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Perform an act of nutrient export frequently. Trim your chaeto, check you algae scrubber or change water.

You know you are a fish keeper when: You and your wife drive 130 miles to a new, big fish store, and you have an oxygen tank in the trunk. You know you are a fish keeper when: You and your wife drive 130 miles to a new, big fish store, and it is on fire, making this day the worst in your life.

I think Snake hit the nail right on the head. The Typhoon III is a great unit - I have had mine for more years than I can count, and it works fine. The only problem I have had is with the inline TDS meter. They don't have sufficient strain relief on the wires where they enter the unit, and the...

I have used Lugol's iodine solution for years because it seems to work, and I get it for free from my lab:)

Prime is fine for what it does, but consider this: when water evaporates from your aquarium, only water leaves - the dissolved contaminants do not. Those contaminants are generally present in very low concentrations in potable water, but they become more concentrated as the water evaporates and...

I am a member of the "bigger is better" school of thought. That's why I'm converting a 110 H into a sump/refugium for my 220 gallon system. I have an algae scrubber, so the refugium will house rock, sand and cuttlefish.

I have found the blue face angel to be more shy than the emperor. A 75 will prove to be very small for these Angels, but it is doable for a short time if you start with a juvenile, but it will be a foot long pretty quickly, and will continue to grow thereafter. My 15 year old emperor was about...

Erythromycin-containing treatments will generally kill cyanobacteria (red slime algae), without harming the gram-negative beneficial bacteria in a marine tank. However, if the underlying conditions that caused the outbreak in the first place are not remedied the red slime will return. The keys...

I feed the widest variety of foods I can get - clam, squid, marine cuisine, enriched brine shrimp, etc. In addition, I buy fish remnants at the fish store (mostly heads and tails), peel off the meat, throw it in a blender with a few shrimp, rinsed clams and scallops and some dried oatmeal, blend...

Welcome back! You might be able to save some $$ on lighting by retrofitting your existing canopy with LEDs - there are some pretty reasonably priced kits. If you are interested, send me a pm and I'll give you a website that seems pretty good.

I always think that it is a very bad idea to add a fish to a system with the intention of moving it to a larger tank later, since this usually involves removing all of the rock and stirring up the substrate as you vainly try to capture the fish.

Your parameters are not perfect. They only seem to be because the algae, as it grows, consumes the free phosphate and nitrate, so you don't detect measurable levels.

Wait until the nitrite levels fall to zero, then you are good to go. You probably will not have excessively high nitrates, so you won't have to do a water change until the first regular monthly change, when 3-6 gallons would work.

A fish shaking like that is usually from an irritation of some sort. What are your nitrate levels? High nitrates can be very irritating to a fish that has not acclimated to them, so fish already in the tank wouldn't react the way a newcomer would. You also have to consider the possibility of a...

Prolonged sunlight like you describe can create serious algae problems. You might want to include a substantial algae scrubber in your design, or at least a phosphate removal reactor (you'll need a big one). Personally, I prefer the algae scrubber approach since the scrubber will deal with a lot...

This varies, depending on what equipment you want in the sump. If you are going to have a skimmer, look at the diameter of the unit, the size of the skimmer pump, the size of the return pump (if using a submerged pump), the size of the heaters and of anything else you think will be in the sump...

Hippo tangs are great fish. They will scare you by lying on their side wedged under a rock, but that's normal for them. Like all tangs, they are ich-susceptible, so a thorough quarantine procedure is a must. 2.5-3" is the minimum size I would ever consider. The small ones are cute, but have a...

I would love to see an analysis of the final concentrations of ions after mixing with RODI. I would be very concerned about the possibility (probability) that calcium would precipitate out at high concentration, so the final soluble calcium concentration might be low. It's too late tonight to...

No, deionized water is not the same as or RO water. Most purification systems use a combination of both (RODI) to produce high quality water. Deionizers only remove ionized (charged) molecules. There are plenty of molecules that are missed in a DI-only system.

You don't have to change water yet. Just wait until the ammonia and nitrite levels go to zero,then make a water change to bring the nitrates down a bit.