MadReefer

I have a duncan that I really like. It has some color but I was wondering if any have more color. Show me your duncans please.

Very nice =)

It's funny. Some folks are not fans of refugiums. Some are not fans of skimmers. Some are not fans of any mechanical filtration. Some are not fans of chemicals. Some try not to ever do water changes. Some fall into more than one of these. Some are opposite of these. Some are a mix of whatever. And all of this can work in the right situation. I for one love refugiums: for the pods and coral food, nutrient reduction, and water volume. I don't need to skim but sometimes I like my skimmers. It's not a hard arguement to say that they take out food for corals and pods, and sometimes fish. I don't like mechanical filtration because it takes out stuff that might be good, and not before it sits in the water to rot. I try to do as little water changes as possible, partly because I'm lazy and partly because I try to save every cent for something better than salt. Just my method. And my door is always open if you care to stop by and see how it works for me. Just PM me first because I"m not always home.

I would like to know what phosphates I have. I hope to bring a sample for testing. I know that not all tests are able to test for all phosphates, so I don't even test for phosphates even though I have the test kit. I feel better tests are looking for what is growing. If you have hair algae, you have excess phosphates.

Old sand is fine to use as long as you take the right steps when adding it. If adding to a running tank, rinse very well and add little bits at a time. If setting up a new system, rinse well. The common step here is rinse well before use. I didn't rinse once and had a nitrate spike that lasted for two months. Pest algae grew and that sucks. So rinse your old sand before you reuse it. And for you people out there that think that you can't reuse sand, please give it to me.

My plan is to not get anymore acro for a while. And to watch this one close. This one is looking very good, all polyps out and happy. So I'll just keep my eye on it. Before I get too much more coral I'm going to start iodine dipping everything as well as testing for and adding iodine. Does that sound like an okay plan?

I don't see any dots on it with my eye. I'm wondering if it could have been a copepod. It is a tiny frag and it is the only acro I have. I have not treated it yet because I have nothing to treat with. I'm just wondering where it came from; my only new corals are from people on this forum. So if it is a red bug others would have them also.

Thanks! I applied online for a job at comcast in Eugene. I don't know the electrical code so I'm not sure if I'll be top of the list.

Welcome back. If you want to see what a newb takes from all the info out there, take a look at my setups. Sometimes DSB, always lots of macro, low on the bioload, and everything is happy. It's a good thing that corals are mostly positive on the bioload part of a tank.

It's too bad I sold all my brewing stuff to buy fish stuff. I love home brewed stout.

This is the only acropora I have. Will it eat other corals or just this type?

I was taking pictures of my new coral and I noticed a dot that looks like it could be a red bug. It is moving. Is this a red bug? This is the best pic I could get.

Garrett rocks! (rock2) I picked up a few very healthy frags at a great price.(clap) I just wish I had more money to spend.(drooler) Thanks Garrett

I like sand, more surface area. And if you go DSB with fine sand it can take care of nitrates. Sand just takes a little more work when you want to clean it. But this shouldn't need to be done with fine sand for years.

This stuff looks almost as happy as in your system in just minutes. (clap) Thanks again!!

Mine is almost just that. I have a slight different baffle setup, the input goes to a square in the corner.

I have about 25% fuge size (area for chaeto) to tank size and get excellent results. I think any amount of fuge helps. I think it is important to keep everything else in check also. Over-stocking, over-feeding, bad top off water, or chemicals killing your bio-filter, to name a few, can be other problems that you may need to take care of. My chaeto more than doubles every month, maybe it quadruples. Each of my fuges have a 23 watt light bulb, the cheap energy saving kind, that's about 100 watt equivalent. I've never had to use a different method so I'm unfamiliar with them. I don't have skimmers on these setups, or mechanical filtration,, it's basically just live rock and chaeto, with small amounts of other macro and corals also eating up phosphates and nitrates. I also don't do water changes very often and still have zero nitrates. I do run carbon for a few day a month. Just my 2 cents that works for me.

Give the chaeto a chance. With strong light it works very well. I don't see nitrates or phosphates in my systems mainly because of chaeto. I use my phosphate reactor once in a while when I want to run carbon. but not for phosphate remover anymore.

Beautiful tank.

Yes but I thought I would add the scratching my head anyway. At least I can make myself laugh.

I think that you would want to test for and add iodine if you are to use xenia.

Cool thanks Michael. I had a lot of this and I got rid of most of it for next to nothing before I moved. Then a stupid heater ate what I did keep and I have none now. I always liked it and it grew nicely in my tank, so I will be getting it again.

Threads are deleted if pushed back???

Very nice. I have my eye on this; I want to see how it all develops.