dshnarw

thanks for the ideas! i assume i'll have little luck in most places i try, but well...thats better than waiting for a vendor to come along thanks dave - i'll give them a call once the snow gets out of the way and see what they have and when it comes in. all was not lost today, i will admit. i now know where to go to get the biggest selection of pocky i've ever seen

Well, tried out Kam Sam, Maxim, and the H Mart on Georgia, but struck out. All had clams, but no hitchhikers. If those stonefish are smaller temperate species, that would be awesome. They were pretty big, though, right?

abalone would be perfect! thanks for the heads up on lotte - no reason to stop there it seems.

they'd be fine. santa catalina island water temps can drop into the 50s.

Thanks everyone. Probably just going to look for the shellfish - most of the fish and large inverts aren't well-suited for the tank. Crabs would just end up eating the nems, and a lobster wouldn't make it past the boiling pot. I'll try out that Maine Ave. market too, thanks!

Thanks for the locations. I'll be sure to check them out.

cycle first, livestock later :P

Looking for some good Asian markets with live seafood in the area. Hoping that I can find some coldwater livestock - chitons/barnacles that hiked in with the oysters and other food critters. Anyone know of a good spot to try?

if you haven't already, put insulation - styrofoam or other solid insulation - around the sump and over the top of it. styrofoam sheets are just a few bucks at home depot.

both are really nice. i wouldn't mind having a chunk of that monti.

Thanks again everyone! it's about time! only needed a few hundred shots to get some I liked. Generally, you should be able to get away with auto white balance if you're shooting in RAW. Just adjust it later on in processing. I use Lightroom to do a batch adjustment of the RAW photos from each tank. White balance issues are also helped by slightly underexposing photos - I usually shoot between around -1/2 to -2/3 EV for aquariums.

i would think they'd be okay with simply good filter pads over powerheads and intakes. seems that most of the swimming anemones only do so to avoid predation. one of my favorite swimming anemone vids (skip to about halfway through for the good stuff):

Definitely an anemone, but there are several swimming anemones. Might be genera Stomphia or Boloceroides, but there are others as well.

I like the clam shot. Just curious - why did you choose that particular lens?

That Rockin Watermelon chalice is really nice

Thanks again! Zoo Social Slideshow

Thanks! James, you'll have to check out the photobucket slideshow. That's all I managed to get this time. Unfortunately, I missed the good opportunities with the octopus and the baby cuttlefish. The 4th image was taken with the Canon 18-55mm kit lens, the rest were taken with the Sigma 150mm macro.

I got so wrapped up with the ctenophores, nettles, and coldwater tanks that I forgot to get new shots of the reef. Anyone got some they can post up? many more here: http://gs158.photobucket.com/groups/t120/N...mview=slideshow I promise there were WAMAS members there too!! I just umm..."forgot" to take their pictures too

You may still be a bit disappointed after you get something to view exif data with, though. Most serious hobbyist and professional photographers use "save for web" functions for web photos as a means of saving space. It removes all the metadata, including exif information.

Yup, electrolysis - the energy provided by the electricity allows the reaction to occur much faster than it would sans energy supply. The speed of such a reaction is dependent on the particular current supplied, whether it's AC or DC, etc. Mythbusters watchers should see the "salsa escape" episode

ours shorted out at the on/off switch, might check for loose connections/etc. there

yes, it is certainly possible that portions of the copper are still in the tank as copper metal surrounded by a thin oxidized layer. generally, the corrosion would utilize a weak spot in the wire and break it, while only surficially oxidizing stronger portions - and those may still be in the tank. based on that, i would recommend running a poly-filter (or cuprisorb, as paul mentioned) for an extended period of time - say 6 months or so in order to give any potential copper pieces time to oxidize completely and to catch any copper ions that may have dissolved during that time period. paul makes a good point as well - the change in the corals is probably due to the electricity pumping through the tank. however, if the corals haven't shown real signs of death at this point, they'll likely be fine with good husbandry. in fact, some places pump low voltage electricity through piping in manmade reefs as a way to enhance coral growth - you may have gotten lucky with the amount of current going through the tank that it wasn't strong enough to kill the corals. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/08/64671

define "corroded away"

The biggest concern with iron in the tank is algae - the limiting factor in algae growth (despite what we've all been told) is not phosphate, its iron. The amount of iron that could be dissolved overnight is fairly small, so you probably won't even notice an algae bloom. Keep your magnesium relatively high and run carbon for a couple of weeks and you'll be fine.