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In the hobby since 2001, and has seen all kinds of fads come and go. As he gets older, Jeff is developing more and more of a conscience towards environmental concerns, especially towards reefs. Currently, he writes from Ontario, Canada, but would rather be snorkeling on a reef. 
Sweet pix
Welcome to Frag’d It! Look forward to your posts.
Hi Caruso, welcome to Frag’d it
Nice pictures
but please, post other photos!!!
Where in cozumel were these taken? I was there back in February, are these the shallows?
Anyone have an id on the coral in that last picture?
I’m not so sure, but I think fire coral
Hey Dani, its Acropora palmata.
Yes I think you’re right
The first picture was taken at Punta Sur on the beach. The pictures with the fish where taken from the ocean in front of our hotel just off the Santa Rosa reef. The last pictures where taken at the Columbia Shallows reef.
Any local stories?? past or present?? Canadian for that matter.. Do we hunt them down?? I agree, jail time should not be ruled out. Less than $1. fine for every tonne seems low IMO.
If this is the case that I think it is, the coral was dead and intended to be used as reactor media — much of the problem came from the individual pieces being too large. Apparently, for this kind of export the fragments have to be smaller than a certain size or they become “coral” and subject to export restrictions.
Not that all this makes the guy innocent… it sounds like he knew what was going on… or that maybe he copped a plea.
Hmm, at 40 tonnes of dead coral? I think he is trying to cover something up if he is using that aliby.
Remember USFW is not very detail in releasing such information. 40 tons is probably dry live rock (still require CITIES). Nobody is stupid to smuggle 40 tons corals
We do know how it looks like for a 500 kg shipment LOL
Just got a new favorite nba player. That’s a very well done video.
Ah, finally! An in-house battery back-up – hopefully with better performance than the Icecap one.
I’m with you all the way!
I always found drinking vodka while solving algae problems rather enjoyable
Great article, I always appreciate a good reminder of the law of conservation of energy
“There are many forum posts and great guides on this topic, which can lead to many conclusions, but none make it cut and dry as capn_hylinur’s. He could be found on Reef Central, and in this long, winded thread.”
That is my chart, not capn_hylinur’s. Never even heard of that person. I’d be happy to help if there are any questions on this.
“I’m already dosing a Carbon (Zeo) and I supplement feeding with Selcon (contains Vitamin C ) so I’m a bit wary of dosing additional Vitamin C. I don’t need to feed the nuisance algae more than I already do!”
VC is way cheaper than Zeo & works differently than feeding Selcon (which I also do). It also STARVES nuisance algae. My cheato has dwindled to nothing, since there are no nutrients left for it to feed on from dosing VC. No detectable nitrate or phosphate. I am dosing at ~23ppm in my display reef tank.
Sorry for the confusion, as I was misguided. I will edit it for accuracy.
As these old methods such as carbon dosing become new again, they sometimes gain new insight and other times lose track of the plot. The original purpose of carbon dosing was to feed denitrifying bacteria grown in low oxygen, slow flow through, filtration devices (denitrators). The idea of adding a concentrated food source (carbon) was efficient, but nonetheless waned in popularity as aquarists weren’t interested in daily maintenance or dosing. For whatever reason, hobbyists have managed to put down the remote, get off the sofa and get involved in regular maintenance. The new approach is a shotgun method of adding VC to the tank with no regard to how it is expended or where it is going. VC is photodegradable, hydrophobic (poorly dissolved), and it is readily removed through protein skimming. The current dosing practices used by many seem to work well, but I can’t help but think those resources could be redirected to dosing smaller amounts to a denitrator as this minimizes the solubility, foam fractionation, and photodegradation issues while lowering the amount of residual chemicals (free radicals) building up and reacting in the aquarium.
The argument for dosing the tank instead of a filtration device is that corals have a complex bacterial population on their tissue and the VC is promoting these biofilms and not just feeding nitrobacter in a black box device or sand bed.
The good thing about VC dosing is it is a grassroots method with no marketing schemes pushing us into using it or buying chemicals or devices for its use.
So what are the benefits of the upgrade?
