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Best of luck, Rob!

I’ve run a 16 gallon nano (no skimmer) for the past five years with chemipure elite, floss and water changes (20% once a month). I did try blue for a couple of months but i had been having success with elite and recall that it’s shelf life was much shorter. Hope that helps. Jon

I’ve had a couple of favias do something similar (I recall it happening a handful of times) and at the time we’re perfectly happy and healthy colonies. Each time, I let the flesh “settle” and when I saw growth, I moved to a drag disc or a piece of old monti cap and glued it down and they continued to grow. I have one in my tank right now that has about 6 heads now and just looks like a normal frag. Biggest thing was just not letting them get pushed around or disturbed by snails/hermits or buried. Jon

I'm still around! Just further west now...

Doug I can donate some more LPS! Jon

This may be discussed elsewhere (let my membership lapse) but reefgeek has some great deals going right now. The incredible teklight elites look to be sold out, but the geisemann bulbs look to be in (got my order placed)!. With free shipping over $99 I don't think you can get a better deal. Jon

I have stopped in a couple of times to check it out. It has an open layout with a lot of potential. That being said, they are still fairly green in this new location, and though I did stop in Vienna Aquarium back in Vienna, its been a while and the folks here may be different. I for one, having moved out west, am rooting for them. I've gotten good and bad advice from all the stores - its about the people working their and when you catch them. Fish I've gotten at Petco have stayed with me for years and fish from a "great" LFS have not lasted months. Advice in this hobby has to be taken lightly and test against one's owns experience as their is no silver bullet. Ultimately, a little more competition is good for us all and Leesburg needs a good LFS! Jon

So just to close the loop... I rushed a new pump from premium aquatics. It has the new pinwheel impeller so we'll see if that changes the output. Its still breaking in, however. Looking back at my records, I bought this early model Octopus (Int-PS-150) in December 2007. And its basically been run continuously - so close to 5 years. That's honestly outperformed other pumps I've had (mag drive, hydor) so I can't complain. Jon

My skimmer pump (otp-2000) is tripping my gfci. Is this worth trying to troubleshoot/fix? Are there any stores that carry octopus parts? Jon

So sorry to hear about the losses, Dave. Hope you are able to figure things out. Jon

Thanks for the offer, Dave. Unfortunately I'm trying to replace the endcaps in my tek light, so those wouldn't fit. Jon

Does anyone know a local carrier of T5 endcaps (not the waterproof ones)? Jon

Fish selection is very personal but one thing I've learned over the years is get the fish you really want first and then build the right community around him. Nothing more frustrating then getting fish you really didn't care about as much and preventing you from something you really wanted. You can build a great community around a PBT as a centerpiece fish. Also considering what order they need to be put in. I wish I knew/had done that when I first started my tank. Jon

I really hope the store is coming back. Livestock was always top notch and diverse and it was a great place to hang out after work!

I recently lost my goldrim tang which had been with me for 7 years :(. Jon

You have a great looking tank! To answer one of your first questions, you don't need more light per se. Even though the tank may look darker to the eye, its more about the spectrum the new bulbs are casting rather than sufficiency of the lights to maintain your corals. Your eight bulb system is more than enough to maintain softies. For comparison, I only run four T5 bulbs and I have SPS, LPS in addition to softies. At this point, as everyone else was alluding to, you can simply tweak the bulb combination to the get the right "color" you want from an aesthetic standpoint. I agree with the posts about changing your actinics to ATI blue+. That will increase your PAR (not that you need to), but also bright up the tank a bit. If its still not as light as you want, consider changing the 50/50s to 10K or even 6,500K. That will make the colors of your softies bright a bit. In general, just swap the "blue" bulbs for "white" bulbs until you get the desired look. Jon

He got ich and the some parasites. I had him in hyposalinity but it caught up to him unfortunately... Jon

I recently lost my oldest and most beloved fish, a goldrim tang that I purchased from, of all places, petco in 2004. It reminded me that although my focus has been on corals the last few years, that reason I got into the hobby was the fish. I hope that he had a good long life in the tank.

I use a low-tech turkey baster. Jon

thanks for the link, Chad! Some good information here. I'm still interested in actual experiences. I'm thinking some sort of parasite as the result of the ich. I've got a cleaner shrimp at work. Still haven't decided on a quarantine tank... just keeping an eye on things for now. Jon

I've waited ich out before but this time around one of my tangs seems to have a much worse case. He's got white strings hanging off him and stays in front of the powerhead- though he's still eating. I'm of the "keep them stress free" school of thought, but this guys been with me for 6 years and my wife is getting worried. After doing alot of reading, I'd like to hear others' experiences on treating ich. Hyposalinity? Copper? Do I need to remove all the fish and leave the tank fish-free for 6 weeks to break the cycle? But isn't there always Ich in the tank? Thanks, Jon

This is a good recommendation and basically what I'm running right now. If you want to stick with giesemann bulbs, their actinic+ bulbs is equivalent (not necessarily identical) to the blue+ ATIs. You could also sub the aqua pink for the straight actinic for even more blue. Jon

Yep. That's what I run.

awesome tank. love the coco worms. Jon