trble81

The pics seem to fit the bill. I guess it'll either live or call it quits in my tank...not like I was planning on having any so I won't be heart-broken if it shrivels up. Thanks for the ID help.

Ok, I've got a question. I know what fish eggs look like. I've seen what snail eggs look like. Can someone tell me what hermit crab eggs look like? The reason why I ask is that I noticed my scarlet hermit hanging out in an area on some live rock and really not moving around. I looked real close to where it was sitting and noticed that there were these real small, clear finger-like projections that had these pearly-white dots at the end of them (looking at your tank at night with a flashlight is the only way to go). Later today I noticed why my hermit wasn't moving. I saw it's red legs on the substrate and noticed that it wasn't so scarlet anymore but more of an orange color (molting action....I guess). I noticed that those projections were gone (I think). Then, I wanted to show my wife what I was talking about and there they were again! If I had to label them with another type of description, think of it as an elegance plate coral but the tentacles are clear...and they're super small. I wish I could post a pic but there's no way the camera we have is going to get a pic that will look anything. Am I going nuts? Does anyone have an idea? Thanks in advance. --Mike

The tank was set up in January and is pushing 3 months now. The water source is tap conditioned with PRIME. I know we should use RO/DI but we live in Howard Co., MD (water is pretty good) and when we get to setting up the new 90 we're getting from Raf (later this year), I'll have saved up money for a RO/DI unit. I can look into non-invasive macro and trim when necessary but if it's a tank age thing, everything in there is doing fine and I'm willing to wait.

I understand canister filters are nitrate factories. That's why I was cooking my skin to clean those filters. As far as skimmers, I have an AquaC Remora running. My sand bed is ~2 inches and is call aragonite live sand. Any other suggestions?

I don't have a 'fuge so do I toss a bunch of Cheato in the tank or....?

All, We have a 35 gallon hex-tank FOWLR and have a canister filter. Just recently did a water change (like a day or so ago) and while doing it, I took apart the canister and ran the filter pads under hot water to get them white again. I tested the chems and everything was fine, but the Nitrates were at 15. According to the Consciencious Marine Aqariust, under 25 is ok but closer to 0 is better. Everything in the tank is fine but we do want to add some peppermint shrimp to help with some apastia that has come up. I've noticed some Nitrate "sponges" that you can add to your canister filter trays for help but what I've seen they say for freshwater use only. Are there some for marine or a technique to drop the levels. I don't over feed, so I've got that going for me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated (I may quote books but I'm still reading them so I may have not gotten to that section yet ) Thanks in advance and I hope to see a bunch of you at the tank tours!

Copps, You should change your title of the presentation you gave from "Rare Angelfish" to "Rare Angelfish that you can never afford"... Good job man!

Mike and I are planning on trying to come to all 3 houses. See you all there!

I like the hat. It says, "If you can't read, then look for the upside-down fish"

I guess if you intend on getting blitzed, it's best to stay at home. The alternative would be to go there hammered and shout "Yahoo! FISH BABY!!" every time the speaker takes a pause. :wink:

Kind of interested to see who's going to the Spring Meeting this coming Sunday. This will be our first meeting. We missed the winter one and unfortunately didn't get to meet a whole lot of people at the Scales social (hard without name tags and stuff). For easy ID, I'll probably be wearing a striped rugby shirt with my black leather jacket (looks like the weather will be upper fourties as opposed to lower seventies like tomorrow) and my wife is a red-head. We know a couple of people but we can't wait to meet everyone else! --Mike and Heather

NAGA is a vendor member of WAMAS

Steve, I'm glad you went to the ER to get looked at. I had a feeling you'd be on steroids as a result. Just an FYI, steroid treatment does reduce you inflamation but slows down your healing process so if you have cuts that take forever to heal, you know why. Also, if they go and tell you that your blood tests show an elevation in glucose (if you have to go for blood tests, of course), let them know you are on that medication. I worked with a guy who had surgery and was on steroids and he was told that he was a diabetic and they made him take meds for it. When he went off the steroids, he was still on the meds for the glucose and was now on the low end and feeling like crap. Not until he told them did they correct that mistake. Take care man!

That's when you'd see this on CNN's web site: "Man takes shotgun to fish tank in search of Great Worm"

don't they eat coralline?

I know you should keep it as low as possible but what's an acceptable range? You say it's a little high but I can't find a definitive scale. Thanks for the suggestion though. I'll super clean the sponges in my canister filter and clean the gravel better to get rid of the detrious (water change due this week). I'll definately watch the level prior to getting any more shrimp.

I second that! Scales is awesome and Andrew (dude with the beard, AndrewB on the boards) is a cool guy to bounce dumb questions off of (and for being noobs, that's a good thing!!).

I just read online and you should have died in a few min. after the affects kicked in....if it was the toxin. As far as absorption into the blood stream, the toxin is a steroid in shape, making it easily absorbed into cells (through their membrane). Again, you probably don't have it so don't worry about it. As far as the discomfort, wait just a bit and if it doesn't subside, go to the ER so you can be looked at. They'll probably give you a Rx for some sort of steriod inhaler to help with the inflamation that's causing all the discomfort (usually given to folks with an asthema attack). My $.02, not a doctor but I've gotten enough education and worked at a hospital. Hope you feel better!

We drip acclimated for an hour. As far as nitrates, I tested yesterday and it's at 15 ppm. Everything else is doing fine (fish, hermits, turbo snail, kenya tree, green striped mushrooms, etc.). I'm leaning towards I got a bum shrimp. I'll probably replace with a pair; not immediately but maybe in a couple of weeks or so.

Ouch! Makes the 8.99 I spent at Scales for my guy a little better...still mad though. I got a scarlet hermit that day and he's as happy as can be though.

Yes...the day has come... It was just our peppermint shrimp but any loss will bug me. We only had him for a week, so that bugs me a bunch. The down side is that he didn't touch the aptasia in our tank (the reason why we got him). I guess my question is how long do they usually last (peppermint shrimp or any other shrimp for that matter)? I just don't want to constantly replacing shrimp (I think what we had was just a fluke).

You should set up what they have at grape vine fields. There are this cannon looking things that use propane (I think) and every couple of min it builds up some gas and ignites it, causing a noise that sounds like a shotgun going off. It always scared the bejesus out of me and I never saw any birds around. Or, you could just sit in a rocking chair all day and fire a real shotgun into the air when they come around :wink: Of course, I'm only kidding.....

Are there different formulas to activated carbon? I could have sworn I saw something along those lines in a catalogue somewhere (this brand is awsome because...and it's price is... oh, by the way, here's Jimmy's brand of activated carbon for cheaper...)

Ahh, cool. Thanks. I was thinking about doing some book buying today.

I didn't see it on the clearance page but I think it looks like the SEIO electronic controller but what I saw before was smaller, and according to my searching online, doesn't control pumps (like SEIO one does) obviously ;-)