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My 2 ocellaris have decided, after THREE YEARS of having both clowns and BTA's, to host in a couple of my 15+ green BTA's. For 3 years they ignored them. A few weeks ago, they started hanging around near the BTA's, then I saw them occasionally swimming through them. Tonight, just after...

3 years ago (or so) I bought a pair of BTA's for a 75G with PC lighting. Yeah, bad idea. One died after a month. The other one shrivelled up to the point it had no tentacles, and was all white. I ordered MH lighting after losing the first one. The remaining BTA started improving...

Noticed tonight my PJ cardinal is *extremely* swollen up. This fish is a little beat up - it got caught in an overflow, and ended up going down to the sump, one of it's fins was sheared off almost completely. That was 6 months ago, it recovered fine. Anyone thing this is a pregnancy, or a...

I noticed this morning that even though I'm not using any water from my RO/DI, that the RO waste line is putting out non-stop water to the drain. I'm guessing this means the membrane is worn out or plugged? Obviously it's not putting enough clean water out to trigger the pressure switch that...

Been fighting a bit of a GHA problem in my 180. (brief history) I've been doing bi-weekly 25% PWC's for awhile now, am barely feeding, and am not overstocked in any way, am using RO/DI, which is fed from a charcoal-filtered house-wide filter (usually 0 or 1 ppm solids reading on my digital...

Having some hair algae problems (I know, nutrients, feeding habits, phosphate, regular PWC's, etc, don't need the lecture, I'm already there). I've never considered the length of my daylight cycle in the mix. I've been running almost 12 hours with full MH's (2x250, 2x175 on a 180G). Running...

After looking for months, I finally found a beautiful imperator this week. He's just starting the color change, and looks perfect. So far I've tried samples of almost everything in my food stores - frozen mysis, spirolina (sp?), flakes, krill, the Ocean Nutrition gel-foods (for Angelfish), and...

Found this a few days ago, but I misplaced my memory cards during the move, so I was just able to get a shot. Looks like the beginning of a cauliflower coral (pocillopora) , but I'm not sure. It does seem to have feeder tubes of some sort... they extend more at night. It's tiny - smaller than...

I've got a 180G - dual built-in overflows, to a 30G sump (small, I know). The overflows drain into 2 sock filters, into a section where an Aqua EV-180 feeds from and returns to (it's outside of the sump). I have standard bubble trap baffles - 1" apart, and I've added foam screens to the...

I picked up a Vortex XL diatom filter. I'm confused about the running time suggested. I've seen both "continuous use" right on the packaging, but then I've also seen "continuous use (max 8 hours per week)", which to me is contradictory... Anyone have luck running these 24/7?

Is this safe? I tried mounting 250W's in my home-made reflectors tonight, which are currently mounted directly onto the bottom of the canopy, which are covered in melanine - standard cabinet interior stuff. The wood got pretty hot - hot enough I'm not comfortable leaving it that way. So I...

This is a strange one. My new 180 is up and running - have had fish in there for about 2 weeks - it finished cycling about 2 1/2 weeks ago. All water params are great, 'trates under 20, temp steady 80, SG 1.024 (per refractometer), pH steady 8.2. Every morning, the water is crystal clear...

I added 6 jumbo shrimp to cycle my 180G - it's been about 3 weeks, and they're mostly gone now. Should I add more? Ammonia and 'trites are still too high to add fish (I'm doing 'fish-friendly' cycling this time). Ammonia has been at 4.0 for the last few days, dropping a tiny bit (maybe) today...

I've got some reinforced flexible tubing that's curled at the bottom above the sump, which is making it really hard to get the overflow directed into the sump. Any tips to straighten this out? I'm wondering if a small torch on a low setting could heat it enough to straighten, but I don't want...

I haven't added anything to my tank for probably almost 6 months (except PWC's of course!) But today I see what I believe are a whole herd of astrea snail babies. Dozens of them, all over my fuge. I'm pretty sure they're astreas, they have the ridges and everything else looks the same. I didn't...

I'm designing the sump for my 180. I was originally going to go with a single 48" acrylic tank from glasscages.com, with a skimmer area, a return area, then a fuge area, which would get water from a small pump in the return area, and overflow back to the return area with a bulkhead at the top...

Looking for a good Mag 9.5 pump...

I'm going to be filling up my 180G pretty soon. Of course I'll mix the salt, add some sand (some new and some from my curren t tank), hopefully a little LR and a little from my current tank. I'll add a heater to keep temp at around 80, and a couple powerheads to keep circulation going - but...

I've got dozens and dozens of tiny starfish - I caught some feeding on my xenia (mowed a path right through the middle). Rather than just siphon them out with a baster, and toss them (or put them in my fuge) is it safe to feed them to my anemones?

I have an auto-topoff setup - which has been a huge time saver. But I found out the down-side to it this week. My protein skimmer (CSS125) went nuts, and was slowly pumping water into the bucket it drains into - all night long. That meant my auto-top-off was replacing all that with fresh...

I'm going to be installing a 180G tank in a few days into a cabinet, and the back glass won't be accessible again - ever. I need to paint it, but not sure what kind of paint is best... Also, trying to decide between dark blue, or black paint. What's everyone's preference, aesthetically?

I've been fuddling around trying to design a bracket out of acrylic to hold a float valve, which connects to my RODI filter, for automatic top-offs. I found out I'm going on vacation for a few days next week (a family thing), and had to get something in place. So, I'm looking around for...

This has been slowly growing. I didn't realize how ugly it was until I got a macro shot of it.

This will be my official build thread for my 180 gallon reef tank that's going into a new home. I've spent about the last 6 months planning this project, and its finally getting underway. The tank will be installed in a section of a custom-built cabinet with a buffet counter/china hutch at one...

I need to setup a 75 gallon tank temporarily, to move everything to while we get new carpet. It'll be in use until August when we move. I dont' want to buy a new stand, so I'm looking around the house. I have a very very strong cedar chest that could easily support the weight (it weights...