Rgwiz11

I have a black and white and a true perc that seem to be hosting together in my frogspawn. Hopefully they start to spawn together too

Emerald Crabs are a great and reef-safe way to keep it in check. We had a bunch on our rocks when we finished cycling, put in 2 crabs and they had it cleared up in about a week. If you go with Emeralds though...look for ones on the smaller side. Fairly certain "Big Bertha" ate one of our chromis once the bubble algae was gone

Ya, water has a fairly unique property in that it takes quite a bit of energy to raise or lower its temperature, hence cold lake water in April, warm lake water in November.

Yes I do! My students are working on the exact same types of problems at the moment.

We are pretty much done with smashing stuff, until the egg drop competition in spring. Now we are lighting things on fire!!

Teacher here 6th grade science, 10th grade chemistry, and 11th grade physics.

I like the idea of terra cotta, will have to try that.

I think a mandarin depends more on the amount of liverock you have, rather than the size of your tank. I've seen mandarins kept in a 75g do just fine. The guy keeping it had 125lbs of live rock in there, and the mandarin was in the tank for 1 year, happy, plump, healthy, and didn't eat frozen.

Nassarius may eat a few copepods here and there, but nothing that would affect the overall population of the tank. In my experience, they are more on the omnivore side rather than carnivore and stick to eating leftover food / detritus in my tank. Bumblebees on the other hand...I try to avoid, as I've read they are very carnivorous and if they can't find the fauna to eat in the sand bed, they go hunting on your rocks for pods.

Hazaa Y-Chromosome!!

All plants produce oxygen gas, but it, more often than not, dissolves into the water. It isn't released in large enough quantities at a time to actually "bubble" out of the plant.

Most likely it's a diatom bloom. Nothing major to worry about as most tanks will have them. This is especially true if you are just starting out and your tank is still cycling. How old is the tank?

My ceriths like to crawl over my glass but rarely venture out of the waterline. My Astrae, on the other hand, venture all the way to the top of my tank and like to hang upside down on the top. It's a little precarious, considering they can't right themselves up if they happen to fall off...

Hermits have a new home. Thank you Eleyan, nice meeting you.

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They were sold to my roommate as blue-legged, but I'm fairly certain they are not. They look more like gulf hermits, but could be something entirely different. All of them look to be about 1" big. We took them out of our main tank as we started to lose snails at an alarming rate. Free for the taking...although, I'm not entirely against a small frag of something for my bare tank.

I thought Dripping Springs was only bottled locally. It could be Tito's though... Whatever one that is only bottled locally, I've been told not to buy as they are a big polluter here in Austin

From what I've read if you want a DSB to form an anaerobic zone, you need a minimum of 4", but no more than 8", otherwise you run the risk of your bacteria creating that nasty hydrogen sulfide gas

I just started using whatever brand it is they carry at RCA. I've had mixed results. All of my fish seem to appreciate the mysis that are soaked in it except my flame angel. He'll eat non-garlic mysis but will spit out the garlic ones

I use a cleaner specifically made for acrylic. Yes it contains ammonia....but I like to live dangerously

I've heard of "Black Spot" Algae (I believe it's actually a type of Red Algae), but last I heard it only grew on plants and not rocks.

Welcome aboard Dan!

As far as siphoning water out of your tank, yes, replace it with pre-mixed saltwater. If you don't have critters in the tank you can add salt directly to the tank, but I found out it just wastes time waiting for the water to clear up again... When you mix up the saltwater, I was told to do it at least one day in advance. Not only does this ensure that all of the salt dissolves into the water, but it helps control the pH of water as well. For protein skimmers, $140 could be a good price, could be a bad price. It all depends on the skimmer that he showed you. Different types of skimmers, and different qualities will cost more or less. For the HOB (Hang on Back) skimmer that I run in my 75g tank (My Skimmer), I payed $200 for it. It retails for anywhere between $225-$250. One piece of advice I will give you is try not to skimp on this. A lot of people will tell you, if you try to cut corners and save money now, it's a big regret down the road when the "bargain skimmer" isn't performing the way you want it. So, it all depends on the skimmer you want. I've seen skimmer prices range from $100 to the one listed on our forums for $2300 (Pricey Skimmer). Check the hardware section of these forums, people are usually parting out tanks and you can get a used skimmer that is still in good working order for cheaper than you can get anywhere else. For your corals, I don't know what kind of lights you have at the moment. Are they metal halide, T5, an incandescent light bulb? If you know what type of lights they are, and the wattage they are, it will be easier to get some advice.