madmike

could be, probably... what was it just before entering the water at the surface? what is it at the bottom?

cloudy water will definately have an effect on par levels

2-500 par depending upon the sps... what are yours at?

what kind of filter do you have on the 20 gallon? IMO without a filter you will build up ammonia in no time, I don't think you will get a week without a large water change... more like a day :(

There are many people including myself that use both methods successfully. If your phosphate is really at .4 instead of .04 or so, I think you should be running GFO along with vodka/MB7 dosing. I think the problems you have seen is from phosphate being reduced too rapidly... the corals are "used" to this level and get somewhat shocked when it is rapidly reduced by the GFO. If I was in this position I would be running a small amount, maybe 1/2 cup, and changing it out pretty regularly until my levels dropped. I respectfully disagree that phosphate will be released from the GFO, especially at these high levels of phosphate. I regenerate my GFO and it takes a VERY strong base such as sodium hydroxide to get the phosphate to release from the iron and go back into solution.

Satellite radio is the future! Viva La Howard Stern!

That sucks sorry to hear.... I had problems initially with QT also. It is VERY hard to control ammonia IMO while dosing copper as it can kill off most of the beneficial bacteria. I came to the conclusion that I would need to have a full time QT ready at all times in order to be successful. I now have a 110 gallon tank with a biowheel that has been running for over a year with very small amounts of copper in it. Essentially I have done as most of the retail stores have done, bred copper resistant bacteria. I have now been able to qt up to 30 fish (small cardinals) at the same time without ANY noticeable ammonia. Before most fish (excluding sensitive wrasses) are released into my tank, they get a couple rounds of prazi pro and about a month of cupramine. As bigjohnwoody stated never ever use ammonia binders with cupramine, it will convert it to the a very toxic form of copper and kill everything.

That is up to +- 0.04, not necissarily 0.04 error each time, so you have to use good repeatable technique and plot trends. My tank is usually at 0.01 but will occasionally spike to 0.03, so I then start to use some GFO to bring it down. I think the meters are the best for charting trends in phosphate when you get down to the very small ammounts near zero.

Vodka dosing or carbon dosing is certainly not new science but has been really popular lately as more people start to "stretch" the limits when stocking tanks. I have about 35 fish in my reef currently and started to see some significant nitrate start to creep up. I have been dosing a mixture of vinegar/vodka that feeds the bacteria that uptake nitrate and phosphate. It is a great way to limit nutrients in a tank as long as you have proper equipment (ie very large skimmer) to take care of all of the bacteria being produced.

No, I have this one http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=15437 Ive never had any of the problems of the smaller units (inconsistent readings, leaking or scratched glass vials).

I've got the original low range meter (larger blue box)

Anytime... always willing to talk shop with fellow reefers (and i'm sure you will leave with a few free frags too)

So before you do anything drastic get a confirmation with someone else phosphate meter. You are welcome to bring a water sample, both tank and new makeup water over to my house and I can confirm with my low range hanna meter if you want. Running GFO on newly made saltwater kinda sounds ridiculous because newly made seawater should not have very many phosphates in it... If it was me and the makeup water was confirmed to have that high of phosphate I would dump it ASAP, after all if phosphate somehow is being leached into the new water, what else is?

wait... are you saying that your new water change water has a bunch of phosphate in it? Have you tested your RO/DI output? there should not be very much phosphate in your newly made up saltwater unless your RO/DI is exhausted I too have a hard time believing that your phosphate is that high, how are you disolving your reagent (shaking or gently swirling) I find if I shake the vial I get alot of micro bubbles that affect the reading. I gently rock the vial back and forth until it dissolves. Before you do anything I would get someone else to verify your results with their meter.

Angels are fine in a reef if its big enough.... You just have to select corals wisely and not freak out if they nip a little. Healthy corals can stand some nipping, its when things start going down hill that they can stress the corals enough to cause problems. Keep your reef healthy and your fish fat and happy and you will have very few problems! My tank currently houses a juvi emperator, pair of regal angels, potters, flame, multicolor, multibar, and coral beauty. I hope to add a small true personifer and a pair of wantanabes to the mix soon.

I think you might have damaged the flux capacitor!

Who keeps suggesting freshwater dips for sps corals??? Whoever it is find someone else to get your information from because they do NOT know what they are talking about.

So in non-scientist speak (just messin with you grassi ... no conversion needed, you can compare your values with those of others posted on RC and see where you stand... ie if you bulbs need changing, need more par for a particular coral etc.

I would dip first, then into qt... I have never acclimated sps and have never had a problem

Do NOT do a freshwater dip on sps... they likely will die if you do that. You should get a coral dip such as coral rx or coral revive which is placed into new saltwater and the coral is bathed for several minutes before placing in the tank. Having corals in a QT even without light will usually be fine for a few days. I have gone lights out for over a week to get rid of dinos/cyano and had no side effects with any of my sps.

uggg, that sucks! moving 1 tank would be difficult enough let alone that many!

What move?

Don't do it! LOL I have had them before and have tried potassium permanganate before to kill them. VERY harsh dip that can't be done in the tank. will turn everything bleach white but the coral will usually survive and color back up in time. I may still have some lying around if you want to try.

You wont be disappointed... I can assure you that!

ATI! Both their bulbs and fixtures