Wrench

I run the BeanAnimal on my 240. Been 6 years now and I will never go back to another setup. Easy to setup, easy to tune, quiet, failsafe, no cons IMO.

:X

So whats your daily feeding regimen?

Same reason some dog breeds are shorter lived than others. Not to mention predation...

Wrong. That's why you're having issues with aggression.

Tight quarters. Too many fish in a relatively small tank. Adding a scopas would only make it worse. Upgrade to a bigger tank of downsize your fish collection. IMO/IME a 90g is too small for a medium sized PBT. Even worse for the hippo.

Wrasses are hit or miss IME. I've had a solorensis that was moderately agressive to anything in the tank. I had a supermale pink margin that wasn't agressive at all. I currently have a male laboutei that's slightly agressive toward other fairy wrasses. I had a flasher that was aggressive to other flashers and some fairies. I havent been able to discern any pattern. That said, I've never had a wrasse that was aggressive enough that it needed to be removed from the tank. My advice is to pick a couple that you really like and go for it. None mentioned in this thread would be a bad choice. I haven't seen anyone mention leopard wrasses. There are a few that are absolutely stunning, although they can be delicate. Choati wrasse. From Australia. Tough to find and expensive but nearly bulletproof once acclimated. "Regular" leopard wrasse, Macropharyngodon meleagris. The most commonly available. Easier to acclimate to captivity than the choati. The divided leopard wrasse aka blue star wrasse. This is the female variant. The male is green and not as nice IMO. Two of my other favorites are the melanarus and radiant although they have a strong propensity to eat small inverts.

I was referring to the post above about the Vortechs. I'm not a fan LOL. I don't care how quiet the new ones are because the flow can't compare to the Gyre. I do agree with you on the reliability of Tunzes though. I never had a lick of trouble out of mine. I can only hope the Gyre will be half as reliable. Time will tell!

And it still has the same, crummy, unimproved conical flow pattern.

Do a forum search. There are a few reviews of the pumps. I have two gyres on a 240g (60x36) and they replaced 6x Tunze 6105's.

I understand that, I'm just leery because fish can carry a disease without showing symptoms. Isolation and QT are two different procedures and IMO the only way to know 100% that your new fish are free from disease is by use of prophylactic treatment.

QT or isolate? Can't see how you'd be able to medicate fish with inverts...

Food is one reason, they roam like herds of cattle in search of food. These fish have very fast metabolisms which require a lot of oxygen. All of the swimming/roaming provides more water over their gills and delivers more oxygen to their bloodstream. I've got a friend who has a 1000g tank and I have seen fish acanthurus tangs (sohal, PBT) in his large system, where they don't have the 'need' to roam, constantly swim/roam from one end of the tank to the other. I've also seen acanthurus tangs park literally directly in front of a strong powerhead for considerable amounts of time. I can only surmise they're doing this for the same reason.

Not entirely accurate. There are a good number of fish which, on the reef, tend to stay in a particular spot. They've got their own cave or area that they defend. This can be duplicated in captivity. Tangs (espceially Acanthurus sp.) are roamers and grazers as previously stated. Many adapt very well to captivity if provided a large enough tank. IMO there are certain species like hippos and vlamingis that have no business being collected because there are very few systems able to support a fish that size.

That's not entirely true. Only a small percentage of wrasses require a sandbed. Mostly Macropharyngodon sp. (leopards) and Haliocheres sp. Even these don't need a deep bed. An inch or so is plenty. There are a lot of wrasses such as fairy and flashers who don't require a sand bed at all. Additionally there are quite a few gorgeous angelfishes that will do well in a smaller tank, are non aggressive and similar to the tangs. Members of the Genicanthus genus come to mind. Also, the cherub and flameback are a nice bright blue color and can do well in reef tanks.

Tractor Supply Co. has nice, horizontal polyethelyne tanks. http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/leg-style-storage-tank-35-gal

Heck yeah, QT inverts too. They can carry any type of pathogens. I do a minimum of 10 weeks as most parasites can't live that long without a host. I use a 10g tank with a sponge filter and perform weekly water changes. Much easier than QT'ing fish. A couple pinches of flake food and a piece of nori keeps them fed.

I QT everything now. I've had the misfortune of losing a collection to disease and learned the hard way. QT tanks IMO are invaluable. Not only do they minimize or eliminate disease, but the give the new fish time to acclimate to captivity and prepared foods without having to worry about aggression from other fish. Total time in QT is a minimum of 15 days. My setups are simple: I keep two 29g tanks running at all times. I use sponge filters driven by air pumps for primary filtration. I also have HOB filters on them. These are good for providing circulation, aeration and you can easily add a filter cartridge with carbon to remove medications. PVC pipes for hiding places, bare bottom, no rock. I medicate prophylactically: I immediately treat new arrivals with chloroquine phosphate. I treat for 10 days which takes care of most parasites like ich, velvet, etc. Next up is a dose of PraziPro I will treat with antibiotics if they show signs of infection. If after this time the fish are eating and behaving normally they'll be moved to the display. Ammonia control is paramount and the sponge filters do a pretty good job. When there are no fish in the systems I add a pinch of flake food every other day or so to keep the bacteria going. When I add a fish I also add a dose of MB7 along with a 1/2 dose of Seachem Prime. I perform water changes twice a week at 25% each. During the treatment of Chloroquine Phosphate a daily 25% water change is required.

Welcome to the addiction. The best advice I can give is to visit as many tanks as you can and see them in person while you're in your "sponge" phase. Learn what kind of "look" you're going for. Learn how the equipment works together. Most importantly, learn from all of our mistakes! There are quite a few of us within 15-20 mins of Annapolis. You're welcome to come by my place if you like.

I pump mine right into the sump pit in the basement.

Can't wait to see the fish. A little birdie told me what to expect

I love the pump, 100% satisfied. You may need two on a large tank. I've found the area just below the pump gets very little flow. I run two of them on my 240 at opposite ends of the tank and they alternate every hour. *No other pumps. *240g 60x36x25 *Corals are great. LPS look better with more PE. Too soon to tell any differences in the acros. *Constant speed mode at approx 40%. My pumps oppose one another and they reverse flow every hour. *Sand bottom, mostly aragonite. *No relocation of corals whatsoever. *I don't run mine high enough to hear any noise. My display is silent and sump/equip is in the basement so I would notice any noise from the pumps. *No, I haven't swapped any rotors or housings around. Haven't seen a need to yet. Maybe if I was running them in reverse mode I would.

Aside from the claim of curing parasites I can see a connection to the other points. Improving flow can reduce nutrients, help with cyano, etc.

So over the weekend I was able to hook these up to my APEX and use it as a simple timer to oscillate the pumps. They alternate back and forth every hour. Very, very cool setup which should tide me over until the release of their advanced controller. The corals are responding well and there's no more detritus building up on the rocks anywhere. Now if I could only sell these darn Tunzes!

I have a few sensitive fish who wouldn't tolerate TTM very well.