madweazl

One thing I've learned over the years is there are many ways to skin a cat. That being said, I've never skinned one...

Impossible to give them too much so don't worry about that. If changes in coloration are being observed over just a couple days, there is another issue not related to light that is affecting your clam. My first inclination would be to check your water quality.

I had to do an emergency evacuation when the front glass on a 50g rimless we had recently set up was starting to separate from the rest of the tank. I was able to catch it in time but it was a mad dash to locate and purchase the tank, race home, and start the transfer process. Finding the replacement tank was the toughest part.

Maroons get aggressive quite frequently. The one (and only for me) that took up residence in the bubble coral was a model citizen otherwise. My last ocellaris would always bite at me while I was cleaning the glass but didnt mess with the tank mates. The tank I just took down when we left Okinawa had a saddleback and he was probably my favorite of the various clowns I've had over the years.

It's pretty rare for them to actually nip at things. They do have a tendency to suck on things so perhaps you're seeing the beginning of this behavior. Hopefully it stops; I had a maroon kill a beautiful green bubble coral about 15 years ago because he decided it was home.

I've never had one particularly aggressive. They tend to posture in smaller tanks but I've never had one nip or harass other inhabitants. Biggest issue I've had with them over the years is that they are glutens and tend to ****** up the anything you spot feed on principle alone! They are however, exceptionally busy and fascinating to observe.

Add water to the new tank, move rock to the new tank, gravel vac the sand with the water that remains in the old tank. Move sand to new tank. There are tons of beneficial things living in the sand beds, such a shame to rinse and kill it. Never place your rocks on top of sand, always lay the rock down first directly on the glass/acrylic. That way, things that start digging in the sand dont cause shifts in the rock work.

Sixline wrasse do a ton of weaving in and out of the rocks. Royal grammas are also really good about exploring all the nooks and crannies or your rockwork. Scooter blennies add a nice dimension to this as they hop around. Pistol gobies (Randalls are one of my favorite fish on earth) and their companion add another awesome aspect but they are going to find a spot they like and dig under a rock. They wont move once they establish their home and they will always live in the sand bed. I've had Yashas and Randalls; like another member posted, my Yasha was exceptionally reclusive. My Randalls however was always keeping watch. Yellow Watchmans are great too; beautiful and lots of character but again, they will find a spot and stick too it and are low down in the sand bed. Hawks are great for moving in and out of the rocks, flame hawks bounce around like crazy and have a lot of character as well. This guy was always out and about and because he was so outgoing, the tiger banded pistol he was paired with was very confident and would move about the tank. On the down side, he would pretty much bury the clam every evening LOL.

Spectrapure is widely regarded as one of the very best in the industry (not just for aquarists). That being said, I have the BRS 4 stage Value Plus (great sale going when I picked it up) and have been pretty happy with it. Has performed well but is slow if you have a larger tank.

As others have mentioned, I too keep a couple on hand for power failures. Come in handy if you're cycling live rock too.

I really enjoy the bio-diversity things like this add to the asthetics of our aquariums. I've never thought of them as ugly, I love it all. I've never had one harm or irritate anything in my tanks over the years.

Hi there! As the topic states, we recently moved from CA to northern Virginia. I've been in the hobby since about '95 when I set up our first tank (55g salt water). Like many, I jumped into the reef scene with little knowledge and all the wrong components. We've had a tank (sometimes multiple) setup ever since. I'm excited to check everything out on this coast (first time living east of NV) and look forward to exploring the community here. We stopped by Reef Escape today after finding them on this site. We'll start checking out others as we settle in and especially after the rest of our stuff arrives from CA.