I had a challenging several months with my tank and finally decided to take what I consider drastic action.

By drastic action, I mean that I did absolutely nothing to the tank for three months. No feeding, no cleaning, no water changes, no tests, no cleaning the skimmer cup, nadda, zippo, bubkis....

Now here's the amazing part. I lost one fish (that was on its way out already), a few frags and nothing else.

I've now gotten back to my regular maintenance...

I created a thread a couple of days ago indicating that I was 'angry with my tank'. The last several months have been very frustrating, to say the least. One of the responses questioned my lighting. While I'm sure I have plenty of 'watts per gallon', it did get me thinking.

When I first set up the tank, I used Radion LED's. I really didn't like the color or growth under them. As a result, I sold them to a fellow reefer (who loves them BTW) and purchased a Hamilton Belize with...

As I noted in my first blog entry, I've had my share of ups and downs in this hobby. Someone one described me as a builder rather than a custodian (in the caretaker rather than janitor usage). I think many of us in the hobby fall into my category. In my experience, the result is that we struggle to keep our hands out of the tank. We fiddle, we tweak, we adjust, etc. with few if any noticeable benefits.

I was thinking about my second successful reef tank this week as I was looking...

This is a really good thread in the general reef discussion forum.

I posted there that the wires associated with all of the equipment we use drive me crazy (I also had a bit of fun with poetry). With that in mind, I decided to take an inventory of the number of wires under my tank and what they are attached to. Keep in mind that I'm running a 110 rimless with a sump and separate fuge. I run a calcium reactor, skimmer and a comination MH/T5 fixture. So, starting from the top......

First of all, Stolireef does not refer to the Vodka. Actually, it does a little. Stoli was my first dog, a crazy black standard poodle. We named her Stoli because all of the other dogs in our extended family were named after drinks (eg. Remy, Baily, Scotch...). My avatar is a long ago picture of her.

I set up my first SW tank in 1997 in Rochester, NY. It was a 40 gallon breeder that sat on an old coffee table in my living room. It smelled really bad, didn't grow much of anything,...