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Hello all! I have some good news - and some not-so-good news. I was just accepted into a doctoral program for engineering, but this means my coral rehabilitation efforts are going to go on an indefinite pause. As I have time, I'll still try to post about my experiences (I have so many articles written that just need finishing touches). Hopefully the last 18 years of coral rescuing brought some good into the world, and I hope to restart it again once I'm "Dr. Bridges."

Upon re-entering the hobby exactly two years ago I snowballed with nano tanks. This biome, that critter, mushrooms, clams, aggressive clowns (ask me if I even like clowns). I ended up with 15 or 16 tanks between 2g and 40g. I can't begin to explain the expense or the maintenance of up keeping 15 nano tanks. @ReeferMan convinced me to buy a 90g cube that he had in his garage. My wife agreed to it on one condition...I had to get rid of 4 nano tanks. The build: Chris sold me the tank with a stand (still unfinished like most things in my life). I starting piecing together other components, drilled some (more) holes, had an overflow box built, picked up a sump, etc, etc. Once my wife got tired of the tank and stand sitting on the front porch I move it inside and filled it with water. This was roughly in September 2025. I'd been cooking/bleaching/acid bathing some live rock that was ready for aqua scaping, and I had about ten pounds of ceramic media that I'd been housing in my school sump for the past year. That system was started with rock from TBS in addition to a stupid amount of PNS probio and copepod addition that I'd cultured. So I expect/hope that the bacterial load is fairly substantial and will help me long term. We did the uglies, and eventually I added a neon green sinularia brassica. I did install a dedicated 20amp gfci breaker to run all of the electrical for the tank. The system: 90g cube 30"x 30" x 24" drilled for a bean animal overflow with two returns. Sump: Trigger Systems Emerald 39 Mechanical Filtration: Bubble King 180 mini VS12 - being my first ever large(ish) tank, I knew I was going to overstock so I wanted a substantial skimmer. No filter roller. I use a fair amount of filter floss and change it out every week or two. Biological filtration: the sump has a refugium section which I've added chaeto to. It's lit by a grow light opposite photoperiod from the main tank. I feed heavily and can throw out a gallon or two of dense chaeto whenever I think about it. No caulerpa for me. I've got it in my school tanks from the TBS rock and I hate it. Probably 50lbs of lr and the 10lbs of ceramic media. Lighting: AI hydra 64HD with two 24" Quanta Helix bars for supplementation. The AI are neat in that you can find presets on their homepage to utilize with images included. I'm using David Saxby's programming for the AI. The light cycle basically runs from 8am - 8pm. Circulation: two returns. One for each return hole in the tank. One is a DC Hygger that is rated at 56w and about 1600gph. The other is a DC AQQA rated at 25w and 800gph. I opted for redundancy and a healthy amount of water through the sump. I wanted to keep debris and detritus in suspension and down into the sump so the mechanic filtration could do its thing. Two hygger power heads and one hygger gyre for additional circulation. I also have an additional power head in the skimmer section of the sump to keep detritus in circulation. This does a good job of keeping the sump clean. Top off: tunze osmomolator tapped into a 14 gallon tote that is housed in an adjacent cabinet. Heating: inkbird temp controller with an 800w hygger heater. I've got another heater on order that should be here today or tomorrow. Again, for redundancy sake. Monitoring: I've got a little kactoily that gives me some basic readings and I've added an Aquawiz alk monitor that I will run kalkwasser though once my alk/calcium consumption picks up. I've