Fireshrimp

The nice thing about poly filter, is you can cut, bend,stuff wherever water can pass through it. I would take one of your cartridges out and cut one to fit the area. Otherwise there should be room to slide one in front of the cartridge, so that the water goes through the poly filter last. I have also been reading about the Marine Pure, does seem to have advantages, but I'm not sure I would use it in my reef. I am very old school, and if it ain't broke, don't fix.

Sounds good trying to get poly filter. That stuff is amazing! I use it regularly. I'm not a big fan of the already made up filter cartridges, they usually use an inferior brand of carbon, that can actually add more things into your water...phosphates etc. Marine pure isn't something I have used, so can't help you there.

Dana, I want to clarify my previous posting. Yes, you can have higher nitrates, but don't think you can have them off the chart. If you strive for lower than your 35ppm you will see tremendous growth in corralline, which is always prettier than "just rocks". Plus your nuisance algae will disappear. Continue with the water changes, cleaning the filter etc. What media are you running?

Do not remove the media. This is helping as long as you are changing it at every two weeks. As far as the bioballs, every 6 to 8 weeks you should rinse in clean saltwater to get rid of the nasties, but keep the good bacteria. Your setup is not the optimum, but can be used if you keep up on water changes and maintenance. Many first tanks started out this way.

Hello, and happy holidays to you. It really sounds like you are on the right path. As you know already, your hob filter is just not large enough to handle your bioload. Cleaning the filter media and doing large water changes is really a must if you are going to get the nitrates down. Since this a fowlr tank you can have higher nitrates to no harm to the inhabitants. Try to keep them where they are. More live rock should be your next step. However, don't add too much too fast. It will start a mini cycle unless you get it locally and know for sure it is cured. How does the skimmer produce? Hopefully it is making lots of dark gunky skimmate. This helps to lower the organics, thus lowering or at least stabilizing the nitrates. You didn't mention if you have a powerhead to help release trapped detritus.

My anemone crabs (porcelain) hanging out in their pads. The littlest one lives in a maxi mini carpet. And big momma lives in a long tentacle. They are really fun to watch, waving their arms to catch food. Big momma goes around on the anemone cleaning each tentacle.

Sometimes aggression from another fish can do this. Any chance of this? If he does have ick, is he scratching along the sand or rocks? Diseases can definitely make him change colors. How is your water quality?

I too have tried for years to grow xenia to no avail. They grow for a few weeks, then slowly disappear. Why is it that they grow for some and others don't?

Good morning everyone! I do not rinse my frozen food. I feed twice a day. I would assume that it does add somewhat to the organics, but I have no nuisance algae, so all is good. I would think it would make more since to rinse if you have a very small tank. Otherwise, give it all the goodness, juice and all.