SaltLife

I recommend the book. Was the first book i got in this hobby, Tony Varga's has gone all around the world looking at peoples tanks, taking pictures of them and documenting them. The tanks that he features in his books are amazing and some are straight stunning to me. Everyone has a different "method to their madness" in this hobby. It's great to learn from others and see what works for them but may not always work for you. For ex. some people in this club use straight well water rather than rodi water and still have thriving tanks, i wish that worked for me but their is no way for that to work for me. The biggest thing that he stressed in his meeting with wamas in starting a new tank was cycling and just WAIT. He said most Europeans wait appox. 180 days but most Americans grow to impatient and have to throw livestock in as soon as the nitrite cycle goes down. so i give the book a thumbs up. Even if you ever got bored reading it, their are many great pictures to see in it.

Lucky! I bought his book after the meet. Great read even for more experianced people and very nice pictures as well. In the begining he goes through all considerations of starting a new tank.

Are you talking about the one that I think was about 3' or so long and clogged up his pipes in his system?

I can help you out jan just post here or pm me when you have a time figured out around noon would work good for me.

I have used just blue and white leds before and I have added red, green, and uv to another setup of mine. I hear some people talking about how they try to create a whole spectrum of light by using several different whites and color leds is their any true benifit to this? It seems a lot of those layouts have several whites compared to blue.. I need some input and opinions on led layouts for a future buy. I prefer a little more blue than white in my display but I would obviously like what would be best for my corals as well.

"I cycled it" +1

Do junior clarkiis start getting black dots when they get older? Becasae eventully they develop a fairly black body when they mature like marinap picture.

I have definitly considered the evergrows but I have an apex and would really like to utilize it. I know some members around here have been working on making the two compatable with each other and maybe by the time I shoot the trigger on some lights it will be ready but as of now its not ready. Do the number of leds seem low to anyone? Of course before I had 72 and they weren't ramped up to 100% either.

I understand that these are still fairly new to the market. I'm contemplating two dimmable onyxs for my 75g tank which will be a sps dominant tank. I like the price and how easy it is, just plug and play, i have done the diy route and don't feel like that again. So any experiance with these or input?

Why not just put a small quite fan under there to move to air around? Also is a few hundreths really even matter? Haha pretty small thing to worry about.

Definitly call them went there a few months ago asking about neptune systems and he didn't carry them in stock at that time.

haha Didn't even remember the screen name until you said that. Yes sir you did. I did some reserch on this since you posted this because i want to refine my water station as well. I found this pic to answer my question for how to see the water level. The clear tubing on the right would show the water level in the top container.

I have two questions. How are you going to check the water level on your rodi? ( or top container) How are you going to mix the salt in the other container if you have a pump hooked up to the pvc? Run two pumps in that container?

I got one stomatella snail when i purchased some coral from someone. It has been about 3 months since i received him and he has now made several babies all over my tank and their population is growing quick. Funny to watch them spawn, he will climb up to the highest rock in the tank and then start spreading a thick white mucus into the water column. When they are very very very young they look like Astraea snails but as they get older their shells begin to flatten out. If they have no predators they can most certainly spawn successfully.

Great post, you made up my mind for a future purchase!

Not to high jack this thread but can someone explain the chemicals and process for an acid bath?

Since we are on the topic of intercepter. Does any heartworm medicine for dogs work for red bugs? Does the bayer dip remove red bugs?

Ok After doing more research I came across this page on thereeftank.com . These people were saying that the red bug only feeds on Acropora. If this is true then if I was to remove the two acropora frags from my tank QT them for about a week or so that the bug will no longer have a host and fie off in the tank, treat them, then reintroduce them into my tank it should be gone. Only I don't know how credible these people are. But going to other links like the "Cure" for Red Bugs (2004) it says to treat the whole tank. Conflicting info. The only reason I bring this up is that I have no Carbon filtering. I have a skimmer and some Macro. It seems the only way i could get the treatment out would be through several water changes but it would still be hard to polish the water with no carbon filtering. I wouldn't want to add all my crabs and shrimp back into the system just to have them die because the treatment was still there.

Wow seems to begin a debate about whether or not these bugs are bad for your system. I will say though that another acropora that i have about a 4" piece that has no red bugs on it yet, has a nice polyp extension were as the piece I have that has the red bug has very very little polyp extension.

Please explain.

Any tips and advice would be very helpful. If anyone here has does there entire tank please tell me how you did it. The thread posted here on wamas tells how to do it as a dip but not the full tank.

what would you recommend to treat the tank given interceptor is so hard to find?

Just discovered several red bugs all over my new acropora. It has been in my tank for 2 weeks now and never saw this until now. Looks great and is growing but from my little understanding these bugs are not good. I have read about an interceptor dip that should rid these bugs but have no experience with it. Does anyone have any experience with this dip? Would you recommend another? Also should I treat the whole tank now since if it is on one could be on more, or just take the few acropora frags that i have out and treat them separately from the tank?

Again great info im using just about all the information on here and I am in the same shoes as I also just purchased an apex. Please keep the information coming.

How much did you purchase your apex for and were?