Rascal

The bioballs, the sponge and filter floss are all potential nitrate factories. With regard to the sponge and filter this effect can be mitigated somewhat by frequent (daily if you are having problems) rinsing and/or changing. I am not sure this is true for the bioballs though. The problem here is that they are very efficient at breaking down ammonia and nitrite into nitrate, but the bacteria that break down nitrate need low oxygen environments like that found in deep sand beds and deep inside live rock. [Edit: looks like Origami and I were typing at about the same time -- his explanation on this is much better ] Other suggestions I would normally make include increasing flow and upgrading the skimmer, maximize macro export by increasing the size and lighting of the refugium, using a remote DSB, and increasing the water changes to 1 x week. The addition of a remote DSB alone would be enough to drive down those last 10 ppm of nitrates, IMO and IME. Given your set-up, however, most of these suggestions may not be practical for you. In that case, you might want to start investigating carbon dosing. Just make sure you do plenty of homework on that before you try it. There is a good article and a couple of 40+ page threads on RC to get you started. I would definitely try the traditional methods of removing known nitrate sources and increasing water changes.

I don't think you'll get more pH instability that way. Unless you are feeding your skimmer with pure O2, the law of diminishing returns applies I think. As I understand it, if your tank water has more CO2 and less O2 than the air with which it is mixing, then the water will lose CO2 and gain O2 the more it mixes with the surrounding air, but only until it reaches some point of equilibrium. IME your best bet is to let your skimmer pull out what it wants to pull out, keep all of your params stable, and just wait it out.

Are the electrical components plugged into a GFCI outlet? If so, you can sometimes figure out the source of an electrical short (if that's what it is) by selectively plugging in each device until the GFCI trips.

For anyone interested in this topic, here's another study to look at: http://aquariumwatertesting.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf Plus this article: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-03/...ature/index.php And this thread, among others: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...mp;pagenumber=1 FWIW, I use Reef Crystals, mostly b/c it has worked well for me without any regular dosing of other stuff. One thing to remember is that it's not like the FDA is monitoring salt mixes - the composition of one batch may be different from the next, even from the same company. The only thing that's probably certain is that the water in our tanks is not quite the same as what is found in the ocean: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/...ature/index.php. Whether that's good or bad . . .

My suggestions: Instead of one big structure consider making a separate little platform to support each of your base rocks. Flip the platforms upside down from the way you have them so that the "legs" are sticking up supporting the rocks and then work the other side all the way down through the sand so it rests flat on the bottom of of the tank. Build enough little platforms for a few big rocks, and then stack other rocks across these to make bridges and tunnels. Continue this pattern all the way up and you will end up with a nice open rock structure with plenty of good habitat for the fish. Cut the platform height down to about 1/2" less than the depth of your sand bed, and like Tree said use little pieces of rubble to hide any PVC that still shows. Instead of capping the pipes, drill as many 1/4" - 1/2" holes as you can so critters can crawl in and out at will. This is how I did it when I set up my tank and I was very happy with the way it turned out. I added the sand after I had the bottom rock structure in place so it was a little easier for me. You will probably end up stirring up the sandbed quite a bid if you do this, so you might want to make sure you have a safe place to keep your fish and be prepared to do a couple of large water changes in case you release a lot of nutrients back into the water column.

I won one in an auction, then I later bought another one. Both were around summer/fall '07 (I think). One split so I had 3, but then one of them was lost to a kalk overdose so I was back to 2. Since then that same one has split again so I am back to 3. Hardy little creatures.

A large anemone like that is certainly capable of killing a 2 inch fish, but I am very doubtful that an otherwise healthy and non-stressed tang would find itself swimming into an anemone. They seem to have a pretty good instinct about avoiding them. How long did you have the fish before it went missing?

Well, this attorney would say you are probably right but I would refund him the money anyway, just in the interest of maintaining good will within this friendly, sort of neighborly fish club. Stuff happens. Take the high road. You will rarely if ever regret it.

