Lee Stearns

You can bake the Arm and Hammer baking soda but it just turns it into the equivalent of washing soda- Exact same chemical- Arm and Hammer's washing soda(which is not easy to find- make sure it is pure with no perfumes) will raise alk but also raise PH at the same time- If your PH is normal- 8.10 -8.30 then I would just add baking soda. One teaspoon to a glass of RO/DI and it should raise 50 gallons about .5 in alkalinity. At least that is what the chemical Guru Randy Holmes over at reef central says, and has proven out in my tanks- Just a note of caution go slow in changing alkalinity. .5 rise a day is about all you want to do. You are shooting for 3.0-3.5 alk or multiply by that number by 2.8 to get dhk. There is a somewhat natural balance between Calcium and Alkalinity. Once you get to 3.0-3.5 then add only balanced additives or Kalk wasser(pickling lime) which is balanced calcium and ALk to keep you there. Howard that is the kit I got. Eddi and I found it for $49.00 some where. Of note is: It is neat and compact a major plus, allows you to carry everything including other tests neatly in one cotainer- On the minus side, It also has many tests I do not use - several are fresh water tests- So if you need refills I would just take out any test you do not use and add maybe a magnesium test, possibly a copper test- which I have never tested for but would be interseted in just for giggles in seeing what my params my coraline was growing best at.

interesting subject- Zoecon is similar to selcon, and is just a vitamin supplement that you add to mysis shrimp or any other food source to do two things- One get their appetite up- Must be the equivalent to A-1 -- because when you put any food in a tank that has had a couple of drops of selcon added the fish begin serching for the source- It has a fishy smell- And two it is supposed to have a balanced vitamin content, so they are getting their one-a-day as well. I use it almost daily as an additive to whatever frozen food I am thawing out.

good discussion- Chip standing by with some frags if you need restock- I saw a very similar thing happen in Eddi's tank right after bulb changes- It simply digressed to where he had rtn in many of his acros - after several months things started to come back and growth was normal again. Then one year later he dutifly changed out his bulbs and went through the same cycle of loosing a lot of his corals. I am not changing MH bulbs till mine burn out!- I had thought to change one of my four 110 Vho actinics out to a white actinic and rotating it in the four slots over the tank just to show some form of lighting change to these corals. Have no idea as to how to aviod what I see some folks have gone through with light induced problems. I will certainly not change form my 250ABs after seeing what change can cause.

Eric- I have some feather and grape calurpa- If you are this way - near TRT drop by and pick some up! It is going fast though as I have two new tangs in thier second week in my 29 QT tank- The Clown and Powder blue tangs are getting fatter by the day and trying more foods, but have learnded they can graze the calurpa. If you are comming by give me a call I will PM you with my address and phone and pull some to put in my fuge which I sould do anyway. Regards, Lee

Linda thanks for jumping on this- I do need the cylopeeze and sent an email per your directions. I would guess that a block is about 32.00 or so plus shipping. We find out what the total order is and divide the partial blocks as best we can prorated for shipping. I thought the blocks were standard 750 gram blocks.

Cool Mike- Interesting stuff to watch these guys grow- Means you have the params it likes down. It would be interseting to see what the droped offspring look like soon after they drop- What type of skeletal formation will the offspring have- Initially none? Get a couple of pics for us- Inquireing minds

Ok I was just saying mine is stacked, And I do not think too badly- (Jake yours is awsome but you can get at your tank from all sides very easily)- But maybe I put my hands in the tank more than others- If you are adjusting and or moving rocks to get a an anenome that has just split or a frag that was knocked down behind something- I invariably knock the digitatas rock into another rock or the glass or whatever and I inadvertently frag the darn thing- I can somewhat live with beating up my digitats colonly because it grows so fast- I would not like the same thing happening to my acros once they reach colony size. My thought was to get more stability by peicing to gether several of the rocks into a stable formation. Then you could move one formation at a time to the open sand area to work or get at whatever you needed. On the haitian rock- where did you pick pick that stuff up at maestro? And eddie if I get motivated you are welcome to stop by and make a set or two for your tank using your rocks- I guess it would be better for me to bring the stuff to you after you have seen what I have done. Don't get any ideas that I have the ***** eye - must be a Caribbean thing Jake has going.

