Almon

I bought a new Pinpoint pH probe about 6 months ago and only used it for about two weeks. My monitor is bad..... You can have it for $25 and are also welcome to return it for a full refund if you feel that it doesn't work for you. I am working in Dulles for the next couple days if you would like to hookup. BRK probaby carries them also...

Got any pictures?

try to siphon out as much as possible when doing water changes

My 220g is on the basement floor without shims and has about a 1/2" difference over 6', maybe 3/4". In over 8 years, that has never come into play for any reason as far as I can tell.

Thanks everyone. Large Clarkii living in really large Umbrella leather (shown in the 2005 picture of post #1) Blue Tang I've had for more than 11 years Pink Tipped Green Frogspawn Sea of Palys

Move to the basement......

The Purple Gorgonian came from the CMAS Picnic in May. Geofloors got it somewhere. I don't feed it which may be why it's almost completely dead now. I have moved it to many differents lighting scenarios, but it just fades away. Too bad, it was beautiful. I have another Purple Gorgonian that is much lighter purple with large brown polyps all over it. It ha been thriving in my reef for more than 6 years. I actively propagate that one.

The Green Hydnophora is in the 2002 picture. This is right after a purchased it. Look directly above the Blue Tang. It's had two stalks that were only half populated with coral flesh. Also notice the umbrella leather in the top 2002 picture. It is the blurry blob behind and to the left of the Hydnophora and about 3" in diameter. In the 2005 picture, it's clear to see the umbrella leather, it's huge. It had moved to the front of the reef and was beginning to move down and to the left. The Hydnophora is just behind and to the right of the huge umbrella. Originally it occupied only a few square inches of a large rock. Now it occupies the entire rock encrusting over everything. This is the Hydnophora in May 2002 when I saved it from the LFS. This is the Hydnophora in August 2007.

I greatly enjoy observing the various animals growing in my reef and I thought I would share some of the pictures with all of you. My reef has seen many changes in the past eight (8) years and has developed quite nicely. I owe much of the credit for recent changes to joining the two organizations WAMAS and CMAS. This is my 1st year (2007) as a participant and have greatly benefited from the knowledge transfer and from the purchases and trades of various corals with other members, and I thank you. Here is a brief history: I set up my 1st aquarium in 1987. It was a 55g freshwater tank "Loaned" to me my by a friend without the space to store it. Over the next 4 years I added several more freshwater tanks (bitten by the bug) and then converted the original 55g to my 1st saltwater aquarium in 1991, fish only. Early in 1999, I decided to move the fish to a much larger tank, so I bought a 220g. I filled it up and moved the fish from the 55g and 1 week later went to Mexico on Vacation. Three days into Cozumel (that's when I got certified for SCUBA), my roommate called and said the tank was leaking. Luckily, he was able to take all the fish to PetSmart (for free) to hold until I got back. Wow, that saved all the fish. At the same time I decided to start a "Reef Tank" in a 40g long. It was all over after that......when I set the new 220g up I made it the reef tank. Woohoo! Additions to the tank were slow, over years, 350lbs of live rock is expensive. The softies did well, much better than the hard corals, and I continued to keep the same fish. The Blue Tang in my avatar was added to the 55g around 1996 and thrives today. Except, I could not understand why I could not keep small fish. I would add them, see them once or twice after that, and that was it...they vanished. Then I figured out that I had a Stomatapod, a Mantis Shrimp. I've seen him in the past, a few times, I thought he was cute, and he's been around for a while, having been transferred over from the original 55g. OMG! He killed all small fish and most crabs and snails. For several years, I did not spend much time with the reef tank, letting it continue and grow as is, with little to no maintenance, except water changes. Lots of water changes. As a result, I have a lot of Pink Sinularia and Green Laser Mushrooms. I also have an XL colony of Heliopora that I received from GARF as a tiny frag that is now my centerpiece, and I am actively propagating my excess corals. I have a piece of Hydnophora that I rescued from the LFS that is now huge and loving life. Now, since joining WAMAS and CMAS, I am re-energized about the hobby. I have added a frag tank, refugium, RO/DI (I have always used tap water), and kalk stirrer. May 2002 February 2005 July 2007 Here are some of my favorite pictures: Coral Banded Shrimp Purple Gorgonian Teal Sarmentosa Acropora Frag Lunare Wrasse Dragon Eye Zoanthids

I have gone back and forth between Instant Ocean and Reef Crystals without any issues. I believe Phil (grav) mixes the two together. I have heard that Reef Crystals is Instant Ocean on steroids, the same with some added stuff. How's that for technical talk? Reef Crystals are really expensive.

