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I use it in my overstocked nano, and the two young clowns, yasha goby, and pair of ruby reds love the stuff. Some of the chunks are too big for the yasha and ruby reds, but the clowns go to town. That said, I also mix it with cyclopleeze and enriched brine and transfer pods from my main every few days for the reds. In my main, everything goes crazy for the stuff: clowns, anthias, yellow tang, randall goby, even my mandarin gets in on the action when I spot feed him.

The Petco in Bailey's Crossroads isn't bad either, but I'd def put any fish from petco through quarantine, since most don't seem to do any sort of treatment themselves. I've picked up a few fish and inverts from that location that have done well, but that was before I found Quantum Reefs, which is a much better option, and I still hit up Tropical Lagoon in Silver Spring when possible. If you're out near Burke, it's worth the 20 min. drive to check out Reef eScape.

Following up on the Mai Tai: She's become considerably darker and more maroon-like in features as she's matured and looks almost black underneath the actinics. Those teeth are frightening.

Would have killed for one of these for my second tank, but I don't think they've been released: http://www.seaandreef.com/marine-ornamental-fish/clownfish/black-davinci-clownfish. For some reason they remind me of pandas.

If you'd like the look and personality of a maroon with a bit of a less aggressive edge, you can look into a hybrid like a mai tai (female ocellaris/male maroon) clown. I've had mine for about a year (pictured below with the black ocellaris when I first got her, and a month or two ago with the tang and anemone) and she's been pretty relaxed with her tank mates (currently a pair of bartlett anthias, a randall goby, green mandarin, black male clown, and a yellow tang. She also lived peacefully with a since rehomed sixline and a few other species that didn't make it due to beginner mistakes and various ailments). She has a pretty unique color and shape that I find interesting and pleasing. As I said, she's not as aggressive as the maroons I've read about, but she's also not a docile ocellaris. She'll nip at me if I mess with her anemone, though she's never come close to drawing blood, and she'll give mean looks to the anthias or randall goby if they venture too close to the rbta, though I've yet to see her actually attack, and they all peacefully eat right above the rbta (which has no bubble tips anymore and is freakin massive and takes up an entire corner of my tank, but I digress). She does have a potential mate - a black ocellaris. She wasn't fully mature when I purchased her, and I added her to the tank at the same time as a then very small black ocellaris and watched them closely for a few weeks. Because he was so small, he submitted pretty quickly and she didn't pay much attention to him...until I added the rbta a few months later, then all H-E-double hockey sticks broke loose. Pretty sure that's when she started to become female. She became territorial and really aggressive towards the black ocellaris (although she never bothered the other fish) and tore his fins up pretty consistently for a few months, to the point that I considered separating them. However, over time she allowed him to hang out near the anemone (never inside) and although I don't think they've fully "bonded" yet, they now both spend almost all of their time hovering in and/or around the two rbtas, and he's allowed to hover closer to and sometimes in one of the anemones. She still charges him sometimes, but I'm content with their current status, though of course I hope that they fully bond over time and maybe spawn. It'd be interesting to see if 1. she's fertile and 2. if so, what the offspring of a mai tai female/black ocellaris male would look like. Not sure I've seen that combination yet, though MattieJay or another clown breeder may know if that hybrid exists. I've seen them at various stores in the area and I picked mine up from Tropical Lagoon for a pretty reasonable price, something like $35-$40. I would highly recommend them based on my own experience, but I may have lucked out with mine.

This is freakin gorgeous.

Dr. Mac's has a bunch of really nice looking leopard wrasses for sale. I've never purchased anything from them but they're a WAMAS sponsor: http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/Saltwater-Fish-Prodlist.html

No sump on my 40B and it's pretty heavily stocked with a variety of corals and fish, but I haven't had any water quality related deaths in the year I've had it up. I run a canister filter with floss, chemipure, and rubble, a hob skimmer (absolutely necessary, it pulls out a bunch of sludge), and a HOB refugium (not necessary, but I have a mandarin and need a spot for pods to propagate). Like others, I manually add calcium and alk every few days. Without a sump, I have to do more maintenance and hide my heaters and what not behind the rock work. I also have to manually add rodi water every day since the lack of sump makes ato's a bit flightier and I haven't wanted to mess with them. The biggest P.I.T.A. of having a sumpless system is that I have to clean out the canister filter every week or two or the gunk builds up inside of it and seriously affects my water quality. It only takes 10-20 minutes to do, but it adds up over the course a year, and it's a pretty annoying job. I just incorporate it into the weekly water change and it's not so bad, but a sump would really ease the process considerably. As others have already said, it's absolutely possible to have a sumpless system, but you really have to keep up with water changes and other maintenance. Welcome back to saltwater!

