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Sounds like it might be a piece of bubble coral. Place in medium lighting with little or no water flow on it. If your cycle is spiking some bad numbers you may ask you LFS to hold that piece for you until your cycle completes. If you numbers are doing good and the bubbles continue to expand...

ALL plastic hydrometers are inherintly bad. They can at best give you a ball park figure and will probably be inconsistent at doing that. The best thing you can do is buy a refractometer. Good ones are available from $50 - $100 almost everywhere. When you think about it, you'll probably stock...

The Conciencous Aquariest by Robert Fenner. A great book for the beginning saltwater hobbiets. Also, there are tons of good articles at www.wetwebmedia.com Nice to hear you're reading and researching first. It will pay off. Good Luck!

Something else I noticed. Your picture didn't pop up the first time I pulled your post. Water temperature can be an issue at times. Constant numbers are better. If I'm seeing it right your thermometer is right next to your heater. I'd move it further away next to some water flow to get a...

One of the most returned questions you'll get on this board is to comments: "my water tested fine." When posting problems it is always helpful to provide the following test levels: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, calcium, alkalinity, ph and salinity. with those numbers you'll get a much better...

Sounds like you're off to a good start. You'll need to keep you bio load down until you have more LR. What you're seeing on you LR could be die-off or some sort of diatoms. I think you'd be better off with an R/O unit in the long run rather than a conditioner. The conditioner will remove...

Probably nothing. Between the wrasse and the puffer inverts will probably be lunch. When I had an aggressive system I ran into the same problem. My solution - take a turkey baster and give the sand a hurricane once in a while. Detritus went up and filtered out and sand was white for a while.

The good news is that you can still go with a sump system. You just need a hang on the back overflow and many prepackaged sumps come with them. In reality, a well designed sump system will have less showing that the cannister, hang on system you were/can use. One overflow in the back of the...

I have a discus tank in my rec room. The tank is probably five feet from the table and off to the side. And of course we break away from the tank. I had some concern at first but my guests know that horseplay and jumpshots in the direction of the tank is not allowed. I love having the tank...

According to your profile you have a 55 gallon tank. Let's say you're doing 5 gallon water changes each week ($265.20) annual cost of LFS saltwater and 3 gallons of top-off r/o each week ($140.40) annual cost for a total of $405.60. Buy an r/o unit $150 and 2 150 gallon buckets of salt (approx...

As you spend more time on this board you'll probably see that watts per gallon doesn't provide very much information. Intensity and location of your corals can make such a generalization almost useless. Some corals will adapt to your light (both strong and mild), while others have very specific...

20 dkh? That's off the chart!! It may be worth your while to take a sample to your LFS and ask them to test for calcium and alk. You may be chasing a problem that doesn't exist. Extremely high calcium and alk levels at the same time shouldn't take place. And certainly not if all you're doing...

What you are probably seeing is the results of your algea breathing. If you look at the tank first thing in the morning or before your lights come on and don't see bubbles, but then find them 'everywhere' towards the end of the day then it's just O2 being given off by your algea, probably...

I started my reef with a 72 bowfront and paid about what you did from a LFS. I didn't get it reef ready/predrillled and wished I had. I didn't do enough research. While you might save up front, you'll limit yourself to so many options you'll regret the purchase. I highly recommend a...

Lookin' good!

Minus the anemone you're in good shape.

What's your alk reading?

If your lfs has corals dying one week after they get them I would be suspect of their water conditions. Just something to consider.

3 words research, read, act! There are so many possibilities which is what makes this so facinating. Light is one consideration but there are many others. While I love star polyps and they are easy to keep, you do have a small tank and if they're going great they'll pretty juch take over. A...

If you are sure they dead and it's not the molt then I would consider another source for your shrimp. They are very hardy but can be stressed. Your LFS may not be doing as good a job as acclimating as you are. If they acclimated them poorly and then you get them, they still went through the...