Recent content by dark_stranger

I wouldnt recommend going to a fish shop until you know what they say is true or solely for they financial gain. Read books & ask loads of questions on here & other forums. We have all been beginners at one stage or another & therefore ask loads of silly questions, but also listen to the...

I do a 5 gallon (10%) water change every weekend, aswell as cleaning out the canister filter & skimmer. I know its a heavy maintenance routine, but I am use to doing it now & as you say, the whole tank benifits.

Also remember, that you need to check the PH for top-off/up water to match it with your tank. I made this mistake and could never figure out why pc kept dropping.

Happy now! :D

I performed my 1st big water change over the weekend & this is the process i used. Made up 5gallons of RO/DI water. Heater water in large container to same temp as tank. Added salt & run powerhead/heater to mix/heat water/salt over night. Removed 5gallons from tank. Removed heater & connected...

Can i point out one thing that all of you have omitted to mention. Once's it's painted, there is no going back unless you want to spend hours scraping the paint off with a blade or risk spalshing paint stripper or paint scrapings into the tank. What I am saying is that painting it is a...

Cheers & everything is becoming clearer (excuse the pun). Soon I will have to change my question subject on to something different & then before I know it I wil have more posts then the mods of this forum :D Roll on March paypack & then I can start my "little" project.

Hi Dirtwrks, since i started posting on this and other forums I have at least learnt one thing, and that is, as with microsofts software, there are 10's of ways to do the same thing. Some work better than others, but its down to the individual. As for the post you mention, it was myself that...

lol, I also read that, but didnt want to seem to be a know it all, espically when i'm not. I dont think the misses would think to much of the stink, espically when i want the tank in the livingroom, but i surpose i could blame the kids.

Hi Chris, so my future setup could have plenty of live rock (biological), Skimmer ((mechanical) does a skimmer fall into the mechanical cat.) & a method of chemical filtration ((cheap canister with carbon media to clean water) does chemical filtration need to be run all the time?) and would this...

I have been considering this skimmer as like you say, its the best, the daddy of skimmers, but I have read on a few forums, of users getting bubble feedback & also the skimmed mess smelling badly.

Hi, I have also been having the similar conversation here... http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=64696 This may help you or simply cloud the matter even more.

Hi, aside from the canister i was planning on having a deltac skimmer working in conjunction with the canister, but from ur comments could i use either on or the other. Saying that, is a skimmer a mechanical skimmer & therefore a canister is not required? The more i read, the more i get...

No worries, I am just trying to gauge what is the best option & find it hard to understand why canisters are developed, sold & brought if they are such an ineffective method of filtration. Plus they seem such a good idea in theroy, but in practice, from common concensious they have a negative...

Well being a "new reefkeeper" as you put it, I am trying to establish the best way of doing something with in the scope of my knowledge & tank spec. The tank i plan to get may not have a big enough space in the cabinet to house a sump (seems to be ther prefered method) & therefore just checking...