Recent content by Shagsbeard

Overflows tend to quiet over time as the PVC gets algae/bacteria growth on it. I'd give it a good month or two before I did any radical redesigns.

Slow... way... down. Read. Understand what's going on in your tank. It's not just a piece of furnature.

2x post

Get a 20+ gallon tub from the hardward store and transfer the contents of the tank to that. Then have a pro drill your tank.

Don't trust "ich". It will come and go, each time getting worse until it crashes your tank. You might try some miricle cure and it will look like it did wonders. Then the ich comes back and stronger this time. Get all the fish out... you can leave inverts in the tank. Give the tank 4-6...

No one has suggested filling your toliets with it? wow. That's the first thing I'd do. Sure, it's work and you wont always do it, but that's one of the main uses of water in a house. Just turn off the valve to the toilet and fill it up after each flush. If you're handy you could rig a pump...

Go with the goby... much easier and active fish. The mandrines are pretty, but far less active. If you go goby, make sure there's no chance of escape. Mine got out and I still have no idea how.

If they've already added salt, the TDS isn't going to work... you'll just have to trust them. Wait a minute... did I just advise someone to trust their LFS? Can't that result in a ban?

I've had a coralife supper skimmer 125 for about a year and the thing's getting pretty grungy in the reaction chamber. I can leave it alone, but it really should be cleaned out. Problem is getting to where it needs cleaning. Is there some trick to getting down into the chamber that I'm...

The reason you're reading 0 phosphates is that your hair algae is a very efficient processor of phosphate. You need to eliminate the source of phosphate and the algae will starve. Have you ever TRIED to grow a plant? You have to feed it. If you cut off it's food, it will die.

Consistancy is far more important than the number you pick... especially for FO. Pick a number and stick to it.

Your skimmer will require a break in period of two weeks to a month before it really does anything. Don't fuss with it... just let it run dry. Catching those two damsels is going to be quite a task. It's not as easy as it looks in the store. Realize that there is a huge difference between RO...

You need to add that 50 lbs of live rock carefully. It could have quite a bit of dead stuff in it. Curing it a while would help... the LFS is going to tell you that you don't need to. I'd go with 50 lbs base rock and let the rock naturally evolve rather than add that much live rock to an...

One thing... that's pretty much what the ocean looks like off the coast of California. Even though it's unsightly, it's not necessarily dangerous. You've been shouting RO RO RO! You do know that RO and RODI are two different things? Get yourself an RODI filter and give the RO from the...

Distilled is a smidgen better quality but far more expensive. A home RO/DI unit should net you high quality water for well under 25 cents a gallon. Distilled water will cost you far more than that.