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Your snails are a type of Physid, which usually mature quite small/young. Most likely yours are already mature.   No, they are hermaphrodites, so all you need to do is put two of the same species together and eggs will happen.   If you actually want to keep the snails in a healthy state...

Sump in action.   <-- note the bubble...boo!  <-- note container near the top   The bubble in the u-tube forms over a period of a few minutes from sucking in bubbles. It then seems to remain a constant size with small bubbles being sucked away at the rate they're added, but I still don't trust...

So far I've wet-tested the sump with a few inches of water. Flow rates seem good and everything, but I was not impressed with the whole priming method for getting the siphon started. The typical method is to stick a bit of airline up it and suck the air out...which, in the absence of a squeezy...

That looks to be an Aiptasia anemone.

Soft corals often take a while to settle in and extend fully, even as much as a couple of weeks sometimes. If the closed area hasn't sustained any damage, just keep an eye on it for a few days. It may open partially in different configurations as it adapts to the flow it's in.

Having done a lengthy move with saltwater critters myself, it certainly can be a fiddly business...and you don't even want to know what it smells like if you mess up and let the cooler full of live rock overheat in the moving van lol. You've made a great decision for the livestock. Good luck on...

Fish are regularly shipped; that's how they arrive at local stores for sale. As long as you're shipping withing the country and aren't dealing with any restricted species, you should be able to do it. I've never shipped freshwater fish myself (I've only shipped snails in the past, which is...

  The approach described on the page I linked is the same thing as in the video and also discussed in the supplementary video. The other approach you mentioned is also described here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandi%27s_series#cite_note-Devlin77-1 ...with the point that it does "not...

New stuff I've gotten: - Eshopps PF300 overflow - Danner mag drive supreme 3 return pump   Other new stuff required to make the above stuff work: - Eshopps directional return (didn't feel like going DIY with that...too much bother) - 10ft of 1/2" clear vinyl tubing (for return). I'll probably...

Snazy, I said "more like" averaging, not literally that everything is averaged. The guy in the video even says as much. The formalization I linked to involves averaging of partial sums, which is shown on the page I linked.

  The problem is that the guys in the physics video are being informal/sloppy in their notation, and anyone who isn't already familiar with those particular notation abuses will be confused as a result (which is probably intentional - otherwise it wouldn't look half as clever). The standard...

The reason this looks bizarre is that their "sum" is not how it would be treated in other mathematical fields, and they are not making that clear. What they are doing is a valid operation, but it's a different meaning to the big sigma symbol than would be the case for other math-related fields...

Usually dry rock for reefs is priced by weight unless a piece is especially heavy for its size or otherwise unusual. In stores, I usually see it for roughly $2.50/lb to $3.00/lb. You may also want to consider trading it at a LFS for some fw supplies if you want to unload it quickly, since it can...

Yes, that is an old coral skeleton, and they are frequently used in marine tanks. It would need a good soak and scrub before going in a tank since it's been outside. 

Damsels are rather problematic in small spaces, although primarily with things that are related or similarly shaped - but they will still go after just about anything if it comes too close. If the damsels are claiming the whole space as "theirs" right now, they might not leave a new fish alone...

Usually an external filter isn't used when a good protein skimmer is involved, since externals are mainly useful as a place to put chemical media like carbon and phosphate remover, which may not be needed if the skimmer is strong enough.   For lighting, it depends entirely on the coals you want...

Cleaner-family shrimp don't tend to be extremely long-lived, particularly when they are already large at the time of purchase since the individuals are already well into their lifespan then. If you had it the whole year and it didn't grow much or at all, there may not have been anything unusual...

Bummer!  I also had bad luck with clowns being excessively rough with anemones, although the ones I had eventually took it a step further and started eating an anemone they'd safely lived in for a while (although, bizarrely enough, that particular anemone somehow survived once the clowns were...

Lovely anemone! 

Refugium kit:      

Two things come to mind: Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and a color morph of Lytechinus variegatus that looks very similar. The best distinguishing feature for L. variegatus is the presence of specialized tube feet that look like little round balls on short stalks close to the body, and they can...

Just finished cleaning a spare 20gal which will soon start its conversion to a refugium:     I will need to get the refugium started up and running for a while by itself before connecting it to the tank, since it sill probably be mucky in there at the start while the rock and substrate is...

I went to the annual frag farmer's market over the weekend and picked up some new zoas for this tank along with some other softie frags that are currently growing out in a 20gal. I decided on growing the rest out for a bit first since everything I got except for the zoas are in a size range that...

  This sounds like came from either someone who was really trying to sell you a tank at the expense of correct information or someone who doesn't know much about marine systems. You have to do regular water changes on all but exceptionally large marine tanks to maintain stability; there is...

See here to get started: Marine FAQ Marine Equipment   The freshwater biofiltration will die in saltwater. When converting a freshwater tank to saltwater, it's better to break down the setup and give anything that will be reused a good cleaning. 

I don't think I could deal with that sleeping arrangement, at least not with my current fish. They're creepers that would spend the whole night pressed up against the glass like this: 

  Totally up to you whether to buy premixed or mix it yourself. If you mix it yourself, you'll have to wait a few hours to overnight before you can use the water, but you'll have better control over the salinity; some stores mix water at closer to 1.020, which is ok for fish-only systems but not...

More or less any one will do as long as it is is temperature correcting and meant for a saltwater aquarium. There are many others out there for various fluids, but they have the wrong scales. It's also useful to have one with a scale that goes to ZERO so that you can calibrate it with pure...

Glad to hear things are settling out. Sudden, unexpected things like this happen to everybody at some point or another; it's one of the unfortunate hazards of the hobby. You handled it well! 

The bag of carbon can just sit in the tank if it's tied a the top; it doesn't have to be in a filter, it's just most effective when in flow. Just wedge it near the output if possible and leave it in for a few days. Or, if you have the canister hooked up still, you can also take some ceramic...

That media is usually referred to as ceramic rings. They get a lot of hate as a saltwater filtration medium, but won't be the cause of the problem as long as they were new and not carrying any organics with them. The main problem with them is that they are prone to crud accumulation over time...

If ammonia has been zero each time it was checked, assuming the kit is ok, it doesn't sound so much like a mini cycle as some sort of contamination. Crabs like emeralds can often withstand pretty bad cycling conditions over short periods of time, which is why they manage to hide out on live rock...

A captive-propagated BTA would be the best bet for hardiness (and for finding a captive one; captive specimens are much less likely to die randomly upon introduction than wild ones for nems), although they can get big and can be pretty sticky if they're hungry and aren't fed. Minimaxis are also...

I just took a look at the listing on the site. The "green" one is an incorrect ID; the symmetrical claws mean it's not Calcinus if the pic is even correct - and sometimes its not with online listings, so there is no way to tell what those are with any certainty. I'd skip on those. Even if the...

  I would get species IDs on these and particularly an ID on the green ones, since that's not a usual CUC hermit common name and so is unlikely to be one of the safer species.            Make sure they're not Ilyanasa obsoleta, which is sometimes sold under that name and is a coldwater species...