Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Brad, that Goniapora is doing great, too. The pinking stuff with blue eyes, I'm pretty sure that's what you guys said it was.
The yellow polyps continue to fail. I got a tip in the link you gave me. Those stars will irritate and not allow stuff to open and starve them out. When I go swimming, I'll do a hardcore inspection. I've heard of getting the crabs, but the starfish? ewww. :D

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Looks like astrea stars. Ive got thousands of them in my tank. No harm to sps lps or softies. most of them are harmless algae grazers only a few species actually fo after sps.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I have a lot of those Astrea too. They eat the dead stuff and algae and as far as I can tell they cause no harm at all. Mine have from three to seven arms. I think they go through the pumps every now and then.
I see one in the pink area on the lower rock in the picture with three big arms and some small nubs

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

My yellow damsel laid eggs in a big patch on the front glass then ate them all the next day. I watched her laying them. I think the male is supposed to swim over them fertilizing but he wasn't doing that. The clowns raise batch after batch of eggs but I have yet to catch them hatching. If they make it through the overflow into the refugium and don't get into a return pump or skimmer they might survive. It would blow me away to one day find a baby clownfish in the refugium.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Brad, I moved my yellow polyps, there's nothing wrong with them. The great big spiny urchin I have was constantly crawling over them and irritating them. He's doing the same to some other stuff. I think it may be time for him to go down the road.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

GF is finally gone so i get to start a new reef adventure. More info in the next few weeks.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Looking forward to your new reef adventure, Wolfie. :tu

I have two hermit crabs crawling around with Pulsing Xenias on their heads. It's pretty damn cool, that's all I can say. I have a youtube of it that I just put up. My video skillz are pretty bad, but once it's halfway through, it's not bad. It's only 3 minutes, so there's that.
You can check it out right here.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Calling all Aiptasia zappers........anyone want to ship me their shock-boil unit for a week in exchange for the return of
your unit plus some tasty cigars?? Just PM me if anyone wants to play.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I'm going through a redesign or I would just send you one. It seems regular pencil lead graphite doesn't last long. I have to take apart the ones I made and get carpenter's pencil lead for them.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I'll send ya mine, Brad. I sent a pm.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Question for the resident reef experts.

I'm starting a 29 gallon reef tank after keeping a cichlid tank for a few years. I started with just 30 lbs of sand and saltwater a few weeks ago. I then put in about 6 lbs of live rock a week later. I added live rock each week for the next couple weeks and got up to about 26 lbs as of a few days ago. I did my first water tests last night and it showed 0 for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Is it possible that my tank has already cycled and is ready for a clean up crew and fish?

Also, I had a HOB filter with a bio-wheel running until earlier this week, and I've had a new model maxi-jet power head running in circulation mode the whole time. The setup was running without lighting until about two weeks ago when I added a dual t5ho fixture.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I think you could throw a couple damsels (or something hearty) in there and a cleanup crew.
Realize it's going to take a good year until it becomes anything like what you want. I've got over 15 years in my base material and there's more things living in there than a person could ever count in a lifetime.
Have fun!!! :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I remember all the weird blooms and cycles mine went through for a couple of years until it settled. Get ready for red algae, diatoms, hair algae, weird bugs, little snails and who knows what else, to go through population booms in there.
You didn't mention a protein skimmer. A must have, in my book.
Clown fish are hardy, too, and a little nicer than damsels.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I've been busting my ass to try to curb the astrea starfish issue with little to no results. It's like if I cut one head off, two appear. They are EVERYWHERE.
While they don't seem to cause any damage to the coarls, they'll crawl all through them and irritate them into staying closed.
I'm planning on getting one or two harlequin shrimp. All they eat are starfish. I figure there's more than enough reproduction here to feed two forever and they may hold the population in check, yet leave enough to feed them. I have tons of rock so there's a never-ending supply of stars on the undersides that will crawl out and present themselves for dinner.
I have two other shrimps in there nopw, I can't think of the names of either. I think one is red and gold strped down it's sides, the other is a goirgeous blood red with white spots.
I am worried they'll fight, but not enough that I'm not willing to give it a shot. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Good point on the protein skimmer, Lance. It's an absolute must. I run two in the event that one stops working for any reason. I check them regularly, but sometimes not regularly enough. :D

