hypertech

I don't know for sure about The 6105, but generally you aren't supposed to run them below 30%. I'd do 2x6055. I don't like the big wart on the outside of the tank with the vortech. I used to have them and otherwise they are nice pumps. On my 75, I have 2x6055, a 6025, and a 1260 return.

Very unlikely. If there was, then the pepp might get eaten which isn't the worst thing anyway. They seem to have a useful life of a couple months at most. After that, they start eating fish food instead of pest anemone's and are always hiding. Plus, I have an unfounded theory that they pick at fan worms which would be a very cool addition to your tank. I always had trouble keeping them long term, but this tank with no peppermints, I am having no problems with my fan worm.

Oh, then there is a good chance it isn't all tempered. The 55 is because of the quantity made. Most other tanks maybe have the bottom tempered. There is supposed to be some way to tell with a laptop screen and a pair of polarized sunglasses. I've seen people attempt it, but my gut says they ended up getting lucky when we started drilling. You'll know real quick if it is tempered..... You may not be able to drill through the bottom, but maybe the back. Is there any marking about manufacture?

Well, there are lots of interesting gobies, but not all pair with shrimp. And, its important to get the right shrimp - for example a large shrimp species and a small goby is not a good pairing, vice versa. Do a search for it and you'll find lots of stuff. For the mandarin, shut off the pumps and try to put food in front of it for the best chances. They don't all take frozen and even the ones that do often don't chase it down like the other fish. It has to just about smack mine in the face for her to grab it. You are going to go broke feeding it bottled copepods, so if it is a new fish and it doesn't take to teh frozen relatievly quickly, you may want to start thinking about a trade for something that is a better fit in a nano tank.

How long have you had that dragonet? I have one that eats frozen, and I'm lucky. If yours doesn't, he may have a hard time in a tank that small. Unless they eat frozen, they really need bigger tanks to support a large enough pod population to keep them fed. Small tanks are great for some of the smaller more interesting symbiotic relationships that are hard to appreciate when they are lost in a large tank. For example, goby/pistol shrimp pairs are very interesting to watch. Re your clown, your best bet might be to sell the one clown and get a pair of small clowns or an established pair. Its hard to know whether it is a female or male which would make it know what to get to try to pair them.

If you do go with an overflow box, I strongly suggest the type that is taped at the top you either hook up to a MJ in the tank or the return line to draw off any air that might accumulate. You don't want it to lose its siphon and quit working. But really, if you want a sump, the best thing is a drilled tank. So, since you are just starting up, if that's the type of setup you want, just get a tank that works. If you've got the space, you could do a 180 and use the 55 for the sump.

Yeah, I owned one of those. It's got a blue knob straight from H-E-double hockey sticks and a hanging bracket that the devil himself must have crafted. After a while, the whole thing stops going together right because there are no seals - just plastic slipping over plastic so you end up disassembling and reassembling over and over again until it finally works. A constant water level is a must for this skimmer, and so is the magnet mount. That hanger is something else. But, every time I write about how Tunze should be ashamed to put their name on that thing, a half dozen people post crooning about how they love it. So, either I got a lemon, or they live sheltered lives and don't realize how bad it is. So, my opinion - not so great. Also, its woefully undersized for a 55. I wouldn't put it on anything larger than a 20 if it were given to me free and even then I'd think about it for quite a while.

I've never owned one myself, but the Octopus ones tend to get good reviews.

Reef or fish only? For reef, you may want find something else for the 55 and go straight to a 75RR. 12" deep is really hard for a reef. For fish only skip the sump and get a good HOB skimmer.

You can drill it in your kitchen (been there done that) with a little plumbers putty, a glass hole saw, and a drill. Just be sure it isn't tempered. Edit, this is a 55? Chances are it can't be drilled. Most 55's are all tempered, I believe.

I've ordered from reeftopia many times and was always happy. However, check what a "turbo" is. To them I believe a turbo is an astrea with some purple coraline on it. It's the same snail as the golden astrea other than a minor difference in size. Skip the turbo and just get the astrea from them.

My two cents: get an rodi no matter what. Hauling buckets of water is a pita. I bought one when I ran a bc29 and wouldn't have done it otherwise. I also think your estimates are quite high both in the replacement costs and frequency of changing. I make about 30g a month for top off on my 75. My rodi is going to go a long time before anything needs to be changed. Generally I recommend against a used unit. By the time you replace all the filters you are practically at the price of a new one.

Have you tried to just corner it and grab it? That used to work best for me back when I had a bio cube. Also, it may get spooked and jump again when you go after it, so be prepared to pick it up off the floor or let it jump back into the main tank on its own.

pee cups are great for transporting frags.

Its easy enough to put ends on those cords. It doesn't take a very big hole if you are only sending the cable without the jack on the end. You can get all the bits to put ends on at Home Depot and Radio Shack (or at least you used to be able to. Otherwise you could just cut a chunk off and solder it back together once its pulled if you don't want to put a new end on.

I'm in Alexandria and could probably host a stop depending on the day chosen.

I think you can hook up a power supply and get some functionality like power outage notifications, etc but it isn't necessary.

A ricordia is sort of an anemone like mushroom. I'm not big on classifications, but my understanding is that they are neither mushroom nor anemone but something in between. Often, you can tell a ric by bubbles on the oral disc. For fragging, some people just slice them up like a pizza. I don't like this though. They propagate on their own by splitting. Mushrooms grow so fast I see no reason to frag them. Colorful rics seem to grow slower but they do still grow. This is why I like my rics. When they start taking too much space, I just remove one or two and sell them. Mushrooms grow like weeds.

For leathers, I thread floss through them and glue the floss to the sides or bottom of the frag disc/rubble to hold it down. After a little while the leather will attach and you can pull out the floss.

Do you have a controller? I use a couple float switches connected to my Apex along with a timer command to run my ATO. It allows me double redundancies and I get an email alarm if the first float fails and the water gets high enough to the second float. Incidentally, i also get the email when the main return shuts off as the back siphon raises the water level just enough to trip the second float. So, should the power go out or that pump ever fail, I also get a notification.

Its just a screen and costs almost as much as the complete controllers he listed. I've never owned Profilux stuff, but I'm pretty sure you still have to buy the profilux controller on top of that. But, it does look cool.

I just don't think that's accurate. Once you connect it to the network, it is very easy to go with standard programming. There are drop down boxes for most typical uses and no programming at all is required. Just a couple boxes to fill in for setpoints. If you want to, you can select advanced and write your own program. Basically, my opinion is that the people spreading that rumor have never used an apex.

Go with the Apex. The reef keeper lite is a deal at the price point, but no way I would spend more money than that on a Digital Aquatics product. Their customer service is horrible and they are always over promising and under delivering. As to the post above suggesting that the RKE is infinitely expandable implying that the Apex is not - well, I just don't understand that. The Apex does everything the RKE does and then some. Apps are available to connect to the Apex via iphone, android and maybe some others. Go with the Apex. If you don't need the variable ports and the extra pH probe, get the lite. They are otherwise identical. A brs probe works fine. There is an appeal to the reef angel in that I like to tinker and it is probably more customizable, but I wouldn't recommend it to most people since I don't think it is really a consumer product - more of a DIY style project almost.

Me too

I have a variable dc supply. If yours is dead we could cut the if off and hook it up to my supply and see if it turns on. I'm in Alexandria.