alan mcilvried

Almost have the little buggers under control with Joe's Juice. Finding about 1 a day now. (Inital infestation - about 100 - quickly went to 4-5 a day, now down to 1. Yesterday was allllmost a "0", until just before I turned off the light. A word of warning about Joe's Juice though, it is not harmless to everything else in your tank. I had a little bit drift over a small starfish crawling on the rock nearby and WHAM - it was dead. Felt really bad.

Very nice. If you don't mind a few questions - I'm considering DIY also from some links posted elsewhere in this forum. 1) Where do you buy your acrylic tubing 2) How do you make a sealed bulkhead through a round tube? Are they manufactured parts or are you shop building them? Thank you Al

Some other DIY Moonlight sites I've found: www.kaotica.com/frag/diy/moonlight www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_moonlight.php Hopefully these links will work for you. Al

So if they are sponges, should I be really happy or prepare for doom as they take over my tank? If I should be getting rid of them - how should I go about it? If not, I'll watch to see what happens. (I was happy with the new anemones I had in my tank until I found out they were majanos and spawn cousins every 11 seconds - which they do by the way.) Al

Any idea what these might be? Have about 4 of these sacs on my live rock. About 1/2" in diameter. I am assuming they're egg sacs. (The white ball of "eggs" - hopefully you'll see it in the photo) I started a new topic since it took me awhile to figure out how to post pictures. If that is bad board etiquette, please let me know. Thank you to Steveoutlaw for helping with posting photos. http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u42/alaninmd/DSC_0138.jpg Al

I know there are tons of threads on RODI filters, so please don't chastise me - I looked first but couldn't find an answer. You've all convinced me that the nominal expense of an RO filter is worth it, and besides I have so much extra money I'm trying to think of things to spend it on, (who says this hobby is expensive?) But, being more curious than smart............generally, what benefit is the DI component of these filters to a Reef system? Is there any practical need for more than a 4 stage filter for a mere mortal aquarist? I used tap-water in my last SW tank and never had any problems, but I think you guys are going to make me spend money on corals shortly and if this makes them happy, I want to be a good host.

I want that. Your tank rocks.

I've got what appear to be "egg sacs" in the live rock about the size of a small gumball or kids marble. Pale, translucent sack with hundreds of white egg looking things the size of a tip of a pencil. Maybe a spider egg-sac is a good way to describe them. This morning one of them opened and the "eggs" are getting kind of fuzzy looking. (Appears the top of the sac is dissolving might be a good way to describe it.) Any ideas what that might be? Have three of them on various rocks in the tank. Should I embrace them or kill them? As a secondary note, I am having trouble figuring out how to post pictures. I've got my cannon camera set on the smallest file size, and it seems like the site is trying to upload the photo, but then, in the end, nothing is attached. Is there a max file size or some special configuration needed? Thank you Al

No response to my post, so here's what I did if case any new aquarium keepers ever have a problem with Majano Anemone. Joe's Juice make them evaporate almost instantly. They literally disappear in about 3 seconds. I do mean this literally. They're just gone. I understand the effect is the same with aptasia - but I didn't have those, so I can't give first hand experience. Do a google search for Joes Juice and you can order it on-line or get a listing of local dealers. Two peppermint shrimp in the tank don't seem to mind so far. I only have a few damsels in there now (new tank) so I'm not sure if other more sensitive fish care, but the damsels don't seem to mind at all. I'll let you know if anything "adverse" seems to occur. Alan

I'm new to this hobby and I'm just starting to make my rounds of stores. In the Rockville area there is a store called AQUARIUM ONE in Wintergreen Plaza that someone just told me about. Recently opened by the guy that used to own Congressional as I understand it. I also just went into a store at the intersection of New Hampshire Ave and Briggs Chaney Road called Scales. The sign on the storefront just says "Tropical Fish" I think. I don't know if either of them has what would be considered a lot or a little in the opinion of an experienced tanker, but they both had tanks set up with what I would consider a pretty good selection.

I thinking of getting a peppermint shrimp to see if it wants to eat my pet majano's. Will PS eat them and will it bother my mushrooms? If my new shrimp doesn't eat fast enough and I decide to squirt a little joes juice, will it hurt the shrimp? Thanks Alan

Interested in what you guys do with your aquariums. 1) Who stacks rock against the back wall of the aquarium and who doesn't? 2) Glass tops on or off under a canopy? Do they affect light transmission significantly? Salt creep issues? Curious Thanks Alan

Update on 4/11/07 1) I moved a powerhead out towards the front of the tank 2) Cut my light back to 7 hours a day Not sure if one or both of these was more instrumental, and maybe it was running it's course, but it has slowed significantly. Thanks everyone. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Here comes my first question for a new tank. Brown Hairy Algea is rapidy speading in my new tank - water has been in it 2 weeks as of yesterday. Started with one big LR and in the past week I've put in 25# of new live rock and started my skimmer for the first time. I was expecting to deal with algea, but this stuff showed up in a matter of a few hours. Like Emeril says....."BAM!" Temp 80-81 F, PH 8.2, Salinity 1.022, Ammonia/Nitrates/Nitrites at 0 still. Water source - tap - WSSC. I'll try to attach a picture of the algea on the orignal LR I put in the tank. The back half is covered and it is creeping forward. It started on the portion of the rock that had no coraline growth first, but now moving over the pink.I don't mind managing the algea on the glass and even the aragonite bed, but wondering if it will screen out the light from the nice pink/purple/red coraline algea already on the rock? Thanks Al

Hello from Damascus, MD. New member just checking in. Rapidly getting sucked into this chinese finger-trap of a hobby again. 20 years ago I had a 55 gallon SW with an undergravel filter and a Magnum canister. Just fish. Kept it about 5 years with very good luck, and finally took it down when my wife started doing daycare. Now 15 years later I'm back at it with a 75 gallon overflow tank. I don't remember it being this expensive. What happened?!? This time I built my own stand to match the furniture in my living room and then decided to put the tank in the family room. Turned out beautiful, but it doesn't match anything in the room. Not very smart. I keep hearing about expensive mistakes in this hobby. I got my first one out of the way before I put water in the tank. Been up and running almost 2 weeks with 2 yellow tail damsels and about 55# of live rock and 60 # of aragonite. Will add some additional aragonite this weekend. Waiting for the tank to "cycle", whatever that means. Checking ammonia, nitrites and nitrates daily. All still at zero. I added the second batches of live rock a few days ago. Today while at work I got a magic present of brown algea growing on the original live rock (in areas that aren't covered with coraline algea) and spotting on my sand bed. Not sure it's related to the new rock or not. Will be watching that. Pretty sure I'm not overfeeding. Piggies eat everything in 30 seconds. I have a CPR CY192 wet/dry with protein skimmer running. Light is a 48", 6-bulb CF light with 2 actinic, 2 10000K and 2 50/50 bulbs. I've been told I should take the bio-media out of the filter and let it just be a sump with the skimmer in it. Will probably do that this weekend. Not sure If I should run a canister filter too? So far the tank is crystal clear. Of course I don't have much load on it right now. Have orderd "The consciencious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner and "The New Marine Aquarium" by Michael Paletta. No particular reason, just looked good on Amazon. Not sure I'm going to whole way to a reef setup, but I'm not intimidated by it. In 1 week I've met two super guys in WAMAS. James and Dave - thanks for the rock and your advice. I'll probably keep emailing for advice until you tell me to stop Anyway, so now you know what I've got going. Glad to be here. Looking forward to meeting more of you. Alan McIlvried