beatle

I highly recommend chaeto in the largest refugium you can fit. I don't run GFO and have no algae issues. Pods are also a great food source that reproduce in a refugium..

I actually have one w/3 LEDs but I've never been able to get it to work.

That's pretty neat. Zoomed in they sort of resemble the emerald crabs that ate my frogspawn and hammer corals.

That's the thing where a lot of people freak out - the stocklist. Watch what happens when you say you want to keep African mbuna cichlids (what I used to keep) in a 29g.

Just to offer some closure, everyone seems to be getting along. I don't really see any aggression. I guess sometimes it just takes time. Whew!

You may want to budget for the overflow box as well. Typically standpipes are not glued into the bulkhead and water can leak past them and drain the box. Or if you wanted to clean the overflow box or catch a trapped fish, you may need to remove the standpipe. That water will end up in your sump. Though I haven't met anyone who would recommend this, you could consider the use of a check valve on your return. When working properly, they keep water from flowing backwards. The trouble is that when they fail and you haven't "budgeted" for the backsiphon, you end up with a spill. Most people use them for convenience or extra insurance. Something to consider, depending on how much risk you want to take on. BRS sells a pretty good one, but they are not inexpensive: Personally, I'd still go the custom acrylic sump route. I think Jeff Haddock is still in the biz.

Maybe you can catch them in the act. I'd seen eggs in the tank before on a rock in the corner of the tank. They would reappear every 6-8 weeks. Then one day I came home from work and found the clowns were in the mood for a little "afternoon delight." Pretty interesting. I haven't seen them in a while, though they have been hosting a large toadstool for the past few months.

I used to frequent cichlid-forum.com. I found that a lot of freshwater forums are pretty ravenous when it comes to newbies. It's a wonder I ever made it through that stage. Think "tang police" for every question. Ironically with the amount of risk you take on with saltwater, most salty people are a lot more understanding. Maybe it's the age or level of maturity you generally need to fund and maintain a saltwater tank? </thread drift>

Ah, that's tougher then. I would get a custom acrylic sump in that case. You could easily get a 40-50 gallon container in there.

What size is your 150? Is it a 6 ft tank? If so, I would recommend a 4 ft sump. A 40 long would be about as tall as your 20, but twice as long. If it's not a 6 ft tank, what are its dimensions? I agree with Steve on making the return area as small as possible. An ATO will take care of the evaporation.

Try a variety of foods. I had good luck with Scott's frozen food in getting a picky coral beauty angel to eat. She would eat nothing else for months. Eventually I started feeding flake and she took to it. If you have a slow mover, try turning your pumps off when you feed so they can "catch up" to the food. This way you may not need to use a turkey baster.

I came home about 2 hours after lights came on and the new guy is still active and swimming around. I fed and everyone ate, including him. The aggression seems to have subsided a bit. His tail did not look like it had been nipped and he doesn't show any signs of stress which is a relief. That said, I'll keep monitoring and may pull the goby out if it keeps up or it looks like the firefish is starting to show signs of stress.

Yes, they're both in the 120. I'd thought about not keeping the sleeper prior to this. Not sure if I'll be able to catch him... Maybe I can move a few rocks, but the sleeper doesn't stick to a particular territory anyway.

You shouldn't need 1-2 days for the PVC cement to cure. 1-2 hours should be fine.

My clowns host in a toadstool which is neat to look at, but I'm also considering an RBTA. I have what I think is a perfect spot for one: a slightly cupped right right in the middle of the tank about halfway up. That's where I'd want to be at least!

So I just picked up a Helfrichi firefish from Petland tonight. Nice looking fish, but small. I acclimated and put him in the tank. Within just a few seconds I noticed my gold head sleeper goby starting to chase him. I've never seen him chase another fish, even my red and purple firefish. If anything, I expected my midas blenny to chase (he chases the sleeper occasionally). I fed the tank some frozen and everyone ate, including the helfrichi. The chasing resumed shortly after feeding. I cut the lights and am now pondering what to do. The only thing I can think of is that they are similar body shapes and both have gold heads, but that's about it. The sleeper is about twice the size of the helfrichi. Is this just the way it goes?

I'll pick up some packets and recalibrate my probe. I didn't know they needed to be recalibrated/checked outside of the initial install. I have my controller next to my display and the probe is in the overflow as the line will not reach into the basement where my sump and refugium is.

Are you using RO/DI? If not, now is a good time to start. I've found that cyano eventually goes away. Flow helps and siphoning helps.

Bring some to the meeting. I'd gladly take some. I'll trade you for some kenya tree (lol) which is another prolific grower.

It's off my AC3 and is less than a year old, so I guess it's reliable. I calibrated it when I got it. I also noticed irritated corals when I started dumping in all my ATO through the kalk reactor and pH shot to nearly 8.6. I didn't have a high pH issue until I changed out my 40g sump under the tank for a 75g sump and 40g refugium in the basement. I used kalk before and liked it, but the whole setup including the display was in a basement that probably wasn't ventilated very well, despite being an old drafty house from the 60s. I also didn't have a reactor, just added a few tablespoons of kalk powder to my ATO bucket and gave it a stir before I sent it on its way. I never had a high pH issue. It usually hovered around 8.2 during the day.

I'll have to read up on this. I'm about ready to give up on kalk since I can hardly add any to my tank without sending the pH above 8.4. I use about 2 gallons of top off per day, but only a pint of that is kalk. More than that and I start to have pH issues. Any specific advice for those using a kalk stirrer? I have a monster from GSA.

I saw a couple leather corals in the tanks at the Petco in Burke today. Not a frag tank, just put in with the fish.

I have the same issue. Water changes help as do the felt filter socks, but it's tough fighting a sand sifting goby.

I tossed my two mithrax crabs in my refugium for eating my frogspawn and hammer corals. Little bastages.

I had a similar experience with a cleanup crew, though not as many. My entire tank was covered in hair algae. I added a cleanup crew of various species (had nothing at the time) and they went to town. I placed a lot of them on single rocks to track whether I had any DOAs (none) and I watched as each section was scrubbed clear. 1 week later, no algae. No algae since, either.