Michael Young

Please make sure the freshwater is dechlorinated.

Frogspawn, Torch and Hammer corals all belong to the same family Euphyllia and are all susceptible to protozoans attacks. The brown slime that your hammer and frogspawn are excreting are symtomatic of such an attack. What you could do is give your coral a freshwater dip (1 minute) to get rid of the protozoans and than putting the whole colony back in saltwater; then direct a strong current at them to flush away all the mucus as well as to prevent re-infection.

Oh and by the way, the brochures can be downloaded here

Hey Giantbicycle, thanks for the support and I'm glad you like it. But, would you like to share with us why you like it so much so quickly? After all you just bought it right?

You should mixed your fish feed with garlic 'juice', not chopped garlic. One way is to have your prawns, garlic and whatever ingredients you use and have them blended. Pack the blended feed into a plastic container and freeze it. Come feeding time, scrape the frozen feed (do not thaw!) off with a fork and dip it into the tank. Remember. You only need very little garlic or the smell will be too much for your fish to take.

I sell them. Here are the specs and price.

I guess what you can do now is either to borrow a test kit from someone that provides a reading before you do anything or you can try changing some water to bring down the alkalinity. It is really hard to provide you with good advice without readings.

Read the instructions on the test kit again. I'm pretty sure there will be a dkH range for what's high or low.

How high??

Terryz, I've posted them here.

Eric, do a search on 'Ich' or 'White Spots' and you'll find many threads on the subject. Tangs a very susceptible to Ich because they don't have tough scales like many other fishes. They also need ample swimming space, good water quality and places to hide. Dipping your hand into the tank all the time is also bad cos it'll stressed them out. Final note: You shouldn't have kept 2 powder blues in the same tank cos they are territorial.

LPS corals are more susceptible to attacks by angels than SPS corals. I know some people who keep angels in their reef tanks and for a long time nothing happen; but one fine day, they just went crazy and started feasting on the corals. So, I guess its better to stay off angels.

Yep.

If there is a sweet rotting smell like oranges. The bottle's gone. That's the smell of marine plankton gone bad.

Try building the racks with PVC pipes and elbows. Alternatively, you can also use 'egg crates' (ie. flourescent light diffusers).

For your tank size, use the SCWD to divert your returns in two directions or if you can afford it, get the Wave2K. Now they have a smaller one specially for small aquarias. I don't have the link to the SCWD but here's the link to the Wave2K. IMO, the Wave2K has the most realistic wave motions. Bought one from Henry at Marine Life and I'm getting another for my 5 footer which I'm setting up.

In Julian Sprung's book: Invertebrates, A Quick Reference Guide, H. picta is described to be white with yellow or pinkish rimmed redish spots; while the H. elegans is whitish or pale yellow with pick centered purplish spots. It seems that yours have changed from a H. elegans to a H. picta I guess that's why he also said in the book that: "The distinction between the 2 species on the basis of colours is a subject of debate. It may be that one species only exist." By that he meant H. picta To answer your question: No. there are no other differences other than colours.

I feed mine tank the entire range of Ocean Nutrition flake and pellet feed; Cyclop Eeze; Bio and CoralPlankton; as well as frozen feed I made from a recipe from Henry at Marine Life. Its really a cocktail of several types of seafood and vitamin additives. Live food may not be very good if you do not know where they come from.

I'm not sure about this but this species of sea urchin are not commonly seen here as they are from the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Carribean.

You need to add another baffle in your sump. It should be after where the effluent exits the skimmer.

You got me on this one. I'll have to look that up in my An Idiot's Guide to Basic Latin.

Like what JD said, invest in the best you can afford.

...Countless hours of books my friend...

JD, that's a good one about natural sunlight.

Aiyoh! You should know by now that what sort of light you use is directly connected with what you want to keep in your aquarium. How to recommend with no information other than tank size.