jamesbuf

I had a bunch of them on about 70lbs of liverock I bought off a fellow member. I bought 2 peppermint shrimps and they were all gone within a week. Worked for me.

I thought live aquaria has a "what you see is what you get" section?

Are you referring to macroalgaes?? Share the knowledge.

Just buy the kit from mjmods.com . It comes with the propeller and everything else you'll need. For just a 55 gallon, 2 of the 1200 mods would be wayyyyy too much. I would go with 2 of the 900 mods, or just one 1200. That still might be a little overkill on just a 55gal. And you can't use them on wavemakers. Since the maxijets run off of AC(alternating current) the propeller can start either way, either pushing water out of the mod, or pulling water in. You have a 50/50 shot of which was the propeller goes. That is why there is a stopper place at the front of the mod to prevent it from sucking water in. If the propeller starts the wrong way, it will push the propeller housing up and will hit the stopper, which in turn forces the propeller to start going the other way. Once that happens, the force of it wanting to push water out also pushes the propeller assemble backwards where it will not hit the stopper and continue running. If you put these on a wavemaker, it will continually stop and start, which means that the propeller will be hitting that stopper over and over, eventually breaking the propeller. Hope this helps. Its kindof hard to put into words what happens with the stopper. Go to jmmods.com and they have instructions and pics on how to do everything.

probably snail eggs

What is the purpose of dipping the corals in the lugols?

I believe Howard plans on having another group buy in a few weeks, maybe earlier. Just periodically check the "Group Buy" threads.

What brand of cleaner do you guys use on your glass tops? There is a bunch of buildup on my glass that I can't get off. Cleaned it several times and the glass looks clear when under the hose cleaning it, but after it dries and gets under my lights, there seems to be some type of white-ish buildup. I know I can use CLR or some other type of buildup remover, but I figured I would check in to see what other people use that might be safer.

I would just add the liverock and let it sit for a couple weeks, maybe longer. In regards to whether you need more liverock, it depends on how much more livestock you plan to add. I thought you had a stingray, if so, I would make sure to leave alot of rockless swimming surface for it. And remember to move slow. I'm sure other more experienced members will chime in with more directions as well. When in doubt, ask the club. Thats what I do.

I also agree. Johnny has alot of experience to draw from and I see nothing wrong with him giving his opinion. He's a paying member and has helped countless people on this site. I hope to have a tank as nice as his someday. Considering how much he does for this site and its members, he can do no wrong in my book.....other than having his store so freakin' far away from me

Thanks for the tips. I cleaned the glass the day before I took the pics, so I didn't even consider doing it again. Guess I missed a few spots.

Can't wait till I can afford money for the good stuff. Right now, $1000 for a AP701 is just waaaay out of my league.

I got it from a guy who broke down his tank around 2 months ago. Nope, they both are somewhat passive. I probably feed them more than I should, so they're fat and happy. I've only had the trigger for about 10 days, but so far so good. I haven't seen him nibble on any corals and he doesn't even pay snails or hermits any attention. Both my peppermints, coral banded, and cleaner shrimp are accounted for. Its just the angle I took them at. The BTA is actually pretty green. Weird. The other long tentacle came from a guy whose lights died on him and he just gave away all his stuff. I got the anemone and he was as white as he looks now. Been feeding fresh salmon to help get him back to health. At first I had him in a shaded area and he looked worse than he does now. As soon as the lights go off he fills with water and looks much better. I'm gonna move him into the shade again and see what happens. I used a 3 year old Sony 4meg camera. Like I said, still new and the whole taking pic of the tank thing. I was only able to use about 1/3 of the pics because I was too close for most of the pics. I put the camera on what I thought was the "finest" settings for sharp pics. Any tips on this guys? Should've cleaned my glass too.

Sweet, it worked. Now for some more. My hippo and my monster frogspawn A couple pics of my new riteri anemone, complements of F&F Pics of my LARGE gold banded maroon clown with its favorite home, a GBT anemone Another pic of my huge frogspawn Pic of my algae blenny and a Long tentacle anemone I'm trying to nurse back to health and finally pics of all the fish begging/waiting for dinner time Like I said, nothing special, especially compared to other tanks I've seen on here, but it keep me busy and happy, and thats the point right?

I'm finally comfortable showing some pics of my tank (finally in control of the hair algae). Nothing special, just a bunch of softies and fledgling colonies of zoos and polyps. Still consider myself a newbie when it comes to corals, but so far so good. But my fishies are pretty cool. I'm also a newbie to the whole pic posting so if i screw up, any help is much appreciated.

