BMW1600

pics of tank and stand please

It's tripled in size since I peeled off most of the GSP. Seems like most things I try in the tank give me slow, incremental results...not this time!

Unfortunately no before and after. But VERY noticeable difference. In fact - and I would love to hear from experienced SPS keepers - even at the lower power levels my two birdsnests are growing more or less laterally, and not vertically, despite their position about 30% up the height of the tank. I might lower the light level some more and see what happens. When I first lowered the light the tips of my pink birdsnest suddenly "sprouted" and split within a matter of a week.

I put Reefbreeders LEDs over my 54 bowfront a few months ago, replacing a 4 bulb Deep Blue fixture. They hang maybe 16 inches or so above the waterline. I slowly turned them up over the course of a month and a half to a maximum of 55% on the white channel and 50% on blue (of course gradually ramping up and tapering down). Growth was OK, but not what I expected. I since turned down the whites to no more than 40% and blues up to 45% and lowered the ramping up/tapering even more aggressively. Surprisingly I have seen amazing growth...stuff that never seemed to do anything suddenly budded (SPS)/reproduced (LPS) and my algae issues became a lot more manageable. Anyway, for anyone else in my shoes who is still figuring stuff out and thinking about LEDs, I thought this might be useful Dave

I peeled most of it off with a knife last night...keeping my fingers crossed

I have a little two head acan that is one of my very first corals. I was 99% sure I totally killed it a while back when I was still figuring things out. It literally had one tiny, barely visible bit of "flesh" left. I just left the skeleton in the tank. Amazingly, it came back after about four months and was doing well. For no apparent reason it has started to recede again. There are a few polyps of GSP on the frag. Could that be causing the recession? I sort of like GSP so I have left it alone, but I'll yank it off this frag if it could be causing recession. Thank you Dave

Thank you all for the very thoughtful responses. I appreciate it.

I am a little reluctant to get a fuge/any more hardware because I want to get a bigger tank in the next few months and I already have floats/HOB skimmer/Phosban reactor hanging off the back. Can I add a bottle of pods at intervals? Maybe every two or three months? That would be far more manageable.

I have a 54g bowfront. I don't know how many pounds of LR I have but it is a significant pile (to the point where I have considered removing some of it). I did an "emergency" rush transfer when I got the tank so I never had a chance to weigh it out. I have one clown, one bangai cardinal, one pajama cardinal, one anthias, one red firefish, and one azure damsel. If the tank is too small I'll forgo the mandarin. I just think they are beautiful.

When I first set up my tank I had a goby (and a few other species) that died because of my impatience and stupidity. I have had my tank running for over a year now, a lot more knowledge under my belt, and I'd like to try again. I'm worried about feeding, because all my other fish live quite happily on the simple diet I give them. I don't want to have to add something else routinely and make it a pain in the butt. I have no population of pods in my tank. I guess my big question is, if I add them, what stops the pods from being destroyed/captured by a protein skimmer? (I don't have a sump.) What else could I feed a mandarin to keep it happy? Thanks! Dave

100% chance...if I had a sump Anyone local want the Jack the Ripper of hermits?

My daughter brought home a hermit from OBX that we tossed into the tank. I recently realized that it has managed to almost wipe out 2 cleanup crews. I think the less I feed the tank the more snail-murderous it becomes. I hate to terminate this guy's existence since we took him out of his home, but I can't justify his $100 worth of food! Anyway, thanks for making this thread, I am once again struggling with this problem which is much worse because almost all my snails are dead!

You can monitor if you have the NET module, which I do not yet have. I started out with the basic RKL package.

Been running it like that for a year. Its just been set in there, not mounted, and the heater is just long enough where the rubber top leans against the top of the return chamber, so I guess the only "contact" is slight, at the bottom of the heater. I think the real "heating action" occurs higher up. Anyway, no problems!

No one was watching my tank because I had it all set up correctly to be left alone ahahah