JeffG93

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/great-barrier-reef-half-dead-93-percent-bleached 50% already dead, 93% bleached. Because, you know, global climate change is a conspiracy. Sigh.

It's anti-caking agent. I haven't cleaned my brute trash can in... a year? More? Never had a problem.

I use digital aquatics. It's a good budget system, but if I could go back in time, I'd go with the Apex for pure high-end functionality. Lack of good Customer Service would give me reason to second guess this thought.

Got up at 5AM and saw no signs of a predator. It stinks, this stuff is so pretty and encrusted so well.

Shoot - can a mod move this to General Discussion? Sorry and thanks.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I've had two different kinds of cyphestrea for years, and now I'm noticing both of them slowly STNing. Everything else is fine, I have a bunch of SPSs. Culprits are emerald crabs, asterina stars or possibly my flame angel. That said, i've kept Emeralds for years with no ill effects, and I've never seen them picking away. Nor my 3 year old Flame Angel. The stars I culled back years ago with a Harlequin Shrimp, but they've slowly repopulated - and again, I've never seen or had a problem. Water params all totally normal. Flummoxed and sort of pissed. Jeff

+1 for stable.

I ran an external for about 4 years (BRS.) Now, I don't run GFO or Carbon. Saves me time, money, and my tank is better than ever. Just sayin.'

I thought you were making this up... nope.

Little birds tweeting at the meeting yesterday told me that Petland is nixing it's coral selection. Has anyone been their recently to confirm? I've heard they still haven inventory but they're selling it down, and once it's gone it's gone. Also heard the awesome display tank is either emptied or just torn down.

What time is this from/to? Thanks!

Excellent tank!

If you put another in there I wouldn't go above 75%. I have one 40, two 10s on a 75.

Really depends on how big your tank is, IMO. If you decide to move it, it's very stressful. I wouldn't move it to a friends and move it again. And by stressful I mean both to you and the livestock.

I've been doing vinegar for at least 2 years now. I've had no ill-effects from it's use that I'm aware of. I use grocery store grade distilled white vinegar. I have it slow drip on a peristaltic pump. It comes on ~3 times an hour, dosing about 1.3 ml. It's a lot of vinegar, but I have a high bio-load. I do keep my Alk below 8 dKH. My nitrates are a steady 5 ppm these days. I had them lower, but they've crept up over time. I was increasing my vinegar dosing to compenstate but I'm already dosing a high amount, so I've settled in at 5ppm. Everything seems happy and healthy. SPSs are growing like crazy. I have several more now that aren't in my build link below (did some house cleaning.)

I have the same 75. Great tank, but yeah, the overflow is huge. If I had to do it over again I would've gone 220

Just wanted to ressurect this thread as over the last few years I've made a long trip up to "That Pet Place" in Lancaster. And I don't think I'll be going again. They've changed their entire coral section. They've removed many of the larger tanks, and the tanks in the main area all look very run down. The still have a large coral selection, but they have nothing on several of the vendors in our area. Many of the corals were bleached and looked in poor health. They did have a large selection of ORA at least. I didn't come home with a single thing however. The prices were OK but with so much unhealthy livestock I didn't want to risk it. I feel bad writing this, honestly, but it's such a long drive from here I figured I'd warn others. It had been about a year or so since I'd been up there. I wish now I had spent the extra forty five minutes and headed to Pacific East Coast.

I have had a pair of these for two years now, never noticed any aggression at all.

I use vinegar. Start your research here (and do a lot of it...) http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

Hey Ryan - Yeah that's the gist of it. I have one of the pumps pulling water and then dumping down a stationary tub in my basement. The other pump pulls water out of a drum I have set up to my RO/DI. I fill it about every other week, once it's been emptied by the change. I have a separate ATO (That I also "plumbed" with murlock line and a float valve) that I fill up when it gets low. No more lugging buckets for me. One thing I will warn you. For some reason, my pump draws out about 5% more water than it puts in. I compensate this by making my saltwater a little 'hot' (about 1.029) and letting the ATO compensate. My salinity is rock steady. That said, this can be a downside if you need to use the water for other reasons, or if you can't dial in the right salinity. I have no idea why my pump does this - it's not supposed to. I probably should have contacted Stenner but I was lazy. If you want to do a little more research, here are two threads where I borrowed this idea from http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/do-yourself-diy/141619-automatic-water-changes-doesnt-get-any-better-then.html http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2349824&highlight=automatic+water+change

I got one of these 100DMP4 - Stenner Pumps Chemical Feeder and set it up on a simple light timer. I change about 5% per day. I recommend also getting a float valve system for your water storage container, so that the timer will just shut off when it's empty (otherwise you'll be drawing water out of your tank and not putting any back in.)

Caught this little f*$%er after he munched one of my deepwater acros and moved onto a big birdnest. I had to take the whole rock out of my tank, chisel it in half, but I got him. He put up a good fight, I ripped off both his pincers before I found him for a third time and was able to yank him. This guy somehow survived a dip too. 99% sure he came of a maricultured frag. I'm so done with those. Tank is all back together. Upside is i have room for another acro

That's a great tank GOSKN5!

This sounds about right to me. It all depends on the OP's intensity. LEDs on full blast 15 hours a day seems crazy to me. I've actually been *decreasing* my photo period lately. I'm down to 9 hours, 6 at or around peak intensity.

I used (dechlorinated) tap water exclusively in my first tank for about 4 years. Lots of algae, sure, but fish and corals were just fine.