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Wow! I didn't realize that there was a reef tank thread on CA! Reef tanks are my main obsession, while cigars are a new found hobby. I have had my 55g mixed reef tank for about 2 years now and am currently waiting while my 150g system cycles.
I believe it is just about complete on the cycle and now I need to scape the rock work. Once that is complete then I can move my 55g inhabitants into their new home.

Here is a shot of my 55g mixed reef tank before I moved from Austin to Houston.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-y...0/IMG_2966.JPG

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I have a protein skimmer on the way which is why i removed the hob filter. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll add a couple of clown fish, or a clown and something else, and a couple turbo snails to start and see how things go. I think I'm going to wait a good while before adding any corals.

I see there are several reef centered boards out there. Is there any one in particular you would recommend?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Just a note on damsels, in general they do get territorial and can be a pain to remove later on once you have other fish in there that are more desirable. Chromis are a type of damsel that are typically less territorial.

With regards to the question of your tank cycle, you have added live rock and may have had enough die off to start a cycle, but if you have not been testing the water and been able to see ammonia increase, followed by nitrites and nitrates, then the cycle may or may not have happened.

You can toss a piece of raw shrimp into your tank to fuel the cycle, without risking live fish.

Reefcentral.com is an excellent source of information. You may have a local reef club around you as well.

Good luck and go slow.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

The tank this morning:
http://fracstar.com/pics/1111fishtank.jpg

And the clowns don't wait even one day after the previous eggs hatch to lay a new batch:
http://fracstar.com/pics/clowneggs.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

It is likely too late now, but you should not remove the HOB filter for awhile. It is generating stuff that you want
by nature of it's bacterial cultures it tends to casue to flourish and grow in it's filters, floss, balls, etc. The skimmer
is nice to have running too, but I wouldn't pull my HOB filter until I was a couple of weeks into my cycled tank. It is
creating nitrates, but you kind of want that in the beginning. But I am no expert, god you should see my
tank's current state.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Hahahaha, I told you beyotch, lol....day 1. My deal now is aiptasia. I have pulled out several formerly nice
zoanthid rocks because they get down in the cracks and there is just nothing you can do. I took the rocks out
and let em dry for a day, then scrubbed em with a soft toohbrush and rinsed them in salt water. The Zoos close
up once they realize they are going to dry out, but the aiptasia are not hardy enough on the exterior to just go dry,
and you can get em like that, but they just keep coming back after a few weeks. And their tentacles keep the zo's
closed up, so their life enjoyment is over. So I just tossed the rocks out finally. I am winding this down, it is in a room
I don't frequent and I am a terrible husband to the critters. It sucks power and I am no good at it anymore. When I BUY
my own house, I will crank it back up, til then Time to give up.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I redesigned the positive (graphite) electrode on my zapper.
http://fracstar.com/pics/zaptip1.jpg

It is platinum wire wound around a ceramic rod and bound with epoxy. The shrink tube is for protection. I tested this at work. With the SS welding wire for the negative electrode there was no erosion on either electrode. Less resistance than graphite too.
http://fracstar.com/pics/zaptip2.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I find the zapper works best on Majano while Joe's Juice or Kalkwasser works best on Aiptasia.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I called the reefer outfit in Mogadore to see about Harlequin Shrimp to go after this astrea problem. I backed that up with an email, so hopefully I'll have some hel;p in the next week or two.
The dirty bastards are crawling around everywhere like fishtank lice. They're in the Gonpora and irritating it, which super triple pisses me off. ;)
A pair of these Harlequins and some patience should yield results pretty quickly. I'll get back to tweezer picking them, too.

