Lee Stearns

You have seen my set up I use a mag 12 for the return from the sump. I would think yours would be almost identical.

I will pick up Eddi's and My bag- 1/2 each on Sunday if I can get PM'd the address for the pick-up on Sunday-- Thanks, Lee

TRT had one dark blue looking one this last week

Nitrates are a bit high and do you test for phosphate- that is a real limiting factor with many corals

Yea I am bummed as well- I really wanted to hear Eric, and of course pick exchange a frag for something I do not have- have to go to Texas that week

Congratulations- what a neat thing to be rocognized - Absolutelty awesome pics. Now when do us mere mortal WAMAS guys get to come by and see it!!!

XEON- Dave, Put me in for a bag- I'll split it out with anyone that would like some. Regards, Lee

I'd be interested depending on when

Picture?

Jake, Night with a bright flashlight sometimes blinds or stuns them long enough to get the net on them- depends on how deep in the rock work they camp, but if your rock work is fixed even this can be difficult if you can not move the occasional rock around.

Actually kind of cool- I know they need a home of their own- but I have always thought their interesting behavior and relatively easy upkeep might be worth the adventure [tu]

I'll take an MN -- XL Thanks, Lee

There is grey PVC usually found in the elec section of the hardware store- any particular reason grey over nomal plumbing pvc?

Rebecca, How is it going? The ocean motions wave maker appears to be too much plumbing for my tastes- I have 4 MJ 1200's on a wave timer strip and have no complaints. Easy, cheap, economical to run. they are all back behind the rockwork. No holes in the tank to drill- Simple no leaks to worry about-- did I say simple...

Might be luck of the draw but I have a yellow , powder blue, and blue hippo all living for about six months together happily in a 150. The blue and powder blue I bought very small specimens and quarantined two weeks in a 29. They became friends in there and when placed in the main tank would search each other out. Eating habits on mine have been: Yellow is the most herbivorous and blue hippo the most carnivorous with the powder blue in the middle. They will all eat calurpa and graze a bit on the rocks and back glass for algae, as long as I am not in the room with them- They are pigs groveling at the front glass when I enter the room. Will have to get a picture on one of these threads. My powder Blue has not proven yet to be the terror that they have a rep for :D

IMHO - I would start the tank with the LR that you can spare from your other systems maybe take 30 % of the "cured water " and a heavy dose of the LS, BUT keep the fish in the currently running systems til your new 125 is up and running at least two weeks and the water params all normal. Any fish you do not want in there long term I would not consider putting in there- getting them out will be a pain. Take it slow- you will be glad you did. If you need something held for a while I have some room in my always running quarantine tank and you live nearby. Regards, Lee

This may be a bit of a generality- but in fish only tanks in the dark ages we never checked for much other than salinity and temp- and could keep fish and some inverts as long as you did not put copper in the tank. The only real poison to fish was amonia, which with biofiltration is never much of a problem then or today with LR bio balls or UGF. However with Corals it is entirely different. PH, alk, Phos and Calcium are tremendously important to keep constant or at near zero- You mentioned all your water params were good- But did not list all the params. Phos affets many corals and is a precursor to algea blooms. There are a lot of smaller amounts of minerals that can affect the overall balance as well- such as magnesium, stonium and iodide, which is why so many folks just do at least partial water changes on a regular basis to keep adding these trace elements in a balanced way to their systems. You could try to add trace elents individually but there is a saying "do not add anything to your tank that you are not testing for". So most just do water changes- Adding iodide seems prudent for I have observed shrimp and other inverts perkup with it's addition- It may be me but I seem to notice a shrimp molting the day or two after adding Iodide. There are those few out there that swear by never doing a water change- For those - I can only say they have met some magic balance of the right corals, fish and feeding regime that was probably more luck than planned because we know so little about all the chem reactions taking place within a mixed reef system. the less you test the more inportant partial water changes are- so take your pick if you are keeping corals- Fish only are not nearly as demanding- though I am sure they live much healthier lives in pristine water. Ok Long winded but just want to say sorry for the crash, and if you get it going again - I will be happy to donate a frag or two to the system.

First I would say that with a roozen's fish esp. you need to quarantine- but that is OBE- there are many sites that talk about treatments on Saltwater Ich- If you have a quarantine or med tank then I would think about taking the angel out and treating seperately, and maybe a fresh water dip- Lots of stess in that route. The other is hyposalinity for the entire tank- but depending on what else is in the tank you stess them- thinking some of the soft corals. Colts, pulsing xenias don't like hyposalinity. The thrird route would be to do the garlic soaked food, and cleaner shrimp- which are kind of cool anyway and just wait it out. Some get a UV sterilezer, but they are pricey to get a good one- I just wiated it out after trying hypo with little effect and still use some galic in my food prep for ich on my powder blue and hippo- The yellow tang never got it. After about four months I almost never see any spots on the fins. I attribute it to lots of flow, and very fat and healthy fish who have become less succeptible over time. But then this is only conjecture on my part. I have noted that when they get a spot of ich they love staying in the strong flow of one of the four power heads.

