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Old techniques often work. However, there are MANY new ones that work just as well, as if not better. It all comes back to the fact there's more than one way to keep fish, and as long as your fish are happy and healthy, there's no problem with you keeping them the way you see fit. Hate to...

A test kit would really help - it could just be that your Nitrogen Cycle is strong, and you just have an abundance of nitrates with a weak enough light to cause algae not to grow. Not sure if it's painted on or not, but the decorations and the gravel both seem to have algae on them, and that's...

Jesterrace made some good points. Firefish are dartfish - they dart around when frightened. He could have jump and hit the lid, or simply ran into a wall or a rock and died from that. Do you have other fish? At this point, that's kinda the important part. If there's nothing abnormal, just...

Well, I do have to say that I've found most of the "-fix" products to be irrelevant at best. Most of the chemicals people add to their tanks serve little purpose, other than making the company money, IMO. As far as salt... that's a whole 'nother discussion. IMO, it's usually overused. But...

Not gonna lie, the algae eater thing is one of my biggest pet peeves on forums. Fish do NOT clean your tank - that's YOUR job! People buy plecos without realizing that they can't survive and grow properly off of just the algae on your glass. They need a specialized diet - some are wood-eaters...

A lot of aquariums can be run filterless - it just has to be set up and stocked in an appropriate fashion. It depends on the freshwater tank. I'm going off the assumption that someone who wants to get into saltwater is prepared for the cost, and has in-depth experience with freshwater tanks...

To add a few more: Short-bodied fish - this kinda goes with your balloon comment above. Any fish that's bred to be short-bodied (whether for aesthetic reasons or due to bad genetics) will live a shortened life, and will often die a seemingly painful death. Their organs simply grow too large for...

Perhaps more than any hobby I know of, the aquarium hobby has a ton of misconceptions that endanger the life we keep. What are some of the misconceptions that you've encountered over the years? Seeing as I've currently got two tanks, a betta and a reef, here are my two contributions. Keeping...

Welcome to the salty side! Respectfully, all those fish are going to be overstocked. Since it's your first tank, I'd recommend no more than 3 of the fish you listed - preferably 2. If it were me, I'd get a firefish first, and then get another fish after a month or two of the tank being set up...

Goldfish produce an incredible amount of waste - at 4", you're fine. But once they get up to 6" or 8" or 10", you're gonna have problems in a 55. When you end up with ammonia in your tap water, your best bet is to either use an RO filter, or to do smaller water changes throughout the week. An...

Welcome! Can't wait to see all of your tanks up and running!

Nice vase! If it were me, I'd just throw in a small piece of cucumber or iceberg lettuce every week or two. Leave it in there overnight, and take it out the next morning. Remove some if you think you've gotten too many, and find something to do with them - kill them, set up another vase, take...

Nerites won't breed. They also come in a variety of different colors and patterns. My favorite are ramshorns, for sure - people consider them pests, but they only breed to where they can support their own population. So, you can start out with 2, and end up with 15-20 - or, 2. If they're...

I wouldn't recommend mixing local mud and such with fish bought from a store - I can see there being a ton of parasites and disease in that mud that the fish may not be accustomed to. Either bake the mud, or substitute with some Miracle Gro - I've done the latter, and have had great growth out...

It probably wouldn't be a huge deal, but it COULD simply be another stress factor. Considering it'd be cleared by in the morning, I'd just wait until tomorrow - or even later tonight, as long as it's cleared by then.

Little guy was looking pretty nice last night (compared to what he's been like). He's still attached in that same spot as of this morning.

I'd say your kit is probably messed up - if you had 5 ppm ammonia, your clowns would be dead/close to death by now, nevermind your nem. Did you test your SG? The temperature swings aren't great for the tank, and especially not for the nem - but I'm not sure it would have killed the anemone...

Alright - for the PAR 38, it really depends on what you want to keep. I've got one about 10" above my tank with the lens removed, and I get great spread - but not amazing intensity when compared to the bulb with the lens on. That said, I do believe it's enough for your average softy or LPS, and...

Water doesn't hold any beneficial bacteria, and while it's not wise to do a complete tank cleaning all at once (heavy gravel vaccing, filter rinse in dechlorinated water, etc...) what you did shouldn't have caused any issues. Large water changes aren't a problem, as long as the water that goes...

I always recommend dry. Live rock comes with a lot of benefits, but also with a lot of potential pests - aiptaisia, red bugs, fire worms (the bad kind), majanos, and nuisance algae, to name a few. Dry rock comes with none of the benefits, but also none of the pests - and the beneficial...