Lee Stearns

Good Job Erik- I had the same feeling that Calcium was bumped somewhere along the line to cause a radical drop in alk- However my experience is that Alk drops slowly over time, But then that would also be consitant with the changing out of about 5 gallons a week with new IO salt water, Hmmm- But I also think the alk is used in the system some as well, and I have to bump once a week with a little Baking soda- My kalk drip which is supposed to be balanced ALk and calcium keeps me from having to use washing soda, except on rare occasions as my PH remains cosistantly high. Be careful with the washing soda a little will go a long ways in bumping PH.

I have seen many many hawaiin feather duster give up their feather portion- used to live in hawaii and collect a new one whenever- They do this from some environmental stress and or lack of food- If the environment is good the worm is still alive in the tube and can grow a new feather portion. Feather duster need phyto plankton to survive- If you do not feed it will not grow. There is some released into the tank anytime you wipe the green algea with a magnet and in some sytems this may be enought to surrort the mini dusters taht some have growing in their over flows- A good thing- If you have any angels forget about dusters thay pick at them contantly as a food source.

Where is Chip when you need him- He would basically tell you that the CA reactor is really an Alk stability platform- and periferally gives a bump in calcuium. Makes a lot of sense as I believe Alk stability is a culprit for many folks lack of success with SPS. Kalk on the other hand is balanced and adds ALk and calcium- but ALk will drop slowly over time, kind of like PH drops over time, but without the daily swings of PH- so one needs to bump alk manually with a KAL reactor- Some systems require so much calcium that Kalk replacement of evap water can not keep up- That would be the only time I would jump on adding a calcium reactor- A CA reactor just does not fit into my KISS mantra. And JM from what I see in your tank- you can do just fine with adding Kalk for now. One can also bump just CA manually with Calcium chloride- Dow Flake deicer-

Majano- Hard to kill and will take over everthing- I have seen them actually set up shop in the middle of an GSP colony and sting thier way into territory in my Nano. Inject them with vinegar and they will be hurt but it will take many sticks to kill completely- Kalk the same way- I have had one shot success with Joe Juice. But beware, they may move on you to anew location- and you just think you killed it.

Flat worms -wrasses love them

There are many articles that you can read on algea- but My exerience is that a tank naturally cycles through some of this- Brown Diaton algea is noral as it burns up certain free silicates in the tank and may bloom a bit again as the sand bed is stirred. Next for some reason cyno bacteria blooms a brown to red algea looking stuff- some hermits will help- siphoning off will help but for most intents it needs to go throughit course- Then film and other green algea a bit higher up in the algea chain seem to beginto live and burn up residula phos and nitrates- this is normal as well- Most folks then add a macro algea like chaeto to their fuge or a corner of the tank with no fuge to out compete the hair algea and some extent the film algeas- As form of the pink coraline Algeas begin to cover the rocks and back glass, it emits a anti-algea chemical to grow and or conquer more space- which is why so many folks would rather have coraline for its color and algea fighting ability. A tank is finally mature when you have a good deal of coraline growing. There are lots of articles on how to promote coraline but they basically boil down to maintaining your calcium levels and seeding your tank with some of the pink and plating varients to get it started- most good live rock will have all you need.

JC made several comments that I whole heartedly endorse. Garlic needs to be fresh crushed as does the ginger- I have frozen it in homemade recipes but do not feel there is as much of an effect. I have a PBT and Blue Hippo that get small amounts of white spots from time to time- so I know it is in my reef system- I have two cleaner shrimp that they go to when they feel the need. Keeping the tangs fat and happy are what keeps them able to fight off these incursions. Like Chip said I would be very leery of putting any "Reef Safe" rid Ich or other chemicals in my system. A quarantine tank would be entirely different where I might be willing to try one of the chemicals- but catching tangs out of their territory in our mixed reefs is almost a futile effort and the added stress of a new bare bottom QT would likely provide the stress to put them over the edge rid ich or not. I believe the UV is additive in keeping infestation down but have no personal experience here and would not know what it could do during and infesttation other than to kill some of the free swimming stage Ich during the short period they are hunting a host. Like JC I like adding fresh ginger when I see an outbreak- the fish needs to ingest the food soaked in the juice from this- And as silly as it sounds I add very finely crushed carrots for the vitamin A that tangs need in higher proportion than most of our normal feeds at these stress times. Only proven method of fighting HLLE in Tangs- I know a different disease- but remember fat and healthy to allow thier own immune sytem to work.

