DaJMasta

If you're going to do it make sure the GPH of your return line is pretty high or add a second pump, you will loose a lot of pressure after adding it, even with relatively small holes in the spray bar. Also consider the fitting, use either a Y or a T, the Y (in at the base out at the top) would give you a more even distribution while the T (in on the left out on the right and bottom) will give you more pressure on one line. A T in on the bottom and out on the sides will only reduce the GPH of the system.

All considered though, it is much easier and maybe even cheaper to get a cheap koralia nano or koralia 1 and just aim it back there.

When I was dealing with it in my 7.5G the crabs in the CUC did the most noticeable work. Hermits and mithrax crabs, combined with your normal snail CUC did a huge amount to get rid of mine, then it was just a matter of starting with the RODI in my case to keep it away. Also are you running the fuge lights on a timer? If so try 24 hours a day for more nutrient absorption.

Not all jellies have the same requirements, there are some which don't need round tanks and some which probably should. There are some that do well in captivity and some that most certainly don't. There are a number of relative constants though, including:

They need low flow and intakes MUST be protected.

Round tanks are recommended because they can get caught and injured on any corner, there are ways of doing this without a round tank though.

They need high lighting, they are photosynthetic after all.

They need live food, I think I usually hear about using enriched brine.

Any corals or tankmates have to be docile and soft/without hard edges.

Other than that, you really just have to find a jelly that's well suited to aquarium life. Something that will live in tropical waters, something that isn't an extremely active swimmer, etc. I don't know much about them but i've seen a few successful tanks which aren't the thousand dollar in-wall monsters that are used in commercial aquariums and such.

Look at some people's tanks who have kept them, I know there's a couple on nano-reef.com which I've seen, a cube aquarium was one and I think the spherical biorb was another, but it can be done somewhat less extravagantly than the extremely expensive option if you've got it planned out well.

To my knowledge, pipefish are generally kept in species only tanks because they are so passive. Even fish considered non-aggressive or semi aggressive are too much for them. Also nice fish.

I've never seen a hermit eat a macro. They will climb all over things (rocks, algae, gorgonians, tunicates, the back wall, etc.) but I've never seen them eat most of it. They're probably after the particulate it collects and the fact that it's a new place to go.

Cyanoacrelate gel is the same whatever brand or marketing it comes under. I personally prefer not to deal with it under water too much (I find the outer layer solidifies a bit too quickly to mount frags to rock very easily), but it works great mounting to plugs and the like. I've seen at least one fragging guide which tells you to let the gel sit in the air for a minute or so to be quicker to bond to the new frag, but I haven't tried it myself.

As for attaching the frags to rock, epoxy putty seems like the standard all around and does a good job, but I've seen a reef using a pin system which was just great. You mount all the frags with a 1/4" diameter rigid stake out of the bottom and you drill 1/4" holes throughout your rock. It takes some thought beforehand, it's hard just pull out your LR and start drilling, but it made for excellent strength to keep them up, tons of configurations to hold everything in place, and no need to glue anything, so a frag or colony could be moved at a moment's notice.

+1 on the dual actinic. The 14K phoenixes are great for color, and they seem to emphasize the reds more than the greens while still bringing out the blue coloration. They are by no means truly blue bulbs and some people say that various 20k rated bulbs aren't as blue as the 14k phoenixes. I think going with the extra actinic gives you better coverage with an actinic only lighting option and more pop on your greens. If you have a controller and are interested in simulating a day's light cycle better though, going one actinic and one 10k would give you a good sunrise/sunset lighting mode.

Your acclimation method sounds good to me, I would probably up the hours before lowering the height, but I can't say that I have any evidence to back that up. Since it's 2x150s and not 250s, there's probably not a huge risk of bleaching everything out so long as the tank is at least 18" or so deep. If you have the option to move lower light corals then certainly do so though, and remember that each MH will make a sort of 'hot spot' of it's own as well. There's also the option of using the old bulbs (if they're still going and have 6+ months on them) as sort of MH acclimation bulbs, doing the start of the acclimation, then swapping one by one to the phoenixes - could be just another way to gradually up the lighting.

I think mine was around 165 when tested a couple months ago. If you're on city water it's pretty good, but the quality of the pipes in your building and the newness of the feeders that get it to you play into things quite a bit.

a Harlequin shrimp would be pretty cool IMO.

If you can keep it fed

Sexy shrimp are good, a fire shrimp may be a bit on the large side but could be a good choice. For fish you have only a few options, and while inverts get large sometimes they don't contribute too heavily to bio load. I'd look for some mini brittle stars to add in, then maybe a clown goby, green clown goby, redspot goby..... something small. A twinspot blenny could be a good option too, hard to say. A crinoid lobster maybe? If you've got the lights to support SPS, I'd go with an acro or pocillopora or something and a companion commensal crab - they've got tons of personality and there are some that are colorful and get to be more than 1/2" or so

If you're just looking for movement, maybe it's time to add some more softies and make sure the powerhead is on, you're not going to get a ton of livestock into a pico but with a nice spread of corals you can get a look of coolness out of it.

Just brainstorming from looking at other tanks....

porcelain crab

boxer crab

NOT xenia (unless you want a xenia coral the size and shape of a picotope)

ricordea

mini carpet nem

There's also a number of mods for those hoods and a few ways to get higher flow fans in there without cutting extra holes.... and a few with cutting holes..... so there are sub-chiller options as well. I don't know how nanotuners does it, but perhaps it already came with a fan upgrade as part of the retro kit. You can also do a little bit of air cooling off the rear chambers, since they're exposed.

Looks pretty sweet so far though.

