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I used this stuff and saw no difference in my algea problems. Moreover, I have never found any advantage to a refugium. I've taken mine off line for many months and the main tank didn't look any better or any worse. They are a nice place to hold macro algea an large copepod/isopod populations. Cyno is not generally caused solely by phosphate. It's usually a combination of nitrate, phosphate, poor/old lighting, over feeding, and low alkalinity. -Tom

They are generally easy to keep. I had a very large one before I switched to SPS. They don't like to share the tank with scleractinians, so stay away from the SPS corals. I would not run carbon all the time, as it depletes the water of things they do need to survive. They generally perfer marginal water quality, opposed to the pristine water quality for SPS corals. -Tom

I have heard very bad things about them, but mine lasted 5+ year before it went belly up (ran dry for a number of hours). They do run very hot - no need for a heater when you have one. -T

http://www.cyberreefguru.com/diy/index.html

Try turning the eggcrate over. The walls of the eggcrate are acutally angled to reduce light in one direction and increase light in the other direction. Also, you can put a 4" (or 6") guard up around the parameter of the tank. Generally fish can't jump 4" above the water line, so they will not be able to jump over the guard. The only issue is the overflows. I had a yellow wrasse that like to jump into the overflows, but the guards kept him in the tank. -Tom

The use of carbon in a W/D is far less efficient than using carbon in a cannister filter. However, it does work. I would not use any filter floss or anything that traps detritus. -Tom

I would not necessarily use a LFS as the metric for setting up a home reef tank. Although they can be a good resource for information, they have a staff dedicated to maintaining tanks and they have access to corals all the time. So a few dead corals are easily replaced. If I maintained my tank every day, cleaning time would a lot easier!

Mine was captive from ORA.

With high quality live rock and live sand, you don't need any additional filtration. During the cycle, you should probably use a little carbon and a lot of water changes. Once things are established, the LR and LS will do all the filtration you need. How deep is your sand? I'd highly recommend MH for you lighting. PCs are fine, but ifyou eventually want to keep SPS coral, you will most likely want to upgrade. Eat the cost up front if you can. A DIY MH setup can be done for ~$150 w/ a 10K lamp. -T

You might want to consider this: http://www.reefcentral.com/diy/seaclone_modifications.htm -Tom

Does a UPS and Sound Sticks for my Mac count? :D

My orchid dottyback (p. fridmani) never showed any aggressiveness to any of my other fish. They are the most docile dottybacks available. If it were a purple dottyback (p. porphyreus) or a royal gramma (Gramma loreto), things would be different. I would think that a pair of clowns would be fine, but I have never kept them so I don't know. I guess it depends on the type of clown fish. Ocellaris or Percula should be fine IMO. Other fish might be a gobie, green chromis, or a blenny. If you don't have a reef tank you can go with some of the more agressive fish such as a small trigger, hogfish, etc. Depending on your invert selection (if any), you can consider a hawkfish, a small wrasse, and certain angelfish. -Tom

Good quality carbon will decrease your skimmate for a while. But most skimmers pick up after a few days. I would help to know the type of skimmer to guage the quality. -T

If the only thing in the filter is carbon (or some other form of chemical filtration), I would agree. However, most people load cannister filters up with filter floss, which turns into a very effective biological filter and ultimately undermines the biological filtration in his live rock and live sand. Without knowing the details of how he is using the cannister filter, I guess I shouldn't of made any sort of assumption. -T

Joe, Sounds like you have a good handle on reefkeeping. Here are some comments that might help in the long run. You don't need the cannister filter or the whisper power filter if you have good live rock and live sand. In fact, they will only cause problems, as they will become nitrate producers. The biological filtration provided by the external filters will convert ammonia to nitrate before your LR and LS will have a chance to assimilate it. I'd recommend removing the external filtration and let the LR and LS do their job. I'd also recommend having 4-6" of LS, but 1-2" will work as well. You have a lot of anemones in your tank. There is a good chance that one of them will move and sting your other inhabitants. Moreover, you will probably need more light to keep your anemones happy for the long term. The only one I am familar with is the LTA, which requires a far amount of light. You are on the low end of the spectrum in that regard. Best of luck! -Tom

