2manytanks

?????????!! Specific Gravity Equations and Formulas Calculator Fluid Mechanics Buoyancy Solving for submerged in water weight loss http://www.ajdesigner.com/phpspecificgravi...weight_loss.php Yes, but that is the weight in water and dependent on the specific gravity of the item in question, the actual total weight of the tank - measured outside of the tank would still read the correct weight. If you put a 10 lb. object in a tank, depending on it's specific gravity it may weigh less as measured in the water, but the actual weight of the tank as measured from the outside will still be 10 lbs. greater. eg. , a 10 lb. bag of distilled water placed in a tank containing 100 lbs. of distilled water will weigh nothing when weighed in the water (excepting the weight of the bag). But the weight of the tank measured from outside will still show the increase of 10 lbs.

?????????!!

You can't be all that new. You're old enough to spell. Welcome wicked.

You guys (and gals of course)! You have to check out the rest of the site, it's all hilarious. It appears it's a business run by this guys wife, and I wasn't far off with the hillbilly crack, their from Missouri, and check out this spelling and grammar from her profile page: "I take care of my two kids and my man help my man work on ower site and working on a dvd on the semi-maintenance free aquariums for privat home use. " I can just picture the toothless kids now.

How about that, the inbred hillbilly found a use for his old still parts.

Most in sump skimmers are going to be pretty quite, I have yet to hear a hang on that I would call quite. And I'm another one that really dislikes the Prizm's. I have a Hydor Performer that I just absolutely love, it's quite, bubble free, and a real producer. I'll bet I'm getting 3 to 4 times the amount of nice dark skimmate than i did with any previous skimmer.

So, you live in Blackfalds now? Slowly migrating north towards, umm, Oilers?

Not surprising. I'm not sure where Innisfail gets it's water, but generally in smaller communities you have a greater chance of having water contaminated with phosphates from agricultural run-off. I have never had a problem with Red Deer water, but decided to go with RO to be safe.

If you haven't already checked out some of the all-in-one nano tanks, I'd suggest you give them a try to start out on. They really do include everything you need to get started and begin learning about SW and what kind of critters you have an interest in. The lighting, current flow and filtering is adequate for fish and soft corals, and there really isn't any need for a protein skimmer in a tank that size. Just clean the filter and do a water change more frequently. When I had a 12g nano tank running I used to like to clean it and do a water change about twice a week - it sounds like lots of work, but it really only takes 10 minutes for a tank that size. I think it's money well spent, it's amazing what you can do with a little salt water tank, and how well things can thrive in it. Here's a link to an Oceanic Bio-Cube, one of the more popular nano tanks around: Oceanic 12g Bio-Cube So, $320 , plus $80 to $100 for live rock and sand if you want it, a thermometer, a hydrometer, your salt of course, and a heater if the Bio-Cube doesn't come with one. $500 bucks or less and you're up and running. Then whatever you decide to spend on livestock - and don't hurry it, let the tank cycle and the live rock cure - it's interesting just watching the life develop on the rock. If you want to spend a bit more and go a bit bigger , there's something like the Red Sea Max : Red Sea Max Again, an all-in-one system, it's about 34g and also has a built in protein skimmer. They sell for about $800 I think (with the stand). The Red Sea Max has some small inherent glitches for anyone wanting to get into more involved reefkeeping, but is a great and good looking set up to start off with. You can spend less putting together your own system, and of course you can customize it the way you want then, and if you do go for an all-in-one unit there's always the possibility that you're going to want to customize it in some way in the future anyways, which can sometimes be a pain.. But I still think they're a great way to get your feet wet. I guess I'll throw a plug in here while I'm at it, if you wanted to go that way, and save some money too, I have a 12g JBJ Nano Cube DX that I'd let go for $100, and a 34g Red Sea Max that I'd be asking about $400 (with the stand). I have a bunch of stuff I've been planning on selling but just haven't got around to taking stock of it all.

And if you did feel safer having more support underneath but can't build any permanent structure, you could always put a screw jack underneath, that way you have the jack acting as an extra beam underneath the floor the tank sits and you can just remove it at any time in the future.

That ad is Scott from Acrylic Reefs, who just joined AA a couple of days ago : http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=21533 He must have changed his company name from "Reef Acrylics" to "Acrylic Reefs" since he put up that ad and made his webpage.

Looks good. Did you mod the tank with metal halide's to get the clam happy?

Welcome from another acrylic fan.

