Daniel

Wouldn't an angel be a bad idea in a tank with SPS? I have read that polyp extension is almost guaranteed to be reduced when an angel is present. Also, personally, I also love the look of less LR. It's becoming overdone at this point, but islands are your friends. One of the things I would have changed with my rockscape is exactly that. A large (no more than 50-70% of the tank height) and small island (40% or less of the tank height) would provide plenty of swimming room, growing room, and also minimize the LR obstruction of water flow. Of course, the drawback with the island approach is that you won't be able to place corals on the backwall and lose the aesthetic qualities of that arrangement.

Ooops, you already ordered, right?

How big is the "worm"? Colors?

The problem with not using ANY live rock is you lose all the diversity that you could have. Using bacteria-containing products like Stability/Microbacter7/Polyp Labs/etc all add beneficial bacteria to accomplish various tasks, but they all certainly lack the diversity of plain ole' live rock. Sure, you risk adding some aiptasia or majanoes, but I've never been overrun by either of those. I may have lots of aiptasia that I cannot see, but if I can't see it, I don't care. Same with the pest worms, if I can't see their damage, I don't care. Besides, if anyone is keeping corals, I'd be more concerned about red bugs, AEFW, pest nudibranches, etc. All the dead rock in the world won't help you out there. Pest hitchhikers can come just as easily from your corals as from live rock. If there's a way to capture the same level of bio diversity (beneficial bacteria, critters, etc) from using dead rock, I'm game.

Yes.

You'll get a ton of different responses to this question, but I used to run my tank between 79-81 when I had MHs. Now that I have T5s, I've been running my temps between 77.5-79.5. Growth has been a little better since I've been running the lower temps. Nothing drastic, but still somewhat noticeable. In all likelihood, this is more likely due to my incorrect use of MHs before and with my correct use of T5s now.

That's a massive heatsink. What does it weigh?

Without knowing your parameters, any number of things could be off... namely NH3 and NO3-. Also, inverts are adversely susceptible to pH swings, copper (and its ions), and other treatments designed to kill parasites. If you haven't been doing water changes, you should do one. If a snail looks to be dying, it may be better to pull it out so that it doesn't further foul the water.

Another bulb to consider is the Radium. I always hear great things about them. I forget what your ballasts are, but if they are the magnetic variety, you'll get great color + PAR from Radiums.

What are you going to use for lighting? The thing that sucks about not using a canopy is you almost always need to use a beautiful (and expensive) fixture. What are your plans for filtration? Did you leak test the tank already?

I think rejection is maintained above 98%, assuming your prefilters do their job and don't allow chlorine into the membrane. Also, there's the issue of depleting your prefilters and membranes more quickly if you run a higher pressure.

You can always drill the sides for the overflow, assuming they are not tempered. You'll need a diamond drill bit, a lubricant, and patience. Here's the calfo overflow:

Thanks, this is cool.

Looks a lot like this to me: Vivid's Rainbow Delight

Don't they eat/scavenge that way?

I've been using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt for over a year.

Mikedelgado has one, but I'll let him vote...

Okay, so I was going to type up a thorough response, but I stumbled across this post on RC by user 'chessmanmark' which describes some good strategies: My current procedure with good results and no coral losses: I use an iodine dip (I'll tell you the name of the product when I'm at home) with 3x the dosage and I use a product from Two Little Fishies called ReVive. I dip my corals in both of these for under 5 minutes each, I give a final inspection with a magnifying glass and then put them into my tank. I realize that I'm taking a big risk in that using only these two treatments, and without a true QT, I may allow some critters to sneak through... but I haven't lost any corals since doing this and haven't seen any AEFW, red bugs, or other pests. These two methods are far less harmful than many of the recommendations you'll see, and with many things in this hobby, I'm trying to maximize my benefits, while still minimizing my losses. The two treatments I use only kill/remove the adult pests and not their eggs. You may hear about levamisole hydrochloride for treating/preventing AEFW, but the likelihood of it killing your coral outright is too high for me to even bother with it. And like the other dips, it still doesn't kill those darn eggs. If you do happen to find eggs on your SPS, do a dip (either described by me or by the RC user), and then put the coral into a simple QT tank. You should then treat the coral again once per week for several weeks (4-6 weeks) until everything is clear. The important thing is to not add anything that you know is infected into the display tank.

I'm still interested in a picture of the scolly, if possible.

Mitch, I wanted a bottle of ReVive. If I can't find it at RCA, I'll join.

I was talking to Chad (tate1) and neither of us have had good experiences doing FW dips. Be careful if you ever do go that route. I've successfully treated ich outbreaks using Seachem's Cupramine and Wardley's Ick Out (probably the best thing I've used). But more important (in my opinion) than QT for fish is QT for corals! Nothing sucks more than seeing your corals die-- not even losing fish.

You should look into the 6025 mods. They're very easy and dramatically improve performance.

Mitch, I don't think I can do this with my controller and maybe you can't do it with yours either, but it would be nice to have the skimmer turn on a few minutes after your power comes back on after a power failure. Yesterday morning, my power went out, but when the power came back on, my skimmer cup overflowed. During a power outage, the sump fills with water from the siphon break and when the power comes back on, the return pump returns the water level in the sump to its normal height. However, since the flow-through rate in my sump is somewhat low (and I believe you were also planning to keep the flow-through rate low), the higher water level meant my skimmer's water level was higher as well, thus I had the overflow. Perhaps someone else has a suggestion on how to prevent this without a time delay on the skimmer's startup?

Honestly, it's hard to have a really good or bad RO system. Everything depends on the filters: your prefilters, your membrane, etc. The majority of the RO systems used in this hobby have standardized components. If you ever outgrow your 50gpd membrane, chances are you can easily swap it out with a 75, or 100gpd membrane down the road. Of course, you may have a system with proprietary components, in which case the main problem will be with buying replacement filters.