Lee Stearns

Man and I get nervous if the tank hits 83 degrees- might run a smaller quieter fan 24-7 over the sump.

Opinions- we all have one- I think the .01 that the pinpoint gives in acuracy is a help. I have a hand held milwalke that I'd just about give away- no consitancy at all from reading to reading. I am in for a fluid calibration buy when it goes down. Individual packs vs the bottle stuff.

Nothing says reef quite like a male and a couple of female Lyre tail anthias- They will "settle" all your other fish down so that they are out and about more- At least that is the way it worked in my tank - If the Anthias go in everybody ducks, and when they are out everyone comes out. Picture's on line do not do it justice- Oh I also would strongly uge you to hunt down and extract the green bristle star- they are fair aggressive fish hunters at night, but will also nab shrimp.

Man JM- And After my last words to you when you left with the blue frilly mushroom- If you need a tank watcher let me know- :idea2: I even placed your phone number on the list of several phone numbers to call beside my sump area if there was ever anything going wrong with my tanks and I could not be reached. JM you know where to come to restock a lot of those things once your system is stable- Really- PM me and we can get the stuff growing in your tank soon. Regards, Lee

Hey you left out your frozen blister packs of Mysis- I think you will find support from this group John, just an impatience to see what you are working toward as an end result- Looking to forward to see you up and runnning. Regards,

Hey Tim if you want to get rdi of a couple let me know- ALways open to a little bio diversity- some new genes in the pool- yea I know as long as they are not blue or dirty.

I run one 820 and point it directly across my acros and millies it is not too much for them, where as a maxi- jet 1200 would be too strong and not broad enough. I have 4 maxijat 1200's in the tank on a wave maker. I believe they add the sporadic flow and are all behind my rock work so as to not allow dead spots back there. I would concur that the 820 might be over-rated on GPH and would go larger if I were to do it again- My major complaint is that it is the only noticeable pump in my tank - I do not think you could effectively hide it as it's flow is broad but not strong.

sounds like the mcro stars- good for the tank- The green brittle stars get large and are serious predators

Micro stars, not sure the real name- but are small star fish that never get larger than a quarter fully spread out, and usually grey tiger striped long thin arms. Very common in and under rockwork and are beneficial cleaners of detritus. Nab a few when you can, because they will propagate in your system.

I'd be in as well for bulk resin- I would hate to have more than 4-5 refills on hand though. If we get enough - 5 lbs each, sounds about right.

My only comment is to get a brand and stick with it- Changing salt brands can cause a die off in the future- I would go with one I was sure i could use and find locally for several years form many vendors. Other than that salt arguments are made constantly and few of us would have both the chemical dergree, and marine biology degree to discern relative value of the arguement. There are so many of the basic of reefkeeping guidance/schedules to learn and apply that maintain stability and water params of your mixed reef system that they relegate the choice of salt brand to an obscure footnote.

The super glue gel is used to glue a frag to a piece of rubble. There is also the use of epoxy putty to attach the frag and or rubble to your rockwork. Plumbers putty is another name for it- it is two part light grey on the outside and dark on the inside wich comes in a plastic sleved tube- cut off a piece and massage the piece to one uniform color and it feels warm. It will finish setting up under water- and looks like a small lump of cement grey when dry- but will coraline encrust quick and blend into the tank- It is also a bit more fragile than rock and can be pried up with a knife/srewdriver if you need to move the frag.

No just a cannon A-70 3.2 I have been using almost two years- I hae some back pictures and a tripod- just get lazy and pressed for time. The Acan pic was focused behind it so it was a bit blurry while the mushroom behind it was crisp in detail- I will get arount to do a couple of growth slides showing how something like the milli - bali, and tort have grown over time. I took pics over the last two years but have not put them up.

