I didn't see it mentioned, but would like to suggest that a quarantine tank be the first "item" one should research, purchase and use for each and everything you ever plan to put into your main tank/system. This is a very important habit to get into right from the start and will most likely save you a lot of grief.
The QT section is coming in part two. I wanted to somewhat write in the order that most new people ask the questions. I also wanted to write about some of the more interesting areas first in order to keep peoples interest.
But thank you for the suggestions as they are always welcome and I am sure that even after part two there will be many more areas to cover.
DD: I will probably wait to submit it until part two is finished so that it can be one continuous article.
My only concerns are that you mention with LR more is always better as long as the fish have room to swim. This is true to a certain extent...if you have too much rock it can make some serious dead spots in your flow, where cyano and the like can ,manifest...
Also, you mention that you should always have a skimmer. I don't think they're really necessary on small tanks, but I guess that is debatable.
I setup mine when I started battling some serious ich. I'll be honest that I have had it always running since then, but your comment is making me reconsider, especially now that I haven't seen ich for awhile (knock on wood). I do believe that it helped me with the battle, but I also agree that using it simply as a preventative measure at this point might be running at a relatively high cost.
I think I might turn it off for awhile.. see what happens.
GREAT READ JOJO. THANX. I JUST SET UP A 30GAL SW 2 WEEKS AGO. I HAVE 30LBS. OF CARIBBEAN LR AND 20 LBS CARIBBEAN LIVE SAND. CAN'T WAIT TO PUT IN MY FISH BUT I KNOW I MUST WAIT. WISH I READ THIS BEFORE I SET UP CAUSE MY LFS TOLD ME TO SET UP THE TANK WITH CRUSHED CORAL. AFTER ONLY 2 WEEKS MY AMMO WAS AT 0 MY NITRITE WAS AT 0 BUT ALL OF A SUDDEN MY NITRATE SHOT UP TO 30PPM. I CHANGED CC TO LIVE SAND THIS WEEKEND. ALSO I AM IN A LITTLE FIGHT WITH SOME AIPTASIA(ONLY ONE) I SHOT HIM WITH SOME CALC. AND PUT IN 2 PEPPERMINT SHRIMP. I ALSO HEARD FROM SOMEONE ON THIS FORUM TO TRY BOILING WATER IF THE CALC. AND SHRIMP DIDNOT WORK. ANYWAY THANX FOR THE ARTICLE. WHAT A GREAT WEB SITE. THANKX
Thanks for the comments. I always use the boiling water method for aptasia as it doesn't add anything to the water. I get a little scared when I go playing with my water chemistry unnecessarily.
