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Sorry to hear about the loss of your tang. Sometimes a fish that looks good in the store, and starts out ok, just seems to roll over and die for no obvious reason.

It's very difficult to tell what is wrong from your description alone. A few initial questions - How big is the tang? How large is the tank? What other fish and inverts are housed with the tang? How long have you had the fish? Did this just start, or did the fish seem to be going downhill...

Looks great, and if the reef doesn't work out, looks like an ideal cage to keep children out of trouble(evil grin)(but just teasing)

It is amazing what you will find on live rock, even after it's been through an initial cycle. I found new things growing out of my LR for years after I got it. Most of it is harmless.

Often only the bottom is tempered, but sometimes the sides are also. Tempered glass look a little distorted with looked through, but it's tough to tell even them. I'd only pun in 2 or 3 holes, depending upon the number of overflows you plan to have. It never hurts to call the manufacturer to...

Before you add more baking soda, keep in mind that it does take awhile to have it's full effect. I usually wait 2 days before I test and use it again if necessary. Here is an excerpt from Stephen Spotte's book Captive Seawater Fishes, on how much sodium bicarbonate you should add to bring the...

Glad to hear it's all working now. Using a skimmer on a new tank can sometimes capture a lot of "glop". Looks like you are on your way now.

I would stay with what you have now as far as the filtration system goes. You have just about a 1 to 1 raito between what is going through your skimmer and what is being returned to the tank. I don't think there is any need to change the filtration system. You might want larger pumps for the...

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the reason the skimmer filled up with foam so quickly is that it isn't plumbed correctly. Note how you have the return from the skimmer going through the gate valve and then up and over the sump. This causes water in the skimmer to back up inside the...

If I have an algae problem, the first thing I look for are sources of nitrates and phosphates. It's amazing when you think about all the possible sources. From your tap water, if you are not using RO/DI water. From low quality carbon. From low quality salts. From feeding your fish and feeding...

Well,your bulbs are about 9 months old. They are near to their replacement point, so you could replace them now. I'm not sure if that would solve your problem though. There could be other factors involved. I tend to like 50/50 bulbs, but there are a lot of valid combos. I think it's mostly a...

I'm sure some studies were done. They just never accounted for the tires moving around and doing a lot of other damage. As I recall, in some areas all the tires were bolted to each other and to large concrete anchors. I remember these going into the ocean. It was considered a great thing...

Yes, I should have pointed out that I set up a different tank for the NJ locals, and kept the temp far lower than a tropical reef system. However, if you restrict your collection to the tidal pools, most of the things you find there can live at warmer temps. Tidal pools can get extremely warm...

In this day and age I have no idea. Obviously, for stuff like blue crabs, make sure you have any necessary crabbing permits. Ditto for any other shellfish like clams, oysters, mussels, etc. I can't imagine NJ for being a source of live rock since there are no coral reefs. Although if you had a...

That's an interesting point. In my own reef, I've got a couple of Tunze streams, and a closed loop, so there is a lot of water circulation that is far beyond the general circulation from the filtration system. With all that I don't think I'd get a lot of film forming, even with the filtration...

You are correct. I should have said grow to fill the existing tank. I wouldn't want to add additional fish, because the trigger is a very full bodied fish, and needs room. It also eats like a pig, and creates a lot of waist products.

If I'm going away for a week or less, I just leave the system with a full top off container, and go. I feel that you have more problems with having in someone else work on the tank than I would just letting them go a little hungry. However, this can't always be done, some fish do need to be...

Usually pygmy angles will eat the usual fish foods. If this is a new fish, it will likely come around. Sometimes it can take a few weeks. As long as the fish looks healthy, and not loosing weight, you don't have a problem. If it starts to look thin, you may have a real problem on your hands...

Only by writing long opinions with the reasoning behind it can there be any real exchange of ideas and learning. Sure, in some cases, especially with people new to the hobby, a "cookbook" answer is best. They have a very specific problem and need a fast, reasonably correct answer to prevent a...

I don't think so. I have to respectfully disagree. While you do have the same bioload, you still have almost 5 times the amount of water. To maintain the same water quality you need to process more water, although you don't need to make all the equipment 5x larger. In other words, you have the...