Achilles Tang

Yeah right! Dream on, Ben! I voted for the Achilles Tang, naturally. My 2nd fav is the Powderblue tangs.

thick or thin?

1. There is no such thing as a slump. I think you mean a SUMP. DSBs SHOULD be in the main tank and not in the usual tiny sump. A mixture of grade 1 & O is fine. Don't use coral chips as they tend to trap a lot of detritus.

Interesting... is that a solid PVC pipe for the riser tube? How can you see thru to evaluate the foam quality? And how are you going to clean the collection cup if its sealed like that?

Marinelive, are you the same Sherman that sold the 'LR'?

I'll check with them! Let you know!

Of course they do! Actinics provide the 420nm spectrum which corals use for photosynthesis!

www.eaquanature.com

Our sweet Harry!

He looks like Stuart Little!

I don't think they have 250w 20k.

It's an amphibian... not a fish.

It's a pokemon. Well... you got the answers already!

Use a sharp razor blade and scrape off carefully... should be no problem.

Standby!

Oh... it started off as a tiny patch of GHA here.. and then there... and then there... and there... and there... and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there...and there... and there... and there... and there...and there...and there... and there... You get the idea now? Wow... how's that for spam?

Roidan. ALERT!! ALERT!!! If you have hair algae ANYWHERE in your system... you WILL get hair algae in your main tank! It's only a matter of time before the spores get there and TRUST ME... they will take the opportunity to overtake your tank! When my sandbed was maturing... and I was still using the H&S skimmer, there was hair algae on the macroalgae that I bought for my refugium then. IT SPREAD to my main tank and I was battling it for MONTHS but not before I lost a few gorgonians and hard corals to them. It was checked when I upgraded to my big beckett skimmer and took drastic steps to combat it. I bought every thing that was supposed to eat hair algae but it was useless because it didn't work at all or worked too slowly to see even any encouraging result! Firstly, I disconnected my refugium for months and let it die. I had to do a lot of water changes, bought a lot of phosphate removers, had three days of blackout. Took out every piece of rock that had hair alge on it to dry it. Threw away a few corals that had hair algae on them. If I could launch a tactical nuke on my tank... I would. Now I'm paranoid. Anything that resembles hair algae and I break out in shivers. It's a far worst enemy than bryopsis, cyano, diamtoms or dinoflagalettes. You can't trim them or harvest them... they are too fine and silky and every strand that floats will entangle corals and inverts... it was a real nightmare.

Sorry to disappoint you but you'll be wasting your money if you want to see them school because Sunburst anthias don't. They are hiders. Reefers are lucky if they see them in the open for more than half an hour a time!

Interesting... but how do you prevent your food from spoiling?

A WHOLE TRAY A DAY???? WOW!!! You gotta be kidding!! You would be using up a litre of Rowaphos a month just to keep your phosphates low enough so your corals won't get affected! AT

Guys, before you go out and buy a whole big school of anthias, pls read up about them first. The purple queens especially are extremely hard to care for and they require lots of frequent feedings of zooplankton-like food like frozen cyclop-eze THROUGHOUT the day. Caring for anthias means you have to make change to your water quality maintenance. Be prepared to invest in more frequent water changes and upgrading to a bigger more effective skimmer. You don't want to lose the whole school and certanly not the whole tank. Don't grow cyano and hair algae!

Nice purple acro, Hon! Give it lots of water circulation! Oh wait.. you do have a lot of water circulation!

It should be 2ft above the 6 inches of sandbed.

It looks like the opening scene from Terminator 3.... I half expect the flying Hunter machines to shine searchlights thru the water and see skulls of dead humans on the sandbed! Wait.. there isn't a sandbed and your tonga branch is not going to be a good denitrification media. How are you going to deal with building nitrates?

That's good to hear! But applying your experience for LPS is just enough to know the basic husbandry skills. SPS is a different ball game... and quite exacting in fact. You have to get all your equipment in place and running well so you can worry less about inadequacies of your system and concentrating on husbandry and maintenance of an SPS system. But as I said, do take a lot more caution for a new tank, you have to do EVERYTHING right from the start or your immature tank will cause problems especially for SPS corals. First off, I suggest the use of Rowaphos from the start so that you don't give phosphate a chance to bind into your LR and sandbed, to be later released for cyano or worse still, hair algae or bryopsis. These will smother, suffocate and overgrow SPS corals without mercy should there be a surface available for them to grow on, especially exposed damaged skeletons. 2ndly, read up more about SPS keeping and start learning about the different species. Then learn about the parameters that SPS corals prefer and how to control these well. The rest will be applied to your practical experiences. You'll learn as you go along. I wish you well! Good luck! AT