lduncan

Hi Ira, if your after a peristaltic pump i've just got an OEM manufacturers catalogue today from the UK. I've been looking into them for my controller. They ship samples, and being OEM parts they should be cheap (as far as peristaltic go). What sort of mL / hr are you after? I may be able to get you a good price. Layton

A skimmerless system may be more suited to corals which come from lagoon areas (like cataphylias), close to "muddy" type sediments, where larger phosphate fluxes occur naturally. As opposed to reef crests with high water flow away from fine muddy sediments, where phosphate levels tend not to be as high or cyclic. Layton

Calurpa takes certain forms of phosphate out. It also introduces calurpins, which has a toxic effect on some animals. Calurpa is less than 0.04% phosphorous by weight. It takes a lot of calurpa to remove a little phosphate. Skimmers do remove phosphate, it is their primary purpose. Not to mention all the other organics, like calerpins, turpines etc, which skimmers remove, which would otherwise end up causing trouble. These have to be removed somehow. Without a skimmer, there is a LOT of maintenance involved. Of course there are "band-aid" type temporary solutions which you can use to delay maintenance (like DSB's), but sooner or later they fail too. Layton

I don't think skimming / not skimming has anything to do with experience. For a skimmer-less tank to be sustainable, maintenance would be virtually a full time job, making it unsustainable. Phosphorous is the main problem with skimmer-less tanks, I don't see how people get rid of it. Layton

Pies, I have yet to see a sustainable skimmer-less system. I haven't even seen a valid methodology for a skimmer-less system. Layton

I consider a skimmer a mandatory piece of equipment for a tank. I don't think you can keep a successful tank without one. Layton

Weird. Never seen or heard of anything like that. Can you get a pic of it? Layton

when it's finished Around Christmas I should hopefully have a couple of fully assembled units. Next week... a live video feed from ChCh, all going to plan. Layton

Major progress. Got version 2.6.12-rc1 of the linux kernel built, ethernet drivers written, and the board is now live on the internet! Got to http://lduncan.dyndns.org and the page which loads is being served by the board. Layton

it looked really bleached to me. seems to be recovering though.

It's not static elec if the current flows continuously when grounded.

You'll still feel it at a couple of mA, it just won't kill you. I would still try to find out what causing it it could cause major problems in the future. What brand of pump is running the skimmer? Is it a venturi skimmer? Layton

...until it touches the other line :lol: The voltage is not the problem. It's the current that flows when you put your hand in. It is also a sign of pending equipment failure, which can have other consequences for the tank. Layton

Try gounding the tank through the multimeter and the resistor (in series) with the multimeter set to AC current. What reading do you get? 100mA is considered the leathal current. Of course it is possible that the pumps and heaters are all leaking current. Try physically removing the heaters from the sump and see if the problem is still there. What type of pump is connected to the skimmer? Layton

It is possible that adding a grounding probe will trip the RCD. What type of power heads and pumps are you using, any air pumps? Any sign of condensation or water in your heater? I would try and isolate what is causing the problem. But a grounding probe will at least stop the electric shocks. Layton

It needs a school of fish. Maybe 15 - 20 blue tangs. Those monti's look great. How big are they? Layton

Interesting. Don't know if i'll be too much help. I'd say it is unlikely that the iron is acting as a transformer. You would still need another coil to complete the magnetic circuit, I would have thought your hand is unlikely to have a high enough inductance. Also the permeability of the water would be low. So more than likely it is some sort of leakage current. Grounding will help, of course it seems unusual that the problem starts after adding rowa. But i can't see any reason why rowa would cause this. Anyone have any ideas? Leakage current is usually caused by faulty equipment, which has not necessarily failed. Heaters which have a little water in them, pumps where water has seeped thorough a crack in the epoxy potting. Layton

C. None of the above.

A little bit of progress. SDRAM is working now, and it's successfully running linux 2.4.27 kernel. Ethernet is not working yet. Need to write a driver for it. I've been able to get version 2.6.12 of the kernel built and running yet. But that is the version i'm hoping to use. So things are moving a little slower than i was hoping, but still chugging along. Layton

don't worry, i'm just winding

You mean all that decaying organic matter? :lol: Layton

Just keep pulling them off as soon as you see them. It's likely that there will be eggs everywhere, so it may take a while to get rid of them completely.

ASW needs a day or two to "age", so shouldn't be used straight away. But it should store for a long time, It obviously doesn't have all the crap that NSW has in it. Layton

Seems like everyone is in "transit" at the moment. Dave's bought a house. Steve's selling, i'm renovating. Layton