JM I wil be there- I will bring the baby tank raised Bangai and some other goodies as well as the check book- Regards, Lee

hey I am going again this saturday. And Rebecca- I use the Hikari Mysis with my sea horses with no problems. I just had the Male yeasterday drop a batch of babies- again I was not prepared with BBS and so dropped in some freeze dried copepods and cyclopese with not luck in finding any of them when I got home from work- the babies really do need to be removed and housed/fed sepperately. One of these days I will be prepared.

Very scary thread- makes one wonder about all the national frag sharing we were talking about. I guess I really will have to do some dipping and quarantine of new corals. Just tough to have a duplicate system. Makes chip's frag tank that can be totally stand alone for periods of qurantine and then plummed into the main tank when not quaratined seem like a truely great idea.

two daylight periods is not very natural- The closer to nauture that we can keep our systems the easier it is to keep. That being said we all cram into a 2x2x4 cube more life varieties and quantities- esp the end of the chain items such as fish than could ever be found on any 100 gallon peice of reef. I am not sure what your un-natural lighting cycle would do for the photo synthesis period on any corals- If it is a fish only with live rock- you have less issues though it is somwhat unnatural for the fish as well , not sure what their immune systems would do with a 5 hour twilight period in the middle of their day. One note on lighting do not incrementally buy your way up- If you believe you might want some of the beautiful lps corals such as torches, frog spawn and hammers, and then someone gives you that "free" bit of digitats that you want to see grow- then you are changing the requirements of what your system can keep- It is best to set up the mixed reef from the start. rather than buying several different lighting systems one after another as you "upgrade" to keep something different than what you first wanted in the nixed reef. Hey I have the cancelled checks to show that trying to go cheap and later upgrade doesn't make sense. I concur with Bob- 4 VHOs over that 90 would be better and give you the flexibility to run two as actinics 12 hours and two as white maybe 6-8 hours in the middle of that period. And that combo of lighting should support about anything you would want to keep.

Welcome- Another NVa keeper- ther eare several of us near that can help in a pinch. I second Bob's comment -You have to have softies- They are so easy- and your system will do fine with them- we generally can make cuttings avaialble when ever you are ready. It is not until you get the calcium loving varieties taht the system water params becomes more demanding

Happy birthday Chip- just saw the thread. You have one free shopping trip in my aquarium at your convienience. Regards,

Dave, My son is setting up a nano cube for his Biology project at Lake Braddock High School and is going to measure as best as possible the effects of lighting and photosenthesis on the chemical composition of the salt water on a mixed reef environment. To keep it simple it will be no skimmer- I would like to get any information of where to get these Hobo's or even just borrow one for a couple of readings. Let me know when would be a good time to contact you. Regards, Lee

cool pics I need to get off my but and show a couple of time photos and take more.

I run an extra 2.5G tank not plumbed into anything else with just and airstone Chaeto and clip on light on a timer- I grow copepods, but they do not multiply very fast- There is no way to keep up with the patient efficient hunters in my sea horse tank. But I squirt a few into there tank every so often just to keep them hunting- But when I put the horse trough in with frozen mysis they all come running to fill up on the easy meal. :D

As they say -- I'd rather be lucky than good.

That picaso will bite into about anything he wants to in there as he gets bigger- bet you can not keep a hermit crab.

Mag Pumps come with a foam pad that is sticky on one side- similar to a mouse pad- As Uni said, I would be cautious with just any material that might break down over time and or leach chemicals. The bubble wrap sounds like a good material though. The dry sand sounds a bit like a problem waiting to happen.

I have one- Just replaced my 10K Abs with new ones- You are welcome to it. PM me

Concur it will occur(dissolve) over about 3 days and then be totally gone releasing all its nutrients back into the water column- I grow grape only to feed to my tanks and use chaeto for nutrient export/ harvesting.

I agree not pavona- -probably encrusting Montipora- but even some acros can have large encrusting areas before they send up thier predominant branches. On the two corals green digi and Slimer- they are both alive- they obviously did not take the shock of the move well- but when they do catch up to the environment they should take off in growth.

Looks like I am going to have to stop in again because i forgot mysis- I have not tried oyster eggs, I use glden pearls- How are they Erik?

The mags have some problems restarting after power is off- and they can be easily cleaned and might be put back in service.

Hey JM are you down grading your lights to 250's from the 400's or just getting new 400 bulbs. I was absolutely shocked at how much brighter my ligyts were when I replaced new 250 AB bulbls in my system after almost 15 months of burning the old lights. Just go slow In the burn-in phase- Regards,