Lee Stearns

Uni- You getting back in? let me know what you need. Regards, Lee

Becca , I have never found mine off. I checked it twice about 6 months apart and it was always calibrated to zero where I set it out of the box so I have not checked mine in a long time. Lee

Very cools Eric- Congrats- let me know when you are ready for more occupants! Regards, Lee

This Acan is a nice grower- identical to one that I have that started as one polyp- and is now more than ten. I have mine low in the tank on the sand- works for me under my lighting. Regards, Lee

Nice pics Dave. Pretty system. Lots of additives- but seems to be doing well- Jump on the bubble when you get the chance. Regards, Lee

Great that it happened at this time while changing everything- Spawning events have been known to completly take a tank down- and cause a general die-off. Coral spawnings had done this to one of Michael Gs tanks. Real mess. Goes to show if you privide too good of an environment- then they act as they would in nature- and spawn- just that unlike nature there is no place for the spawn to go.

John I want to say thanks- great party- Regards, Lee

There is an old salt water saying- never put anything into your tank that you can not measure for. That being said there are hundreds of concoctions that people will sell you to speed up this or replace that element ect. The marine aquarist have a second sayng that nothing good happens fast- if you have LR in the tank them you have Coraline and in time it will do well with a lrge dose o patience. Boosting calcium will speed it up a bit and depending on your light intensity one variety or another will take off. kalk is all you will need while maintaining PH balance until your sps or LPS take off- then you might need additional calcium- till then enjoy trip.

Johnny, When you get a chance and are ordering some cyclopese again- I would like to get a block- vs the smaller packages. No hurry- Hope you have plenty of frozen mysis in stock- And of course one of these days an achilles surgeon. Again no rush as it will need to be quarantined for some time-They are notorious for parasites. Regards, Lee

I concur with chip get one of the very inexpensive titanium grounding probes- It will be good for your safety as well as take away a possible reason for jumping-an enclosed hood keeps them from jumping as well, if you do not want a cover- some fish such as the fire fish and blenies are natural jumpers. They live in the costal reef area where they jump from puddled area to area when the tide is out.

There are lots of good suggestions here- I might add that with a fish and softie corals only tank you can pretty much run the system with small water changes only- and appropriate lighting. We did it for years before they ever started adding skimmers and two part solutions- Kalk is primarily a way to keep PH in balance, but has the added effect of replacing calcium that is used by Coraline algea, LPS and sps corals. If all you have is the nice pink coralinge growing(a sign of a good tank) then water changes can keep up with all the calcium required. Some fish require pristine water- which brings about the need for skimming and maintaining PH which will require more attention to testing ect. If you stay with gobies, clowns, blennies, some of the hardier species of damsels(not that I would recomend a damsel- they are ounce for ounce the meanest fish in the sea) and some softies such as mushrooms and colts and green tree, cabbage, toad stool, finger leathers- then your system will do just fine and be very attractive and pretty much bullet proof requiring minimal maintenance. Aptasia Majano and bubble algea are exceptions that will require hobbyist intervention. Red tip hermits and a mix of snails micro stars and innoculation of good critters in the sand will eventually achieve a balanced system. Feed very light in any case and you are good to go with only water changes. It is when we go to butterflys, some of the surgeon fish, angels, among others that we need to keep the environment more pristine, or in tighter tolerances of nitrogen,Phos, oxygen, ph, higher lighting. Green or Rose BTA are the easiest of the hosting anemones but will require a bit better water quality. They can be hit or miss in a "dirtier" tank. If you get the invite go by and see and talk to a reefer- emmissary's offer is a great start here. I am in the NoVa area and you are welcome to drop by my place as well- Just pm me. You will get lots a great assistance here, and softie corals are generally freebies, or taraded for new species because they grow so well in our systems. Regards, Lee

John there is a big difference in standard mogul and DE bulbs- that should be one of your criteria in the poll- I am not sure how many DE guys they are out here- mine are 250W DE 10ks brand AB OOPs sorry Jake already caught that on the base difference.

My concern was placing anything on the glass because it was going to coraline up at some point anyway- anything too thick and you need to get flow behind it to keep there from being dead spots - I have 4 maxi jet 1200s on two strips that basically keep the flow coming along the back of the glass and towards the front of the tank. They are totally hidden by the rockwork,, but can be pulled stright up for maintenance. For beginning the tank the plexiglass darkened would work till the glass encrusted. I certainly would not want to clean the back glass.

I used to collect pods of all kinds- but then that was on Pacific Islands- sand, rock gravel fish even salt water changes all came from the ocean. Just had to slep it to the trunk- I would pick up rocks and let the pods and water drip into a 5 gallon bucket untill they were all scurrying aroung on the bottom of the bucket- heck I would even get rocks with macro algea for my tangs to trim down before taking the rocks back to the beaches- Not sure how legal all that is now though.

Brain coral-- LPS--- Ask Eddi for exact type- he loves them.

John, Great pics!!- I too remmber the RC TOTM- that is the only way I have seen all your tanks over the years. Ok, still waiting on the tank tour- Your best peice of advice was: Lyrtail Anthias- Pseudanthias squamipinnis I just can not trade my LPS for Angels, at least not yet. Regards, Lee

I was wondering where this thread was- did not think to look at the sticky section of the board. I will have: green hairry mushrooms Some zoos Colt green tree Capnella two green monti digi frags one fairly large one green bali slimer could bring an extra if someone wants Have a pink tipped Green Bubble tipped anenome(Grav's original clone- this has got to be fourth generation split) Will bring Chaeto Some sand in baggies for inoculation. Looking for ricordia other than green and orange. Regards, Lee pics were asked for: Older Picture of left side of my tank with an unflattering view of the green BTA(gravs)- splits about every six months without special feeding- one half way down a 150 G tall tank under halides and VHO actinics- View of green Bali slimer acropora

hydroids do not really move around much- more like a smaller version of an aptasia. I can not quite picture what he is descibing- five pointed heart? AT first I was thinking one of the starfish that often have two or three arms kind of deformed, but his being whole with all five- move very slow and are bumpy/hairy, but usually larger than a BB. And when he said clear jelly fish like I do not know. Part of the fauna and fun of this mixed reef world.

I have some they are easy to grow just takes a little time every day- miss more than 1 day and the colony can crash- PM me

Sounds like your live rock has plenty for introduction of the coraline- I would not add any grunge from some other source. You asked about time- I would say the average is about six months for it to really start growing- you should see some small little spots as early as 8 -10 weeks though.

Johnny- Did you get a new order of those 1" plastic clamps in? Regards,

The first sure looks like a colt coral to me.

Jim, It would be worth your effort to join the club- You will find we meet at various times during the year and swap out sand, marcos and corals- mostly free or tarded so you do not have to pay shipping ect. You would also get access to the members only section where a lot of the things you are asking are discussed. It looks like you have the basics for a good system that will eventually support SPS. You would be suprised at how many folks will give you a cutting to get started when your tank is ready. Regards, Lee

Not sure where you are located but many of us would gladly give you a couple of cups of live sand to get the bacteria and critter base started. PM me if you are in the No Va area

FAST TEST Alkalinity test kits - OK looks like a trip this weekend