got an avast K1 reactor to use for the kalk. I'll feed it directly from my ATO reservoir. Stocking: oh boy. Never had a big tank. I got my first aquarium in 1993, my first SW in 1996. I've never owned a tang. Well, we are going to change that. Fish were either purchased qt'ed (thanks Reef Escape) or qt'ed by me using TTM. Fish in order of addition: Scopas tang (zebrasoma scopas) from ReefEscapes - scopas have always been my favorite tang CB marine Betta (calloplesiops altivelis)from Biota. Tiny little baby was probably 1" upon arrival and has doubled in size in 4 months. I never see it. Never. I have to come out at night with a flashlight if I want to sneak a peak. Magnificent Foxface (Siganus magnificus) - immediately paired up with the scopas. Of all my fish, he seems the least settled upon later additions. Flame hawk fish (Neocirrhites armatus) was added at the same time as the mag. Fun little guy. I ended up adding another, smaller, one about a month or so later so now there are a pair of them. Not going to say they've paired up, but there's no aggression either. Whitetail bristetooth tang (Ctenochaetus flavicauda) the prettiest (and largest at 3.5-4") fish in the tank. Wow are they stunning. Pair of ocellaris from one of my school tanks. Clowns aren't my favorite (other than maroons...love gsms, but that kinda bully I just don't need here), but I'm also a believer that every tank should have clowns. Goldrim/powder black tang/white cheek (Acanthurus nigricans) - pretty fish. Dynamics didn't change much when I added him. Copperband butterfly (Chelmon rostratus) who doesn't love a copperband? I definitely took my time with this guy, and he's only been in the tank for two weeks now. Eating, right? Ugg. We did the gammut in qt. BBS, black worms (started a culture), white worms (grindal...another culture started), blood worms, and yes clams. Clams he was happy to eat. But long term that still wasn't a solution. I would take an opened clam and jam some masstick in there. Then I would take some masstick and mysis and coat it inside a clam shell. Eventually he started picking at it. I had to release him into the tank shortly after as I thought I was going to need my qt system for another fish. He's gone into the display and still loves his daily clam (he and everybody else), but he's also eating mysis out of the water column. So that's a win. Along with the assorted cleanup crew, there's a cleaner shrimp (presumably the hawks and betta haven't devoured him), a sand sitting starfish and a spider conch. And whatever assortment of hermits and snails I've added. Corals: I've never kept much sps. I plan on it this time. In time. In no particular order I've got 3 elegances (including @YHSublime's beauty that I picked up when he was downsizing systems), a nice acanthophyllia, some frogspawn, a fairly large duncan, hg micromussa, favias, goniopora, a scolymia, rfa's, pectinia, an assortment of softies - mushrooms and toadstools and Koji wada. And some other stuff. Elegance HGM with the mag in the background Some rfa's, and maxi mini carpets Koji wada - blue here. I'll get a pic under daylighting. Very nice, dark pink Isaac's elegance in a cove. Inflated it's close to 12" long I'd say A few shrooms and another rfa. Scoly off to the side. Torches with a maxi mini I think I've got 7 different toadstools in here. For the most part I don't know the cute little names for stuff. Copperband, goni in the background and acantho upset with all the flow. Love this rock flower. My photography sucks. This guy is a stunner in person. I feed pretty heavily. Everytime I walk by the tank I throw something in. Freeze dried pe mysis or tdo. I probably feed a cube or two of mysis each day. Some mermaid's delight on occasion. Pinch off some nori once a day. They like green. They tolerate purple. They don't like the red macro. I also throw in one clam per day. The clams are purchased live, scrubbed, and frozen. Rinsed and dropped in.