This is also one thing I am still wrestling with- the best solution I have seen is some work with plexiglass shaped when heated with a blow dryer, then tie tie rock to it that allows stability for shelves and overhangs but have not made the time to try it yet- You want stability if you are going to mount sps- I have a digitatas rock that I have moved dropped broken so many times that the colony just looks pitiful- I need to takle this stability problem before my acros get too large. Inevitably you have shifting and moving problems. So maybe clumps of rocks on each frame would work so that you could maybe move one framework at a time. In my tank that would be about four frameworks in a 150 high the way I have it laid out now. If you decide to you want to see my tank and or determine you want to make some of these support- let me know I have plexiglass and a hair dryer- and need the motivation to just do it.

I have always loved this fish- Seen them in the wild plenty of times- Never had one- though I have had many different tangs- Frozen mysis-the small variety soaked in selcon will entice him to eat - They are mainly grazers - Grow Calurpa in your fuge to bring out- I would try a hand full in the tank now just to get him used to it. He will eventually pick at it if only out of curiosity because it is green and then develop a taste even if he has never seen it in the wild. That has been my experience with several other tangs(clowns, powders, hippos,yellows, convicts)- Mine loved feather as well, but grape calurpa was thier favorite. My observation is that Powders are about 50% herbivorous and 50% carnivorous. The Blue hippo about 75% carnivous, the yellow tang about 75% hebivorous, and the clown tang about 85% herbivourous. Though my clown is still a juvinile. I have no idea about the Achillies but by mouth shape I would suspect he is higher on the herbivoir scale. Good luck and keep us posted on how this specimine fares.

I can't speak for the xenia- It just melts away in my tank- I had yellow colony coral spreading up my digitata rock and started to sting the digitata- killed the first orange digi colony and so I started using joes juice on the leading edge- worked like a champ- Melted them back out of stinging range of my sps.

Never thought about it much but I use raw. I think if you want significant pod pod production there it would help to have whatever phyto that was comming from the main tank rather than skim it first. The real question is what to put in the fuge- I have an oversize hermit couple of snails and two peprmints- to help keep the aptasia down. They have been great at that- But I think they are fairly aggressive feeders on my pods so I am having second thougts- I will probably pull my pepermints and put them in another tank and only import them if I see a problem with aptasia. I have seen some other reefers on RC state the same about no hermits or shrimp in the fuge.

steve outlaw - I saw the picture of your torch. Looked like two heads. I would leave it alone for right now. I will reserve you the chaeto. And put you down for capnella, yellow colony, some zoos and some green star polyps. Get things stabilized and growing and you will have plenty by the next meeting. Mighty Mouse sarcophyton is Toad stool- a very easy forgiving leather- If you get the long polyped variety or the yellow variety they are very attractive in my view. They will grow huge, so one needs to prune them to keep them in thier niche, or give them a very large niche. Some folks in the club have them more than a foot in diameter. Regards, Lee

Erik, put me down for one block of cyclopeeze. Lee

xeon is right feed some phyto plankton every other day for anbout 10 days and you will be amazed at the number of pods and filter feeding tube worms that begin to show up.

There are only a few corals that I would be tempted to add to my aquarium at this point as I watch most of what frags I have grow into colonies. And they are LPS- One would be a VA_reefman's frag from his elegant coral( fat chance of that ever happening), another would be any of the brighter colored Blastos, favias, or Acans. Not that I am picky, but after the first year you realize what you thought was a lot of empty space is getting packed. You only have so much precious realestate and your frags are going to grow into that.

Each 1.6 lb block which is a LOT of cyclopeeze is individually deep frozen and sealed. It is fairly easy with a hackssaw to cut the block in two and place in lagre freezer bags if folks want 1/2 blocks- I think MichaelG even offered to cut them in 1/4 blocks when we did this last year. depending on whether we fill the Canada order- We could do two orders one form Jhemco if there are folks that need some other stuff. On bringing some frozen fish- the only note is it needs to be thawed before you bring it- We normally toss in crabs, squid, octopus, clams, roe, couple different types of fish- usually take the skin off because they make for some quite large pieces as they do not chop well. There are several recipies but my last few parties have shown me that whatever goes in, in whatever proportions it seems to be relished by any fish in my tank. Selcon is usually added to each blender batch, as well as whatever else is brought. The key seems to be in the blender time- My first fish making party batch was a bit tooo chunky- large peices- the second party we got it a bit too fine- so I think we are ready to make the perfect blend. :D

