Origami

Bob, I've taken several of them out over the last few months. Hitchikers. The largest had a carapace probably about an inch across. Of course, it looked like an absolute monster through the display glass! Only in one case was I able to trap one (a slightly smaller one) by using a small water bottle with the top cut off and placed (inverted) back into the remaining base. The reason is, they are very cautious and stay close to a hole they can retreat into, and are beaten to the bait by a train of hungry hermits. And then, the only reason I was able to trap one using this trap was because I'd tied a string to the lip of the trap so that when one did wander into the trap (while I was watching, of course), a quick pull on the string would right the otherwise horizontal trap to bring my hairy crab friend home. I've had far more luck using the chop-stick method. This method requires skill, patience, and, at the right moment, speed. You basically keep a chop stick handy and when you spy one of the little buggers, you make a quick move and finish it off. Not elegant but, as I said, more effective than my trap. Good luck with yours.

Also, BG algae (cyanobacteria) can thrive on a number of energy/nutrient sources. Nitrates, phosphates, dissolved organic compounds (DOCs), light.... High phosphates, by the way, is typically indicative of overfeeding. High nitrates could also be the result of overfeeding, an immature biological filter (you did say that your friend's setup is new, right?), bioactivation of some other media such as bioballs, filter media, or filter socks, or an overstocked aquarium. In addition to your test results, it would be good to post your stocking list, too. What kind (depth) of sandbed is your friend running? Are they using filter socks? Or a canister filter of some sort? Bioballs in the sump? Are they skimming? What kind of skimmer? Overall flow in the setup?

Not to hijack but, Chip, are you saying that a kalk stirrer can't be expected to get Ca levels much above 350 or is this only on big tanks with a lot of corals?

Many primers already are cleaners. Prime then solvent weld ("glue"). You can get both at Lowe's or Home Depot. Someone in plumbing will be glad to help you.

Removing the bioballs, in the long run, is a good thing. The reason for advising the slow removal is because they provided a large base of aerobic bacteria that converted ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrates. Because of the way they're built, you don't have the anaerobic bacteria population here, however, to break the nitrates down. That's why it all ends up in your water column. Now, when you remove the bioballs quickly, you remove some of your tank's capacity to deal with the ammonia and nitrite loads. While this might stop some of the nitrate production, it also removes some of the capacity to deal with the ammonia and nitrite. The consequence, then, can be an ammonia spike followed by a nitrite spike because the tank's biological filter (live rock and sand) has insufficient capacity (because it was not given the time to build up by removing the bioballs in stages). Going slow in this hobby is generally good advice. Unless there's a real crisis, it's easy to do more harm than good by making quick changes. Another thing to note. If your tank water was yellowed, it was probably because you had a buildup of dissolved organic compounds (DOCs) that could be the consequence of overfeeding, overstocking, or inadequate skimming. Carbon is often used to "polish" the water - removing some of these DOCs after skimming. Again, caution is advised, when clarifying yellowed water. If your water was significantly yellowed, then cleaning it up quickly can effectively deliver far more light into your tank than its inhabitants are used to, creating problems in the short term. You may want to consider backing off your photoperiod a bit and increasing it a little each day until you're back to where you want to be.

I suspect it's more likely the electromagnetic field surrounding the fluorescents that's coupling with the TDS meter's circuitry that's giving you the reading. Put the TDS meter up close to an incandescent bulb and you probably won't see the same effect. Strangely, though, my TDS meter doesn't do what you're describing - neither under my PC's or halides. I wonder if it would behave differently if you changed batteries?

Bioballs and your sponge filter are notorious contributors to high nitrates in the water column. Removing them is a good idea but do it in stages so that the biological filtration in your live rock and sand bed can develop to accomodate the extra load. Nitrates and DOCs (dissolved organic compounds) may be behind your cyano bloom. Apparently all new tanks go through it. I'm going through it myself now (hopefully at the tail end of it, too).

My lighting is provided by a Coralife Aqualight Pro which an integrated system (2x 150W HQI MH, 2x 96W Actinic 03, plus 4x lunar LED) that uses HQI ballasts. Insofar as what is it I'd like to know about a comparison between Ushio and XM bulbs, it's this. You have to realize that this is my first time looking into bulbs, so I don't really have much of an idea of what's important and what's not - you know, sifting the wheat from the chaff as it were. The aesthetics of color are important and (what appears to me as) the crisp white of the stock bulbs that were provided by coralife in the fixture, when supplemented by the actinics, seemed pretty nice. PAR value seems to be an important figure of merit as well and I'm making the leap that PAR value is tied to coral growth when all other parameters are held constant. (I'll tell you though, I thought my coral growth rates were kind of slow until just lately when things seem to be almost visibly taking off from day to day, which by the way, is kinda cool to watch.) I'm sure that I'm oversimplifying. Another member here has a some extra Ushios. She's also running some XM bulbs and has offered to let me have a look at her setup to compare the bulbs and I'll probably take her up on it. (Just another example of the generous nature of this WAMAS community!) So, if you could maybe tell me what you think is important to you when evaluating MH replacements, I'm sure that I would benefit. So far, and I hope it's to my benefit, I've clearly decided to stay away from the $8 ebay specials because I haven't a clue of what I'd be getting and I have way too much invested in this hobby to compromise on something as important to the health of the ecosystem as lighting.

You'll find several here who haven't had a problem. I found some recently in my 29g setup and promptly removed them because of stuff I'd read on garf.org, though (in my short exposure to the hobby) I've never seen the problem personally. However, here's a link to another forum thread where the author used to let asterina's live in his system, but regretted it as they started going after his zoas. Pix are included in the thread. http://www.club-zoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7213 It appears that some people have a problem and others don't. This author states that they had begun to "overrun" his tank and preying on his zoas. It could be that, below a certain threshold, competition is light enough that preying on other sources such as corals is not required. That's just a guess, though. In any case, it would appear that you're not alone.