I'd like to echo Salty Rambler's sentiments: Thank you to the new board members for you interest and for sharing your time and talents for the benefit of the club and the community.

Huge thanks to the new board members for stepping up to lead the club this year. Volunteering your time and energy makes a real difference, and I can’t wait to see what’s ahead.

SCA ordered!

Here’s your 2026 Officer team: President - Craig Kuhn @Gatortailale Vice President - Garrett Stone @gastone Treasurer - Chris Mahoney @ReeferMan Membership Director - Michael Iskander @monstamich Secretary - Jim Gentile @Jgents Thanks to outgoing officers Nilkki Bridges, Scott Friedman, & Milton English for their years of service to the club!

Been a while, never fully stopped though. My methods and equipment are pretty dramatically different (raising in a bucket, feeding mostly artemia nauplii), but while I had had some batches get to about a month old before, I've got two which are a month and a half old! This is the larger of the two, and they are VERY lanky

I’m beyond excited to share that my first book, 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑫𝒊𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔: 𝑨 𝑷𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝑮𝒖𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑨𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔, is officially launching! At 372 pages, this book was written specifically for home saltwater hobbyists who want a clear, easy-to-follow guide for identifying and treating the 16 most common saltwater fish diseases. No more guessing or scouring forums for unreliable advice—this book breaks down symptoms, causes, and proven treatments in a way that’s both scientifically accurate and easy to understand. 𝐓𝐨 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐈’𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝟓 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐬! The giveaway will run for two weeks starting today!!!, and after that, the book will be available for purchase on my website. Whether you're battling ich, velvet, bacterial infections, or mystery illnesses, this guide will help you quickly diagnose and effectively treat your fish—because healthy fish mean a thriving reef! 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲? 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫! https://www.mantasystems.net/pages/sweepstakes

WAMAS is hosting a 25th Anniversary & holiday party / potluck lunch for club members & their family! WHO: WAMAS Club Members & Family WHEN: December 14, 2024 Time: 12:00 - 3:00 pm WHERE: Green Acres Center, 4401 Sideburn Rd., Fairfax, VA FOOD: Potluck lunch WHY: You read that right, WAMAS was founded by Dr. Michael Gerdes in the late fall of 1999 & has been serving the greater DC area for 25 years. From our roots at the first meeting in Glenn Rosenbluth's basement, WAMAS has grown to be one of the larger reefing clubs in the United States. WAMAS previously hosted the 2005 & 2015 Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA). In addition, the club is a registered 501(c) non-profit education society, and has supported many reef-related events and causes over the years such as the establishment of an endowment fund at NOVA Southeastern Univ. to support a marine biology scholarship; donations to: Coral Restoration Foundation; Great Barrier Reef Legacy & Forever Reef Project; Coral Morphologic Labs, as well as numerous smaller grant awards to support local teachers, students, and other scientific research. - Zoom call with WAMAS Founder Dr. Michael Gerdes - Potluck lunch - Special WAMAS 25th Anniversary items - Door Prizes - First 50 guests get a $10 Reef eScape livestock gift card (upgradable to $20 by signing up for their newsletter) - 50/50 cash drawing (benefit WAMAS) - FREE Frags - White Elephant - frag exchange gift table (bring a frag(s), get a frag(s) - bring frag(s) & get extra tickets for chance to win frag(s) from frag tables Come celebrate with us at this event. ** INTERESTED in helping make this event a success - please send an email to officers@wamas.org or send a message to me or any of the officers and let us know you are interested in helping. Thanks to these sponsors for supplying coral frags or gift cards for the event:

Jack, came in this morning and the basslet was out. Fourth time I've seen him in over two months. I keep thinking he's got to be dead for sure. My room is very quiet. We are a small program with small class sizes (for a multitude of reasons). And even when the students are in here they are quiet and stationary. I was able to swing by Isaac's place this weekend @YHSublime, and through his unbelievable generosity we have some more fragging to do. Won't be until after Thanksgiving break and we do jump into SOL season here in VA (yay standardized testing!), but we'll find time to get together at least once if not twice before winter break. I'll make sure to update with a complete account of what we are doing and what Isaac supplied us with. Thanks again, Isaac! And if Tiny (and Sandwiches) ever need a babysitter, I'm your guy.

Gatortailale, things are great. My tank is (I think) 54 years old and all is well. I eliminated a bunch of invasive, encrusting, photosynthetic sponge. Just had a back operation and need another minor one. I published another book, not about fish that is on Amazon. It's about my time in the army and Vietnam. My birthday is coming up Christmas day, and almost all is well.;

I will say you can order fish at ReefeScape if they don't have what you are looking for or it isn't common. They also have a fair amount of fish that should be graduating quarantine within the next week or so.

