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My opinion on the issue of heaters is a bit different. It's been my experience that most reef systems only need a heater in cold weather, and to keep the temp from dipping too much at night. It's also bee my experience that heaters usually seem to fail in the "on" position. If money is of...

Well, maybe... You usually want the rock to cure someplace else other than the main tank. This is because the process of curing rock will usually producr a high nitrate level. While the rock can reduce that in time, it's going to risk an algae outbreak. Since you are going away, and since you...

Yes test kits do go bad. While some do put expiration dates on them, many do not. It's been my experience that the test kits most likely to go bad are the ones that test for nitrate, nitrite and phosphate, although any kit can go bad in time. Oe dead give away is that the color in the test...

RC salt seems to run into problems every few years with bad batches and quality control. Other than cost, I personally can't see why anyone seriously into the hobby uses it. Yet, there many people that maintain fantastic reef systems using it. I wish I knew why some people get good results and...

This is more likely a problem with diet. You might remember how the first captive raised clowns looked very brown, rather than orange. What are you feeding the fish?

Well, a typical price for a new Mag 9.5 is about $90. But, even though the pump your cousin wants to sell is new and never been used, it's still used. Just like a new car, once you drive it off the lot the value drops way down. You could ask about 85% of the new price or about $77, but if...

I think some of the estimates in the original post are a little high, but it does go to show how much we do spend on the hobby. It does go to show that you can't really do a reef on a low budget. Btw, you'd only have to plant all the trees the first year. After that the existing trees would...

While it's unfortunate that your ballast went after only 5 months, you really have no way of knowing if the problem exists in all the ballasts they make or if you just got unlucky and got a bad one. All other things being said $89 isn't an unfair price for a replacement electronic ballast, but...

I obviously haven't used the salt in question, but I did see a could of "red flags" in the posted link. First, it's made by evaporating NSW, so it means that anything that originally was in the NSW makes it into the salt. Also, they said "... has been developed by D-D following many months of...

I have to agree with the previous posts on the subject. Ich must be treated in a QT tank. In addition, what ever you do, never ever medicate a reef tank. No matter what the label says, no matter what the advertising says, no matter what the LFS people tell you, no matter what others say, there...

My MH's are about 18 inches from the tank. I think this is a little too far, and I plan to reduce it to about 12" in the near future.

Well said! The only reason I have success today with my reef is that over many many years, I have been able to make almost every possible mistake. Some of these errors are forgiveable though, because at the time, no one else knew the correct solution or method.

You have a tank that is 29 inches high and you want to keep SPS corals. The Aquatinics fixture you are looking at has seven 54w T5 lamps, or about 378w of light. That's a bit marginal for SPS corals. It would work though, if you kept up with bulb replacements, and put your SPS corals toward...

Most likely you'll be ok, but you are never going to know for sure until you fill the tank and start using it. Glass can be funny stuff.

Notice the fine print ... Windows users must download and install the Yahoo!® Widget Engine before installing the NanoPlanner™ widget. Notice that you need to take some other piece of software, something that I suspect in the long term is sure to be a source of unwanted advertisements or...

Algae control is all about controlling nitrates and phosphates. Don't think that because your test kits read 0 or very low values, that you do not have a problem. Nitrates and phosphates can be bound up in live rock, the sand bed, and even in the algae you are trying to get rid of. Things that...

I think you'd have an easier time of it if you matched the water in the QT tank to the SG, pH, etc of your main tank befre you begin the transfer back. Do this very slowly, over a period of several days. Then you only need one bucket, and can drip acclimate the fish using that, just like you...

Yes, cloudy water can be caused by fine dust in the substrata, but before you go and start replacing it, make sure that this is your problem. A bacteria outbreak can also make the water look cloudy. This can be caused by something dyeing or by overfeeding, especially with frozen foods. So can...

If you think the 20Ks are too blue for your tastes, you can always soften it a bit by putting 10000K bulbs in place of the actinics. I have used a different brand of bulb every time I replaced the bulbs on my fixture. I didn't find any problems as such, but they do vary a little in color between...

MH bulbs are a very personal choice. You'll find that you will need to balance the light that can be use by the corals or plants against how you want to view them. Since you mention "shrooms & zoos", if you don't have SPS or other light loving corals, you can go with 20,000K MH bulbs. The light...