xeon

It is hard to tell, the genetics of the one in the LFS and the one from Lee's tank will differ. It might and it might not. For the most part mushroom corals can live off what they pull from the water column and through their zooanthalae. I have read that you can feed mushroom corals bits of fish and/or shrimp. I've never fed the three I have and they are quite large. Another tip I have read on how to decide whether or not to feed the mushroom is to stroke the tentacles lightly to see if it will cup up. You want to simulate a small fish playing in tentacles. This is a feeding response that would indicate that the coral would accept food. Or you could just try feeding it a piece of shrimp... wouldn't hurt to try if you want to have it grow larger/quicker.

You sure they are 2" bulkheads on the tank? If so, you can really handle around 1200 GPH per bulkhead, which is a lot of flow. Just an idea... but with that kind of setup you might think about making one of the bulkheads the input for a closed loop. I would think somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 GPH flowing through your sump is plenty. Of course if you have other plans for tank flow sources... Tunze, etc., you might not even want a closed loop.

I buy my computer/dc fans from http://www.nexfan.com They also carry some other gadgets you might want and/or need.

You heard right... if you have a DSB you should not have a sand sifting starfish. Part of what makes a DSB tick is the critters in it... which the sandsifters predate on.

Yes the Peppermints might be a good idea. I had a few aiptasia in my in-wall tank. Due to its design, it isn't always easy to do things without a "spotter". So... I got a peppermint and it took care of the few that I had in there. If there are some monster sized Aiptasia, the Pep. shrimp won't do much with them. I have had good luck injecting them via a hypodermic needle with lemon, lime and a Kalk solution. (acid, acid and base) Some people swear by Joe's Juice, which I've never used. I would be hesitant to do anything that might also kill the bacteria on the rock. Aiptasia IME is pretty tough stuff. The boiling water would probably do the trick, but you probably would have massive die off and loss of beneficial bacteria. On the other hand, that might not be a bad thing... starting with some "base rock" since this is kind of a science lesson in action. IMO, you have to keep Peppermints in the system as I believe they propogate them somewhat. I say that because I haven't seen an Aiptasia in my inwall tank for about 1 1/2 years. When I started my daughters tank, I aquacultured some base rock in the tank. I noticed a week or so ago that there are two Aiptasia in her tank. The source has to my in-wall tank since the rock before hand was bone dry and lifeless.

I am getting ready to run out of Selcon. In looking to buy some more, I ran across Selco at brineshrimpdirect.com. They claim it is actually a more concentrate formula of HUFAs than Selcon. Has anyone explored this before? As it stands, I think I'm going to try Selco.

The amount and sizes of your returns may have no relation to your return requirements. My question would be what type of pump and/or flow do you expect or want on your return? In general a 1" overflow can accomodate 600gph, 1 1/2" 900gph and 2" can handle up to 1200gph. So... if you were looking for someting like 900 gph, you might want to shot for two 1" bulkheads. To be safe, say if one got blocked, 1 1/2" might be a good idea. Overdoing it a little to be ahead of potential flooding is a good thing to take into account. The flow rates are best estimates that can decreased by disturbances and irregularities in the plumbing... 45's, 90's and so forth.

Alex, Of course you can have a builder do a lot of things... but I think that tank is probably in a basement. The dropped section is probably that way because there is air conditioning duct work (return and/or feeder) under the hump. Standard architecture for alot of finished basements as there is no magic way to hide the duct work other than to cover it with drywall.

Yep it is All Glass Aquariums found online at all-glass.com (I think) Here is a link to an acronym dictionary for some other popular acronyms. Reef Acronyms

Adding your location to your profile is nice. This is the Washington Area... Society, which covers quite a bit of ground. You might have a member in the neighborhood who could pop in and give you a little face to face... If you are open to that sort of thing. FWIW, a 75 isn't that big. I have a 75 and I feel like a small player and I really wouldn't want a smaller tank to be honest. It also might be a blessing the tank is crammed in a shed somewhere else... the tank is easy part. All the other stuff including but not limited to lighting, filtration and other things is where the bulk of this hobby is and where the "fun" begins. Welcome to the money pit... I mean marine/reef tankin.

With a hole that size you are looking at 25, 30 or a 40mm fan. A 40mm exceeds 1.5" I believe. Making it work is a simple as finding a 12V power supply that you might have around the house. I wouldn't worry about inhibiting it any(lower voltage)... fans in that range don't move much air; like less than 5 CFM. Check out nexfan.com or there are many other e-tailers that sell DC fans.

The max size I guess would be a little under 2" since the flange is a tad over 2". I wouldn't feel very good about it though and would not suggest trying it. Ideally, you want a hole around 1.5". I just measured one I have here and thread to thread, I measure it as 1 3/8". So 1 7/16" would give you a 1/16" of clearance. If the 3/4 bulkhead were a schedule 80, it might be OK. I'd go with the 1" though if they only have the schedule 40 bulkheads though.

If it were me, I'd drill only one hole for the overflow. The line for the pump going into the tank I would just run over the edge. If you run it over the edge you want to keep in mind syphoning in a power out situation. A MJ900 might be fine for now as you don't need a ton of flow in a refuge. In a refuge in that size range I'd shoot for something like 300-400gph. I'm with the "low flow" refugium crowd. You might also add a baffle, overflow box or some other type of device to keep macros in the sump and out of the overflow plumbing. On my old refuge, I used a section of 1" PVC with notches cut out of the top... kind of a surface skimmer. Here's a picture of the setup.

