copps

Who gave you this horrible idea?!

Thanks for all the support guys... it's a new day and I'm calm... the best revenge is that people who lead their lives this way will be rewarded with failed relationships and acquintances who will never trust them... hopefully he realizes this before his relationships outside of the reef world don't alienate him like those inside the reef world have... this kid was a part of every major discussion board out there... Yeah, selling frags right away for profit is slimy, but again scamming people out of time, money, and dignity (not to mention PPEs) is another thing... Being at a World Cup qualifier where Ecuador, the second smallest nation in South America, beat the biggest soccer powerhouse in the world was an all time favorite moment of mine... I still recall the drunken chants as me and my wife's relatives yelled "Nos vemos en Japon!"... there's a passion in the stadium that trumps all the Superbowls... the cost of the ticket was $8, while the average monthly salary was around $40 when I was there... people would have paid to get in with their organs! The best thing about this last string of shutout victories es que ya tenemos respeto del mundo... Ecuadorian soccer now is well respected... this round of qualifying Ecuador again beat BRAZIL and ARGENTINA and still no respect was given in the analyses from commentators... not so now baby... Ecuador is not the best team, but they've dominated teams early in this Cup more than England (nearly drawing with Trinidad and Tobago and only beating Paraguay as the result of an own goal), Brazil (again squeaking by 1-0 in a non convincing game), and the US (as much as I root for them, they played like a high school team in the first game)... Oh and Doug, Leishman's friendship is fine... no one is more frightened of England's lack of a production against mediocre teams than Brits themselves... Que viva La Copa...

Hey Garrett! I remember well now. I will be sure to let you know. Thanks for the support... it's face to face meetings like ours and in our local club that usually scumbags like this guy can't stomach... we are lucky to have a great local club... What's worse is that my 11 month old son went to the emergency room last night for the first time after falling from his high chair... he's fine and we did it for precautionary reasons... but it was OVER three hours, and I woke up early this morning to pack up this scumbag's replacement frag only so he could sell all of them for a profit... Anyway, the only positive thing in the last 24 hours is Ecuador advancing in the World Cup for the first time in history... While my four grandparents are Italian, I lived and studied in Ecuador and the Galapagos and met my wife there... I saw Ecuador beat Brazil for the first time in history in 2001 when living there... they beat them again along with Argentina this time around, and are on a streak of two shutouts and currently on top of their group... Anyway, here's my little squirt along with me in my Ecuador jersey... Vamos Tricolor!

Safecrackers have their scams too... Check this out... http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=851833 I provided Dave with his safes and he happily posted the comparison picture... :wink: dzekunoi, I'll PM you tomorrow as my blood is still boiling a bit over this...

I've already been in touch with Skipper at RC to get him banned... he actively PMed me as many people do on RC... GioNVA, this one may be evidence :D... if you're serious I could let you know when I have another pack available... This is crazy... I wonder if the local Ohio guys over there know him?

Please refrain from insulting dirt in a bag... a dirt bag is not THAT BAD

Wow guys... well this is a must read thread... I'm Brooklyn Johnny at nano-reef and Copps on RC as some of you know... Take a look at what this guy tried to do to me... http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...pic=89677&st=40 Copps

Thanks all for the nice comments... Rocko, the Ricordea floridas were pretty slow growers... not like some zoos, but when they starting taking off they got faster, and when you weren't looking at them every day... Howard, thanks... I'll be sure to let the board know when I have the tank tour... I'm getting these few new systems going, so I'll wait until they're ready too... Scott... it was great meeting someone who not only lived and studied in Ecuador, but at the same University and same biodoversity station in the jungle! I remember them saying that they measure remoteness by how many boats pass by in the river per year, and they were at 2 per year not related to the station :D. I actually heard on NPR radio the other day a story on the Tiputini Biodiversity Station... Sam... I'm happy to be part of the reason you'll have no money in the future... :D seantadez... como sabias que yo hablo espanol? :D A veces me da la gana de mudarme a Ecuador y abrir la primera tienda de peceras de aqua salada en el pais! Hey Lee, I'm amazed that lyretails are not more popular... cheap, colorful, active... I love em... and get a large angel!... they... uh... won't touch your LPS Howard, I'd actually like to start maybe giving some speeches on some of my interests... regarding the tanks it's there's no secret... just like Craig said attention to detail and attention to the principles of reefkeeping... unfortunately my travel with work has done me in as it did earlier this year... so another principle is never leave your house... :D Thanks, Copps

