lanman

Where are you located? bob

Mine have so little polyp extension lately, I can't tell you - but I thought they were white... bob

Would you mind carrying a couple of small vials with you to give to Mr. Borneman? hehehe... I have some flatworm samples he's wanting. I guess I should try to go - how do you plan to get there? Metro? bob

I can vouch for it loving plenty of light! bob

Bulk purchasers, lurking the boards... Obviously my offer was too late. But at least I told him his prices were indeed a little off. On the low side! How much you think that chalice would have gone for at auction? $300? bob

Hard to say what a 'disaster' is... My display tank has AEFW. I don't have enough room anywhere to treat everything. I believe that I will shortly have several thousand AEFW attacking the few remaining corals (too big to put anywhere else, and it takes 3-4 people to get the canopy high enough to remove them, anyhow). So it's a disaster; but I haven't lost anything. Yet. bob

Sorry - but I probably just added to the confusion by mentioning AEFW. Redbugs do not appear to have eggs (live-bearing). If you kill the bugs, you will get no more. Interceptor kills them. I ran the exact amount of medicine recommended for 16 hours, and then started diluting and running carbon. I check a couple of smooth-skinned corals every few days under my microscope, and have seen no further redbugs (two weeks). AEFW have eggs... I am currently trying to figure out how long the eggs take to hatch - 21 days and counting! A good soak in Revive seems to kill all adults and visible juveniles. So does a soak in my 'garlic dip'. A dip in Potassium permanganate kills adults, and probably does kill eggs (they look pretty bad afterwards) - but it is also very hard on corals in the concentrations I've tried. If, as I suspect, I have another big outbreak of AEFW in about a month in my display tank, I will have a chance to do more experimentation - including whether or not the various treatments kill eggs. It appears that the cycle to hatch eggs, and for the juveniles to get large enough to venture onto the surface of the coral and start causing damage is a long one. So long, that the adults have all died off. If this is the case, quarantine for a new coral (with rocks/dead coral attached) would have to be months to ensure against AEFW, even if adults are not present. I have only found eggs on dead coral tissue, frag plugs, rocks - never on healthy tissue. So a freshly-cut frag, soaked in Revive for 15 minutes, should be safe. bob

I've posted this before - but long ago, and this seems like an appropriate place. I spent a year in the Philippines in 1969 at a Naval station called 'San Miguel'. I learned to dive there, and dove almost every day for that year. The closest and therefore most-frequented dive place was the 'Capones' Islands. I went back to the Philippines in 1980 - and was fortunate enough to dive the same location several times. The difference was staggering. While this is not a developed area, and pollution played only a small part - it is heavily fished, including with dynamite. In 1969, I don't remember a dive without seeing sharks. In 1980 - I saw a shark only once or twice in 50 dives. Off the Capones, the schools of small fish in 1969 were massive; fish numbering in the thousands, all swimming together - schools the size of a living room and larger. I specifically remember a school of tiny barracuda - HUGE! In 1980 - the same schools numbered in the hundreds to a thousand fish; the largest schools maybe the size of a small car. In 1969, we occasionally would catch a rock lobster for lunch. In 1980, I never found a rock lobster. On the other hand - other than 'tumbled' coral from dynamite - the coral was still doing well. Better in some places, because the 'crown of thorns' starfish didn't seem to be there anymore, devastating the reefs. Maybe they over-populated and starved themselves out. So I have seen first-hand what the 'hand of man' can do to the reefs. What a shame. bob

Jan - read through the post. It refers to an article written by Julian Sprung - who owns 'two little fishies', which produces Revive. So... it may be somewhat biased. What I found interesting is that he says the Revive bath kills AEFW eggs. Now I need to try to find his research on this. I have a frag with AEFW eggs that were all laid at least 20 days ago. I examine it every night. Those eggs have still not all hatched. In correspondence with a marine biologist, she advised that because the AEFW goes through a full development cycle inside the egg cases, and emerges as a juvenile, rather than a free-swimming nymph; it could easily take a month. THEN, the juveniles (very small) will hide in the coral tissue for another month before they emerge out onto the coral surface. That is a lot of patient research to find out if Revive actually kills the eggs. I tried this once already - but the samples got messed up in my 'flatworm' tank, and never made it to maturity. Anyone who has successfully used Revive to completely eradicate redbugs - please post up! bob

From experience... Revive doesn't kill them - but it does disorient them; they tend to leave the coral and swim around. So perhaps a rinse in a bucket of tank water will get rid of any that are still on the coral. I am also finding that coral colonies soaked in Revive for 30 minutes have a tendency toward STN during the week or so that follows. I did not see that back when I was only giving them 15 minutes. With smaller pieces of coral - I have found that I can 'get rid of' (not kill) most of the redbugs by 'swishing' the coral vigorously in water changed tank water. I had a frag with about 20 on it - after a good rinsing - I couldn't find any (but I'm sure there are some hiding somewhere). bob

