I suppose that's possible, but I do vacuum my sand at least once a month, sometimes more. I started doing it in the spring because I kept getting ugly patches of cyano in the same places on the sand. My mind was blown by the amount of crud that came out of it the first couple of times, but it seems to be pretty clean now. I still have problems with cyano, just never on the sand now.

Ya I really don't know for sure. But all issues like that can be a good indicator of a tank heading towards "old tank syndrome". But if you have been on top of keeping the tank free of debris then it may not be the issue. Or you may be just slowly working your way out of it. To me it seems likely this could be the issue but really its just a guess.

*sigh* a guy just can't catch a break. Friday night I used the spigot on my skimmer to drain the collection cup. Forgot to close the tube and left it open to the drain overnight. Woke up Saturday morning to an angry looking tank and RTN in progress all over the place.

Bristle worms must have spawned or something in the middle of the night and drove the skimmer nuts. Salinity in the tank was 1.012. Worst. Timing. Ever.

A conductivity sensor that shuts the skimmer off would have prevented this. I suppose it's time I make the investment.

Bummer, man, sorry to hear. I got an Avast skimmate locker with their pressure sensor. It plugs into my controller and kills the power to the skimmer when the container is full. Best investment ever!

Great tank, BTW!

+1 on the Avast skimmate locker. I have the one that is basically a lid for a 5g bucket. Works well.

You could craft your own DIY if you're crafty but they're pretty reasonably priced all things considered..

That might be an even safer alternative to the probe.

How long does it typically take to fill 5 gallons of skimmate?

And also I bought some frags to make myself feel better lol

About a week in my case..

Most recent pics:

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...psxyaotqvc.jpg

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...psm6ok2rh3.jpg

Still having some annoying issues with my corals. I've got this weird tissue abnormality in a few of my acros that no one on the internet seems to be able to explain, but otherwise things are doing pretty well. I keep trying to kill my whole tank by making stupid mistake - too much H2O2, not noticing that the tubing connecting my doser to the alk reservoir had cracked and it stopped dosing for an entire week (discovering your dKH is 4.1 is never a good way to start a Saturday morning), and accidentally cratering the salinity be letting an overflowing protein skimmer drain the tank for a night are just a sample of the dumb things I've done so far in 2015, so maybe the tissue problem isn't so mysterious.

I've beenh crossing my fingers that a few of my previously majestic colonies that have survived the last year of tank hell with me but in really rough shape would leap back in to health, but I've started getting ruthless about tossing things that are limping along and replacing them. Friday night I took two big rocks that were covered in caulerpa (pro tip - don't let that stuff go! it literally dissolves coral tissue!) and bleached then acid dipped them. I'm also really digging the look of fewer, but larger colonies, so rather than replacing all the stuff I'm tossing, I've started fragging things that I like and have done well no matter what I've thrown at this tank and spreading them around more.

I do have a spot to fill but I want something truly awesome and hard to come by. Something that has a dumb name like Strawberry Shortcake or something. Anyone got any ideas? I'm hoping for an acro that spreads out.

Also, all my fish have grown up and they're starting to look ridiculous. This tank is supposed to be huge, but between 8 fully grown anthias, a mature powder blue, a full grown dilutes rabbit, and near adult cowfish, the tank looks small.

Has anyone ever fished a powder blue tang out of a tank like this? Him and the rabbit have really started going at it, but the rabbit is more important to me as a herbivore.

Also if someone is like "man, I really want a big a$$ cowfish" and lives in Calgary - you just let me know.