Jamal, I just started my tank out last September. I've got a number of SPS frags sitting mid to high in the tank. A couple of montipora (green and orange), a pink birdsnest, bali green slimer, an acropora, and a green christmas tree something-or-other frag from Dave Lin (I'm going to have to look that name up again, I guess). Down low, I have some mushrooms and a couple of GSP frags. I also have a couple of anemones that have done very well - a flower anemone which is now a good 7 inches across and a purple condylactis which is at least that large. The flower sits about 3/4 of the way up and the condy is about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom. Both seem to like where they're at as they don't move much (the flower anemone, in fact, has only moved about 2-1/2 inches over the last 5 months or so). Really, though, I'd like to add more SPS if I can and get decent growth. Where can I find more information out on the XM's and the Ushio's? There doesn't seem to be any really recent studies by S. Joshi on 150W halides in the last 3 years or so. Interesting that you run your bulbs for a year plus. Metelsky, in Simplified Reefkeeping, recommends a 6 month cycle saying that while the light looks OK to us, the aged light color shifts month-to-month and should be replaced. Kent-Marine also says, "Replace metal halide bulbs every 6 months or so, and fluorescents every 12 months " on their website at http://www.kentmarine.com/kent-university/reef-lighting.htm. Other people also talk about replacing bulbs at longer intervals (1 year typical but sometimes more). One site even went so far as to say to replace the halides when they began to flicker (that would seem to be pretty far along the age path, you'd think). So, besides telling me a little bit more about XM's, presuming that I wait a few months to replace my bulbs, what are the in's and out's of doing so? What do I have to look out for? Should I back off the photo period or do something else to ease the corals into the new lighting?

Gotta admit, Jamal, that I'm considering changing out because I've read that I should change out MH bulbs after 6 months and my fluorescents after 12 months. My MH's mostly have run 8 hrs per day but I've recently cut it back to more like 6 per day while fighting back a mild cyano outbreak. Color? Crisp white, I guess. I'm running a 90 with 18 inches of water to the sand bed, and 6 inches to the halides. I'm inclined to stay with 10K bulbs for fear that my PAR will suffer if I go higher. My lighting is supplemented with 2x96W Actinic 03's which give me an overall decent look. Thoughts?

I'm coming up on my first replacement cycle (6 months) for my halides. I'm thinking of going with Ushio's but suggestions are welcome. Most of all, though, I'd like to know where I can get good value.

Lightbulbsdirect.com has a replacement bulb that would work for you. It's a 40W, 48", 10K bulb and it runs about $12. Of course, that's not including shipping. The link to their aquarium bulbs is http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/page/001/CTGY/Aquarium. Go down until you see F40T12/AR/SA (I'm assuming that your "standard" light is a T-12. Even though the table says that it's a 1000K light, that's a typo. Other vendors sell the same bulb. It's a 10000K.

We had a slate-bottomed tank when I was a kid, too (back in the 60's). It had shiny trim and was 10G - pretty standard in those days. Dad had a freshwater tank stocked with swordtails and such from KMart. Like Chip recalls, they came home in a paper container, much like a chinese food carton, but with a fitted lid (if memory serves). However, my first goldfish came home in a small spherical bowl - won at a fair when my ping pong ball landed in the container. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who remembers bringing a fish home like that.

Yeah, just wait until it shrinks up, folds inward, and all you see is the foot - no tentacles at all - showing. It'll make you wonder. Then, the next morning, all is normal and the thing is expanded and looking good. What you're seeing is perfectly normal behavior.

Thanks, Sean. I have no evidence of having picked up anything but am just providing a data point since I received something from Dave here recently. I'll be keeping an eye out, though. What exactly shoud we be looking for anyway? If the spots show up, will they remain or will they come and go?

Nothing irregular in my tank yet, Dave.

90 display + 20 sump, total probably around 90 with displacement and air 29 biocube, total probably around 23 with displacement 10 gal mantis tank, 9 probably with displacement A modest 122 gallons NaCl-H20 in 149 capacity across 3 displays.

Dave, I got a small frag from you the other day. I've not noticed anything odd with my livestock but I'll check tonight to be sure. Will let you know.

No, you don't say. Another controversy in the reefing world? Seems others have noticed and reported otherwise, directly observing the buggers making a snack of polyps. Still others don't notice a thing.

I don't know. The two that I picked off this morning came off easily.

Exactly as madmax said, Bob. When I got my Typhoon III setup from AirWaterIce. com, the unit came with an ASOV but I had to buy the float valve to install in my rubbermade reservoir to trigger the ASOV.

See Garf's website at: http://www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html I pulled two from my 26 g biocube last night. They were back in the compartments. One had 6 points and the other had 3 points. If what I've read is correct, I've got at least another "half star" in there somewhere since the 3-pointer is probably the result of a recent fission (split).

Near the Safeway at the corner of Broadlands Blvd and Claiborne Parkway, just off of the Dulles Greenway. He's no Jack Kent Cooke, now, is he, Tracy? I share your frustration. Time to go by the OD Brewery....

Cyano is also photosynthetic (in fact, it's the basis of chlorplasts in plant cells). So, you can really cut back on its presence by plunging your tank into darkness for 72 hours and bringing your light cycle back up gradually. I've also cut my temperature back a few degrees. This doesn't get rid of your nutrient problem (reduce feeding, skim heavily, use carbon, and possibly a phosphate remover), but it will knock it back a lot. That's how I've been dealing with a small outbreak on my relatively young (<6 months) tank. The lack of light really sets it back.