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    Kids don't mix with reef

    I wouldn't really assume that the box cutter is causing the problems, iron shouldn't really be that big of a deal since rust isn't water soluble and iron chlorides or other soluble iron forms aren't really produced in the basic pH we all keep in SW tanks. These are the same reasons the iron...
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    Interceptor for Red Bugs

    I know that trido has a thread on the psas forum where he states he has a local connect for interceptor, if your vet won't get you some you might try shooting him a PM. But also I have had great success with TLF Revive coral cleaner, it kills red bugs and most other pests for new corals and is...
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    Led VS MH?

    Nice, sounds like a plasma arc and a string or two of royal blue LEDs with a controller to handle all the dimming would be a killer setup over a larger tank without having to drill, tap and wire up 100+ LEDs and deal with a bunch of drivers. Solves the hole that LEDs have in the warm color...
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    Led VS MH?

    If I'm reading this correctly those plasma lights have a color temp of 5300k, wouldn't you need some sort of actinic supplementation to get the blue look most people are used to?
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    Heater for small tank

    whoops just saw that I posted the wrong pic, here's the comparison of a stealth 50w and a cheap jalli 100w titanium heater. you can see that the stealth only turns on a couple of times each day while the titanium does hundreds of cycles: I would assume the water temps around wild reefs don't...
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    Heater for small tank

    I found the hysteresis on the stealth heaters to be pretty large for small tanks, upwards of 2 degrees in my 3g. Should be 1/3 of that in a 10g but still a good 50w titanium will never stray out of a 1/2 degree range. Doesn't matter though if you go with a RKL.
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    Led VS MH?

    You'll get all the shimmer you could possibly want with LEDs, you actually have to be kinda careful with the surface flow of the tank because if there is too much wave action it looks like you have a disco ball hidden in the hood. I've never had problems with corals browning under LEDs, its...
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    Wood sealant/paint?

    A good polyurethane such as varathane is good for the wood stand if you want to see the wood grain, if you haven't done much painting before you can even cut it 50/50 with mineral spirits and wipe it on with a rag and not have to worry about brush strokes. Minwax wipe-on poly is the same thing...
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    red bubble algae

    for green bubble algae and caulerpa I've had success with draining a couple gallons of tank water into each of two 5 gallon buckets, then take the rocks with the algae and scrub them off with a vegetable scrubber in one bucket, rinse off in the second bucket to remove as many of the spores as...
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    Filter for powerheads

    every couple months you can just remove the powerheads, clean off some in the sink with an old toothbrush and then run them in a bucket with a gallon or two of tap water plus a cup or two of white vinegar for a bit. 15 minutes later all the coralline, gunk and everything else is gone and the...
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    LED PAR bulbs vs Retro kits

    I had a 1.5-2" maxima under LEDs in a 9x9x9 pico for almost a year, was doing great but I had to give it to my brother in law for a while when my tank crashed last month (heater failure while on vacation.) It's going back under LEDs here in a month or two when I have a good environment for it...
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    Where to buy glass in Seattle?

    +1 on perkins glass, on broadway south of pine. I've gotten glass for 4 or 5 tanks from them, they charge half of what i've been quoted by all the other glass shops around here. Smallest was my 9x9x9 pico of 1/4" glass which was 14 bucks and change, up to ~$80 for a 24x24x16 out of 3/8" glass...
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    cptbjorn's 3g Cube Pico

    I added legs to the fixture since I took the first pictures so the LEDs are about 2" off the water now and the boards are protected by acrylic so it shouldn't be a problem. The light even fell into the water too (twice :oops:) before I got the legs to hold it in place and everything was fine...
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    cptbjorn's 3g Cube Pico

    I didn't have room to do an arduino with a bunch of shield boards so the arduino board I'm using is a custom design, it is electrically equivalent to the standard duemilanove boards except I added a real time clock and a 512kb EEPROM and shrunk the board size by about 20%. I haven't used the...
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    LEDs to replace halides?

    There aren't many commercial LED fixtures because of a patent dispute and the fixtures that are available are pretty crippled feature-wise to dodge the patent. You kinda have to build your own right now but you can definitely use them as the only source of light and if you space them properly...
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    cptbjorn's 3g Cube Pico

    I try to do a 1g change (~40% of actual water volume) every week but it looks fine up to 2 weeks. I bet I could get away with smaller changes or longer intervals at this point but I don't plan to find out, 1 gallon is easy enough :) It does require two part dosing every day though, with the...
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    cptbjorn's 3g Cube Pico

    Thanks :) The pico vortech dry side is a brushless motor cooled by a small cooling fan spinning a diametrically aligned neodymium ring magnet, and the wet side is another of the same magnet spinning a 31mm model boat propeller through a rulon bearing. The magnets couple surprisingly well and...
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    9.99 Frags!!

    I picked up a couple this morning and they were all big healthy frags, I'd have gotten one of each if I had the room. If anybody else has LED lighting you should go pick up one of the thicker acros they have on the right, mine turned solid lavender with blue tips the moment it hit the water :)
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    Cheapest place to get black plexiglass

    Calsak plastics in Kent is cheap but they have a $50 minimum order and it isn't a retail kind of place, you have to know what you want and call in the order and pick it up. If you want a retail store Tap Plastics in Bellevue is the only option I know of.
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    cptbjorn's 3g Cube Pico

    I just picked up some frags from the frag swap and figured since I learned about it here I'd come do an update. I didn't think it had been this long since I'd posted here, I've added a couple things since my last post. Such as 6 acans, 5 chalices, 4 acros, 10 various montis, a couple more...
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