It's tough to keep a reef hospital clean. I wish I could be more like Brad and let it look like a gas station terlit. :lr

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Something must be keeping my astrea in check. I have them but they have never got out of control.
I think the clown eggs will hatch tonight. The fry have less than zero chance of surviving but I would like to catch some just to check them out. They might be able to survive in the refugium. I would think by now some of the past hatches would have made it there and got bigger. I never see them.
Brad, show your tank. :D We want to see how bad they can get and still survive. :hy

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Hopefully I'll be able to contribute to this thread very soon. I've got a 250 gallon acrylic tank that I'll be turning into a mixed reef or fowlr. I've got 850 gallon freshwater tank that is undergoing some plumbing changes though and that's gotta get done first.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I have a pair of Harlequin Shrimp coming today via Fedex. I also got Weeze a new Turquoise Maxima clam, and threw in an electric blue hermit to dig around in my substrate.

I tried like hell to find DT's Oyster eggs and DT's Phytoplankton from the same place and couldn't do it. I paid like $150 for a 32 ounce bottle and a 100ml jar of eggs overnighted. I damn near puked but I've literally put in hours searching over the last two weeks and just couldn't find both from the same place.
The two should last me a good, long time.
It's all Brad's fault. He put a curse on my Goniopora and it's slipping, so I need to feed it oyster eggs and make sure my iron is okay. When I bring it back from death's door I'm going to get a Red Birdsnest Goniopora. The stuff is gorgeous.
I feed ten or twelve different foods, but apparently goniopora needs tiny, tiny food to survive. A phytoplankton/oyster egg isolated feeding will do the trick according to all the reading I've done.
I'll probably feed her in a big bowl for a few hours a day for the next couple weeks. That should do the trick. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I've heard tell that turning off your skimmer can help Gonis. Mine lasted a couple of years then suddenly faded. Mostly I've just read not to buy these.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Brad told me the same thing after I already got it.
I read up real good yesterday and I think I have it all under control now. Once I get the right food and target feed and put the skimmers and stuff on a timer and feed at the right time, I'll be golden.
It's not rocket surgery, they just need some special care that they weren't getting.
And yes, the skimmers are what starves them out. But they can still starve unless there's plenty of stuff that's small enough for them to eat. They need things in the 40-50 micron range. That's about 1/20th the size of Cyclopeeze.
1ml will feed a 50 gallon tank. There's literally millions of eggs in 1ml (1/30th of an ounce). I got a 100ml jar. It's frozen. That'll easily last me well over a year.

What I'll do is set the skimmers, canister filter, over the back filter, and powerheads on a timer. They're already all on one plug bar that I use to power the wavemaker and Koralia powerheads. I can move stuff around so the wavemaker doesn't need reset every time the timer interupts everything. I'll actually probably need two timers, but that's fine, too. It's just that every time the power gets cut to the wavemaker it needs to be reset. I want this to all work automatically.

I'll set everything up to shut off an hour or so before my lights, then start back up a few hours after the lights have been off.
Now that I've typed this I rethunk what I'll do, but you get the idea.
I have two small Koralia's way down in the back bottom of the tank and I might want to leave them on. I can also set a feding time on the wavemaker, so I may do that.
The main thing is that the skimmers and filters need to cut off for about 4 hours a day so my stuff can eat. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

The harlequin shrimp arrived. Just for fun, I thought I'd see if they'd eat the Astraea starfish. I picked a couple with tweezers and threw them in their bags while they were floating, still being acclimated. Both shrimp ate them immediately. I was shocked, thrilled, happy, and hollered for Weeze to watch me feed them another and they gobbled them up instantly.

The pair were shipped in separate bags so I was afraid they weren't mated. As soon as I put them together it was like brand new lovers who hadn't seen each other for a week. They hugged and kissed and intertwined themselves like they were one shrimp.

