[ntueller]

I bought this beautyfull 200 gal aquarium the other day. it has 4 beautyfull fish and a bunch of corral skeletons. It came with state of the art (for 1991) oceanic protine skimmer, a wet/dry bioball filter-sump, a seperate ehime canister filter with all kinds of stuff in mesh bags, and a old school paper canister filter on its own pump. I've got 3 in lines and 3 out lines attached to the aquarium. It also came with 4 totes of stray stuff. I bought a more modern book, "natural reef aquariums", by john tullock. I'm liking what i'm reading but have so many questions. should i loose the paper canister filter?, the bioballs?, the chemical canister filter? replace all these systems with live rock and live sand? I'd like to get to the point where i have a simpler to maintain, more diverse (like some corrals, inverts, ect) and more attractive tank. the fish i have are fantastic. a emperor anglefish, racoon buterflyfish, yellow and purple tang. there fun and i enjoy watching and feeding them but the 25% water changes monthly to control nitrate levels are a pain (perhaps as ive not perfected this task) and all the pumps are hot and keep the water at 79, to hot? i'm thinking of starting with a "plenimum" and some live sand. is this a good place to start? Can one seed some regular sand with a certian ammount of "live" sand sucessfully? should i start with live rock first? I'd love some advice on how best to proceed.

Thanx,

Nathan

Girdwood, Alaska