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Mark Callahan July 18, 2011 at 9:34 pm: Robbie..they look nice, but I’m spending my money elsewhere where I think it will make more of an impact on my tank.
Wes July 18, 2011 at 11:37 pm: Mark, have you heard of any updates on the new Hydor wave controller that you demo’d in your video from the convention you went to? They were due out in June, but I’ve heard they were waiting on UL approval. Thanks for any additional info.
Mark Callahan July 19, 2011 at 11:13 am: That is correct Wes. They should be out in August along with my review of them.
Wes July 19, 2011 at 11:58 pm: Thanks Mark. Look forward to the update. I REALLY like the price point they are advertising.
Tim July 20, 2011 at 7:14 am: Dear Mark,

I have bigggg problem with my saltwater tank(4*2*2* foot tank) and the nitrate getting higher to 40 now and i already had 2 coral dead.im really worry it will be more.

I have only 4 fish. I have do change water,and also use purigen and put more matrix.
I need your help

Hope to hear from you soon

Thanks
Tim
Wes July 20, 2011 at 2:24 pm: Are you running a skimmer? If not, you should. Also, if you are try a product called AZ-NO3. I had consistantly high nitrates (10ppm)–used the product as directed and it actually worked. My nitrates are undetectable.
Larry July 21, 2011 at 10:15 pm: Hi mark question I,m going from a 40 breader to a 100 gallon tank I currently have 60lb of live rock in my tank the tank has been running for little over a year . Im adding 65lbs of dry base rock and new dry reef sand am I going 2 go thur another cycle ? i have a lot of nice corals and fish I ve had for a while any info u can give would be helpfull thanks mark and keep up the great job love your sitr and all your tips thanks Larry
Chris July 25, 2011 at 7:08 am: Mark,

I saw there is a members tag at the top of your web page. How do you join?
ruben July 28, 2011 at 3:34 pm: Hey mark, i was wondering is their a disposable reef safe gloves that you know of? if not could you do me a favor and ask your friend at boston aqua farms what are the blue gloves he had on when he was showing as how to frag lps
Ben July 28, 2011 at 8:39 pm: Hi Mark, I have noticed you use what looks like a two part GFO/Carbon reactor system. Have you always used this or did you add it when your tank was well established? I have a 120g with a 30g sump that is about 8 mos. or so old. I had a cyanobacteria outbreak due to overfeeding a new picky eating Naso Tang, and in any event I purchased a GFO and Carbon reactor frof BRS. The bacteria cleared up in less than three weeks, however I noticed my coralline algae start to fade away. My Ca and Mag was up to par and I read that GFO and Carbon can starve your tank of nutrients. What is your take on this subject? I have since turned the reactors off and am starting to see a good regrowth of coralline algae.

Thank you in advance!
Mark Callahan July 28, 2011 at 9:34 pm: Jonathan…I sent you an email regarding the videos. Please reply to the email and I’ll get you taken care of.
Mark Callahan July 28, 2011 at 9:38 pm: Ben…interesting observation about the coraline. I’ve never heard of a correlation between GFO/Carbon and coraline as my tank has had GFO/carbon since nearly day 1 and my coraline growth is insane…borderline annoying. Furthermore, my parameters are always 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates yet my coraline grows fine.
Ryan July 29, 2011 at 3:27 am: Mark, did you have a controller for your tunze nano pumps before you switched or did they just run all the time?
Mark Callahan July 29, 2011 at 9:50 am: ryan…my apex turned the nano streams on/off and that’s all. The nano streams aren’t controllable in that you can’t speed them up/down. They can only turn on/off
Ethan July 29, 2011 at 1:05 pm: I have a nuisance algae problem in my tank and I did the three days of darkness and it went away but two days later was back and started spreading quickly hope you have any advice, oh and thumbs up on the great videos.

-Ethan
louis July 29, 2011 at 2:08 pm: mark
i have a 80 gallon tank and want to set it up as a reef tank , it is big enough , but there is a wine rack right in the middle of the cabient and can’t fit a big enough sump to get the best filtration (What do i do?)
John Sanchez July 30, 2011 at 12:27 am: Hello. I recently upgraded from a 40 to a 90 gallon tank. The upgrade is about 6 weeks old. I’m now starting to have a progressive brown slime algae outbreak. This stuff kind of just leave long strands of brown slime with like little air bubbles. I’m upgrading to a larger skimmer one that is twice my tank volume as I currently have a vertex 80 on the 90 gallon. I know…that’s probably my problem. But now I’m worried that it’s going to get out of control before I have a chance to reverse it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Happy reefing!

