Recent content by ChrisP

It's also important to remember that cyano shouldn't necessarily be thought of as a problem. It's actually one of the necessary stages that a reef will and should go through in the maturation process. Eric Borneman gives some excellent information about this in his forum at marinedepot.com.

Chemiclean Red Slime Remover is considered to be an "oxidizer" rather than an antibiotic. I've read good things about it in several forums and decided to try it in my 12gallon with just a bit of red slime. Following the package directions, the red slime disappeared overnight. Chris

USMC81. I have the Viper on my Aquapod 12 and it's working out well for me so far. I set up an 8" fan on a timer to blow across the top during the same hours that the Viper is on. Even with the Viper only 7" from the water surface, the fan has totally prevented any over-heating. I'm also having...

I'm not very familiar with the Eclipse, but it's already sounding like you'll have to trash the stock hood to add sufficient lighting and filtration. In that case, you'll be searching like crazy to fine things (especially lighting) that will fit the dimensions of your tank. Also - if I recall...

I've got two 2.5 gallon picos. I'm trying to keep the temps relatively stable. They're in an air-conditioned room and the water temp goes down to 76 at night. During the day with the lights on, the temps go up to about 82. That seems to be too much of a temp swing for such small tanks. I thought...

I know this is definitely a zoa-newbie question, but can different colonies of zoas harm one another when they come into contact? I just received a shipment of frags and decided to glue several different ones on the same rock. Bad idea? Are palythoa any different in terms of harming one another?

I bought a big bunch of healthy, green chaeto about 10 days ago and placed it in my new HOB refugium. The refugium has good flow. Lighting is a 60 watt, 6500 "daylight" spiral flourescent in a clip-on desk lamp placed DIRECTLY over the chaeto. I've been leaving the light on 24/7 (I know there's...

Thanks, IslandCrow - very sound advice. Since I wrote my question, I've decided to add so low light hard corals - maybe an open brain, torch, hammer, etc., so CA will become an important issue. I built a simple DIY drip system and intend to drip about a gallon per day of kalkwasser. Does this...

Does anyone have any experience with or opinions of Coralife Sea Salt mix? Chris

Does anyone have experience with this product? I was planning to use it as the substrate for a small HOB refugium on my 32 gallon soft-coral reef. It is advertised as a blend of aragonite, calcite, and "other minerals" designed to disolve slowly and provide a good bed for refugium fauna. The...

Randy, I read your outstanding supplementation articles, but unfortunately, I'm a nursing professor with basically no background in chemistry. Would you mind if I asked for some advice specific to my situation? Hope this is OK in this forum - I'm new. I have a 32 gallon soft-coral reef with 50...

In a 32 gallon reef with soft corals and with a monthly 30% water change, what would be the most efficient method of supplementing calcium and alkalinity? Do I need to supplement strontium, magnesium, iodine, and trace elements? If so, what would be the most efficient method of doing so? Chris