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SniperWoreConverse posted:So I've been reading this thread for a while now, and I decided I want fish. I ended up getting a thirty gallon glass tank from my co-worker's mom. She had saltwater fish for a few years, but then couldn't really keep up with the maintenance, it crashed, she dumped everything, and it's been dry for a while. It smells kinda weird, like a not-good, but not rank aquarium odor. Fill it with water, test for leaks, fill with hot water as you'd like to kill any algae/bacteria, then just scrub with a clean (brand new) sponge pad thingy. No soap or bleach necessary really. You could also get a scraper to get any stubborn gunk off of the glass. And yeah, dollar a gallon sale is good as well.
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Mar 9, 2011 02:44
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:29 |
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Any advice on GHA treatment? My tank is too small for a butterfly, and I'd hate to get a lettuce nudi and bring it back once it's done (to avoid killing it) The tank is a 24g Aquapod with 5g changed out every weekend under a 150w Halide that's 13 from the surface. The light is on from 10:30 AM until 8:30 PM with an hour break in the middle of the day to kinda curb the GHA growth. I run a maxi 900 return and a 240gph powerhead for circulation. In the back chambers I have a media rack with chaeto, chemi-pure elite and a nano skimmer. I've tried pulling/scrubbing but it always comes back right where it was before and it grows like mad. Those that have it know. It's not an outbreak, only in a few spots in the tank. Currently it's inhabitants are: 2 Clowns Mandarin (Yes it eats mysis, I'm a responsible father!) Yellow Watchman Goby Pistol Shrimp Cleaner Shrimp CuC (10 hermits and about 8 snails) Misc. Corals and a maxi-mini. This was a craigslist find and it was neglected/crashed/covered in GHA when I got it, so it's really just remnants from the original tank since I didn't boil/dry the rocks. I just scrubbed most of them and missed a couple spots I guess. Here's how I got it:    Here it is now, 1.5 years later or so: The frag rack has been remade and the magnet/GHA balls all over the place are gone. The only GHA is on the powerhead and on a lower rock on the right (pictured with the mandarin) and a lower rock on the left. The problem being that since they're both support rocks, I can't necessarily remove them without taking off the whole structure.    tl:dr How do I get rid of GHA?
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Mar 24, 2011 22:04
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optikalus posted:I've been battling the same crap for a few months in my 90. I've found that raising magnesium to 1600+ ppm will significantly cut it back, if not kill it completely, and it doesn't seem to harm any other algae or corals or fish. The problem with that is I don't have a mag test kit (nor do I dose it) and I dunno if I wanna fork over the $50 or whatever it is for that. Things that I dose are calcium/pH buffer and iodion once a week. As far as my parameters go, everything's in check based on the tests I have and the tank sits at 1.025 SG. Maybe I'll pick up some more chaeto or give it more room to grow in a HOB filter or something. I don't run a sump because the tank isn't drilled, and I dunno if it's worth it on an AIO 24 
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Mar 25, 2011 20:01
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optikalus posted:You'd need an external refugium with its own light. I almost built one for my previous AP24, but went to a 90 instead. Awesome, I'll give that a shot. I used to dose the kent-m 1 capful once a week between changes but stopped when I realized I might be dosing too much. And I do want to upgrade really bad, but I don't want to have to buy rock/sand and cycle again.. We'll see what happend when I move. Again, thanks for the advice. Frozen Pizza Party fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Mar 28, 2011 |
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Mar 28, 2011 19:57
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optikalus posted:FWIW, my non-GHA algae came back with a vengeance almost immediately after my first water change after I stopped dosing the Mg. Hopefully the normal clean up crew will take care of that stuff in time (or I can just keep Mg high continuously) The only thing I have is GHA and Chaeto, everything else is under wraps. I'm going to try this over the next week or so and see what happens. After it's died down a bit I'll toss in some more crabs and maybe a small turbo if I can find one.
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Mar 29, 2011 20:30
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Just out of curiosity, when you're adding 1oz a day to your tank, what's that in a ratio form. ie: 1capful to 20 gal, so how much do you usually add? Like what is that x the normal dose?
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Mar 30, 2011 22:16
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Just out of curiosity, how much do you guys feed? I feed daily, but I target feed everything (all fish, all my corals eat light/scraps).
