dshnarw

Thanks Justin. The pellets, on cue, fell about an hour after I made the post. I did have some make it through the screen, and it mainly happens when bubbles get pushed through the reactors from restarting the pumps. I don't expect it'll continue to do that since the pellets have stopped floating, but I wouldn't mind trying out the more rigid stuff with as much as I've been playing with the plumbing if you need a guinea pig. The skimmer is dialed in and working like a champ - dark, horrid smelling stuff coming out at a good rate. First skimmer I think I've ever had that I didn't need to fiddle constantly to fix flow rates, clean the skimmer, or dump the collection cup. The locker does a fantastic job of keeping the smell contained.

A few more mini carpets that weren't pictured above, and one of 2 plate-growing sites with the Cynarina...

I sent you a few links to the blue ones I know for sale. Yup, tank newness..I have about 50 of them on one spot on the glass and nowhere else in the tank. Figured I'd just let them go to medusa phase and get sucked up by the filtration.

I was there once, but didn't explore too much and didn't have my camera. It was an interesting place, unfortunately rather run down compared to the average, and EXTREMELY popular on the day we were there. We generally try to avoid the crowded spots because of the greater potential for bad things to happen and ended up going to another place relatively close by that is much lesser known and certainly less popular due to the 24-7 security patrol (they were actually nice guys, just told us not to burn anything or injure ourselves). Thanks! I think I have 20ish right now...a far cry from how many I had a few years back, but much nicer colors coming in this past year or so. Speaking of mini carpets - the blue one in the first picture decided to begin spawning the last couple of nights. Released a ton of sperm into the tank for about an hour-long period, but was too camera shy for me to catch him in the act. Now I just need a female to join in.

Thanks everyone! The BRS rock really is fantastic. I ordered 55 pounds, received 65, and actually used about 30 in the tank, but with the cheap cost, I was glad I got the extra to have pieces to mess around with (and still cheaper than live rock!). The stuff that was left over was just as nice, almost made me want to fix up the chipped tank and start it up too. I plan on getting some sort of stand or hanging bracket for the light, but I haven't found anything pre-made to suit so far and haven't put the effort into a custom design yet. My favorite option right now is a wall mounted boom used for studio photography lighting because then i can just shove the light out the way or raise/lower it as needed without much effort, but the only versions I've found so far are much too long. Right now, it actually sits about 6 inches above where the photo shows it (still too close, imo) on a wire cooling rack I stole from the kitchen while I decide on a more permanent solution. Now I don't believe that for a second... We'll see what happens with photos. If I'm home during the really limited photoperiod (still acclimating to the lighting - almost 30" beneath the light, some mini carpets are still bleaching a bit), I'll see what I can do.

Color coded for easier viewing: The main red piece is soccer ball sized, basically cone-shaped and pointing downwards. It's held in place in the front by the green rock and in back by the pink rock, with a decent swim-through area separating the green and pink rocks. The red piece has quite an overhang on the front, and the clam and plate coral seen in the center are both nearly completely beneath the overhang. The blue rock fits perfectly into an indentation in the shelf made by the red rock, and the yellow rock is propped against the red one, about midway back in the tank. The yellow and pink rocks also are separated by a swim-through. The white in front of the yellow is a bunch of rubble that makes up the S. tapetum garden (they prefer to stay at the sand/rock interface, so the rubble zone is one way of ensuring they won't move elsewhere). Behind all of that (6 inches behind the larger structure) is the orange rubble pile which is basically in the slot left between the side glass and the overflow, with a sand channel between the larger structure and the rubble zone. Hopefully, the future LTA will find this back rubble zone suitable, so that it stays safely away from the other corals and nems.

Thanks! Color-changing LED strip lights from IKEA.

