melev

In a previous blog ( link ) I explained how I was securing the internal overflow to the base of the AGE tank. Well, even though it might have worked perfectly, my paranoia gene was flaring up and I kept thinking about how a leak from the base of the aquarium would require a full breakdown to correct the problem. Rather than just hoping for the best, I bought a tube of Aquarium-Safe silicone at Home Depot and applied it to the base of the box and reinstalled it.

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After placing the 60g AGE tank on the Ez-Tube steel stand ( link ), I didn't feel comfortable with how it seemed to jiggle with minimal touch. It was empty, but the tank is heavy enough that it takes two people to place it on the stand. Water, sand and rock would add 600 lbs easily, and there's little doubt it would be even worse over time. Even cleaning the glass with a cleaning magnet would probably be concerning, so I decided to add some wood panels to the stand to limit racking. Plywood ...

Tonight, I applied the black vinyl sheet to the back of the 60g. The back pane of the tank is 24" wide and 24" tall, and the piece of vinyl was larger than that.

I cleaned the back of the tank with Windex and newspaper since that doesn't leave lint or smudges. Next, a spray bottle was filled up with tap water with a drop of Dawn dish detergent. I sprayed the back of the tank to get the entire surface wet.

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For the past three months, my reef has been suffering from elevated phosphate levels. I've never had such a roller coaster, with the numbers rising and then falling as I treated to drop them again. Last night I did a lot of water testing.

a) First I tested the 215g reef to check the levels.
b)Then I checked the 400g that is full of water, sand and live rock to know if the parameters were close enough for livestock transfer and to ...

Saturday night, my son helped me pump over 200g of saltwater into the 400g tank. Pumping the water into an upright pitcher, it seemed unlikely the water would get cloudy. Yet a day later it was somewhat murky, very different from the 215g running adjacent. Seeing the reef in nice clean water, it seemed like a poor choice moving those corals into the bigger tank.

Using a Reef Octopus skimmer I have on hand, I placed it on an inverted bucket (one with no handle) inside the display ...