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Apr 1, 2011 19:39
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Dono posted:I rarely spot feed my corals, there are enough pods/live mysis/frozen brine that find their way to them, but I feed my fish once a day with mysis and every 2 or so days I mix in Rod's food. Okay cool that makes me feel a bit better. The clowns don't get too much because they're fatties but my YWG picks up a lot of scraps I guess.. he doesn't get target fed because he refuses to come out of his shrimp hole at feeding time.. nevertheless somehow he has a double chin. Yeah, a fish with a double chin.
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Apr 4, 2011 21:15
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arioch posted:Have you ever seen a truly obese mandarin? Holy poo poo. My YWG looks like this one, but with a chin where I edited. 
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Apr 7, 2011 00:11
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Dono posted:haha its funny everyone here is worried about cleaning coralline off of glass and my tank is just about at the point where its starting to cover plastics and my powerheads. I'm literally watching and love seeing it pop up all over the place. All my coraline is dying.. It completely covered the back wall of my Aquapod, my skimmer, return and poweheads but now it's all tuning white. drat moving.. I hate draining my tanks  Also another lovely thing is now my rockwork looks all weird because I couldn't figure out how I had it before lol.On a lighter note, i was able to remove about 90% of my GHA while I had the tank broken down.
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Apr 27, 2011 19:30
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revmoo posted:Yeah ours all bleached white and then vanished after we moved. It still has yet to come back after four months. It sucks doesn't it I kept all the rocks submerged as almost every one has some kind of coral on it, so it should repopulate assuming I keep up on the dosing properly (just 2 part and mag, not purple up that stuff sucks)
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Apr 27, 2011 21:56
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Furious Mittens posted:Curious about this - why does Purple Up suck? I've used it for a while and I've always had great growth of purples/pinks (maybe even too much). Now I'm kind of curious if it's just because I have good water parameters and my salt mix is top-notch or if this stuff actually works. I used it for about a month when my tank started developing coraline onto the back wall and it didn't really accelerate growth at all that I noticed. I cut it out, continued with water changes and it kept on going just as it was before. I've heard that if you scrub coraline with a toothbrush and get some of the particles to land in other places in the tank it will take root and develop that way too.
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Apr 29, 2011 01:41
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I have a 3 headed frogspawn that has no sweepers at all. It just looks fluffy during the day, then when the lights go off it curls up and goes to sleep like the rest of the softies (minus the acans.. they dance around at night). I also have some Xenia if you'd like frags of that? It's banished to it's own little rock in the corner so it grows then grows on top of itself, smothering the bottom one, then repeats.
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May 5, 2011 23:48
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Just a quick, crappy, cell phone FTS cause I was bored.
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May 17, 2011 22:22
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avan posted:Hey there, I have been reading through this thread a bit and I seeing all of the amazing pictures and decided that I would love to have my own saltwater aquarium. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showforum=17 Check out nano-reef's beginner section. It's a vast wealth of knowledge. Also, you can post here as well :p
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May 19, 2011 20:25
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avan posted:I am fully prepared to spend a bunch of money on this. The real concern I have is how difficult is it to get coral to grow and keep things alive? Also how do you find out what fish go with what coral/what fish with what other fish? I found a person on Craigslist selling this: http://omaha.craigslist.org/hsh/2356531580.html I would stray away from craigslist tanks unless you know for sure they used it in a marine setup. The amount of chemicals/treatments/meds that go into a freshwater tank that are also detrimental to marine life is astounding. Also, occasionally Petco has a sale where it's pretty much $1/gallon on tanks, so you could get something great there for cheap. You could also look for 20L (20 gallon long) breeder tanks to get you started if you want to start on a small scale. Just a warning about that, tanks are like tattoos.. once you get one you're going to want to upgrade as soon as you have it set up.
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May 19, 2011 21:02
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avan posted:I sort of figured that it would maybe be smarter to start with a small tank (that nano beginners guide recommends a 24gallon) But I really think it would be best to get a good sized tank to start with so I dont need to buy all new stuff in a year. Basically I just really want to eventually have this from earlier in the thread (it's the picture that made me interested. That's a mighty fine tank! I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most attainable octopi are cold water species which requires a very specialized setup including chillers (which can be expensive!)
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May 19, 2011 21:38
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Some shots of my tank this evening with my non-cellphone camera Cleaner:  Clown Goby:  Ricordeas:  Maxi-Mini:  Giant Palys and Mandarin:  Maxi-Mini, Clowns and Their Host Xenia:  Frogspawn:  Crappy Top-Down FTS:  Enjoy!!
