I'm not sure about other salts but reef crystals says 160 gallons on the bucket. Then you factor in the fact that that's for 1.022 or whatever. I'm not getting even 3 changes out of a bucket so i guess a bucket won't last me a month which sucks. If I'm realistic I have maybe 6 months worth leftish.

Ya I think @ 1.025 - 1.026 you only really get 140 gal ish.

For me, it works out to appox 17% every two weeks for a 160 gallon bucket. That's with H2O, I'm seriously debating changing to a cheaper salt to save some cash as well.

Actually it's about 60g not 50g.

I changed to Seachem from H2O a year ago and nothing seemed to change much. If anything, the tank improved (but I doubt it was the salt)

Picked up a gang of little chromis tonight as well as a female for my squarespot. He reacted to her immediately and the band on his head which is normally faintly visible was very contrasty as were the horizontal stripes on his body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igTDuPKIeqQ

The chromis... sure wish they stayed small, all alive, and schooling. To dream! They already have drawn my firefish and gramma out into the open more.

Hey Brett its called insomnia:biggrin:

Very nice little video

That squarespot is amazing :mrgreen:

What do you use to get the great video quality?

Lol I was going to add a disclaimer that my iPhone makes everything look washed out and shades of blue.

iPhone4 and shaky hand =)

The male anthias keeps charging at the glass... it's beating his mouth up a little can't say I'm impressed. Can anyone tell me if that's normal? Will he calm down once the female's been in there a few days?

he's probably seeing his own reflection in that ridiculously clean glass of yours:razz:.....he has something to fight for now that the female is in there......thats my guess anyway....

I sorta liked loser pinky-pie vs this new macho pinky-pie :lol:

His name was Frank but my daughter made us change it up. Hell maybe that's his problem?

I had a male anthias do the same but he eventually broke his jaw and was rocking the slack jaw look. Eventually it died.

you have no idea how much tank envy i have....maybe one day the daycre kids will get an upgrade lol... looks amazing as usuall

get like 4 reef safe banner fish (poor man's moorish idols) would look awesome schooling in that bad ass tank!

I have total tank envy haha. man I hope I can impress you guys the way you impress me, with my new tank! its small but I hope to make a lot happen with a little space

its not the size of your tank that counts its how your fish wiggle lol

Or dash themselves into the glass.

Thx guys =)

yeah my wife tells me the same things ;) jeez why did I even say that lol

Your Chromis school looks very happy. We always patted ourselves on the back when we put new fish in our ex-125g. Felt good getting them out of the pet store boxes.
I'm tending to agree with fishytime's thoughts on your male.
Oh, and I see you also like to make Pina Coladas while you're watching your tank.
Looking great :eyebrows:

Awesome video...loving that tank. I can't believe how those little frags you got are already looking like they have major growth.

Very nice!

Brett your tank is amazing, the great aquascape and the open brighter feeling without the back being painted makes it a real pleasure to watch!! Can't wait to see it with your corals grown in even more than they already have!!

Nice vid Brett. The tank is looking real good; and the fishes sure appreciate the swimming room. Mr. Anthias is definitely excited about the new Mrs. Anthias. Maybe try a little salt peter in his grub. :mrgreen:

but would that have the same effect on a saltwater fish??.....I mean they're already salted:mrgreen:

I'm pretty sure as, I watched your cool video, I heard him say "Hubba hubba :eyebrows: hey baby check this out" Bet he's doing tricks to impress the girl :lol:

Funny thing is she barely even looks at him through it all :lol:

Saltpeter... that was a new one. Thank-you internet. Explains why the wife's cooking has tasted off lately.

Uh oh! Getting a little satisfaction deprivation lately?

Agreed

It'd take one hell of brightly lit room to be brighter! I'm hoping he calms down. Last I checked he does seem to be returning a bit to his older ways. The only casualties are his mouth and a big piece of my german blue digi which he must have run into. That coral is incredibly dense he must have a crazy headache right now.

Tank has a healthy dose of this sickly brown hair algae now in a few places... but literally only on the new rock I've pruchased. My rock from the 97g looks great and is spotless. Pretty interesting to me... the mature stuff is obviously not leeching nutrients like the other stuff.

I'm sure this is the same thing as admitting I should have cooked my rock but it should be under control pretty soon.

My anthias seems a bit calmer today. Now if only I could get the female to eat. She's certainly moving about the tank much more now.

Hopefully the 'Mr' calms down a bit more and gives her time to relax.
About the new rock ... you knew it would leach when you put it in :smile:
'Bah, I'll just toss it in, it'll be fine'
Although you do have a lot of water, so I'm sure it will clear up soon.
You are using reactors aren't you? Forgive me for not remembering or looking back through the last 50+ pages.
I do plan on fully cooking whatever rock I end up with, regardless of how nice it looks/smells or where it comes from.

I run a pair of the BRS single chamber reactors. They're basically RO canisters with cartridges. Love'em! Carbon and GFO changed monthly.

The rock with algae sends up a shower of microbubbles throughout the day. I always hate this phase of a new setup lol.

I thought you had reactors. I'll be using a pair of TLF 150s for the same purpose, thanks to Myka's recommendations.
The micro bubbles are free oxygen, aren't they? Good for the water and all that :smile:

Yeah they just get pulverized by the powerheads making my water look less clear otherwise I have no real problems with'em.

Here's a pic of a funky bit of algae from Melev's ID site...

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/annulata.html

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/annulata.jpg

Apparently somewhat rare (I had a few isolated pieces in my first tank that didn't last long). I have as many if not more than shown in the picture. Only growing on the 3 massive pieces I picked up from Big Als. Can't say I really dig'em plus they use calcium!

Wow, Algae Anemones :razz:
I take it the 'somewhat rare' and so on is from Mark's site, and not your purchase from Big Al's
So I commented on it being free oxygen, but I guess that also means it's unwanted CO2 during the night

Did you see my PM?

I've had that kind of algae come and go over the years .. it likely won't stick around forever.

Interesting about the new rocks, eh? You just described my last 8 months. Hopefully your phase will be shorter since you have less new rock though.

Just do what I did with my algae lol have about 8400 gph in flow going in my tank and IRS only 82 gal lol. So u only need 40000 gph going through ur tank lol

+1 just as you decide they're not so bad, they'll be gone :biggrin: