Recent content by MBliss81

Those dimensions sound more like a 50 gal to me. My 55 gal is 48” x 13” x 18"

Start slow. Add a little and let it run a few days, then add a little more, etc. I made the mistake of adding all at once and had a major bacteria bloom that took a week to clear up and killed my sand sifting sea star. That being said, I highly recommend npx bioplastics. I have been running...

I like to buy 5 gallon buckets from amazon.com. They have most of the brands at better prices than I’ve seen just about anywhere else, and if you have Amazon Prime they ship it for free. Easy peezy.

I agree with everyone else, damsels are just too aggressive. I had an azure damselfish when I first started, and he went after everything (including my puffers)! I have had green chromis successfully, and I have seen those blue reef chromis online and wanted them because they are really pretty...

55 gallon upgrade complete. New additions: Melanurus Wrasse and Orange Sea Star

After a couple years with my 38 gallon reef tank, the time has come to upgrade. We just moved to a new house and I figured it would be a little easier, and very convenient, to upgrade to a larger tank as long as I was going to have to move everything anyway. Things haven’t gone as smoothly...

Having a 38 gal reef tank myself, and thinking seriously about upgrading in a few months since I am going to be moving to a new house anyway, I am going to be watching this thread with great interest. I have been contemplating a 90 or bigger, but when I start adding up the cost of all the...

I would ditch the Emperor 400 ASAP. Great filter for a freshwater tank, but in a saltwater reef it will just be an unnecessary source of nitrates. Just get your protein skimmer tweeked and working properly and it should do the job. If you still have nutrient issues then you can always add a...

Just a heads up, clowns can be jumpers. I lost two of them before I added a mesh top to prevent any mores suicides in the future. Just something to think about. If you really have a hard time keeping the temp down you may need a chiller. Certainly not the least expensive option, but it would...

I found that Purigen has a tendency to clump up, which I think caused more problems than it was worth. I ended up buying a new media reactor from Bulk Reef Supply, in which I am running Chemi Pure Elite, and I am running 400ml of NPX Bioplastics in my Phosban Reactor. After a year of...

So far my only issue has been that you have to keep the flow extremely low. It only takes a light flow to fluidize this stuff, and it's so small that if you have it a little too high it will get blown right out into your tank. I tried to prevent this by using part of the bag the Purigen came in...

This happened to me too. All you can really do is make sure you have enough oxygen in the water (your protein skimmer should ensure this) and wait it out. Mine lasted about 6 days. My fish and corals were not affected, but I had a sand-sifting starfish that didn't make it. The good news is that...

Has anyone ever tried to use Purigen in a media reactor? I have been running NPX Bioplastics in my reactor for about a year, but I decided it was time to change the media, and thought I might try using the Purigen I had sitting around. It takes almost no flow to fluidize the Purigen, and I...

The stunner is just a supplement to the existing T5 HO's already growing my coral very well. They should add a little shimmer and more color to the tank, as well as a slight increase in the total light going into the system. Since it's only a 38 gallon tank, 16"-18" at the most, the amount of...

I just ordered an Ecoxotic 36" stunner strip to add to my existing 36" Coralife 2-bulb T5 HO fixture. I'm hoping that the extra light will be enough to start to keep a few SPS corals, and to make my LPS corals even happier (already growing and spreading really well). I'm going to start a thread...