lanman

Well now I'm wondering if I couldn't add another female. He is much less agressive with his 'gal' than he was before/during the change. She is already making mating motions around him... curving her body, and kind of vibrating a little. Hussy! bob

I bet Dandy knows! bob

I doubt anyone carries those - without a forklift! bob

Okay - borrowed my daughter's camera They both looked like this yesterday: The new male - notice the spots on the fins in front, the coloring on the edges of the fins, the 'spike' on his dorsal, and the much darker line under his chin, etc: And the happy couple: Pretty cool, eh? Other than the salt streaks on the glass, that is bob

I wish this camera wasn't broken; I can take pictures - I just can't get them OUT. I had three female Anthias - one of them died (the other two picked on it). Of the remaining two, the larger and more dominant one just turned into a male. Last evening I could see a little bit of coloration change - but tonight!! He has spots on some of his fins - his color is different, and he even grew a 'spike' on his dorsal fin that he just loves to flash! I had NO idea it could happen that fast! I'm amazed! bob

Even just going is addictive... the only reason I didn't go to BRK last Sunday - is because I went on Saturday. But I'll be there again this Sunday. Because on Saturday I'm driving to holy mackeral Maryland to pick up a coral, and then picking up a new tank and stand. And I see the same people in there almost every Sunday - we all worship at the Church of the Reef. bob

Patience be darned! I started putting corals in my tank as soon as the water was clear enough to see them! And that Kenya tree is STILL alive! Unfortunately - so is the $1.49 damsel. And I'm yanking your chain - my tank went through the cycle from H-E-double hocky sticks - the whole house smelled like New York harbor. My daughter threatened to go live with her mother, and my indoor cat moved outdoors. My live rock had arrived at the store the day I bought it, after a rough voyage from Fiji. It was a month before I could see all the way to the back of the tank! As soon as the ammonia started to drop (i.e. - once the test kit read something other than 'too high to measure' - which was over a month), I put in some hermits and snails, and shortly thereafter the Kenya tree. But I'm glad I went through it; that beautiful main piece of rock wouldn't have lasted long enough for MS to cook it for me - someone would have snatched it up. I knew NOTHING about buckets of rock with heaters and pumps - which I used to great effect before I set up the 45. I knew nothing about tearing off the biggest dead sponges before I put the rock in there. Worst of all - I knew nothing about WAMAS. This forum would have saved me several bottles of Maalox Max! bob

Another good idea. I've considered making some of that stuff. I think I'll start out with some well-cured live rock from BRK (if he still has any - I bought most of it for my main tank). Then I'll try making some of the artificial rock and putting it in there - hopefully to get cured and coralite'd. Another question - I have a 30-long, very similar to the one shown in the picture above. Will a 96-watt PC light be good enough for most things? It's only about 12" from the light to the sand bed. And I just happen to have a Coralife PC fixture the right size. That will give me time to figure out what kind of a T5 setup I want on it. I really like the T5's - even though I love the 'shimmering' effect from the MH on the 24-gallon tank upstairs. I hope to set this all up on Sunday. I'll have enough water by then. You don't want to know where I'm going with this... picking up 58-gallon RR tank tomorrow to replace the 45... MIGHT get a 40-gallon sump that he has... that will give me a 20-gallon separate refugium, and a 30-gallon frag tank. Total system of 150 gallons... Major water changes! But then I'll have one of everything bob

Impressive... and thought-provoking. I like it - and my frag tank WILL be where it can be seen, just like my refugium is. I expect to have more frags in there than you do - but I guess I can always add some eggcrate shelves to take up the slack. Many people have them in their display tank - I'm trying to avoid as much of that as possible. But a little extra sand bed, and a few rocks certainly won't hurt anything - and it will look a whole lot nicer. Thanks for the ideas! (Oh - and I am not planning on having many fish, even in the display tank. And maybe just 1-2 small ones in the frag tank). bob

Well - I finally got an answer on Reef Central to this question. Gentleman seems to think I don't need to add any more rock or sand - as long as I'm just growing corals and not adding fish, it shouldn't hurt my system's parameters at all. Anyone care to agree or disagree?? bob

