gastone

Sean, I use an old tank. My new QT setup will be my old 30g frag tank. Painted black on 3 sides and the bottom to minimize reflections. I keep a few small filter sponges in my sump at all times so I've got an established bacteria culture to use in the QT. (Ammonia can be a bear in a newly setup QT tank if you don't do this) I use a small heater (50w), thermometer, and a small powerhead pointed up to circulate water and generate good oxygen exchange. I also have one of those ammonia alert badges just in case. A small CF fixture is used to light the tank, nothing bright too bright as I don't want to startle the fish. Keep lotsa pre-mixed salt water and RO/DI on tap for water changes and salinity adjustments (especially for hypo-salinity if you go that route). That and whatever meds/foods are being used. There is no LR, and no sand in place. There are numerous pieces of cut up PVC in there to give the fish hiding places. Garrett.

I can only do 1:1 ratios. Even then I get confused! G.

A watts a watt. A 250w halide bulb operating off of a ballast pushing that bulb at 250w puts off 250w of heat. Similarly, a 100w widget operating at 100w puts off 100w of heat. Garrett.

Brian, I've got no experience with puffers, but certain fish will gorge themselves if presented with the opportunity for food. This is speculation on my part, but as puffers move quite slow, food is harder for them to get... in nature they have to work/look hard for their food so meals. I'm assuming they spend most of their days hunting without ever getting much to eat. As I'm sure you are aware, there are all kinds of health issues associated with eating too much (I'd think that in this regards, fish and people aren't all that different). FWIW I saw a puffer during the last social. It was producing a poop that my mastiff would have been proud of. Garrett.

I'm too pretty to fight. Second place works for me. G.

I gave away a bunch of the mini-tapetums recently when I was breaking down my fuge. I started with 2 a few years ago. Last time I counted (well over 1 year ago) I had 45 or so. No forced division at all on my part. These things are prolific splitters. When I went back to my old place to grab my frag tank (all frags, circulation and lights had been removed a week earlier), I found 2 tapetums still alive. The tank water couldn't have been higher than 60F. Garrett.

Wait, first a member of the TOTM committee wins the TOTM and then they guy who runs the POTM wins the POTM. Washingtonian corruption has found it's way into WAMAS. G.

I've used IO, then Marinemix BioAssay, then IO, then a 50/50 of IO and Oceanic, and now just IO. I haven't noticed any specific issues with any of them, which makes me wonder why I switched in the first place. Garrett.

Mitch, you probably have a 65w actinic and a 65w daylight bulb (10k), which is not the same as halide. That's a whole different lighting entirely. With the development of more efficient lighting systems - ballasts, lamps, reflectors, the watts per gallon rule has become archaic. In your case, what you have will suffice to maintain and grow numerous softies and LPS corals. I would think that LPS especially would do well in the lower light which your tank is producing relative to many other reef tanks. Mushrooms should thrive and zoanthids are probably going to be okay. Your current issues with the new additions could be anything from lighting, acclimation, water parameters... who knows. That being said, it is my opinion that clown hosting anemones shouldn't be added to a new system (a new reefkeeper) until it is 6 months- 1 year old. You say you don't know what the other corals are, but in the future you'll need to know what you are adding so that you know how to best provide for it. Don't worry about the mushrooms, they are as close to bulletproof as you can get. In the end, take your time. Look around the dedicated tank forum for member tanks. WAMAS has some beautiful tanks and we can all get good ideas of what we want to strive for, and how to achieve it, by looking there. Garrett.

All of these flowerseller clones... sounds rather incestuous. G.

250w on a 12" deep tank for LPS and zoas is not a good idea IMO. T5s probably won't work as they have very limited lamp choices at 18", though if you want to do an oversize 24" lamp/fixture, you'd have plenty of T5 options and could easily achieve a very blue mix. In fact, you will probably be able to find some PC fixtures that would more than suffice for what you want to do. G.

Brian, this is just my opinion so... the lights might be okay to keep some softies and LPS, but CF lighting systems are not as efficient, or as intense as other technologies. I could imagine that you would rather quickly decide to switch them out for a different system. The UV sterilizer is probably a bit underpowered for a 75 gallon (not including sump) tank. If memory serves me correct, the tidepool system uses a sort of bio-wheel filtration system. Fine for a FO setup, but probably not the best for a reef system. The remora skimmer will be undersized, especially with the rio pump. Garrett.

I use aquamend from HomeDepot. $4 a stick and I've never had problems. It isn't the tackiest epoxy, but if you build up a good base it works just fine. Garrett.

For 12" deep you'll be fine with 150w bulbs. The problem (as I'm sure you're finding) is that there are far fewer lamp choices in 150w than there are in 250w. Though I've never seen the radium in a 150 or the xm 20k in a 150, if they are similar to their 250/400w kin, then either would be a good choice. Garrett.

