rsarvis

Great to hear about the anthias! I'm in the process of buying a harem from someone. I used to have a group of chromises but I sold them. My six-line died a month or two ago, but I have a different kind of wrasse that's awesome. he doesn't swim around in the rockwork as much as six-line did, but he swims everywhere and is fearless (the bicolor pseudochormis is a bit of a bully for the smaller fish and I think is why the smaller fish congregate to one side of the tank... I might try to get rid of him, but he'll be impossible to catch, plus he was one of my first fish).

That's what I'm asking, though; which species hang near the top? Any recommendations re colorful, active swimmers that will take advantage of the whole tank length/width of the tank?

My tangs stay in the bottom third of the tank most of the time. Is that normal? My smaller fish, though they swim in the middle of the water column (and in some cases, the top), but they don't swim around the whole tank as much. I'd like to get some attractive fish that will swim around the whole tank in the middle and upper part, 'cause right now it's pretty empty-looking. If it's a species thing, what species are middle- to upper-water-column swimmers? Or do I need to build up my rockwork higher?

Man, sorry to hear about your loss. I sure know how frustrating it is, to have things going well and then boom, beloved fish dies. :( You gonna get another?

Cool, thanks.

Anyone know a good place to find less-common battery types? My ph meter uses 5 LR1130's, and places like Home Depot didn't have them when I checked. I can buy them cheaply online, but then I have to pay more for shipping than the actual batteries.

Remember, though, if you're going to move or remove the anemone, to be VERY careful getting it off a rock or glass or what not; damaging the foot will kill it... (You probably already know that, but just in case...)

What does it look like? Sometimes anemones just go through a phase where they do that, especially if it has to acclimate to a new tank; other times, they're wasting away b/c they aren't getting enough food/energy. Mine was dying several months ago b/c of the latter, but I ended up feeding it every couple days and it regained its health. There's a thread on that that you should be able to find pretty easily by searching the boards. I wouldn't give up on it, especially if it's new. What kind is it?

At least 6 months, but I'll have to look it up to see exactly. I originally had 3, one died fairly quickly after delivery, though. Didn't know they were hard to keep, other than that they're filter feeders. This one dying was my fault, though. He was doing fine until I moved the rock he was on; I think I accidentally pushed him into the sand and he couldn't get out. :(

I used to have two K4s in my 180 on opposite side walls, placed toward the top front corners. I used a couple smaller powerheads toward the back. My rock work and corals made it so I couldn't really put it toward the back which is what I would have preferred, probably, to keep them a little less prominent. It worked fine. (I only have one K4 right now, as I wait for the replacement K4 to come.)

I got home Sunday night, but the lights were off, so I couldn't tell how everyone was doing, but the tangs were still alive. (One of my flaming sea scallops was dead, though, a casualty of my hasty rock-rearranging from Thursday night, I guess.) Monday, it looked like they were all doing pretty well; the big one didn't look as gaunt and last night and this morning, they all seemed to be eating. Not sure if everything's totally back to normal, but I'm going to keep feeding some random veggies rubbed with garlic. Last night I also turned down my heaters a bit; this morning, temps were reading a little lower, maybe half a degree, if even that. So things are looking good. Maybe it was the rock-rearranging that added some sleeping quarters to reduce stress; maybe it was just me worrying too much and seeing things that weren't a problem; maybe it was just that time of the month for the big tang; maybe it was something else entirely?? I'll keep a watch on them, though...

Yea, pics aren't working; that's why I added the red text... I uploaded to picasa, but then learned that picasa doesn't give you the pic's static link so you can paste into here, so I'll have to transfer to flickr or something. (Or if I'm mistaken about picasa, please correct me...)

Anyone have comments on this stuff posted by tygger, before I get some of that mesh to do the mesh mod? Seems like people here are pretty high on the mod, haven't had problems with build-up, and have been getting unambiguously positive results in terms of cleaning out the water. But wanted to see if there are any detractors.

