i was expecting to wait longer - but if i'm not registering any ammonia/nitrite by the end of next week, i'll probably go ahead and add the fish. you don't always get a definitive cycle when using cured LR. but, i'm not adding fish this weekend or anything, so it'll be at least 2 weeks (assuming no ammonia/nitrite).

Unless your live rock was pulled directly from another fully established tank Youll get an ammonia spike at some point(at leat a small one). Id recommend waiting until you have some sort of cycle before adding fish(just to be safe) if not the fish waste will jump start your cycle and you risk harming the fish.

Another benefit of waiting to add fish is the vast amount of micro-invertebrate life that appears! Pods, worms, snails, etc. will appear and multiply in droves if you go without fish for several months. The stuff is so neat, all my nanos have been and are fishless!

Drop some dead shrimp in there.

this makes sense, the only thing is that because i didn't test for 5 days, i wonder if the ammonia spike came and went and i missed it.

the LR was not pulled out of an established tank; it was pulled out of a vat that had been curing for 1 year+. as you can see, there is a fair amount of coralline algae/other things on some of the rock. i also had what i was sure would have been a substantial ammonia source from a particular piece of LR that had 4-5 sponges on it (i removed them as best i could, but i'm sure there was some remnant in there).

one thing that i'm not sure how to account for, though, is the fact that i used that Kent Rock Prep stuff and scrubbed all my LR with it in advance. maybe that got rid of too much of the die-off material in advance?

5 days may be a little too short to see a cycle. Id say if you dont notice a spike within 2 weeks then you should be good to go. Keep in mind most of your water as well as sand wasnt from an established tank and dont yet support the bacterial colonies needed to keep your parameters in check. So just test the water every few days and see if you notice some ammonia or at least some nitrite..

now on day 10 of up-and-running, and i just checked my cycle-relevant parameters again:

pH 8.3
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0

and, the small diatoms has turned into a lot more -- not only diatoms, but also some bryopsis-looking feathery green algae and some hair algae. so, before those stalks get too thick, i think i'm going to add at least part of a CUC tonight.

my temperature is still hovering between 81-82. this concerns me for snails. but, i'll just have to see how it goes, i guess -- not investing in a chiller any time soon. i may just need to cut my photoperiod back and/or add an additional fan.

specific gravity is hanging in there at 1.023, per the hydrometer. i read something recently that i did not know/have not seen elsewhere -- it was in the book "Saltwater Aquarium Models" (sidenote: available at my local library; i would've preferred to read Bob Fenner's "Conscientious Marine Aquarist" book, but I frankly can't justify the expense -- $62 in my LFS! "only" $44 on amazon -- and my library doesn't have it). Anyway, this book said that you have to add to your specific gravity reading based on the temperature of the water. it gives you a constant to add, based on the temperature -- so, for instance, say your temperature is 78 -- you add .0025 to your specific gravity reading (i don't have the book in front of me, but as i recall, that is approximately the constant the book gives). has anyone else heard this before?? i haven't read about adding to your specific gravity reading anywhere else, but it seems like important information, especially for me with my tank sitting at 82! thoughts?

This is the very reason why I purchased a refractometer. I actually bought one from a "defective" batch from marine depot a while back. Other than a few scratches here and there nothing wrong with it. Got it for $20.

I vote for dropping a piece of raw shrimp in the tank. Or maybe a Tang...

Temps of 81-82 are of no concern...and certainly not for snails. Why are you concerned with this temp range?

that book said that you had to make the same adjustments for a refractometer (which was shocking to me -- so shocking that i am skeptical of the accuracy of the statement)!

no one else has heard of this?



my concern with the temp is that my experience, and I thought what I had read (though it has admittedly been a while since I've read this), has suggested that snails don't survive long after you get past 83F.

Only with refractometers that do not automatically adjust themselves. Here's an example of one:



http://www.aquacave.com/vertex-salinity-br...h-atc-2560.html

anywho, I was feeling good about my situation last night, and the algae was really starting to proliferate, so I went to the LFS and picked up my CUC of about 12-14 tiny blue-legged hermits (which were selling for 1/3 of the cost of the scarlet-leg variety) and about 6 snails (4 trochus, 2 turbo). Also picked up a ball of chaeto to throw in my fuge. acclimated slowly and threw them all in last night -- everyone's still looking good this morning, and it looked like the crew had a busy night of chomping on algae.

i shortened my HQI photoperiod by about an hour to see if it would help with temperature control.

also, my skimmer just started producing skimmate last night out of nowhere! i was worried it wasn't working, but i guess it was still just breaking in. anyway, getting nice foamy bubbles in the neck of the collection cup now.



sweet. thanks for clearing that up!

went through my full battery of tests tonight to see whether the snails/hermits/algae made any difference in my parameters and to see how my dosing of Brightwell Reef Code A+B is going. Results as follows:

temp: 81.4 (been holding steady between 81 and 82 since introducing extra fan/cutting photoperiod for HQI).
salinity: 1.024 and holding
ammonia: undetectable/0
nitrite: undetectable/0
nitrate: undetectable/0
calcium: 375ppm (boo)
alkalinity: 8.0dkh
phosphate: 0/undetectable

so, i'm liking what i'm seeing. very curious as to what my Mg is at. tough to justify buying the test kit when my LFS will test it for free... especially when my "to buy" list is so lengthy!

I figure this is as good a time as any to write my "to buy" wish list out:
1. vortech mp10 or mp20 (probably the 20 so that it's upgradeable)
2. refractometer w/ automatic temperature adjustment
3. JBJ ATO controller
4. The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Bob Fenner
5. Reef Invertebrates: An Essential Guide to Selection, Care and Compatibility by Anthony Calfo and Bob Fenner
6. GFCI plug
7. upgraded pump (maybe a QuietOne or an OceanRunner2500) for heat/noise issues
8. RKL or something along those lines.
9. Mg test kit
10. chiller (we'll see how things go running at 81.5 -- i'm not going to get it much lower without a chiller, i fear).

anyone else have suggestions for things i should add to this list?? or should i worry more about allocating money to my livestock?

How about an RO/DI filter? That's on my want-to-buy list. Also, I heard good things about the Rio pumps for the return line. Apparently they run a lot cooler and your tank temps will drop by a few degrees. There is a guy on RC who is using the Rio.

A little tip with the GFCI. If you have any ceiling fans that could share the same circuit they may not work with the GFCI plug. A GFCI will also make other outlets downstream protected in a branch circuit, so if you have another GFCI in your house you may want to test it first to see if your outlet is already protected. Keep your receipt just in case. I tried wiring one up and it killed power to several of the outlets around the house because something was incompatible with it.

what about those GFCI outlets that just plug into normal outlets (e.g. here)? wouldn't that bypass that potential issue?

I installed one in my living room. I had no problem. BTW, you can install it in such a way that it does not protect the other outlets down the chain. I am referring to an actual GFCI outlet btw.

So, my skimmer was doing a lovely job pulling skimmate from my water -- until like 3 days ago, where the bubbles just sort of receded down the center tube in the collection cup about half way. This bears monitoring, as I still haven't collected much (if any) skimmate, despite the abundance of algae and life in the tank.

sidenote: wife bought me the Conscientious Marine Aquarist book for our anniversary yesterday -- she's my hero!


MUCH AFTER THE FACT EDIT: first signs that the skimmer motor was malfunctioning. Thanks to Eddie at Cadlights for supplying me with the newer model replacement motor!

+1 peppermint shrimp from the LFS last night. she's a tiny little guy! hopefully her appetite for aiptasia is large (i've only seen 1 or 2 -- but i figured now was a good time to start working on it).

also, did some re-aquascaping/cleaning in there last night. i'll post some pictures later today.

Your wife rocks! I am going to appease my wife by buyin her fish first. One of those bi-color pseudo-chromies.

current FTS, as of this morning :


some colorful LR pics (check out the turquoise coralline!) :










AAAAND... what i fear is bryopsis :

new pics, kids:

found freaky red/black striped worm -- any ID on this guy?


this blue-legged hermit crab lost his shell. i just have no idea what he did with it. i guess neither does he.


snail, doin' his job.


julia the peppermint shrimp making her first appearance.


interesting perspective shot, shows my bryopsis(?). i will say, the bryopsis situation has been improving dramatically.




Other than that, tank is looking good, and i'm starting to get little bits of coralline in new places. hurrah!

algae update: in what i hope is good news, most of the bryopsis appears to be "cycle bryopsis" and has been gradually disappearing. now, only a few strands are left on one or two rocks.

i have an interesting issue that's come up: yesterday, i was turkey-baster-blasting some of my LR to blow some settled detritus off of the rocks. this usually results in some tank cloudiness, fine, no problem. however, after the cloudiness settled, i noticed i have what looks like hundreds if not thousands of tiny tiny pods hanging out on my glass!

"well, that's good/neat," i thought, and went on my merry way, assuming that they would eventually retreat back down the glass and into the sand.

however, i come back about 24 hours later, and what do i see? pretty much the same number of little guys hanging out on the glass still. "WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING THERE?!" i say.

i obviously want these guys off my glass and back in my sand, but how do i do that without killing them? will they just make it back there themselves, eventually? they are doing a bad job of that so far. i was thinking of just trying to gently push them down the glass toward the sand with an algae scraper blade or something, but i don't want to disturb them/kill them if they will naturally retreat down there.

ideas?

Thats defintely not true i kept my tank in the 89 range(I was treating a small case of ich) The snails and hermits were fine.




Its a bristleworm




Just let them be They will move around at their leisure. Unless you really dont want them hanging on you glass at all. In that case pick up a 6 line wrasee.

+1 when you get fish they will eat the pods....maybe you should throw in a mandarin goby

+5 TANGS (so they can school)

well, i kind of thought bristleworm, too -- but it doesn't seem to have the "bristles" that I've seen on other bristleworms. it really seemed more cylindrical. it was definitely segmented.

maybe some bristleworms are more bristley than others?

I threw in 8 tangs yesterday! I hear they do great in the middle of cycles!

took a few measurements last night...

specific gravity = 1.024
nitrate = 0/undetectable
calcium = 375ppm
alkalinity = 8.5dKh

being concerned about the fact that i've been unable to get my calcium level up into the 420-450 range that i'm looking for (despite some heavy/daily dosing of Brightwell Reef Code A and the fact that my calcium consumption in the tank should still be pretty low with no corals/limited inverts!), i decided that i should re-read the bottle on the Reef Code A to see what was going on.

Turns out, you have to shake this bottle up (also turns out, "reading is fundamental"). So, after some vigorous shaking, i dosed. the liquid was now CLOUDY WHITE (instead of relatively clear, as it had been). Uh, I guess I should've been doing this the whole time. now i guess i've got super concentrated Reef Code A. Oh well, at least I know now.

This morning, I started the multistage migration from my 8g biocube (now very neglected since i've been spending all my time with the Cad). I grabbed 3 snails and a red-legged hermit crab, acclimated, rinsed them in a cup of new-tank-water (trying to avoid as much "cross-contamination" as possible between the old tank and the new tank), and threw 'em in. 2 of the snails and the hermit is fine, but i'm watching the other snail in the fuge (he wasn't doing well to begin with, so i'm hoping moving him over to the new tank will help).

i'm going to once again say how awesome the LR I got from Reef Chief in Virginia Beach is. Not that I've been to LFSs all over the world, but I have been to my fair share -- these rocks have some of the most interesting/colorful coralline algae i've seen. the turquoise/blues/reds/oranges/purples are crazy to see, and i'm just really enjoying them.

Tested my Mg -- 1250ppm

Anyway, fellow Cad Pro owners out there -- i have two possibly-related problems:
1) microbubbles
2) inconsistent skimmer production

first, how is everyone dealing with microbubbles? I'm having serious issues with them. I've tried several different approaches, and none of them seem very effective. I worked on this for about an hour last night, but nothing I changed/did differently seemed to make much of a difference.

I am suspicious that MOST of the bubbles seem to be coming from my drain pipe (which has been cut to a length that is perhaps too short?), not from the skimmer. I can always attach a little PVC extension to the hose to help lengthen it, i guess.

as can be seen in prior pictures of the "drain chamber," i started off with bioballs with pads. not great, not bad as far as microbubbles went. see old picture here:


i then switched to about 4" of LR rubble as a base, with 4 filtration pads on top of the rubble. This was functional, but it wasn't working that well. see old picture here:


so, i added about 4" more LR rubble (depth is now about 8"). This LR is fairly densely-packed (which could be a contributing problem?). On top of the LR, I have tried using 0, 1, 2, 3 and even 4 layers of pads (i'm using the ones that shipped with the tank from cad). Even running through 4 pads, the bubbles are pretty consistently making it through both the LR and both sets of baffles, and thus into the return pump and back into the tank. [will add picture of current setup this afternoon]

in addition to that, even when i get it to a level of water/bubbles that I consider an "ok stopping point until i come back and work on it tomorrow," the water level in the drain chamber gradually rises (over the course of hours, not minutes -- to the point where it ends up overflowing into the skimmer chamber, resulting in the skimmer's drain pipe being submerged.

something i've noticed is that the drain hose coming from the tank seems to end up with water "splashing" back up inside of it instead of draining straight out of it. would it maybe make sense to take out some of the LR rubble from the drain chamber (can anyone think of a problem with moving it into the return pump chamber?), extend the hose with some PVC, and see if that helps?

on to the skimmer: the water level in the drain chamber has been consistently higher than the level in every other chamber of the sump. this made me concerned that maybe the water level in the skimmer chamber was preventing bubbles from getting "up and over" into the collection cup, which has been an ongoing issue. Sometimes the bubbles in the skimmer will reach the top of the cup, sometimes they barely get into the cup at all -- i am losing about 2L of water per day now, topping off at about 10pm every night -- but, despite my religious top-off efforts, I am wondering if the variation in the water level may have something to do with the inconsistent production. the other thing is, i've never had a skimmer before, so i'm not sure what is "normal" -- i was definitely expecting more consistent production than i've gotten, though.

my tank has been running for several weeks, skimmer running 24/7 with the valve wide open, and i've yet to collect any substantial skimmate. in fact, the only time i've collected much of anything at all was when i added the extra 2" of LR to my drain chamber. and, even then, i only got a bout 1/4" to 1/2" of skimmate in the cup.

MUCH AFTER THE FACT EDIT: again, this turns out to just be a result of the skimmer pump motor going bad.

Tim,
Yes...the CADLights sump is a challenge. If I had it to do all over again, I would have tried to get someone to sell me the tank without the sump and I would have built my own sump.

This is a cut and paste from some comments I made on another forum:
"IMO the sump should have been built to fill the entire footprint of the stand base. It is pretty close to doing that side-to-side, but it could have been built a little deeper to add more interior volume. I would have designed the split 1st chamber differently as well to ensure that the water level in the skimmer chamber is always consistent. Also, it would have been nice to have a 3rd baffle between the fuge and pump chambers to help make it a more effective bubble trap."

What has worked for me so far is to run the drain into a 4" filter sock. The sock has done a nice job controlling bubbles, but they need to be cleaned frequently. For you, the more you restrict the water flow in the drain chamber, the more it will have the potential to overflow into the skimmer chamber and the more inconsistant your skimmer production will be.

i guess we could always silicone a 3rd piece of acrylic in there to create that baffle? i actually messed around a little bit last night with an old "framed" filter pad with carbon in it (kind of looks like a big cartridge for a cheap freshwater power filter), using it where that 3rd baffle would go between the fuge and the return pump. i didn't really have a good way of keeping it in place, but i wonder if that wouldn't be something worth investigating further.....



i've posted a similar question on that awesome cad pro setup thread on reefcentral (see: here). they are recommending filter socks there, too. i'm not exactly sure what a "filter sock" is, though -- is that just any kind of filter bag like you'd put carbon or purigen in? how do you fasten it to the end of the drain hose?

also, my tank is officially 1 month old today -- i think i'm going to celebrate by picking up a lawnmower blenny tonight.

I have found that to eliminate the bubbles you need to slow the flow through the sump. The only way I have done this so far is by packing down floss under the baffle from the drain chamber to the fuge. This forces the water to go through the skimmer chamber into the fuge and has slowed the flow. I now have no micro bubbles. However, by doing this, I now have the same skimmer inconsisntency that you have mentioned. It's either not getting into the cup, or it's overflowing the cup. Especially when changing out floss. I have never owned a skimmer either, so I don't know if it's the skimmer, the system, me or any combination of these that need to change in order for the skimmer to be useful.

Don't mean to hijack your thread, but what are you running in your drain chamber mkregs?

Thanks.

i think if you cut a longer piece for the drain pipe (1-2" from top) and stick an air tube into the vent hole then that should dramatically cut down the air being made by the water fall in the box. then either use a filter sock or bury the tube into some filter media. i had a sump with my 150G in the past and i found that most micro-bubbles come from the plumbing set up rather than mostly from the equipment. i have the same CAD skimmer that you have on the Pro and at the speed it runs, it should generate that much.

hope it helped.

The only thing in my drain chamber is a filter sock.

Tim,
The filter sock should be left empty. They are great detritus collectors and cut down on your microbubbles nearly entirely. Your drain tube is simply placed inside the filter sock.

Lawnmower blenny added, trouble-free so far. Turned the lights off so he can relax. hoping not to find him on the ground tomorrow morning (or worse, in one of my cats'/dog's mouths).

this open-top business makes me nervous.

i think i'm going to have to do something about this. i might be having a conversation with eddie at cadlights about whether they have an extra glass lid i could buy from him (or that i could just have, seeing as how i actually thought when i ordered the tank that it was supposed to come with a lid (and in fact i thought it was advertised as coming with a lid, but anyway).. oh well. still love the tank, despite all this. i wonder if it's that i love this tank, or that i love having a tank that's not an 8g biocube. thoughts?).



awbowden, thanks for the reply. i did try that at one point, but i am too concerned about the filter media clogging and causing an overflow. bubbles > puddles. i'm going to try some stuff tomorrow (ran out of time tonight after purchasing the blenny and acclimating him). i'll let everyone know if i have any luck. thanks to everyone else for their suggestions as well!

My suggestion to get rid of your microbubble problem is the following: Move your drainage hose to the laft side of the chamber and your skimmer drain to the right side of the chamber. Try this and let me know if there is a difference. This is the way I hav mine setup and I have 0 microbubble problems and only an inch difference in water level.

So, something I've been thinking about along with all this other stuff is "how to quiet this tank down." It is in my bedroom, and I'm afraid that it is affecting my wife's and my ability to sleep soundly through the night. The light fans don't bother me too much, just because we're not trying to sleep with the lights on. However, that waterfall can get loud, and the return pump makes a good amount of noise. and, the inlet from the drain pipe will also potentially be making more noise than it is now once i get this microbubble issue solved (here's hoping...).

i'm going to get a vortech mp20, more than likely (at least an mp10) within the next couple of months. with that in mind, it seems like i wouldn't need to be as concerned about keeping up high flow in the tank. so, my thought was to replace the return pump with something quieter (which would be just about anything, I think) -- and maybe with something with a lower flow rate?

My thought process is this:
1) lower flow rate = not a big deal because i will have for the vortech compensating for this.
2) lower flow will make the waterfall quieter
3) lower flow will slow the water running through my sump, thereby preventing as much "backup" in the drain inlet chamber, and allowing more "contact time" with the skimmer and fuge (and therefore, with the DSB and chaeto). sidenote: laminar flow concept is bumming me out and has me wondering how useful my DSB is in it's present state. my nitrates have never read above 0, but i've also had a pretty low bioload. oh well -- no reason to worry about something that's not a problem, right?
4) lower flow pump = more time for bubbles to pop before getting sucked straight through the sump
5) lower flow pump = less expensive up front, less heat transfer, less energy consumption.

does this make sense? i'm such a newb.

I totally understand where your coming from as my tank is in my bedroom as well. That sounds like a good plan you should invest in an eheim pump they are extremely quiet,use less power and alot less heat transfer to the water. All of the reasons you listed make perfect sense...Go for it.

hurray for sound reasoning!

assuming i've got a vortech mp10 or 20 in place, how much flow do i really need? 300, 400gph? i've heard good things about the eheim re: heat, noise, reliability. maybe the eheim 1250 (320gph, max head of 6.5ft)? next step up is the 1260 (634gph, max head of 12.1ft). you definitely have to shell out for it, though (and i'd probably have to shell out for a heater once the stock pump isn't cooking my water, too!). any cheaper options that people like?

In all honesty if your goal is for lower flow and longer contact with the fuge area as well as less microbubbles. Then a smaller pump will make alot more sense. Going with a 1250 would be fine IMO

Tim,
I was looking at your pictures and it seems part of the bubble problem is the fact that your drainage hose shoots the water straight through the sump due to it's placement. Try reversing the placement of the skimmer and tank drainage hoses. As far as flow, it depends on what you plan to put in your tank. I have a k3 and k4 in my tank and I think it is just the right amount of flow since I want to get SPS.


I've heard good things about the Rio pumps too. One of the guys on RC always talks about it.

Edit: After closer inspection it looks like some microbubbles were getting through into the display tank. Here's what I did. I adjusted the skimmer drain so that it was positioned all the way to the left of the chamber and I have the tank drainage to the left of that in between the skimmer drainage and the wall of the sump.

Here's why this works to alleviate microbubbles:

When the drains are positioned more to the right of the chamber it causes a faster flow of water through the baffles which take many more bubbles along with it. By adjusting the drains in this way it allows most of the bubbles to surface to the top of the chamber and appropriate time to dissipate. The remainder of the bubbles seems to dissipate was they work their way through the sump.

What I noticed after this adjustment is that the water level in the drainage chamber went much higher due to more bubbled water remaining in that chamber. The water bubbles to the top creating a higher water level.

added 2 banggai cardinals tonight.

i owe some pics - they're forthcoming. [edit: eventually... ].

my tank has, in a matter of maybe 4 days, been completely overtaken by a plague of scypha sponges. to all those who think these are "cool hitchhikers," i'd like to just say that they look like fungus and are pretty annoying.

also, i can't seem to get my calcium higher than 375-400ppm. i've been dosing the crap out of Brightwell Reef Code A and Reef Code B, but my water just doesn't seem to hold calcium. my Mg is 1250 as of last week, and my alk is 8.5dkh as of 3-4 days ago. i'm getting some coralline growth, but i also feel like i'm losing coralline in other places (tonight, i couldn't find any of my orange/teal coralline that i love so much - it's like it just disappeared overnight). that being said, i'm getting a fair amount of coralline on my glass/loclines/some other rocks. so, on one hand, good that i'm getting the growth -- on the other hand, kind of annoying that i can't keep calcium up and i've somehow lost my favorite coralline. oh well, i guess i'll just keep working at it. is there a chance that my system really is just blowing through that calcium, even though i don't have any of the big "calcium consumers" in there? heh, i wonder how much calcium those friggin sponges are taking. probably a lot.

in other news, my new cardinals aren't even eating mysis shrimp (frozen). i guess it's only day 2, but they aren't big guys to begin with. oh well, again, i'll just keep working at it.

You may want to try another testing kit just to be sure those readings are accurate. I wouldnt worry about the coralline its very rare to keep any of the other cool colors. 95% of the time purple will always outcompete the other colors. Id give the cardinals more time to acclimate and try other types of food as well(brine shrimp,blood worms,cyclop etc..)

well, i wanted to be sure myself, because i've just got cheap API/RedSea test kits, which are pretty much just the cheapest ones you can buy. but, i had taken a water sample to my LFS to have them test it (they use Elos and Seachem test kits, which are, if nothing else, more expensive!) - they said everything looked good (confirmed that my nitrates were at zero, etc.), but i didn't get an exact number from them on my calcium. They did say my salinity was high (1.027, versus my crappy hydrometer's reading of 1.024. boo.), but i've taken steps to remedy that.

the issue that's concerning me is not that the purple is out-competing the orange/teal -- it's that a lot (if not all of) the orange/teal seems to have just disappeared, and there's no purple in it's place. i think i've lost a lot of color off the rock in the front of my tank, for instance. on the other hand, though, i've got several spots of purple coralline that have started to bloom elsewhere (glass, loclines, on other rocks).

i wonder if it's that the purple is out-competing the teal/orange by stealing all the calcium for itself, thus starving out (as opposed to overgrowing) the other colors? maybe that's what everyone means when they say purple out-competing other colors, and i'm just now figuring that out..?

more complaints:

1) the hinges on the cabinet doors are already covered in rust. i mean, come on cadlights -- the 39 pro is obviously for salt water use -- how are you gonna use metal that rusts on the inside of a sump cabinet?? weak.

2) while working on my tank recently, i've noticed that all of the water will randomly drain out of my skimmer, like it's being flushed. the pump's not running dry -- it's almost like it skips off for a second, then comes back on, and fills with water again. is this supposed to happen??? If it is, what purpose would that even serve??

3) i'm not 100% sure that this is the tank equipment's fault (though i have no reason to think otherwise, because i'm only using the stock equipment, no other additional parts -- not even a heater), but since i installed one of those portable "shock buster" GFCI outlets (like they sell on DFS) for this tank on Sunday, it has tripped 4 times, including three times between the hours of 2:00AM-2:30AM (once last night, twice the night before). nothing is turning on/off at that time that would trip it (like i've read other people have experienced when using GFCIs). i don't even leave my moonlights on all night. so, what, is it a random voltage leak? i've read some bad things about my power strip (coralife power center dual-timer strip) causing fires, etc. i guess that could be it. but, i never had any trouble with it on my 8g biocube (.. or did i? my biocube's light fixture did seem to blow all at once... hmm.).

in any event, it is VERY UPSETTING to be awoken by the sound of fast-draining water in your bedroom in the middle of the night, and having to get up and press the reset button on the GFCI outlet (though, it's not neeeeearly as upsetting as having to do it twice ). the upside, i guess, is that neither of these things are as upsetting as having my house burn down or getting electrocuted, which, i dunno, would i have been? something's causing it to trip....... i wonder if getting one of those ground probes would help prevent this trip by eliminating stray voltage. any thoughts (i'm assuming you can combine ground probes with GFCI)?

Rusty stand hinges....I have them too. We probably should have sprayed some clearcoat on them before setting up the tanks....oh well.

About your skimmer issue....you might want to read on the cadlights.com forum. There is someone on there that has had problems with 2 skimmer pumps so far.