hongqixian

Yes that's the kind. But the pictured louse is a bit on the large side for the ones sneaking around in the rock. They do come in all sizes though. Remove with a blunt headed pair of pincers and be careful. You don't want to end up skewering your fish. Fish hiding in the rock tend to be easier targets for fish lice. It's easier to climb on and suck blood

The keyword is gently

The pods are good. They nibble algae in the refugium. Once in awhile, their larvae and some pods will be washed up to the main tank where they will either feed the fish or go about eating the leftover bits of food. Or both

I don't know about that then. Perhaps it did shrink due to lack of feeding like uncleliew stated. But it can be rather hard to tell esp in larger mud tubes or in tubes partially buried/attached to rock. I bought a small tubeworm at Kwang's Aquarium(crane road) last time, which was partially buried in the sand. The uncle packed it in a little plastic bag for me. then just after i left the shop i looked at the worm in the plastic packet and saw the little tube all floppy. I opened the bag and lifted the tube out, felt it was a bit floppy leh. So i went back to the uncle and told him the worm wasn't there. He was a bit insistent that the worm was in the bag but finally agreed to check the tank. After digging around in the rather deep gravel he finally found the bare worm. Apparently it shot right out of the other end of the tube when he picked it up to package

You can just make a small slit to widen the opening. That way, the worm can join together the bits of mud tubing with the mucus it secretes to enlarge its tube when it grows. If you snip it off totally the worm might be more prone to attacks by crabs/shrimp/fish/anything else

yeah sure go ahead. But don't put all at once. Add maybe a few handfuls every 3-4 days or you might end up smothering some of your existing sand fauna. A few handfuls at a time also let the sand animals slowly colonize the new sand. It will mix in better with the old.

Yeah his views are unorthodox and his salinity is rather low so his corals/live rock dun live very well. But many of his fish and some shrimp are very healthy

You are right about the rocks and sand. But the seeded sterile sand will have to be in a healthy and quiet environment for the microfauna to breed and populate the sterile sand properly. If you throw it all in a cycling tank with the nitrogen cycle going on i dun think they will breed very well. Maybe setting up a big tub like a refugium for a month or two with the seeded sand will help to establish a healthy "live" sand bed faster. then you can transfer the sand to the main tank.

Live sand is not just sand with bacteria. It has to include microfauna like many worms, snails, (amphi)and(cope)pods etc. The same way rock with bacteria is not called live rock.

yes they are both male and female.

Least aggressive of damsels does not mean NOT aggressive Sixline wrasses love eating (live)shrimp. The chance that you might get an odd one that doesn't touch shrimp is very low. They might not touch large cleaners though. Longnose butterflies may eat corals. Their long nose is adapted to pick at coral flesh. And some butterflies only eat corals. Be warned

It really depends. For short holidays, say about 5-7 days, no need to feed in an established reef. For slightly longer, you might want to get an automatic feeder to dispense small pellets maybe once a week. Having people that don't keep marine to take care of your fish is likely to invite problems like overfeeding. But whatever method you choose, try it a few times before you go on holiday, and don't add anything new at least a month before u go on holiday. Any automated feeders should be in use awhile before you leave so u know they won't be problems. Can your tank survive if there is a short power failure? will anything go wrong if the power suddenly goes off and on again? you'll have to test it.

Nanos need frequent water changes to keep the animals inside healthy. Guess your 10% water changes do the trick.

It's hard to put strong lighting on a 2fter without boiling the water. That's the problem.

Your post is sort of self explanatory as usually people place corals high to get more light. Make sure it has good current around it to help prevent infections and lots of light. that's basically it. keeping it on the sandbed or in a dish can help to maintain these requirements.

Tubeworms don't mind coral stings on their crown(and corals don't care much about tubeworms) but anemones and corals may eat the worms if they get hold of the worm's soft body usually hidden in the mud casing.

but it must not have too violent water flow. Wouldn't that be defeating the main purpose of a sump somewhat though as there's also less space for equipment? It's still best to have a separately attached refugium which increases the system's water volume.

You can try to dislodge the biggest ones blocking most of the light but poking their bases off the rock. Try not to break their flesh as it might release nasty stuff in your water. You can just try to poke off a couple of the larger ones first and leave the rest alone first if you are not confident about it.

Too many fish to maintain water quality well. The coral beauty will grow a bit bigger. Having just the 3 common clownfish or 2 common clowns and the maroon would really be better. acropoys? maybe you mean star polyps or something. Not much problem with the corals, but the frogspawn might fight with the rest.

Probably a snail or seaslug of some sort. It would help people to identify it for you if you gave a better description and pictures

yes, either crab or bristleworm droppings. very common.

They are hard to catch if you have rockwork and they hide inside when you are trying to net them. They will die in the sump if they can be sucked inside pump impellers or something. Otherwise, not likely.

What you all see is usually the worm's crown/head. If the body drops out of the tube, then put the worm in a safe place with some fine sand or detritus. It will rebuild a tube if it is the soft tube variety. If it is put at the sand bed or the rocks it is almost certain that bristleworms or crabs will attack its exposed body at night. If it is only the fluffy head/crown that catches food for the worm that drops off, the worm usually grows a proper sized new one (IN GOOD CONDITIONS) in a few weeks. There is no possibility of an empty mud tube having a baby worm resurrect inside. P.S. the worms usually seal their mud tube at the top when they have just dropped off their old crown and are growing a new crown. There is no way to catch food then so they just protect themselves. Empty tube are limp and floppy. Tubes with worms inside will feel a bit stiff when pressed gently.

The fine one is called turtle weed. The long one is called eel grass or turtle grass sometimes.

You could siphon out the snail waste into a clean bucket and through a filter (maybe filter wool in a 1.5 litre cut-open drink bottle). Then pour the filtered water back. Or attach a weak pump to the siphon to make it easier.