Recent content by Liem

I got some light blue/gray color trash can with dark blue lid from HD. Just rinsed them before used. I eventually built an acrylic tank and put it in the stand (the place most of you put the sump) to avoid the troubles (with my wife) the splashes produced. Got some cheap acrylic from Regal...

I have been using a MT23 from Back to Nature Filtration for 9 years with good result. It costs me around $200. This is a 2 stage RO unit. The first stage is a 5um and carbon filter combination, the 2nd stage is the TFC membrane that does the RO the filtration. I replace the carbon prefilter...

HomeDepot and Lowe sell timers that can control electrical devices in 15 minutes increments. These are set but little pegs on a round dial, each peg is 15 minutes; out for on and in for off. One can set multiple pegs next to one another for longer periods. These are fairly cheap, under $10. I...

One more thing. Blasting rocks with powerhead may be counter productive because it disrrupt the lives of crustations and other small critters living in the cracks. These organisms are important in consuming the detritus before they decompose and thus feed the algea. I never have to do this nor...

Algae growth indicates high level of nutrient in the water. Thicker sand bed (4 to 6 inches) will help. And so does water change. I have a 150 gallon tank with about 4" of sand and I change 1/3 of the water every month. I'm thinking about changing less water more frequently but I'm too busy with...

Rich-n-poor, I have a Tsunami wavemaker for a long time and find it works well. There was one problem with its design (at least the model I got). The fuse is not replacable; it's soldered directly onto the pc board! Mine blew out when the RIO pump broke! Luckily, I was able to open the box and...

Don't forget to have some cover for the fish cubicals. The jump a lot for various reasons. Liem.

Louey, You will kill your corals and clams and the hair algea will still be there! Try take care of the problem from several different directions at the same time: a. Set up a complete food chain (fishes, snails, worms, small crustations, etc., and bacteria). Have more living things compete...

Yes. I was able to remove the wire after I took the hood off from the top of the tank and unscrew the end socket from the hood. When installed, the hood blocks access to the little holes to release the wire! I was trying to say that one may want to think through all possible senarios before...

Once inserted to the right hole, it's very hard to pull it back out again. It's possible but hard. If you need to disconnect it (like to temporarily removing the light hood for some reason) you will be SOL! I had to cut the wires on mine and install a quick disconnect plug later. Liem.

I found that sand bed is the most effective way of keeping nitrate low. The bed need to be about 4 to 6 inch. In addition, you will need lots of critters to consume the waste that fishes and other animal generates. I got most of my critters from the live rocks. Since your live rocks are a few...

I would say after. You need the keep the wood surface clean to get the glue to stick. You also will need to use filler to fill in cracks and holes to make the finish hood look nice. These filler don't stick well to stained or finished wood surface. Liem.

I bought two coral banded shrimps that were displayed in different tanks at the LFS. I was careful to select one to be smaller than the other (like 80% of the size of the larger). They actually paired up in my tank and have spawned. The larger one have lots of egss under her body. I actually...

CGFI trips when it detects a current to gound. If one of the equipments has a crack that expose only the "hot" wire to the tank water and the tank has no grounding probe that is tied to the ground input of the CGFI circuit, the CGFI circuit will not detect any current and hence nothing will...