I drip kalk 24/7 and still need to supplement with about 50ml of AFR a day in my system.

As far as the size of your heater I would say that it's undersized. I prefer to run two heaters in my bigger systems for redundancy, and just in case one goes out. I'd probably shoot for 300w total in that size tank. A 200 and a 100 or two 150s. Something like that. I might even jump up to a 250 and a 100, with the larger acting as the primary.

Hi Matt, Some photos and info like what type of fish, tank size, how much rock etc, you have, would help. Some initial thoughts would be some sort of trap (plenty out there) Nyos for one. Otherwise enticing with feeding can be helpful and a few nets. Too much obstruction from rocks, etc of course will make it a bit harder. I'm certain plenty more folks here can help. jim

I went through a ton more glue. I’m calling it done.

I basically setup the stock tank next to stand and ran the dosers/pumps/heaters right into stock tank. Everything is doing well. If you click images below it should take you to more of my Flickr photos. I just can’t use my weight bench for the time being. one thing. My nitrates are 16 now. They were under 3-4 before. I think no skimmer hurting. Depending when this new tank comes I may do a water change.

Not super difficult, you'll want to isolate the male before he releases the babies so you can grab them before other tankmates/the current does, then you'll want an isolated, low flow place to raise them early on, and ideally, you have a live food available when he spits them out. Artemia nauplii are easy to hatch, cheap, and are readily accepted, so I'd go with those. Then after a week or two, small prepared foods will be fine (maybe feed that first because they will prefer the live if you still offer it), though unless the tankmates are gentle and small, I'd keep them in their own space for a couple of months. Also worth keeping a top on where they're kept while growing up is good - there will be some casual sibling aggression and you don't want jumpers (it seems to be easier for the small ones.)

It's not good form to dose a ton, but there comes a point where it's better to shock things and get parameters in line vs. trying to be slow. That said, 1200 or so is low but not unreasonably so, so I would probably do it in at least a couple steps over a few days.

I picked up a kreisel tank from liveaquaria late last year because they went on sale for $99 (and I think they are still listed at that price.) I decided to try raising some peppermints just as a trial to see if it was well-suited as a larval tank. With only some minor modifications, it seems to be pretty great at gently keeping the shrimp larvae suspended. Settlement started at 22 days and nearly all settled by 25 days which is significantly shorter than reported elsewhere. I think physical damage can cause mark-time molts in which they regenerate appendages (particularly the really long 5th pereiopods) rather than develop further. The current in the kreisel was pretty gentle so I think there was minimal physical damage which allowed them to develop more quickly. I'm looking forward to working with some different species in this tank!

Here are the frags that were left over. $10 each if anyone is interested send me a PM.

Nice results! I never had much luck with my kreisel designs but have definitely seen that my mesh bottom bucket method leave them with a lot of time at the bottom (I think coarser mesh lets them be closer to "floating" than fine mesh or an actual bottom of a vessel.) I've got a bigger printer and hopefully soon a bigger sump and may try to revive those designs.

I'm sure most of you have seen by now, but just in case; our area is predicted to get a significant amount of snow on Sunday. So check those batteries, generators, fuel. Plan for the best, prepare the worst.

