cainechow

Hmmm. I was confused. It is bentonite that is calcium or sodium based.

The issue is if the clay is calcium based ( desirable) or sodium based (meh). And of course the MSDS doesn't specify. Unless you have more info on Optisorb than I've found so far.

Creekbottom, what brand and where are you getting your clay?

Now my tank has even MORE sexy. Forms out the boys were not. One boy + one girl == even more sexy. I woke up this morning and noticed that there was a lot of debris floating around in the tank. I'd just done a cleaning and water change the night before so this was unexpected. Taking a closer look it turns out my tank is full of T. Amboinensis larvae. I guess I should have been working on building a kreisel rather than my other projects. I dunno how many are going to be left when I get home from work. Maybe I can jury rig something if there are any. They are notoriously hard to raise. Anyone have an extra kreisel that they aren't using that I can borrow?

That's unfortunate.

If you don't like to clean glass, then get otocinclus too

I have to be honest and say that the only reason I can see for going diy these days is for a custom colour blend or if you have a really deep tank and need optics and high output LEDs to hit decent PAR numbers at the bottom of the tank. In a small tank you xan get away with a lot. I actually have a "ball" of HC that is growing pretty nicely in a 2.5 gallon thank that has a single emitter IKEA led desk lamp that costs like 10.00. No CO2, no ferts, just some shrimps. That thing is like a 1w emitter on the end of a gooseneck and that's it. It is a little on the yellow side though. A pretty cheap option is a GU10 led off eBay. Those have their own driver built in so you can just wire them up to 110v right out of the wall. I think I have a PIC some place of my setup for my pico reef. They seem pretty good too and at 5,00 each hard to go wrong. As for a full fixture, I'd probably go Finnex. The one that is 50.00 and has the supplemental red emitters.

Nice find!

The jug is one whole gallon. On a 10 gallon it'll go a long long way. On the other hand it is pretty cheap stuff compared to excel.

http://www.vereburn.com/ it is right near Pisces.

What is your budget btw? I'm going to go against the grain here and say not to go with yeast method. It can be very difficult to keep your CO2 levels consistent using the yeast method. Yeast is dependent on may factors including temp, vitality of the yeast that you use, how much water, how much yeast, how much sugar, how clean your bottles are, did you remember to change the yeast mixtures, damn I can't remember if I changed it last time ;P ... I tried and ultimately ended up going pressurized. I have a 10lb cannister that I just set and let'r run. You can get a full setup for 200.00 with free shipping from J&L Aquatics. Well worth the investment and or saving up. I think Meeiu is dosing excel/metricide in place of CO2.

Good luck!

We also has issues with Canada Post with the recent Calgary group order with Shrimp Fever. Our delivery guy said that he came to the door on Thursday (website updated). I was home all day. There were no knocks on the door, no door bell ringing, no delivery attempt card. We did finally pickup from the post office on the next day after 1pm, but if I hadn't checked online we would have never known. Monday afternoon guess what I find in the communal mail box where we pick up mail at the end of our street? The delivery attempt card. It's enough to make a guy feel violent. It's just so hard to get good delivery people now-a-days.

check out some of the lights from http://finnex.ca/ . They seem to be a good bang for the buck.

Welcome. Glad to hear that you want to take the long slow route to success

You could go any where from DIY GU10 LEDs to those super fancy AquaIllumination SOLs. What corals are you planning to keep? Do you have a budget in mind?

I the FugeRay also mentions 120 deg spread. I'm not sure if this means that they use different optics. Possibly the Ray II use a narrower optic?

Yes LEDs will grow plants. What about a Finnex? Pretty good for the money.

Wah! That freezing trick is cool!

http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=726

What about those big chunks of poret that Angel Fins carries?

Remember that ferts and fish poo and plant decay will also affect your TDS. It might more meaningful to do a test in a bucket of tank water from a WC for a couple of weeks.

Oh... oops. I guess I should have updated my browser

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-LCD-TDS-Meter-Tester-Water-Quality-0-999-ppm-Test-Set-Filter-Purity-/171093521925?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27d5f7f605 Same one I got from the same seller. You could snipe and crap but really you'll save less than one dollar?

I got mine on ebay for under 8.00 including shipping...