frags ?

Are there any reef clubs near to you? They're usually good for a bargain.

Yes definitely check out your local clubs ,I joined the one in Dallas/Fort Worth ,it was the best 15 bucks I ever spent,lets just say that the members were very generous with knowledge and frags.

Could you please describe your setup in detail so that more suggestions could be made. Nobody can really give you ideas unless they know your setup, water parameters, etc.

If you are going to seriously get into corals, I would first look into getting an RO/DI unit. Many corals won't do well with additional sources of phosphate, especially any that calcify. Ideally, neither nitrate nor phosphate should register on any kit. Unfortunately, it will take a good amount of water changes and/or running phosphate remover to get rid of the phosphate in the water column, as well as what may have been absorbed by the sand and rock. That is why it is essential to start off with RO/DI in most cases.

Could you link me to the skimmer thread you are referring to? Skimmers remove both nitrate and phosphate indirectly by either removing complexed molecules or particles/molecules that break down into phosphate and nitrate. They don't remove them directly, but they can certainly help with the overall levels. Sounds like you were short-changed on your skimmer purchase. You may want to ask a company that supplies the skimmers if they have replacement parts (or find pvc that fits it). If possible, look into the Octopus Skimmers.

I hesitate to recommend anything unless you can provide concrete numbers.

The statements about skimmers from that thread are only partially true. Yes food particles/organisms are removed, but so is nitrate and phosphate that is bound in those things--so either way, you are exporting both of them. On the other hand, protein skimmers remove significantly more dissolved organic carbon compounds than a turf scrubber. In all, both work. I suppose it is a matter of preference, though most tanks you see utilize skimmers.

Some apparently new research has found that higher DOC is better for coral growth, and that lower DOC is related to more coral deaths. It is a research presentation video from the College of Marine Science at USF St. Petersburg; I included rough quotes of what the video says, along with the minutes and seconds into the video where you can find the info:

http://www.marine.usf.edu/videos/2007-01-26.wmv

23:30 "Bulk DOC does not correlate with coral decline; higher DOC areas have healthier corals; lower DOC areas have weaker corals. The opposite of what we predicted".

24:40 "The DOC to DIN ratio's are higher on healthy reefs, and lower on less-healthy reefs".

25:45 "Microbial numbers are elevated with a lower DOC to DIN ratio" (!)

34:00 "Christmas Island, with the really low DOC, has the highest pathogens, while Kingman Island, with the highest DOC, has the lowest pathogens."

37:00 "On Kingman Island you have high hard-coral coverage and the lowest disease [and highest DOC]. That's weird! What you should find is that as hard-coral coverage reduces, it should be harder for the pathogens to find hosts, so you should see a pathogen decrease. But we're not seeing that, which means there is something else going on."

49:20 "The DOC definitely always goes down, in the really bad coral areas".

52:39 "You can actually put the corals where the nutrients are really high, and the corals are not dying; in some cases they tend to grow better, which is also true in our [???].