Entropy

So where be the pics?

I have four inches of sand in my current tank, but I will be running less when I get a bigger tank. I usually run about an inch just for the look as Gabriel mentioned. Just enough for any sand diggers (gobies) and snails. To get the benefits of a deep sand bed I would run at least four inches, otherwise I would just use enough to make it look good. Honestly, if you don't have any sand diggers I would just go bare bottom. It is by far the easiest to maintain and if you have a lot of rubble with random frags it can look really nice IMO. I have also seen people use epoxy on the bottom with sand pushed into it so it is just like bare bottom, but with a sand look. I might do that on my next tank.

The easiest solution to this is to get a sub par skimmer. Then you never have to worry about it. Of course it doesn't skim much either...

I have an RK2 (I got it before I got a tank) and love it, but I got to be honest I haven't used the wavemaker feature. Maybe when I get a bigger tank. It is really have to beat the Tunze wavebox, but the price is a killer.

My biggest concern would be getting the goby out of the main tank if it doesn't work out. Gobies are not exactly the easiest fish to catch especially if they have plenty of hiding spots.

I am out this weekend (State Fair). Sorry.

Nice! I was looking at the setup but if (when?) I upgrade I want at least six feet in length. That is quite a step of from a 40g.

Canisters are a good way to build up nitrates. The only thing I ever used my canister for (Fluval 304) was water polishing. I basically packed it full of floss and Purigen and cleaned it often. So are you saying you are using your canister as a return pump?

The Eheims canisters are good quailty, and I have never had a problem with the Fluval either. Do you really need a canister though?

I have never had true bryopsis in any of my tanks, but I think Lee brings up a good point that it is often misidentified. If you read all the threads of people having success with different critters eating it you can easily tell that many different types of algea (hair algae is a good example) often get lumped into the bryopsis category.

What is bryopsis?

A nice form of nuisance algae. It is a pain to get rid of once you have it, but somethings will eat it, and if you nutrients are low it can be beaten back eventually.

Generally you can peel them off or even just cut them off at the base. If you leave any behind it will grow back though. This assumes you don't have the mysterious tank the causes xenia to just melt. In my old tank it grew out of control everywhere regardless of the flow or lighting. The only thing it did consistantly was to spread upward. It would never grow down.

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong. Acrylic has glass beat in just about every category (optics, weight, strength, drillability, customization, shape), but it just scratches so much easier. One grain of sand on your cleaning magnet and that's all she wrote...

Acrylic is good for a sump, and for being light weight, but it is so darn easy to scratch.

Acrylic = EVIL!!!

I think I just scratched that tank thinking about it.

Congrats!!! You might want to soak the mysid in selcon or similar. I am not sure mysid will be enough to keep a mandrin healthy forever.

Looks like a 110g or so to me. If the length and height he listed are accurate it would have to be about 40+ inches front to back to get to 250g which is clearly isn't from the pics.

You would have to call them because not everyone has the same definition of base rock. To me base rock is completely dead and has been out of the water for a long time. It has zero life on it, no corraline, and is usually white or gray in color.

Uncured rock could be clean up fairly fast, but a week might be pushing it. Most people will cured live rock for 3-4 weeks.

Cured rock can be kept indefinately in a storage container with good circulation and steady temp, plus light if needed to support whatever is on the rock.

Uncured is rock that is basically not stable. It has been out of the water for a certain amount of time. This usually applies to rock out of the ocean that is shipped dry (or in wet paper towels). What happens is a bunch of the life on the outside of the rock starts to die and then when you put it in your water you have cycle. If you do this in a container on the side you have to wait for everything that is going to die to acutally die, and then the rock is cured. There is no exact science to this, but basically you want the rock you are putting in your tank to be either completely dead, or live but with nothing dieing.

Keep in mind that right now you have enough live rock even for your bigger tank. You only need enough rock to keep up with your bioload, so since you are transferring the same bioload, you will only need the same amount of rock to keep up with it. You will be losing your sand bed and the tank walls, but I think you will be fine with the rock you have for now. Once you start adding fish you will probably need more. Most people recommend anywhere from 1-2 pounds per gallon, but that also depends on the type of rock being used (some is much heavier/dense and less effective).

As for the expert comment... I am Not one in real life, but I play one on the internet.

Depends on your definition of live rock. If you mean nice purple coralline encrusted rock, I would say six months to a year, but if you just mean rock with life in it I would say about five minutes in a mature tank (or mixed with already live rock). It doesn't take long for bacteria and pods to spread to new rock, but coralline seems to take a lot longer. You can help it along though by brushing your current rock with a tooth brush and then brushing your new rock. The corraline will spread from the tooth brush to the new rock. Not overnight mind you, but faster than letting it spread on its own.

The only way to get mature coralline encrusted live rock that looks like it just came off the reef is to buy it that way either fresh out of the ocean or from someone tearing down their tank. Otherwise you are back to that whole patience thing.

I did it on a 55 gallon right in the middle.

How close to the edge did you drill Sean? I am just thinking of a standard size overflow being about six inches wide (front to back) and it would leave seven inches from the overflow wall to the front glass. That seems pretty tight to get any rock in there and have any room to slide a cleaning magnet by.

You could always just stack what you have in one corner and get new rocks later, or if you can find some before hand you can definately stick them in water to get them going. You could stick them in the 35g of extra water you will need anyway. You will need an extra pump to circulate the water though, and a heater wouldn't be a bad idea if you get live rock. I am not sure how nice your current rock is, but you could always get plain base rock and put what you have on top of that. I got limestone out of my back yard for my tank.

Depends on how fast you want to do it. You could probably get the job done in two hours rushing it. Draining the water will take 10 minutes tops. The hardest part will be catching all your critters and making sure they are safe in a bucket/container. The rest is easy. The most time consuming part will be aquascaping the new tank, at least it was when I swapped tanks. Figure 3-4 hours if you go slow and careful. I would use new sand, since you have rock to seed it and it is pretty cheap. I am thinking about going with the crushed limestone if I can find it. That might be an option for you.

I live in Teravista Karen so I can come by and help you when you are ready. The best way to switch (assuming you cannot slide the tank half empty out of the way) is to just get some rubbermaid buckets from walmart or even a 40g trashcan (under $10 I would think) and just drain the water into the container down to about 1/3 and then catch everything in a plastic container to transfer to the big container. Once you have everything out you can drain the rest of the water and move the tank. If you have sand and it is established you might have a cycle when you set the new tank up. If you wash the sand really good you end up with a mostly new (dead) sand bed, and if you don't you unleash a bunch of nastiness. You will also have to come up with 35g of extra salt water to fill the tank.

It is not like acid or anything. I am by no means a chemistry major, but basically (for us simple folk) when you DI water you end up making it extremely friendly and it will bond with just about anything, which is basically the reverse of the process (DI) that got it to pure in the first place. That's why a lot of semiconductor companies use it to wash parts and to run through their systems because it will keep the systems cleaner.