Some people say carbon is only effective for a few days, other say much longer. Look at Almon, who is our current TOTM... he replaces his carbon quarterly. As far as phosphate media, every tank is different. I follow the directions given to me on the media I'm using. Generally you have to replace frequently as it will become "depleted" rather quickly, later you can use it longer as it becomes more of a maintenance process. Every 4-6 weeks should be fine IMO. G.

Bob, you can do it that way. I use two phosban reactors run piggy back off of the same pump. Carbon first and then phosphate media. That way I can replace the media from one as needed without worrying about emptying out both at the same time. I do carbon first in hopes that it will lock up/catch any organics that would otherwise deplete the phosphate media faster. That stuff is a bit expensive. Garrett.

Scott, just like the radiums, the AC are mogul lamps that are spec'd for a M80 ballast. I'm no lighting expert, but I've spoken to guys online who are and they claim that these lamps will have a shortened life if used with an electronic ballast. This is just what I've been told mind you. Then again, Chris T. uses radiums with an electronic ballast and he swears by them (I don't know how often he changes out his lamps). I know of a guy down this way by me that was using the ACs on clam tank. He still had them lamps after like 18 months of use. Again, this was on an HQI ballast. Personally I love the radiums. I doubt I'll use a different lamp after using them, as I can't imagine a lamp producing a better color than them, and though the par numbers may not be as high as some of the 10k lamps, nothing that I've put under them has suffered from light deprivation IMO. G.

Research. I probably have the spectral output somewhere, or you can get it from Sanjay's site. On an HQI ballast the AC put's out the same amount of par as an XM 10k DE lamp does, but the spectral plot is so much nicer, IMO. I would put it up for you, but I'm limited to what I can access here at work and can't get on a hosting site to upload the plot. They are also spec'd for an HQI ballast so you can expect to get from 12-14 months out of them (which is good, cause they ain't cheap). G. Edit: In fact, I was just looking at the plot and the XM has a big spike in the "blah" portion of the plot and the AC has a big spike in the 450nm wavelength. Me likey blue.

Scott, I don't run them, but they are par monsters with a great look. I use radiums at the moment and will continue to do so, but if I was going to do an SPS system with clams I would seriously consider the AC. Garrett.

IME the only eradication procedure is the actual removal of the rock (or piece of the rock) to which the hydroids are attached. If you expoxy over them, they will grow under, around, through the epoxy. If you kalk them, they will scoff at you. Take out the rock and chip off, cut off a good size portion around the hydroids. Tossing it all together is probably the safe bet. Garrett.

I went through a lot of carbon when running ozone. I jerry-rigged up my skimmer cup collection lid to hold about 1-1.25 cups of carbon. I also added a filter sock to the bottom of my skimmer ouput pipe and added more carbon there, as well as to the top of the level adjustment pipe (old ER) skimmer. Lotsa carbon. Instead of using silica dessicant, try this stuff: http://www.drierite.com/default.cfm?gclid=...CFQgRFQodEEGT3g Garrett.

Yes. Not only possible, but they can thrive under pc lighting. G.

Anthelia, kenya tree, capnella, etc.... I refuse to add this to my tank/system and I refuse to pass them around to newcomers. In fact, I recommend that newcomers don't add these things to their tanks. Much like caulerpa, aptasia, bubble algae, these corals are a bane to me. Once established, they are almost impossible to eradicate and control. I have seen beautiful tanks overtaken by 2-300 + frags of these corals, each one growing into a mother colony that will drop more buds. I know newcomers are excited by the fact that they are getting free corals (as many people give these things away), but I would strongly advise against accepting them. The novelty will of the free brown coral will wear off. You'll want to add "prettier" more colorful corals in short order, but you'll have this plague in your tank. Garrett.

I do an iodine dip using providone iodine from CVS on all zoas that I add to my tanks. It will take care of nudis no problem. I do like to do a freshwater dip after the iodine bath just to remove as much as the residual iodine as possible. Someone gave my a ton of zoa frags once (with a few nudis as well that I was totally aware of). I did the iodine bath, but didn't rinse in a separate bath afterwards. The residual iodine caused havok in my tank with the LPS. The nudis however were taken care of. G.

Is your fixture for SE or DE lamps? I'm assuming SE in which case a shield *shouldn't* be needed. It could be faulty lamps (once maybe, but twice in so short of time I doubt), or a shoddy ballast. What ballasts are you using and where are resting (build in to the hood, under the stand, inside a bucket of topoff water - that's not good by the way)? Garrett. Edit: after reading back, I'm not even sure what hood you are talking about. Are these hallide lamps, T5 lamps, incandescent lamps???