What a fantastic meeting and it was great to see over 85 member-attendees come out & enjoy a great lecture, feast on the potluck food, and go home with several frags to add to their collection. I reckon we were fortunate the weather held off so that we could go forward with event. Thank you Dr. Richard Pyle for taking the time to speak to our club. We are fortunate that we know a guy with connections to make it possible, @copps 😉 On behalf of myself and all the Officers + membership, we appreciate all the contributions from our fantastic sponsors - over 135 vendor donated frags - as well as the 150+ member donated frags. Thank you Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine @johnnybv @Coral Candy Aquaculture @Combat Corals Top Shelf Aquatics, & Frag Shack from NJ. Amazing! 🙏 And thanks to Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine, Combat Corals, & Frag Shack from NJ for setting up a tank with all those tempting corals in your booth displays, even with snow in the forecast. In addition, I want to thank all the members who answered our request for help in bringing a dish to share in the potluck or coming early/ staying late to help with the room setup & cleanup. Appreciate everyone engaging and making WAMAS community special to apart of. Special thanks to the WAMAS Officers, especially the newly elected who jumped into the fire and worked their butts off for their first time to put on the meeting, as wellas Dan who helped at the welcome desk. And thanks to Our President Emeritus, Tom & Doug, who continue to donate their time to help the club. 🙏 In closing thank you Garrett & Chris for your efforts working with our sponsors and vendors to source frags & developing a plan to get frags to our members & speed us on our ways. 🍻

Forecast shows the snow holding off until later Saturday night, so right now we are still planning to hold the meeting. We will also look into adjusting the agenda and see how we can speed things up to try to get everyone out sooner and back home. We will update all social media platforms and send email from the Forums if updates or changes need to be made.

Absolutely! I’m going for an LPS Dominated tank but final stage will be mixed reef with a few Acros. It’s the Red Sea Max Nano G2 glass 20 Cube AIO. Dimensions are 17.7 inches cubed. I got the tank wet on June 17, 2025 and I’m using the A3 Apex Aquarium Controller System - Neptune Systems with no protein skimmer. I turned the back sump area where the protein skimmer was supposed to go as a fuge. I got 100% TBS live rock and sand to kickstart it since it’s a nano and my first tank ever and wanted to give it the best chance of success. I’m dosing carbon constantly as a means of mechanical filtration between the chaeto and my return chamber along with sponges in between the fuge and then return chamber. My flow is the standard Red Sea pump that came with the tank and I’m using one VorTech MP10mQD. The lighting is one Radion XR15 G6 Blue LED Light Fixture for the DT and the Tunze light bar for my fuge. I’m running my XR15 on the program from WWC’s website that is Leah’s 20. So it’s mostly blues and very little white light on a 12 hour cycle with my fuge back light on 14 hours on the opposite schedule. I’m using the BRS 2 Part Doser to dose All For Reef at 3.2mL per day right now spaced out over 8 periods. And I’m using the Tunze Osmolator 3 Auto Top Off with a 5-gallon jug below my tank. My parameters are: pH Level: Range has been mostly 8.1-8.25 over the last few weeks as it’s starting to stabilize out. Salinity: 1.025 NO3:1ppm PO4: I’m aiming for between 0.03-0.1. This has been a roller-coaster for me. When I first got the tank setup it was as high as 0.3. Finally, I have it under control with the time and a bit of GFO in a sock which is only as needed. And it’s been in my range. Calcium: 450 Alkalinity: Aiming for between 8.2-9. Currently at 8.2. Magnesium: I haven’t tested this yet. Salt Brand: Tropic Marin Stocking list: 1 x Snowflake Clown 1 x Helfrichi Firefish 1 x Neon Blue Cleaner Fish 1 x Possum Wrasse 1 x Yellow Watchmen Goby and Tiger Pistol Shrimp 1 x Urchin 6 x Blue Leg Hermits 2 x Trochus 1 x Nassarius Snail 2 x Porcelain Crabs (hitchhikers on the rock) 1 x Peach tipped torch 1 x Gold torch 1 x Future ex-girlfriend splattering hammer 1 x Candy cane 1 x Hail Hydra Goni 1 x Jewel Thief Goni 1 x Florida squeeze clove 1 x AOI zoa 1 x Golden eye zoa 1 x Magician zoa 1 x Zoa I forget the name of haha 1 x Fruit loops zoa 1 x Superman blasto And I’ve got the Rainbow hammer and headless horsemen mushroom that will be here next week! I feed once daily with either TDO pellets or Mysis shrimp.

