lancer99

Awesome tank! Love the ricordeas and the zoas...and especially that green sinularia...it's a beaut! -R

Well I don't know who any of those people are, but good luck with the carnation! -R

I have been pretty uninspired by their coral selection lately, but since I work 10 minutes from them, thought I'd stop on a Friday night and buy some fish food. Ended up leaving with: 1) a $10 Pocillopora frag with some nice green highlights, that extended its polyps about 30 seconds after being placed in my tank 2) the healthiest Tubipora musica that I've ever seen. It's beautiful, will post pics tomorrow. 3) this yellow toadstool: Not only is that the brightest yellow toadstool that I've seen...it's also growing out of a 4" Montipora, pink with purple polyps. I think I scored! -R PS I forgot to buy the fish food.

Dave, I'm hoping you're wrong When I had Xmas tree worms before, they were fine...doing the same thing this time, stirring up a bit (just a bit) of the substrate 3x per day. I put the Porites on top of a plastic ring, about 1-1/2" elevated off the sand, so that will definitely eliminate the hermits. Thanks for your help, -R

I got a nice piece of Xmas tree rock from Seasave a couple of weeks ago, with 8 worms. A couple of days ago I noticed one was missing...so started to worry. Then yesterday I was down to 6, worrying more.... Tonight I come home and find a hermit crab (1/2" shell) perched on top of the rock. He hopped off as soon as I got close to the tank, and I swear I could see a guilty look on his face I'm pretty certain the hermit wasn't picking at the Porites itself, coz it's as healthy as can be, with great polyp extension (for a Porites). Do y'all think I've found the culprit? Or maybe the worms just aren't getting enough food (although they look very healthy, haven't shrunk, etc.), dying, and the hermit's just snacking on their remains? Thx for any advice, -R

Kalk paste is just a thick mixture of calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide and water. Calcium oxide/hydroxide is normally dissolved in water (about 1 tsp/gallon) and slowly dripped into tanks at night, to increase calcium & alkalinity...plus it has the good side effect of increasing pH at night. ("Kalkwasser" is German for "calcium water"....but it's commonly used to refer to the chemicals as well). I mix it into a thickish paste, then use a plastic syringe that came with a test kit to slowly squirt a bit into the Aiptasias' tentacles...it's fun to see them grab on to it, thinking its food....then DIE. -R

Not to hijack this thread, but why buy Joe's Juice? Kalk paste has always worked for me. Are there any advantages to Joe's Juice? Thx, -R

Jason, Are you sure you are setting the white balance correctly? (probably a stupid question, but...) Just asking, because in my case (Nikon Coolpix) the manual is confusing, and I missed a few steps. IME the ISO setting is way less important than the colour balance. -R

Isn't it easier to just point the camera at the sand (unless it's black sand)? -R

lanman, can I steal that pic? Thx, -R

Lance, My 40G is about the same age as yours, and started to get some hair algae...I added about 30 Astreas and 6 Turbos from our Reeftopia order, and they took care of it. The glass stays clean all the time now. -R

"look for puddles"....LOL! I would add: 2 x daily: Check temperature, even if you have a controller you trust I lost one tank when I forgot to do that..... -R

I'm in the process of setting up a 20G long (30 x 12 x 12) QT tank, and don't know what to do about the lighting. I've read that a QT tank doesn't need as much light as a "normal" tank, but it seems like it would make sense to do light acclimation there (since any corals will be there for at least a month) rather than in my main tanks, which are all MH & VHO, all about 6-7 wpg. It's in the bottom of a stand, so the fixture can't be any longer than 30", and I have about 7-1/2" of headroom above the tank. And I'd like it to be adjustable so I can do the light acclimation. Suggestions? Thanks, -R

I kinda like Wally's...maybe coz it's almost as old as I am I haven't been to Roozen's for many many years...is it still the death camp it used to be? -R

Even with a ball valve on the lower part to restrict its flow? I'm being difficult just coz I have parts to do that.... -R

I'm not convinced...according to the last line in that chart, it should put out more than 1300 gph at 15 feet of max head...or are those numbers mutually exclusive? This would just be a lil' bit of flow to a remote sump, don't really care about the flow....just don't wanna damage the pump. -R

If I tee off the flow from an Iwaki 40RLXT and send some of it up to a remote fuge 18 feet overhead, will that be a problem for the pump? Thx, -R

Thanks guys...now I can get that modded ASM G3 off of Jamesbuf....oops, sold! -R

I got a used 150 w/ stand for cheap from craigslist. This is the stand: There was a piece of very warped plywood in the bottom, and I yanked it up: It probably doesn't show well from the pic, but it was warped down at least 1-1/2" in the middle. Am I courting disaster by just removing it? Hoping not......if I do, it will give me about 3" of headroom. Thx, -R