Lee Stearns

Michael, Sorry I did not know you wanted to know the number of peices. My records are not that detailed I have fraged many of the colonies so many times- such as the devils hand, yellow colony, cabbage and some of the zoantids that I just do not know how many times they were given out- I just have records of which corals I fragged just not how often and to whom. Also I see a fair amount of credit is being passed- So I must acknowledge that in reality my tank is a reflection of Eddi's generosity as welll as some from neat peices from Grav and Xeon, and frag swaps at meetings. I find getting aquarium grown colonies to be a no brainer for success in keeping species. Even ones I purchase have been from members tanks in the area. I do not begrudge them selling a frag or two because after seeing some of their systems the electric bill alone would justify more than what they nominally charge.

Alright, are we using the technical definition of species- I have multiple varieties of zoanthids, and Ricordeas, if you are counting all varieties. Nano cube:17 Corals all but three were fraged from someone in the club= 14 29:12 many are duplicates of frags in either the nano or the main tank,nothing new there = 0 150:36 species 5 duplicates from above and 4 not from WAMAS= 27 Total: 41 different corals from within WAMAS, which is why I love spreading the wealth! If you want to add 3 species that I have been given and have died = 44. I have fragged for other WAMAS members on several occasions 19 of these species. Just waiting for the rest to Grow!

Yes put me in for two boards- And I know that means 4 float switches, two boards = two complete systems Thanks for all the efforts dchild

Howard, Xeon is out that way- have him contact xeon. Regards,

Raising Calcium via any form of Calcium chloride- be it name brands or the DIY pure DOW Ice flakes that Randy Holmes-Farley reccomends will eat into your buffer and lowers Alkalinity. To raise alkalinity- you add a buffer either comercial or the again DIY Randy Holmes-Farlety approved arm and hammer washing soda or Baking soda- but go very easy as you can spike alkalinity easily. To avoid being out of balance with your calcium or Alkalinity while trying to maintain a stable PH (8.1-8.3) balance. Most drip in Kalk because PH will drop over time.(there is a natural day night PH cycle associated with photosynthesis of corals and algeas) There is a steady small drop in PH as each day passes. The inverse arrangement between Alk and Calcium(addung one lowers the other) is why so many preach adding only balanced additives. Here is where a pH monitor is so important when dripping this Kalk. Kalkwasser, or any form of balanced two part additives (Bionic being one) usually raises PH balancing Calcium input with alkalinity so that neither are off- the main thing is that you can raise PH too high by adding too much- The standard DIY balanced additive is Pickling lime (Balls being one) bought in the summer at several food chains. Many in the club picked up a lifetime supply last year getting mississippi lime. Some automate the Kalk(pickling lime) by setting up a "Kalk reactor" or Neilson reactor which just automates the stiring of the Kalk and adds a water top off function so that as water evaporates in the sump it is replaced with fresh RO/DI water and kalk. This maintaines not only the salinity level, but the Ph at near constant levels. There are several easily set up drip systems that can handle this fuction easily without any real expense. The only reason to add Calcium Chloride or any of the various Calcium additives which bumps up the calcium levels in a tank- is because SPS, LPS, and coraline algeas can use more calcium than the balanced Kalk can drip into your system- And most strive for accelerated growth of these items. You can do this with the DIY calcium chloride additives, or name brand Kent ca, super ca, ect. but you will lower the alkalinity. Some add a bit of vinegar to their Kalk (pikling lime) to get a higher calcium yeild whichis fairly safe and more than most tanks would need. To avoid these lowering calcium levels some automate thier systems with a calcium reactor (not to be confused with the above relatively simple Kalk reactors(Neilson) These Calcium reactors are relatively complex with CO2 bubling at a set rate through a medium to add calcium to the tank- My first reaction is that you would have to have a very SPS heavy calcium growth load to need one- I personally will continue to bump calcium with Calcium clhloride and measure Alk. Now if ther was only a simple realtivey cheap electronic Alk and Ca monitor life would be sweet! Jake hope this puts into terms what you are stuggling with. See you next month when we make our DIY auto-top off devices. Regards

Wow, Mike you really fell into this one the old adage that nothing good happens fast in reef keeping --- didn't apply in this case!

For numbers sake I would like two units as well-- never know when I will be back down this road, second aquarium? 9 Jan works for me Jake

Ok, I knew i was good for something in this lash up- consider beer covered. I have wire cutters and soldering iron etc. and a small sheet of plywood to work on that I can throw in the trunk.

Ok Jakes house works for me- I'll bring the beer. We just need to finalize the design and have someone order enough to cover how many kits we want to put together.

Ok I was able to get some of the bristle worms- they are only a few inches long and there are plenty where they came form- But the I tried chopping diceing even soaking small peices in selcon- No body wanted to have anything top do with them- I think my fat six line just said "who are you trying to kid- I still see the bristles in there" And the tangs who grab about anything that floats by Said "not enoughh condiments" SO apparently bristle worm either tastes bad or the bristles still sting after being mutilated, but in either case they do not make good fish food.

An RO/DI unit is recommended for large reef systems. If all you are runnning is a nano cube i would just buy the sea water in a box, which is what I use on my nano at work to keep down on the fuss with mixing ect.

