copps

Hey Tim, also, many of the LFS around will provide you a nice styro box free of charge... I know Johnny at BRK will, and if he gives you an issue tell him to put it on my tab :D

My apologies... I only meant to say that they are VERY vigilant it seems with liquids... We were travelling with our 18 month old last month and our bottled water was confiscated even for him... they said they allow juice for babies, but not water... and we were told to buy more through the gate even though we were travelling for a full day to South America... I understand they're doing their job and have more issues with the policies than the people following them, but that's a separate issue Again my apologies, but we're recommending the same thing... check the corals...

Yeah I'm sure about it Tim... I fly quite regularly and they are very vigilant... you might be able to slip by but if you got caught you'd have to hand over the corals... checking it like Craig said should work out fine though with proper packaging... I ship frags out regularly and there's almost never an issue...

Hey Tim, you'll have to put them in your checked baggage, but it's not a big deal if done right (after all, that's how our corals got to us). I just spoke with Julian Sprung about it yesterday as he went back to Miami this morning with his frags from the meeting...

Wow Rik... you need it... it's been a while since you got blitzed... I'm sure my talk would sound better coming from your mouth and your half British/half Maryland accent... :wink: To all the new members welcome! Julian is a great speaker and his topic (Old tank Syndrome) is a very common thing and something we all need to avoid for long term success. Hopefully my talk will be interesting to newbies and experienced alike... The only person I don't see liking it is Leishman, but wherever he's at he won't be hearing much anyway... Also, Raf started a "Who are you?" thread so we could post pictures of us so we could recognize who's who... Copps

The wife and I... I know I need to smile in photos more too... Copps

Inna, just give me a heads up and I could throw Doug in the closet for a while while you're visiting... Let me know...

You my friend are insane! Excellent shots and collection Chris... I look forward to the trades... John

While crack is equally addicting, it would probably be cheaper, although more detrimental to our health...

Rik if I only had a nickel for every time we did a group order from an online vendor and you said to me "if my wife asks just tell her it's some frags you're giving to me". Well... let me tell you... I must be the best aquaculturist on the planet if I'm offering 8 inch sps colonies as frags! Why can't you be like me and fully disclose all your aquarium finances with your wife?

Come on... what's the big deal? I have no problem if my wife knows that I usually spend between about $1 and $10 a visit...

Hey David, they'd hold their own with those angels when settled in, but don't dump one fresh from the ocean in with those... Let the regal settle in for a few months alone and get confident feeding and healthy...

Chances are that it will David... The few patches I left behind in my old system were gone within hours after adding my first guy in '03... I've now had a trio for almost two years and keep my zoos in a separate system... Sps, clams, ricordia, and fungia have all been safe... symphyllia and zoos have been lit up... John

You should have ordered a dozen... as if I didn't just say that a few days ago... hmm... My pair of a couple of years now...

No need for video, but it's up to you... My personal take on the whole Pacific/ Red Sea debate on survivability of these guys is due in most part to collection methods and time of transport... In many parts of the Pacific fish are collected far from where they are exported and not treated as well. The Red Sea has been a model in the industry in terms of collection methods and shipping, which I believe benefits all fish but especially regals. So, therefore, if yours is eating and fat that is a great sign. My advice would be to feed him OFTEN... whatever he'll eat and as many times a day as you could so he could restore his fat reserves lost during transit... Good luck and keep us updated...

Yeah, after looking at your shots again, I could almost confirm it's a Pacific regal... even juvenile Indian Ocean specimens are yellow throughout... If they're transhipping fish there are a number of locations that sell them for just a few dollars, and the "Red Sea" answer you got sounds like BS... Here's a shot of a juvie Indian Ocean regal... there is no grey to speak of...