First off I would definitly add 2-3 more inches of sand. I switched from crushed coral to a 6" DSB about 3 months ago and man did it help my water parameters. As for live rock, I would find some liverock under the "for sale" lists. I believe that someone is breaking down a 150 gallon right now and there should be 50lbs left. NEVER buy LR from any of the LFS. Way overpriced and who knows how long its been cycled. There are always people selling LR on here around 3-4 per lb, you just have to periodically check back now and then. As for fish.....with a tank that big, I would definitly get a niger trigger and a clown trigger. Clown triggers are so awesome looking, they are the reason I switched over to saltwater a few years back. You could probably even get 2 nigers since they are less aggressive than most triggers (but will still rip food to shreds during feeding ) If you buy the fish small, you could even add a couple more types of triggers. Look for a Lunare Wrasse. Awesome, fast swimming and agile fish. Very colorful too. I would look into getting some type of tang too. There are very hearty and many do well in a FOWLR setup. Get a good old reliable yellow tang. Very hearty and should be able to hold his own against the other aggressive fish. You're going to have some fish die off as you go along, so stocking in the beginning with several small fish will mean the strongest fish will make it and mature, just make sure not to add too much at one time and definitly make sure the tank is established before adding alot of fish. If someone had only told me that when I first started out, it would've save me a bundle of cash.

I have to agree. You need an enormous "footprint" for sharks. Imagine when it gets big and can't even turn arond in such a small tank. Do me a favor and go to a fish store called Totally Fish off of Georgia Ave in Silver Spring, MD. They have a huge indoor shark pond setup and even in a 3000 gallon system, their sharks still have bumps on their noses and other scars from runnging into things. I'm not saying you can't have sharks at home, I even eventually plan on housing sharks somewhere down the line when I have more money to invest in the right setup, not to mention after I've had a little bit more experience in the hobby. If you're looking for cool aggressive fish, you can't go wrong housing a few triggers along with an aggressive wrasse or two. Throw in a grouper and I guarantee lots of carnage. Triggers are very hearty and offer alot more room for error. Plus its a blast to feed them. Jeez I really miss my old trigger tank. If it weren't for all my snails, shrimps, and crabs, I would definitly go back to an aggressive FOWLR tank. I miss the CARNAGE!!!!!

I have a used Berlin Turbo HO Turbo skimmer. If it wouldn't fit in your sump, you could always hand it on the main tank. Thats what I did on my 125 before I setup a sump/refugium. Would be more than enough skimming for a 55 gallon. It was all I had on my 125 for a while before I could afford a downdraft. Send me a PM is you're interested.

Once again, another fantastic experience at your store. The Ritteri has acclimated well and looks to be loving life right now. Incredible buy. Thanks again Sean.

What type of skimmer do you use? I'm just curious, because it seems like you have something against the euroreefs.

How much would you have paid for a 30" tall Euroreef skimmer? I thought $75 was a good price for this. Even if I were to to mod it or have it as a spare. Even though its an older model, I'm pretty sure its still worth way more than $75. Same basic design and skimming principles. Thanks for the positive feedback. I figured it was either the one rated for 180 or 250. The link you sent was only for a 24" tall chamber, so I'm guessing/hoping that mine is the 250 model. I think I'm going to hold on to it until I eventually find a 210gallon or 180gallon to upgrade to. After that, I'm either going to attempt to mod the euroreef and add a sedra 9000 to just flow into the chamber like the dolphin does (similar to how the asm G5 and G6 have multiple pumps), or try to add it as a recir mod. I might just try to sell the euroreef and ETSS downdraft and buy a new ASM G5 or G6. We'll see. What is the difference between just using an additional needle wheel pump as a recirc as compared to using it as another pump going into the reaction chamber. I would think that increasing the flow and ammount of bubbles created would be better, but most of the newer skimmers I've seen are going to the recirc style. Go figure.

I need your guys help IDing a skimmer. The guy says its a euroreef, but I couldn't find an exact match anywhere on the net, so I don't know what size tank its rated for. It has the euroreef logo engraved on the collection cover plate. Its 30" tall and about 8.5" in diameter. It has a dolphin pump model dp-800 (with needle wheel inside), and I couldn't find a euroreef skimmer with that kind of pump anywhere. I found what looks to be a few matches on the web, but there are plenty of different ratings on a skimmer of this size. I guess it depends on what pump it is hooked up to?? It looks like this one but it doesn't have the square base platform and doesn't have the same design of outflow inside the skimmer. It also has a different pump. http://marinedepot.stores.yahoo.net/eurore...--euroreef.html Here are some pics of the skimmer. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?s=&a...um&album=35 The guy had it hooked up to a 180 gallon reef, a 55 gallon FOWLR tank, and a decent sized sump, which were all connected to one system, and he said it worked well for his system. He said he bought it from a LFS within 2 years. He said he ended up dropping a few grand on everything at one time, so he couldn't remember how much he paid for just the skimmer. I know Euroreefs are great skimmers, so I'm basically trying to decide whether to use this one for my setup or stay with my ETSS evolution 500 downdraft skimmer. Thanks for any help that can be offered.