i keep tellin my wife im a genius but she has yet to get on board with that theory ............lol ..............i'm so impressed with planted tanks, but they scare the shit out of me....................theres a chinease or japanease guy who is famous for his tanks and man are they incredable .....im sure a1 knows what im talkin about, i wish i still had the link to his site .......................

I agree. I even shudder at just having one or two live plants in a regular tank. As for water changes, I am in your boat fishboy. Once a month, if I'm lucky, otherwise every 6-8 weeks. I need to get on a more strict schedule for sure.

So I haven't picked up anything yet for my filter (as my wife is making me finish the house painting, baseboards, bathroom reno's first). I only have a 29g tank, with 2 flame gouramis and an algae eater at the moment. Not planning on adding anything further, since as soon as I'm done all the above mentioned stuff, we'll be going into cichlids. So I'll have to find a new home for my gouramis (or put them into the 5g with my two prego guppies). So for the moment, with that small bio load in that size tank, would I need to have a second filter, other than for peace of mind?

Sorry to sound a little naive, but what exactly is a refuge? I have heard the term before, but not too sure on what it is. Thanks.

I did some research on it, and the explanations I found were that it is a place to keep more docile fish, plants and such, that would get ravaged by tankmates if kept in the same tank (ie: seahorses in sw), while keeping both systems on the same filtration. The water would flow from one to the other freely, while not allowing the inhabitants of either to mix. Close?

OKAY :) This is what I live for! a refuge is (drum roll) a place for all the things that want to live in the reef but cant because of rough waters......they arent fast enough.....or they cant because its too predatorial. Example would be like mine. I have algae.....if I had a tang......that algae wouldnt be able to thrive and grow the tangs would eat it too quick. pipe fish cant live in a reef.....the would never eat, they arent quick enough, and the same goes with seahorses... I have mangroves that wouldnt be able to grow because the lights would be way too close. you could use the refuge as a secondary display and include pipe fish and sea horses..........pretty sweet way to incorporate it. and really the most optimal because you can pump water into the refuge........and let it drain back into the tank.......keeping all the copepods and amphipods intact. A (good) refuge will produce food for the rest of the tank. whether it be pods.....or algae.....it can all be fed to your main tank.....it will also pull massive amounts of nutrients from your tank......a very nice feature. I have a 5 inch sand bed........which ammounts to insane denitrification, and my phosphate and nitrate are never detectable. which is optimal. its basically a saltwater planted tank......that pulls out the poo from your main tank. its worth its weight in gold IMO. my mangroves........now that they have a 10000k bulb are growing at an insane rate which as long as you are carefull when you prune.....will take the nutrients out pretty well. I found some mangrove seeds on the coast a few weeks back.....already taking off in my sump. I have to feed my tank extra to keep my algae and mangroves alive....its kinda nice. Basically if you have a decent size refuge....with a ton of sand and some macro algae.....your tank can be care free. You just have to let your refuge get nice and seasoned. it takes time....but its completly worth it. My skimmer pulls gunk.......but nothing dark like it did before my refuge. Its really nice. low flow is optimal in the refuge, algae grows better. if you want to incorporate mud.......havent used it, but im sure it would work great.