I'm really surprised your tangs don't take care of it. I think a Naso is probably too big for your tank. I have had a hippo with a yellow and kole and found it to be a good combination, although I now fear the hippo is starting to get to big for my 150. Maybe try to starve the tangs a bit more and see if they'll go for it out of desperation. An additional suggestion would be to set up a fuge with a different type of macro that might outcompete the caulerpa for nutrients. Cut down the light in the display for a while and through some chaeto in a fuge with a ton of light on it 24/7.

OK, so I don't give up easy. After recently nuking my tank with a Kalk overdose, I am back at it. I have come up with the following solutions to avoid a repeat of the problem. Let me know what you think. First, a little background. Primary Ca & Alk supplementation is accomplished with a Ca Reactor. I use Kalk mostly as a means of maintaining Ph. My top-off reservoir sits about 15 feet from my sump. Top off is controlled via solenoid float switch which turns on a MJ600 sitting in the top-off reservoir. This is connected to 1/2" and then 1/4" tubing which feeds a Kalk reactor. The Kalk reactor hangs on the side of the sump with it's output suspended a good 10" from the water level, so no back siphoning is possible. The feed into the kalk reactor run through a T fitting which prevents back siphoning from the reactor to the top off reservoir. Flow into the kalk reactor is controlled with a pinch valve on the 1/4" tubing, so that when the top-off pump comes on the water leaves the reactor in a slow but steady drip. This method of controlling the flow worked without flaw for about 2 years as long as I just leave it alone and don't mess with it. Inside the reactor is a new MJ400 suspended a few inches from the bottom with it's output oriented down - pointing towards the 1 cup of kalk on the bottom of the reactor. It is dialed down enough so that when it comes on it stirs up the kalk but not enough to make the liquid all the way at the top of the reactor turn white. My ACIII programming: First the Ca Reactor If Ph < 8.0 then CO2 OFF If Ph > 8.1 then CO2 ON This turns on and off the solenoid and recirc pump if the tank PH drops too low. The feed pump turns on. I don't monitor the internal Ph of the reactor, I just measure the results and adjust when needed - which is not often. Now the Kalk / Top-Off If Ph < 8.3 then KAL ON If Ph > 8.35 then KAL OFF OSC 001/059 ON/OFF THEN KAL ON When Ph is less than 8.3 the mixing pump turns on for 1 min every hour. When Ph rises above 8.35 the mixing pump shuts off completely. In the 2 weeks I have had it set up this way, Ph has held steady b/n 8.26-8.36 for the most part, with a low of 8.21 and a high of 8.39, so it is accomplishing what I want (target Ph of 8.3) but my concern is what can/will go wrong. I am thinking of adding a second solenoid switch and back-up top-off pump which will by-pass the kalk reactor entirely, and then using the ACIII to switch to the by-pass as soon as Ph gets over 8.4. Any thoughts?

Yes, I would. The fact that red bugs are easily dealt with makes the risk low. If the frag looked healthy I wouldn't even ask for or expect to pay a reduced rate. I assume that every sps I get could have red bugs and every acro could have aefw or at least their eggs. There is no such thing as a guaranteed safe source. If you don't adhere to a dip/qt routine for all new arrivals you are rolling the dice anyway. Revive definitely works on AEFW (but not the eggs). It is also reported to work on Red Bugs, but I can't vouch for this personally yet.

There can be a big difference in the quality of the RO membrane itself. I know Filmtec is a good brand. I can't remember what others are good, but I know this from personal experience buying one of the cheapo Ebay units: if they don't tell you what brand of RO membrane they sell, don't buy it. You will only end up buying a quality membrane later (good news is the membranes are interchangeable so you don't need to scrap the whole unit just to upgrade the membrane).

Corals can take a little bit of time to adjust to new conditions, so I wouldn't be surprised if you had a temporary brown out before color returned, but what you are describing sounds like a bit more than that. I would look at these two areas for improvement: Corals need good water quality, flow and light to thrive. Sounds like you might not have enough of the latter two.

Maybe most bubbles are, but that one looks to be a lot bigger than usual. I wouldn't be able to sleep either.

Looks like Stomatella varia to me. A good snail that will graze on algae and easily reproduce to sustainable levels in your reef.

