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My take on angels in a reef is that it depends on the individual fish. I have a flameback in my 120 gal reef, and it's not bothered anything, but you just can't be sure. Even within the same species you have ones that are fine, and don't bother anything to ones that eat any corals in site, to...

It is usually true that you are better off over building a stand, compared to under building it. Through bitter experience, I found that it is also quite possible to overbuild a stand to the point where it becomes a major pain. True, it never collapsed on me, but there was so much material in it...

I'm not too fond of paint on an aquarium stand. The big problem I have with paint is that sooner or later you are going to put a ding or two into the paint, and it's going to chip and show. This is obviously still going to occur if you varnish the stand, but since the wood doesn't have aneven...

Thank you for enlightening us about llamas and NJRC. And all along I thought all this llama stuff was simply the product of a deranged imagination! ....or possible several. ;D

The stand looks great, if a bit over built. I do recommend you put 3 or 4 coats of marine varnish or polyurethane on all parts of the stand to protect it. It will preserve it a lot better, and it will keep looking nice.

Downdraft skimmers are very similar to beckett injector skimmers. the difference is how they mix the air. In a downdraft skimmer, in place of the beckett injector there is about a 2" diameter pipe that could be anywhere from 2 feet to about 6 feet long. At the top of the pipe is an air intake...

You may not need to run a powerhead full time. Try using it to blow off the macro algae, and then remove it. Just getting rid of the dirt once and awhile may be all you need.

I should state up front that sandbed depth is are area where you almost cant go wrong. It's possible to use no sandbed at all (bare bottom) to over a 4" deep sandbed. My personal preference is to use either just enough to cover the bottom, or go with 4" of sand to get a working DSP. I feel 1...

You have a bit of a problem here. Obviously the fans are in there to keep the fixture and it's components cool. If you try running them at a lower speed, you'll get less airflow and more heat. This is not what you want to do. It may be possible to replace them. For that, I recommend you look at...

I'm not too much of a fan of using baking soda, baked or not baked, to attempt to control alkalinity. Before you try this, make sure your other water parameters are good, especially magnesium and calcium. If they are not good to start with you can add "tons" of baking soda, and get very little...

I would also add MH fixtures using 250w or larger bulbs and that don't use electronic ballasts. A traditional coil and core ballast uses about 50% more electricity compared to an electronic ballast. Over one year, the savings in electricity will more than pay for the more expensive electronic...

Yea, I know the feeling. Right now is not the time to spend a lot of money on your reef, if you have to worry about that next paycheck. I will say this about equipment in general. Always buy top quality. It need not be the most expensive, and there are many quality manufacturers out there...

First let me say that I'm not trying to play "beat up on the new guy". I want you system to work out well for you, so I feel I should point this out. In addition to the lighting, and assuming you want to keep corals, you tank is set up using a lot of methods that would be considered almost...

While a lot of things will eat coraline algae, I don't know of any that can really control it. You'll need to do what everyone else does, and scrape it off the front glass, and every place else you don't want it. If it's on something removable, and you don't mind killing everything else on it...

Yes, stray voltage will trip a GFCI. Most likely you have a powerhear, heater, or something else that has a power cord going into the tank, that is causing the problem. To diagnose, uplug everything, then plug in each device and see if it creates any stray voltage. If it does, it's most...

For the size tank you are doing, and wanting something decent, but not outrageously expensive, I'd use a MAG 3 or MAG 5 pump. They are good all around pumps, and don't cost too much. I use a MAG 3 on my 30 gal reef with good results. The MAG 5 might have to have it's output flow cut back a bit...

The price on the CPR overflow isn't bad, just be sure you like cleaning up from the floods it will produce. And yes, I'm quite serious about this. I had a larger version of the series, and it did everything i mentioned in my prior post. I did forget to post a link to lifereef (off site) -...

Well, the price is right on the sump, and the return pumps are ok. However, I can not recommend any CPR overflow. They are impossible to clean, tend to trap air and cause floods, and tend to break. Get a better overflow. If it were a larger tank I'd recommend a Lifereef overflow, but they cost...

What you can do is obtain a typical small computer UPS, and a SPDT relay, plus a few other parts. You wire the relay so that it controls the outlet on the UPS. Set it up so the relay disconnects the UPS's outlet when there is main power available. Then when power fails, the relay will no longer...

You could paint the overflows with paint, as mentioned above. But why? The whole think will get over grown with coraline algae in a few months or so.