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I had two cleaner shrimp that were very active and amusing. They disappeared at the same time. The rest of the reef tank remained happy and healthy. Water tests perfect. Very stange.

My polyp colonies are spreading fast, but remain confined to the rocks on which I got them. How do I transplant them to other rocks? I had one piece of rock fall off with a polyp attached. I put it on another rock, and now have a new colony of twenty or so. They spread fast.

IO is running about 380 Ca. A half teaspoon Turbo calcium to 5 gallons of water takes it to about 420. That's what I do for water change water, and the calcium stays at 400 or so in the system. But I did a lot of testing before coming to that conclusion.

55 gallons of water weighs 465 pounds. The tank, stand, rocks and sand will add something to this, but not as much as you are estimating. Three good sized men weigh as much, and floors don't fall through from the weight of three people. No worries, mate.

I understand, and won't get any more. But I have a bag now, and the question remains, if I add it to a well established reef tank system, will it cause a spike in ammonia and nitrites (which would be a disaster)?

I have set up a two tank refugium system below the main 55 gallon reef tank. If I put the commercially available bags of live sand in the refugium, will it cause a cycle of the system chemistry? If so, I will need to cycle it in a separate tank before putting it in the main system, I guess.

Thank you.

Is it safe to have a stainless steel tubing clamp in a reef tank?

By the way, I just poured some vinegar on the sand and it did not bubble. It was still wet from washing. Does it have to be dry for the vinegar test to work? Is it possible this could be silica sand?

Thanks, Billy. I can't tell if no one else answered because the above is the right answer and no one alse feels the need to comment, or no one else knows. Just curious.

A friend of mine procured some white sand for me that is extremely fine. (As an amateur geologist, he thinks it dates back some 10,000 years to a time when Florida was under water, based on its location inland and depth of 4'-8'.) In any case, it is much finer than the "live sand" in the tank...

I was guessing the sand and rock to be twice the density of saltwater for the calculation, but wondered if anyone had a better guestimate. Just found this tidbit: water weighs 8.3452641 pounds per gallon. Saltwater would then weight that times 1.025 or 8.55 pounds per gallon, I reckon. So if...

Does anyone have a rough formula for water displacement of sand and rock by weight? I have about 40 pounds of sand and 60 pounds of rock in a 55, and want to know how much water I have. 45 gallons, perhaps?

oops. 5 gallons.

35 PPT, or 1.026 at 80 degrees. Do my test results match yours for RO and Instant Ocean? I figure about 1/2 tsp. of Turbo Calcium should do it. Right?

Just mixed a new batch of Instant Ocean, and got Ca 380 and KH/Alk of 4.25. What are you folks seeing in a new batch of RO and Instant Ocean? It seems I can interpret the Salifert Ca test plus or minus 10 ppm or so just the way I read the test.

With a standard glass aquarium, not drilled for plumbing, how do you control the flow to and from a sump? How is the flow to and from balanced? How do you keep the return from over-filling the main tank? How do you re-start the siphon if it reaches the hole drilled to break it after a power...

Measured with a temperature compensating refactometer, my specific gravity is 1.026 at 35 ppm salinity at 80 degrees.

My other water parameters are fine: ammonia - 0; nitrite - o; nitrate - 0; Ca - 370 and coming up slowly with cc additions, etc. But phosphates remain at .1 to .25 -- it is hard to read the Salifert scale. I have plenty of green macroalgae growing, and harvest it weekly. I only feed the maroon...

How much copper can the inverts take? What level is safe?

My dear wife brought home a new fish for my tank, and put the copper flavored water in along with the fish. With a "Fastest" kit, I get .05 mg/l copper in the tank now (though it has been sitting for 15 minutes or so -- may not be that bad). With mushroom coral, rose anemone, African star...

I do not have a wavemaker yet, and wondered if perhaps I should turn off the pumps at night. I have a HOT Magnum, which has quite a lot of outflow, a Remora skimmer, and two powerheads on all the time now. The rose anemone seems to like the (indirect) motion, but retreats somewhat into her...

I have been cultivating macro algea, and seeing a reduction in phosphates, down from about .25 to .1. I have a lot of red and purple stuff on the live rock that I presume is red algae, though the lfs fellow said there was some sponge on the rock. Whatever it is, some of it is turning white...

It's a 55. I have moved them to the bottom of the tank, out of direct water flow. Can't see any change so far, except that they are not as flourescent as before.

I have mine in a 10g tank by himself. He killed anything in the 55g until I got him out. He is not particularly interesting so far, since he stays dug in under a rock.