To me, the killer reason to upgrade is the network adapter (the adapter on its own is something crazy like $200), USB and the web interface. I will do a better writeup on the upgrade once I’ve played around with it more. There’s a web module that you can customize. I’d love to see some sort of awesome front-end for mobile devices. I’ll play around with it more once I’m comfortable with the P3.
Here’s the bullet points of the upgrade (pasted from another URL):
So what is the PIII going to do?
ProfiLux III will look like the ProfiLux Plus II, for a reason but with differences:
a) Graphic display, USB & LAN on board, connector for new Bus-system (ProfiLux Aquatic Bus – PAB)
b) No more limits for probe count or socket count
c) Additional cards (if you have more than 3) will be plugged in an extra “expansion†box – looks like the ProfiLux Plus II housing but has no display or keys, can hold up to 8 cards, these extension boxes will be connected via the PAB, several of these boxes can be daisy-chained
d) Upgrade option for ProfiLux Plus II (eX) which follows on from our commitment to you as a controller that is future proof, the kit includes: Kit with replacement for the front PCB + special card with PAB and USB & LAN -> this turns the ProfiLux Plus II (eX) into a ProfiLux III.
Very nice! Now you can start saving for that Giesemann light you always wanted!
Of course! Know anyone selling a Giesemann light?
LOL! I think I might know someone who will give you a great deal on a Giesemann fixture…
I was hoping for a better price…
I’ll see what I can do about the pricing.
Dont to forget to mention the case modificaitons you might have to make to get things to fit. This is according to GHL, and I had to do it for my upgrade.
@John – I didn’t have to do any modifications to the case so I didn’t document it. Do you have pics of the modifications? I’d love to add them to this guide.
I dont have pics that I took, but I followed the installation guidlines from GHL’s support forum where they have pics of the installation.
Hey,
Thanks for the writeup. I knew that some corals could/would sting you but never knew SPS to be among their ranks (but in retrospect it makes sense I suppose).
-Ian
Ho yes they do sting! I had to learn it the hard way with a torch coral. Samething happened to me with a rose anemone and also with a carpet anemone (that last one was a bad one).
I now use gloves lol
Any updates?
EVERY modified ProfiLux MUST have the case mods done otherwise you will crush the front screen transistor upper and lower killing the screen.
PLEASE MAKE SURE EVERYONE FOLLOWS THE OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING THIS THANKS
LINK TO INSTRUCTIONS
http://www.aqua-digital.com/index.php/downloads/?did=17
that thing is amazing! but we don’t see them down here much…or at least not in houston.
We are going to have to redo the experiment. The corals grew and got sold
We will have something soon.
Hey Vlad.
Were is the pic of the strawberry shortcake acro. Im not one to go gaga for a “named” coral but it is pretty sweet.
Put me in line for a frag.
First time I’ve seen a reaction from SPS sting like that. You have very delicate hands…haha. Seriously do you hand model?
J/K Mike.
We’ll have pics soon
I want info on these frags. I guess you will ship?
Yes we will (eventually)
I think a few water tests will quickly clear up this mystery.
wow, that’s terrible. i hope the people involved get caught (assuming vandalism here). it’s hard to believe that many fish would have died from equipment failure, especially since several hundred are freshwater and several hundred are saltwater.
I have my reservations that we didn’t truly hear the facts regarding this story. Time will tell. Where is that police report?
Last I read on CP24, the police are not going to open an ‘active investigation’ on this. So might not be much of a report but just the filing.
Hope the guy that caused so many deaths get punish either way – whoever that is.
Inside job?
Whether it was intentional or not (sounds like it was) this is a shame. I really hope the police investigate this matter in depth and come up with a culprit. The loss off life and the financial loss must be incredible, especially for a new store.
Hi All,
This seems like a fantastic new product out on the market….however I must concur with Mike in regards to the price point being steep.
Just curious does anyone around here own the more expensive model of the Hanna Phosphate probe…..if so what are there experiences with this tool and what is the price tag on it?
Patrick
The older/larger/more expensive one is around $250 shipped. I ordered the new one for around $50 (shipped).