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you can probably get away with feeding every other day. I do give you credit for varing their diet. Are you testing your water? Water params will be a good indication of whether or not you are over feeding.

Nice tank. Check out your other thread in the reef tanks forum for my comments. As for the cycle. If you use cured LR, the cycle can go much faster. My tank cycled in about a week.

For the average tank, I've never been a believer in skimmers. I suspect I'm in the minority here, but if you do your homework and are smart about your tank (both setup and maintenance), you shouldn't need one. I'd get your tank setup to the point where you're ready to add coral, do some water...

A few years back I had a Kent Hi-S RO/DI system. Worked very well, though IMO, they are a bit overpriced. Make sure you get one with some type of auto-shutoff (overflows are inevitable).

I have no first hand experience, but since no one else has responded I'll say this... From everything I've read about tessies, NOTHING can coexist with them. You'll probably want to wait until someone with some experience chimes in though.

Nice - I have the same tank. Here are a couple of suggestions... 1) replace the stock pump with a maxi-jet 900. It runs cooler (so your temps stay more stable) and adds a bit more flow to your tank. 2) block off the lower 2 "intake" vents in the back left corner. This will force the...

Take a look at the 25w Marineland Dual-Temp heater. 25w is perfect for a 6gal tank, and the heater itself is very small.

Another idea is to put them on a small rock in the middle of the sand bed, again as a way to control their spreading.

Depends on the coral... some are hardier than others. But if you're not at least close to ideal in all of them you are asking for trouble.

Most LFSs can check the water for you (sometimes for free, some places charge), or you can do it yourself with test kits. At the very least I'd recommend testing - nitrates - nitrites - ph - salinity/specific gravity - ammonia - calcium - alkalinity

It's been a long time since I cared about/tested for CA, but I think that's pretty decent. IIRC, 450 is about ideal, so you should be just fine where you are, especially if you don't have anythign in the tank using the ca. Get some good flow going over the LR with good coraline growth, then...

Coraline needs time. It also needs calcium and good water flow to spread. Be patient, and check your ca levels.

I also live in the northeast, and I have an attached/unheated garage. I can't imagine how much wattage/how many heaters it would take to keep the temp in a tank that size stable. Can it be done? Probably... but considering how much money you're going to have invested in rock, inverts, fish...

IMO, that would be overkill (~14.5w per gallon). I have 54w over my 12g and I should be able keep most softies/LPS. Even if you wanted to go SPS, that's a ton of light. I would think somethign closer to 100w would be plenty. Perhaps a 70w halide (10k) and two 27w actinic PCs.

Originally Posted by Bang Guy S.G. - depends on tank temp. 1.0265 @ 80F really? that high huh? I've always kept it at 1.023. I'll have to up it just a hair...

Nitrates are a natural byproduct of organic waste (think poop, dead critters, leftover food, that sort of thing) breakdown in a tank. It will naturally work itself out if you don't add to it... but that's a big if. If you really need to remove it, then I don't think there are any sure-fire ways...

Originally Posted by renogaw problem with just nassarius snails is that they rarely will clean algae from your rocks and your glass. (at least mine dont) I believe nas snails are primarily scavengers. Mine come out the minute food hits the water, but stay in the sand the rest of the time. My...

Check out Marineland's DualTemps. I have the 25watter in my 12g tank and it's great - VERY small.

Cool - thanks. I'm going to start looking at RO and RO/DI units. If I can find an RO/DI unit with a DI bypass for not much more money than an RO, I'll just go that route and bypass the DI for the time being. Otherwise I'll get an RO system that I can add the DI to at a later date.

I'm interested in everything except the lighting. What are the dimensions on the tank? Got any pics? Where in eastern PA are you?