Wryknow

Wow. There's lots of answers to this one and mostly they just involve my opinion so take it as such. There are two main ways to approach this: 1) Sump only. This is just a simple chamber for water filtration and other equipment. It provides a good, light free area (which prevents algae growth) that lets you incorporate all of the various equipment that you'll need for a salt water tank without any of it being visible in the main tank. Things I would want for a basic sump - a) The actual sump. This doesn't have to be fancy. Folks use second hand aquariums, stock tanks, etc. It just has to fit in wherever you're putting it and be easy to get in and out of to work in. If it's going under the tank then you should have a good 12 - 18" of clearance between the top of the sump and the tank so that you can get in there easily. Filter socks/brackets. These just hang over the side of the sump and you run your drain lines into them. You need to wash these a couple of times a week so you will probably want an extra set of filter socks (I just throw them in the washing machine with a cup of bleach and rinse them twice.) c) In-sump protein skimmer. I recommend the ATI BM200 for a 180 gallon tank but there are lots of other fine choices depending on your budget. d) A canister filter for chemical filtration and water polishing. Any of the main brands are fine IMHO (E-heim, fluval, marineland - just get one that is easy to prime.) I use filter bags packed with carbon and GFO (granular ferric oxide) sandwiched in between fine fileter pads in mine. e) A heater or two. A couple of 250W ebo-jagers would be my choice. f) An automated top-off system. I like the Tunze osmolator and use it in conjunction with a PM kalk reactor to help maintain my calcium/alk/Ph levels. g) An internal return pump. An e-heim 1262 would be ideal IMHO. 2) A combined sump/refugium - this is a bit more complicated but I can out-line a recommended set-up if you're interested

I use two of the brute contaners (with wheels.) I marked them both with a 25 and 35 gallon water line calculated by filling them up with 5 gallon jugs and counting and then marked the inside of the trash cans with a sharpie. I just mix new water up to the line in one can, siphon/drain the tank water down into the second trash can up to the line, and then re-fill the aquarium with my back-up E-heim return pump. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes for a 35 gallon water change.

It depends a lot on whether you want an internal or external skimer and how much other stuff you need to squeeze in under there. Generally speaking, the bigger, the better but you need room for other stuff too. I'm not sure that there is a "best" answer for this.

I have a used custom sump that I'm looking to get rid of. It is designed to sit under a 180/215 tank with some room left on noth ends. It would pfit under a 150 gallon stand as well but there wouldn't be a lot of room left over. The sump is approximately 20" wide, 42" long, and 18" tall and is drilled for an external skimmer and external pump (but the holes are currently plugged since I was using an internal pump.) It also has a small hole for a float swith (also available) for top-off water/kalk dosing. It works just fine but I fooled around with my system set-up and no longer need this. Photos are available on request. $50 takes it. I might also be willing to make a trade for some good frags. (I have a soft spot for unusual and colorful zoanthids and encrusting montipora.) Jason

My advice is to give them plenty of artificial plants or something similar to hide in. That's really about all that you can do unless you want to try and take the other fish out of the tank and create a nursery for them. They'll eat left over bits of flake from the other fish just fine and provide a nice source of protein for the bigger fish if they're not smart enough and fast enough to get out of the way . A couple will survive and and add to the tank's adult population eventually.

Apparently, somne of the folks up in the Dallas club have been buying Pavestone Pulverized Limestone from Home Depot and using that for aquarium sand. It's sold in brown paper bage for like $5 for a 40 lb sack and is intended for use in concrete mixing. Apparently it's just crushed limestone (i.e. aragonite sand) and works just fine in an aquarium as long as it's rinsed off very well before use. I haven't looked for it locally myself but it'd be worth a search IMHO.

I doubt you'll notice any difference at all, especially if you're doing water changes, but it's certainly not going to hurt anything to use purer water. Personally, I just think that this is one of those areas where the reefing community in general has gravitated towards a "purer is better" line of thinking without a whole lot of evidence one way or another. It's very hard to control variables in a reef aquarium suffucently so that you can assign causality to one particular thing. 5-10 ppm is really trace contamination as far as water purity goes - you probably pick up more contaminant than that just by putting it in a bucket (dust, etc) and you are most likely drinking water that is around 280 ppm yourself with no health issues. The one thing that I do like about using RO/DI over RO is that DI can capture ammonia molecules, which is important in some areas. I've never found ammonia levels in the Austin city water though. Also, I wonder if there may be an issue with just using DI over RO/DI though if there are any contaminants that are not charged molecules. I can't think of any though off of the top of my head that aren't rather exotic situations but maybe someone else in the forum knows of some?