-John
Perry July 30, 2011 at 1:23 pm: Mark, when you did your test of DrTims did you run a protein skimmer during the time of the mini cycle?
mjsteph July 30, 2011 at 2:47 pm: Mark, I am setting up a 90 Gal marine tank and i am slightly confused over what Powerheads to get. I have read that you need your powerheads to have a turnover of water per hour of x10. I know you have 2 Echotech mp40s which have a flow of 1000 – 3200 gph each. Would these be too much for my tank and should I therefore get two MP10s?
Brandon August 1, 2011 at 9:19 am: In the video overview of your tank, you mention that you are dosing Calcium and Magnesium and show a quick glimpse of some dosing pumps. Could you elaborate on what your dosing, brands and what equipment you are using? Thanks!
Mark Callahan August 1, 2011 at 11:07 am: Perry..I did run a skimmer during the time of the cycle but later learned Dr. Tim doesn’t recommend it.
Chris August 1, 2011 at 4:16 pm: i am considering purchasing one of these anemones from a LFS as they have a new bunch of these for a small price of £10 or $20, can i ask as this is the first anemone i have looked at, do u have any experience with this kind? will it host my two pecula clowns, and wat precautions should i take with this specimen?
Chris August 1, 2011 at 4:48 pm: sorry the anemone im thinking of purchasing is a purple tip anemone
Drieberg August 3, 2011 at 11:09 am: Hi Mark, I just watched your cruise control video and I am wondering how you setup the dosing pumps to the controller. How does the controller control the pumps?
Logan August 4, 2011 at 4:49 pm: Hey mark,
I love your setup i was thinking of upgrading to a 90 gallon as well and i was wonder were did you get your Canopy and Stand. Were did you get your light fixture.
thanks
Mark Callahan August 4, 2011 at 9:02 pm: The light fixture was bought from a reefkeeping friend of mine and the stand/canopy were custom builds.
Chris August 5, 2011 at 2:18 am: Hey mark,

You should do a show on carbon dosing / low nutreint systems and how to keep one:)
dylan August 6, 2011 at 1:11 am: Mark could you do a show on bio-pellet reactors verses GFO reactors? I’M thinking of switching and would love to hear what you think of it.

……..When are you going to do another tank update? I love to look at your tank.
dylan August 6, 2011 at 1:50 am: I mean refuge vs bio-pellet reactor.
Mike August 6, 2011 at 6:45 pm: Mark,
I’m having a lot of problems lowering my nitrates. I’m only feeding every other day, cleaning the food before feeding, only feeding enough for about a minutes of eating. I do 10% water changes weekly. I was using LFS water, but now make my own. I have a 34 gal tank. All other params are perfect. What ideas can you give me.

Thanks

Mike
Brandon August 6, 2011 at 8:28 pm: Can you do a video review on a plankton reactor? I’d like to know more about these things and the pros and cons to having one and if it’s worth the $$$
Mark Callahan August 7, 2011 at 8:45 am: Brandon…unless you were wanting to feed non-photosynthetic corals, I’d leave the plankton reactor out. Running one will just add more energy to your tank which can help grow algae you don’t want.
Jin Ivasawa August 8, 2011 at 4:46 am: How can i Seed a dead rock to become a live rock ??? how long will it take and do i need to add additives like Purple up ??
Mark Callahan August 8, 2011 at 7:43 am: Jin…I use this stuffto seed dead rock. It works great. I even did a show on it

It will only take a couple of days to become live.

Don’t worry about using Purple Up, that won’t turn it alive and won’t do much for coraline algae growth.
Corey August 8, 2011 at 1:54 pm: Hey Mark, I am going to buy another skimmer for my 75g bare bottom tank. I currently have a Reef Octopus NWB-150, but it just hasn’t been doing it for me. Can you suggest a skimmer for my tank? 75g BB 29g sump. Thanks!
Asif August 10, 2011 at 5:29 am: Tell one thing

De Nitirate reactor are must to install or chiller are must
Mark Callahan August 10, 2011 at 7:23 am: Asif…both are optional.
Dylan August 10, 2011 at 9:45 pm: If you need to lower nitares us a refuge not a denitrate reacter.
Ace August 10, 2011 at 11:54 pm: Mark!!! I have a question for u buddy. Do you have a hospital/ quarantine tank? Do you ever use it? to acclimate fish to your tank, or do u use it when your fish are sick? Maybe make a video on that.
Jason August 11, 2011 at 1:28 am: I have a marineland 90 gallon with coner flow, and would like to know how many gallons I need to allow for in my sump when the power goes out. This tank is not set up yet. Still in the planning stages.
Cory Johnson August 11, 2011 at 6:39 pm: Hey Mark, Cory here from Oakland, CA. Love the site and the knowledge you share. Here’s the deal, I bought a mature, cycled for several years 38 gallon tank with two 3-4 inch damsels (I know no damsels! But they’re gone now.) There is a very deep maybe 4inch high substrate made of crushed coral bed and around the base through the glass there is a lot of unsightly brown gunk growing in the front and sides of tank. Now my question is can I dig out underneath the substrate and clean this off the glass without causing a nitrate spike and harming my fish. Currently have a coral beauty, brittle star, and a host of crab and snails. Already lost a algae blenny after several hours of having home from LFS and I don’t want to continue this trend. My other question is can I eventually switch to sand substrate without having to remove and re-cycle my tank. Any advice from a professional like yourself would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for listening…
DALE August 12, 2011 at 12:09 am: Hi Mark! I love watching your videos. They have helped me through the bad times and saved my tank. I have started my reef enthuslast tank about a year ago! I also love the diff growth patterns of sps corals, and plan on haveing many! All my sps corals have been doing great! Not as good as yours, but getting close over time! The only diff as lighting, I went with all LED’s like the sexy tank! Have about a total of 6,000 Lums over my 75Gal tank. I went with the 36″ and 48″ Marineland Reef Lights. Not the best over all, but all my sps corals have been thriving sence I took one home seven months ago, same with my rose bulb anemone! I would now like to increase my water flow! I was woundering if I could get a quoat on two ecotech vortech mp10w es?
tommy August 13, 2011 at 3:17 am: Mr SaltWatertank

I saw you clip on LED lighting, just wondering how many SOL will I be needing on a tank that will be 60 in long, 24 in wide and 36 in high? I’m also making the tank a room divider so I will put the overflow on one side, so should I put a wavemaker on it?

Thank you

Tommy
Cory Johnson August 13, 2011 at 3:23 pm: Hey Mark, I was wondering if you had any experience with the bubble magus nac 5e HOB skimmer. I have had no luck setting it up and adjusting it. It just flows over and I get water everywhere! The instructions are horrible and there’s not much info online. Totally frustrating cause I just stocked my 38 gal aquarium with a coral beauty, hawkfish, blenny, flame angel, a brittle starfish and a host of crabs and snails and am desperate to get this skimmer started. Also when it runs is it normal for bubbles to fill my tank. It’s not very attractive. Please assist…
CJ
jason August 15, 2011 at 9:25 pm: Hi Mark, I watched your video on RO/DI units and have purchased one. I have a 55 gallon saltwater tank that is currently filled with conditioned tap water. I have no coral, one fish, 3 snails and 5 hermit crabs in this tank. What would be the best way for me to change the water over to RO/DI water? Should I change it all at once or should I do multiple half water changes? Thanks for your help!
Jason
nicco August 15, 2011 at 9:53 pm: how much dry rock do you recomened for a 55 gallon tank. I am starting with a fowlr set up then will slowly start to add corasl
Frank August 19, 2011 at 10:28 am: Are you still sending the Friday reports? I have not received one in three weeks.
Thanks
Frank
Matt August 25, 2011 at 4:10 pm: i like my new reef capable led lighting but it doesn’t get to the back of my aquarium. my tank is 2 ft wide and the lighting is good but i would like to add a second light. should i buy a second light or should i get a new led system
Hasan September 3, 2011 at 4:46 am: i have a problem with algae because every day i wake up the sides of my tank have algae spots around it my tank is 60 litres
Ken September 28, 2011 at 4:41 am: Mark,
As a nano reef enthusiast I am slowly converting my tank from a mostly softy tank to a sps/lps tank, and I was searching for information about bio-pellets and the new beta CPR nano and mini reactors. I really enjoy your shows and was surprised that there was no information about bio-pellets, as they are kinda the new “thing”.
Can bio-pellets be beneficial in a 25 gal. system (in my case), or in any system?
If so which bio-pellets do you recommend?
Also, in the process of converting to lps/sps I have reached a road block, most of my aquascape is almost fully engulfed with xenia and mushroom.
Do you recommend i just try selling the rock and get new rock or remove the main rock and remove the softies from the other rock?

My system includes:
20 gal. DT
10 gal. sump with refuge (with deep sand bed, LR and chalerpa)
Aquamaxx HOB skimmer
UV sterilizer that i run when I am introducing new things into my tank
about 20-30 lbs of LR
Coral:
zoas
mushroom
xenia
small maxima clam
lps
sps

Do you think i would benefit from bio-pellets in my particular system?

Thank you for putting together this amazing site!!! and thank you for your time!
Kenneth