JEN H

I went ahead and added some pictures of my plumbing on the 210. You can see my DIY "fuge" in the pictures. It is not a real large one but very close to 10 gallons. The pictures are part of my memebers gallery. Hope you enjoy. Matt

Yeah, Gerry over at the AquaDome told me about this thing. Sounds wonderful with all of the features available but the price is just too much. I was told that unlike other can filters for this one all you need to do is turn it off and then there is a compartment that slides out where you change the media and put it back in. I have a Fluvial FX5 and that thing is greate but changing the media and cleaning is a pain, however, I did not even come close to that suggested price tag of 500 for the FX5. This thing sounds cool, if anyone gets one please post your thoughts and opinions about it. Matt

I think that you probably need to invest in some testing kits. They really aren't that expensive, and that would save you from having to get the LFS testing and guessing what could/could not be wrong. We don't test our water as often as we should, but we also don't have fish/inverts/shrimp dying quickly. My guess would be salinity could be off and ammonia could be high. Are you doing water changes vs. just topping the tank off? Topping off doesn't dilute any of the ammonia issues you might have after the algae bloom. Just a thought..... We have never had snails die right after being put in a tank....they are usually pretty tough guys.

Some wrasses are really bad about jumping. You might want to make sure that everything is covered so he/she can't get into it again. We have a golden wrasse and at first we had her in a smaller biocube and she would jump into the back of it constantly. Now, we have her in our 210 gallon tank, and she tries to jump out of it daily. Luckily we have the entire top of it sealed so she can't commit fish suicide!

Yeah, our tank has been up and running for almost 2 years now...so I don't think that drilling it is an option. I think that the overflow box would probably be the best option at this point.

We did a DIY "fuge" and if you want you can follow the link to see how we did it at least. Not saying it is what you want but it could work. We have never had a problem with it. If you want I can post some pictures of the sump and "fuge" set-up just let me know. I hope this helps and if not I am sorry to pass on bogus advice. http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/4696-diy-under-tank-refugium/ Thanks, Matt

My thoughts and concerns go out to all of the families of the injured or killed. Such a terrible thing to happen to our soldiers. I just hope they get some answers as to why this happened. If anyone is looking to help our current soldiers "down-range" there is a great website http://www.anysolider.com/ where you can send care packages directly to folks that need things. You can choose to send to any branch of the military (Army, Air Force, Marines, Sailors, and the Cost Guard). I highly recommend it because the supplies directly go to those that need it most. Please keep these folks in your minds as well. Take care everyone, Matt E pluribus unum

Caferacermike, Are you basically saying that the overflow box is the best system and that W-looking thing has its problems because of all the 90 degree turns it has to take before getting to the sump? Barderer, I am still interested in your design if you have one. Thank you again everyone, Matt

We have breakouts of cyano every now and then. We find the changing the way our water is moving help. We also cut out the lights a little early and try to reduce the feeding....and a water change. It seems to be something that doesn't really ever go away. We thought that some small conchs that may eat cyano were in our tank, but they seem to like the other kinds of algae better. Good luck!