theJenchild

I run my 40 skimmerless, and always have. I'm going on 2 years with no problems at all. I have softies, LPS, a clam, and a few fish......and *looks for exits* I am TERRIBLE about water changes. I haven't done one in almost 4 months. Granted, I think the clam in there helps alot with nutrient export since its kinda big, but I don't have any issues and everything looks happy/healthy and is growing. I do intend on doing a water change shortly, but I haven't yet. I don't feed much, and I do watch the bioload pretty carefully. I'd say the only challenge is that I tend to have more algae than other tanks with the same specs, and its harder to keep a clean up crew alive. Now that may be my lack of water changes that hurts the CUC, but I think that the nitrates are likely a little higher in my tank than in others and I've heard that that shortens the life of snails. If you want to run skimmerless, I don't see any issues with it. I simply didn't have the money after I set this sucker up to buy one and I had run without a skimmer on my cube. That said, someday in the relatively near future, I intend to find/run a backpack type skimmer on this tank so that I can add some more fish to add color and movement.

I have one of Roy's fungia! I love it!

bump.....any interest at all? I'd take $100 cash for the sunpod with ushio bulb. Have a vet bill on a dog to pay off and would love to sell this light to take care of that......I can meet in Salem, or can send the light with a friend who works in Beaverton. She can meet folks any day after 3:30....

If I could find a way to get my scopas out of my tank without destroying my rock work, I'd already have a purple tang....they're so pretty!

Updated price on the sunpod. Unit is the 18.5" long with great color on the ushio bulb. New price $125obo. I'd love to get this thing sold!

Are you willing to part this out? If so, what would you be looking for for that skimmer?

yuck! Coors light! Cowboy's piss water! *vomit* Awesome tank though! That thing is a beast!

Ah, hot new trends in reefing. Current on the news stand: Duncans and chalices. They're beautiful, but in a few years....definitely not going to be bringing in those kind of bucks.

My tank is still quite young, but heck. Why not?

Unfortunately a heater is necessary in my house. We don't have ambient heat and only use the little plug in heaters that barely heat a room. If I didn't heat the tank, it'd run at around 73 degrees. I like the idea of using the 2 small heaters instead of one big one.

Maybe check out horse stall mats. They're usually around $35 each.

Title says it all. This toad stool came with my tank a few months back. It is just starting to color back up as everything was super bleached when I got it. The top is about 2 inches in diameter, but I'm sure it will expand more when its back to being healthy. I can bring it with me to Salem either on Saturday or Tuesday when I come up. PM me if interested.

You'd pretty much have to decide if you want a harlequin shrimp or starfish, considering that starfish are the exclusive diet of your harlequins. I hear that their favorite is sand sifting stars....

*sigh* this is why I hate the naming game! They're gorgeous and I wish I had an extra $30 laying around to bring them home with!

Here is a photo of it over my 15.5, please don't mind how dirty the tank was. I hadn't cleaned it in a while...... **The radium bulb that I also had for sale is spoken for, but it will come with a 20k ushio that puts off great color and I had spectacular growth with it.

I have a 24" sunpod that I used over a 15.5g cube. It worked great! PM me if you're interested. I'm pretty motivated to sell it asap. Could meet in Salem this weekend.

I think that part of this disaster was attributed to an old, cheap heater. I knew that it needed to be replaced, but I just never got around to it. Now I think that I really need a controller!

Yay! Free additions to your clean up crew! They're good guys.....and they breed like bunnies.

Where are you finding iPhones for 60-70 bucks? I want one!

Hmmmm, I may have to look into this controller concept. I like that my tank has some swing in temps though, I think that it makes my critters hardier and thus they tend to do better when disaster strikes. So far I have not noticed any deaths except a couple of snails that were recent additions to my tank and were likely a little stressed from that move. I attribute that to the continuous shifting in temps that my tank experiences. I try to keep it pretty stable, but it swings a couple degrees in either direction through the course of an average week. When it got super hot, my tank got up to 82-83 with little problems. It also gets down to 74-75 at night. I generally don't worry....but 88.7 was a little toasty for the poor guys!

Definitely. Is there a fail safe type method to heaters? Like a thermostat that would cut power to the heater if it registers above a certain temp?

wow! Frenchie heaven in this thread.

I was gone all day, checked temps (77.5) and topped off in the morning around 6am before I left. When I got home at around 9:30PM, the tank was at 88.7. OMG!! Apparently my heater decided to die, but when it did so it just decided to stay stuck on. It was the heater that came with my tank, and I just hadn't switched it out to the stealth that I have yet. I unplugged and let it sit all night with some ice packs wrapped in ziplock bags. This morning it had returned to a reasonable 78.6, and it still falling. So far it looks like I only lost a couple of snails, although most of my corals are still looking a little angry. The clam is happy and extended, the fungia are alive and extended, and all the fish lived. No word yet on the shrimp, but the hermits are out and eating the dead snails. Wow that sucked!

I'm not as experienced in this hobby as many of the folks here on the board, but I'd be happy to come and help too. Just let me know when.

Hey Eric, Did you draw for this give away? I hope I hope I hope....I don't have that irish luck, but a girl can dream right?