Def not talking amphipods. The reefs2go pods are a mix of amphipods and smaller pods, but I started out by adding a few bottles of tisbe to my refugium a few months ago. Haven't considered setting up a large container, but will look into it. My questions would all revolve around how to harvest them. The problem I've noticed when trying to research pod breeding in the past is that nobody actually illustrates their setups, nor posts any videos from start to finish, and the pods are so tiny that it'd be hard to track them. The reason I assume my current transferring of pods to the 12g is successful is that the ruby reds immediately begin picking at the rocks and sand whenever I shake a bunch of chaeto from my fuge. I like the idea, though. Also, no wife, but I'm very much space-constrained in my apartment. Might be able to squeeze something into the closet, though.

Yeah, I spend more time thinking about pods than is probably healthy, since the species that rely on them are unfortunately my favorites. My ideal tank would have a pair of mandarins and a harem of ruby reds cruising the rocks all day, but my living situation precludes anything larger than a 4ft tank for a few years and I already spend way too much on supplemental pods as it is. I've had mixed results with baby brine supplementation ala Paul B's feeder, though I'll keep trying to incorporate that as well. I currently have a HOB refugium on my 40 that was stocked with pods for 6 months before I added the mandarin, and from which I transfer pods to the nano. The 40 has about 65 lbs of LR and has been established for a few years. The mandarin is about to be moved to a 4ft tank with a large refugium in a few weeks, and the ruby reds will go in the 40B, leaving the pig of a yasha to pick at whatever's left in the 12G on top of her normal feedings, though I will stop supplementing pods to the 12G once I move the ruby reds. I also have a 10G that is filled with chaeto and some pods from my reefs2go order that I add phyto to and will hopefully be a nice supplement, though I won't rely on it. In the meantime, I'll be ordering 2K pods every 2-3 weeks until I'm comfortable with the amount of available food. It's definitely an expensive option for keeping 3 fish, but I'd like to have them for a while.

I have my pair in a 12g Edge, which is a tall nano, with a fair amount of rock, and I spot feed twice a day into the rocks where they graze, though it's hurt my water quality a little. They share the tank with a clown and a yasha goby/shrimp pair. My female is the only one that has taken to frozen foods so far and has become very plump during the last month as a result, while the male I've had less than a week ignores anything except live food and is pretty thin, albeit very active and a healthy bright red color. The female has picked on him a bit, so he may just be acclimating, and hopefully he'll have a taste of the frozen mix and decide he likes it as well, but in the meantime I'll keep transferring and purchasing pods, despite the high cost. That said, I'll probably be moving them over to my old 40B when I upgrade later this month since, despite their diminutive size, they seem pretty cramped. I'd throw them in there now, but I already have a large mandarin who takes care of the many pods in that tank. I also may be over thinking things.

They really are beautiful, intereting little creatures. Mine haven't paid each much attention, aside from my female chasing around the new male a little bit. He's a little thin, as was expected, but I'll fatten him up a bit over the next few weeks and hopefully they decide that they like each other. Maybe he'll be smart and bring her flowers.

That I couldn't answer. Right now they're in a 12 gallon edge. I spot feed twice a day and move chaeto from my main to the nano to transfer pods, and i started supplementing with pods purchased online this week so that they have plenty to eat. L82RISE actually has a breeding pair, so he might be a better resource. Mine just met.

Yeah. Seeing his pair in person was the impetus for my own interest in ruby beds. They're really neat, colorful little fish.

Purchased mine from tropical lagoon for about $25. Taking inflation into account, I'd say that it's pretty close.

And I'm probably a bit too excited about it. I've been attempting to spot feed her since I got her a few weeks ago, essentially spraying enriched brine shrimp and/or reef frenzy into the area right in front of her and she seemed to give me the same quizzical look that my cats give me when I try to give them a french fry. I guess she picked a bit off the sand while I was away and decided she liked it because I spot fed her yesterday and she straight up inhaled a piece of reef frenzy, followed by a whole piece of brine shrimp. I didn't think a little gal like her would attack it with such gusto. I'll continue to supplement her tank daily with pods from my main DT to ensure her health (she's in a nano), but I'm pretty happy about this. Side Note: I'm pretty sure it's a female due to the lack of stripe on her pectoral fins, but I would be happy to be corrected if this isn't the case.

