igozoom

You aren't advocating online betting, are you?

I'm glad you asked! This is my favorite tank in DC as well. It just so happens that one of my neighbors is a marine biologist at the Smithsonian. Another neighbor who was a Smithsonian entomologist there suggested I talk to her back when I got in the hobby, and I never got around to it. Anyone interested in trying to get a meeting or a social there so we can get a behind the scenes tour? I can give her a call this weekend.

Metal halide if you already have a chiller for the biocube. I'd be careful not to bleach whatever you have in the tank currently by starting with some light diffuser or screen and gradually removing it. You'll also need to make sure the water temperature remains stable after the upgrade. Personally, I'd go with the one of the nanocustoms or nanotuners LED upgrade kits if I were you.

I'd get the livesand, or even some rubble, from an established tank vs. the bagged stuff from caribsea. If it weren't so cold, I'd say order some GARF grunge from GARF.org, but I'm sure someone here would be willing to part with a little sand and rubble to get the ECO Rock started. I'd also plan to double or triple the time you allocate for cycling in order to build up enough microfauna. I've heard that you shouldn't add coral until you have patches of coraline algae larger than a quarter. Sounds like a good rule of thumb to me.

You just blew my mind!

Sorry to hear about this. I know what you're going through. Coincidentally, I found that I can't keep anything that even uses batteries near a tank for very long. I had a clock with AAs in it on a wall near the tank, and it kept collecting salt creep at either end of the battery until the clock would stop working.

Are you installing these on a light track?

If you're going to have just 3 corals, clams, or anemones in the tank, I'd get the 30 degree spread (these would also be good for locking and anem into a specific location. The spread would depend on how much you want to 'spotlight' each light point and the distance from the surface of the water. What Evilc66 fails to concede in his lengthy diatribes about LEDs is that if you get the LED close enough to the surface of the water, the (<2") you don't need to get the native 60 degree more focused via a lens. You'll see the spread becomes 50% tighter focused if the get the light right above the surface of the water. If the 80 degree 'bulbs' do not include lenses (colimiters) I'd get that one. The lenses cut the 10% of your light output, which is a big deal when you add up how many of these things you'll need to get as much par as a metal halide.

I'd think that you would be missing some polyps as well if it's a fire worm. It certainly sounds like the work of a sneaky shrimp. Maybe if you could get a picture of the worm, someone could identify it.

I wouldn't worry about it, they are pretty tough. They're like babies, they will put everything that will fit into their mouths in order to figure out what it is.

You can't go wrong with a pair captive bred ocellaris. They are pretty tough to kill.

I would think the seller. I had a similar experience with premium aquatics, the shipment was delayed 2 days because the box was sopping wet from broken bags. Hopefully, he has more frags.

That's a mighty fine looking fixture. Are those big capacitors behind the grill on the top view?

Thanks for the links. I hadn't seen the sushi nano, but I've been following the El Fab pico. That one certainly defies conventional thinking. A LITTLE more humidity couldn't do too much more damage to the house, right?!

+1 dottyback should take care of your sexy shrimp infestation!

[sarcasm] I'm soo glad I just sold a brand new Apex for $350. [/sarcarsm] Think I'll wait a few years on a controller in an attempt to save face.

Cross-thread humor, I love it!

Thanks, the deafening silence of 0 pumps running in the house was starting to get to me!

Take a look at this stuff: http://www.8020.net/ It's aluminum (no rust), it can be threaded in the center, they sell all sorts of accessories (including adjustable feet), and you can get remnants dirt cheap on ebay. I've seen some amazing tank stands build entirely from t-slot aluminum and acrylic sheets.

Well, I thought I was taking a break from the hobby for a couple of years after I broke down my RSM and 120... then bluefunelement chats up my wife on the virtues of pico tanks, now I'm hooked again! Let's call this a tank build thread! That said, the one thing I've learned from a long history of mistakes is take it slow, plan out every aspect of the final tank design in nauseating detail. Also, I have a few months of sawdust flying everywhere in the house while I replace the basement floors and kitchen cabinets. Then, I need to deal with condensation issues on room after room of floor the ceiling single pane glass and better tank placement for water changes. My house is mid-century modern, built in 1965 and never upgraded to 'modern modern'. I travel too much for a pico, so I'm thinking about going back in around 20+ gallons. That will allow me to reuse my pair or 144 watt LED fixtures from http://www.smgsllc.com/ for some clams, SPS, and all the wonderful things I could never do in the RSM. As much as I'd like to have a school of chromis, I'm going to (finally) go ALL captive bred/forum frags on this little tank. Right now I'm tossing around the idea of the Elos Mini (I'll wait to see how they fare in the wild over in their 2nd year) or the CADlights 22G. I think I'll get a custom tank, however, as I want to incorporate a proportionally large fuge with mangroves. Anyone have unrealized AIO nano/fuge plans they want to share to kick off the design process?

I just gave one away because the pumps caught on fire. It was a good little tank for almost 4 years. I'm going to replace it at some point and I've also been looking at getting another AIO. Aside from the pumps catching on fire, my biggest gripe about the RSM (and most AIO systems) was the lack of a surface skimming overflow. It looks like the new model might have addressed the surface film issues a little better. Rather than dealing with that stupid gate one a day, I just added a powerhead that was angled at the surface of the water. It created enough turbulence to keep surface film from forming, but defeated the AIO aesthetic. Going forward, I like the Elos Mini, but I really want a big fuge section. If you look at some of the TOTM nanos on RC or nano-reef.com, it's clear that what you don't spend on a good AIO upfront, you will pay for sevenfold with ugly or potentially dangerous mods. I wish the CADlights 22G didn't have a curved front (distortion). I'd love to get one of those and create a multi-stage fuge on the back with a mangrove popping out the top!

Does it bother your corals or is this a FOWLR tank?

Being a recent member of the 'reef fire' club, I'm going to place a smoke detector above (near maybe) any future tanks and hope the salty evaporate does not destroy the smoke detector. I caught mine a little too late...

I was going to suggest a bonding agent that fuses plastics, but if you can get new trim, I'd go that route. If just dropping a tank makes you an idiot, then I must be brain dead. I'm replacing all the floors in my basement right now because I let my skimmer and RO/DI water overflow twice in one year. You feel like a real idiot when you sell all your stuff for 1/2 what you paid for it or less in order to repair all the damage it did to your house.

I was wondering what you were planning to do with all that sand! That's exactly what I was going to do with it. Sorry to hear about your spike, I hope this works out for you. I love the idea of organic nitrate reduction.