Recent content by McCrary

A skimmer should break in fairly quickly, within a few days you should begin pulling skimmate out. Keep the air unrestricted until you get a feel for the quality of skimmate being produced, then slowly begin restricting the air, this should cause the skimmate to get more watery. Some people...

Biff knows her stuff and is right on, a good skimmer and about 50 lbs of live rock should allow you to maintain a healthy saltwater aquarium.

The mesh mod is a good thing on some of the less expensive skimmers, but it will need to be repeated as the mesh can get worn out and fall apart over time. I would really consider getting a skimmer like the MSX-200, it should be much better and will save you from having to get a better skimmer...

A pair of Koralia 3's would be good, they don't need to be controlled if you don't have SPS. LPS and softies aren't as picky about water movement and seem to do fine with good, consistent water movement.

ccCapt has given you the two best choices in that price range, nothing else is really competing in that price range. The MSX 250 would be the best of those two for a 180 gallon tank as it has a 10" skimmer body. A skimmer with a 8" body is better suited for tanks under 150 gallons.

Thats the trick, finding what works best in your tank. You can examine what levels each salt has, but in the end it comes down to what works the best for you. I have tried TMP and didn't find that it justified the extra expense, but Reef Crystals is still one of my favorites and have found...

A 55 gallon would be my vote, you can cut a hole in the side of the stand and put a trim around the piece you cut out and then stick it back in and nobody will really be the wiser. Saves you from having to mess with taking the back brace out.

Great decision, that is a good HOB and should do the job, a good skimmer is the basis for a good tank and will help to better ensure your success.

If you don't have a sump be prepared to spend some good money on a decent HOB skimmer. If this doesn't sound like a good option than water changes maybe your best bet, but on a tank that size I would spend the money and invest in a quality hob skimmer. You may also choose to redo the tank and...

Tek makes a good fixture and the results should be pretty obvious when you compare it against a fixture that doesn't have individually reflected bulbs. Good bulbs will also have an effect on the performance of the fixture.

I think Tropic Marin Pro is the best stuff for reef tanks, but its expensive and hard to find locally. A 50/50 mix of IO and Oceanic gives really good results as well, but then you have to mix it yourselves.

If your water isn't very good then you might kill your chaeto, but I run a low nutrient SPS tank with very low phosphates and organics and my chaeto doesn't have any problems. If you are running so low on nutrients that you kill your chaeto then you are going to kill all your coral as well.

What test kit are you using?

There really isn't a downside to them, I think they are one of the best things to add to a tank as they are cheap and effective.

There aren't very many good phosphate test kits, so just assume you have them and manage the tank like you have them. A Two Little Fishes phosphate reactor is like $30, some GFO from twopartsolution.com is cheap as well, this should help with the problem. Change it out every month and you...