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I also have a 150 reef ready with sump & stand to sell if you're interested. The craigs list ad is here http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/for/1491592385.html Just make a best offer

Centreville Aquarium as Jake mentioned. The owner really tries to make sure the tanks & fish are clean & healthy. The prices seem reasonable. Also in Manassas - PetCo 10800 Prom Lane Manassas, VA 20110 Phone: (703) 257-6373 has drastically improved in the last year. I wouldn't buy fish there yet but a good source for frozen food CORDIS FISH & PET SUPPLIES 9067 LIBERIA AVE, MANASSAS, VA 20110 Phone: (703) 365-8966 The owner is very nice but I haven't been impressed with their SW offerings. Nice for a last minute stop to pick up a treat of brine shrimp. They had good prices on pumps/powerheads last I looked. They also sell water for people in that area

I have been considering this as well. I am looking at auto topoff methods. Currently I use the reliable drip method. But the container I have space for in the house for this is way too small for an extended vacation. I want to put a storage container of RO/DI water in the garage. Since this would put it at or below the sump level I would have to pump the water over. This seems to me that it would require a float switch. Does anyone have any recommendations? I have looked at Tunze & Aquasense

Watching a coral or fish that was in bad shape & you rescued it finally start to improve and grow. The laugh you get when your LMB decides to rearrange things that aren't glued in and you realize you are talking to a fish :p

That must have been one hungry fish

Don't count on the peppermint shrimp. Mine never touched the aptasia that came in on a turbo snails back. I eventually removed the snail from the tank and treated it directly with vineger. Taking care not to get any on the snail itself - just the shell. But the vinegar worked.

mogurnda, I'll take some of the terebellid worms goblinshark, I'll bring in plenty of caulerpa. I can use some mushrooms. Right now, the only mushrooms I have are a couple striped green and one blue so I could use more shrooms and some zoos. If anyone is interested in a cabbage leather I'll figure out how to frag it. From what I've read so far it doesn't seem difficult.

The problem with just using tap water is testing it for all the various heavy metals that may be in the system in minute quantities. These will accumulate over time in the tank. Most of the local water supply is also very high in phosphates. I have an RO/DI unit. I use the Instant Ocean Salt mix and the PH has been in acceptable ranges with that mix. I'm sure most of the mixes on the market have acceptable PH when mixed properly but others will need to comment on specific brands other than IO.

I would be interested in doing a sandbed exchange. I also have lots of razor caulerpa if anyone is interested. No corals have grown enough to frag yet except the cabbage leather.

Hmmm. All my Salifert kits rely on a color change I couldn't find a kit on their pages that didn't state that it is not based on color. I think Amber has a valid concern, but then I'm not color blind nor do I know anyone local to me to find out if they can see the color change on the tests.

I got a yellow watchman goby recently except it is not really yellow. It has all the markings of the yellow watchman with the blue spots and looks exactly like one except there isn't much yellow. It is more of a cream color. Sorry I cna't post a picture but the camera is out of commission. I've had it for almost 2 months now. Do they develop color at a later stage (it's about 2 inches long) or is it misidentified?

Looking for some scarlet hermits and shells for them to grow into. Some colorful mushrooms & zoos would also be nice.

Well, here is what we did. We had leftover pond liner, so I used that under the Mag7 - we still had the noise. After a lot of fiddling, cleaning & checking the impellor & casing, looking for any plumbing that might be running against the sump/fuge or the display, we finally realized that the SCWD unit was touching the canopy. After putting a mouse pad behind the SCWD, the noise has been reduced to a hum which is not very loud [hro Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I'm not sure what your max number/inches of fish is going to be. It wil be dependant on how much filtration you have, whether you have a sump and/or fuge. But a very broad rule of thumb, that I have heard, is 1 inch of fish per 5 gallons. I'm not sure how much stock I put in that rule. Remember the LR displaces a lot of water so you aren't really working with 55 gallons. You need to research the mximum size the fish will grow to as well. As far as peaceful, firefish seem to be really peaceful. My Percula clowns don't seem to bother corals or other fish.

Forgot that point - at 6'4" I sometimes forget about the vertically challenged people reaching in their tanks [ws] tng that's why I have a stepstool to get into my lowly 55g which is a 21" tall tank. The stand is 37" tall (It's on industrial strength wheels)" The opening for under the stand is 24" high which doesn't allow much clearance when doing anything in the sump/fuge. That is definitely a key factor when determining your stand height is interior height.

A building party works for me prt I have all the tools needed - just need a new saw blade. I would think it would need to be a small group unless someone has a lot of space. I already have the plans in my head of what I want, just need to draw it out & doublecheck my measurements. Along with footprints for the sump equipment I really want. I won't be doing anything until probably the July time frame. Right now researching suppliers & the most cost effective method.

Is there a supplier in the area for 1/2 acrylic? I'm using an old AG tank for a sump/refugium. I would like to make a seperate fuge & sump that would fit better in my cabinet, use the space more efficiently, & be easier to reach into if there is a need (like trimming back caulerpa). I could use 1/4 but then I have to build a lip around the top. I would prefer the 1/2. If there is no supplier in the area, what is a good online source? Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

Thanks everyone for the replies. It is a brand new pump so the impeller should not need cleaning, but I'll check it anyway. The water going to the sump is prefiltered in the overflow box. So the only buildup to ever occur will be the normal slime/algae/calciferous buildup that wouldn't get stopped by a filter anyway. I'll get a filter pad to go under it to see if that will help the noise.

If you can't wait for it to cycle, you can also do nightly water changes. Each night just a little less water until the cycle is done. Its a pain, but you don't have the wait factor. Since a QT is usually pretty small it doesn't take that long. My QT has a whisper filter & I do the same thing HVF21221 suggested, but instead of sponges I keep a new filter bag in my sump. If you have to treat the fish with anything make sure you do not put that sponge or filter back in your display tank. As far as medicating the fish - the less the better. For ick hyposalinity should be tried. Over a 48 hour time frame you drop the salinity from the normal 1.024 to around 1.009. You will need a refractometer for this since if it gets below 1.007 you could cause damage to the fish. After 3 weeks all of the ich should be gone. Then you bring the salinity back up to that in your display. Again very slowly. If it doesn't seem like the ich is starting to disappear after a week or the fish is in really bad shape, then try the appropraite medication. Just remember copper is toxic to fish as well especially if it is overdosed. By the way, I've used this method it cured the ick & lymph that my perculas had.

I just set up a second pump for use with a SCWD. It is a mag 7. Are they all this noisy? It sounds like I have a refrigerator running in my sump sht]] It is hard plumbed & that could be contributing to the noise as well. Any suggestions other than changing the plumbing? I have a Rio 2100 as the other pump & it hardly makes any noise at all.

55g reef 25g sump/fuge 10g QT 800g FW pond

the Orchid Dottyback (Fridmani Pseudochromis) is an entertaining & beautiful fish to watch. Even better if you can get a mated pair.

When the feather duster is dead, the tube will start to shrivel up. Or at least that is what I've seen in the small dusters that came in on some LR. I have a couple jumbo feather dusters as well. One threw it's crown one day when I was cleaning the tank. It took about 1 week for it to start growing back - you could just barely see the tips of the new feathers. But they kept growing. My tank uses two 175w MH & the light doesn't seem to bother them

During the winter & spring so far the range is 78-80. Couple of peaks up to 82 like during the heatwave last week but the house AC is on now so that shouldn't happen anymore. My tank hasn't been thru a summer yet, so we will see what happens.

Let us know how the 4" fans go. I have the AC versions in my light hood and they are definitely a noise maker. I would love to replace them with something much quiter.