Rascal

I don't . . . but I'm getting better. Lots of good photographers on the boards here, starting with 143Gadgets, but this link will get you started. It's a pretty good primer I thought. http://www.ximinasphotography.com/lessons/index.html

Same here. I was worried for a while when I first noticed it, but she has done it for about 1 1/2 years now and seems no worse for wear. Is it only the females that do this?

Agree with all that's been said so far. Unless you have a real plan to upgrade, why get a fish that will not be able to live out a full life in your tank, no matter what you do? If you really want a tang, get a yellow or a Kole (or better yet, a Tomini). They and you will be happier long term.

Do your laundry room fittings yous garden hose threads? If so it looks like you are all set with what you've go pictured there? If not, I would just go ahead and tap into that cold water pipe with the needle valve. It looks like it would be a cinch to just cut the pipe and replace the connection before you leave (I'm assuming that "not my house" means you are renting).

If it's just a holding tank for live rock you are eventually going to put in a reef, I would kill the lights entirely, put a skimmer on it, and start doing water changes. Sounds like you've got hair algae, bubble algae, and cyano. None of it will live without light. You will lose some coraline too but that's about it. IMO it's easier to grow coraline algae later than it is to get rid of nuisance algae. Kill it now while it's easy to do.

Piece it all together. Best advice I could give you as a noob is to look around a bit more before you buy anything. Check out Scales & Aquarium One in MD; Fins&Feathers, Blue Ribbon Koi, and MarineScene in Virginia. Lots of knowledgeable folks at all those stores who can give you sound advice on a good set-up, depending on your budget.

Sounds like you are on the right track. Get those nitrates and phosphates down to undetectable levels and you should see improvement. Make sure to manually remove the HA as it dies off. Just keep working at it. Me too. If I remember that thread right, I think there were a few people who lost their SPS because of manipulating Mag levels that high. The whole idea seemed a little risky to me. No reason to depart from the tried and true here IMO.

Update: It lives!! After 24 hours in the belly of the beast, the little ric popped out some time today. There are only a few bits of color left on it and it looks pretty battered, but it is still attached to the rock, it's mouth is in good shape, and it is starting to open up a little bit more -- so it's definitely alive. Pretty wild.

What are your levels of Alk & Ca now? Did you start dosing because you noticed they were starting to drop? If the parameters above are stable and within acceptable ranges, yes.

Ask, and ye shall receive: http://www.reefland.com/rho/2006/05/identi...llid_snails.php

A little while back I picked up a couple of rock / flower anemones (Epicystis crucifer, says Google). I really liked them in the Caribbean, they are relatively cheap, easy to care for, and best of all - mine have stayed exactly where I put them. They just burrowed into the sand next to a rock and opened right up. Pretty cool. They are also REALLY sticky and close up fast. A few inches upstream of the two little anemones was, among other things, a beautiful little (quarter sized) single-polyp hot pink ricordia yuma. Tonight I noticed that the ric had become dislodged from its little rubble pile, so I righted it and set it aside while I rearranged the rubble a little bit. When I went to put it back on its new and improved perch -- I saw it sitting smack dab in the middle of one of those anemones! I could barely believe my eyes, but it looked like the anemone was starting to close up around it, rock and all. Without thinking, I reached in to try and pluck the wee ric out of danger. That little anemone closed up and retracted so fast it actually started to suck me in with it. I was able to escape with my fingers (though I can still feel a tingle), but the ric was not so lucky. It was gone without a trace. After about an hour, the anemone started to open back up. I was sure it would regurgitate the little piece of rubble with the now dead ricordia on it -- but no such luck. It has been seven hours now and there has been no sign of the ric or its rock. I really think the anemone ate it! I figured it was a fish killer if anyone was dumb enough to swim near it, but I never dreamed it would eat a coral. It cost almost as much to feed that anemone tonight as it did my family. :(

It's a nuisance algae - or type of cyano -- id has never been my strong suit. Whatever it is, it may look pretty as a small patch or two, but won't look so hot if it spreads and starts to take up more of your tank. I had it bad in my tank for a while last fall. Still get a couple of patches here and there when water quality starts to dip a little. IME - it likes nutrients (big suprise) and possibly thrives on dips in PH and/or Alk. I have never seen anything eat it, but then again there are lots of things I can't see, so who knows? It may go away on its own, but if it starts to spread the standard advice for dealing with nuisance algae applies -- syphon or pull it out whenever you can, maintain good water quality, make sure you have good flow, and be patient. One of the problems with this stuff is that it seems to trap a lot of junk, so it may accelerate a decline in water quality if you leave it alone.

