Recent content by PsiStar

I get that. I paid a so called aquarium expert to set up a greatly upgraded system. I have my own business, unrelated, so did not feel that I could put in the time on a "hobby". Of course after spending too much and the expert is absent too much, I started picking up where he left off. I am an...

Good that you mentioned water supply pressure. Even with a booster pump my pressure is almost 40. Add another $150 to $200 ... it is not just a pump, but power supply & shutoff switches, etc. I did not check mine before and did this reactively. But, I would still have put a ro/di system in...

Inefficient is an understatement and sets a value to ro/di water. As a result tho, I have reconsidered this 70%, or 50% and even a 30% monthly water change. I have a 90 reef tank, a 50g refugium, and a ~25g sump. The sump has a protein skimmer and that is it for filtering. I take out 0 to 9g a...

OP ... I am probably a heart beat ahead of you on this. I have an ro/di system that an "expert" installed for me. Let me just say that bringing a bunch of things in, spreading them out across the floor, and then connecting them in with a rats nest of tubes is *not* an installation. Moving...

I have ro/di with automatic top off. It saves a lot of messing around. I think it depends on what is in the main tank as to whether it is covered or not. I have had 2 fish that jumped out as well as snails that have climbed out ... freaky coming into the room of a morning & you accidentally...

I just experimented with overflow boxes. The surface scum is because the overflow box needs to drain at a higher flow. Once I adjusted the flow such that the in-tank compartment of the overflow box was below (3/8" to 1/2" in my system) the water surface in the tank, the scum disappeared. It...

The piles of live rock in the 90G help. I do have a lot of nassarius, ceriths, & turbos. Some of the snails have been in the tank for a long time ... they have a good coat of algae. Or, they did at least. Sometimes snails find each other and hitch hike doing some cleaning. The crabs on the other...

Mine pop out at feeding time. I have 4 different sizes from maybe a 1/4" (many) to over 1" (4). In my 50g ref which does not get a direct feeding, I used to bury a frozen mysis or algae cube in the sand with it deep enough that it is just barely showing. The only 3 (~3/4") that were in that...

Is it possible to have too many? I have a 50g refugium full of plants with 50 lbs of live rock and a 90g with several fish, 150 lbs of live rock, and a growing coral population. Many astrea snails & similar. Both tanks with 3 or 4 inches of substrate. There is also a ~20g sump. The lights in...

I think this is the same thing I saw crawling around on the rocks a while ago. Today this thing was on the wall. It is actually about a little over 1/2" long. So what do you think?

I should add that the lights are on a timed on/off schedule for the fish & reef tank. I have entertained and am still thinking about the light cycle for the refugium to which I have a lot of plants growing quite well. One argument is to have those lights on 24x7. The other is to have them on...

@Mitch... .. I have read that several is better than a few. I have 5. Was supposed to be 6 but someone did not check the bag before she threw it away.:frustrat: Anyway, they are pretty snarky with each other. There is definitely an odd man out in this group ... wishin' I had the 6th guy. The...

@d2mini ... THAT is so obvious. I would have never thought of it!!!!!:bounce:

Just became VIP ... the forums are offering very good information for little to no cost than any other type of forum I have experienced for any of my dalliances (computer, auto racing, dating, tech, & others) in the past.

@Mitch... I have made that kind of thing before. The nuance with this is that so many are on the sides of the tank. So I was reasoning that a combination scraper/squeegee + siphon would get many more. The thought of chasing them down with an air hose seemed like shooting gnats in a swarm with a...