michaelg

Yeah- my comment was meant to come across more as try a frag before a colony from the wild. I have heard of a lot of people keeping sps with vho's. Hard to know for sure on the given setup, and to some extent, the only way to find out is to try- given that the rest of the tank is in good condition, which I imagine it is, as John has had it running for quite some time (I believe as long as my 30- likely longer). I really doubt montiporas will have a problem- acros, I just don't know. Unfortunately, there is no way of identifying "low light" acroporas as we have no idea where they come from in the wild. Most are quite adaptable and will brown up (increase zoox density) if needed, given they can handle the transition to tank life after the whole shipping trauma. Personally I feel the key to determining this is to use a hardier than h*ll acro- some that have made it through h*ll and back- thus they won't RTN/die for reasons other than light. While some in the club have just vho's on their tanks and keep SPS or have had trouble with it, there are only a couple of us with tanks this size- thus comparison on how much light gets distributed to what intensity is difficult. Of course I have a 400W halide, which quite a few people thought was insane to put over a tank this size. Now one word of caution that may be problematic, is a ton of softies with SPS, but that is another story.

I would get a couple of frags of high light adapted acropora and give them a go. Not much lost if it is a frag...

Sorry for the confusion. I should have been a little clearer on when. Still setting a date. Will likely be early October. I should get over there this week and finalize something with Leon.

Just an FYI- Frank Marini has written a couple of articles in the past 2 issues of advanced aquarist. The first one deals with greenwater culture and the second is on rotifers. I hope to start my cultures in the next week, so will drop some pics and a write up after things get going Michael

Can people put up a synopsis and some pics after they set these up? I'm sure people would like to see the setups (how you configured them in the fixture, etc). Michael

Directions from I-270 Take ext 8, shady grove road heading east. head south staying in the left lane on Rockville pike. Make a U-turn where the metro station is and come back up the pike. It will be on you right side- in the strip plaza with Midas (orange sign for Midas). It is a couple of stores down.

Heads up- I am arranging an after hours meeting for the group at Coral Connection in Rockville. Easy to get to from i-270. They have had killer sps in the last couple of visits I have made. Leon has also been selling frags (some captive, some from busted up wild corals), for $5! His prices vary sometimes though- but if you go, tell him you heard about the shop from WAMAS. Anyhow- general plan is for a Sunday, at 6:00 when the shop closes (or after 8:00 on Saturday).. Thought a Sunday meeting might help a few people who have other obligations on Saturdays. This will be an open meeting- as hopefully some store customers will come as well. Beverages and Snacks. I am trying to arrange it after he gets a large shipment. They are cool about bringing things for us to trade amonst ourselves. Stay Tuned! I am planning on doing similar things with some of the other stores as well. At meetings, we don't have quite enough general chat time, as I'm always making you guys listen to speakers. Michael

1. Everyone- we are just a dissapointed as all of you- there were some fabulous threads that were really informative.....Perhaps we can figure out some sort of archive system....I don't know- I'm sure Tom can look into it. 2. I am experiencing some problems with how things are listed at the top of the thread thing- appears something incompatible with the skin and netscape 4??? Please list any problems that you encounted in this thread so we can work through them. Also note on you register that if you check off the hide your e-mail address, you can not recieve e-mail from the send e-mail button- if it matters.... Michael