I have two skimmers with automatic drains. I drilled a 3/8" and screwed in a pvc elbow that a tube connects to. The hob skimmer is higher than sewage drain so it drains directly into the sewer. I have another in the sump, so it drains to a bucket, but I don't like that....I have to empty the bucket. That's some stinky stuff.... Automatically draining to the sewer is awesome! However, I would not suggest getting a skimmer that is too big for your sump space. You need to be able to move it for cleaning and maintenance.

Submitter: Almon Packard, Almon Location: Almon's Reef (frag tank) Camera Used: Kodak Digital DX7630 Subject: Teal Sarmentosa Acropora viewed under 20K metal halide

It's been 16 days since I first posted about the decline of the zoanthids. After not finding any moving critters on them using a microscope, I decided that more water flow was the next step. I've kept them in direct flow for the past two weeks. I also had another rock with a few polyps that I left out of the flow. Those polyps melted and dissappeared within three days. The zoanthid polyps that I put in direct flow appear to have completely stopped declining. The polyps that were mostely affected have completely dissolved away, but the problem does not appear to have spread to any other polyps. A few of the afftected polyps may have gotten better.

I'd like to bring my test kit and some water to the social. I stopped using Kalk about a week and a half ago because the Alk was reading 14.1 after recharging, so I have been letting it drop. It's down to 12.1 now.

Yes, salt kills. Consider setting something up to empty the water into the sewage drain. And I agree, Bob's got mutant weeds.

After that, rinse it again.

Hmmm.....maybe I need a new test kit? SG: 1.026 Salifert 14.4 Box BRK Dan, what's your readings?

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I also added two fish to the reef, a six line wrasse and a psychedelic Mandarin. But I now have zoanthids in the frag tank melting, so it's not the fish eating them. 3 weeks ago I replaced the 55g aquarium that I used as a freshwater holding tank with two large 50g trash cans. I went to Scales yesterday. Andrew and Juan were very helpful, we scraped a declining zoanthid and looked under the microscope. No bugs, critters, or anything else moving. No weird substances. It just appeared to be dead or dying tissue. It must be some type of bacteria because it seems to be spreading to other zoanthid colonies. I need UV sterilization! I bought a hydor power head to increase flow and it's really nice, so I'm blasting the zoanthids and other SPS in the frag tank.

I am in Laurel and would be happy to help. Sending pm...

Changes? Oh yeah....all kinds of changes, including adding many new animals.....all of these zoanthids are only a partial list. I've been collecting lots of frags from wamas members. I've taken my Ca from 300 to 400-450, I've increased my KH from 6 to initially 17, but its falling below 13 now. I used a crappy test kit that said every drop was .5, argh. Got new Halides a couple/few months ago, added a 55g refugium with sand, new plants, new crabs and snails. Just took down the 40g frag tank because red flatworms had been recently introduced. I apparently left my frag condom at home and was not practicing safe frag trading. I removed all of the sand and gravel which had thousands and thousands of pods. The tank was set back up with a bare bottom. Also I added a new 55g fish tank with 2 new bags of live sand, no fish yet. All of my tanks are on the same shared sump system. Got a new skimmer and put it in the sump, took the old HOB skimmer and put it on the 55g fish tank. Oh yeah.....I finally removed my balls a week and a half ago.....now I feel like a 21st century man! I started seeing the 1st zoanthids decline about 4 or 5 weeks ago. Yes! I would love to do that....probably not until tommorrow evening....thanks! Nice post

The Christmas zoas were 14" under the surface. There were in between 2 175w 10K MH (coralife, kinda crappy) and 1 96w 420nm actinic. The lights are 5" above the surface with glass in between. That's not too much light is it? I've usually stuck with "more light the better". The top picture doesn't show it, but around these zoas are a Digitata, a Slimer, a couple Milli's, and a birdsnest. To support them I pointed a powerhead directly into these sps corals which would be directly over the zoas. Is that still not enough...or could it be too much? The milli polyps are waving in the current. The "Dreaded Pox"? That doesn't sound good. Is it going around?

Melting? Yeah...that's what they're doing alright.... I've never heard of Lugols...looked it up...Iodine dip. So you think it is a bacteria or parasite? I have the Tropic Marin Pro Coral Dip, another Iodine dip....it's good stuff. I recently put all of my frags in an iodine dip, but these zoanthids were in the reef tank and did not get dipped......until yesterday. I tried that on the Christmas zoas, but that doesn't seem to help. They look twice as bad today.