The stuff on the right which you have labeled "aragonite" is the seaflor reef sand? What is the stuff in the middle? When I set up the DSB in my fuge I did a little experiment. I used mostly a mix of oolitic and seaflor, but right along the front glass where I could see it I put clearly delineated sections of CC (small section), just oolitic, and just seaflor. FWIW, the number of visible worm tracks is inversely proportional to the size of the substrate. In other words, the sugar fine stuff has the most, with the seaflor a close 2nd, and the CC next to nothing. My display is 4-6" of a mix oolitic and seaflor, and I have been very happy with the health and performance of the sandbed. I put a lot of nassarius in my system so I don't worry about things getting compacted. Yeah, with a mere 15 years or so of experience and phenomenal success, what do you know?

Start with something hardy, but make sure it is something that fits into your long-term plan for the tank. There are some hardy sps, too -- monipora digitata for instance. For frags mounted on plugs, I usually use some underwater epoxy to attach it to the rockwork. When using epoxy just remember that it is not glue. You can mold it around the base of the plug and mash it into some cracks and holes and when it hardens it will hold everything in place, but don't expect it to just stick like glue would. For unmounted frags lately I have taken to just using super glue gel (the handi-bond type from a group buy last summer). I put a generous dab on the base of the frag and then push it against the rock under water until it sets up a bit. So far this has worked surprisingly well and takes up a lot less space than the epoxy. Some people just fine a secure place in the rockwork and place the frag so it will encrust as you describe, but when I try this it seems someone always wants to redecorate, so I have learned to make sure my frags are more secure initially.

I actually think our advice is more similar than not. Once the hair algae takes hold it is very difficult to get rid of. Your best bet is to go with a comprehensive approach involving both nutrient control and herbivores.

1) water changes Test your newly mixed saltwater for NO3 and PO4. If it doesn't test 0 for both you need to figure out where the nutrients are coming from and eliminate fix that problem. Assuming your new saltwater is good, I would increase to your water change schedule to 2X per week for a while. 2) Phosphates By leaching I mean your rock itself may have absorbed a lot of phosphate over time and is slowly releasing it when the level of PO4 in the water reaches a certain level. I am pretty sure this is what happened in my tank. It was severely overfed and underwater changed for about 10 months in '04-'05 while I was away, so even when I set up a new tank, all of the rock that I had transferred from my old tank was still leaching phosphates. After fixing every other possible cause I could think of, and making sure I had enough herbivores in the system, I decided to try extreme use of GFO and water changes coupled with aggressive manual removal. For a while I was running 1000gm of GFO at a time through 2 separate reactors, changing out 500gm every week (I worked up to these levels gradually, though). I also did a 10-15% water change once or twice a week. Once the levels dropped I was able to keep them low without using so much of the stuff. Now I only run 300-400 gm at a time and it has been 2 months since I changed it. Caveat: If you haven't first made sure that you are not adding any excess phosphates from overfeeding and/or source water, and also made sure your nitrates are low or undetectable, you will be wasting your money on GFO and a reactor IMO. For more info on the use of GFO to control phosphates -- I highly recommend this Reefcentral "Thread of the Month" -- http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...mp;pagenumber=1 Oh, and I'm not sure what you mean by "aggregate", but don't mess with that sand!

I have to disagree that it's a myth. I think in most situations getting to the root of the problem is the first step in finding a solution -- it's just not always the last step. If you have algae you have excess nutrients. It may be something you're adding (source water, feeding) or it may even be leaching from the rocks. In either case, you need to make sure you aren't adding any more nutrients than are necessary to feed your inhabitants, and do everything you can to maximize export. The latter can and should include at a minimum frequent water changes and a good skimmer. If you get nitrate down to 0 and you still don't see any die off, then I think GFO in a reactor is a good idea. For me, working up to running massive amounts of it changed very frequently is what finally turned the tide of the battle, but as you have read others have found similar success with other things. The best advice I could give is to attack on all fronts. Good RO/DI water. Frequent water changes. Good skimmer. Don't overfeed. Get a reactor and run a high quality GFO (granular ferris oxide: rowaphos, phosar, puraphos, phosban, etc. . . ). Export macro algae in a refugium. Having said all that, I do agree that once you have hair algae it can be difficult to get rid of even after you have done everything you can to achieve pristine water quality. That's where manual removal and herbivores come in. Don't look for the miracle cure -- that one creature that just lives to eat your algae and will cover up any and all mistakes you might make. Don't rush to get rid of your yellow tang just because someone said their hippo was better. Yellows are great algae grazers. IME Koles are slightly better. Hippos are not bad either but need a bigger tank and are more prone to ich. Get lots of snails of different varieties (my favorites are nerites, ceriths, trochus, and stomatella). Once you solve the nutrient problem and remove as much as you can by hand, a tang and a lot of snails should keep it in check. Lastly, give it time. Settle on a plan, follow through with it, and then give it some time to bear fruit before rushing on to the next thing. Good luck.

