Lee Stearns

Wish I could raise my babies- when the male starts to push them out they are everywhere- you'd have more reidi than you could handle.

It had one very little anthelia sprig when I got the rock- but gues what not there any longer- could i have an anthelia loving creature in the tank? I could make a mint with Jake if I could figure that out.

hey I didn't even test- I just noticed that the film algea was growing a bit quicker on my glass and decided to throw a little bag of Phos Ban in a high flow area of my sump- I too had never had a color show on the phos test before - guess I should have tested anyway.

I am like Chip- you need to come take a "bad" picture of my tank for me so that I have at least one that is keepable as a descent desktop wall paper or what ever. :77: WIth those skills and equipment you should never have to buy a frag again- just stop by and trade your services for a frag- Let me know when? Great looking tank!

You get that grass bed established and let me know when you want to trade a few sprigs off after it really gets going. Regards,

Dave, I have 12 centimeters. the tubing runs all the way up to the bottom of the drip sight bowl if you know what I mean. Oh the zo rock is great- waiting for the blues to bud new ones. the reds are a different variety than I have seen around- and the one Paly is really neatly stirped. I am feeding it in hopes it wil bud as well. Regards, Lee

Dave I will get it when I get home this evening- if someone does not beat me to the answer.

I have a 54 corner set up with two males and a female Redi. They have bred three times and the male pops at a time I never seem to expect- I will be ready one day to try and get some of the cute little ones into a 2.5 g tank and try to raise like Bob did. They are fun to watch come feeding at the horse trough- get them trianed to it and you will waste a lot less food and not have as many bristle worms. I keep a couple of gobies in there to eat some of the excess. I have made it a softy coral only tank, and still do not have enough light. Your MH over your tank should allow you to have a beautiful set up- Regards,

I am with Chip on this. For Alk I like the Fast Test, simple clear and a bit less.

great idea chip- :idea2: How about one of those atomatic feeders that would drop a spoon full a day into your drip? My worry would be this stuff is just not balanced, like lime- then you'd be dumping Baking soda -- oh another feeder- spilsh slpash and a stirrer---- and pull a line off your existing float swithches--- but then we are alredy driping a balanced solution of Lime. doh :bigcry: :D

Dartco -- you kill me-- I got a real chuckle out of that- Grav nick named me xenia killer as I have tried for two years to grow xenia in my main aquarium- no luck- even a large batch melts away over a period of a couple months- I have anthelia do like wise- though I have a small patch just holding its own in my nano cube. So Jake, other than giving it to me I just have no experience in trying to control it. Sounds like a good nutrient export for you- I use Capnella as a nutrient export- can't find anyone to take it so I just harvest and send to the soft coral heaven.

light receptors trigger the opening - similar to the receptors on a clam- they sense it though they do not have "eyes" What about the reverse- sending out thier feeder tenacles at night because that is when all the little bugs come out and about swimming, predators are less. Blastos, candy canes, trumpets, acans- have thier feeder tenacles all bristling out when the lights go out. Though if I feed cyclopese with golden pears and selcon in the daytime I can sometimes coax some of thier tenacles out- so they are "smelling" as well.

make mine a definite- I will ask Eddi if he needs a refill.

That is really quite some picture taking- thanks so much for sharing this with us- hope to see what happens when their eggs hatch and how long that takes for them to get through plantonic stage till you notice the young crawling around- Great job Dave!

I have used it for my Nano cube at work- just a lot less fuss than trying to mix- The nano has been bullet proof with the right inhabitatnts- about 14 different soft corals and 3 gobies.

I have used joes juice on some working thier way up to my monti confusia- It was fairly effective - but I found just getting them with a detal pick and ripping them out was as quick.

That is what I have over my fuge- I do not belive I could buy the bulb when it burns out for that price- put me in for one please.

I have a prism that is hang on back- It is not very efficient - but I have it on a sea horse tank that does not recieve that much food- It takes some gunk out so I guess it is better than nothing- but just barely.

Great Larry- you are one of the only members around that I can call an old fart- If you are looking for additions to 65 let me know- I know your penchance for raising fish- let me know if you'd like a bangai- my male is carrying eggs again only two weeks after puting him back in the main tank. At least I got two out of the last batch happily living in my fuge... Got some corals for you too when you are ready. Regards, Lee

Rob- You have cracked the nut on this one- done the research that many do not take the time to do and figured out the chemiclas involved- now you do not have to be tied to the pricey aquarium industry additives. Really pretty simple Alk, Ca and PH- then keep them stable for an SPS heavy tank. hope to see the set up this week. Regards,

Kakl is normally used at a rate equivalent to your evaporation rate per day- If your system is evaporating a gallon a day that is the kalk drip you want to run back in because the kalk is mixed up with fresh RO/DI it keeps your salinity constant as well. Most folks drip 24/7 and this can be done with some very simple gravity rigs, or more complex pumped setups- Chip(Flowerseller) would add that it is important to mix the kalk in some form of reactor with as little exposure to ambient air as possible- because of the CO2 in the air will form a crust on the water which is shards of calcium carbonate that will not disolve. A simple 2 liter water bottle drip system can accomplish all of this.

I have a hard time understanding a requirement for 400 W DEs over the 250 W DEs- Penetration? deeper tank? The area coverage would be about the same because of hood, size and hieght above the water- Just do not see the need to burn that much more electricity, when the 250 put out as much as you can really use. Sorry Chip- do not know where to get the highly reflective sheets for DIY uct and bend- there are kits at many of the standard aquarium and lighting supply sites

when in doubt it is hard not to listen to Raandy the RC Chem guru: ALK 2.5 - 4 meq/L or 7 - 11 dKH or 125 - 200 ppm CaCO3 equivalents Calcium: 380

That is a neat calculator- I had to bookmark it.

I was at the 14 month mark on my MH 10Ks and the only note I have is that coral growth slowed a bit- and it was not as "bright" of a tank as it used to be. No big algae blooms- but then I have 440 watts of VHO actinic supplementing the two 250 watt DE 10 K ABs. When I changed out the 10K ABs the Par value doubled as measured by Howard and our clubs light meter. I gave the new bulbs a three day acclimation by keeping the canopy open- which raises the bulbs about 4 inches more and angles the light a bit, But then I was only running my MHs about 6 hour a day for the last two months- Might have made the acclimation easier, and might have been a contributor to the "slowed" growth noted in the corals- The tank LOOKS BETTER with the new bulbs- so I guess it really depends on preference, length of time each day you burn them, as to how long before changing- I hear a lot of folks saying lighting is critical in how their tank blooms or not with algae. I believe it is much more nutrient driven than light driven- seems more newer lights would fuel growth - I know the argument is spectrum- as the bulbs burn they lower the spectrum output from say 10K bulbs now shifting to the 6500 K range and stimulating things like algae that grow better in that range. I guess this all could be true- I just have not seen it to be true in my aquarium. I do know that the many folks have had different species of Coralline Algae take over as the older pink variety that thrived under the old lights bleached under the new lights. Again I have not seen this in my tank but have seen that in other tanks.