DaveS

Since there's interest in the Tryee Cyphastrea I though we could have some fun. I just put up a frag for auction here http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?show...st&p=234126 Non-members need to join WAMAS to have access to this section.

me!

Updated top post. Some items are reserved but if you want to be 2nd in line, just let me know. Common guys, post up what you have available for the meeting! This thread is in the General Discussion group so non-members can see it too. This lets them better understand what they are missing by not joining WAMAS and getting access to the For Sale threads where stuff like this is always being offered up. I know that a thread like this a few years back is what made me realize what I was missing for a measly $20.

In case you're interested, I have a Salifert phosphate test kit that I've used once. I bought it, tested once and then found another kit that I bought previously. You can have it for $20 and pickup at the meeting if you want.

Someone else usually starts this thread but I guess I'll get the ball rolling since the meeting is just a few days away. I have frags of various corals available. Below are representative pictures to show what is the corals look like. Some of the pictures are the actual frags available, others are similar to those in the picture and some are of the colonies the frags are made from. For many frags, the picture only shows one of multiple frags available. In other words, just because you see one frag in the picture doesn't mean there is only one available. Most of these are WSIWIG 1: Tyree Rainbow Monti small (only 1)- $15 Reserved 2: ORA California Blue Tort 1 small (pictured) $10 Reserved, others larger- $15 3: Copps' Vesuvius Monti, red polps on a bright yellow base- $40 3: Tyree Superman- $40 4: Wild green acro- $10 5: Bright green Montipora spumosa- like a branching confusa- $20 6: Tyree Sunset Monti - $55 7: ORA Chip's Acro (only 1)- $15 Reserved 8: ORA Miami Orchid Stag (only 1)- $10 Reserved 9: Gadgets Acro- $10 To the right of 6: Bright green Bottle Brush Acro- $10 Close up of the Gadgets Acro. Beautiful pic of colony take by Chris here Close up o the Wild green acro and ORA Miami Orchid Emerald Green Porcillapora- ($20 large, $15 small) Large chunks of Highlighter Green Monti- $15 Large chunks of Tyree Idaho Grape Monti- $15 Large Dragon Eyes Frag (sized like #2 in pic)- $25 Radioactive Dragon Eye, Med/Large sized frags- $20 Cateye Palys ~10 polyps- $15 Large fist sized colony- $45 Neon green striped mushrooms $10 for 4 Red Monti Digi- $10 for large frags Pink/Red Milli 3/4" frag- $25 each Tyree LE Cyphastrea ocellina. Read about it here but don't wait until 2010: http://www.reeffarmers.com/limitedcyphastreaocellina.htm Roughly 1/2"x1/2" frag- $60 I also have frags of Tubs Blue Zoas about 10+ polyps: $35. Let me know if Rik runs out and you want some. Please let me know what frags you want and I'll bring them to the meeting. We can do pickup in Great Falls, VA if you can't make the meeting.

I'm thinking about going up there Friday to check out the store and sale. Wanted to see if anyone wanted to share the ride. I'm in Tyson's and can meet up along the way.

Putting the Vodka in the top off is a pretty good idea. Mine currently runs through the Kalk stirrer but I think I'm not supposed to run Kalk w/Vodka so maybe that won't be an issue. One question I was wondering about is if the Vodka goes "bad" sitting around. Didn't know if the alcohol evaporated off over time or not. The add for the BRS doser is what prompted me to start this thread. But after reading more about them, I don't think I'd use one of those for Vodka. I didn't get the feeling their doser was all that precise. Good enough for calcium/kalk but probably not for something that is 5ml a day. Again, maybe diluting it with water would help.

Just wanted to see if any of the vodka dosers out there are using an auto-doser for it. My schedule is kind of crazy so the thought of having to religiously put X amount of vodka in daily is a pain. I was wondering if anyone knows about using one of those auto-dosers to put in vodka like people normally use them to do CA/Alk. Thoughts?

I've been considering an upgrade to my lights and with the Ice Cap purchase opportunity, I think this would be the right time to do it if ever. I currently have an Aquamedic Ocean light HQI+T5 combo. It's got 3x250W MH and 4x38W T5 setup. http://www.aqua-medic.com/oceanlight_T5_HQI_combo.shtml It's nice and I'm growing SPS fairly well. I'm considering going with 20k Radium bulbs for better coral colors. In doing this, I'm also thinking about going to 400W MH fixtures to keep the PAR levels up. My tank is 30" tall. What do you guys think, is it worth it? Or should I just replace the current bulbs and live with the reduction in PAR? If I upgrade, I'll probably just get 3 of the IceCap ballasts. Any suggestions on reflectors, Lumenarc 3s? Should I go with Mogul or HQI fixtures? Anyone interested in buying my old fixture to make this decision easier for me?

