Lee Stearns

Very nice- you will find that the young take cyclopese fairly quickly which can get you out of the hatching BBS business. Congrats. Catching the Male at the exact right day before he spits out is quite an evolution and requires as much luck as skill. If you catch him to early he will spit them out before they are motile. if too late they are fish food unles you can find one or two in the overflow. My Male has stopped carrying to full term. I have seen him with eggs twice this year and then after a few days no eggs.Good luck with yours Chip. Regards,

Chip, Thanks for the invitation- Not only can I come I will bring a large green with pink tip BTA to split as well. Regards, Lee

Not that I am advocating against a total tear down- But I moved a 150G on the stand into the next room and into position by pumping all but the last two inches of water out into plastic garbage cans. Large rock I put in the trash cans with the water. I put the teflon movers slides under it and then with a hand come-along winch moved it 1 foot a a time till it was in place. I ran the cable around the bottom of the stand. My floor is carpeted up to the final position where I pulled the tank onto the plastic matting in the spot where it is today. Then I pumped the trash cans back into the tank and plumbed the fuge behind the wall.

yep I have to pull my magnet out to clean it once a year or so to keep the velcro clear enough to be effective- I suppose GSP could survive those cleanings if done a bit genler than I do them.

I have been running 10K AB 250 DEs and have found that running 7 or more hours they needed replacing just shy of 12 months- I cut back to about 6 hours a day and they are making it to 12 months- Mine seem to get duller and just a little yellow- I just this week changed to the pheonix 14k and see a marked difference in the crisp white light

30" depth is a lot Not much will penetrated that depth to allow everything down on the bottom- T 5s would be the most economical and have pretty good penetration- next would be a bit more but very nice allowing more options for what you can keep- and that would be Metal Halides- Lots of opinions there as well- I would not even consider PCs or NOs. Lighting is a very important decision and will affect the reef and what you want to keep.

Welcome to both Christina and Sara. Good place for info and meeting some local reefers that will answer your questions. Regards,

Hey Dano, I think that ich is fairly dormant in nearly any system- I even think that ich can get into a system by adding something as innocuous as untreated tap water or placing ice in an aquarium- Would seem like salt water ich could not survive in fresh water like that. Either that or the those additions have stressed the fish in my experience in the old days of running fish and invert only systems. Now all that being said they say that if you leave a system fish free for 6-8 weeks that the ich would be gone. Supposedly it can not stay in the dormant stage for that long- The cysts open up every 2-3 weeks and go into a free swimming state for 24-48 hours usually at night to find a fish host. Now there are various strains of ich both fresh and salt and brackish and we have even some strains in the aquarium industry that are very virulent and seldom found in the wild because of our LFS running systems on some form of treatments for indefinite periods...I know of local LFS that have had an outbreak that nearly decimated all livestock within 48-72 hours. So when we talk ich there are so many ideas and so many different things that have worked for one person and may not work for another. Now with all that said I can only address my experiences because I have not done the pathology at the cellular level of any of my ich through the years. I would generally state that anything that you feel might have been contaminated should go through a 8 week fallow time without contact with fish to keep from spreading. QT tanks I would always run bare bottom, but I like you have put rocks, calurpa, and pvc pipe for hiding places. If you were to take a QT tank down I would clean it with a light Clorox fresh water before using again. Otherwise just run it with the rock and bio wheel 8 weeks then I would not worry much about putting the rock in the fuge of my main system. It is good that you did not use copper based treatment with any of the rocks in the QT- that would have made it unusable in system that you had any snails in. I have had ich in my main tank and have tried the hypo salinity before and raised the temp which accelerates the ich cycle, but that was before I had some fairly sensitive sps corals. I did not have much luck in either case and have found that the best thing for tangs is get them a little help like cleaner shrimp and Neon gobies which are nice additions to a reef tank that do not place much bio load. Keep the tangs appetite up by adding fresh garlic to their food, keep plenty of safe havens (caves and or PVC) and keep grazing material in front of them 24- 7 like romaine lettuce, nori, calurpa, zucchini peels. These stress relievers helps them to get fat and with- stand the occasional smaller outbreaks of ich. Now what is the difference with life threatening outbreak other than a resistant strain of ich- I think when the really get coated as a last resort they can be fresh water dipped and placed in QT with a rid ich treatment- but those heroic efforts are seldom effective because the poor fish is so stressed by being taken from his reef and placed into a small strange environment that they just get stressed more and ich jumps on this compromised immune system. One other treatment that I have had success with is add fresh ginger ground to their food like spirulinal flakes soaked in selcon (or high vitamin supplement). Garlic increases appetite and stimulates the Immune sytem. Ginger is a natural antibiotic and helps them fight off secondary infections- which lowers the stress and many swear is a "cure' for ich out breaks. But nothing beats a happy healthy fat fish for fighting off the smaller ich outbreaks that Tangs especially seem to get frequently in nature as well. Just my two cents on how my fish survive the occasional spots that show up on them every few months or so for no reason that I can identify, which is why I say I am not sure you ever get it out of your system. I am in the process of adding UV to my main system to run 24-7 like Flowerseller does- If nothing else to catch the stray ich in its free swimming stage and to clarify my water a bit. Regards