I'd be interested as well- I have lots of tools - that might be able to fill a gap. My availablity is limited during the fall but let me know when and I'll try to plan.

I just bought about 8 cans of Balls at Food Lion in Burke, which had it on sale for .59 a can- trying to close out for the season. I left 4 cans on the shelf in case another reefer was dropping in. I use 1 can in 4 months so that is more than a 2 year supply- If you need a couple of cans xeon whil eyou search out the mississippi line- let me know. So if anyone is looking for pickling lime buy it now as I have noticed it is seasonal in the stores.

Kimo- Because you are such a great guy in making me take a peice of of your green digitata back at Eddi's food making party which has started me on the road to accepting a few of the hardier SPS- I will concent to go through the questionare. 1.) What size tank do you have?[i have a 150g with two overflows, a 50 G sump/refuge] 2.) What filtration methodologies do you use? (i.e. DSB, Refugia, Plenum, Heavy/Medium/Light Skimming etc.) [Medium-light skimming because my sump level doesn't stay constant enough to optimize my skimmer effectiveness, lots of macro in the refuge with no fish there, also a mechanical filtration box with a bit of chemi pure or charcoal, and one phos resin bag that I recharge whenever it turns brown] 3.) Do you have a sand bed? How deep?[ about a 3 inch sand bed- with a fair amount of worm activity- in both the refuge and the main tank. I keep a rubble area in the tank and a crushed coral area in another corner of the tank] 4.) How much live rock do you have?[? don't know always changing/adding and a bit at a time- but I would say about 150 lbs] 5.) How much flow do you have?[Mag 12 return with 4 1200 maxi jets on a wave timer] 6.) What are your stocking levels? How much do you feed? What do you feed?[ Stocking is- powder blue, blue hippo, yellow TANGS, six line, green BTA,two cleaner shrimp and an assortment of mainly soft corals, but with some LPS and SPS. Feed very sparingly each day, but about twice a week I feed out heavy to include cyclopeze, SELCON soaked mysis,home made fish party mash, keep macro in tank for tangs and replenish as necessary, daily a few shrinp pellets, or spirulina flakes and target some silver sides twice a week to BTA. twice a week home grown Phyto and rotifers, two cups.] 7.) How is this working out for you? (Nitrates, Phosphates, General health, Algae growth etc.) [zero Phos, zero nitrates, some green algea growth on front and side glass which is wiped away every other day with magnet, did have some hair which I have finally the right balance eaters for; 1 mythr crab, some red legs, some snails(ceriths, 1 fighter, nerites,astrella)and grazing tangs keep in check. May screw up my great balance by adding a long spine urchin to the sump, to be moved to the main tank for baby bangai births. Coraline growth OK. Drip Kalk for water top off, occasionally add calcium and water change about 5 gallons a week. Ph constant between 8.10 and 8.25, with temp between 79.5-81.5,salinity 1.024,Ca finally between 350 and 450, ALk 3.0-3.5 meg/l ]

Welcome Laura, I started back into Marine Aquariums and started my main tank in Dec 03 as well- Yours looks great- You'll find the folks in this organization will be most helpful with anything, including an occasional frag. Regards

Welcome on the boards, Good to see that you are locally near me in Burke. Sorry to see that you got a flower pot as they are difficult to make happy. What are some of your tank specs? size, lights, flow, LR, and length of time it has been runnig? Regards,

I have some leathers, mushrooms, zoantids and two different GSP that I would be willing to frag if someone wated to come by the house to get them(PM me-live in Burke Va). LPS grow so slow that I believe you have to buy them to get one for your tank. Otherwise I will bring them to the next meeting. I am a bit more interested in some peices of the easy SPS but not acro's. I have some digi and monti's that are just frags for now but are showing good growth. This is after my set back last month while out of town. TRT last week had some good easy SPS 3 packs for just 39 dollars that were tank raised locally. Hard to beat anywhere, and no shipping and a WAMAS discount.

Eddi Should be answerimg this but he is out of town. He has a CB in his large tank with several clams- The CD does not bother them. Eddi feeds fairly heavily a good mix of chopped clam,squid,mysis,ect. The CB eats heartily form the entire mix. And I do not see any aptasia in the large tank though there is some in the fuge and sump attached, however I have not obsereved the CB eating aptasi, something is keeping it out of the main tank.