As I understand it the basis of the system is adding calcium, bi-carbonate, magnesium, and various trace elements separately via dosing pumps at a rate designed to match consumption and maintain desired levels. As a method of maintaining calcium and alkalinity, it may be as good as any other, but nothing really ground-breaking as far as I can tell. You will still have to get reliable dosing equipment and test often to make sure things stay where you want them. Same as with a traditional Kalk / Ca Reactor system and/or manually dosing 2-part (although the latter doesn't require any expensive equipment - just a lot more labor). As the last two posts have implied, the questionable part seems to be the trace elements component of it. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...hreadid=1432284. As far as I'm aware, the evidence to support the idea that corals need or benefit from additional trace element supplementation is still a bit thin. Personally, I follow the more cautious school of thought that if you can't test for it and/or don't know exactly what it does and does not do, then don't add it. I have always thought that I am probably adding a lot of those minerals to my reef in water changes but also the same way I supply minerals, amino acids, vitamins to my own body - in food. Others are willing to experiment a bit more, and depending on the tank may see a benefit from doing so. Anyway, my only point here is that debate over trace elements and other additives is certainly nothing new, as seen in all of the links posted by Randy Holmes-Farley in that thread. I am sure there are a lot of people out there with really nice tanks currently using the Balling method, or Zeovit, or Prodibio, or HGH, or Creatine, . . . . but it shouldn't necessarily be assumed that those tanks look the way they do because of those methods. After all, an awful lot of these folks had pretty nice looking tanks without doing any of those things: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/subject/totm.php

If you have any DIY skills, you can save a little money and put together something like this pretty easily: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...hreadid=1485062 That would be about $150-200, plus $150 for a high quality regulator/bubble counter/solenoid combo (don't skimp on this part), $80-100 for the tank. That puts the cost of the set-up itself at around $400-450. After that it will cost you less than $50/year. IMO you don't absolutely need a PH controller to run a calcium reactor, but like Ctenophore said it does provide an important safety factor.

I had a 14K flanked by 2 10Ks for a while, but they were all 250W. The difference was fairly subtle, and there was enough overlap to cause a lot of blending, but I still didn't like it.

Chip: I agree with you about not shutting off the feed flow (it would go anaerobic, right?), but the way I have it set up the feed pump doesn't turn off at all, only the recirc pump and the solenoid. You could also accomplish the same thing with a small AC fan or powerhead, but this way seemed more efficient to me. On the other hand, this advice from Neptune's guy on RC: "If it is only an issue with the AC adapter not drawing enough current then you shouldn't need a new solenoid. Move the device to DC8 port 4 or port 8, these ports are relay controlled and not affected by low draw devices." After reading a bit more, the first post I quoted was incorrect. It turns out that on newer (not sure what this means) DC8s ports 4 & 8 are relay controlled, the rest are triac controlled (no idea what that means). It could be something else entirely, but an easy way to find out is just to try to turn the solenoid on and off manually through the ACIII. If it won't turn off, then you know this is your problem. Switch it to port 4 or 8 and/or add an additional load besides the solenoid and you should be all set.

Steve: There is an easy fix for this. I had this same problem at first. I did some research and found out that sometimes the solenoid uses such little power that the DC8 won't switch it on and off like it is supposed to. Here's the explanation from some guy named Jansenwrasse on RC: Following this suggestion I plugged both my solenoid and the recirc pump for my reactor into the same outlet on the DC8, and that solved the problem. Mike

First, I would make sure they are not really Ilyanassa instead of Nassarius. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/mg/index.php. If the former, they are not reef safe and you should definitely try to remove them IMO. The larger Nassarius distortus (sometimes called Tonga Nassarius) will also eat meat, especially when food is scarce in the sand bed. In particular, reports of them eating astrea snails are not uncommon. It may be that the smaller, Nassarius vibex, is a better choice if you want to keep astreas as well.

