Fighting nuisance algae is a losing battle. Vacuum it out, or blow it off with a baster then clean-out the filter sock. In general, we recommend that you DO NOT treat your tank with chemicals in an attempt to get rid of any kind of algae including cyano (technically, not an algae).
Algae — Don’t Fight It
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Skimming
Our overflows are gravity fed to the sump and end-up in a filter sock. We get some skimming action from the agitation of the water in the filter sock. We just wipe the suds away with a paper towel.
Our skimmer was shut down at the beginning of the KIS System evaluation period. The benefits of a skimmer are questionable and the problems numerous which include: cost of the skimmer, heat, noise, electricity use, and potential leaks to name a few.
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Minimal System One Year Update
It’s been about a year now,and the results of our “Minimal System” approach will be published soon. We think you will find the observations and conclusions surprising in light of the traditional thinking and industry recommendations.
More importantly, we hope you will find this approach less stressful on you, the reefkeeper, and much easier to maintain.
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LED Lighting
A victim of its own success.
With new product advances almost daily, many are unwilling to commit for fear that something better is just around the corner.
They could be saving money now!
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Aiptasia Eating Filefish Update
The verdict is in. The aiptasia is gone!
How and when we don’t know. Never actually saw him (her?) touch it.
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Aiptasia Eating Filefish (Acreichthys tomentosus)
Just added a Filefish to our 180 display tank to test aiptasia control. Reports to follow.
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Blue Fin Damsel
Don’t overlook this great fish.
Personality, beautiful, inexpensive, movement, hardy, collegial …..
What more could you ask?
Despite the bad rap damsels get, we keep this fish in the 1 to 2″ range. They have NEVER bothered another fish or been bothered by another fish.
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Size of a PAR LED Bulb
The two numbers immediately following the PAR designation are a measurement of the bulbs diameter in eighths of an inch. For example, a PAR38 bulb will have a diameter of 4.75 inches (38/8 = 4.75). Here are some common PAR bulbs and their diameters:
PAR16 LED Bulb: 2″
PAR20 LED Bulb: 2.5″
PAR30 LED Bulb: 3.75″
PAR38 LED Bulb: 4.75″
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Zoas and Salinity
In one of our mixed reef tanks, everything does fairly well. All fish and corals are thriving and growing — except Zoanthids. They just pretty much stay closed-up.
This tank ordinarily has salinity of 1.026 to 1.027 and sometimes creeps up to 1.028. No auto top-off running. The other day, topped-of manually as usual and inadvertently dropped salinity to 1.025.
You guessed it. Now Zoas are all mostly open! 
The only change was salinity.
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LEDs – Near Term Trends
We expect price declines for a number of reasons including improvement in production methods and materials. New techniques will make LED manufacturing compatible with existing automated semi-conductor lines, and new production processes could mean no more binning.
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