Recent content by Dargason

It's found in saltwater and freshwater both. There's a nice article here: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/s ... /index.htm

Of course the answer is, "It depends." Here was my experience. I had a 400W bulb about 10" from the brace on my 200g oceanic for a couple years with no problems, but I had no canopy. Then I built a canopy over my tank that added 640W VHO and while I had some fans in the canopy, they...

I have been using one of these for the past 2 years. http://www.spectrapure.com/St_alc_p1.htm I have been very happy with it. Zero maintenance, and no problems whatsoever. I'm a little surprised more people aren't using them.

A closed-loop system normally employs a much larger pump. So, for example, you might have a 2000 gph pump that would drive a closed loop system or sea swirls and then not have any powerheads in the tank. The advantage here is that you don't have ugly powerheads in the tank, and their...

My advice is to locate the sump in the basement, if you have one. If you don't, maybe a small room behind the wall? This goes a long way towards minimizing the chance of spills on your hardwood. As an added bonus, you don't have to try to squeeze everything into your stand, and the noise and...

Rich -- According to the archives, at some point you were considering sharing some or all of the software for your website. Are you still considering it or have you decided against it? I've developed a Java-based application that monitors the tank, emails/pages me if something's wacky, and...

Well, often your tapwater has things in it that are undesirable in your tank. In my case, it was copper, which is death for invertibrates, so I had no choice but to use filtered water. Of course not everyone has copper in their tapwater, but you may have elevated levels of phosphates, which...

That page is a great little tool! However, the manual way is simple too. For any electrical device you have, multiply the number of watts times the number of hours it runs in a month and divide by 1000. That gives you the number of kilowatt-hours used each month. Now multiply that number...

I've got both GSP and xenia and my 4 pepps haven't touched them (to my knowledge). However, they are very shy and I almost never see them. Just make sure you get the right ones, not the camelback shrimp. I know that my camelback shrimp will eat xenia and anthelia although he hasn't bothered...

I usually avoid these things, but I got bored today and read some of it... now I feel compelled to comment. I don't know if the hobby causes damage to the reefs or not -- I haven't seen any studies -- but I'm willing to accept that it does. Arguments that I see some people make that "other...

I usually avoid these things, but I got bored today and read some of it... now I feel compelled to comment. I don't know if the hobby causes damage to the reefs or not -- I haven't seen any studies -- but I'm willing to accept that it does. Arguments that I see some people make that "other...

Greg, Great site! I did want to express some concern about the brass shutoff valve you have on your RO system. Doesn't brass contain copper? I'm worried that that valve might contaminate your water with copper...

A refractometer doesn't measure salinity, it measures the refractive index of the sample relative to air, as horge as said. Other dissolved things in the water can also alter the refractive index. But most "other things" are small relative to the amount of salt you put in there. FWIW, I use a...

Thanks guys! I just went out and bought some toothpicks so I can do it right. Today the frag looks ok, but I do worry that the rubber band might be too tight.

I just wanted to follow up on this situation, for those who were curious. I bought a bicolor blenny who picked at it and spread it all over the tank. It does spread pretty quickly, when given the right conditions. I bought a bunch of snails, including some mexican turbo grazers. The turbos...