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My reef was set up February 6, 2011. It's a 400g custom-made Starphire glass reef-ready tank by Marineland. The footprint is 84" x 36" x 30" with an external overflow at one end that is hidden behind a full sheet of black acrylic, providing five 1.5" drains to the sump underneath.




The sump is 58" x 31.5" x 17" and has a full length refugium zone. It holds a Euroreef protein skimmer, a Nextreef biopellet ...

I've wondered about re-using dead coral skeletons in a calcium reactor for years. I asked about the chance of the stony corals releasing PO4 into the water, but never got an answer of any kind. So I thought, I'll take some of the former colonies from my last reef tank and immerse them in RO/DI water for a week and then test for phosphate.

I filled the bucket with water, and tested it. Zero phosphates. In a week, I'll test again. It's not precise, but...

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While was in Des Moines during September for MACNA 23, my tank sitter contacted me to let me know the anemone was up to no good and that one of my corals had turned white. I thought it was just a little frag that was too close to the BTA, but when he sent me a picture via MMS, I nearly lost my mind. The coral was actually three in one spot, and the little frag that I thought was the victim was completely fine. Here's some of the damage.

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I recently purchased a custom Marineland (Perfecto) 120g. This time, I decided to deviate from my norm, the painted black background, and try an interesting concept that I have seen posted in various reef forums. The purpose of the shadowbox is to have it back-lit behind the tank, and painted to give the illusion of depth in your tank, as in looking through the tank into the ocean. I've read threads on peoples different shadowbox creations, and took some info from different ones I saw, and created ...

So I have been very happy with my Bubble Magus NAC-5E Protein Skimmer since I bought it a few months back but as with everything in this aquarium build I have decided that I need to make some slight upgrades and adjustments in order to suite the overall goal of this aquarium. So I have noticed that my Nitrates have been slowly creeping up over the past few weeks (they are currently 20ppm as of this post). I have a tendency to over feed and my display is stocked quite heavily with various types ...