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Making your own rock is definitely an adventure. I'm using MasterEmaco cement which supposedly can be made one day and placed in the tank the next without overly impacting ph/alk. So it skips the time required to wait for other cements to go stable on ph/alk. I believe this is what jestersix...

I cut about 1" off the two baffles. Now the skimmer is easier to adjust. The water coming into the sump from the display got louder as the elbow on the end of the spa tube was now out of the water. I cut about a 1.5" piece of spa tube and stuck it in the lower end of the elbow and that seems to...

False alarm on the red legged hermit crab dying. It was a molt after all. It looks so much like a piece of dead crab. I turned on the lights for a bit today and he was in the back crawling up the tank corner.

That makes sense. My light is mounted low and that is why I pulled the straight R (660) and G LEDs from my stock unit. There was too much discoloration. I have way more power than I need though so another option is to mount higher but I don't like the glare. So I pulled R and G and added some...

Oh, I only posted that to compare the LED layout choice. Yes, the LEDs on these inexpensive Chinese fixtures are Bridgelux supposedly so makes the trade off towards less efficient for less money. The LEDs I'm ordering from China are also Bridgelux to my understanding. They physically look the...

I actually asked about extra shells but the saltwater/reef guy was out so wasn't sure if they kept extras on hand. I have one spare now with the sad death of the scarlet legged hermit but I think it's way too big for the blue legged crabs. Are you pro/con on hermits? Think I should just stick...

On display (cycling) tank: Nitrite: 0.05 or less The diatom bloom is still going but I'm leaving the lights off. The scarlet legged hermit crab died. He was in hiding for a couple of days and then I moved him when I added some nori and he seemed okay. But yesterday, I could see his corpse on...

Stock 165w LED (believe this matches mine): First round on modifying it (what I thought was ~6.5k is actualy 3.5k): I have to read some more to see if the 660nm and/or 520nm would be more desirable to keep. With the sand effect diffuser, it might be more acceptable... A seller that offers...

Nitrite: 0.05 or slightly less Clown is still not eating but going to try feeding again shortly. He is swimming around and otherwise looks okay but definitely makes me nervous. My order of Bridgelux LEDs came in from China. I picked up: 5 x 420nm 10 x 10k 10 x 20k I swapped out the central...

I stopped by Albany Aquarium today to ask about snails. They have black foot Trochus snails. I spoke with Hector and he filled me in on them a bit (demonstrated how they can self right) and explained he personally didn't mix them with hermits. They'll take the hermits back with credit towards...

You guessed it -- running out of room up top. I've got my DJ power strip up there and the cords coming in from the rear are pretty close to the skimmer so I want to keep height the same.

After ~5g water change today: Nitrite: ~0.05 Nitrate: ~20 -- little lighter, so maybe between 10-20

After water change last night, today: Nitrite: ~0.05 Am I right in guessing that doing water changes to lower nitrates is helping the nitrite consuming bacteria? Because the nitrate scale/colors are hard to match, I'm going to assume they are off the charts and keep doing water changes to...

In display tank yesterday evening: Nitrites: ~0.2 I changed about 3g of water on the display tank and about 2.5g on the quarantine tank. Today, changing almost 5g on the display tank. I want to see if getting my Nitrates down makes a difference. In other news: ATO working great -- no...

The diatom bloom in the main tank is going pretty heavy. I cleaned off the glass but I didn't export the material (need to get/make a vacuum). And I left the lights set to on yesterday so I came back to a very pretty brown tank. At least it looks pretty to me from about 6 feet away!

I'm totally on board now with fishless cycling. I knew better going in but partly misinterpreted what was being said about Bio-Spira and partly rushed it without thinking (honestly, in hindsight, in a moment of exuberance while sleep deprived). Anyway, I'm fully onboard with lifeless/fishless...

Sounds good. I've been careful to do big water changes (about 3g) and remove uneaten food too. Would you continue to do the same and not worry too much about the eating?

The Clownfish stopped eating 4 days ago. Still swims around and seems okay but won't take the spectrum pellets (which he was eating before). I tried brine shrimp yesterday but he wouldn't even take those. My wife also picked up some of the Hikari Mysis frozen shrimp cubes. I'm going to try that...

I think so. I'm going to test it with water change water instead of on my sick fish though. Actually, I think it clicked off by that point. But it takes a while to change the water by 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit so I don't think it is lag. edit: I realized this was unclear -- it stopped running...

It swung from 79 to mid 82's so I swapped it out for a higher watt but seems more accurate Neo-Therm.