An amazing offer there John and we should all thank you (despite you butchering the spelling of my name! ). For those of you who don't know the Lumenarc, read the Advanced Aquarium article written by Sanjay Joshi that put Lumenarcs on the map and all other reflectors to shame... Reflector Article... or just look at this spectral graph, showing the Lumenarc casting near perfect 2'x2' light square perfect for many of our systems... before the article in '03 they were known by many reefers, just not of the coral kind if you know what I mean... Those that have seen the 500 gallon Penn State tank know that just four of these reflectors light the 500 gallons without a dim spot anywhere! Props John for being in touch with the state of the art of the hobby... you LFS owners are supposed to be clueless! Cheers, Copps

Thanks Jake... I just shot you an e-mail in response to our conversation this weekend... John

Thanks Bob... I'll try to contribute more here... This is a warm board with friendly members and it really makes you feel good about the hobby. I clicked on your webpage and very nice! Few people know I'm a zoo nut as well, yet my love for regal angels and zoos do not mix, so I have my entire collection in the frag tank. This is a small slice of it below. I'm FINALLY getting going my two corner 54s going which will be for my two clownfish pairs, zoos, and other softies, lps, and a ritteri anemone... that and a 7 1/2 foot long fish only in our kitchen... when these are chugging along I'll have the tank tour! Inna thank you... that's mine and my wife's favorite fish of course too! Below is a more recent shot of the three of us and my wife's family last week when Nicholas was baptized in Quito, Ecuador (I'm holding Nicholas and my wife Virginia is hanging onto me). We met 8 years ago when I was studying and living in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands (fish of course!) for around 2 years total... we've been married now for just over five now and travel back yearly. My four grandparents were Italian immigrants (surprise surprise... an Italian from Brooklyn!:D), but I learned my Spanish fluently there and found our cultures very similar and family oriented... dmward99 thanks... my wife found the costume on Ebay actually I think... We completely decorated his room with... well... you could see below... if he doesn't like fish he's going to have a rough life! Here's a shot with my mother-in-law showing his room... Come on Doug! This hobby is much more exciting and is evolving faster than the things you mention... and there's more to be pioneered! I'll be satisfied when my house looks like the Georgia Aquarium... maybe

Thanks Chris! No worries Sharon, we all started as beginners and we can all learn from each other regardless of experience... anyone with a passion for the hobby I enjoy talking too! Being a beginner in this day and age is much easier with all of the resources and clubs... when I started the method unfortunately that we learned by resulted in a path of destruction resulting in misinformation provided by books and bad LFSs...

An excellent idea Craig, but it will require alot of work. At the most it would be every month... every two weeks would be too much. There are so many beautiful local setups that we could show... many not big or fancy... This will require a lot of preparation, but we could get the ball rolling soon... of course a chat over a couple beers is necessary...:D Thank you Sharon! What has always inspired me is people with a passion for this wonderful hobby... thoe who know me know I could talk for hours on end about it... and there is no better way than in a local club. As for my pics, I know very little about photography and owe everything to Nikon's macro abilities... I hope to see you at the meeting... one of the issues is putting a face to screen names... we need a seperate thread maybe for this? Have we met?