Tell me about Joe's juice... I have a much younger (two, actually) aiptasia on an almost identical frag. I'd like to make them go away without tearing the frag off, because it's JUST started to put a couple polyps on the rock under it. They certainly aren't large enough to 'inject' (not to mention they hide when you get close). Do you just squirt this juice nearby? Where do I get some? Thanks, bob

$18.99 each, or two for $30... small frags at MS. I've had to stop dropping by on my way home. No matter what I went in there after, I ended up with an additional two frags. I found out something... they GROW. I either have to stop buying, or get a larger tank! Oh... picking up larger tank Saturday... bob

What is this?? bob

Yes, you can. I got a Y-adapter, and hooked the hose up to the same faucet as the washing machine. I hung the unit in the laundry room, which has a convenient drain for the excess water. So basically, you need a faucet to hook it up to, a drain (it comes with instructions on drilling into a drain pipe), and a container for the RODI water. The amount of filtered water you get per amount of waste water varies by the temperature of your water, etc. My icy-cold well water wastes a ton - like 10 times as much goes down the drain as into the bucket. bob

I showed the pictures to the hazmat team. They suggested quarantining the entire neighborhood. bob

I got the same unit - it arrived with a broken ASOV (automatic shut-off valve). I e-mailed them a picture of it, and they sent a replacement within hours. Seems like a pretty good company. bob

Laying it down where the critters could get to it worked just great! This evening, I stood it back up, and it's got its little white polyps out waving in the breeze! I knew it was going to work out when my queen conch came 'running' up as soon as I lay it down. She had one part of it cleaned before I even went to bed. bob

Doesn't look like my aiptasia... but I think mine is younger. So far only on some frags I've picked up or purchased - I have two types of green bubbles and 3 aiptasia's. I'm still figuring out how best to attack them. bob

Maybe he's working on them in 'edit' mode bob

I have my frag tank plumbed up, and I cut some egg-crate to fit, and I'm making water as fast as I can (about 10 gallons a day when I push it). So I'm almost ready. Now might be a good time to ask - what goes into a frag tank? Live sand?? Rubble? A bit of live rock? Nothing but egg crate? Suggestions on making shelves? I plan right now just to take the egg crate and rig up some kind of shelving; maybe make it so I can slide it around. I'm adding 30 gallons to a 45-gallon tank, 20 gallon sump (with refugium) - I have a skimmer that's designed for about 50 gallons, but not much load - I'm not a fish person. I have about 60-70 pounds of live rock. Am I going to have to add more rocks somewhere? Or do something to keep my water quality up? Thanks for any suggestions. bob

Yeah - I still want a piece of your pink sinularia It has really good form. I got a little more vigorous with the turkey baster just now, and got about half of the brown stuff off. I'll try giving it a bit more light and flow. bob

Holler when you want to sell off the biocube; I have a friend that would consider it a very pleasant surprise gift. Even if she doesn't know so. I have a 24-gallon aquapod; so I'm a WEE bit too big for the nano category. I think I could set up a smaller one for her that she'd like, and that wouldn't be TOO much work. Meanwhile - welcome to WAMAS! I just started the hobby in December, myself! bob

I have a sinularia that I got from another WAMAS member. I've had it a few weeks, and it's never open. In fact, now it has 'brown stuff' on it. Looks healthy enough, but the brown stuff doesn't come off easily - and it just sits there. I also got an umbrella leather (just a few days ago), that has only extended his polyps briefly a couple of times. Both are in the bottom of my deep tank, under T5's. Any chance it's too much light? Too little? Both in a moderate flow area. Suggestions? bob

I have some kind of teensy tiny feather-dusters all over the glass, rocks, powerheads... they appeared about a week ago. I think the hermits are scraping some off - but I'm still waiting for some to put their little heads out so I can see what color they are. I reckon if they ever become annoying, I can pick them off easily enough. bob

It attached to a rock? How many years does that take? My purple one shows NO signs of any growth at the base, after a month. Time to change the rubber bands. bob