I’m setting up a 55 gal reef tank. It will hold mostly Soft corals maybe one LPS or two. Is 4 HO T5′s enough for my tank?

I am having problems with my octopus skimmer. I am not sure the correct terms in explaining the parts but I will try my best…

I’ve been trying to play with it the past two days and the same outcome happens to no avail.

When I turn it on it sucks water up so fast that if I don’t unplug it in a few seconds it will over flow. Its a hang off the back skimmer if that helps. The little box that gets filled on the left does not make bubbles and does not have a chance to fill with water before the right side over flows.

Please help.

Oh one more thing… it was not turning on so I had to take it apart and clean it. I put it all back together the way I found it though. Maybe I did something wrong? :surprised:

setting up a 60g reef, how much live rock do I need to get, and what type of bottom media would be best? Live sand/mud, crushed coral? And what salt brand is good/better/best/ And more importantly what are the hardier type of corals to start with.
Used to have salt a while back(15yrs ago) but I have mainly been breeding freshwater Angels and Discus in a 240g. But have sold the 240g and need a refresher course.

Thanks in advance…

I have the following so far.

60g glass
30"tall stand
25g sump w/200micron sock
rio1700
9w turbo Uv
rio600
3/4" SQWD wave maker
eshops 800 overflow box
Ebo-jager 200w
3/4" ball valve on return pump
———————————–

Getting: coralife 65g skimmer
Aqualife t-5 fixture w/built in timer

I’ve been using Instant Ocean salt for about 20 years. The last 3 boxes of 25 lb salt that I purchased had stamped on the inside plastic bag, "NOT FOR RESALE." I asked the LFS owner and he was mystified. I was there when he called IO to find out what was going on. He said that a customer noticed it and felt that the salt might be inferior in some way.

Their response – "We’ve always done that. The customer just noticed it now?" That was the BS answer!! I certainly would have noticed it long before now.

Although tests on my salt mixes have not indicated anything unusual, I’m beginning to think that my hair algae breakout might have begun at the time when I first noticed the message. Paranoid perhaps?

Anyone else buying 25 lb bags of NOT FOR RESALE Instant Ocean salt?

I have a 20 gal reef tank, 18 months old. Corals all doing great. I’m using RO water, 10% water changes weekly, nitrates and phosphates are absolute zero. T5HO lights 96 watts, which I have reduced to 72 watts a few days ago.

With no nutrients available, what in blazes is feeding the hair algae? I’ve been fighting it for 3 months and getting nowhere. Any suggestions appreciated – even crazy ones!

I am in the early stages of setting up a 90 gal reef tank. Because the tank is going to be viewed from all four sides I am trying to keep the back free of clutter. I have had the back of the tank drilled near the bottom with 2 one and one half inch bulkheads. I have PVC running from both of those into one down pipe which runs into the sump. The pvc tubes inside the tank are 1 1/4 clear durso standpipe design.

The problem that I am running into is noise in the inch and a half pipe that runs into the sump. I have found that if I cover holes in the top of the standpipes the noise is gone, but when doing this I also don’t recover overflow movement in my standpipe after a simulated power outage (upon return of power).

So it seems that if I want flow to return incase of a power outage I have to sacrifice noise level, any suggestions on how I can have both??

Open to any suggestions!

For Sale:

Hanna Instruments Phosphate (LR) Photometer
Measure Ranges: 0.00 – 2.5 mg/L

Still have left 80 test of phosphate LR reagents

Selling both for $150. Brand new, only used about 20 times.

Will ship. Customer to pay for shipping charges.

Email me at roloilly@bellsouth.net if interested.

After a week of letting my saltwater swim tank sit to get ready for its occupants, I introduced them last night. This morning I added 2 Start Eze tablets and no the water looks blue if looking at it thru the sides and front. If you look at it from above it is crystal clear. Is there anything wrong? All levels test to be ideal.

I have A 125 gal, A 75 gal 400 watts of power compacts, 4 powerheads, a 50 gal eco sump, scimmer.. A verious corals and polups, ect.. Just looking to get out of it… I spent over $15,000 in it’s life and looking to get no where near that back.. Just make and offer and we can talk about more details…

Alright so here’s the whole story…

i bought a 24g nano for about 50 bucks from a pet store cuz they werent using it anymore, they had never used it at all actually, when they got it it was shipped to them with a broken light piece… so it just sat there and i asked em if they were doing anything with it and he said i could buy it, came with everything except the lighting..

so me thrilled new into the hobby was excited about this, looked around for a light setup, and found a local guy out of the burbs of chicago who had great reviews on his D.I.Y. L.E.D. setups… so i figure id give LED a shot so i bought my light system from here http://www.reefledlights.com/

i chose to do it with a setup of 18 LeD’s … 12 blue 8 white
now i am thinking these L.E.D.’s are WAY to powerful for my little 24g nano .. (this is my beginning assumption i just wanna know if im right)

i got these sitting about 6” above the tank as you’ll see in the pictures
the guy told me i dont remember exactly but i beleive he said they were some were equivalant to 300 watt lighting system…
hence why i raised it above the tank

Now here’s the story of the tank
first i put some liverock in there, and live sand, and a extra pump for extra flow …
let the take circulate a couple days water cleared up, bought a Coral Beauty for the tank, it was doing really well …

couple weeks past, moved some coral pieces in… just little things, Polyps, Mushrooms…. some hard corals.. (which didnt survive they either were bleached white… or killed off) then my coral beauty got Ich … then id say maybe 2 weeks ago i started getting the Red Slime everywere…. and the coral beauty died
so went to Petland the guy suggested me this "Chemiclean" its a Cyano bacterial remover… literally, worked wonders, the next morning woke up, red slime was gone…
BUT 2 days later, it seemed like where the red slime was previously it replaced with like a brown algae.. not really a slime but algae thats just growing everywere, uncontrollably, on corals…rocks, sand… eveyrthing…

SO thats my issue…
is it my lighting? is it something else?

here’s pictuers of my tank as it stands right now

http://s1113.photobucket.com/albums/k507/Reef1589/

If that doesnt work let me know please…

and if anyone needs me to re-clarify anything just ask me, i typed alot and think i jumped around to much…. =/ but ya, if u understand and know anything let me know
any feed back is fine

ALSO… all my Nutritions and pH levels are good… my Water temp at set at 78-80 as well