I wouldn't use a Mag24 externally in my living space personally. It's a great pump -- I just found it way too loud. I have a used Blueline 40hd-x (identical to the Panworld 100px-x, similar to Iwakis) on sale now. It is a great pump and the noise wasn't too bad. The reason it's for sale . . . I recently upgraded to a Sequence Dart. No comparison. 3X the performance for 1/2 the noise (and about 1.5x the price). The Dart needs 2" intake, 1.5" outlet. The Mag and Blueline/Panworld/Iwaki will do fine with 1" plumbing. If you use a manifold you will get equal flow through all outlets unless the diameter is different. HTH

Welcome. A couple of our members, Davelin and Steveoutlaw, have experience setting up and maintaining tanks for schools. Maybe they'll chime in here or you can PM them for advice, lessons learned.

In the meantime, you could buy distilled water or better yet, ro/di water from a LFS if possible. Use your skimmer to do water changes. This is what I mean: either install a drain line or just run some airline tubing from your collection cup to a bucket. Let the skimmer run -- unrestricted. As the cup fills up, drain it by siphoning with the airline or using the drain line. If your skimmer is really "going crazy", you will quickly take out a lot of water this way. Replace it with good quality fresh saltwater. When you've exhausted your supply of fresh saltwater, put the air valve back on the skimmer to get it to stop overflowing. Mix up a new batch of saltwater and repeat a day or so later. This is very time and labor intensive, but from your posts it seems to me that there is something in your water which your skimmer doesn't want in it. Whatever this is, it will either need to be metabolized or removed. The best way to remove it is through targeted water changes using your skimmer.

That is probably the best way. I do it the same but don't turn off my RO/DI except when I will be away from the tank for a while. I empty the tub once or twice a week for water changes though. Very important to get a reliable ATO system for topping off the tank. Don't skimp here.

When I started I bought quite a few fish from the internet, but now I only by from LFS. One reason is I like to support good, responsible marine fish stores in our area, because if they don't make it then the internet becomes the ONLY option. Plus the ones run and staffed by fellow hobbyists are pretty cool places to visit. Another reason is that I can't always be there exactly when a shipment arrives. Another reason is that after shipping and handling are factored in the prices aren't that much better than LFS. The final reason is kind of selfish: i just feel that well selected fish from a LFS have a better chance at survival in my tank. Shipping is stressful on the animals no matter what, and a certain percentage of them will die shortly after arrival. When you buy from a good LFS, they usually either have a quarantine period, will hold a fish for you, can tell you exactly how long it's been there and how it is eating, and sometimes all of the above. Plus you get to see the fish and choose for yourself, which means a lot to me. Just my .02.

The mesh-mod is a replacement / improvement to needle wheel impellers on skimmers which produce foam by sucking in air with a venturi and then chopping it up into little tiny bubbles. It would probably do more harm than good on a spray-injection skimmer. The analogy used by Aqua C is spraying a garden hose into a bucket of water. If the spray is concentrated and powerful enough, it will suck air down with it as it enters the water, creating bubbles. That's the way the spray-injection skimmer works. It forces the water from the pump through small holes, creating several high velocity jets of water that each act like the nozzle on a garden hose. If the water pressure is too low, you won't get much velocity in those jets, and therefore you won't get as many bubbles into the water in the skimmer body. The Aqua C website (www.proteinskimmer.com) recommends either a Rio 1400 or Mag3 for the Pro; Rio 800 or MJ1200 for the Remora. IMO a mini-jet won't be very effective. I hung mine off the side of the sump so the size of the pump wasn't really an issue.

Guess that's why people like 'em so much. Like I said, I got a cheapo ebay unit and then upgraded the bulbs. My reflectors just cover front and back of the bulbs, so the only spread I'm getting is from the bulbs themselves. If it's really 3' this might work: 400W 20K helios on the outsides and a 250W DE 14K ushio in the middle. Might give you a pretty cool effect without the need for supplementation (although personally I would still have some just so you can keep the lights on longer). If you care to venture out to "the burbs", you're more than welcome to come over to see the color on my lights for yourself.

I don't think any of the Euro-Reefs or ASM G2 or up will fit that footprint.