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I am entertaining the notion of establishing a pod population in my 45G FOWLER, and eventually supporting a mandarin using a pod pile. I am considering starting the population by adding three or four generous cultures at first, then once a month adding a culture for say, six months. What I am...

What would be the maximum number of fish (medium - sized, say avg. 2") for a 45 gallon (high) FOWLR setup ? I would guess about six, does that seem right ? I'm thinking in terms of clowns and damsels and maybe a wrasse.

In my experience, I have only kept aggressive clowns such as Maroon & Tomato that could only be kept singly or in mated pairs. Most clowns being very aggressive, I am wondering if there is any species of clown of which several may be kept together-perhaps perculas or ocellaris ?

A caveat for newcomers to the hobby: Stay away from the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals brand test kits, they give false readings and cannot be trusted. I just had a brand new ammonia test kit of theirs to read .25+ ppm on a sample of pure bottled water. Those cheaper tests just aren't worth the...

I have been told by a couple of sources that if one is unable to include a fuge in their setup, a small pile of rubble is good for breeding copepods. But I have these two large decorative pieces of dead "pipe organ" coral in the tank, and am wondering if they would work even better as a haven...

Has anyone ever had a pump to jam and burn up under use ? I just had one to do just that in my mixing barrel. Fortunately I discovered it in short order (it made a burnt winding smell) and removed it. I wonder if it could have fouled my new water ?

Has anyone here tried the new IO water conditioner ? I purchased some to use as a temporary measure while awaiting shipment of newer type chloramine-removing prefilters for my RO, and it does NOT remove or neutralize ammonia as its label claims. Ammonia content of the treated water remained...

Precisely how toxic is cyanobacteria to fish ? What would be its specific effects on bottom-dwelling fishes such as dragonets, blennies, etc coming in contact with it ?

I recently added a healthy green mandarin dragonet to my 45g FOWLR, having (I thought) stocked it well with pods (Tisbe sp.) during the previous month (knowing that mandarins normally do not do well in smaller tanks). I am new to the use of pods, as in a previous setup years ago I kept the...

Today, after a water change (done yesterday), I now have this stuff clinging to the walls of the tank; does anyone recognize from the picture below it & can ID it please ? Water parameters are near perfect.

Back in the early 90's, I obtained a culture of what looked like tiny, filamentous, pale whitish colored worms (maybe 1/16" in length) from my local reef shop's reef aquarium (wish I had a picture !). When introduced to my FOWLR, they self-propagated rapidly in the substrate and kept a...

Once again, I failed to read before purchasing - and so added a small Sally Lightfoot crab to my 45 gallon FOWLR. Afterward I read that some aquarists have had problems with these crabs attacking fish, and some have not. I can only conclude that the ones that did have problems must have failed...

I am trying to encourage coralline algae growth in my newly set up FOWLR, and have four snails in the tank which have done a great job of cleaning up the initial nuisance algae. Will the snails work against me by doing the same thing to any coralline algae that tries to crop up, preventing its...

Many years ago in my previous setup, I had, in addition to other fish, a leopard puffer. One night, while I was vacuuming the substrate after removal of a nasty UG filter, the motor filter suddenly began to make that loud starving noise. I saw that I had inadvertently knocked the strainer off...

When I received my LR from LiveAquaria, it was not immersed in water, just very damp. Consequently, there seems to be a lot of die-off during this rock's re-curing cycle. Is that how all the vendors ship LR, or do they put it in bags with water ? Would I have been better off to purchase my LR...

I've run into conflicting instructions regarding lighting during the initial tank cycle; some say run the lights, some say do not run lights - which is correct ? I started out with lights on and golden brown algae began to grow on the rock & sand, so I've shut down lighting for the remainder of...

In the past, my only experience with live rock was with long-established rock that had a normal sort of fishy odor. This Monday, I received pre-cured new LR (from LiveAquaria.com) and placed it all in the tank (having previously placed a couple of inches of CaribSea live sand therein). The rock...

Is there any advantage or disadvantage in buying tank bred versus wild fish ? Would, say, a tank bred mandarin be more likely to take frozen, flake or pellet foods ?

I am setting up a FOWLR for which I have purchased the Caribsea live sand, and am waiting on backordered live rock. It may be a week or more before the live rock arrives - Would it be OK to go ahead and put the live sand in the tank now, or should I wait till the LR arrives ?

I have encountered a puzzling problem with newly mixed seawater which I had never experienced before. I made the seawater using RO water and a brand-new bag of Reef Crystals mix and put it in an empty, clean tank with sump filtration system in preparation for adding live rock. The water came out...