Recent content by cygnus

You might not have too many sandbed problems, the action of the shrimps digging and re doing his tunnels should keep you sand in constant movement and very dead spots or toxic zones will develop in the sand bed. Granted if you are using a DSB for nitrate removal you really dont want a mantis...

The tahitian black sand might be too find for a DSB for a mantis tank, they love to dig and dig all the time, sand that fine could cause problems with you filtration. And i dont know how good it is for making burrows. I use the "Arag alive" sand they have a good mix of indopacific black. It is...

check out grimreefers.com they have a message board all about Mantis's and it is very good, it got me hooked on them and i keep a 5 inch peacock in a ten gallon,, makes a a LOT of noise at night breaking things and just doing the manits thing. been two years running.

Colt corals, very forgving, undemanding and grow like mad

auqa c urchin or remora, with the spray indicution system. Go to the aqua C site check out what they have, and I have YET so see a bad review from users of thier skimmers to date.

I float the bags for about 10 minutes, then i just pull them out and put them into the tank. Most times i submerge the bag and pull it out and place it in the tank. I dont worry about mixing transport water with tank water. For snails,crabs, fish and shrimps I float the bag for 10 minutes then...

Hell yesss thats it, drink a few cold ones and stare into the tank. problem is once i get a good buzz I think this is a good time to rearrange that ONE rock that has been annoying me. And adjust the skimmer too. Or how bout a water change LOL. I just want more, more tanks, more corals, more...

Marine fish cost a bit more than fresh water fish ,and like a few others have stated, saltwater holds less oxygen, and water chemistry is a PIA to balance. Fresh water fish are more forgiving of errors in chemistry. I keep fish in my reef tank just for movement and an extra splash of color, But...

The only test i can think of would be t get maybe a few ten or 20 gallon tanks, stock them with a few fish all of the same size and weight, no live rock maybe an equal amount of live sand, feed them all the same, keep the temps constant and after each week collect the skimmate and test it for...

Not ALL corraline is Purple/pink. I had green live rock for a while in my system and now it is half and half green and purple. It varies, If you want a text book tank, buy the book cut a picture out of a tank in the book and paste it to the glass, when dealing wiht a living system there are no...

PAR Photosynthetic Available Radiation,, which is jsut a fancy term for usable light. Plants respond to particular freq/wavelengths of light, those freq near the red end and the blue end of the EM spectrum, have the best PAR because they impart more light energy to the plants pigments. It is...

Go to this site and check out the mantis forum. After reading some of the post, the fact sheets seeing some of the pics and post she will not be able to resist them. YOu should have no problem with a mantis if you are adept at keeping the lobster. http://www.grimreefers.com

Rock Benny

best to me more worried about consistancy than accuracy, granted both are important, but with consistancy you can adjust/mathematically for the lack of accuracy. Or you can just get a volumemetric beaker of pure H2O at 4 degrees C. Put in 35 grams of NaCL and bring the water level up to 1000...

go with the refractometer, no chance of changes in readings due to power fluxes, weak battery, and i KNOW for a fact my pinpoint PH meter would fluxuate up and down when my chiller would cycle on. True a refractometer measures more than just salt but since 99% of the your tank water will be...