DFR

To be honest, the skimmer-less idea isn’t bad. I ripped all my filtration out and went with ONLY a fuge about 1.5 years back and couldn’t be happier. Since you will run Core 7, your trace elements should be fine (in relation to what macro algae typically consume). In my particular situation I converted due to tunability, but it also made my life easier. I’m now moderately stocked and only run the fuge for about 4 hours a day. If the need ever arose, I can increase or decrease the duration to help keep my nutrients higher or lower. The only “maintenance” I do is vacuum the substrate about once a month. I run about 1” bed in display and none in fuge, but I do have some marine pure in my “overflow”.

Looks like regular isopods. I wouldn’t peg them to be the culprit with your zoas.

^what he said, funny I was basically typing the same thing at the same time

Replacing rocks will not solve the issue and despite having marine pure blocks, your tank will likely still be thrown off balance. Depending on the size of tank, and fish and coral stocking, you can choose from a number of biological control. File fish are fine, but Hey also have an affinity for zoas. Generally peppermint shrimp would be a safe bet in ‘reef’ systems as most people shy away from fish that eat shrimps. Nudis are pretty good also, but come at a decent price tag for something that you WON’T see.

How far apart did you perform the salinity tests? It is possible that you took your first reading before it was fully mixed.

Looking at the tank, nothing seems to be way out of whack. The colors look fine to me but you see it everyday . If it is getting dull, it could be too low nutrients (which a round of testing will determine). As for your original question; ocean revive produces a nice spread so instead of completely changing them out, you could just add supplemental light (option 3) to increase intensity and slightly reduce shadowing. All of your older colonies seem to be doing well with your current lighting, so why change to something completely new.

I also got TM from my LFS (Tropical Lagoon) when I switched from RC. I try to support local businesses whenever possible, so I’ll probably buy from there (or one of our vendors) when it’s time to buy more.

If he’s been around for almost 2 years, I wouldn’t consider feeding as the issue. I also wouldn’t point the finger at stress as since they have a thin slime layer would have probably contracted other issues (most commonly I have). Water quality or carbon particulates could be plausible especially for a younger fish (as he looks to be around 3-4” now). Do you by chance have a hospital/quarantine tank or even a smaller tank that you could move him into? If possible I’d move him just to keep a closer eye on him and give more personalized attention. That way you would be able to make changes without having to worry about disturbing the balance in your main display. If your current filtration and feeding is working for all the other inhabitants I wouldn’t just start changing things as that could cause more issues.

My guess would be that those were collected in Guam. Shoot the supplier (or vendor) an email, they should be able to shed some clarity on this.

Welcome aboard!!!

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Your tank is still pretty young. It can benefit from regular water changes, vacuuming substrate, and physically cleaning the rockwork. Your Magnesium is also kind of high.

Don’t think it’s a marketing gimmick, just what they are called in that region. I don’t think I ever saw one sold under that name though.

You are correct, they are just regular yellow tangs. As for the “sp” distinction. This is an easy way to refer to a specific species in a given genus (in this case flavescens). Inversely if it was written as “spp” the description you read would be pointing to ALL species in that genus.

Following along. I love the stand!!! Leave it open, it looks like it was designed to be without a door.

This might sound obvious but if you haven’t, purge your system for a couple minutes before you take the reading. More info would also help better diagnose.

It’s usually easier to identify a number of macro algae after it grows out so structures can better develop and be easier to ID. Sounds like you just finished your cycle process so I’m sure that your tank is still pretty unstable. Regardless of type of algae, at this stage I’d recommend manual removal and continue to perform your weekly water changes.

It could also be your frequency of dipping that caused it to die back. I may be wrong and someone correct me if I am, but I think Euphilias are a little more sensitive to dips (higher concentrations or longer durations). After losing a couple Euphilias shortly after addition, I resorted to dipping them for just a short period (maybe a minute with real gentle turkey basting). Probably not doing much for tests but I feel it is still better than direct addition. But as a side note, have you considered Springers Damsels? They’re pretty passive and a natural way to control flatworms.

The standard 120g (48”x24”x24”) is a nice place to start. Pretty readily available, and nice footprint for popular LEDs.

I agree with Dave, chaeto isn’t going to bring down the phosphate quickly. However IMO you don’t need to bring it down quickly, providing it is not causing any issues. Running an adequately sized fudge can be a fundamental part of any filtration system and can be a long term solution. What are you running for filtration and how long has your system been running?

Could also be Spider-Man zoas. Are they both the same? The color of the face and mouth seems a little different in both pics.

Everyone already mentioned the major pros and cons, but one additional reason I’ve opted against bare bottom is keeping it clean. It is easy to remove detritus but harder to clean algae. I don’t like to get my hands and arms wet so I’m able to use a magnetic cleaner to clean film algae off the glass walls before it gets to that stubborn hard to remove stage where a razor is needed. Similarly, with bare bottom, since the film probably won’t get cleaned as frequently, there’ll likely always have be a coat of algae on the surface.

Welcome back to the hobby, and welcome to the group!

I’m partial to BRS units mostly because of modularity, ease of use, and relative cost. Depending on the your planned usage, aquarium size, and budget, I would recommend different course of actions. I do however believe the 5-stage units are a good general place to start and can be modified later to add more canisters if needed. For efficiency I’d also recommended their dual RO membrane as that cuts waste water in half. Your water quality report is somewhat easier to follow than WSSC’s. My big take away was that they don’t use chloramines as a disinfectant. That being said, you can use regular carbon blocks. I have been using 5 micron pre-filters without any issues and change them out based on color (which is well before any noticeable pressure drops). I also change out my carbon blocks at this time so again it’s well before they are depleted. I’ve never tested my source water but I suspect it’s pretty low TDS as my DI resin seems to last forever.