Recent content by Old Tom

Nitrates are certainly an issues in this hobby and one that is difficult to solve. Sounds like you have the nitrogen cycle under control as the ammonia is being converted to nitrites by the nitrifying bacteria and the nitrites are then being converted to nitrates. This is all a good thing since...

Welcome and welcome to a great and rewarding hobby, costly but rewarding. You have decided to go with a Fish only tank, with the live rock your cycle time should not be very long. May I offer a suggestion? Test the water for ammonia and determine if you have any detectable levels now, if you do...

Foxface and Yellow Tangs (Tangs in General) are very territorial so if you want to have these fish together in the same tank (70 gallons or more) then they should be added at approximately the same time; i.e. with in a day or two of each other. Once the fish has established the tank as its...

large species of fish do grow larger, but not to the size they would in the wild; I will used a yellow tang as an example; anyone that has been to Hawaii and snorkled on the reef will encounter the yellow tang. You will see that they will be sometime the size of a half sheet of paper or more...

Depending on the clowns they grow to different sizes and they will max out according to the available swim space as well. Often marine fish never get the size they would in the wild as the space in our tanks is just too restrictive. A 55 gallon tank will have about 35 to 40 gallons of water when...

My wife is from Roseville. I grew up in a small town called Memphis, my father was the head mason on the Macomb colleges. My great grandparents were Schoenherr's as in Schoenherr Road and 23 mile. I moved away so many years ago after college; I have lived here in southern California now going...

Great job on the split, this is how they multiple-or one way. There is so little actually known about anemone's but spliting to multiply is one of the things we do know. Sounds like others have had great success as well, in all my yeas i have not been so lucky.

Of course you can add them, the risk is that they may have some unknown bacteria, but then that is the risk we all take when we add live sand and live rock tot he tank. As kbuser said; if the items have dried then take the oppertunity and clen them a bit better so that you don't have any dried...

All is good advice, the length of tie to attach is really dependent on your water quality and chemistry. Soft corals do need magnesium and a little iodine. with prestine water and good chemistry it should attach in about two weeks. Keep it in low water movement conditions until it has attached.

David G: Where in Michigan, I grew up in a very small town north of Detroit. I ventured into this hobby in the early 70's when the only fish shops were in the Detroit area. Moved out here in the mid 70's and have enjoyed the hobby tremendously. Yes the hobby has changed over the years and the...

Depending on the corals their placement in the tank is highly varible, sun corals not so much. sun Corals just need to be fed so you need to be able to get to them to fee them after the lights are out. As for clown fish and anemones, while clowns will adjust to most anemones there are differnt...

Spot on, these little guys also need a lot of additional live foods. Thanks for the added information we sometimes get focused on the question and forget to give a complete answer.

Stop feeding for a few days, the fish will survive and the ammonia should go down, let me ask how is the Nitrite? Ammonia is not good but Nitrites is deadly so if ammonia is being converted to Nitrites and then rapidly to Nitrates you have a good bacteria population, this would suggest you are...

Went from a 70 Gallon to a 180 and wish I had gone bigger. Larger tanks give a wider range of options for fish and corals. There are some real pitfalls in the large tanks; the lighting costs. Traditional lighting to purchase will be very expensive and to operate also very costly, water changes...

Ouch having to move a tank just a few inches is a lot of work, I would agree. Depending on the size of the tank and the sand/rock load inside you will have a job on your hands-not to be a negative Nelllie here. As a general rule of thumb hobbyist have about one to two pounds of sand per gallon...