Sorry to hear, man.

If you do cut if off, you'll want to baste out the toxic residue that comes off the leather and/or do a bit of a water change. I had the same issue recently and the surrounding corals were incredibly unhappy for a few days because of the stuff the leather released when I cut him. Depending on where the leather is attached, you can also use bone cutters and cut or scrape the rock beneath the leather so that you don't cut the leather itself. It may not be possible, but worth looking into. Good luck!

Really sorry about your tang. I recently had a kole tang succumb to illness and he never recovered from the treatment and was going through similar motions. You can find clove oil at most vitamin stores including places like GNC. There are pretty straightforward instructions online, but you essentially put them to sleep and then increase the dosage until they pass. It really is difficult to watch them struggle for long periods and that may be your best bet.

I 100% agree, and would have considered it had I known that it was possible. I'd always assumed that seahorses required a 30ish gallon tank, but it seems like what really matters is the height, as you said. The woman in this video has a beautiful seahorse setup, and I'm pretty sure she uses a cannister filter and eschews the use of the stock aquaclear.

This is both disgusting and kind of awesome. I recently started feeding black worms to my tanks and everything goes absolutely bonkers for them. But as Paul B. noted in a forum post back in '87, the black worms don't live long enough for my mandarin to pay them any mind, so it looks like white worms are the way to go. For some reason, the sight of white worms eats at me a bit whereas black worms don't bother me in the least. That's an awesome culture, though, Sharkey.

That looks really great. The only truly obnoxious aspect of the 12G edge is its height. Because it's so narrow, it's almost impossible to create a 'scape that is tall enough to not have a bunch of blank space near the top, unless you want to use magnet fake rocks (thinking about it) or drill and put a rod in. Good luck if you decide to set it up again!

Not sure if these have popped up yet in this topic, but if you have enough pods, a ruby red dragonet (or pair, if you can support them) would be a really neat addition. Mine spends all day shuffling from rock to rock picking at pods. A bunch of places sell them now, but the male I got from Tropical Lagoon is super healthy and was very reasonably priced.

The price definitely seems to be the only drawback. I would love it if I could afford it, but I don't think it's particularly necessary. I have a 12G Fluval Edge nano setup and it's not a very difficult-to-maintain tank (famous last words), aside from the odd internal dimensions. The main advantage of the MP3 is that it adds a small skimmer and leaves room for a heater and some live rubble outside of the tank and keeps one from needing an internal powerhead (unless you have sps). It doesn't add enough extra water volume to really make a difference, and you can run carbon and what not through the stock filter. I run purigen and filter floss in the stock Aquaclear filter, use a koralia nano, and mounted a $60 wavepoint led that's been more than enough for my LPS heavy setup (frogspawn, hammer, duncans, some softies, all which have been growing). I don't think it could handle any sps except 'maybe' a slimer, but for the cost of the MP3 light you'd probably be better off spending a tiny bit more on the superior AI Nano and mounting it to the stock cover (there are a ton of instructions online, and it doesn't seem to be a difficult process). As for the skimmer, it'd probably be a nice bonus, but with a small setup like the edge I just replace 2-3 plastic cups full of saltwater every day or two and top off with a cup or so of rodi water every day and my parameters have been stable and I haven't had any issues with nitrates, algae, etc. I also do a 20% water change every 2-3 weeks to be safe, but it's a pretty quick process. If I had the $400 for the setup and skimmer, I would consider it since it would make things a little bit easier and keep the heater out of the tank, but again, not really necessary. As for stocking, I have two juvenile clownfish, a yasha goby/pistol combo, and a ruby red dragonet that I feed by transferring pods from the DT refugium every few days, and a small CUC of a cleaner shrimp and some snails and hermits. Been going strong for a few months now.

That makes sense and will probably be the reason I 'splurge' and pick up the photon over a second superlux (everything is so darned expensive), which has a built-in timer and manual light intensity settings, but no controller. So the light goes from off to full daylight bulbs for an hour or two before full actinics kick in. It would be nice to have at least half of the tank be able to ramp up and down, especially since I've picked up some sps that seem to get stressed by the sudden light extremes.