First and foremost, the guys at Avast (not that any of us should need a reminder of how good they are). 3 media reactor kits, Swabbie, locker, and skimmer kit, and all went together easily and work fantastically. Justin even unwittingly sold me on the media reactors and how to deal with the lack of space that was keeping me from buying them (see my tank thread for that little project). Secondly, Premium Aquatics. Excellent customer service through multiple backorders and a tank that arrived with a chipped corner. They worked quickly to have Current replace the tank and worked to get all the backordered supplies to me in the most efficient way possible (especially those parts that I needed most urgently to finish the tank build). Constant contact and updates, and an extremely satisfied customer. Bulk Reef Supply provided AWESOME pukani dry rock and various chemical supplies. The rock is among the best I've seen and certainly the most porous. 30 lbs looks like almost too much for a 60 cube. It does arrive rather "dirty" but provided plenty of "food" for the cycling process to begin. Pacific East, also with excellent customer service. I hadn't expected to make an order and receive a call to confirm and choose a delivery date, as well as a call afterwards to check on the livestock. Everything I've ordered has been nice and healthy. Johnny at BRK gets a special mention: I asked about mini carpets and he delivered within the week. Those and our other recent purchases from BRK look great. Reefcleaners.org has been a favorite for a long time, and John Maloney came through again by personally emailing to check on the arrivals, and sending so many extras that I won't have to worry about too many being eaten by the mini carpets for the next year. CultivatedReef has also come through on the customer service front, emailing to ask about a delivery date, and going out of the way to ensure I wouldn't get multiples of the same morphs when I purchased multiple "non-WYSIWYG" items. Whew...been saving those up for a few months now.

Although Amber (arwndsh) has had her tank running through the past year, I am just now getting back into reefing after the loss of my temperate aquarium due to a series of unfortunate events. I finally broke down and decided to start up a new tank with some encouragement from friends here and on other forums that I frequented in the past, so on to the current iteration: Tank: 60g Solana XL and stock stand Lighting: 1 AquaIllumination Sol Blue Flow: 1 Vortech mp40 Filtration: -Stock Solana Sump and return pump -DIY Avast CS1 Skimmer, Swabbie, and Locker -3x DIY Avast MR5 reactors (running biopellets and carbon, as well as a retrofit for a macroalgae refugium) Everything is controlled by a Reefkeeper. Stocking plans: Basic mixed reef with S. tapetum as the dominant focal point. Scattered LPS with a few polyp colonies and SPS at the top to round things out on the coral side. A couple of small clams, and an LTA to finish off the inverts. Fish stocking plans are still rather loose at this point as much of what interests me right now will be difficult to obtain. A couple of unique points: -This will be my first mixed reef with no specific design concept (no crazy temperature regimes, no biotopic considerations, etc.) since essentially my first reef tank. I'm not sure if that knowledge will be relaxing or drive me crazy yet. -Secondly, I ran out of room for equipment prior to getting the reactor kits. After a discussion with Justin about someone else's neat reactor ideas, I ended up putting a shelf over the tank to "display" the reactors, combined with a set of backlit LEDs that will hopefully make enough PAR for the chaeto while hopefully not requiring too much microalgae maintenance. Neat, in a mad scientist kind of way. Current stock that was either moved from holding in Amber's tank or purchased in the last few weeks: CUC: a few million snails - dwarf cerith, nassarius, limpets, chitons, nerites rock-boring urchin and very small pincushion urchin that will be removed at a later date emerald crab 2 brittle stars clams: derasa corals: encrusting montipora cyphastrea lobophyllia cynarina acanthastrea plate corals several chalice frags torch corals blastomussa clove/glove polyps palythoa anemones: a couple of Borneman S. tapetum ("maxi" variety) FTS and closer on the reactors: I'm still working out the kinks in the reactor system (such as floating or non-tumbling biopellets), so the plumbing isn't completed yet. I also haven't found a mount for the light that suits me to this point.

Nice deal and perfectly timed. Thanks for pointing it out.

I don't think so. No large and obvious tentacles near the mouth, the segmentation isn't obvious like most Eunicids, and not much in the way of iridescence. Don't think so on that one either. H. caunculata would have a much more "fuzzy" appearance in the bristled sections. IMO, it's just a large bristleworm. I'd probably toss it in the sump.

In general, put in medium flow, strong light. Low flow tends to allow detritus to settle around them and has adverse effects, high flow tends to make it difficult for them to inflate to remove sand and feed. General LPS lighting is sufficient, but I've never seen one react adversely to very strong lighting. IME, the orange and hot pink varieties are the most light needy, but all of them can stand strong MH systems. If in doubt, move to brighter areas. The biggest thing to keeping them healthy is food. They can eat quite a bit on a daily basis. I like to feed mysis-sized meaty foods and my wife has always used sinking pellets to great success. If their tentacles are out, they normally accept food and, in many cases, a healthy plate coral will not display tentacles for a couple of days because it has been well-fed.