It took you 15 minutes to reply Rik! Wow! I'd love to have the time to peruse multiple blogs while at work like some people I know... Cheers... as you Brits say And enough of the "muddy puddle"... you're system rocks and the only reason many people don't know it is because you can't take a picture for ****... ... Oh... and you're a "master reefer" and I'm just a "reefer"

Speaking of guys who work their butts off for the club... Sounds great... we'll chat tomorrow, and I'll shoot you an email with the few images I could dig up of your system... See you tomorrow Craig... John

What's up all? My local buddy Rik Leishman let me know about a photo contest at Congressional Aquarium and I started compiling some and thought I'd share here on WAMAS. While I'm at every meeting in the club I rarely post and haven't posted shots of my systems in years here at WAMAS and have been getting flack for some time. I'm copps at Reef Central and frequent there quite a bit for those who know me online there... I've been in the club for about four years now since moving to the area and getting married after college, and remember the small days of WAMAS. There's been excellent growth in the club and I feel like a stanger now at the meetings sometimes, a positve feeling if you look at the growth of the club. For those at MACNA, I was the guy who introduced Charles Delbeek and was grinning from ear to ear throughout the event... Anyway, to all of those I don't know (and those I do!) Cheers... Thanks to those who have made this an excellent club! I'll shutup now and share some pics :D My current setup has been going since 12/04 after having our house built in Leesburg and was an upgrade after moving. The display is a 180 gallon that I got about 12 years ago while working in high school at a fish place in Jersey, and was finally able to set back up. The total gallons of the system are over 400 as I have a custom built fish room with a 6 foot frag tank, large refugium and sump, and 5 dedicated 20 amp circuits as the 180 will eventually be swapped for a 500+ gallon display! For those who do know me I am nuts when it comes to the hobby, and God Bless my wife for dealing with me! Anyway, here are some semi-dated shots as I am still in the process of rebuilding after a minor meltdown while away on business earlier in the year. I lost some colonies but fortunately no fish... I had a bunch of people over during MACNA, and hopefully some time this summer I'll do a tank tour when I'm 100% happy with my systems... A shot showing coral development with the pumps off, thus scaring many of the fish away... Another fishless shot:D Before you think I'm one of those "where's the fish?" reef tank guys... here's some feeding time shots... This one's taken with flash under actinics, and it shows my trio of regal angels that I've now had for over a year... some other notables are Tongan bimaculatus anthias, a Christmas Island black tang, a tomini tang, and a pair of chrysurus angels from Kenya that have since been yanked after picking a little to much on my reef... they are awaiting a fish only system I'm setting up... the smaller of the two I've had for years since before the move and was grown from a squirt... Some more feeding shots with flash under actinics... the moorish idol I had for a while before he started eating a beautiful A. prostrata I have... away he went! I'm instead going to do a group of these in my fish only along with the chrysurus... Below are some shots under regular lighting... you could see my hybrid powder blue/goldrim tang... a beautiful combination of the two species resulting in a steel blue and characterisitcs from both species... Here are some shots of my previous 65 gallon from our old apartment near Dulles Town Center... I worked so hard on this small system and it was so hard to break it down (physically and mentally) and move. It won Tank of the Month at Reefcentral and was featured in Reefkeeping Magazine in September of 2004. You could read all you'd want to know about it at this link... http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/totm/index.php My original regal angel in this awesome shot... I have always loved this fish since getting a saltwater tank back in middle school over 15 years ago, but at that time they were considered nearly unkeepable... many people are now having success with this fish and it's demanding requirements I've always loved top shots as they show the truw beauty and suntan of the corals... here's some shots from left to right of my old 65... My old Ricordia florida bed... this species has unfortunately skyrocketed in price... Finally my old 10 gallon "kitchen nano" that I had in out kitchen in the apartment, again thanks to the go ahead from my excellent wife... Thanks to her she keeps me somewhat on this planet... without her I'd probably flood the house with water and fill it with corals ... This system was featured over three years ago at nano-reef.com where my username is Brooklyn Johnny (born in Brooklyn and raised outside the city in Jersey ), but unfortunately all of the photos didn't survive when they updated the boards... First shot with cabinet open above showing refugium... Front shot... Side shot... my Solomon Island onyx perc has now been paired up for about two and a half years... and the six line is HUGE and nasty... stay away from sixlines... they're only cute for a little... after that they won't allow any addition anywhere near their own size... even in a 180 gallon system... and it's not the tap tap welcome of some tangs... it's more the "I will hunt you until you're dead" welcome... A top shots... I successfully kept many sps and tridacnids in this system as the PCs were right on the water and I fed phytoplankton heavily for the tridacnids... I always thought this was a neat shot... with my clown getting taken by a UFO into the light... Anyway, I look forward to the meeting tomorrow and thanks again to all that make this club run... I'd be way more involved if not for a demanding job and this giant ocellaris clownfish that robs more time than any other fish (held by my father- Nicholas' grandpa)!:D

