Recent content by Steve L

It's not going to be as cheap as I would like it to be reefle. Somewhere around $700 excluding shipping. If somebody were to build one themselves it would cost at least that much. I'm always looking for parts sources with better prices. I'll be happy to do layaway plans :turntable

Hello All, I just thought that I would post an update on the progress I've been making on my portable water change system. I wound up making another prototype with the same tank size (12 gallon) but I've completely revamped the plumbing and base. The biggest problem I've been running into is...

Depends how much crud is in your sand bed. I've owned two sifters and the water cleared up after a couple weeks. My biggest problem is that the sifters tend to be jumpers and I don't have a lid on my tank. Both jumped within the first couple months.

Pink, red, green and a little bit of yellow here in a 2 year old tank. The green tends to grow on the top of the glass nearest to the lights.

Keyna Tree soft coral. Unless you have a huge tank I would suggest getting rid of it. It grows really fast and will take over your tank eventually. If you try to cut it, new ones will sprout all over the place and you'll never get rid of it all. As it grows it blocks the light beneath and...

If they're used fermentation barrels just make sure that they are really clean before using them. I looked at some used ones last year and they all stunk really bad inside but looked clean. Hard to say exactly what all had been in them.

You should buy a lottery ticket. You have nowhere to go but up. :hammerhea

It looks like a combination of purple and dark red coralline to me. In a few months you'll probably have the green coralline too and it's really tough to clean off of the glass, unlike the purple. In my experience the red slime algae grows in low flow areas and usually starts on the sand bed...

I have a 70 gallon reef with 100 pounds of Marco dry rock, and have never experienced an increase in phosphates. If you add corals you will eventually have hitch hikers (good and bad) and the price LFS's charge for live rock is just nuts. My "now" live rock is covered with coralline and teeming...

Whipping boy? All people are doing is telling you how they do it. Don't take it personally that everybody doesn't agree with you. I see that you made another post today about an algae problem. Perhaps it has something to do with your water or salinity. That's the great thing about this hobby...

I don't have a sump, but I've only used a skimmer as my only means of filtration for over 2 years in my 70 gallon reef tank. I blow the rocks off every couple weeks and let my CUC pick through it all when it hits the bottom.

I've always had the same outlook using emerald crabs for bubble algae as using peppermint shrimp for aiptasia. Not all of them will like to eat it, so buy more until you find one that will get the job done. I've been fortunate that I've only had two very small outbreaks of bubble algae and in...

I have the same problem Oxylebius. When the system is empty, it can easily be pulled up stairs with the large wheels to my daughter's tank in her room. I have an adapter that fits on the bathroom faucet where I hook up my RO unit. After I've finished the water change I wheel the system back into...

Thanks everybody. I'm working on the engineering drawings as we speak and sourcing out a manufacturing facility. I'm sure it's at least 6-10 weeks before they're available but I'll let everybody here know when I have some ready to go.

You still may get more algae growth than a tank with only artificial lighting, but not nearly as bad as if there were direct sunlight hitting the tank. I had a quarantine tank set up for a couple years that got about 45 minutes of filtered sunlight in the mornings and I was always fighting...