WIll try the acan on another night- gotta learn to crop these thing :wall:

DOH!! Must be some kind of limit to what you can post- Oh well- I 'll get the hang when I have more time. At least you can click and see them.

woo- hoo worked! Now some individual shots. Orange Cap http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/lees...05orangecap.jpg Radiant Wrasse- sand dweller at night- major eater of small snails but eats anything but veggies. http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/lees...diantwrasse.jpg Green encrusting monti- came as about 1/2 inch frag from Eddi about 10 months ago and is now at least 3 inches across http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/lees...ustingmonti.jpg Blasto that several WMAS folks have a coupl eof polyps from http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/lees...oct05blasto.jpg Pink frog spawn- won raffle at meeting about 1 year ago- been fragged many times http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/lees...nkfrogspawn.jpg Green bali slimer- not very good picture- but was given to me by Grav about 14 months ago as two 3/4 inch peices aon a rock and has been fragged at least 10 times since http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/lees...05greenbali.jpg

Right side of tank 6 Oct 2005- most of the fish came out for the photo op. Let's see if that works- call me picture impaired

Ok Tim- I always like see pics. esp all the close ups- Good job - One wider angle please for landsacpe. Tenius is a pretty peice- and the bleached- torch is comming along as well from your last post. Will be even more excited to see your 180 project get up and running. I have the same trouble I find my pieces in the sand occasionally- and occassionaly don't find them in the sand or back behind rockwork till it is too late. I have pretty much gone to using epoxy putty for nearly all the frags, Never have figured out what can get some of my larger pieces out of the holes in the rocks at night- I blame a large mithryx(emerald carab) that I have - though i do not have enough evidence to arrest him yet.

hey let us know when it is working- Like we don't have something to do at work-

Larry-T sounds like he really knows what he is doing around water quality issues- Way beyond me- I just know from hands on that I use a RO/DI, and most folks who do haven't had water quality issues. My fish/corals have not been been bothered by water quality issues- What I can measure of Phos and Nitrates is zero- but then I grow a large amount of Chaeto in my fuge. I am in Burke, Northern Va. but I haven't see any pipe wielding fish yet. My powder blue occasionally beats an anthia out of a meal, but it has so far been a fair fight at least when the sherrif is watching- though I know he is concealing a knife in his tail. Can't arrest unless he actually starts using it.

If it is Hydroids- seahorse.org has many articles on getting rid of them- They are real tough to get rid of- Baby sea horses get stung to death by them- and they seem to come in with hatching Baby Brine Shrimp- In the sea horse breeding community it is not if you will get them it is when- Do not worry folks my sea horse tank is totally seperate from my main mixed reef tank- And I have not seen any signs of it in my sea horse tank.

Actually I concur with Grav's comments- Since it is less than a year- just keep it all. I do belive in refreshing your sand bed with some new sand over time say after the bed is two plus years- take a bit (1/4-1/3) out and place some new in- This is easy in the fuge- more difficult in the main tank- which is why I have the 2-3 inches in the main tank rather than a true deep sand bed. Remember the mixed Reef keeping is only part science- The number of variables are so great that the rest is art, or opinion. Good day Mr Chip!

For a nano cube I would just get the box of real salt water- comes in a five gallon container at most petco's It is far easier with the small changes you will be needing to change- I only change about 1 gallon a month in my nano cube- Watch your salinity though because you will need to top off evaporated water with Fresh water- Again the amount is small so I would just use the 1 gallon distilled bottle water you can pick up with any store- If you end up with a larger system at some point- I would then do the RO/DI system.

concur- alk and Phos are the two most important params-- and even drip acclimation it may not transition if too large of a change. Sometimes they just do not transition- but the vast majority of aquarium grown frags will acclimate and make the adjustment because they have been "hardened' for lack of a better word in the less than optimal swings of our aquarium keeping techniques. For the most part many of the online sellers Dr Mac included have wild caught colonies- and can be held with there large volume systems that maintain some fairly constant values. Just my speculation after seeing a lot of wild caught colonies not make it in other's tanks, which is why I am so big on trading within WAMAS and other associations.

you can find the nut shell in a lot of places- The problem about it is ,unless it comes from a guy like Randy - it is almost just opinion- this is what works in my system kind of thing- Randy actually tests every analysis that he does- shows the chemical process to show that there is empherical data for his recommendations.