What gives Gary... why is the yellow the dorkfish? He's the only American of the three... where's your national pride!?:D

What is recommended to the novice reefer and what is accomplished by experienced reefers are two different things. Through careful planning and introduction multiple tangs and angels could be kept in home aquaria, even to the point of spawning. However, this is not an easy task and many times even if you need to ask the question you should not attempt. With that said, in a four foot system I'd only recommend you go with Zebrasoma genus (like the yellow you have) or Ctenochaetus genus (like a kole for example). The issue with hippos is not necessarily that they need the swimming room of for example the Acanthurus genus (like the powder blue), but rather their growth rate! I've owned many species of tangs this fish has grown faster than all... Here's my old 65 with a yellow and a tomini (Ctenochaetus tominiensis) shown in the right corner... In an old 54 corner you could see the hippo from just a couple of years ago... Here's a shot of my display today with a trio of regal angels, pair of chrysurus, and six species of tangs including the two guys seen from my old 65 and the hippo after it's growth (these shots are from last year and it's grown to become the largest fish in the system)... A shot with flash under actinics only...

All animals (and fish for that matter) produce albinos, but usually they do not make it far in life through predation as they stick out like a sore thumb. Think of a school of yellow tangs avoiding predators, with this guy sticking out... As to whether they're pretty or not... I own many Zebrasoma tangs, including a yellow and a black, and my wife and 99.9% of the people not in the hobby prefer the yellow, while seasoned reefers appreciate the oddity of the black and it's isolation to one island in the Pacific... It's neat because it's a rarity, and for those of us who've been in the hobby long it's great to see a fish that you don't see often... As for their diet, it's the same as other yellow tangs... as are all their attributes...

While not a true albino, this is a healthy variant seen with Zebrasoma flavescens... This fish is worth alot of money if you look at supply/demand... I've visited and spoken to the owner of one of the largest exporters in Hawaii and spoke about this morph, not sure if it's them selling it but it looks like the seller posted here to drum up business... Here is another example of one offered for sale years ago... There are more common examples of similar variations with Zebrasoma scopas like the below example... Another poor image of a wild one in Maui...

Put me down Mike. When is the next tank tour, or should I just pick a date? Let me know guys...

Thanks guys... I'd like to first thank the academy... :D If you haven't seen it yet check it out! John

Thanks so much guys!!!! ]]]thx [hro Jacob we are in the Remington Apartments right by Dulles Town Center Mall until our house is built in Leesburg... Lee I will arrange a day on the weekend late this month... I've been so busy responding to e-mails and threads that I've put this off, but I will be sure to arrange something this week and someone cannot make it I will have them by any other convenient time for some drinks [beer2] Thanks again all and I'll post in this thread when I have a tank tour... John

Thanks guys... I've been waiting for it to be posted and now that it finally is RC's down because of the hurricane. I'll host a day later this month for people to come by and see my setup. I'll keep in touch and once again thanks to all at WAMAS... I'll post a bunch of pictures in the gallery here when I get back home from this business trip... John (aka copps at RC and Brooklyn Johnny at nano-reef.com and saltwaterfish.com)

A more recent thread with a bunch of info on my nano can be found here (10 gallon kitchen nano). I used 2x36 watt PCs right on top of the water of this 10 gallon, and had the refugium above with a fan running with the lights. The tank temp never went above 83. The tank saw much success with sps and clams as documented, but there are many issues you have to overcome BEYOND the lighting. Many people run into problems in small tanks and many times erroniously blame lighting. Browned out and RTNed sps are not always the result of insufficient lighting. Hope that helps... Johnny