You will note that the recommendations were to get some 'legally' himself. What you need is a dog... or a friend with a dog... I have not yet treated my display tank with interceptor; because I can't imagine catching my little pistol shrimp - and I don't want to kill him. However... it will be done eventually; one way or another. I have removed almost all of the hermits; picking out a few each day when I can find them. I expect to have to reseed copepods from other systems after treatment. The systems I have treated - it was VERY easy. I used the formula to determine how many mg of ground up pill I needed. Mixed that with a little tank water. Added it to the tank, turned off the 'bubbles' in the skimmer. I let it go for about 16 hours, and then did a 10% water change, and started running carbon. Did another 10% the next day. I have seen absolutely no problems caused by it - and no redbugs. bob

I am always taking pictures of my stuff, anyhow. And oddly enough - a picture of the same 1" square piece of sunset montipora that I've sold 20 times - still gets a better response than no picture. bob

I know THAT feeling... bob

Okay... I just had to try it. Mixed up the solution as described (using a gram scale, and a milligram scale). My refractometer was pretty close - reading 1.0260 vs. the standard of 1.0264 Guess I can't blame anything on THAT... bob

Tom - the one thing you didn't mention; that solution should read 1.064 Specific Gravity, when you're calibrating a refractometer that reads out in SG. bob

Next time do it in the summertime, so the kids can enjoy playing in the sprinkler! bob

You make a very good point. I have a controller for the heaters in my display, plus each of them is adjusted to regulate themselves if the controller doesn't work, plus my lights shut off if the temp gets too high, etc... But that can all be wrecked by one heater coming apart like that, or multiple failures - which is NOT out of the question, given the poor quality of the hardware. Somebody must make something... I'm sure I can dig up some frags for you when your tank is ready for them. bob

Oh, Johnny... you were supposed to save that for Christmas!! Beautiful animal!! bob

Better question - how many scoly's does Chris have now!!??!?!?! bob

A carbon footprint is defined as: The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). That's an easy one - stop breathing!! Just how much of the "Greenhouse Effect" is caused by human activity? It is about 0.28%, if water vapor is taken into account-- about 5.53%, if not. Water vapor constitutes Earth's most significant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 95% of Earth's greenhouse effect (4). Interestingly, many "facts and figures' regarding global warming completely ignore the powerful effects of water vapor in the greenhouse system, carelessly (perhaps, deliberately) overstating human impacts as much as 20-fold. Water vapor, the most significant greenhouse gas, comes from natural sources and is responsible for roughly 95% of the greenhouse effect (4). Among climatologists this is common knowledge but among special interests, certain governmental groups, and news reporters this fact is under-emphasized or just ignored altogether. Conceding that it might be "a little misleading" to leave water vapor out, they nonetheless defend the practice by stating that it is "customary" to do so! i.e. - if all human activity were to cease, we could alter the amount of greenhouse gases by a whopping 0.28% So - who's going to be the first in line to completely end your contribution to the greenhouse effect?? Line forms right behind Al. We ARE wrecking this beautiful big blue marble. We are polluting the air and the oceans, cutting down the forests, and building huge 'heat-sinks' called cities. What we are NOT doing, is making a significant contribution to the warming of the earth. This huge political football is distracting attention from the things we really CAN do to save this planet and our species from extinction. Or should I tell you how I really feel? bob

This was one of those colonies. bob

I'm afraid of $200 corals I can't frag. If the 'mother colony' dies... well, it's dead, Jim! bob

I have a couple of GSA's - one very very old one (bare-bones before they were called bare-bones), and a larger, newer one. After 3 years of constant running, the motor on the smaller one burned out - and Dan sold me a replacement top with the motor enclosed. If you keep the end of the hose out of the water to prevent siphoning, it will eventually get clogged with hardened kalk. If you remember to give it a good squeeze every month or three, that won't happen. Loading kalk - not recommended - I don't even turn them off. Just lift the lid, put in a scoop, lower the lid, lift the lid, put in a scoop - until you have a week's worth in there. After 3 years - I actually followed the bi-monthly advice to clean the entire kalk reactor. Looked great! Will have to try that again in a couple more years. bob

My pearlberry has been slow to do anything - but my Red Planet has encrusted very well - and is starting to grow some branches. It is still on its frag plug. I have to pick it up once in a while to stop it encrusting onto the frag rack. bob

I've been 'stung' by something in my little 24-gallon tank, but never in the bigger ones. Never did figure out what got me. bob