dshnarw

I would suggest you calibrate your TDS meter. Rainwater should never measure 0 TDS.

Rainwater is a bad idea - average rainwater pH is 5.5 and contains significant levels of nitrates, sulfates, and phosphates (at least for rainwater along the east coast). Not to mention all the other contaminants from industrial dust collected by rainwater falling through the atmosphere. Tap water would be better than rainwater without filtration.

It seems like the questions of importance (to me, at least) that haven't been answered here are: What, if any, benefits are there to running the tank with a fuge and without a skimmer? Do those benefits outweigh the benefits of having redundancy in the system and a safeguard should (even if it's a miniscule chance) that there should be a catastrophic failure? I've no doubt that a skimmerless SPS tank can (and has) been done with success. I'm just not sure why it's better than a system with both a fuge and a skimmer on this particular tank.

All LEDs on...I don't think Rob's setup can do just blue LEDs? I was using a tripod and the sigma 150mm macro. camera settings were f/10-f/13, iso 200, EV at -1/3, shutter speed to balance the other settings (usually rather long...tripod definitely needed). Auto white balance (adjusted in Lightroom). LEDs are definitely a more difficult challenge for photography, but the in-tank look Rob's produced is really nice in person.

Hydor just released a new Koralia design for use with wavemakers without the startup issues/noise, smaller size and less power requirements for the same gph. I've always liked my Koralias, and Hydor's customer service is top notch in my experience - we have one of the first models to come out and the impeller shaft broke a couple months ago. Contacted them about finding a replacement shaft we could buy. Instead, they sent one to us free - even paid the shipping.

Kudos to Dave again! Now have about 40 barnacles fanning away in the tank on several snail shells.

thanks guys quick question without a quick answer, unfortunately. i've only shot one LED tank so far, but my initial impressions are: custom white balance (usually, i just use auto and adjust later, but the blue in LEDs seems to overwhelm the camera sensor) exposure value (EV) seems best at 0 (usually, i set it at -1/2 to keep highlights from being blown, but in this case you need the extra bit of light in the harsh shadows that LEDs create) other than that, the usual advice applies - lower the ISO as much as you can afford to, stick to shutter speeds fast enough to hand hold (or, better yet, use a tripod), aperture should be f/8 or higher to get decent depth of field. expect that you'll need some post processing, especially if the tank has a bit of spotlighting effect. highlights/shadows work in photoshop or gimp, or recovery/fill light work in lightroom will help to reduce the harsh shadows that come with LEDs. like i said though, only shot one LED tank so far. you may find that what I did for that tank won't work on others, so play around with it

with the break from taking photos of other tanks, thought i'd do a few from amber/my tropical tanks think i'll name this one "mardi gras people eaters" for the heck of it: hot lava: dragon's breath: rainbow sherbet: no name (morning phase): same as above (night phase): closer view of the paly: also, tried my hand at micropanoramas on one of the chalices as a test for trying it out on other subjects. kicks and giggles practice mostly (what do YOU do when you're bored?) 25 images stitched together: that version doesn't give any idea as to the ridiculous nature of the photo, so a link to the 1/5 full size image (this file is HUGE, long loading times): http://www.danielhawkins.com/Other/chalice_pano.jpg

Thanks Dave!!!! Forgive the algae covered glass...they haven't had time to get the job done yet

the zoanthid colonies aren't NICE?

$10 for me please

Good signs Dave! I hope these two make it for you.

montgomery county was bumped up to 20-30 this afternoon. seems a bit high to me, but it makes me wonder what they're seeing. pretty hard to tell how much we've had this time. it's been blowing hard since 10 am and all the new snow has filled in the low spots - the 3 feet deep trench we call a sidewalk is completely gone now, but the high spots of piled snow have only added a few inches. I'd guess a good 12" have fallen out in the fields

1. i'd like to see the law that prohibits this... and what, exactly, does lineage prove besides the coral being captive propagated? 2. how do you propose people get lineage from relatively common zoanthids? with the exception of some extremely high cost varieties, every color morph of zoanthids has about 10 names and has come through a hundred sources. do aquarists really think that only one colony of a particular color morph of any coral is collected and makes its way into the hobby? especially when we're talking about the more common zoanthids. zoanthid names are useful for nothing more than a general description - everyone has an idea of what green bay packers or armor of gods look like, so it's easy to describe a zoanthid morph in that fashion. if you're trying to use it for more than that, you're going to be sad to find that very few people can give you lineage (much less prove that lineage). OP, call them whatever you wish imo. They look pretty close to what most people call fire & ice to me. but if you decide to call them marshmallow creampuffs, i doubt any reasonable person would care. (sorry, i'm sure that i've derailed the thread with the upper portion of my post but some things are just silly)

74 is still tropical - and a better temperature for many corals and fish than the typical 78-82. I doubt you could see much difference in growth rate from 4*. FWIW, if all you're going to keep in this tank is zoanthids, you could skip the heater altogether. I wouldn't worry about the temps until you got below 68 (and I've often considered adding some to my coldwater tank, as I believe they would fair okay after acclimating to the temp). Daily fluctuations less than 4* or so would be fine. Most zoanthid species can be found in intertidal zones - exposed to air temps, solar heating in small tidepools, and freshwater from rain.

yup, wouldn't have any problems.

i was considering the stonefish if they were smallish, but Diver's Den has gotten regular shipments of some of the temperate fish I want...don't want to risk them being eaten when I get them thats partially what the abalone are for according to wetwebmedia, they're pretty voracious algae munchers, and they'll take nori sheets if they need more food

Was still snowing when I went out, so I didn't spend much time getting anything good for fear I'd ruin the camera with all the moisture. My car (I think?): Our street (ignore that mailbox - they shoveled. The top of the bumper on that lifted F150 barely visible above the snowline is 30" high):

Thanks Dave! Great sizes on the abalone (for me at least, not so much for food patrons). I'll talk to Amber and get a list to you. Good luck with the octo ID - they change textures and colors so much it can be pretty hard from what I've read. Is this the start of a new reefing trend - going to the ethnic markets to find livestock?

I refuse to take any blame for this, Dave. He looks really nice. You need to teach him to identify colors for food.

i was just reminded that my old 10g cw tank is sitting unused and still covered in styro. guess i could hook up the backup chiller and do a proper QT.

If they can be gathered healthy, then it has potential. I might spare a few of the oysters from shucking and see if they make it, but I'm going to be cautious until I know the chances of survival...no need to make a dirty system into a filthy one.

here ya go: hand crank powerhead

If it's the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris), any temp you can keep steady is fine for him, but I don't know about any other species If you wouldn't mind picking some stuff out for me, that would be great! The more hitchhikers you can find, the better! How big were the abalone?

Thanks Dave - I'll head out there sometime next week when the weather is a bit more friendly. good luck with the octopus