This section is a great addition to the forums, allowing each member to have a scrap book of their tank. I wish I'd taken pictures when I was starting out, or at any point since then, so I could see how my tank has progressed. Finally, a year into the hobby, I've taken a bunch of pictures, and I want to share some of them with you all and start this little scrap book for memory's sake... I've had my share of mistakes, but I'm really happy with (and proud of ) my tank overall, and I thank you all for the guidance and information that you all have given me since I began. Help freely and patiently given. I've learned a ton and I keep learning every time I visit the forums. On to some pics: [Edit:] Ruh Roh!! Hold on a sec while I get the imgs to work!! left: middle: right: clowns hosting xenia: my watchman goby: weird-angle shot: another close-in:

Oh, yea, I do have a tub I could use, it's not huge but will certainly provide more swimming room. Thanks. Yea, it was either last weekend or the previous one, I did a major cleaning of the aquarium and turned up the heaters a tad and moved their location. Definitely thermometer is measuring a couple degrees higher. And it's only very recently that the fish spend all day being aggressive (or that I've noticed). And I also noticed the clown fish doing the shaky-shake thing, which I hadn't seen them do in a long time. (I hear that's a mating thing? I've never seen them lay eggs, though.) Depending on how he looks when I get back on sunday, I'll try feeding different things, and maybe remove him if he's looking worse.

dang that's big. how much would that baby fetch?

Okay, never mind then! Thanks for sharing the wisdom.

saltwaterfish.com has blue carpet anemones in; they're $99. is this a good/reasonable price? i kinda want one, but i've sworn off spending much money (although i was oddly tempted by that 180g craigslist link posted last week...). assuming blue carpet anemones can be split like other anemones, are there other folks out there who'd be interested in buying one and then (i guess after a suitable amount of time to get over the stress of shipping) splitting it up? this hobby reminds me of what a sailing hobbyist said to me about boats: they're a hole in the water into which you pour money. seems like reef aquaria are tanks of water into which you pour money.

Do you think increased temperature has anything to do with the increased aggressiveness toward each other? I noticed my tank temperature had been low for quite a while (around 76.5) and finally got around to increasing it (now about 78.5) to what I used to have it at. Maybe temperature has an effect on hormones or something? Or does that not make sense?

No, I went to their website (www.hydor.com), left them a message (see below), and their email response just said to include a printout of the email with the returned product. plus a shipping address.

I bought a Koralia 4 almost exactly year ago. About a month ago, it stopped working, nothing stuck externally and not due to buildup, not even a hum, so something wrong inside. Someone on here told me to contact Hydor directly and they would replace it. Indeed, I sent them an email a week or two ago and just got the reply today saying to send in the product and they'd send a replacement. So I'm very pleased with the customer service. Seems like others have had problems with their early Koralia models; hopefully whatever faults have been fixed.

I appreciate all your comments. I rearranged sine rockwork last night, but alas I don't think I created any new sleeping places for a big fish. I'll have to try again. Terrible time to have to go out of town for a couple days, but I will take further action when I get back. I recognize I rely on feeding mysis too much for the other fish, but I didn't realize chaeto wasn't appropriate as a base food for the tang. I added nori or boiled broccoli or some nuisance algae from the sump every now and then, but not every day and not huge pieces. Since doing a little cleaning of my sump last weekend, I have less nuisance algae to feed, so I'd been adding nori more often, but this morning I couldn't even get anyone eating nori and the broccoli and spinach don't look like they've been touched. Looks like I'll probably have to take the big guy out immediately when I get back and try to get him back into shape. Is it going to be problematic to put him in a 10g even temporarily? That's all I have in the way of other tanks...

I think it's been 4 months. I mostly feed mysis and chaeto, plus nori when I remember. Should I be feeding something more specific to tangs? I was considering stress as an issue, but wasn't sure. I put in two other tangs a month or two ago and was watching closely to see if it became a problem. They were skittish at first, but calmed down fairly quickly. When the lights are all on and all off, there's no fighting; with the dusk lights only, there's some jockeying around. They've all been eating all this time, and I'm pretty sure I saw the big guy eat very recently. And this guy is the biggest by far, so I'd think it would be a smaller one that would be stressed.

My large-ish yellow tang looks gaunt; I only noticed this morning. When I fed mysis, he didn't look like he was eating, so I added nori, and again no eating. I had to leave for work, though. He doesn't look outwardly unhealthy, other than his gauntness. I can't believe I didn't notice before; I can see his spine. Any idea what might be the problem? Should I try different food? Soak something (what?) in garlic? He ate like a horse since I got him several months ago, and I hadn't seen him not eat until today.

wow, beautiful fish. i've never even heard of or seen pics of them before. cool the way they're all lined up like that! where'd u get 'em?