I am in - let me know when and where- Looks like your house Howard? I still say there needs to be redundancy in the shut down- like two float switches, which is what see as he weakest link.

Ok I am a troglodite when it comes to this stuff- I would love to attend a DIY party to see it wired together and am totally in agreemnet that we have to have dual float switches, to reduce the chances to near zero of flooding.

Another issue- are they tank raised- I would expect so as most are now, so they have probably graduated to flake if not frozen brine or chopped mysis as michael said. Pedal power got it right that Cyclopeese is a weaning food for most breeders from live foods, and very nutritious. But the easiest thing I would try is get some Selcon- comes in small bottle with eye dropper. Think of it as an apetite enhacement and a daily multi vitamin for fish. Put a couple drops on your flake food or even frozen foods while thawing- Nothing I have ever run across can resit a bite of it.

They won't coddle you- And if you expect to see if a fish is eating before you take it home- think again. It is a tough place for beginners to see because of its impossible stocking levels in the tanks and low prices encourage impulse buying. You really need to know what you are looking at, and what you want, diseases and all before buying- Things normally last about 7 days or less in their tanks before being moved. That much volume begs to have every known bacterial/viral/parasitic malady known- Just dip and quarantine for at least two weeks before acclimating to your main display. All this being said if you are looking for a special fish/invert you can just about be guaranteed they will have it or have in shortly. For example if you are looking for a powder blue tang - they will not have just one they will have a dozen- just know what you are looking for in eyes, head, fins, flesh ect. All this being said I would buy from them again, but only some items and with a take it very slow approach.

Any nipping from these angels at your sps? I have been leary to get one of these beauties till I have done a lot of research and hear of some good luck with them around SPS. Sounds like they are doing well with three tangs already!

Craig, What type of corals are you keeping with these two angels and what other fish are in there with them? Regards,

I have the blue hippo, powder blue and Yellow in a 150 and they do fine- I have always loved the achelies tang from my diving days in Hawaii- but just do not think a fourth tang in this tank is doable-I also think the powder and achelies would fight. So to answer your question the yellow is a great grazer- the powder is inbetween the yellow and Blue as far as grazing- the Blue is not muchg of a grazer- I think if I had to do it over I would replace the Powder with the Achelies but - My three have such good temperment that I could not ask for a better mix.

Yea and don't buy all the nerites- I still need to get by there- first time I have seen them in --

Ok sounds like manual capture is the way- when they start poking out just grab them - easier said than done in a 28 inch high- but I will post how my bristle worm apetizers go over with the fish.

I have many very large bristle worms in my tank, At night they particularly come out in packs- They are not doing much harm as far as I can tell- but would imagine they are competing in some way with other more beneficial organisms such as pods or smaller scavengers that might be real food for fish or corals. I had also wanted to try out chopped bristle as a fish food- maybe I could entice my six line who is fat on what ever he is already picking out or the rocks to develop a taste for younger bristle worm-- Hehe What ways would one go about rounding up a few of these big guys. Just lift rocks and pick up with rubber gloves? Not easy in a 150 high- I can barely touch the bottom of the tank from a step ladder. Any traps or other suggestions? Any reasons not to thin out these guys? Regards,

My bet would be no problem to put them in a plastic bag and then into a cooler in the trunk for 4-5 hours- again you see them shippped for 24+ hours in less packing such as news paper- And crabs/snails are a bit more hardy than much of what is shippped.

Brine shrimp are batch cultures for the most part hatched and fed as Baby brine shrimp(BBS). They are restarted with eggs on an as needed basis and very simple. The BBS have some nutrition if fed in the first 24 hours, otherwise they need to be fed out, which is not terribly difficult either. They then need to be sieved out before feeding because the water they are in is pretty nasty. Brine shrimp are so easy simply because of the ease in hatching eggs. Almost no one raises them through maturity and then reproduction though I have just to see the cycle. For the price of a full bag of live fully grown brine it is hardly worth your while to play with them. The baby brine are grown as a feeder to fish larve at certain stages- but many fish- clowns among them need even smaller rotifers in the beginning. I think the reson many peple do not mess with baby brine shrimp to feed the reef tank is becaus of the egg shells take a long time to break down. There are ways to get the BBS to move toward light souce which gets them away from thier shells for sieving out but the whole mess is a process that most find it easier to just feed cyclopese or golden pearls which are about the same size in the food chain. Now rotifers are a whole differnt story--

The Tiger fighting is supposed to only get 3 inches as oppose to the queen and regular fighting Conches.

I like diversity under the hope that they are getting something different- there are several very small snails that multiply in the tank and come out only at night that you can get as hitchhikers from almost anyones mature system LR- I think they do a great job on the rockwork- Red leg crabs seem to do the most against algea, emeralds,Sepent stars,-- I'd stay away from the large turbos because they are serious bull dosers- nerite snails are slow but good on glass and fairly attractive to boot, the atrellas and tops are effective, ceriths in my opinion are slow as well but great as a part of the diversity, but not much on hair algea. A tiger fighting conch is also good for the diatom and red algea. And the nassarias for detrius. I even have two urchins in my 29(will not put them in the main tank for fear of bull dosing effect)- but expect I may have to move one to the fuge as they are too good at feeding and I am runnig out of algea!:D