I added a recirculating C02 scrubber and dosing 3ml of kalk per min 24/7 via a dosing pump from a 10gal tank. This results in my ato turning on very little. I refill it weekly. My Ph has been steady at 8.2-8.3 and tank is really looking good. I also added in a frag tank. the reef octopus skimmer has a float valve to turn off automatically if cup fills. This will prevent the c02 media from getting filled with water and back into tank. I also have the media higher than skimmer plus a container to catch any liquid. The kalk pump is plugged into ph controller to turn off if ph hits 8.5. I am pretty comfortable with these two fail safes. The light over frag tank can put out over 1,000 par at 100%. I am running it at 1% white and 20% blue which is plenty. Just rented the par meter to dial it in. Great light for $125. Very white spectrum though for my preference. I have a 3/8” quick disconnect coming so it will make it easier to remove skimmer lid to clean.

One thing you could try for the copperband is just hiding a portion of the tank - it seems a lot of their initial eating issues is just environmental stress, and I remember an interview with a fish quarantine specialist saying they blacked out the tanks they were QT'd in and rarely had issues getting them to eat. It's my understanding that they don't really go for copepods (mine hasn't), but they do hunt for bivalves and worms (and aiptasia), but that it's looking around is a great sign. Since they naturally eat off the rocks, it could be worth turning the pumps off for a few minutes and letting food settle. I've heard using masstick on a clam shell or just feeding frozen halfshell clams can work well, but I think mine first took to frozen bloodworms (this seems to be common for a lot of finicky eating fish.)

Some of the battlecorals frags are really taking off. I knows it’s not a crazy rainbow frag, but really liking the BC a fire engine (bottom left).

New FTS! Battlecorals frags are coming in nicely. I lost one but the others are doing well and three of them already are showing excellent growth. Unfortunately I have a lack of space up in the higher PAR region so the one tenuis had to be mounted to the single frag plug holder for now. It just wasn't doing well down lower. I have been upping the white channel percentages on the Radion and did buy the high intensity lens kit particularly after noticing two of the lens had burnt out. Seems crazy that I have two MP10s in this tank too but I do think it is helping with the more random flow.

Well, the run is over, and unfortunately no settlement. In the last month I had lost all but one of the older larvae and I just got back from a week away and had lost the last one in that time. I believe most of the losses were happening around a molt, around the end of the predicted timetable, but it's tough to say for sure. I have some video of a newly dead larvae (second to last one) which appeared to have its main body carapace splayed open somewhat (presumably a molt) but with some eye twitching still going on. Honestly, I'm not sure what could have caused that, especially since they seem to leave each other alone (even larvae months younger seem to be untouched.) This last loss was probably nutrition related - on my trip I had no new artemia hatching, and while I tried to stock the tank with that and copepods and then regularly had them fed with phyto, I had my doubts it was enough, and the bucket it had been moved into had a bit of a hydroid infestation which was consuming at least some of that food too. My guess is that last one was from the March batch, since it had been way over 5 months since February. That means my record for how long they've lived is about 4.5 months. Sad, but where to go from here? First, I've got another vacation at the end of August, so I'll start trying to collect larvae again in September. I'll try keeping the bucket warmer - I've got an inkbird and a bigger heater now and it should allow for more control and consistency, but the higher temperature should speed growth somewhat. I found that leaving the top open farther significantly reduced the temperature, so hopefully the controller will keep it much more consistent. I'll try to stay on top of salinity management a bit more - they seem pretty tolerant of high salinity and big swings (39ppt and 2ppt in one day), but I don't want to make that a habit, it doesn't take a lot of checking. I'll use my newer version of the bucket insert (wide mesh in the bottom, deeper chamber, in-wall air lift pump.) I want to keep consistent water changes, not to a huge degree, but minimum once a month and twice a month preferable (this is more often than this batch got.) I also want to do something about nutrition, and while it's not sustainable with these buckets and my water change schedule, starting from maybe just before the first or second water change I want to feed the larvae from frozen food. Maybe reef frenzy like my main tank gets, maybe something like PE calanus. I read in a paper that their larva were fed fresh meaty foods, and while it would be a great normal food for every day feeding if they were being held as part of a larger system, it will definitely pollute it, so I think trying it out as a nutrition supplement before water changes should hopefully get some extra vitamin input without the ammonia buildup. I already observed them eating their deceased siblings, and the bodies would be gone within 12 hours or so, so they can definitely handle large meaty foods after a bit of development, so even if the food settles on the mesh bottom, it will probably be good for them. I've also been observing a pretty significant loss of larvae around day 10 in most of the batches. Not sure of the cause, but in case it is nutritional, I'll try to preempt it with some frozen food (or something I come up with) around day 8, then a water change. The water change alone didn't seem to do the trick - it's not a cleanliness issue - but maybe the nutrition is. So, a hiatus for a month, and then maybe come January of next year I'll be caught up to where I've already gotten to and have a shot at settlement in February. These timetables are insane

