VicSkimmr

I'll add some tips for strictly aesthetic purposes. Straight lines should be avoided at all costs. There's no need to cram as much rock into the tank as possible. Only add as much as you think looks right. Less is more. Try to make you aquascape a simple design. All you're doing is creating a base to mount corals on. The corals give the structure character, the actual aquascape does not need to do this. Maybe have a couple of interesting shapes added to it, a cave perhaps, or an overhang, but don't make it too busy. To go along with the less is more idea, I try to avoid making a lot of huge holes in the rockwork. While diving, I've never seen rock where there were giant arches in it. I've also never seen a rock structure that looked like a slight wind could knock it over. I always try to make my aquascape compact, fit together like a jig-saw puzzle. Positive and negative space plays a major role in aquascaping. Positive space is the rockwork, negative space is the open water around it. If possible, try to offset the main structure of the rock so that there is a large area of both positive and negative space. A pile of rocks in the center of the tank is much less aesthetically pleasing than a pile of rocks to the left or right of the tank with some accents on the other side. This is all just my opinion though. If you enjoy having lots of archways and caves for your fish to swim through, thats great! It all comes down to what you personally enjoy.

Sign me up for one of each! Thats absolutely incredible.

I'd be really interested, but until I get this hair algae under control, there's no way I'm going to be putting more frags into my system. Perhaps a month or 2 down the road

With all the tanks I've ever had, when it was time to come up with a stocking list, I would pick out one or 2 main fish that I really liked. If they turned out to be difficult fish to keep, I would plan the rest of the fish around that one main fish to make it work. For instance, say you really like Lionfish. If that was to be your main fish, you'd have to keep in mind that it shouldn't be housed with any really aggressive fish (that might nip at its fins), and it shouldn't be housed with any fish as small or smaller than it is (and no shrimp for that matter) because it will eat them. Or, say you really like Copperband Butterflyfish. Here you would need to make sure that none of the other fish in the tank are overly aggressive, and you'd need to make sure that your tank has enough pods to feed it (not that yours will have a problem like that at 190 gallons). Scott Michael has a good pocket sized fish book that I've always used for general care. I'd suggest picking it up.

You could potentially do that, but according to Tunze, the pumps aren't meant to be turned off and back on again constantly (this isn't just a thing with Tunze pumps, most pumps aren't designed for this). So, for their controller, they rig it so it can adjust the flow, but not completely turn the pumps off. I would think that putting the 6045's on a wavemaker would probably reduce the life of the pump, so until somebody does some research on it, I'm going to stray away from that I think

It's definitely just an illusion of the camera. In reality, the color now looks truer to the "before" pic. Before I added the new bulbs, the true color looked a lot yellower than the pics were showing. When I added the Blue+ bulbs I removed the 6500k bulb and one of the 11k bulbs, I think it was called an Aquablue Special (ATI). I'd love to run those nanostreams on a wavemaker, but Tunze says they're uncontrollable. I may eventually invest in a pair of 6055's to go with the 6045's so that I can add some random flow, but it'll be a while.

I'm definitely going to be purchasing one, but I'm just trying to wrap my head around the concept of it, especially the plumbing part. I never would've thought about the bubbles on the overflow line.

Ok. Say you have a refugium where you're providing a safe spot for copepods to breed. If you put the UV Sterilizer on the return, wouldn't that kill any pods that pass through it?

Why would you want it on your return vs. your overflow line?

Lol, nice.

I understand that, but it all depends on the data they're using to project these models. How far back can they possibly pull data from, and on a geological scale, is it really enough to make an accurate prediction? I find it hard to believe that this isn't a natural cycle considering that the global temperature is just now catching back up from the "Little Ice Age" that started around the 1400's. Also, were these the same scientists that predicted that 2006 would have one of the most active and destructive hurricane seasons humanity has ever seen? Climate is such a complex system, there's no way that a model could accurately predict what is going to happen 60-100 years in the future. There are just too many variables that come into play.

I'm not sure if we can post links to different forums, but NR.com has a great ongoing discussion about this. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=global+warming

I feel like its a bit arrogant of us to believe that we can have this big of an effect on the Earth. It should be noted that these same scientists that are so vocal about global warming were predicting that in the 60's we were entering a new ice age. The earth's temperature is cyclical. Yes, its warming now. 30 years ago it was cooling. I'm really surprised that they think they can predict what the temperature will be like in the year 2100 when so far scientists have failed to predict what the weather will be like tomorrow. Now, I'm all for reducing pollution, but using scare tactics like this to get the job done is not the way to do it.

LMAO. That ones going in his bedroom too, right?

Are there details about this new system somewhere on the forum?

So, I got a couple of new bulbs in tonight. I wasn't happy with the overall color of the tank before, so I ordered 2 ATI Blue+ bulbs to make it look closer to 20k (looks about 14k actually). Before: After: I also picked up a Chaulk Basslet and a photosynthetic gorgonian from BRK last Saturday. I couldn't pass one of those up, they make the tank look complete

What're you having a yard sale? :wink: Good to see that the Ring of Fire's decided to open back up!

I think my 6500k was a Giesemann, but either way its off the tank now. I bought a pair of new bulbs and I'm playing around with the configuration to get a look thats closer to 20k.

I usually do that too. In fact, I did that with all the frags I got. Apparently thats no longer going to work.

Lol, very true. I guess I still wasn't convinced that these T5's were really that much brighter than metal halides, but now I have my definitive evidence. That probably also explains why some of the frags are refusing to open all the way, maybe I'll slide them under a ledge for a bit to help them out.

You know, I had no idea that zoanthids even could bleach. I've always thought that was fairly specific to hard corals. I've switched them from PC lighting to a 250 watt DE 14k before without a problem. Oh well, at least its normal. I was afraid they were getting starved of some nutrient.

I've noticed this odd trend in my zoanthids. Its hard to explain, so I'll just post before and after pics of the 2 most drastic changes. Before After Before After Now, I wouldn't be so worried if this hadn't happened in about a weeks time, so its kind of creeping me out. I've never had this happen with zoanthids before with MH or PC lights. For what its worth, they came from Chris' (143Gadgets), so we know the conditions they were in before. My T5 bulb combination is (or was until tonight): Aquablue + True Actinic Blue Special 6500k Actinic + Aquablue + Maybe its not the lighting. I do have a hair algae problem for now, but its waning, and my cleanup crew is quickly mopping it up. The tank is a 75 gallon with 2 nanostream 6045's and a Euro-Reef CS6-2 in the sump. Any ideas? Jason

Thats about what I figured. Too bad too, somebody needs to design a digital underwater camera that can be used at ~60 feet and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Still, it'd be perfect for snorkeling!

This is probably a given, but its not rated for taking pictures at depth is it? As in, it couldn't be used while scuba diving?

The answer is no, Montipora love light. That being said... What kind of lights were the frags under before you bought them? What kind of MH are they under now? How old is your tank? What are you using for flow? What is the turnover rate? (GPH/24) SPS are fickle corals. There's too many ways they could die off to list, but chances are its stress. From what? Who knows.