RubberFrog

I am sickened by this!

Jan's tank IS fun to watch. It must be crazy at feeding time!

When fish see a bare reef (i.e. they are alone in your tank) they assume there is a predator nearby. Putting more fish in the tank gives a sense of security and draws out shy fish.

I'm not Rob, but I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn once... giving your rockwork/sandbed a few months to mature will help establish your bacteria without putting the stress on the fish.

How do you make the disks?

Did you stir the powder before you used it? Salt mix will separate over a time. All the calcium might be sitting in the bottom of the bucket. Or vice versa.

I respect your advice on fish and corals, but remind me not to seek you out for gambling advice. I wouldn't bet on a F+. My time is worth more than the potential trouble. Ooops, this is Mindee (not George). I should have looked before posting.

Don't use those. You don't want some uncontrolled release of alk and ca into your tank.

very nice!

Use a piece of hardwood (real hardwood like or maple, not "soft" hardwood like maple or birch"), it will be harder to catch fire! lol

That's normal married folk behavior. My wife and I go through phases where we "spawn" on a regular basis, then we'll fight for a while, and then we start spawning again after a few weeks. You said they've been married for ten years?

That's the cleanest sump I've ever seen.

Wow, that's significant.

I bought 125 lbs of live rock without a single pest. I wouldn't say pests are inevitable. For a tank your size, it's not going to cost a lot for sand no matter which way you go. So you might as well get live sand.

It sounds like they were sleeping.

My wife is smokin hot, so I do whatever it takes to keep her happy. My wife glazes over a bit when I get too lecturey. The trick is to let them pick the corals. lol

fins and feathers

Thanks for the compliments. The cabinet is made from birch and maple. The hinged lid on the left is where my topoff water will sit. I didn't want to drag it in and out of the cabinet to fill it once a week. I plan to add a shelf to the center and right bays, as well as doors on all three. I should have the doors finished tomorrow and then I plan to put on the finish over the weekend.

Notice that while I am hard at work, my wife is perusing WAMAS!

I started out wanting to build a smallish box to house my top off water and a few electrical items that didn't quite fit under the stand with the sump. Then I made the age old mistake that gets me every time- I asked my wife's opinion. I know, what was I thinking?! Next thing I know I am building a full blown cabinet with room for the topoff tank (10 gallon rubbermaid can), room for all of my electrical, every fish accessory (i.e. test kits, scrapers, nets, etc), plus books and anything else that even looks remotely related to the tank! At least now I can move my quarantine tank out of the basement and keep upstairs now.

If you would rather just build a new canopy, we could do that too.

I could probably figure something out for you if you want to bring it over on Saturday or Sunday.

Hermits are ok as long as you stick to dwarf hermits. They may still eat a snail, but it's a lot more work for them.

I wouldn't do a couple of 6 lines. One is handful enough. You can probably find somewhere on here with one to lend you.

Turn off your return pump. The flakes will sink after a while.