madweazl

Only the tank, which still doesn't have water in it... I don't have anything else from SCA.

I've had a couple days to look over the tank so I thought I'd provide my initial thoughts in regard to quality. The tank was "crated" decently; it has 1" foam on all sides and the cardboard box it was shipped in was banded together well. There were a few areas that worried me when the tank arrived but the contents were just fine. At $40 from SCA, the lid to the overflow is a total joke. The $17 lid from Modular Marine has a machined lip to keep in place (small lid on the bottom). There is nothing to prevent a rogue snail/critter from pushing the lid off the box). Dont waste your money on this piece. The overflow box is siliconed together which I found odd as the tank is large enough that an assembled unit could be siliconed to the back wall as a single structure. While purely cosmetic, the front panel of the overflow overhangs both side panels by about one millimeter (not illustrated well in the picture). The silicone was done fairly well; I've certainly seen better but other than this small gap on the front panel (lower right), everything else looks pretty good (haven't thoroughly checked the back yet). The glass edges have a nice chamfer but the polishing leaves a bit to be desired. The right half of the front panel was done fairly well (cant feel any knurling) but starting about mid way across the front panel and extending all the way to the left side, you can really feel the knurling. Right side (visible cut but smooth to touch) Left side (easy to see and feel) How do I rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best? Cosmetics - 7 Construction - 8 Value - 10 Customer service & shipping time - 10 At roughly 66% the cost of many other manufacturers, the SCAquariums 150g delivers a pretty nice aquarium for the cost and I'm certainly able to overlook the cosmetic issues for the money saved in this regard.

It works Able to edit the first post and the rest are still locked; thank you.

Boooo! LOL

Used to be able to edit the first post in the build threads but I'm not seeing that option any more; was this a change from the upgrade or am I just blind?

I've never had them adversely effect a coral but some people consider them the devil. I let 'em be but our CBB finds them tasty so they don't make it long any more LOL.

Snowflakes dont prey on fish and wont purposefully target a fish; with that said, they can get very excitable at feeding time and inadvertently grab a fish (and certainly eat it should they catch it). They will however eat any crustaceans that are in the tank. I had one in an aggressive tank for a couple years and it was one of my favorites; it latched on to a small huma trigger once but let go (too big for it to eat) and the trigger recovered without issue.

I've been using the Nature's Ocean Bioactive black sand without issue for two and a half years now (acropora dominant system) and I haven't had any issues with metals in the past (I've had three or four ICP analysis' performed).

Provided your parameters match up well (if anythings still alive) to the salt you're using, make larger water changes (i.e. 50+ percent) vice the smaller changes to lower the levels. 20% changes are going to end up wasting a bunch of salt. Hopefully all is on the mend soon.

I have Nature's Ocean black sand and while some of it does stick to magnet, I don't have any issues with measurable metals leaching into the water. This doesn't mean the sand isn't the issue but there may be something else lurking in your tank/sump. I had a magnetic float sensor crack open that started to oxidize (while I was out of town naturally) that caused some issues; investigate everything.

You've missed Veteran's day by about a month Hope all is well otherwise.

What about something like a 60g long (48x24x12 LxWxH)? This could allow for two different types of lighting (i.e. T5 vs LED) on a shallow tank so the lights can remain relatively inexpensive. The shallow depth allows for easy viewing to document changes (e.g. growth, coloration, pests, etc.). Can the students perform water changes or a weekly basis? If so, you could bypass the sump, return pump, skimmer, and dosing pumps/additives all together (though the cost of water and salt mix go up).

A ciliate similar to brown jelly disease?

They usually grow algea quick initially but it's usually gone after a couple days. I've had much better luck with acroporas growing over 2-part epoxy much faster than over superglue.

If you're using them stand alone, all will grow corals but the Hydras and Radions seem to perform best when they're mounted quite high (16-20" above the waterline) while the Kessils do best in the 6-8" range. If the Kessils are mounted higher, light spills over the top of the tank and PAR falls off dramatically. All are good options when it comes to LEDs. Our A360x should arrive Tuesday and I'll start collecting data on it (also sending one to Dana Riddle for some more extensive testing).

Having spent a few months with the AquaticLife fixture, it delivers pretty weak PAR numbers from the T5s. I'm not sure if there is any one component to blame but numbers are considerably lower than an equivalent ATI fixture; I suspect it's a combination of the the reflectors (cheap), heat, and a less than stellar ballast. Because of this, you'll want to run it lower than most T5 fixtures which doesnt compliment many LEDs (Kessils are about the only one I'm aware of that have excellent spread at low mounting heights). I wouldnt mount the fixture more than 8" above the surface and closer to 6" provides better results which pretty much eliminates the Hydras and Radions as a good option. A pair of Primes might work well in that range but something like the A160 is probably a better option because of the superior optics at this mounting height. If you mount the fixture any higher, PAR is pretty dismal from the AquaticLife. Not something I'd purchase again but it is working well in the current configuration. Compare the LET retrofit numbers to the Hybrid column (two 48" ATI T5s in the LET compared to four 48" ATI T5s in the AquaticLife). Edit: I run the 16" end plates on the AquaticLife fixture to bring the lights a little closer which helped PAR results slightly in the results above). The original 18" end plates will work well on the 24" width of your tank.