What's that hose that runs down to the gate valve which is attached to the PVC that got tons of other valves? Is is the feed into the skimmer? What's all those other valves on the PVC for? You got lots more toys coming online? BTW, it looks like your skimmate drains into that PVC pipe but it looks like the pipe goes through the table, underneath and dumps into the refugium? Wacky!!

One picture depicts curved ones. He's probably got whatever we want. Here's an auction of 6 16" ones- 3 straight, 3 curved. http://cgi.ebay.com/WHOLESALE-HEMOSTAT-SS-...1713.m153.l1262 Admittedly I'm probably more interested in ~18" curved ones. My frag tank isn't that big.

I'd be in 1-2!

Wanted to get in touch with him but his box is full. Thanks.

I had a free afternoon so I made some small changes to my rock work. I plan to do another much more significant one in a few months but this allowed me to clear out space to put new corals in. Anyways, as a result, I have 2-3 large pieces that don't have anywhere to go right now. I don't want to sell it yet because some of them are nicely shaped and may be useful when I redo my entire tank. On the flip side, they won't fit in my sump and I'd like to avoid setting up a rock bin if I can avoid it. Maybe it's a silly idea but I figured if someone wanted to house my rock for a few months maybe it can benefit both of us. There's some nice mushrooms on them and it's really well seeded rock. In the end, if I don't need the rock back, I'd probably cut you a good deal on it. Anyone interested? I kind of need to know soon because I'll probably have to set up a bin in the next 24 hours if no one wants to house it.

The stuff already posted is pretty good. Just a couple of points to add from my experience: 1) the 2 pH probe approach on the controller is super easy. 1 probe measures the pH in the reactor and turns the CO2 on/of to moderate it. The second probe monitors the tank pH. This allows you not only to know the pH of your tank but if the pH in the tank gets too low, the controller can override the CO2 addition to the reactor. Basically the pH in my reactor is around 6.5 much of the day except a few hours after lights off and a lights on. Those are the hours in which my tank pH drops below the threshold and CO2 is no longer added to the reactor. The reactor is essentially off. 2) Dripping Kalk is good to bring pH back up. It's not simply because Kalk water has a high pH but there is a chemical reaction that occurs which causes the Kalk to bind with CO2 in the water. Ok maybe the chemical reaction is just what occurs when you mix an acid and base...

Guys, Chip only wants to know if the anemone came from him, either directly or indirectly. He's not tracking descendants of ones that came from him. Given how prolific these guys are, tracking the descendants would be pretty complicated. Let's help him out and keep the thread on topic. Chip- I got one from you on 9/22/2007.

Not a bad thread that talks about how to pack a box of frags. How about some ideas on how to bag the frag(s)? I usually put mine in a bag with some water- enough to keep them submerged but not so much as to drive up the shipping costs. I've heard of others using very little water but wet newspapers to keep the moisture around. What do you guys think?

Just wanted to start a thread where people could talk about how to ship frags. Obviously we'd be talking about Next Day type stuff. Depending on time of year, a heat/cold pack would be good. Any one got input about bagging/packing the frags?

Have to keep them and add them separately.

I still think it's cavitation from a restricted input like I mentioned in post 4. If you are going to replumb anyways, I would suggest that you experiment a tiny bit while you are at it. Replumb one side of the pump at a time and run the pump in between. If you are going to go barbs and hose, it will be very easy to do. I'd start with the output first because I think it's cavitation and you can prove it that way. Regardless of the side, if you only do one and still see the bubbles, you will know for sure which side it is coming from. Then your problem is cut in half. The only thing worse than making a mistake is not learning from it...

I used to get micro bubbles from my return. It was T-ed and the bubbles always came from one side so I just figured it was due to an air leak somewhere on that side. After looking around forever I couldn't find it. On the intake to my return pump, I have a foam filter surrounding the strainer. Turns out the filter was getting full of muck and that restricted the intake to my pump. The microbubles where from cavitation of the pump impeller! Once I took the filter off and cleaned it real good, the bubbles were gone. Don't know why they like to come out of one side only but now when I see microbubbles I know it's time to rinse the foam. Check your intake to make sure it's not getting restricted too much. Your pump needs the right amount of intake flow or it may get unhappy.