gastone

Carla, where's the full tank shot? G.

Truthfully Sean I hate caulerpa. If it finds a way into your display tank it and infests your rock it will always be there. A bane IMO. With chaetomorpha this just doens't happen as it doesn't "root". So if it isn't too late, replace it. Otherwise, learn to live with it. G. BTW, sounds like caulerpa racemosa or grape caulerpa.

Sean, I usually take out 1/2 to 3/4 at a go. I've never had caulerpa go "sexual". Have used a 24 cycle and a currently use a lighting cycle opposite the halides on my display ~16 hours per day. Garrett.

I wonder how that thing will handle an air hockey puck doing 70mph?

Go here and read: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=282136 IMO purchasing one clown online isn't the best idea in your situation. I would purchase a smaller clown of the same species locally. CB is great if you can find them. Garrett.

Mike, looks like you've gotten some good feedback. The only thing I would say is that you aren't going to get any significant denitrification from having a DSB in your fuge. If it was me I would go with about 1/4" of coarse gravel or broken up LR rubble. Pods love this stuff and gives them another place to hang. GL Garrett.

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Happy Birthday Chris. Garrett.

1.009 Higher won't be effective.

Try Dr. Ron's forum over at MarineDepot, or you can try LeslieH at RC http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay...amp;forumid=427 Garrett.

I've got more experience with blastos than acans. With blastomussa wellsi I keep them in low light and low to moderate flow. I feed them weekly (at least) with a mixture of mysis, cyclopeeze, oyster eggs and selcon. My merlettis, wellsis and acan lords all readily devour the mix. As far as wellsi growth, they do not seem to grow well for me. In similar conditions I've had one small colony grow slowly while the other has slowly lost polyps (started with about 9, down to about 4 over the course of two years or so). I've read that as they are generally collected in deeper water they like lower temps (mid 70's) lower light (I keep mine under an overhang... way under an overhang) and lower flow (enough to keep sediment off of them but not so much as to cause the polyps to close). I've read way too many stories over on RC about blastos fading away. In the future I won't acquire any more wellsi. Just not worth it IMO. On the other hand, IME acans are quite hardy. They are more tolerable of different lighting and flow. I keep them under both T5s and halides and they seem quite adaptable under either one. Acclimation to higher light should be done slowly though. I feed them at night when the tentacles are out (in fact one of my frags has extended tentacles almost all day long and is definitely the fastest growing of my frags). They get fed at least twice a week if not three or four times. Garrett.

motile invertebrate=goes where it finds happiness. Here is some good reading: http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf In short, it is going to move where it wants. You can try placing it in a crevice in the rockwork where you would like it to be... doesn't mean that's where it is going to stay. GL Garrett.

Welcome to the club. Sounds like things are progressing nicely for you. Don't sweat the xenia. There are members here who have beautiful reefs that for some reason cannot keep xenia. I'm sure you'll find that there are plenty of members here willing to give some to you so you can try again. As far as your questions: There are numerous different methodologies on maintaining a successful reef. Different strokes for different folks. Bob Fenner's book "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" outlines quit a few different approaches, including skimmerless systems. If I was to bet money, I would say that most people in WAMAS utilize skimming. I skim and use a refugium w/macroalgae. 30x12 should be ample space for a sump. Vertically what are your constraints? Garrett.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idP...ct~CU01390.html or http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idproduct~HT3113.html or...

Bring up your salinity slowly. Generally speaking you can drop your salinity fairly quickly, but you want to take your time raising it back up. I would mix up some slightly saline top off and use that to raise the salinity over the course of a week. Garrett.

lamps, bulbs, whatever floats your boat. It's all the same in my book. G.

I generally look for used... mostly because I teach and net like $17.00 a year. Really gotta stretch that out. Comes out to like .05 per diem. Sweet. In all seriousness, I think I have a box of used 250W DE lamps laying around if you want to use them for color comparison. They are all used and probably don't have much if any life left on them, but they should suffice for comparison's sake.

Connor, IMO don't go with the XMs. You may want to think about the Phoenix lamp. It has a similar spectral plot, but puts out about 89% more par. Garrett. FWIW I'm not aware of anyone using DE XM 15k lamps.

Chris, where is the FTS? G.

Lyndsay, check to see if they will take it back at the store you purchased the nudi from. Try appealing to the owner/manager. Explain your predicament (leaving out any blame on their part of course). If that doesn't work out you may want to just toss it. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but it is highly unlikely that any hobbyist will be able to provide for it. GL Garrett.

Brian, you may want to check with one of the guys over on the chemistry forum on RC. Dr. RHF is back and awesome as ever. I think a thourough cleaning would do the trick, but then again... Garrett.

Johnny, was in between tanks for awhile and had to keep all of my corals/anemone (an RBTA in this case) in a tank with an 80w pc fixture (40w 10k and 40w actinic) for about 8-9 months (not exactly long term, but a fair amount of time). The anemone was fine. Didn't grow significantly, but didn't lose color either. HTH. Garrett.

1) Magflake provides magnesium. 2) You want calcium chloride only. One other alternative is "Prestone Driveway Heat". Comes in a jug. I've gotten it at Lowes, HD, Walmart. Check the chemistry forum at RC for other ideas. You can always order from buckeyefieldsupply or twopartsolution as well. I've used them both and they are both good vendors. GL. Garrett.

Taping the backside works pretty good. G.

Tracy, the tank looks awesome. Good work. Garrett.