I've been out of the hobby for a couple years, but I always knew I'd be back eventually. I always try to do something different when I build out a new system and generally try to improve upon the things that bugged me about my prior systems. My last system was a 12g long, so I thought I might go tall this time. Last year, I started building a custom system with some very specific objectives. First, I wanted to have no equipment visible in the display. None. Not even an overflow box. I wanted it to just look like a cube of water. This required designing something I haven't seen around before: a remote overflow system. Second, I wanted to maintain a deep sand bed for jawfish, but I hate seeing sand from the side of an aquarium. Consequently, the tank needed to be recessed such that the top of the stand is level with the sand. Third, I wanted to keep things tidy in the stand, but still accessible and functionally designed. In my last build, I found raceways for wiring to be a real pain when any maintenance needed to be done. This time I wrapped any wiring in Velcro cable ties and put Velcro strips along the inside of the stand. It keeps the wiring tidy, but very easy to remove, replace, reorganize whenever needed. Due to life getting in the way, it took longer than I expected, but it is finally operational. It has only been running a few weeks, but I think I've mostly achieved the intended effect. I'll start add some gorgonians soon!

With no nutrient management other than a skimmer and weekly 30% water changes, I am getting a daily coating on green film algae on the glass. While green film is not much of a problem and may be beneficial for the inhabitants (feeding copepods on surfaces and coral/sponges when I scrape it off the glass), I am getting tired of scraping the tank every day. In a past aquarium, I have used a diy trough-style algae scrubber that worked very well, but it took up space I just don't have in this small sump. This time, I am repurposing the filter sock space to be an algae scrubber. I simply mounted a night fishing light in the middle of a filter cup and lined the filter cup with a plastic canvas screen. It seems like the perfect solution because I wasn't planning on using filter socks anyway and the water already makes a waterfall as it passes into the filter cup. I'll update if/when algae starts to grow!

We are excited to welcome Fintastic Aquariums of Maryland as a Platinum sponsor of the club. If you are in the Frederick, MD area or passing through be sure to stop in and check out what they have to offer. Fintastic Aquariums of Maryland 1713 Rosemont Ave. suite C Frederick md 20702 https://www.fintasticaquarium.com/

No one knows algae better than algae! lol

I have mainly LPS, anemone and soft corals, I am not sure about the clam or SPS. But turning the light off for 3-4 days was the most effective way for me, without using chemicals, to control Cyno. I have done it few times without losing any corals. Foxface and 2 bar fish and 4 tuxedo urchins eliminated the bubble and hair algae A good person to reach out to is Richard Ross, last year speaker, who encouraged me to use the light method.

