Achilles Tang

If politics in the US is dirty.... hmmm.... ours is cleaner?

A DSB that occupys a tiny section in a small sump (comparatively to the large surface area of the main tank) will not be efficient at reducing nitrates naturally. You really need an equal or larger surface area to see best effects. A DSB in the sump can be more prone to crashing because of the limited water volume combined with water circulation cutoff during maintenance. In my newbie days... I turned off my sump overnight and wondered why my sump DSB started to stink.... Also... usually, there is less sandbed animals in the sump DSB to turn over the surface.

Vagabond... that's the Nitrogen Cycle! Did you not read about the Nitrogen Cycle before you started this hobby? You have to understand this very BASIC fundamental of a keeping a marine tank! Please please please go read up about it first! Knowledge is key to success in this hobby! AT

Copepods do not swim freely in the water column. They are mostly benthic. If the floating dust bothers you so much... you can try Seachem Clarity.

Yeah.... 5 microns is so close to Nanno phyto size! Anyway... its a mix of 5 to 50.... so even the smallest of polyps have something to capture... I suppose! Oh Joe_p, I try to feed everyday... sometimes I skip...

Anyone missed the 'I have a scream' speech by Howard Dean? Gee... so much creativity out there remixing his scream.... They must be really bored.

I guess you have lots of media in there? That would mean your 'sump' is actually an OHF. My sump is just a water collection point and a place for me to dump my bags of Rowaphos and GAC. IMO, a sump shouldn't function as a natural filtration area. All natural filtration should take place in the main tank. The sump should simply collect water for chemical filtration and a place to put equipment, collect water for the returns. But for small tanks, I guess a small DSB would be better than nothing... just don't let it crash!

Do your best to reduce heat transfer into your tank. We're living in the tropics... AT

Weileong, Did you match the correct pump with your chiller... having pump that's underpowered or overpowered will affect your tank cooling rate. Also... you should give an indication of what kind of devices you have that could transfer heat to your tank besides your MHs... eg. your in sump pump? Powerheads? Heaters?

Of course not. There's also temperature, PH, salinity, nitrates, ammonia, light intensity, water circulation, dissolved organics, phosphates, magnesium, iodine, strontium and other trace elements to worry about, toxic reactions etc. Not to mention individual coral needs & housing requirements. And compatibility with each other and other livestock. Some things are much more important than others. But all these parameters will add to the tasks of managing your tank well. I recommend you pick up a good marine aquarium book. If you don't start off with a good foundation, you'll never be a good reefkeeper. Trust me. AT

I am sure there will be a difference!! These days... my tank temperature can drop to 23.5c!!!

He put a marine fish in freshwater??? Did he make an honest mistake?? You should go back to him and get him to give you a replacement! Show him the proof!

Pod populations will come and go.... predation means they will disappear soon unless they have the means to thrive... that is why a refugium with no fish inside would be good. The dominant species of pods in my tank is the amphipod species now.

It's extremely rare to get a mandarin to eat prepared foods. Frozen brine shrimp, perhaps. Best to provide lots of copepods for your mandarins... you can build a 'pod pile'... a small pile of rocks where fishes can't go in but your copepods can thrive inside... you have to feed them enough your tank enough to encourage their growth... feeding of DT phytoplankton will help encourage more planktonic life to blossom.

Definitely!!! My 400w lights are off about 12" from the water surface... you have yours at 3"??? You'll be transferring ALOT of heat into your water!!! Weileong... I wouldn't know if my results would mean anything to you guys... as you know... I run 1600w of MH over my large SPS tank... I certainly have a lot of water to chill. As far as I am concerned... my chiller has been able to cool my tank down to 25c and cut off... AT

Yes... 12 oz is really too much... unless a few of you band together to share it. LPS corals do better with meaty foods like small pieces of prawns. GPs are more for SPS because they have Small Polyps... and stuff like larger polyped gorgonians & sea fans. GPs are supposed to replicate rotifers and baby brine shrimp.

Clowntrigger's review of the Reef Relief Chiller. How does it compare? Bear in mind that everyone's tank is different and even fluctuations happen daily. How you place your chiller also affects its efficiency. Calcium buildup in pipes and blockage due to buildup of slime will also the cooling rate. I have never bothered to do a review on how fast my Titanium 1.25hp cools my tank... maybe I should?

Sounds like a mini-brittlestar. Harmless.

A closed loop driven by one powerful pump does away with multiple powerheads in a tank. It may reduce unsightliness and maybe even reduce heat transferred into the water. Technically... a closed loop should not enter into a filtration canister.

Pet Nanny for sale?? :lol: Moving this thread to the Kopi Tiam. BTW, how long will you be away for? AT

I'm sure that it will also eat your fishes if it can trap them.

Newdamsel! Haven't seen you in a long long time! Live phyto is extremely small.... wool will not be able to trap phytoplankton. Only micron nets that are 2 -4 micron size can catch phyto (Nannochloropsis). Anyway... he is talking about additives... and not coral food. Like I said... study what saltwater is made of first... what influences changes to these parameters... and then what additives are needed to change them. You have to study the BASICs first. It's pointless to tell you that you need Sodium Bicarbonate when you don't even know what causes PH & alk to go and down.

What's a coral doing in a FOWLR tank?

Hmmm....if it looks like the above, you can give it away to those who keeping SPS only tanks and suffer from Aiptasia problems. Berghia nudibranch. But from what you describe... yours should be very tiny (about 0.5cm?) and these are probably zoanthid parasites. Once their food source runs out.. they'll die out. Don't squash them with your fingers... siphon them out. They have caused a reefer in the US to collapse and be rushed to the ICU. Allergic reaction probably due to its toxins.

You have to describe it better next time! It's more knobbly than thorny. Looks similar to a chocolate chip starfish.