bosshog

Try this out reefconpro. It's got everything you want, including a trial period. The program itself is $19 to buy I think. I've been playing with it for a couple of weeks trying to get a handle on the water in one of my nano's. It's pretty handy for that. There is also an identification package you can download with it. When my trial runs out I'm going to give the guy the money. http://www.infinitysoft.net/ReefConPro/ Here is a basic review of the program on another site: http://www.3reef.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=80 I found out about this program on aquariumpros, might want to slide over there and see if there's been anything added on that board.

Have either one of you ever tested water made up with just the softener salt? I've got the test kits out right now maybe I'll find some salt and test it out.

I knew that setup looked familiar to me. I just couldn't get the jgro out of my head though. Good luck with it keep us updated. I suspect the drivers and software are going to be far more difficult than setting up the machine. I've run across a couple of guys on cnczone that are from Alberta that have made their own machines. Let me know if you want me to get you some user names. I'm pretty sure they just built the machines and bought all the drivers and software though.

Looks good. I've been wanting to build a joescnc but with all the other things I have to play with it isn't going to happen anytime soon. What are your travels going to be? Maybe you could cut me the parts for mine. Who's plans are you using or is it a homegrown design? What kind of work do you have for it, or is it just a cool toy? Keep us updated I'm very interested in this project.

I believe this new list means everything is being reevaluated due to input from the board. These last few posts have been in fun!!! :smokey: Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Naa, get a whale shark instead. Way cooler. I hear the Japanese are breeding apartment sized ones.

I've never seen pep's eat majano, but they love aiptasia, wipe those out quick. I'll need to do some research on pep's and majano.

Yes they are sort of the equivalent of snails in a fresh tank. They look pretty when you first start the tank. Then you leave then 'cause they're pretty and you don't know any better. Pretty soon your rock is crawling with the wonderful little things, and they are smothering your desirable corals. Hmmm, sounds like experience talking, lol.

I have an aqua c remora and a tunze 9002. They are both affordable skimmers that work quite well. Save your money, don't buy the rio, I had a guy who sells them tell me not to buy one. You'll be fine with no skimmer in a light bioload tank for some time. Just keep current with your water changes and you'll be ok. The corals in your list are hardy and don't need "pristine" water like SPS does.

I tried that too. They came back from the dead.

I'd try about 10 gallons. Mix some more up as soon as your done the first change you'll probably want to do another one in the morning. Clowns are tough hopefully they aren't toast.

Just about any salt store will have the juice. There are a couple different brands that are basically the same stuff. Joe's Juice, Fauna Marin's is called aiptasia destroyer ( I think), Taylored aquatics makes one too. Just ask for aiptasia destroyer and the person at the store should know what you are talking about.

With the free rock and using you cheap salt you've saved yourself about $1000. Nice. You can always put $1000 bucks to work on a salt setup. What brand of chemical stuff did you use, I assume it is trace minerals. Calcium and baking soda are cheap.

Hard to tell from the pic but it looks like a majano anemone. Kill it they spread like wildfire. Joe's juice or any of the other kalk paste type products are your best bet.

I wouldn't use it for an actual tank. Synthetic sea salt has a multitude of trace elements in it that your animals will need to survive. Have you done any other test on the water, for instance calcium? Did you put some fresh rock in with the dead stuff? Where did the crabs come from? I was thinking of using some softener salt and some reef crystals to get some dry base rock going. Keep us updated on the progress of your experiment.

Serratus, for a link to diy led's check here, evilc66 has been playing with these things for a while. link: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=134394&hl= Seems that evil is leading a diy revolution over there. As for fluorescent I'd go with t5HO. They seem to be at the leading edge of that technology. PC isn't as good, the older bigger bulbs are old school technology that doesn't seem very popular anymore. I've only used t5ho, mh and pc so I really don't know anything about the others, except what I've read. Another nice feature of the t5 is that the color of the lighting is easily adjusted. The more bulbs over the tank the more spectrum changes you can make to customize the light to your tastes. If it's too blue put in more white, like a more purple color pop in a fiji purple. I'm biased toward the t5 for this reason.

The two most common lighting methods for reef tanks at the moment are T5HO and metal halide. LED's are coming of age but are too expensive for my pocket book. It kind of depends on what you are going to keep in the tank. High light SPS may need halides, lower light animals may do alright under t12. Tank depth also comes into play in your lighting search. You have many hours of reading and research to do before you plunk down any cash for a setup. Everyone here will tell you to do as much research as you can before spending any money. It is far less expensive to do it right the first time. check out canreef.com, reefcentral.com, nano-reef.com. They all have extensive lighting forums dedicated to salt water. That'll keep you busy reading for a couple days!!

If window screen is what you want to use it is commonly available in plastic also. Most places have the metal and the plastic stuff on the same rack. I'd go with the plastic just to be safe.

Like sharuq1 says, "cooking" or "boiling" LR are not what they may seem. DO NOT literally boil your LR. Your kind of going about this backwards but I don't see why your method won't work. Personally I'd watch the nitrogen cycle when you add the rock in with the fish. If anything gets too high just do a 5-10% water change, keep some fresh saltwater mixed up and ready to go. If your numbers stay down, which they may, for a week or so get a couple of snails and a few hermits. Your going to want to go slow to avoid trouble with the cycle. In a month or so your tank should be fairly well established, and giving less trouble. I'd wait for a while longer to make sure everything has settled down before adding corals. Probably 3-4 months. Pick some of the easy ones sharuq1 has suggested. I went too fast and had a bit of a problem with my first tank. Second and third tanks were a piece of cake. Go slow and enjoy the learning curve.

Been running nano's, 2,3,4, for a little over a year, no problems yet. Good pumps for the money. They always seem to restart after power bumps too.

Could it be Blue Waters Aquatics?

Sumps aren't necessary, but they sure make life easier. Gives you more volume, and somewhere to hide all the equipment, heaters, skimmers, reactors, filter stuff etc etc. Also a good place to grow macro to help keep your water quality. They aren't mandatory, but the sure are handy.

Cool a new salty guy within 40 miles. Your going to need some live rock. In a salt tank the LR is your filter system. A hob filter will help with detritus and gives you a place for carbon etc. A skimmer will help with water quality by pulling out some dissolved pollutants. Read all you can before you make the jump to salt. It's a fair bit different than fresh, no more difficult just different. Check out canreef.com, reefcentral.com for more info. Canreef is good lots of friendly, helpful people on there, no newbie bashing, just answers and help. Can you give us a bit more info on what your planning, that will make it easier to help you out. Tank size etc etc. I assume it's going to be a fowlr tank. Where are you going to get your livestock and supplies from? TTYL Brad

Decent t5ho's should keep your plants happy. There are many different spectrum bulbs available and they arent' too expensive. Easier on the power bill and create less heat than metal halide. thegrandpoohbah keep us updated on that fixture if you would please. I'm looking for some 4' fixtures and have looked at those too. If you ever get time could you post pics of the reflectors? I can't seem to find any decent closeups that show them. Thanks

Never heard of them not being able to handle exposure to air. Mine come up to the top of the tank and parts of them are exposed to air, haven't seen any adverse effects from this. Maybe a bit more research into that. Drip acclimate the urchin and he should be good to go. They are one of my favorite tank critters, except when they are carrying around my frags.