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May 23, 2011 05:55
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arioch posted:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYMsVr-qjMw I don't have a mantis, but I do have a stupid pistol shrimp that loves to turn anything in the sandbed into a door for his cave
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May 23, 2011 23:20
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Cause I'm bored.. have some cell phone maxis! Also, I'm going to fragglereef's warehouse/growout location tomorrow so I'll have some new stuff to show off tomorrow evening most likely
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Jun 3, 2011 23:08
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Cowslips Warren posted:What, if any, are some species of sea stars or brittle stars that would do good in a small, say 20 gallon, tank? 55? My used (and abused) 24g aquapod came with 2 stars, one almost 7" across banded serpent and a brittle star that's so big that his body has never been out of the rockwork, he just reaches his arms around the tank to grab whatever he can. They never eat any of my inverts and stay in the rocks most of the time. I don't think I could even get the brittle out without tearing down the tank. Notice the two brittle legs sticking out in the upper left. He's huge.
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Jun 16, 2011 18:46
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Bought a 50w LED fixture to replace my 150w Halide and it's incredible. No overheating issues, amazing color and my corals love it  Also it's way cheaper to run 50wX10hrs as opposed to 150wX10hrs.
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Jun 17, 2011 18:57
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Emancipator posted:Sanchezz, that is one big loving starfish. He's awesome though, if his body is in the middle of the rockwork, he can reach from end to end in that 24g haha. It's funny putting some mysis in his foot/hand/appendage? and watching the bristles do the wave as they pass it down to his body. I'll try to snap a pic of his flailing arms when I'm feeding tonight haha. Frozen Pizza Party fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Jun 17, 2011 |
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Jun 17, 2011 20:51
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So the big guy decided to forage around last night, here's a shot of him. The tank is 19.75w"x17d"x20t" so that gives you an idea of just how big he is..
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Jun 21, 2011 18:27
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arioch posted:You're just feeding it mysis? No bigger chunks, krill, etc.? I very seldom feed it, It's been in there for just over a year (came with the tank, so I dunno how long it's been in there total) but yeah, he tends to mind his own business. Occasionally if he catches some mysis the mandarin will snatch it out of his little feet. it's pretty funny. The serpent that's in there mostly lives on the sand behind the rocks. I dunno what he eats as I've never fed him. Although, once he decided to wander around the tank and a ricordea took off a good 2" of one of his legs which is almost back to full size now. And surprisingly with invert predators that are that big, none of my CUC has gone missing
Frozen Pizza Party fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Jun 21, 2011 |
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Jun 21, 2011 20:50
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Mine looks like this, but with one  leg thanks to the ricordea. Bonus: YWG is mad about sand on his head 
Frozen Pizza Party fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Jun 22, 2011 |
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Jun 22, 2011 21:52
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DenialTwist posted:My clownfish hosts my open brain coral very happily even after murdering a frogspawn. He loves it so much he leaves the new frogspawn alone, thankfully. And the open brain doesn't seem any worse for the wear even after 9 or so months of hosting. My clowns host the pulsing xenia, which responded by growing even fatter and out of control
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Jun 27, 2011 19:11
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arioch posted:Speaking of clowns and pairs--I picked up this little guy from Doni's Reef ... ~3/4-1" long. Now I'm waiting for a picasso or snowcasso to pair up with it. He's gorgeous I'd love to get some snowcassos, but they're just so drat pricey
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Jun 28, 2011 20:19
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optikalus posted:IME it was every 6 months or so. I replaced mine every 18 months or so, never noticed any coral growth difference really..
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Jul 1, 2011 15:50
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Vitae posted:Welp, problem is it's already on its way due to my raging stupidity. MH's are not dimmable are they? MH are not dimmable. If you end up sending it back and really want an MH for some reason.. I have a 150w Current Sunpod that I'd be willing to part with. Upgraded to LEDs and I'm planning a new tank build 
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Jul 1, 2011 20:56
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Just a head up for all the salty goons, Petco is currently having the $1/gallon sale until mid/late July. I'm going to go this weekend and pick up a 40br and 20L for this bad boy (Arsits's rendition)  Going to be drilling it and fitting with the overflow kit from glass-holes.com!