Typical wild lifespans are 6-10 years. In captivity, however, there have been a few aquarist reports of 20+ years, and recently biologists have estimated potential lifespans of 30 years in some clownfish species: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2007.01445.x/abstract

You have a tropical species of Corynactis (the temperate species is the strawberry "anemone", C. californica). They are small corallimorphs (related to mushrooms) that will stay small (an inch or less) and slowly form colonies in the recesses and dark areas of the tank (they're non-photosynthetic). They'll eat whatever floats past, but the only harm they could really do is to small pods.

touch

I would recommend against it. The blue carpets are usually S. haddoni. They prefer a fairly deep substrate to bury their feet into, so it would be unlikely for you to find one that would stay happy (and in one place) in a bare bottom system. They also grow rather massive (and quickly) when appropriately healthy and fed.

neato. did you eat them afterwards? i hear they're great beer-battered...

It's owned by the Audobon Nature Institute - downtown on the river, about a block from the French Quarter. I don't recall any alligator gar, but if you like them, you should check out the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. Gar of a million types there. Thats interesting - I didn't know REEF had been tracing the genetics of the fish. I loved Waikiki for how simple it was and how much effort they put into their small display space (and the price point was more than reasonable...). Plus some genuinely rare fish and they had mini carpets in one of their display tanks before most of us knew they existed. It ranks among my favorite public aquariums.

I believe those were mostly due to home aquariums. This aquarium had such a good hurricane plan that the building and inhabitants survived fine through the hurricane with no damage and absolutely no escapes. The unfortunate part was afterwards: the aquarium was essentially the only place with power (due to massive generators) in the downtown area and was taken over by FEMA as an operating grounds. FEMA removed the aquarium staff, pulled the plug on the aquariums, and used the power for their own purposes, which caused massive die-off of the inhabitants. The few survivors were the penguins and otters which had been shipped out prior to the hurricane and a few endangered species that were allowed power by FEMA.

Had the opportunity to visit the New Orleans Aquarium (Audobon Aquarium of the Americas) earlier this week and took a few photos to share... From the aviary: Rockhopper penguin: More traditional aquarium subjects: Rockfish eye: Several seahorse tanks: My favorites...the requisite jellyfish photos: And a cute little dart frog: Overall, a nice aquarium. I had visited many years ago (probably early-mid 90s) when it was topnotch, and it's suffered since then with the new breed of aquariums (Georgia, for example) and with all the losses from Katrina, but they've done a good job of restocking and making it a presentable and educational tour. The jellyfish collection was rather admirable (unfortunately, the lighting was so subdued I could only get photos from one exhibit) and they had a decent collection of seahorses. Cute dartfrog display, and a walk through tunnel aquarium that seems to be a requirement these days. One large tank with some large sharks and a smaller juvenile shark tank, but I only had the macro lens with me. A nice way to spend a few hours.

your welcome. they were a big help for my old singapore tank.

The best you'll probably do is a search by Indonesia on fishbase.org and then checking scientific papers from there for range that includes the Banggai island group. Check Reefbase for corals - they used to have a list of corals and their ranges (good for coral IDs too), but they've changed the site around and now I can't find it. I'm sure it's still there somewhere, but I haven't looked thoroughly.

A little late to the conversation here due to some computer/internet issues, but here's my take: Unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask that it be removed. I appreciate the compliments, and that Rob finds the photo worthy of entry, but my personal feeling on this is that since it is a photo contest, the entries should be limited to those taken by the submitter. It should be about the submitter's attempt at capturing a moment that relates to a theme - an encouragement for people to go out and take more photos and become better photographers themselves. Not limiting the photo contest to the submitter's own photos does not encourage people to explore and practice photography, it only encourages them to go out and find a good photographer. Any photos I take of someone's tank are fair game for the tank owner's personal use - adding to tank threads, sharing with friends, even printing out and framing for their office should they wish. But I simply can't consider it fair to the purpose of the photo contest or to other people who submit photos to allow them to be submitted to a contest. Otherwise, what is to prevent someone from asking Ned Deloach to take photos of their tank the next time he comes through the area, and asking him if they can be "used on WAMAS"?