After about a half hour they started hunting together. They worked together to pull a starfish off the glass and the male gobbled it up in one bite. Five minutes later they went to work again. The male and female both had to pry that star from the glass. I thought the male ate it, but then watched him pass it to the female.
Bellies full they backed up near a little ledge and just kicked back, never letting go of each other.

I havent seen them today, they apparently found their home and settled in among the rocks. I am totally in love with these things and I'm planning on a couple more pairs if I find in my reading that they'll live peacefully.
Once the Andreas are cleaned up, I can start feeding them chocolate chip stars.
This has been some serious fun. I can't wait to watch them work again, they're the coolest reef critters I've ever owned. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

My new buddies are doing great. They moved out front cause they wanted to be on the intersne, so here they are. Mind ya, they're hanging upside down.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/391eeb86.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/41d49229.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/026851ec.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/cbbf057b.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

And here's a pic of the turquoise crocea...

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/a7a1c5a3.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Wow Scott, you have some seriously impressive stuff in your tank! Thanks for sharing!

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Feeding a Pooffer fish...
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=525_1322507658

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Never imagined feeding mice to my fish. lol

My new harlequin shrimp are going crazy eating those astrea stars. They're definately giving me my money's worth.

I culled out a giant wad of pulsing xenia a couple days ago. It just grows so fast I can't keep it culled back fast enough. I need a lawn mower for it. :D

I zapped a few anemone's between last night and today. I can't find any more so I'll just wait another month and see what happens.

I got the DT's frozen oyster eggs and a new quart DT's phyto. I'm spot feeding the goniopora and it's coming back already. There's a drastic improvement after just one feeding. They were just starving to death is all. There wasn't any food in the tank small enough to sustain them. :tu

Last, but not least, I put my skimmers, OTB and cannister filter on a timer plug-bar. It shuts them off every night from 8 to midnight. I set an alarm on my phone so I remember to feed at 8. That'll allow all the corals to eat for 4 solid hours before skimmers kick back in. I'm going to feed every other day, using the spot feeder and oyster eggs for the Goni while I feed the other end of the tank with a variety of foods.
I'm super excited about getting this Goniopora to come back because I'd love to get the red bird's nest Goni. It's gorgeous. :tu


http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t..._goniopora.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

While some of you know my tank is not a reef given my fish choice, since photos are on here, thought this would be the place to update.
After 15 years in the hobby and half of that in the business of designing, setting up and maintaining saltwater tanks, I regret to say mine has seen its last days with me.
Fish will be gone today, sold, and a couple gifted to my son.
Tank being picked up in the next few days, also sold.
After many multi level epidurals, my back can no longer handle those heavy bleached corals for cleaning.
Next, will sell those corals also and probably get more than for the rest of the stuff given how rare they now are.
On to my new hobby of shooting things.


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...o/DSC_0009.jpg[/quote]

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I was just thinking about you, Carlos, and wondering what was up with your tank. I have thought about dismantling my setup many times. It looks like more trouble than maintaining it.
I hope you get feeling better.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Sorry to hear you're wrapping it up, Carlos. It'd be nice to see you downsize. That's a huge mess you have to work on.

Personally, I'm moving full steam ahead.
I just got done installing my new RODI system. I'm going to add a cleaner/softener to the whole house, so it'll even get better shortly.

