etannert

+1. Temp should generally be 78-80.

Is it just me or is the search function not working? I just tried a few really generic terms like 'LED' and got no results.

I am CLEARLY in the wrong line of work.

Very cool!: http://mission-blue....-by-scientists/

I keep a similar tank to yours and I keep caps and birds nests with no problems.

Glad it worked out for you!!

I may stop by later in the afternoon depending on how late our UIL marching contest runs that day.

I would highly recommend Mid-Cities Aquariums. They were closest to us when we lived up there and we were fortunate for them to be our local LFS. True Percula in Arlington is pricey and a little hit-or-miss; DNA is okay but too far out of the way for me. There are a couple of other stores in the HEB area that have amazing coral; if the names spring to mind I'll post them. Frank's Tanks in South Fort Worth is very nice as well. You can spend an entire day driving all over the Metroplex to see LFSs but you really have to make a decision as to whether you want to stay on the Dallas side or Ft Worth side or you'll spend your whole day in the car. Driving from one to another is kind of like going from RCA to Aquadome... or farther... to get to each and every store.

You have yet to suggest an alternative method of filtration for the OP. What do you think would be better in this situation?

The primary filter in all of our tanks is the bio filter provided by our live rock and live sand. Protein skimmers are another form of filtration, as are various reactors, floss, filter socks, etc. HOB filters offer the option to run floss, carbon, GFO, etc. on sumpless/reactor-less tanks. While a protein skimmer in tandem with this would certainly be recommended, claiming that a HOB can't run a 20-30g reef tank just fine is ill-informed. I actually have less filtration in my Solana 34g... I run a Tunze 9002 protein skimmer and I have a bag each of carbon and GFO sitting passively in the back chamber. I don't even have floss in my set-up. I grow everything from softies to sps just fine with this set up. I'd be curious to know what type of filter you'd recommend instead. Sumps don't automatically create filtration in and of themselves; they simply allow for greater water volume and for the hiding of reactors etc.

+1

Yay!

Just another option - one of my band parents does graphic design and websites. www.chickmandesigns.com. He maintains our band website, www.evband.org.

I use SquareSpace for my site (www.emilytannert.com) and it's extremely user-friendly and easy to manipulate.

...and high school marching contests... <sigh> Oh well, I'm used to it.

Ditto!

You could catch the clowns, put them in a breeder net for a little while while you introduce other fish (purple firefish are surprisingly tough and would be my suggestion), and then when you let the clowns loose the other fish will have acclimated and established their territories. I have a breeder net you can borrow!

Hey o0zarka, I'd love to stop by maybe next weekend and check your mushrooms out. High school marching band makes it pretty hard to meet up during the week.

I used to have a beautiful crop of red, purple, and superman mushrooms... an experiment with a masked rabbitfish in my reef tank resulted in the loss of all of them. Not a bad thing in my main tank, but my pico needs some color now! So let me know what you have and what you want for them. Happy to trade as well as pay.

I don't know THAT much about calcium reactors, but I have read plenty of horror stories on DFWMAS about them overflowing/overdosing and turning tanks white. (Or maybe I'm confusing them with kalk reactors? Again, don't know enough to know.) I just got a Marine Color dosing pump - basically a knockoff of the Bubble Magus - and it's super easy to set up and use. I have a smaller tank (Solana) and for my needs, the olive oil bottles I use seem to last about two weeks before needing refilling, which is easy to do. The total cost for the pump, tubing bracket, shelf, bottles, and airline tubing was less than $200 and so far so good...

Wow, nice zoa colonies!

Dose :-) I like the ESV B Ionic brand products myself. RCA carries them. Make sure you test magnesium too, LPS (candy canes, torch) are very sensitive to it. When my LPS look bad it's almost always because my mag is low.

+1 on LEDS being too bright, and definitely get your water tested. As corals grow, they suck up more supplements (calc/alk/mag). If you are not dosing, and only doing small monthly water changes, then you are not replenishing these elements. Since you don't have too huge of colonies or corals that would suck up a whole lot of these, the gradual decline in elements would mirror your gradual recession. I would suspect it's both over-lighting and lack of supplementation, in tandem. Your salinity is a little low too...

Nano-Reef.com - Tons of good advice on keeping nano tanks there. I started with a BC14 and the ease of caring for it gave me confidence to continue to upgrade - first to a NC24, and finally to my current Solana 34. I also have a pico. The pico is definitely much harder to keep looking good than the Solana is!

I would check for pics etc. on Nano-Reef.com. I don't use the stock skimmer on my Solana, I use a Tunze 9002, so I can't help you more than that. Sorry!