Steve - cyno is NOT a regular part of a cycle. Diatoms and green algae are a regular part of a cycle. Joe/Patti: The presence of cyno indicates a nutrient rich environment. This is usually caused by high levels of phosphates or nitrates. Lighting is usually an exacerbating factor. A lot of light allows the cyno to reproduce more quickly. The use of chemicals such as red slime remover will not work perminently unless the source of the problem can be found. I won't go into the dangers of using antibiotics such as the red slime remover, but they should be avoided at all costs. Since the cyno generally uses the phosphate before you can test for it, your phosphate tests usually turn up zero. Moreover, phosphate test kits generally only test for inorganic phosphate, which is only half the problem (organic being the other half). Cyno is such a large problem, I have written a small article about it. Please read the following: http://www.cyberreefguru.com/general/cyno.html Finally, a small amount of cyno is inevitable. It will always exist in your tank, the key is to keep it under control. -Tom

Dan, Do you have any live rock or live sand in your SW tanks? If not, I'd recommend 20% water changes at least every month, probably more like every other week. If you have LR and LS, you only need 10-20% water changes every month, fewer if you know what you are doing. I use a similar method as Steve. Although, a large enough pump will act as a heater, but you proabably want to get use a heater anyway. I always have about 40 gallons of SW and FW ready to go. After a few days the salinity of the SW changes, but some additional FW fixes that. If you don't already have one, get a good RO/DI unit to make FW on demand. Do not use tap water! FWIW - you definately don't want to take your fish out to change your water or mix the water in the tank. Adding FW to your tank will kill most of the living things in your tank (like the nitrifying bacteria, amphipods, copepods, etc.). -Tom

Carpet anemones are one of the more, if not the most, difficult anemones to keep alive. You should check out Phil Henderson's article on anemones. http://fins.actwin.com/articles/choosinganemone.php You have a fair amount of light for the anemone, but you should probably have at least dual 250's to keep it happy. It will also need to fed often - at least 2-3 times per week. I have heard of anemones "spitting up their insides" as a normal acclimation process - is that what it looks like? Where did you get the anemone? How deep is your sand? FWIW, you don't need the W/D with your LR and LS. -Tom

You might want to check out Phil Henderson's article on anemones. He did an excellent job at detailing the needs of the various types of anemones. http://fins.actwin.com/articles/choosinganemone.php -Tom

Some amount of anoxic areas are unavoidable (under rocks, etc), but large bands can be controlled - the more living animals you have in the sand, the more the sand will be aerated. Thus, fewer/smaller anoxic areas. FWIW, small anoxic areas are good, as denitrification happens there. However, large areas will probably eventually release HS2 into your tank, which is generally a bad thing. I'm sure some of our members will donate some LS to your cause, or you can get some from Dr. Mac at the next meeting (if you ask him for it in advance). -Tom

Mike - I think what you said is the key:

John is correct, a "standard" 120 is 24x24x48 - that's what mine is. I got mine at the AC. I would think Mike or Grimm would make a pretty good deal for you. -Tom

Roozens? Come on Mike! ???

The instructions say 12-18 months, but I have found their lifetime to be variable. I had one last 2+ years and one last only 6 months. Mike - you can MO calibration solution from just about any vendor. Make sure you get the small single use packets though - the large multi-use liquids go bad over time and are basically useless after the first couple of uses. I think PA sells the single use packets for about $1 each. -Tom

Andrey, The limitations of the BB you speak of are a function of the software we are using and is completely outside our control. I looked into switching to a new BB, like the ones that reefs.org and reefcentral use, but we would loose our existing content. If that's OK with everyone, we can make the switch. It is standard practice with ISPs to limit both bandwidth and storage space. However, we are not near our limit on either. Allowing picture uploads to every forum could push us over the limit for storage, especially if people abuse the right. We could very easily add it to the F/S forum though. -Tom