Lee Stearns

I also let two varieties of calurpa grow rather wild in my sea horse tank- Quite amazing how rapidly it can grow in a nutrient rich low flow environment. I have a powder blue and hippo blue tang in my main tank that love both varieties. I take an encrusted rock from my old sea horse tank and move to my main tank which both tangs completely clean in 24 hours. The two short spined black urchins in the sea horse tank do not touch either species of calurpa, but do eat the film algea and some of the nice pink encrusting coraline. If I grab out large handfulls and keep rotating rocks in my main tank I end up with very god control of the stuff, not to mention two fat tangs. I keep only chaeto in the refuge of the main tank as a nutrient/ export pod haven.

I have to lean towards the 6 foot for the big tangs as well- I have a powder blue and hippo in a 150G high, but it is still a 2x4 box and the powder blue while very healthy is a bit stir crazy after more than 3 years. Ok how do I define stir crazy- he has picked up the habit in the last few months of charging both ends of the tank and spashing water out. I found so much water on the floor and thought where is this leak coming from? But then realized it was just his splashing and had to place a towel on the floor for a while when he was being persistant. The blue Hippo which is the same size does not seem to be worried at all and is very calm. I would say they are both in the 7-8 inch range. The powder blue is calm most of the time- Phase he was going through? Can anyone say upgrade?

I'll pick up a bag next time I'm out at BRK and give you a shout.

welcome aboard Lyndsay! Told you there were great folks here that could answer about any question. PM me if you want to stop by the tanks over Christmas break. Regards,

condis are one step above aptasia in difficulty keeping- but I have never heard of any clown hosting in a condi

I am in Burke just off the fairfax county parkway, not far from Matt- If you have a container I usually have about 3 gallons at a time of fresh RO/DI in storage. PM me for a time and my adress and phone.

Nice, Not sure the need for two skimmers with a relatively small bio load- I would just move the refuge into one of the skimmer slots- save you from having to build a side cart garage. Regards, Lee

Bob, Saw your note on the T5s and thought you had done some upgrades! All your inhabitants were doing great with the lights you had, but this should allow your expansion into more SPS- For those who have not seen this tank- It is quite attractive and worth a visit. Regards, Lee

i was thinking mantis as well- but hard to tell for sure

Be careful with the yellow colony in the middle of the tank- It will spread LPS and Softies should be fine together- Large leathers should probably be kept out of SPS dominant tanks, devils hand, finger leather, cabbage, and toad stool if they are very large- That being said if you keep the toad stool small I have not noted any major impact on an SPS dominant tank- T5s can sometimes be too bright for good zoanthid growth- so keep them at the very bottom, and then sometimes in some shade. The green and tan large hairy mushroom- will eat pellets and efficiently use what ever light it gets- It too can become almost pest proportions as they grow to the size of a dinner plate and squeeze out many other corals from their territory A soft coral and LPS tank can be one of the most maintenance free reef systems you can build.

I have seen bubble completely take over a tank, (not mine)- It is not pretty, as it out competes a lot of stuff for space, even corals- Which is why I would manually get ANY I could out of there at the first sign- On the popping or not popping- there is some discussion on whether there are spores in the smaller bubble algae - and that there are no spores in them until they get to about an inch in size- I need to mention that there are several different forms of bubble algae- but the ones that grow to large round spheres many times in excess of 2 inches, appears to be the dominant form I have seen in many aquariums in this area- In my tank I have found it almost impossible to get them out of many cracks and crevices with out popping- So I use a dental pick and pull them from their location when ever I have seen one- Over time, we are talking a couple of years I have reached the point where I never find them any more- Just be extremely careful with what ever you import into your tank- inspect it carefully, and maybe you will not fight this battle.

put some kalk in the bottom of the bottle and it will stir itself every time you add water to the bottle- NOW then, you have a kalk auto top off

When are they doing this- I will help out- Dave PM me if you need help. Matt then you must be around the corner from me as well- PM me if you would like to stop by an get some freebie corals. Regards,

I used to use pill bugs for feeding sea horses - but never had them last for more than a couple of hours- as long as they move a hungry sea horse willl eat them.

Good to hear that your fairy wrasse is coming around. I have a radiant wrasse about 6 inches and he cleans up any small bristle worms- Will not eat the larger older ones, but I rarely see one any more.

They are phenomenally hardy. I

I agree- Bob has a nice home and beautiful tank. He has been adding some sps and this tank will show interesting growth in that direction as they take more up space.

welcome aboard Sean- I too am available -PM me for a time. I can show you how I have set up, and my daily maintenance routines and get you some starting biodiversity for your tank. I am off the fairfax county parkway- Regards, Lee

You will find lots of folks ready to help with livestock and outfit assistance- depending on your instruction mission - you might find a nano cube the easiest example of a biotope. But if you are working all the chemistry issues a larger tank would be more educational in showing changes.

this is the funniest thread I have read in quite some time-

welcome aboard- lots of great people here always willing to help - esp with new tankers- I do not recollect if there is anyone that far out (Front Royal)- you might check the where people are sticky thread. But if you are in the Northeren Va area make it a point to PM a couple of members and do a tank visit- that one on one time is quite valuable to see how they do the little things of tank maintenace. Again welcome- Regards,

Check your calcium level as a double check on your Alkalinity. Alk and Calcium are normally in sinc and if your calcium is not that high then I would bet that your alk is a measurement problem or will go down nauturally or time.

Doug, This is a loaded question. I can only tell you what my priorities are from the membership in this club. 1) the web based forum to exchange ideas and ask questions 2) to meet local reefers and be able to share ideas in a personal venue 3) to trade home grown reef critters from sand fauna diversification, macro algea, all the way to corals and even fish (a subset of this is to make the hobby a bit less expensive) 4) I particularly enjoy sharing info with new start up members and schools, which I am not sure we focus as much as we should on Way way down on my list is to attend a speakers event- Most any info that I need on any topic is available in detail way beyond my capcity to comprehend on many many different Web sites. When I go to a WAMAS event it I look forward mainly to the social and trading opportunities. When I was first starting I recieved many litte frags of various things people were keeping in their reefs, and how they cared for them. I now generally bring the freebies back to events out of sharing and obligation, because I rememeber the thrill of getting a few new critters or frags added to my mostly bare tank. What has also worked best for me is to go to one or two open house tank tours right after the WAMAS event before returning home. Just my personal view. I know we have a large and diverse club and the officers are trying to meet all thier needs. Regards,

when the calurpa goes asexual- It generally melts down completely in 48 hours or so- It goes completely white at first and then just dissolves- that relases all the nutrients it had tied up- Heavy skimming and water changes help- Your question on whether you can wait depends on what inhabitants you have - If they are sps or clams and it was lot of calurpa per tank volume you might well lose them- But for most fish ect I would think as long as the O2 levels stay up they will survive. Drop a bag of activated charcoal into the sump high flow area if you do not have time to make water. You can also slightly lower the saliniy which keeps the O2 levels higher, depending again on what you are keeping.

Ask almost any of the LFS around here they are pretty good about getting in what is needed.