Chip, nice find... an old time wasting fav of mine I haven't messed with in a looong time... 2394 (and I have a screen shot) Alt+printscreen for anyone that want to know how to do a screen capture.

1600 (tight pass through at that point)

I think my primary objective in your situation would be more rock. Your best bet might be to join and catch someone selling live rock in the for sale section. It is a member only forum. Locally the Reef Tank is probably the "cheapest". On the net, you can probably find some for ~$4/lb., but shipping is an added cost. If you time it, Dr. Mac has brought rock to meetings for delivery, which saves you a bundle on shipping. Not sure if he would do this in conjunction with MACNA or not. He's so close, he could probably ship via ground also... not sure if he drop ships though. For base rock, check out reeferrocks.com.

I think you have the two ID'd correctly. Your GSP's look like the one's I have FWIW, purple flesh and all. Your frogspawn also looks like one of the frogspawns that I have. I think I have three different color variations of frogspawn. Check out frogspawn on frags.org, you will probably see the various color variations.

I use a Kangaroo 324 I got off of E-bay for ~$70. If you go this route, another "must have" is some heavier tubing from Cole-Parmer that lasts several months... while the pump sets only last a few weeks. I believe Reefdosingpumps.com sells it in 1' lengths, which would last you a while. You only need like 4" at a time. The dosing pump linked above is a good "quality" option, but would require a float switch to cut it on and off. Otherwise left unbridled... it pumps close to 20 gallons of water per day. I would equate it to being a little more precise than a power head pumping a cup or two at at a time also connected to a float switch.

By "stuff" do you mean the Love Controls device? If so, you can go to http://lovecontrols.com/ and pull up the device I noted above. If memory serves me right, their online catalog isn't that great. If you can't find the device, I have a paper catalog I can copy a page out of if you need it.

Larry, FWIW I would think using DT's to feed your rotifer cultures would be a bit on the expensive side. You might explore culturing phyto at the same time to sustain your rotifers.

What full set was offered to you? You mentioned the woman would not allow you to go bigger... would this be the Signifigant Other? We might have tips on helping sway your way into a slighly larger tank. Personally I would not buy a PC lighting hood. Then again I've stated that I'm not a real fan of PC's. I use PC's on one tank... but that is a custom built 7 gallon nano cube with 2 x 32W of PC's. I needed something short to fit in the hood was the decision maker there. I could of used a 70W MH bulb... but then heat would of been an issue. There is a ton to think about with lighting since it is very important to reefkeeping. If I were lighting a 55, I'd use 2x110W VHO's and 2x175W Metal Halides. IMO, you could probably have pretty good results with 4x110W VHO's. What is the basis of your decisions in having a reef tank? Are you trying to do this on a limited budget? Personally, I wouldn't work from a tank as a basis. This hobby has many expensive areas. IMO, the tank is one of the least expensive. Aside from that, what type of livestock are you shooting for? Angels, tangs, lionfish, SPS, LPS, softies, amenones... bla bla bla. As with many subjects, lighting is a very detailed subject that one could type pages about. It is also a subject with many varying yet viable opinions. No one here uses the same setup, but many of us are successful reef keepers. Using a 400W IMO on a 55 would just be a waste and too much light. For the record, the watts per gallon is not really a rule. There is a big difference in lighting charachteristics of VHO's, PC's, T5's and Metal Halides. It is not Apples and Apples.

The light coverage from a Metal Halide is about a 2' square. So with a bulb in the middle, you will have roughly a foot on each end that is not getting much light. I think 400's would be overkill anyway. "Bigger" ballasts have larger power requirements, so yes a 400 is more expensive to run than a 250. If efficiency is a goal, you might also look into electronic ballasts over the probe or pulse start variety. Without going into a ton of detail, I would use 250's or 175's given the depth you are dealing with the 55. Reefcentral has an electicity cost calculator. Fill in the price you pay per KWH, the power requirement(W) for your various equipment and it will spit out an answer.

Aside from me just not being partial to PC's at all... the VHO's will be 6' long and run the entire length of the tank. IMO, you get more light output and better actinic lighting (or supplemental light). Actinic PC's don't impress me much when compared to VHO's. I think PC's are fine for small tanks that need "compactness", but that's about it.

FF, I just cleaned my LOA 65W floodlight over my fuge the other day and I think the reflector is actually metal. It is painted white, which actually does a decent job in terms of light reflection. Granted it isn't anodized aluminum, but a white reflector is effective. It's spectrum is better for coral growth over a bulb with a color temp of 5100K IMO. I read someone (can't remember where) used one of these over their frag growout tank and they had very good results. I'm getting ready to set up a frag/growout tank and will be using some type of 6500K lighting over it. This light can be yellowish, but in general gives the best growth IMO.

I would suggest three MH's not matter if you go with 250's or 400's. The rule of thumb is they cover a 2' square. Since you mentioned SPS right off the bat, I'd go for three 400's. The 250's would suffice IMO, but be marginal. I would also scrap the two PC's and use two 6' VHO's instead.