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pbitawa? ;)

Absolutely.

THERE IS NO GOOD, TRUST-YOUR-TANK-WITH-IT-RELIABLE HEATER. :) They pretty much all have problems with thermostats failing, eventually. The best thing that you can do is to get a temperature controller to link it to in the event of a failure. Then the worst that will happen is that it'll fail...

There ya go. :) That's probably optimal; the electrode that's -not- dissolving is the one that's getting plated with metals, so you don't have to worry about it. (Of course, since most of these are alkali metals or alkaline earth metals, they rapidly oxidize again.) Keep in mind that...

When I got home, I put about a gallon or two of saltwater from my DT into a spare 5g, along with a heater and an airline. I immediately unpacked everything into this holding tank. I then had dinner, relaxed for a while, and then ran nearly everything through Revive dips and then into the tank...

Naw, it's nothing that simple. They have small polyps or long polyps for the same reason that they grow in tall sticks or short bushes or big plates: 'cause that's the form that best allows them to survive in their ecological niche. There're all sorts of sizes of food particles on a reef, and...

Not a clue, sorry. While I like LED fixtures, and have looked into their viability, they're so expensive that I haven't done that much research on the specifics. :)

Looks normal to me. BTAs aren't anemones that tend to extend their stalks in the open; they like having the entire stalk surrounded by rock with just the crown poking out the top. When they're not in such a situation, it seems that they'll just tend to flop over whichever way they like best.

I dunno, most softies can take a comparative thrashing, and some even seem to like it. It's the really large-polyped LPS that you need to worry about. Soft corals generally have rather tough tissue, even if it's not a species that grows internal supportive spicules. The diaphanous...

Who cares about the numbers - are the inhabitants of your system happy, showing normal behaviors and, in the case of corals, polyp extension? Do they look better with the amount of flow you have now or less flow? GPH is a very rough brute-force approach to ensuring that people have enough...

I really like my Apex by Neptune Systems. It's priced similarly to the RKE, IIRC.

Frankly, my dear, Orbitech doesn't give a damn. This patent exists so that they can extort money from anyone who -does- want to make an LED fixture and/or import one in the US. This is, of course, in direct contravention of the intended purpose of patents in the US, which is to allow inventors...

God, I hate the USPTO. Don't get me wrong, patents, properly administered and applied, are a wonderful thing. However, they keep granting patents for things that show that the patent examiner hasn't got a bloody clue about what prior art exists or what would be considered obvious to a person...

I can't help it, I love the way that the LEDs make the colors of the corals 'pop'. I like an approximately 10K kelvin look, but I think I'm going to get a couple blue LED striplights for when I really want to see my highly-colored stuff glow. %)

Basically, a modified Berlin/Jaubert/whateverthehell system. ;) DSB, fuge, LR, somewhat weak skimming, carbon dosing via vinegar in kalk topoff, activated carbon and some aluminum-based phosphate remover in pantyhose in my sump, and not freaking out when algae or whatever does have a small...

WPG is a really, really poor way to estimate how good a light is. What size tank? What light fixtures?

I've noticed that I get a lot more problem algae when I have a low pH, which is usually due to a low alk level, which is usually due to a low Mg level. Or my neglect. Either way. ;)

I'd really like to see a comparison by cost/yr, including the amortized price of the fixture over its expected life span, cost of replacement parts, and electricity.

Except that it effectively has, in tanks less than 24 inches or so. As far as I can tell the main reason that people get MHs nowadays is because a: they're the cheapest thing possible, and b: they like the whole shimmer look. Well, LEDs take care of b, but frankly I expect MH lights to finally...

And concrete! You forgot about the concrete! ...Then contract out the setup and maintenance, and come back to find out that not only has taking care of the tank cost 400% more than you were first told, it's actually a cage full of lizards, and, beyond all belief, all of the lizards somehow...