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We have them for just $45 Affordable Aquatic Supplies Salinity Refractometer [AASREF] - $44.99 : Affordable Aquatic Supplies LLC

You should be looking at the kessil lights. They make a 6500K light which would give you more light in a usable spectrum for your plants. Most other LEDs are going to be designed for corals

There are so many great options for your fish. I would suggest getting a few different packages of single ingredient foods, like mysis shrimp, cyclopeeze, plankton etc. If you plan on feeding brine, look at Hikari spirulina brine shrimp they are gut loaded with spirulina and pretty nutritious.

Run some GFO in a reactor and your phosphates will come down. Definitely keep up the water changes, and make sure you are using RODI water. If you are using tap or well water you might be adding the phosphates with your makeup water.

Acrylic will give you less distortion and will give truer color to the inhabitants of the tank. Glass usually has a greenish tint. Acrylic is light and easily moved. It wont spring a leak and is easily moved. But unless youre getting a large tank, I would say go with glass. Its cheaper, wont...

Just throw the old sand away. I cant imagine how you could mix heavy wet sand, and since its the cheapest part of the whole system, its just not worth the trouble. If you were to put new sand on top of the old, you would see a layered effect, and since you can avoid that easily you should.

That's the problem with oolitic sand. The grains are little egg-shaped spheres. Because of their smooth surface, they don't 'lock' in together very well. In my experience, coarser sand of varying sizes works best. I usually recommend Caribsea special grade because the combination of larger...

Yes, that's exactly what you do. A few things to keep in mind, this is for fresh water only, if you are filling a brackish tank, you MUST make the water and adjust salinity prior to adding to the tank. Also its important that the temperature of the new water match the tank so you dont shock the...

How large are you looking. For $700 you would be getting something larger than a nano. Have you looked at the Red Sea Max tanks?

The python connects directly to your sink and with turn of a valve, will either siphon the tank or fill it. When filling a fresh water tank, you would add a dechlorinator like Prime BEFORE you add temperature-matched tap water.

If you just move your MP10 closer to the top that would probably do it, but it would also draw in a ton of bubbles which you would probably dislike more. I would try a small koralia or Maxijet shooting across the top of the tank. Careful that you arent so high that you create too much splashing.

It probably is oil. There are fats in the food you feed so naturally there will fats (oil) in the fish waste also. This is entirely normal. What I think is happening is that you aren't skimming any water from the surface of the tank and you dont have much surface agitation. It looks like you...

I am not familiar with that HOB specifically, but from what you said, the dense sponge is the bio media (bacterial colony). You should try to schedule your filter cartridge on alternating schedules. Bacteria will colonize that area as well, and removing both at the same time will greatly reduce...

Its really a complicated decision on which rock to use. Live rock has the potential for introducing pests but it will also provide lots of micro fauna, some macro algaes and plenty of bacteria to get your tank started. It also looks more authentic. Dry rock is essentially the same rock but is...

Get yourself a brand name hang on the back filter. There are good ones from Hagen, Marineland, Penguin, ATI. There are many and they are all fairly cheap, just get a good one and you wont replace it. Make sure its rated for between 50-100% MORE than your actual water volume. The filter will...

Why not cut the bottom of the top pipe as in this pic?

You dont necessarily need a bio wheel, but you do need a good filter which moves lots of water and has a large capacity for bio media. Your filter seems to be on the low-end, so an upgrade might make sense depending upon your tank size and fish stock. Tell me more about your tank.

All aquariums require a surface of some kind for bacteria to colonize. Some filters use sponges, others use ceramic rings. Marineland uses the bio wheel. While a biowheel isnt a necessity, biological filter media is. What does your filter use?

If you shorten it, and there is no reason you shouldnt. Keep the bottom of the tube about 1/3 the way from the bottom of the tank so that you dont suck sand into the filter an have a chance to capture debris floating throughout the tank.

A biowheel looks like an old fashioned water wheel. Water is pumped over it and it gently spins (like an old fashioned water wheel). The purpose of the biowheel is to provide an oxygen-rich surface for bacteria to colonize. These are the waste-processing microbes which are necessary for a...

If manually topping off the tank daily is becoming a chore, why not look into an automatic top off, ATO? A float switches will trigger a slow refil of your sump with RODI, keeping your tank always filled and your salinity stable.

Take a look at Prodibio Startup. Prodibio is shipped in small glass ampules containing various supplements. In the case of Startup, there are 2 parts, the first is a live bacteria culture shipped in a sort of suspended state. It is guaranteed to be live once opened and has a shelf life of 3...

You went too fast. You probably dont have the necessary bacteria to digest the fish waste so its just building up and causing the smell, not to mention, poisoning the fish. Your next post is probably going to be about losing your fish. Please read about cycling the tank...

Probably what is going on, is the aerator is just atomizing the tank water and putting it into the air so to speak, so you can smell it. I dont think there is anything coming from the gravel, its not conducive to gas pockets forming. When was the last time that you changed some of the tank...