Tee, I live in Burke. PM me and I will give you my address and we can talk basics of reef keeping- I have nursed many fish through ich. but bottom line is you have it in your system now and sounds like you are treating your system. Just do not use a copper based tretment or you system will almost never be able to support most inverts and eps. snails. Regards, Lee

I have three tangs in a 150- they were fine small- but I am worried as they grow- Hippos get fairly large after several years. Biodork is right in worrying about the long run. 4 foot tanks and more mature tangs are pressing for some agression eventually even if you can keep a clip with romaine or nori consitantly filled. Any 6 foot would be much preferable for these guys, IMHO.

Doug, I am second in line for the orange ric. You have agood idea of what I have you are welcome to what ever you need. Regards,

PM me and I will give you my address- I can get you started with the basics of almost any coral. I have some softies, and LPS

you can also clip on a piece of broccoli- they will eat the flourettes and leave the rest. Also romaine lettuce and green zucchini will give them something nutritious to graze on. Toss the remainder when al the dark green is gone- same with the zucchini

Rascals got this nailed for you- Preference- extra rock can alway go in the fuge if you want to open it up for more swimming room depending on what fish stocking you are doing.

Very nice Steve- I recognize some of the colonies, looks like everything is doing great in your tank! Keep up the good husbandry and they will be fighting for real estate! Regards,

Fab said it all- but to answer your question- I use a presurized storage tank as well. Just easier to have on demand water from the system for me.

how do you keep that many tangs fed! Very nice tank!!

Very nice Chip- you finally got that pair in the mood- I gues you left the door to your bedroom open, and they figured it out- Now you are in for it- once they start they will be having a batch every couple of months- till the male gets too skinny. Lucky catch in the over flow!! Let me know if you need anything-

I always have frags available for the cutting as well- It would be helpfull if you brought rubble that you wanted it mounted to - otherwise I have some disks- PM me for my address and time to meet- Regards,

I have found they will eat almost anything- Mysis is good but they will also scoop up pelets from the sand and sift the sand out through their gills- With pellets I doubt that he will starve- He will get bolder if he is hungry- Try feeding pellets in the evening- that way there will be a few on the sand when lights go out. The shrimp will also eat the pellets.

Fortunately Rocko 918 and Grav have nearly every thing I have already in thier tanks. unfortunately they seem to look better in thier tanks than mine Hey Johnny anthing you need? Regards,

I concur with a TDS meter unless you are mechanically chnaging DI resin every 3-4 months how do you know when to change any of the filters. Plus it is neat to see that the tap water in Fairfax runs between 175-350. And then you check what your filtered water is and it is 0-10- depending on the time since you changed your DI resin---very neat. If you are nano cubing it a gallon of distilled water once a month from the store at about 60 cents is all you will need.

Concur atlantic pepermints and small anemones, I have never know them to eat Majano. Get the majono with any of the remedies, joes juice kalk ect. but stay on top of them- They will move just like an anemone to a new location the next day and start to multiply from there - kalking them into a spot seems to work a bit better. Once Majano get going they are hard to eradicate completely even from a small system like a nano cube.

How quick does the stuff come back after you wipe it down? Also, I would be willing to help on your blue paly or zoa? problem when they get fragable LMK.

Sounds like something we should look into- There is a lot of frag and coral trading going on in this club and I for one have not done any dipping of corals prior to putting in my tank. This is being done more out of ignorance of the issues associated with coral diseases and parasites than anything else. Two points here: 1) The club should look into getting a breif set up at one of the meetings for education on this subject. Even our vendors might be of help and interested. 2) And we ought to recommend some kind of minimal dipping proceedures for things like red bugs, monti eating nudis, and zoa eating parasites. All of which I know have, and or do exist in some WAMAS members tanks. I think this is a rather first order of business that should be addressed by WAMAS. We have a lot of forums and stickies but maybe a stickie thread on the recommended dipping once developed, and attached to meeting notices where trading is to take place. Just thoughts,