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I use a typical DSB in my tank and lke what it does. I see no problem using a remote DSB. In addition a remote DSB would have several advantages. You could clean it with out effecting the main tank. You could control the water flow through it, and you could also grow various macro algaes in it...
If you are willing to kill and entire day, and spend about 2 1/2 to about 5 hours each way on the drive to get there, I highly recommend a road trip to Pacific East Aquaculture. They do seem to be a sponsor of NJRC, and you can get to it and back in a day, so I suppose you can consider it a LFS...
The other consideration of PC bulbs, when compared to other fluorescent bulbs, especially T5's is that you can mount a very evvective reflector behind a T5 or other liner bulb. With a PC bulb, it's going to be a lot less effective.
I also generally agree with phil519's post, especially the part...
The first salt for making SW the I used was Rila Marine Mix. The company no longer exists. I do believe the IO salt was made before this, but Rila was the only salt available at the very few LFS that had SW fish. By today's standards, it would be considered a poor salt.
Making your own was...
An excellent point. IMHO, if you have to add a lot of supplements to you salt mix to "get it right" you are using an inferior brand and should switch. A decent salt should not need much in the way of additions.
It's factors like this that let you judge that a salt is inferior, but it can't...
Since I'm asked so nicely, by two members, The salt I use is Aquacraft's Marine Environment. It is just about unavailable on the east coast as a LFS. I have to order my supply via the net. Naturally, this makes it very expensive. You can order it direct here (offsite link) -...
This is mostly opinion on my part, and I'll state up front I'm not trying to start a "salt war".
I consider IO and Reef Crystals to be marginal salts at best. I would only use them in an emergency where I couldn't get "my brand" of salt.
I believe that it is extremely foolish to switch brands...
Here is the Mazzei web site with information on them (offsite link) - http://www.mazzei.net/index.htm
Click on products and then injectors to get information on them. You'll have to figure out the exact part you want. Then a quick net search should give you a few vendors that carry them. You...
Glad to hear you got the thing installed!
You may need a more powerful pump. A 1" Mazzei injector, if I remember correctly, can easily handle a 900 gph pressure rated pump.
Still if you are getting fine consistand bubbles, it's working. See how that does before you replace the pump.
While you can recharge DI resins as explained in the post above, you do need to use two potentially dangerous household chemicals, muriatic acid and lye. If you are going to do this, do it outside, and wear rubber gloves and eye protection.
Also, if you are only going through one or two DI...
I tried a google search, and clicked on the results. No problems on my system.
I suspect that you (mynd) has one or more viruses or other malware installed on their system.
I recommend doing the following -
If you have antivirus software, make sure it is up to date and do a full scan of...
I would also suggest that using a single 250w MH and asking it to light a 36 inch long tank is asking a lot of it. Typically MH's will light a span of about 2 feet. No matter how you place the bulb there will be darker corners. This is not necessarily bad, since you can put low light corals...
Since you want water movement, you are much better off obtaining pumps designed for this, rather than using powerheads.
Here are a couple of examples (offsite links) -
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_searchItem~IdCategory~~SearchText~hd19501+hd19401+hd19301+hd19201+hd19101~parsed~1.html...
I think that triggers are among the most interesting fish you can own. Generally I agree with the excellent advice posted by others on the best choice of species.
Still, any trigger in a reef is going to be questionable. They may not touch your corals, but they will gladly eat any shrimp, most...
You should not need a center vertical brace, since the span is only 36".
However, you will need to frame up the plywood, since it will flex if used alone. In other words, build the frame for the stand out of dimensional lumber and screw down the plywood top to the frame.
This could be the case.
Installing a 1" Mazzei Injector might be quite a retrofit, since it's rather long and has threaded fittings at each end. You'll also want to use unions at each end, so you can take the thing out for cleaning.
Ideally when using a refractometer, it should be calibrated using a standard solution that is close to the SG of the water you want to measure.
That being said, it's not a major crises if you are using RO/DI water and calibrating the refractometer to 0.
This is because it's not going to make...
My choice would be the first option. MHs alone.
However, it's not quite that simple. The question is, what lighting do you like best?
Lighting is a very personal thing, and what one person likes is not necessarily what someone else would like. As long as your corals are getting enough light...
I do not understand your question. Please explain. Just about all electronic ballasts come "all together", in that you only need to connect the black wire to hot, the white wire to neutral, the green wire to ground, and the two other wires to the bulb socket.