Recent content by Vehl

I purchased mine on Ebay from FilterDirect and I am happy with it. They were also very helpful with my questions on how to hook it straight into the plumbing under my sink. (I am very hardware/plumbing illiterate) There was a thread or article around here that mentioned FilterDirect and two...

I am pretty sure that your urchin is eating a lot of your macro as well. I know my roommate had one that loved the macro in his tank. Depending on your light situation you should be able to grow the coraline faster than the urchin can eat it. Other then that you could always try to swap the...

I was going to include all that info in the post, but it looked really long and I did not want to scare people away from reading it! I have the bak-pak 2r skimmer, the large on with 2 chamber and collection cups. I also have these lights...

Alright, I have a 125 gallon reef without about 150lbs of live rock. The tank has been up and running for about 18 months with out any major fiasco's. All fish and corals seem to be very healthy and happy. (and my water tests back this up) I know someone will ask so I have 2 percs, a...

I had a mantis and some pistol shrimp in my 125. I heard the popping noise as well. Once I caught the mantis and moved it to its own tank I still here the popping in the main tank, but none from the mantis tank. So in short the popping my very well be a pistol. As to you missing crabs, it...

Do a search and look at other people's reviews of them. I too was thinking about ordering from them and the general consensus I got from this site and others was that you should never buy something from a site with the word "con" in it. But who knows, they may have improved.

First off to get it out of the way I will say that I think you a overstocked for that tank. Being as you had FW tanks before this you are probably aware of it, just wanted to say it in case. As for the orange coating, it could be a type of cyno algae which is not wanted, or just diatoms, which...

The mantis will come out mighty fast in a FW or carbon water dip, basically shoots out of the rock trying to escape the FW. Just have another bucket of SW nearby if you want to keep it, and dump the rock back into the tank after the Mantis is out. Most of your organisms will be fine.

I have the same fish and he does drop sand on the corals and what not. However, with decent water movement most if not all the sand is "washed away" by itself, however you may have to take a Turkey baster and "blow" it off.

First off, just calm down. :) Now, to your first question about cycling. Water does not cycle, the substrate, filters pads, sponge filters, etc.. cycle. The bacteria is in the water, but most of it lives on the rocks and substrate. This is why when moving a tank most people say don't worry...

I second the advice given by Phyl, go with the 6 stage from Filterdirect, that is what I did and I ahve had no problems with it whatsoever. In fact, 2 of my friends now get water from me instead of the LFS. What is the going rate on RO/DI water nowadays anyways....... :twisted: