Pics...You asked for them ...

well said! I only have a four foot tank with 2 inches of sand (not live but hopefully seeded with the 15 kg of live rock i have to date) filtered only with a fluidised filter and four powerheads with sponges. fish wise i have a maroon clown, five green chromis, a humbug damsel, a sand blenny. Invert wise i have a rather large leather coral, green mushrooms, brown mushrooms, xenia, a large hermit, a small starfish (with seven "legs&quot about 10 snails (nassarius?) and finally an atlantic anemone. now all my water parameters are fine with ammonia and nitrite at nil, nitrate varies upto 2.5 ppm ph at 8.2, high alkalinity and calcium at 400 ppm. the system has been running for six months (upgraded from smaller system which was running for three years) and all the time i have not used a protein skimmer (i have tried with cheap models but to no avail (except an amiricle PS2 which was quite pricey!)). I change 10% of water every two weeks or even once a month and have had no fatalities to date! touch wood! and my clown even loves her home in the anemone that is far too small for her (which i was told that simply would not happen!!) So what i am getting at is each to his/her own! i come here for help to make sure i do things better!

To which i have now added a sump, a tunze skimmer ( and if that does not work then sod it i wont bother!), upgrading the lighting to a 250 watt, 50,000 kelvin bulb ( from one triton and one blue moon) and have added a moon light, all from SUGGESTIONS on these pages.

I need help and always will, but dont want to be slated for my shortcomings!

The marine industry is still very new in south wales, and as such is very expensive! so advice on how to do things right first time is always appreciated. The dIY section is particualy helpfull (so a big thanks to all the contributers), and i cant stand the know it all derogatory people i have found on other forums, so i have decided to call this home!

Yours,

Geologeek. ( i am an engineering geologist by the way!)

 

" So what i am getting at is each to his/her own! i come here for help to make sure i do things better!"

Couldn't have expressed it better myself

John

 

adding some things here...from the start of this thread, there was a mention of needing at least 2 PH or else, disaster (or something like that). i've been using just a single PH (1500l/hr) and it converges on the returns from the return pipe. i get good circulation and my tank is doing reasonably well.
i'm keeping on LPS, mushrooms and zoanthinds and they don't require really strong current.
adding another PH may do wonders to my tank but it will also provide additional heat. I'm in the tropics so that will be a real problem to me. and i do not intend to get a chiller (at least not now...never say never).
moral of the story...there's no right or wrong. every tank is its own. but then again, some general rules apply.