Yes, it's a beast alright. One reason I was never that fond of the Remora set up. Sounds like Okguy has it figured out though. I recall seeing his set up when I purchased a couple of coral frags from him. I didn't even notice the Remora on his tank, that's how nicely camouflaged it was. Quiet too. I didn't find out about the Remora 'silencing' mods until after I cracked it and removed it.

Silencing mods?? Now you have my attention!! That Mag 3 is horrendously loud! Oh well, I'm going back to work out of province tomorrow, so it can be loud all it wants.

The silencing mod is for the injector compartment. If it's the Mag pump itself making noise I don't have a fix for that. The impeller is only a few months old. Do you have a rigid line connecting the pump to the skimmer or flexible vinyl? Vinyl would help reduce pump vibration/noise.

It's not the pump, it's the injector. I will have to Google some silencing mods on my next days off (Christmas). :)

From what I can recall the injector silencing mods are quite simple/straightforward. You simply cut a piece of foam or something in the shape of the injector compartment and slip the assembly in there to muffle the sound.

Getting a little off topic for the thread subject, but here's a link to some pretty good Remora C mods:

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/...ghlight=remora

I am still battling hair algae and some pockets of valonia. The display portion of my tank is about 25G. I added one emerald crab about 4 weeks ago. He has doubled in size since then but I have not noticed him eating valonia yet, that was the job he was hired for. Maybe I will add another emerald crab.


But I do have two urchins who look like this:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h.../DSC_3331s.jpg


They keep the algae to a minimum on the back side of the rocks but rarely come to the front where the algae is the worst. Maybe if they get hungry enough or I keep the lights off for a few days they will work on the front of the rocks.

I have peeled a few of the larger algae bubbles off by hand.

I am thinking of getting a sea hare to help out with the hair algae, I have read somewhere that some people have seen them eat valonia as well.

Thanks for the links Mike, I will take a look! :)

Your rocks look like they have a lot of detritus settled on them. Do you blow them off with a turkey baster? I find that is a key part of battling hair algae. Although I don't see any hair algae in the photo of your Pencil Urchin. You should be able to get rid of the hair algae without getting a Sea Hare. Have you read the Guide in my signature?

UPDATE:

I know I have talked about this on other threads, but figured I would record it here too as the battle continues...

So I have made a couple dramatic changes to my tank in the last 6 weeks, and have noticed a huge DECREASE in Valonia! :eek:

I changed my lighting to 2x250w DE MH. It currently has crappy Coralife 10000K bulbs that it came with, and crappy reflectors. That's ok because I don't want too much PAR, or my LPS will get roasted. I started the lighting slowly with two 1 hour spurts, eventually getting to two 2 hour spurts, and then going to one 4 hours spurt this was over the course of 3 weeks. That was too much and a couple corals started bleaching, I've knocked it back down to two 2 hour periods.

The other thing I changed was I started some Zeo additives. I bought the Zeo Nano Power package. The Pohl's Xtra and the Amino Acid LPS ran out after only 10 days, but I am carrying on with daily dosing (1 drop per day) of the Coral Vitalizer and the Sponge Power.

Now, I don't know if it's these changes or something else going on, but there sure is a HUGE difference in the Valonia. Worth a shot for anyone else giving it a try. I know from talking to a few people using the full Zeo system that Valonia was the last algae to disappear. So that's why I figured I would give the Nano pack a shot.

OR

Maybe the change on bulb Kelvin I made in December (I think it was?) when I was just running T5s finally did the trick? Or maybe the Emerald Crabs finally caught up? Or maybe the Kole Tang has actually been doing some trimming? I have no idea really...all I know is that SOMETHING is working! :lol:

The reef shoppe in Lloydminster has emerald crabs