Bad probe most likely. It is a common problem -- as you can see from a quick search on RC. I don't know why Ranco temp probes seem to last forever but Neptune's probes are notoriously unreliable. I'm on my 3rd probe in a little over a year I think. Supposedly the new ones are much more durable, and this one is definitely thicker than the first two, so hopefully they have solved the problem. For redundancy I use a Ranco on my chiller as a back-up. The AC is programmed to turn on the chiller at 81, and the Ranco is set for 80. So even if the AC is reading 20 degrees high, the Ranco will shut the Chiller off when the temp hits 79. I do the same thing with the internal controllers on my heaters. The following programming lines suggested in a previous thread here are also a good idea: IF TEMP > 110 THEN COL OFF IF TEMP < 060 THEN HET OFF These will stop your tank from cooking or freezing just b/c your probe goes out.

I have done this as well. My purposes were to prevent compaction and dead spots in the DSB and to make the LR structure more stable. Instead of one integrated frame, I just built little PVC bases for the bottom (base) rocks in my aquascape. The PVC pieces were 3"-4" and the DSB is 4"-6", so the idea was that the PVC would be covered with and hidden by sand. The few parts of PVC that were still visible were hidden by little pieces of rubble. It has worked well for me and I would probably do it again.

A few tips: 1) Attach something you can use as a line to the top of the fish trap so that you you can use to pull it up and out of the water as soon as the fish swims in there, without having to reach your hand into the tank to do so. A lot of times the act of reaching your hand into the tank spooks the fish and causes it to run for cover, and it will find the hole out of desperation. 2) Cover the sides of the bottle with something so it isn't clear any more. This will make it more like a secure cave or refuge. The fish will still find the hole to investigate the smell of food. 3) Leave the fish trap in the tank for a few days, but don't feed the tank at all during this time. This should make the fish both more hungry and therefore less cautious, and also less wary of the new object in its territory. When you bait the trap, make sure you have plenty of time to just sit still and watch and hold on to your line. Patience is the key, just like real fishing. It might take several hours, but so will taking out all of the rock and re-aquascaping. The bonus is that just like in real fishing, the scenery is great and you can hold your line in one hand and a cold beer in the other.

Basically, yes. While there is a lot that can be be said about the pros and cons of various plumbing options, here's a simple step-by-step that will get you up and running: To screw your bulkheads in place, you want the rubber washer on the inside and the nut on the outside. It is the compression of the washer between the bulkhead and the glass which creates the seal. It should be a little more than hand tight if possible, but don't go overboard. If it drips a little you can always tighten it a bit more later on, but if you make a mistake in the other direction it can be harder to fix. The inside of the part of the bulkhead that is now sticking outside the tank is probably threaded. If not post back here and let me know. I think AGA uses 3/4 " returns and 1 " drains. These numbers refer to the inside diameter of the pipe used. The actual holes will be larger. The importance for you is that you know what type of tubing and fittings to buy. I think you will need one 1" Male Hose barb adapter, and one 3/4" male hose barb adapter to start. You can get these at Lowes (not most HDs) but so you know what you are looking for see here: http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/75...s-MNPT-x-Insert. If you are still using Eheim 1260s for the returns they should be 3/4" output also, so all you need to do is screw on 3/4" threaded ball valve (like this: http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/79...my-Ball-Valves) and then another 3/4" male hose barb adapter, then connect the tubing and you will be all set. An easy option is the black corrugated tubing usually found in the pond section. It seals really well on the hose barb fittings (better than vinyl tubing IME) and is fairly resistant to crimping. It can and does get a lot more complicated than that, but for your purposes right now I don't think it needs to. To get a good seal with threaded fittings, you can use teflon tape (found in the plumbing section), or just put a little bit of aquarium silicone on your finger and smear it around the threads before screwing them in place. One last thing -- about the water on the floor. Generally speaking even the most egregious plumbing screw ups will only result in an amount of water equal to the contents of your sump spilling on to the floor. The exception to this is to make the mistake of placing the outlet of your return line at the bottom of your tank. Remember that the return line will turn into a reverse siphon as soon as power is cut to the pumps, so the water level will drop to the level of the outlet(s) on the return line(s). Keep these lines no more than an inch or two below the surface of your water and you will sleep well at night. If you need any help, shoot me a PM. I live in Annandale and may be able to stop by sometime on the way home from work or on the weekend.