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I like the red and green levels because I like the more even spectrum. I think you get a much more natural looking tank. Now I will tell you that I like the color temp of the tank to be only about 10000K to about 12000k or so. I feel that a higher color temp is just too blue and looks very...

I'm using AI Hydra 52's on my 125 gal reef. The control is similar. I run them for 8 hours a day with a 1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down. I run all the LED colors at 80% of max. The thing your going to find out is that every reef is different, so even if you like the way I'm doing it, it...

I'd toss that first batch of water, just to be on the safe side. Think in terms of putting your reef at risk to save a little water and salt.

Well, you learned one important thing here. pH probes need to be cleaned and recalibrated from time to time to keep them accurate. Except as a last resort, I wouldn't soak it in vinegar. I'd get a pH probe cleaning solution.

Before you do anything else, stop and consider what you want to keep in the system. Livestock selection can often drive the equipment selection. For example, if you want soft corals, your lighting requirements will be lower. You need not figure out every fish and coral and invert you want, but...

If you want the colors to "pop more", set the colors you want to emphasize at a greater level relative to the other colors. This can take some playing around. Often in reef systems people seem to like the blues. Note how some tanks seem to use almost all blue light, so you'd turn up the blues or...

I use four Hydra 52 on my 125 gal reef system. This is an older model compared to the Hydra 52 HD. However, I do use them with a director. I use a very simple system. Light ramp up for an hour starting at on at 9 AM and start to ramp down at 9 PM. I run the most of the colors at about 85% max...

If you want to kill most of the day, a visit to Pacific East Aquaculture (Dr Mac) is a fantastic experience. Here is their web page with the store information (Offsite) - Pacific East Aquaculture Coral Farm and Tropical Fish for Aquariums If you make the trip, there are no shipping charges. If...

I would say that it would be extremely difficult to open an LFS and be competitive in this day and age. As much as people say they want quality and how they want service, most are going to shop price. Your competition is going to be the online merchants and the large chain stores. You may want...

I would tend to be a bit of a skeptic here. I'm looking at the pictures of the items, which may or may not be what is actually shipped, and I see quite a few products I wouldn't ever use because I think they are not needed or worse detrimental to my reef. I'll stick to buying what I actually...

It's possible to have flow issues with the unit. Here are a few items to check. Is the media getting compacted because there isn't enough flow? Is the media acting as a mechanical filter? How are you feeding water into it? If you using a powerhead pump, it could be sucking in dirt. I feed my...

Even more important that all the other stuff mentioned is to have full complete backups that allow you to restore the entire system to a bare metal PC. Then test your backup and restore process. That way, no matter what occurs, you can at least get back the system at the point of the last...

Yes, you can run a reef system with out a skimmer. Look at the video and see this guys end result. It's a rather lackluster tank, and as others pointed out, it's very lightly stocked. Note also that the water looks a bit cloudy. It works, but not that well. Now compare that to the picture...

When you deal with this problem, as pointed out, first check the connections. Don't forget the bulb endcaps. They can go bad too. If you still have a problem, replace the bulbs. This isn't as bad as it sounds, because sooner or later your going to need to do that anyway, so no money is wasted...

I don't think I'd remove a center brace to install a sump, even if I later replaced it. Sooner or later your going to have to remove the sump for maintenance, or if it's a glass tank, you might break it by accident. You want to be able to quickly replace it, without having to worry about a...

I have found that using GFCI breakers gives me better results. First, it seems to be less likely to trip for no apparent reason, and there is no "cheating" because you run out of outlets. The whole circuit is protected. The downside to GFCI is that they do trip when they shouldn't. I've have...

This is an interesting point. Many years ago, I knew a FW angelfish breeder. His goal was to get the fry up to selling size as fast as possible. To do this, he would first feed the fry dry food. A bit later, he would feed live brine shrimp. Even though the fish were full, they would gorge on the...

Why not get some additional tubing and run the waste water to a drain or toilet some place? The water is almost at line pressure, so you can even go up. Since the tubing is flexible, you can easily fish it through walls and so on. Also, just because it's called waste water as far as the RO/DI...

IMHO, your water testing show a few things you might want to alter, but overall they are not way out of line. Take a look at your livestock. If the fish and corals are looking great, and doing well, I be very reluctant to change anything. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Consider the tests a...

I consider you extremely lucky in that you have never had a GFI breaker trip on you. I usually have a few incidents a year where one will trip on me. Usually, it's during an electrical storm or other serious event. More to the point, consider what would happen to your reef if the GFI tripped...