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I hate to even think about all the "exotic design" type tanks I have seen, and how nice they look from an artistic standpoint, but are very limited, and sometimes almost useless, from a practical stand point. I see this latest example as no exception to this, and stand by my original post. Yes...

Since you are tearing down the tank, and just want to remove it, and you don't need to keep the tank functional, I have found the best way is to siphon out as much water as possible. Then get a small shovel, like you see kids using on the beach, and shovel out the sand into what ever container...

The distance for MH placement isn't that exact a science, especially since the bulb is only an inch or so from the reflector bottom. I was just going to eyeball it.

I would be a "little unsure" about a DSB bucket myself. While I would agree that a remote DSB is a good thing, I'd want something with a lot more surface area than a bucket can provide. As for Anthony Calfo's book, while he's great on coral fragging and propagation, I tend to disagree with...

In my opinion, these type of aquariums look interesting, but only hold 5 gal of water. That's on the small side, even for a nano. In addition if you set it up as a nano, you are going to have the "real thing" in the tank, so why detract from it by having bunch of "fake coral"? If you want a...

Due to having a tempered glass tank, I'm just about forced to use a HOB overflow. (Oh for the day I get rich, and can afford to replace the tank with a larger reef ready one. :) ) The first overflow I used was a CPR overflow. I found that it had many problems. First, the long narrow U siphon...

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.