Recent content by Reef Engineer

A 20 gal refugium would quickly get depleted of life with just a pair of seahorses. Seahorses have an extremely short and thus poor digestive tract so they need to be fed a high quality food several times a day. They would easily strip your refugium of suitable food before too long if you did...

Rich, See, I knew I liked you for a reason. I would probably prefer to have 25 or so anthias in the tank but will gladly take the chromis with their unbeatable price tag. Randy

Well, $2 or not, Chromis viridis are one of my favorite fish. They are great dither fish that make all the other fish feel comfortable in the tank. Nothing boring or expendable about them! Now, the cheap part is a harder argument. I wish anthias were cheaper just so that I could afford...

Ah, I see. If you're worried about that, you need to get a new tank. Seriously, though, I don't think that's much of a concern - the circulation is quickly absorbed by the rockwork and corals. I'd be more worried about the pressure the water exerts on the walls on a continuous basis before...

I don't do anything special for my neons and they pretty much eat any meaty food that I throw in the tank. Mine will sometimes clean the fish in the tank but spends most of its time just hanging out. I've had a "regular" pair (Gobiosoma pceanops)for about two years now and a gold pair...

I have a little less than 7500 gph going through the main tank (300 gal) and another 1000 gph through the 60 gal refugium connected to it. I've recently gotten another pump capable of handling 2000 gph that I plan to place in the main tank operating two seaswirls (I use 2 SS already). Randy

Nope. You have to be careful as to where you place pumps so that the flow isn't directed right onto a coral (can tear the tissue right off) and move things around so that sand doesn't get blown around. So far, I haven't had much of a problem. Randy

Hey, nice unit - looks like it's very well put together. I just recently upgraded the calcium reactor that I've been using for the last couple of years with this unit. It took 3 1/2 bottles of ARM media to fill it up and that's leaving a 4" gap at the top! Randy

Clayton, I always saw it as more of an ID book due to the skeletal images than the layman's textbook. I have a buddy of mine that has it - he's fairly hardcore. Randy

I know - just filling in the blanks for ya. It's been awhile since I've had to do pipe flow calculations but I do know where to find the formulas. Randy

Without getting into too many specifics, there is a formula (Hazen-Williams Formula) that is widely accepted for the calculation of pipe flow (especially for water utilities). This formula states: Q = 0.432 * C1 * D(raised to the power 2.63) * S (raised to the power 0.54) where: Q =...

Scott, The spigot at Scripps is free and open to the public - it doesn't matter whether you take one gallon or one thousand. I've had the misfortune of showing up on mornings when some of the local restaurants have their trucks out there and they are literally filling up a couple of thousand...

Arnon, Nothing intelligent on the weekends - try me on Monday. You really need to determine a direction that you want to go in and take it from there. For example, although not typically found in most reef tanks, a lionfish could be kept in your tank but that would limit you to larger fish...

Yeah, dolphins probably wouldn't be a good choice, nor would killer whales, sea turtles or great white sharks. Threshers and hammerheads might be OK, though. Randy

Wait a second - who are you guys going to believe: Me who is still in shock or Arnon, the owner of the tank? C'mon people, lend me your support! Ha, ha - good to see the information getting out there. Arnon, as always, great job, hombre. Randy