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Would have gone with a bigger tank/real refugium setup rather than the Red Sea Max.... Plans to fix that mistake are in the works.

These are nassarius snails.... great for sandbed!

Initially I would say female, but I really could use some more photos (preferably with the front dorsal fin raised)

Per Big Bang Theory:

I should have taken a pic after Monday's coral feeding... it was insane... looked like 1 big black puffy ball

He eats some mighty big chunks for a little guy! Seems to like the evening frozen meals much more than the morning flakes.

Luckily I only have to feed twice a day, as the rest of the time my anthias angrily fights with his reflection in the glass.

My Cleaning schedule: Every week (with water change), - Clean bubble trap/mecahnical filters - Scrub protein skimmer (the entire thing) - Vacuum sump Every 3-4 weeks (based upon how things are looking: - Clean bubble trap/mecahnical filters - Scrub protein skimmer (the entire thing) - Scrub all pumps (take them apart) - Scrub all hoses & outputs that connect to pumps - Scrub sump & vacuum Every 2nd one of the big cleanings, I run my pumps in vinegar for about an hour. I am a little mental about things in my tank being clean, particularly since I have a habit of over feeding every now & then.

Well as Adam mentioned, anything put into our tank grows pretty darn fast.... So yes, we need to get started on our upgrade soon!

Quick update, it did have the membrane in there (took some elbow grease to get it off. The BRS system does come with a wrench, but they are for the canisters, not the tube that contains the membrane. Couple notes for anyone who wants to get one in the future: 1) It says to setup your entire system and flush, however, I disconnected the DI part as not to waste it for the hour long flush 2) It does not call for it, but since I am sure there was some dust from the carbon, I did a quick 2-3 minute flush of the membrane, so no carbon residue/dust got stuck in it. 3) The system says that 60 PSI is optimal for this system, if it approaches 40, you should get a booster. When I was doing the flush, I noticed I was only at 48 psi, and after adding on the DI, I was at about 50. We chatted with sachabballi reef and she told us she had the same type of psi when she lived in our part of leesburg (it is a restriction by the city). I have noticed last time I checked however, that the psi has risen close to 60psi (not sure why) 4) I am still making water, bit in 4 hours I made close to 18 gallons that is close to 4.5 gph or 108 gpd (much higher output than than our system specifies (75 gpd). I am not complaining, but has anyone else experienced the same type performance? 5) The tds reading going in to my DI is 7 and going out has been 0. 6) I really like the construction on this thing, and the perks, including the pressure gauge, membrane flush, automatic shutoff valve, dual tds meter, etc. So far, money well spent Here is the one I got: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-5-stage-plus-ro-di-system-75gpd.html

We have been using ESV's 2 part buffer. You guys recommend BRS instead? The reason we use the ESV, os because you can pretty much find it at any LFS.

LOL... 1/2 the people are saying... aww its cute! The other half are saying: Kill it with Fire!

Think it is going to go where the alligators go

Tannish body, white eyes with a little orange hue around the eyes. black tipped claws. fuzzy body I swear I feel like someone is trying to sabotage my corals LOL

Looks like 0.1 to me... Of course I am so bad at differentiating colors ..

Coming from the trustworthy man, who taught me to read the instructions on my salifert test, so that I wasn't reading 100+ on my nitrate test

Gotta agree with you on these color comparison cards... they drive me nuts... half the colors look all the same to me... that is why I prefer some of the tests like salifert uses where it changes from 1 color to another and you measure the syringe I wish salifert would change their nitrate test to the same concept.

I use API for common use. I hold it a bit away from the card for a more accurate reading in the light. If I notice the test is higher than my norm, I will go and double check with my salifert which I think is much more accurate, but I use sparingly because salifert can be a little bit more expensive.

We are starting to use selcon added in to both our fish and coral foods. It has a variety of vitamins in it I believe and came highly recommended.

We are planning on doing several dips over the next several weeks. I keep hearing both ways on the egg scarping. Some folks have told me that the area I have some of the eggs are on is very delicate and that scarping could damage the coral (some are on the main trunk, but sup are at the edge/opening of the coral. Thoughts?

BTW.... Does anyone know if there is any type of coral that should not be dipped in coralrx?

Yup... looks like they sneezed white snot all over themselves (large amount too). Was it ok to try to remove some of it? - Big Boy elegance was pissed for a while, but the second I put some food in the tank, he opened to his normal size and started munching - Baby Elegance recovered quickly - Blasto seems to be doing better after the dip too, even though I did not notice anything on him - Yellow acro is puffed back out looking like a bush almost immediately - Blue acro is is a little slower in getting its polyps out, but is recovering - Green torch is recovering nicely - Yellow torch is recovering nicely (surprising since it looked the worst before the dip_ - 2 gold torches still don't look so hot BTW... the yellow coris wrasse we got maybe the most chill fish I have ever seen. During acclimation, dumping him from container to container.... he never freaked out... just went around looking for food. We got scared in the morning, because he completely disappeared, but we found out, that he may be sleeping in the sand. He popped right out during midday and went along his business looking for food. Not sure he really fits in with the psycho's we currently have in our tank.

I want to say the recommended dosage is 20 ml per gallon, so we did 40 (as we used 2 gallons). We left it in there with the small pump running for about 10 min. and then turned them upside down and swirled them in the mixture and to remove excess dead worms. We then swirled them in the clean 2 gallons of tank water to rinse off excess dip for about a minute and then placed back in the tank. One thing I did notice during this procedure was a buildup of white "junk/tissue" on the torches that I tried to blowoff (most that I could) with a turkey baster. I don't have any pictures of it before I blew it off, but some of the residual white "junk/tissue" you can see on the after pictures.... anyone have any idea what it may be?

The thing in the bottom middle of the third pic, it is a bristleworm "shell-less" thing is definitely a stomatella (good thing)... we have a bunch throughout our tank

Since we got the male, he came to us looking a bit malnourished, but he has gotten (as huly likes to put it) "fat and sassy". He has definitely grown since coming into our tank. I see pods on the glass here and there, particularly when I get a bit of algae on there (people have told me that is a sign of good pod population) .