Agreed, they grow quite slowly and they don't actively encrust. I think they will conform to the spaces under them and will grow over obstacles, but it won't try to glue itself down.

P.S. Be careful of the sweeper tentacles!

I've got mine in my return chamber just because I like the extra fuge space (it's a 5.5G tank made into a sump ) and because it reduces temperature fluctuations, with the fuge only getting flow from the top some of the water would stagnate somewhat and there would be a warm spot around the heater otherwise.

I don't think there's any wrong place to put it though so long as it's properly submerged.

250W MH with a 14k bulb (I <3 my phoenix)

Just suspend it a bit above the tank (10"+) and heat won't be much of an issue and it should have no problem fully covering the tank with light. Then you also get the shimmer and better PAR penetration at depth.

EDIT: that being said, a 250W MH is NOT suitable for a 16G. The 150W could be, but it may not be quite enough for the deep 37G if you want more than low light corals on the sandbed.

If you flip the stack order your fuge can have a gravity fed ATO. I would make them as separate tanks, then build something to hold them up and let them slide out or something similar for maintenance. Stacking tanks is no easy task though.

Probably.... maybe not in the long term because the size is so small. If you picked just one it would definitely work. Maybe go for a smaller variety for the second goby? The clown goby is pretty good for pretty much down to the small end of pico aquariums, but the watchman can get bigger. I would suggest a yashia goby and a pistol shrimp if you're looking at gobies and want something interesting

Oh yeah, nanoreefs.com is where I go for most of my nano specific info. Specifically, this thread should help:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74703

That's true, it's not an all-or nothing setup in terms of visits, one visit could be affordable if I have some help from a friend to do the rest.

The new place is just north of the split between lamar and guadeloupe, further from the fish stores but closer to school.

Now the question is.... how are we actually going to get it if there isn't a distributor for 60 miles in any direction

I've got a 24G Nano Cube and a 7.5G tank plumbed to a 5.5G sump. I had thought originally that I would spend about two weeks back at home and get someone to watch over/feed my tanks while I'm away - that way I could do a water change before and after and should be able to coast along. I figured feeding some food every few days would be plenty to keep things going and a checkup on the critters and equipment on a similar basis could keep track of the basis. I don't have anything in either tank that would totally nuke it if it died (though the ammonia sort of always has the potential in a tank this small) and neither is fully stocked - that'll happen after I get back. It was a bit of a risky plan, but I figured it would be fine with just asking a friend to watch over the tanks and pay them something in return.

Now here's the problem: I just got an offer that I'm taking that puts the total time away from austin at about 4-4.5 weeks - a bit too long for no water change. So I have a quandary, how should I keep my tanks happy while I'm out of town? I will be moving into a new place in the time before I leave on my trip and won't have a roommate to look after things. There's still the option of asking someone to fill in, but once water changes are involved there's a lot more to have to teach(using a refractometer, waiting for it to mix and heat, doing the change, etc.). I can no longer just get away with 'look around to see if everything's alive and give them the food in this bag each time you visit'.... so what are my other options? I know there are tank sitting services, but would they be cost prohibitive for me (I'm a grad student with a small income), would I be able to train someone to do the more complicated work or have some way to check up on things myself? Is getting a large (50G or more) bucket and making it a temporary tank (lights, heater, powerheads, livestock) and just letting it be for the time I'm away an option? I certainly want someone to come and check up on things, but I don't think I can afford anything that's more than a visit every couple days. At the moment I don't have to dose anything to keep up with the needs of the corals and I've been doing quite well in terms of nitrate levels in both tanks. Each tank has an ATO with a large capacity bucket to drink from and uses timed lights, neither uses a skimmer. I won't be adding any more livestock to the tanks than what's in them now and neither is at full capacity.

Any ideas on how best to keep the tanks going while I'm away?

Have an urchin? What other livestock?

There are some critters that eat coralline, so if you had a HH on something or added one for another reason that could be the answer. If it's turning white and going away instead of just going away, then yeah it sounds like it's either starved for calcium or there has been a recent increase in light. Something like changing a bulb could probably do that too.

It's no octopus

Still an awesome freebie.

Make sure there isn't any whitish patches on the polyps (can really only be seen closed). If there is it could be zoa pox. It could also be something pestering them from the underside, when they close look carefully for anything that could be making them close from the base of the polyp: nudis, asterina stars, spiders, worms, aiptasia, whatever.

Also have there been any changes in flow (even a clogged powerhead) or lighting (new bulb perhaps)? In that case it could be a direct cause and is probably only a temporary problem.

I went with the more sugar sized stuff in both my tanks, having some grain size variance is good for replicating natural conditions and pod populations, but I get the impression that the 'special grade' stuff will settle to be a layer of crushed coral with sugar sand below, just too much of a grain size difference for me.

If you are interested in running DSB, the grain sizes MUST be on the smaller size, over 1.5mm or so won't cut it and I think the best sizes are 1mm and smaller.

Fire worm, probably good.

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchworms.html

Be careful with them, they can make a mess.

My vote would be a twin spot goby for a small tank.

Twin spot blenny is a good tiny tank fish, twin spot gobies would probably be OK but could probably outgrow a 20G, especially a 20H. There's a bunch of smaller gobies that will do the job though, and a few blennies who fit the bill. The only thing is if you want them to eat it, small blennies tend to be herbivores and small gobies tend to be carnivores, so while either will turn the sand and reduce the problem, the blennies will be the most likely to actually eat it.

If there's a pickup in the city somewhere I would love to get in on this. Until then though, I don't think biking to Kyle is worth the $25 it would be to just have it shipped to me