Djplus1

This is what I'm thinking. I'm sure the majority of people here know what's up with their tanks, but all it takes is one over ambitious clown to not fully understand what's going on and ruin everyone else's tank. You know the type, 1000 posts in 3 months, wants to get super involved, gives unwarranted advice, then completely disappears because their tank crashed and they move on to birds.

I'd just run the media basket with chaeto (with one of those magnetic JBJ fuge lights), carbon and gfo stacked in separate bags, and filter floss. You don't NEED a skimmer in that size tank if you change water weekly or biweekly.

Or you can stop QT'ing, LOL. I've killed more fish trying to quarantine than in my tank(s) for sure. I'm at my limit, so I won't be adding fish anytime soon.

Any idea what the costs to exhibit would be? Is it safe to assume it's the standard 10'x10' layout?

Not sure if you have MS Office on your computer, but if so, click on the pic, then click on "picture", select "compress pictures" and use the for "web pages" selection. Then your pics will be sized appropriately.

Just a heads up for all going, parking is at an extreme premium down there. I used to do trade shows at marriott wardman all the time. You basically have two options. Park there for $30 or park across the street at the omni shoreham for $30, there is no public parking within walking distance and the meters are maybe 2 hours and you can't just keep filling them up or you'll get a ticket, trust me, been there, done that. If you don't need to drive the metro stops about a block away and is HIGHLY recommended.

Really?

If you're getting lights and pumps with decent on board controls you can skip the apex ( for now )'but honestly the two things you're sleeping on "needing" are the apex and ato. It's an expensive set up, but really the only way to go. Just get dry rock that looks cool and be done with it. You're cycling for 60-90 days regardless, just rinse super well. I wouldn't be that concerned wht phosphate leaching. There's always a hot deal on rodi here. There's a sweet set up with a booster pump you should jump on now. This is an absolute necessity.

In my experience, cleaning the pumps requires a nice overnight vinegar soak and a toothbrush scrubbing. My pumps look like they came out of the box when I'm done and they throw water out of the tank just like day one. I also have extra pumps allowing me to soak overnight. If you're just pulling them out and scrubbing, it won't work as well. Still glad I bought these over wasting 4x the money on Vortechs, especially with all of those rusty wetside pics floating around.

Hmm, that sucks. I'm getting ready to try this too and this has me all nervous.

Unfortunately, that's where it gets dicey. I swear I do have millions of devices. Currently I have the Fios router, hardwired to an Asus Dark Knight (which is hard wired to the Apex Lite), hard wired to a cheapie Asus router (which is hard wired to my sons room tank) and another cheapie Asus router, wirelessly connected as an access point or bridge(which is hard wired to my frag tank) but is currently disconnected as for some reason it messes up my internets if I leave it plugged in. On top of that mess, wireless devices abound, too many computers to count and internet enabled tv's, game systems, etc, not including when friends with tech come over to sign in and steal my bandwidth etc.

The PH and Temp Probes are both low voltage. I wouldn't really worry about them next to each other, but you don't want a power line for the skimmer for example running next to the ph probe.

I'm going to have to try Dante's method as it seems to be the clearest method I have heard to date. One add on question for Fusion users. Does it recognize multiple Apex's on the same network? I have 1 Apex Lite and 2 Apex Jr.s controlling 3 separate tanks on separate floors and sides of my house (otherwise I would have used the Lite to control all). Currently I have the three tanks named Bowfront, Dominick and Frag Tank. Can I basically do the same thing for Fusion?

What supposedly happens when you fully submerge the probe is the water will leach into the cable and follow it to the Apex brain and the water will damage that. I would be less concerned about the probe itself.

It will correspond with your lighting schedule.

I do the same thing. I actually usually only feed frozen 1-2x per week and the fish go crazy for the frozen treats usually. I've been feeding the LRS for about 5 days straight to get them "accustomed" to the new food.

The ability to keeps 95% of stuff alive over at least 6 months, LOL.

Apex gear has a pretty strict MAP policy, so you won't be seeing "great deals" on any site. The second hand market is pretty robust too, so you pretty much need to be first in line to grab anything and still pay 75%+ of retail. I'd be willing to bet I could sell both of my Apex Jr.'s for $125-$150 each by the end of the night if I wanted to.

Well, I just got the food from you a few days ago, so the tanks have seen the food about 3x maybe. I just figured there would be a lot more commotion in the tank, considering what everyone was saying. I'm going to keep feeding it for a while until I can confirm either way if all fish will eat it or if I need to treat it as a special food for the CBB and Longnose Hawk Fish that I feed after giving everyone else something else. There is a hippo in there that eats it too, but I don't count that fish as I'm pretty sure I could throw a bass guitar in the tank and he would eat it. The two other tanks are nano's with 2 and 3 fish respectively. The mystery wrasse took a huge piece the moment it hit the tank water so I through another chunk in for the Eibli Angel to eat. Of course then the angel or the wrasse wanted nothing to do with the huge piece floating around and it just settled to the bottom while they "sniffed" at swam away. The other tank has two clowns and a chromis. I dropped food in there and none of the fish took any interest. One of the clowns "nibbled" and let it go and the food just sank to the bottom eventually.

Not happening. That's what I tried. If you can somehow "force it" you would probably damage the wire.

I got two packs and hopefully the other fish come around, because the stupid CBB was making me feed two types of food already. I just hate feeding two types of food when one should do.

Just curious what everyone thought about the LRS food? I just got the nano mix, so I can't speak to the other styles. Pro: My Copperband that only eats PE Mysis (won't touch Hikari Mysis) seems to actually eat the stuff. Spits out some, but keeps attacking, so it must like something in there. Con: A number of my fish (in 3 different tanks) seem pretty indifferent to the stuff. So much that I have to feed an additional food so that they actually eat something. These aren't weird fish either (clowns, chromis, pygmy angels, etc). I can't say that the fish need to "get used to" some type of food, as I'm pretty sure they would eat my hand if I left it in long enough, especially since everyone seemed to say that their fish went ape sh(*t over this stuff. Most recently, I've been feeding Scott711's food, Rod's and Jan's and don't seem to have this "issue" with those foods. Am I the only one with this experience?

No chance. The placement of that wire is poorly thought out for this scenario.

This is how mine is. I'm pretty sure you can't mount it the way you want. I just tried to flip the wire to the inside and there isn't enough clearance to do so.

My fromia was really cool, but really only lived for about 6 months or so in my tank. The "legs" started rotting off, and the scales just started to fall off until I pulled the thing and flushed it. I actually want another one, but am pretty sure the same thing will happen again.