better models are coming out! I recommend the Canon G5!

Not SRC... RC!

Skimmate shots! Skimmate shots!

Cool idea! New thread! New thread!! Show us how its done!

Rio pumps have an awful reputation in RC! Think 3 times before buying it. It's made in China or ROC.

Here's what a flying gunard looks like... full spread!

If I were him, I would have placed my tank in the hall in the first place! Or create ventilation ports/ducts for his chiller fan output and MH hood to vent it into his corridor. But Joe, you will still face the prob of chiller exhaust heat... how are you going to cope with that if your reason is to reduce heat in your room?

He's giving up his established tank and downgrading. Just hoping he will wait for his dream of 'having intertwined acros ala some RC SPS tanks' to be realised in a year or two... but alas...he's starting all over again. So sad. So sad.