I agree with Sharuq1, stay away from the Damsels, they are hardy and will take a tank that isn't fully cycled, but once they've settled in and established their territories they are mean little suckers. I like Damsels, but I think it's best to put them in to a tank last, after the other fish have settled in and established their pecking order. And a refractometer is a good investment, the hydrometers tend to go out of whack after a while. I and couple of other people I know have all had the experience of seeing our tanks decline for no apparent reason, only to discover that our salinity was way too high because our hydrometers were reading low. If you do get a hydrometer, replace it on a regular basis, and keep a close eye on how much salt you're adding to your water, if it seems you're adding more salt than you used to to get the same mix, perhaps you'd better check your instrument. Another good reason to keep a batch of water mixed and ready to go like Sharuq said is that not all of the elements in your salt will disolve immediately, it's best to let it sit at least overnight with aeration and heat, and even stir it if you feel like it to make sure that everything is absorbed into the water. I use a winemaking vat. Like Fatpuffer, I used tapwater with good success too, in fact I really can't tell any difference in my tank since I started using RO water, but I like the assurance that the worst of the contaminants have been removed, especially the chloramine and copper. At the same time, there are also beneficial elements in the tap water that we are hoping are being replenished by the salt mix we use, but can't really be sure, because it's hard to find out the exact make up of some of the salts on the market, and some of them have problems with inconsistency from batch to batch. Also, some brands supposedly have a problem with inconsistent particle size that causes some of the compounds/elements to settle out in the package resulting in differing levels of the compounds/elements in each batch you mix. As well, larger particles may take longer to dissolve, another reason to let your new batch of water sit for a while before you use it. For me though, what I have found has made the biggest difference is lighting and current flow. People are finding more and more that high and varying current are extremely beneficial, so plan for good flow with a high return rate from your sump (providing you're going to use one) and good powerheads placed so that the water currents from them battle against each other and create some turbulence instead of always flowing in exactly the same direction. Wavemakers are a nice alternative, but expensive. As for the lighting, like everybody says, get the best you can afford for what you want to do, becuase you'll just wind up wishing you hadn't cheaped out. At the same time, brighter isn't always better, if all you want to keep for coral is something like some Xenia and Colt Coral for some colour, some nice T5's or something would do just fine. But even then, boy there's something to be said for the shimmer from MH's. Another piece of equipment that's worth getting the best you can afford is a protein skimmer. If you're just doing fish, not as big a deal, but I've sure been sorry I bought some of the skimmers I did, they just wasted my money. Even after your rock is cured, it's best to take it slow, with hardier fish at the beginning. I found when I first started out that even when my tests indicated my water qualiity was great that I had some kind of problem which I'm assuming was bacterial, that caused me all kinds of problems for a long time. There were lots of fish that I just couldn't keep alive, particularly Tangs - and I wanted Tangs so bad. Everybody came down with white spot when they got in my tanks and even if they made it through it, lots of them didn't live more than a few months. But slowly things improved, with disease less and less of a problem as the tanks aged, and it's been a long time now since I have had any kind of problem. I've since read that it can take quite a while for a balance to be acheived amongst the microbial lifeforms in a new tank, and I thinkg that's exactly what happened to me. Good luck, keep us updated. And have fun experimenting and learning.

Sorry about your Pleco, Boom. There's not one of us that hasn't lost a buddy because of our own mistakes. And like Degrassi, I have also been amazed at what some fish can take. I had to run out to an appointment once and my wife thought she'd give a hand with one of the tanks I wanted to give a really good cleaning to when I got back. So she hauled out all the decorations and driftwood, and left the driftwood sitting on a towel, then went out herself. Somewhere between an hour to an hour and a half later I got home and went to start vacuuming the tank and couldn't see any clown loaches, there was 4 when I left. Found them all in the driftwood. A couple of them moved a bit when I handled them, so I put them back in the tank and hoped for the best. They just layed on the bottom, but I could see them breathing. Within a couple of hours 3 of them were re-hydrated and acting normal. by the next day they were all just fine and lived for years after that. My wife felt like a murderer when she found out what she had done, and I just realized she hasn't really done much with the aquariums since.

Welcome to AA. Our household is another one that's way to full. My wife has a pet sitting business and we tend to be a dumping ground for unwanted animals, especially parrots. Right now we have : 6 cats, 4 of them Persians - my wife's addicted to them 4 dogs, from German Shepherd down to Chihuahua 8 parrots - 3 Macaws, 2 African Greys, a Bare-eyed Cockatoo & 2 Conures (we have had as many as 12 large parrots at one time, but managed to find good homes for a few and have taken some others to a parrot refuge on Vancouver Island where they can live out the rest of their lives with their own kind and not have to put up with anymore abuse or being bounced from home to home) 2 aquariums, 1 210g SW reef tank and a 120g FW cichlid and turtle tank - my addiction, I was up to 12 tanks at one time but have pared it down to 2. Nice you have a Degu, I like them. We used to have 4 old gals that we called The Golden Girls, who were dumped at one of the local pet stores (and I mean dumped, the staff just found this little cage with the 4 of them in it sitting in the store one day) and unsaleable because of their age. Really cute and way more affectionate than I would have ever thought (mind you, I think that about some of my fish too).

(2) Probably again, too many nutrients, not enough water flow and filtration. How long has your tank been up, what do you have for filtration , skimming and water flow. The fuzz is likely cyanobacteria. Are you useing tap water?

You're welcome. And, good choice, I really like Rena's.

I had one on my 72g reef. I was happy with it over all. I think it's only real drawbacks were exactly the kinds of things that I would have expected - the overflow doesn't work as well as an actual built in and drilled overflow, and had to be cleaned more often to keep it flowing freely, but I would think with a freshwater tank that wouldn't be as much of a problem. And I wasn't really happy with the performance of the protein skimmer - again not surprising for a low end, built in skimmer. I really liked the auto-top off tank you can get for it though. With the Tom you're paying for a built in protein skimmer, which is useless in fresh water - except as a good way to aerate the water, and the filter media really needs to be cleaned more often than in a canister to keep it functioning up to snuff. Overall I found it to be effective and reliable, but at the same time, I think for a freshwater tank I would rather go for a good canister filter and use the TOM on a SW tank of no more than about 70g (and even smaller if it's a heavily populated tank).

It's a really good picture of such a little critter too.

Wow. You got a Pom Pom crab as a hitchhiker? Too cool, they're really interesting little crabs. Incidentally, the "netting" is actually a type of anemone, the two have a nivce little symbiotic relationship going. If you're lucky the anemone will divide so he has one for his other claw too.

Any suggestions on a good place for hinges? I haven't been able to find much that I like for my cabinet.

Thanks for the link. I've been wanting to do something a bit more natural for my turtles.

What a scumbag. Wonder if someone out there who is really angry about this has given him a phonecall since he has his number listed on the ad.

Not only does it provide ECO CONCEPT of relaxation, but it also comes with "Freshwater Alive Water " - OOOOooooo!