I just wanted to thank everyone again for all the love and support you have shown the store while we had our saltwater department. If we can ever help you out, we will still keep frozen foods, salt water, RO water, and pods in stock though. Chris

Down to one larva of this age, have four that are about a month longer, but today is day 100 post hatch, and this is from a couple days ago:

A little reminder to support our longtime sponsor Blue Ribbon Koi and Marine. Whether you are in the market for quality saltwater fish and corals for your aquarium, equipment, or looking for koi for your pond, BRK has it all. Make plans to visit their showroom soon and feed the koi in the holding ponds outside - great fun for the entire family. Indeed, spring is a great time to head on over to the store and see all the new koi they have in the sales ponds outside the shop, and you can bring the kids with you to feed them. Likewise, BRK was a big sponsor of the club's Holiday Party and donated over 80 coral frags to the event. Thank you BRK for your support!

I bought some orphek lenses for my iPhone. Took a bit of messing around to get what I wanted, and not there yet, but brats breaking out the DSLR…

Expensive is relative. You're going to pay more for QT'd, especially prophylactically treated fish. I honestly don't know how anybody can do it properly with a brick and mortar overhead, and make money. - I agree with Miggs, Reefescape is doing a great job. Visited the store for the first time last month, and it's one of the cleanest shops I've been to in a while. - Capital Exotic Fish is in the process of breaking down all their saltwater stuff in DC, might check with them and see if they have any fish left. - Exotic Reef Creations I think has slowed down/possibly stopped all together on their fish. As far as I know, they were the only local place that was doing a 100% proper QT. I also don't know very many hobbyists that properly QT everything that goes into their tanks anyways, don't know how important that is to you. - Blue Ribbon Koi, but I have not had much interaction with them since I moved to MD 5 years ago. - Supreme Reefs does fish, but I have not had much interaction with them since I moved to MD 5 years ago.

One thing I don’t do on these builds is take my time… The tank was delivered on March 19th and had 2 WAMAS members help me move it. This tank was much lighter than the last! I wasted no time cleaning it up and getting the RODI going. I replaced my pre-filters in hopes of providing the cleanest water I could. It took 3 and a half days to fill it. once it was filled, I ran some carbon and GFO in a reactor for about 12 hours to soak up anything left in the water or from the tank it’s self. After that, I added salt, let it mix over night then added the rock which has been cooking for about 3 weeks or so, along with some live sand. after I started noticing some pods and life running around the tank, all from the rock, I added a big piece of rock from my 38g. This will add more life, and has some corals stuck to it which will be a good indicator. It’s a rock I’ve had for about 10 years so full of coraline, sponges, brittle stars pods etc. it also has some Zoas and blue pavona(?) on it that will be my test corals. placement is not final, the center will be mostly open. I will add a little more rock, mostly lower stuff to keep LPS and Zoas off the sand bed Next week I should have my first batch of fish coming from ORA and helpfully my lights will get delivered.

I’d recommend two separate circuits (separate breakers), if you can. Both gfci. Keep your critical systems split between them, so if one trips, your tank survives long enough for you to notice and fix the problem.

It brings me great sadness to announce we are closing our Saltwater department. All of our fish/ inverts will be 25% off starting Friday til they are gone. All of our corals are 40% off and whatever is left will be even greater discount at Reefing USA. As far as dry goods goes, I will be letting things go at cost to clear out our inventory. Don't sleep on these deals before everything is gone for good. Thank you for being such an amazing club to us and appreciate all of the support you have shown us but sadly it never took off and we are struggling to keep FW fish/ plants in stock and can use the space better.

Back in business

WAMAS Platinum Sponsor Avast Marine Works is donating a Plank Automatic Feeder to the Winter meeting raffle. Thank you Avast Marine Works for the many years of supporting the WAMAS Club - It's great to have a local manufacturer of quality reefing equipment in our area.

I’ve had various iterations of backup batteries in the past, but went whole hog a little over a year ago and installed a whole house generator. 😁Now all the livestock in the house stays happy. 😃

Thanks again to our great local vendor sponsors that helped make the party awesome! Few more video posts from Facebook: BRK: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BE7PpkVKo/ Coral Candy: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/14JLb35bKo/ BRK: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DBTKpJWTu/

How's the tank doing? I want an update!