wreck

Very cool, the eggs look healthy, congrats. Any plans to try and raise the larvae? Wreck

AC, it may end up saving your reef. The I-Touch is cool but I'd wait until they double the memory again to over 60GB, then the 32GB model will be half price. You're also more likely to be given an Itouch as a gift than an AC Controller. Wreck

Since you're in Chevy Chase, have you tried TW Perry? If they have it, it might cost a little bit more than other places but they're right in Chevy Chase. Wreck

Those rics look pretty interesting, kindof like an egg over easy. I hope you two work it out.

Buying wild caught saltwater can be a crap shoot from wherever you buy them, it's very stressful to fish to be caught and shipped. I bought 3 Bangaii Cardinal fish from Aquarium One and within two days two had died. I hope to be able to breed these Bangaii some day and help to alleviate some of impact on wild populations. They have a 2 day guarantee at Aquarium One and they gladly replaced the fish with bigger fish than the originals. I usually don't buy fish from the LFS and try to get them from people getting rid of fish during tank breakdowns or other reasons. Wreck

Anthony Calfo says in his book that his xenia coral farm colony stops pulsing whenever the Ph goes below 8.3. Maybe when you feed the Ph raises slightly and gets the xenia to pulse again. Check your Ph, I bet it's at or slightly below 8.3.

Thanks for the info Traveller. I will be keeping a close eye on these little guys. Wreck

My female Tomato Clown was tank raised and is very aggressive, she even goes after my hand whenever I reach in the tank. I also have a question, sorry for the hijack. I have been growing out my baby Tomato clowns in a 55, about 30 of them, since August. A couple of the bigger ones are starting to host in some xenia, no anemones in the tank besides a rock flower, and they are getting territorial. The biggest clown is maybe 1 and 1/2 inches long. I'm interested to see how it plays out, see if they can live as a community, but I don't want to see a lot of fish killed. Anyone have experience raising a tankful of clownfish? I'm keeping a careful eye on the fish and if I see it get too aggressive I'll give the fish away. Thanks, Wreck

All your pictures look pretty good, I think you made a good choice. Can't wait to see your underwater photos. Wreck

I got a coral from Chip that he said is a Hydnophora, but mine is cream/pink and extends feeder tentacles. Look on liveaquaria.com, they have a picture of a green one. Wreck

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I built a canopy for my 55, you can take a look and get some ideas. I'm actually going to start building a canopy for my other 55 this weekend, you're welcome to come observe or bring some wood and get to work on yours. I have a garage full of tools, saws, and nailguns. I'm in Bethesda. Wreck

Your female tomato looks like mine. the tank looks good, next time try to keep your hand still when you take a picture, just kidding . Wreck

yeah that's way too much light, you better trade lights with me right away. Wreck

I run this skimmer and it's very finicky, I also drilled some holes in the intake sleeve to get more. Are you getting air through the airline? You should hear air sucking through the open airline, if you put your finger to stop airflow bubbles should disipate in the skimmer column and you should get more flow out of the outputs. If you have plenty of airflow, it could be the plastic square piece (I don't what it's called) in the skimmer body could have fallen out. This piece, about 1 1/2" square,breaks up the bubble flow and keeps the bubbles from just swirling around in the body. Whenever I clean my skimmer this piece always becomes dislodged and can be difficult to position properly. It goes down the middle of the inner column and should be positioned right at the bottom of the column. My Berlin Turbo is an older model so I don't if yours is setup the same way.

That sounds pretty good depending on the quality of the housing. Be sure it is depth rated for a lot more than your usual dives and that you'll be able to add an external strobe. Good luck.

I stayed in no-deco time, gotta love dive computers, but I always do as long a safety stop as my air supply will let me. I ended up doing over 10 minutes at 15 ft. Wreck

Here's a pic a took that the strobe worked: Here's a link to the turtle chase video I took in Dominica in 2005, I started following him at 80ft and he took me down to 140ft, I used a handheld HID light to try to bring out his colors. Let me know if this doesn't work, first time using Youtube. Wreck

That's good to know, thanks Phil. I'm thinking of doing prefilter, carbon block, and then dual DI cartidges. I'm going to buy resin in bulk and use refillable cartridges. I'm going to give it try, I really just hate wasting all that water. I don't care about the resin trees, I never liked the way they looked anyway . Air, water, ice sells 5lbs mixed bed resin with refillable cartridge for like $40. That's enough for 4 refills. At Gravs 100 gallon rate per cartridge, that's only 10 cents a gallon. I think with a dual DI system you might be able to get more usable water by using a color changing resin and changing the first cartridge when it is fully exhausted and then placing the second one in it's place and putting a new one in the second DI chamber. I'll let you know how it goes when I get mine setup. Wreck

I also have been using the older DC500(5 MP model) for about two years, and I'm very happy with it. It's a very easy to use point and shoot in water and out of water. I also had problems with the external strobe not working underwater. It uses a fiber optic slave to actuate the strobe so alignment of the cable ends on the camera over the flash and on the strobe is critical to it functioning properly. Sealife came out with a piece that helps hold the cable in place on the strobe that seems to help a lot. I really like the video MPEG mode for taking videos when I want to. I'll try to post a video I took in Dominica chasing a turtle. Wreck

Are you using twin mix bed resin DIs or seperate anion and canion resins? I'm going to give it try next time I have to refill my DI. I really like the idea of no waste water, I estimate I waste 5 gallons for each purified gallon. It's not so bad in the summer when I can use some of the waste water to water the yard but now it goes right down the drain. Wreck

Welcome. I have baby tomato clownfish if you want a pair and some pulsing Xenia when you're ready. Wreck

I just picked up my "Book of Coral of Propagation" and Calfo suggested deionization as the best choice for water purification. He suggests a cation/anion DI for pure water and no waste water. I would like to give it a try because I hate wasting all that water when I make RO/DI water. If anyone does this I'd like to hear about it. I'm thinking of converting my 4 stage RO/DI to a 3 stage DI (sediment/carbon,cation, anion)and bypass the RO membrane. Wreck