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Just so everyone knows, the ISP we are using keeps making server modifications. As such, they continuously screw us (in a manner of speaking). Everything should be working now. Let us know if anything is broken. -T

IMHO, sand beds, especially deep ones, offer a great deal more food for SPS corals than any bare-bottom tank can. But, as always, there are a lot of factors. Clearly, there are many ways to setup a tank and no one way is "correct". However, there are ways that are "better" than others. I count DSBs as better than wet/dry filters. That is a far as I will go. -Tom

There is a big difference between total wattage and total intensity. I could put 440 watts of incandenscent over my tank but I dare not try even the hardiest mushrooms. I suspect that 285watts of PC would be about as intense as a single 250 watt MH lamp? That's a good deal of light on a 30 gallon tank, but not unheard of. I'd start with some run of the mill montipora digitata. If they work out, then try some hardy acro's. -Tom

A key difference between a Jaubert system and a deep sand bed is the grain size. As Shimek points out all the time, animals like certain grain sizes. The sizes used by Sprung in his Monaco-type systems are far larger than anything I would base a deep sand system on. Sprung makes no mention of the grain size in his deep sand systems. But I'm sure there will be more to come in Part 2 of the article. -T

Duely noted George. Netscape 4.x seems to have some display problems too. If it matters, you really should upgrade to IE5.5 or better due to the number of security vulnerabilities in the older versions of IE. The BB seems to work fine in IE5.5, Opera 6.05, and Netscape 6.02 (all under Windows). I haven't tried Unix or a Mac recently. -T