Hey bud, keep in mind not all regals will devour zoanthids, and I've seen many not touch them. Don't ever get too confident though because if he takes a liking to them they might all be gone before you could do anything... Also, yours looks to be a Pacific regal (although it cannot be 100% confirmed from thos pics), especially for that price... Wholesale prices on Red Sea regals are higher than $30... Good luck... you can't relax with regals until after about 6 months regardless of how well they're doing... keep us updated... John

'Ric it is posted there... I just bumped the thread here... Copps

bump...

I've always gone off of the advice of both Joe Burger (JBNY) and Sanjay Joshi, the two foremost lighting experts. It doesn't have to be that complicated... The simple thing to do is just temporarily change your lighting schedule to acclimate everything to the new lights. If you run your lights for 8 hours a day for example, start with two hours on, two hours off, two hours on, two hours off, and slowly close the gap over the course of a few weeks. This has always worked for me even with 400 watt 10ks and acropora growing on the surface. You could keep an eye on things to see how they adapt and adjust accordingly, but something similar to the schedule above should work for most lighting upgrades and is easier to quantify than screening materials and moving corals in my opinion...

IO here for years too... it's been more cost effective for me to stick with IO rather than Reef Crystals as I go through ~70 gallons a week on my two systems... I've also noticed no difference in calcium levels at 350 or 400, and concentrate rather on my alkalinity... No other salt has been used by more kick*** tanks over the years and the quality has stayed consistant. Other newer salts may give similar results but why chance it? The only gripe about IO is the low calcium levels, and again as long as I'm at 350 I'm good so that doesn't much matter to me, even with a fully stocked sps system...

Yeah Tim, I didn't add that I too have bought many things from Roozens through the years and know Jos fairly well. This has resulted in me getting much better deals and something lately in the past year or two with Larry has resulted in him quoting much higher prices as I listen to him talk to customers, on top of his sometimes horribly misguided advice... Don't count Blue Ribbon out yet as John has only been into saltwater not too long, but he's got the right attitude, is expanding, and his fish are kept under much better conditions and are overall much healthier... He'll also special order rarer items if you're looking for them... Some recent aquisitions through Blue Ribbon for me are shown below... Longspine cardinals (Apogon leptacanthus)- years since I've seen these at Roozens... Red Stripe anthias (Pseudanthias fasciatus)- never seen at Roozens... Here's my pair of pyramid butterflies (Hemitauricthys polylepis) that I've had for well over a year, but Johnny's looking into getting these reef safe butterflies... John's going in the right direction, and if you ever have a gripe you could just tell him in person or on the forum and he'll take it to heart... unlike many other places in the area... I'm mainly an sps guy and I used to love the shipments Roozens would bring in, but now sps are few and far between there and if they sit there for more than a few days you could kiss them off!

The owner's name is Jos, and is Eric's brother and the two of them own the store. For a picture of Jos, refer to the 630 WMAL website for Garden Sense, a morning talk radio show Jos does on the weekends... it's gotta be the most entertaining garden show as Jos gets stories from people getting bogus advice from Home Depot and the like and shoots them down. Larry is missing a chromosome or something... I've gone to Roozen's for years and his stories are sometimes a bit farfetched, and will usually quote much higher prices than Jos. One thing you need to keep in mind is that Roozen's tranships most of their fish, and so they are the front line receiving fish from overseas. Most other stores in the area receive their fish from wholesalers within the US, resulting in much less die off. Generally though, their conditions are horrible and healthier fish can be found at good LFS like Blue Ribbon. Although it will be tough to ever compete with that selection, John at Blue Ribbon could pretty much now get whatever fish Roozen's gets if you're interested... John

Paracheilinus lineopunctatus

I'm almost positive Kannan got it from someone who got it from me, but for the life of me I cannot pull it from my noggin'. Kannan and I used to talk at the good old "Reef Tank" when we were waiting for new shipments of sps to come in Yeah I had a piece for Sanjay bagged up again when you showed up for the trip a couple of weeks ago... Sanjay killed the original I gave him when he stopped by in 2005 I think