Here's pics in phases...
This one you can see my old dual home/reef system. I totally reworked it so that it's now just a salt bath. The two tanks are for drinking water at the sink. Our incoming water is around 450tds. It's gross. The new home/reef brings that down to about 70 at the special spigot at the sink. It should come down even further when I get the whole house conditioner in.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/500221b0.jpg

Here's the new Hurricane? dual home/reef. It does a nice job. Once again, it struggles with how awful our water is, but that'll soon be corrected.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/b85f69c1.jpg

I put a 25 gallon holding tank in for my zero tds water for my reef tank. I have a 90 gallon reef. I figure if I do a few water changes this month and next, I'll get the water down to a level of clean I'm happy with.
I had it real good but the filters puked on my old RODI system and I hadn't tested the water, so I was topping off for a long time with 200tds water. It made a mess. Again.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/94573fdd.jpg

Here's the new Whirlpool conditioner for the whole house. I'll tie it in right after the lawn sprinklers come off, it should make an enormous difference in my reef water-making ability and clean up all our sinks and stuff. The calcium carbonate here is off the map. I'm super excited about getting this right.
I gathered all the rest of my material today, I should have it in by tomorrow evening. :D

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/bb946ac7.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I just checked to see when I got the Harlequin Shrimps. That was just back in December. They have totally cleaned the tank of astrea stars. I'm talking complete genocide. So much so that I'm going to have to get them a chocolate chip star now and again to feast on so they'll stop sitting and staring at me.

The RO extravaganza has been done and the softener installed. It still makes RO water very slowly, but fast enough for me to take care of water changes properly, and to give me all that water (25 gallons) when I need it.

Tomorrow we're going up north to a Frag Swap, I can't wait to see what we come home with. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Oh, one more thing...
My hermit crabs keep eating my clams. I've fed them a blue maxima and crocea so far. My plan is to eradicate them next. I'll pick them and set a food trap and just be rid of them.
Is there any reason whatsoever that I should keep the little assholes in my tank? I have a couple shrimp that clean and a deep bed of worms and copepods, I just can't think of a reason to keep them. I've just had them so long that I think they need to be in there. :)

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I am not a fan of hermits myself. Clean up crew consists of a various snails for me (astrea, nassarius, etc) along with whatever soup of critters are in there (bristle worms, etc).

Hermits are fun to look at, but too destructive.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

The hermits ate every single snail in the tank, too. I'll have to find some reef-safe snails that will work once I get rid of these hermits.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Reef safe snails:
-Nassarius (burrow in the sand, and come out to feed)
-astrea (move around on glass and rocks eatting algae)
-Turbo (large, and sometimes bullish if coral that is not secured gets in their way, but they will mow down hair algae)
-cerith (similar to the astrea in behavior, but has a different shaped shell, smaller and usually cheaper).

I like a large quantity of snails. I don't have near enough currently, but I would try to do 1 per gallon with a mix to whatever ones you choose. You can usually check the online vendors to get better prices for a variety pack. Good luck with the hermit extraction. Feeding them croceas would be an expensive diet :)

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Hi guys, I've been reading through this thread with a lot of interest lately. 1 of my friends has a 75 gallon live rock tank that he has severely neglected. he is giving it to me but I'm wondering what sort of things I need to do to start it up correctly. it has all the filtration system skimmers lights everything, she has just let it get over grown with some sort of green algae. there are also a few fish in it, nothing special, a blue damsel and two tomato clowns. From what I've read I need to take things out and scrub them with a wire brush, rinse them in new clean water, and then slowly incorporate the new water into the tank. any other suggestions?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

The green algae grows when the water is too fertile. So does brown algae and all the other crap. She was probably topping off with tap water.
To do the reef thing, you absolutely have to have a source of zero tds (total dissolved solids) water, Scotty. That means it's completely pure. Then there's nothing for the algae to grow on.
I get lazy and don't test my water from my unit and I can tell the filters are shot as soon as algae blooms. Some amount is acceptable, but not much.

I don't think I'd start scrubbing anything. Move the tank, make new water (even if you have to buy distilled by the gallon at Target), and get a Tang. Tangs love eating that algae, they'll clean it right up, but slowly. That's what you want.
If you start scrubbing the rock you'll do more damage than good.

