trble81

You can keep the fuge unless you make/get a sump with enough room for a fuge...

If you go the sump route, keep the canister filter around. You never know when you'll need something to get silt out of the water if you do some work in you sand bed or something (or if you set up a new tank). Nothing like having a bale of filter-floss and a working canister filter in a pinch. --Mike

I would also assume that his system is going to be huge (he is, of course, Julian Sprung). Any small trace of whatever would probably have no impact when it's diluted to the n-th degree (he had also mentioned that the TDS was very low in his water).

Julian Sprung said that he tops off his tank with water straight from his sink at one of the past WAMAS meetings (I think summer meeting?)... I think that I heard a couple of jaws drop to the floor

hmmm... This isn't the first time I've seen something negative about this retailer... Thanks for the heads-up. --Mike

Jason, Are those the Maroon Clowns from Raf's tank? --Mike

Gotcha. I came across the site in Marine Fish magazine and when I looked it up, I noticed the pretty good prices. Kind of wanted to know if this place was legit or if the deals would be too good to be true...

Has anyone ordered from Aquarium Specialty before? Was looking around for stuff and noticed that they have some pretty good prices (especially for AC controllers, for instance). I personally haven't ordered from them... Thanks very much. --Mike

Oh my darn... That stinks man, I'm sorry. :( --Mike

Agreed. Best to get some Macroalgae that's loaded with them and propagate them yourself...

Does anyone have any opinions on the Fiji Mud?

Tracy, I did see you tank thread and your solution for the light bleed. That was some good thinking (and not overly complicated...I know a lot of people, including myself, would over think it and try to do some sort of elaborate construction). --Mike

I'm going to have a large CPR Aquafuge HOB unit on our new 90 gallon. My goal is to have macro algae in there to out-compete the nuisance algae (which would be in the main tank) for nutrients. Also, we want it for pod production in order to provide the inhabitants of the main tank with some good eats (my wife would like to have a mandarin when our tank is mature...). With that being said, because I feel like rambling I guess, I've got two fuge questions. My first question has to do with the substrate in the fuge. I'm thinking about ~3" of sand (similar to the depth in the main tank). Is there a reason to have it deeper than that? I didn't know if a "remote DSB" for denitrification would apply to a HOB fuge. Also, I'm seeing this Fiji Mud stuff too. Is that worth looking into for mixing in with the sand? My second question has to do with the lighting. I've read that it is good to put your fuge on an opposite lighting schedule than your main tank because that would keep oxygen levels in your tank higher (where you would normally see a drop when the lights are out). Is this true? Are there people out there that implement that for their tanks? Also, does this mean that pods are more likely to come out of the fuge during the main tank's daytime because it's nighttime in the fuge? Thanks for putting up with the length of this post and thanks for any answers! ---Mike

Eheim or a Rena XP canister filter would be a good choice (Eheim being better but more money...). My canister filter did have a leak issue as well. I used teflon tape and new o rings to correct the problem but I figure if the thing goes to heck in a hand-basket, I'll just take it out, add another power head, and then have my Aqua C remora and LR take care of the filtration (it's a 35 gallon hex FOWLR that I do weekly water changes on). As far as the problem you have currently, I have no clue. Me and plumbing don't go well together...sorry. --Mike

I'm going to say that this dude has a couple of bucks laying around.... --Mike

Sweet Moses, Justin! You must have married a saint! When you were talking about this at Raf's the other day, I was like "wow, that seems like a crazy project." And after seeing these pictures (especially the skimmer pic), I stand by my initial thought Looking good! --Mike

An arrow crab would do the trick but you'll have a crab that may start hunting you fish later.

mine was pissed at me for a while but now dances in the current as happy as can be...

we used to dissect them in the Evolutionary Biology lab that I taught in undergrad....memories....

Kind of looks like one of those fandangled "Sexy shrimps"....

The link says that the product doesn't exist...

If he but the gloves over his head, he may have been spared...

More so a dead eel on the floor as opposed to a B movie horror film that involves a snowflake eel terrorizing Jason's neighborhood

You might want to rethink the eel...a little overflow almost cost you the hobby, an escaped eel might cost you your life