$100 for salt? After 25 years of reef keeping, I've never found one salt that did anything better than the next. As for the IO on sale, it arrived today

Some interesting observations today (well, the past two or three days actually). Phosphate levels went way up about a month (right after I went out of town oddly enough...) and nitrates have been higher than typical for a few months now (generally <1 previously and now running 4-5ppm). Some of the acropora have shown stress; most of the affected corals started to bleach out. The SC Orange Passion was the worst hit and actually some STN (hopefully I can still save it). Others (e.g. Vivid Rainbow Delight and Tyree's Pink Lemonade) showed no negative symptoms and actually put on some growth. The Strawberry Shortcake actually grew quite a bit. I pleaded with my wife to cut the morning feeding (LRS Reef Frenzy) in half and I eliminated the feeding of LRS in the evening (they still received a whole clam in the evening) to try and tackle the phosphate levels. I also switched the refugium lighting over to a 24 hour photo-period (from 16 hours) to speed up consumption of nitrates and phosphates. I'm definitely removing substantially more macro-algae from the refugium now but it's hard to say it's done much for the phosphate levels (i.e. I dont know if my wife is actually less). I started carbon dosing a couple months ago to get the nitrate levels under control and ultimately stopped at 20ml twice a day (40ml total) recently. In the past couple of days, colors on the bleached acroporas have started to come back pretty rapidly. Phosphate levels on the other hand, have increased a small amount. While it's pretty early to draw any conclusions, it would seem the nitrate levels of 4-5ppm have had a more pronounced negative affect on acropora health while the phosphate levels haven't amounted to much of anything at this point. An unknown variable could be something in the tank or a lack of macro/micro-elements in the water. I've been completing 15g water changes the past month (I do weekly water changes) vice 10g which may be eliminating something "bad" that I cant find in test results (my typical kits in addition to ICP results) and/or adding something that has been lacking. I increased the water change amount because magnesium levels were starting to fall lower than I wanted (from about 1330-1290) over the course of a week. I figured this would likely be the case for other macro/micro-elements as well. I'm not much of a believer that other macro/micro-elements are essential but this may compound the nitrate theory. I'll stay the course and observe for a couple more weeks. I'll order another ICP just for a sanity check. Current levels: Alkalinity 6.8 dKh Calcium 405 Magnesium 1305 Nitrate 2.5ppm Phosphate .187ppm

The first addition to my first reef tank around '95 was a 12-14" green carpet anemone. It died shortly there after; it seems new tanks, two 50/50 NO T8s, and no clue what you're doing made for a poor environment...

The spectrum offered with the V4 is extremely close to that of a MH with true UV and far reds available; whether or not these are beneficial is up for debate but there is a lot more to work with than any other LED in that regard. The downside is that some of these emitters are placed pretty far apart so how much any specific spectrum spreads is going to be limited unless you place the array well above the tank. Once you do that, the intensity of the spectrum is compromised greatly so I'm sure you gain anything in the end. Comments stating they're nothing more than a BB are ignorant at best so I'd skip right over those.

Dang, that was quick. I paid $27.79 a couple hours ago (should have ordered two).

Yea, I should have pointed that out. The salt is on sale for $32 and then you can take 20% off that (along with free shipping).

Approximately $28 for a 200g box of Instant Ocean with UR20DEAL coupon code

I had no issues moving our 75g into a 60g "transfer tank" and back into the 75g when we moved to the new home back in May. I had 120lbs of sand from the original tank sitting in 5g buck for three and a half days that I tossed right back into the 75g after it was set back up without issue. I'm not sure what the "mini-cycles" are that get referenced here and there but I didnt encounter anything of the sort. Heck, in '98 I moved our 40g from the house, into the back of a moving truck, drove from CA to AZ where it spent the night in the moving truck in 100° Yuma heat and then out of the truck and back into the house the next day. I lost a derasa but our crocea made it through just fine

Seems to be running slow for me ATM but I've only checked from one connection. Also noticed that full addresses are showing up under the usernames now (I assume that is an option I can turn off but it should probably be limited by default). Edit: perhaps this is only visible to the member (I dont see it on other's posts). I didnt see an option to prevent it from being displayed.