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Jul 6, 2011 20:04
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I may be able to lay it sideways.. Right now I have a 40w? in my 24 gal, so I'll be buying a new one for sure. Also, for lighting on the new tank, I don't think my LED fixture will cover the whole thing, so I'm thinking of using my current fixture with a PAR38 bulb on each side. Input?
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Jul 6, 2011 20:29
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MKLKT posted:Depends on what you mean, the PARs are good for macro algae growth and saving space in a sump but I'd imagine would look pretty ugly for display use. I don't know of any that are of the usual coral growing spectrum either, but I could be wrong (10k, 12k, 14k). What were you planning on having in the tank? Well the LED fixture I'm running now is 20k and the PAR38s are 14k I believe, I may just get another one of these fixtures I have now because they have power fittings to daisy chain them which is nice and clean. And thanks for the heater advice, sounds logical to me
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Jul 7, 2011 22:13
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Dono posted:Those Pheonix 14k bulbs are really amazing bulbs and super popular among coral growers. Amen to this, I put a phoenix 14k in my 150w and holy poo poo, it's a little more blue than other 14ks (which leads me to believe it's really like 15.5) but you basically get the pop of a 20k with the growth of a 10k.
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Jul 8, 2011 17:51
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a duck posted:So, I've heard that anemones like to move around and often pick a spot you don't like...and my new one(purple tip sebae) apparently likes the very back of the tank, half under a rock overhang, where you can only see him from the back right side of the tank. I thought they liked light areas with good waterflow, rather than darkish areas with what I assume is very weak waterflow(under the powerhead/slightly behind the tip of it). I think sebaes especially like shady acres.. They usually bury their foot into the sand and attach to the base of a rock and extend out. Most nems will put their foot in shade and extend out to get the light they need. But yes, that's the general rule of thumb, they will always go where you don't want them to. Also I wouldn't agitate him at all, if he wants to move he's gunna move. And if you piss him off enough, he'll split leaving you with two nems that are where you don't want them to be.
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Jul 20, 2011 01:41
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arioch posted:Speaking of anemones and Murphy's Law, a LFS within an hour of me managed to score a _small_ blue haddoni carpet which I've been after for a while. They've had it in for about a week so far, it's sticky, buried the foot in the sand, and fairly reactive to my touch. Congrats, those things are wicked when they get bigger. Lets see some pics the next time you go back! Now you need some sexy shrimp to live on it
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Jul 20, 2011 16:32
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Came home from work last night to find my tank at 75.4° My heater was not powered on, checked all the connections and nada. Called my LFS who was closing up shop but were nice enough to stay open so I could go pick up a new one. The one I had before was a Marineland Stealth, which they informed me was recalled for this exact reason. I upgraded to a Fluval E300 in preparation for the new tank setup which I am super excited to build!
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Jul 22, 2011 18:15
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Dono posted:75.4 isnt bad at all. My tank during the day sits at 79 during the day and 77's at night. a few degree swing like that isn't great, but not terrible. Think about the ocean and random cold currents you get at certain depths. Corals are meant so handle small swings like that. Nothing seemed out of whack at all, I just got worried
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Jul 22, 2011 20:34
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Desert Bus posted:Oh man. Did this thread not get the warning about the recall on Marineland Stealth heaters? My LFS said that marineland told them to have their customers send them directly to them, which is silly because we'd be out of a heater for XX days. But yeah, this is the first I've heard of it. I dunno what it covers specifically, but the Stealth is definitely involved.
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Jul 22, 2011 22:09
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:29 |
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Dono posted:Question: I'll be introducing a 5-6" RBTA into my 75gal aquarium this upcoming week and wanted to know the best way to introduce my clowns to it? The clown (mated pair) generally stay on the left side of the tank but of course venture out and swim around occasionally. Ideally I'd like to place or try and keep the RBTA (I know it won't cooperate but I'll be trying my best) near the center of the tank. Will the distance be a problem in introducing them to each other? Will this be hit or miss? They have also never hosted anything in my aquarium, but I only have a few small frogspawn/hammers (each are 4-6 heads). I don't know if it's a troll or if it really works as the internet is an evil place, but I've read a lot about people putting pictures of clowns in nems on their glass and having it work. Also, you can't really force them into it no matter how much you try, I started off with a GBTA but got rid of it because my clowns found the stick-on thermometer way more enticing 
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Jul 26, 2011 01:44
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