I think that most LFSs carry it although I don't remember the rpices anymoe. I used to get mine from a vending machine outside of the local Albertson's though. It was $.25 a gallon and the TDS was usually in the 5-8 ppm range. I have never had any issues with using RO only water myself.

6 liners are accomplished carpet surfers I'm afraid. I lost one to this last year and I still haven't figured out how exactly tjhe little Houdini managed to do it (I've got a full hood and egg crate over all of the hood openings ) There's still a chance that he's just hiding though. I hope you find him in one piece!

Well, you could get a new Tunze nano for $140 but it may be a bit small for your tank (they say its good for up to 52 gallons in a mixed aquarium, but I find most manufaacturers are more than a bit optimistic in their high-end estimates - it might work just fine though if your demands aren't too great.) The in-tank DOC clasic skimmers are like $250 but I see them pretty regularly on the consignment shelf at aqua-tek. (They are small and efficient skimmers, but some folks don't like the fact that they sit in the tank.) It would be worth stopping by and checking IMHO. Bruce might also have an old one laying around somwhere if you ask nicely. The CSS skimeers do have the ability to "hang-on back" but they aren't sealed skimmers and if the water level changes or something else causes it to overflow, the water is going to end up on your carpet and they are a little bit finnicky in my personal experience (great price though.)

Does it need to be a hang-on skimmer? If so, that limits things quite a bit. Tunze makes some decent in-tank skimmers that aren't too expensive. What kind of budget are you talking about?

I actually have a 220 CSS that I got from Gabriel that I used as an interim skimmer. It works well and is easy to set up, but I would recommend in-sump use only and putting it in relatively shallow water - 3-4" works best. I would try to get that G3 skimmer too, but if it falls through drop me a line and I will pass along the good deal on the 220 that I got from Gabriel if you want it ($90.) (I just got my ATI BM 250 up and running on Thursday )

Great! Thanks for the nice photos!

Just make sure that he has lots of good hiding spaces and he should calm down with time. Is your LR fairly open (i.e. can he get in and out of it pretty easily from any point in the tank?)

Good lighting, water quality, and a little patience and your BTA should color up just fine. It's not a quick process, but BTAs seem pretty robust in good water conditions in my experience. Gabriel - What was the time-lapse on your before and after photos? That was certainly a stunning difference!

I'm planning on attending. I've got to check on my orphaned anemone after all.

My RBTA has split again and I have a beautiful, extra clone on my hands. This is one of the RBTAs varients that has the flourescent green around the base of the tentacles. It split about 4 weeks ago and is very healthy. I haven't been able to get a good photo yet but I'll try again tonight. I will sell it for $60 or I would be willing to trade for some nice, unusual zoanthids (PPEs, fire & ice, etc.) Regards, Jason Here's a photo of the parent:

SOLD

bump for new photos

Yeah, there's not a lot you can do when they start getting sick like that. You could try sticking him in a hospital tank if you have one (and can catch him) and perhaps dose some antibiotics but it seems like its usually too late to help by the time they are sick enough to catch in my experience. You might also try giving him some live brine shrimp to see if you can get him to eat. I hope he pulls through for you.

The easiest way to do it in my experience is to get yourself a couple of 32 gallon BRUTE trashcans from LOWES and a set of the BRUTE roller-wheels that attach to the bottoms. [The BRUTE trashcans are great because they are heavy duty, food safe LDPE 4 plastic (which is stretchy and almost impossible to shatter or tear) and you can fill them up with water with no ill effects.] I put my RO water in it, mix the salt, drop in a heater, and let it settle in the trashcan for 24 hours. The next day I just wheel it over the the tank, drain the water out into the empty can via a siphon and then pump the fresh water in with a mag 2 pump. I can do a 30 gallon water change in around 15 minutes this way on my tank. (It also helps to mark the inside of the trashcans with a sharpie in 5 gallon increments.)

Sold! Thanks for all of the interest.

MAG 24, powerful beast, runs great, $50. It's about two years old but has been gathering dust in may garage for about a year now. PM me if you're intetrested. Regards, Jason

For sale: Precision Marine Bullet 1 protein skimmer (sells for $320 new) Mag 12 pump (sells for $105 new) 6" PM waste collector (sells for $110 new) Comes complete with tubing and a 2" gate valve for the skimmer output. Everything is about 2 years old and runs great. This set-up is conservatively rated for 150 gallons but I have been using it on my 215 for over a year and it did the job quite well (until my bio-load built up to a more heavily stocked level, now I need something a bit larger.) All yours for just $280 OBO (This set-up sells new for $535 on Marine Depot.) PM if interested. Thanks! Jason