You'll probably need new lightbulbs, too. Depends on what kind of fixture she has. Just clean the filters and skimmers and do proper maintenance.
The new, clean water will likely starve the green algae and make it break down and sluff off slowly. The Tang would keep up with that and you won't have a big nasty bioload for the filters and tank and water to take care of.

After the initial setup, you'll need to change about 1/3 of the water once a month.
Then start reading your brains out. It only took me 15 years to get from a saltwater rock/fish tank to a successful reef.
Reef tanks need specialized equipment that I didn't have quite right (lights and wavemakers, mainly). Once everything is right, it's easy. About as hard as taking care of a cat.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Scott, if the tank is overwhelmed with algae due to neglect then it might be best to break it down completely and try to start fresh. I would try to sell the fish back to a local fish shop. "Cooking" the rock would come next and is a process meant to kill all the nuisance algae that has collected. Basically, you put all the rock into a rubber maid container (multiple if necessary) and fill with new saltwater. Then you put a pump in there for circulation and perhaps a bubble stone. Some folks will run a skimmer as well. Weekly water changes will be done during the process and after several weeks of this you will have sparkling new rock that is clean and clear.

During that time you can also scrape all the surfaces of the tank so that the glass is clear again and clean along with cleaning any equipment that also might need it. Vinegar baths do wonders for reef equipment that is encrusted with algae.

It sounds like a lot of work I realize, but if you start a reef/saltwater/freshwater tank with algae then it will be a constant battle and you will not enjoy it. You may very well encounter algae once you get the tank setup anyway. Algae is a way of life it seems.

Good luck with it if you decide to take the plunge.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I'm with ya, Jeff. I was just doing the cook and trying to save the rock as best as possible. I've had no problems controlling algae with good water. I watch diatom blooms and algae to let me know where my water is at. It's not very good right now.
I'm sure it's way more than acceptable to anyone in the world but me, but I like a super-clean tank and I'm crazy anal about it.
The clowns and damsel shouldn't have any problem with the new water, but Scotty could isolate them in a bucket with a bubbler. Personally I'd toss them in, they're tough.
I'd definately clean the tank and filters and skimmers before I reuse them. I keep a five gallon bucket of white vinegar with a lid on it and run a powerhead in there when I'm cleaning stuff. It works wonders. :)

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

My hermits only eat things that are dieing anyway. I have had a dozen snails for more than a year and had a crocea that survived about five years with a bunch of hermit crabs.
Algae will die off if you get all the nutrients out of the water. Starve it down. Cleaning, filtering, water changes, live stripping by growing algae in the refugium and throwing it away, etc. The removing the rocks and scrubbing helps by taking away material from the nutrient cycle.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Thanks guys! I think I'll do the cook process. I've had a salt fish tank in the past and I'm with Scott...I like a clean tank. I think I may convert another smaller tank I have that is currently empty into a holding tank for the fish while I cook and clean. I live in the middle of no where and the closest store is an hour away so the buy back deal is kinda rough. Besides, they are kinda cute. Lots of work ahead of me but I'm kind of excited. I'll keep you guys posted on my successes/failures.

Thanks again

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

All good advice Scott. You have a lot more experience in the marine tank world than I do so I was definitely looking forward to your take on Scott's situation.

I just replaced the filters and DI in my system. My tank currently has more bubble algae than I am happy with and my halide bulbs need to be replaced (the algae outbreak may be a mixture of bad topoff and the bad bulbs).

The wife and I have discussed shutting the tank down. I want to build a LED setup to grow SPS in the 150g system.......unfortunately that's not a cheap project. Cheaper than buying off the shelf, but still an investment. Plus with 4 kids under the age of 5 any free time......what free time :) The biggest factor is simply putting more money into it to get it where I want it to be. I have halide ballasts that are bad and need to be replaced/repaired. Weekly maintenance really isn't that big of a deal, like you stated above. Refill topoff container, clean glass, monthly water changes.

I am still flip flopping over the decision to shut it down. Hopefully I can find a way to keep it.