There is not much I need so all my frags will be free. I recieved 5 different acros last meeting and just need to see them grow- man are they slow compared to softies and leathers. I wouldn't turn down a polyp or two from a blasto colony though or an encrusting colorful gogonia, or if anyone has a phyto culture I would like to crank mine back up. I will bring: 1) a couple baggies of Chaeto macro algea(morgunda,Buddafish,Steveoutlaw,lmeyer ) 2) yellow colony polyps 2-4 frags (steveoutlaw, greatwit, grav 3) green digitatas 4-5 frags (scott711,tom,scuba tod ) 5) bright green star polyps 3-frags(SDE219,steveoutlaw,Stephen,RudyCDX1 ) 6) green pavona- 1 frag for chip(flower seller) 7)zooanthids-green skirt with orangish center 4-frags (SDE219,greatwit,Folta,howard ) 8)zooanthids brown skirt with pink center 3 frags(SDE219,tom, ) 9)Sand - couple bagies with worms/critters (tom,lmeyer,stephen) 10) Capnella- 4-5 frags(mightymouse, 11) cabbage leather 1-frag (mightymouse) 12) Long polyped toad stool(sarcophyton) -- 3 frags(tom, siders,seppler) 13) small orange cap monti 1 (scuba tod) 14) Long feathered Calurpa- If anyone is interested 15) A monster hermit 2.5 inches if someone wants to let it loose in their fuge 16) Large hairy mushroom- 2 frags(sde219,Davidfernandez ) 17) Green Bali slimer acro- If someone is interested (Scott711,Davidfernandez,howard ) If you let me know ahead I will mark the frag with your name to pick up at the meeting other wise they will go on the free frag table.

http://www.jehmco.com/PRODUCTS_/FISH_FOODS...eze_frozen.html This is the site we ordered from last time - It is 32.25 a block in orders of 4 blocks or more- each block is 750 grams or 1.6 lbs. They also have various other frozen and freeze dried foods. We ordered large blocks of mysis but my fish did not like these large sized mysis that well- they are almost the size of large krill. I went to the company that farms cyclop-eeze in Canada http://www.cyclop-eeze.com/online_store.php and they have it for an 8 block case 192.00 plus shipping which would put it at about $25 a 750 Gram block - I would take one block at this rate. It is about the only supplement I use in my tanks besides selcon. If I get enough takers we can do the Canada order- We can also split blocks for those that have smaller tanks. I went through a block in a little over a year. but then I donated a good bit to fish food making parties.

We normally do a massive oriental market run and then split up the cost at the party by how many bags it makes. x amount per bag, with the host getting a bonus bag or two- And if it is at Eddi's he will need it with all the gallons he has in marine reefs. - I have spirulina powder and some other goodies- nori, the last block of my mysis, ect. WHat I do not have any more of is Cyclopese- we should get a group order of that before the party, or in conjunction with the party- How many want a block of cyclopese? I do not remember where we order the frozen blocks of this and mysis from but would be willing to set up a group order. Regards

Almost always up for one- I am down to the bare nubs of what is left from a couple of earlier parties.

Very standard, Diatom bloom is the first and lasts anywhere from a few days to a few weeks- Next is cynobacteria- Will be a red film, might form long strings. Again a few weeks. I am not a big hermit crab fan but in a large tank a couple redlegs(3-5)- less aggressive will do fine at this stage. Next bloom after that will be an algea bloom and then it will will be a matter a reaching a balance between producing nutrients- food, fish poop, ect and algea growing to use those nutrients on one side and on the other side what creatures eat the algea be it snails crabs pods or manual removal in the form of one of the Macro algeas from the fuge. Sounds like you are right on track and actually have a foot up on most folks start in the bio-diversity. Once the algea bloom stage arrives look for the little snails I sent you home with to really start repoducing. Enjoy the evening show.

I always bring several baggies as do others- The free table gets sucked dry pretty quickly- As the meeting gets nearer there will be a frag trade thread opened and just check to see who has something you might need. When folks ask me I try to mark the baggy wilth their name. It is also a great time to get a sand innoculation of critters. Regards, Lee

Jim I am here in Burke- Sent you and Email- You are welcome to drop by and see where some of your live stuff might reside. Regards, Lee

Just a note. I have watched the last couple of days the tempeture in my tank rises. My normal tank temp runs 79.1 to about 82.0 from night to day temp when the halides come on- this 3 degree fluctuation has not been a problem. But with Spring here I see the daytime temp climbing to 83.3 as we open windows in the house and do not use the AC- This is the time of the year I run a fan on the fuge to keep temps down from that upper spike. Once summer is here and the central AC is keeping a more constant temp I find I cut the fans back off. Just a note to those that may not be watching thier tank temps because they seem so stable and predictable every day. Regards, Lee

My prefence would have been freeze it and then use it at the next fish food making party!