Hilary

These are great! I'm watching yours for ideas. Just be sure you have a cover on the wrasse's tank - I haven't been able to keep a single flasher from jumping.....

Nassarius snails are great for undetected deaths - I swear they get to work before the critter has finished dying. (Yuck)

Parking is free at the metro stops on weekends. I usually park outside of town and metro in. Of course, then you'll have to carry that cooler full of frags back on the metro......

I'd also ask what fish are in the tank. I kept losing acros that way, only to find out that my adorable, cute little yellow clown gobies were eating them.......

If anybody's looking for a fat, healthy copperband they have one that's been eating since the second day he was in the store......

You're right - he had mentioned something about November/December (I thought) the other day. Must have meant back to planning stages. I have to be in Staunton Friday night, but since the store is kind of on my way of out town I fully intend to stop by on my way out!

I think he's been open for eight months or so by now. I totally agree with you - love the place!

When I started the 90 I just used a bag (30 lb) of Carib Sea Aragonite (Aragamax) in addition to the rest of the new sand. You can probably find it at any LFS.

Congrats, James!

Wish you had designed my system! Of course, carrying buckets of SW from the basement up to the living room must be good for me, right?

As the keeper of an RBTA of Chip's that was "born" in May, I have to report that my little guy is doing great! I watch the video clip and wonder how they can survive that cutting, but I have evidence in my tank that they can thrive afterwards!

Guy - Some of the pics are from last month. Poci is doing great. I actually knocked off a small piece so it's now in TWO different places in the tank!

Thanks everybody! It's a work in progress and seems to change every day, but I'm loving it!

It's a shame when somebody has this much fun with a hobby! I've had freshwater tanks since I was about 10 years old, but started this, my first saltwater, in early March 2008. I teach SCUBA, and since I can't dive the pretty sites every week I thought I'd just go ahead and add one to my livingroom. Luckily the first LFS I visited told me to join WAMAS, so I've had access to good information from the start. I originally brought home a 55 gallon, decided it was WAY too narrow (luckily before I even added water), asked an LFS about a 70 gallon and was talked into buying a 90 gallon. It's a stock 90 gallon AGA. I have maybe 110 lbs of rock, most of which came from Antonio's tank when he broke it down (Seantadez) and from a 55 g breakdown. It was great to be able to start with rock that had color and zoas all over! I added a sandbed of a little under 2" using Caribsea Seaflor sand as well as a bag of "live" sand. The corals and fish from the 55 breakdown ended up having to live in two 29s for about a month while I got the main tank together. I added an acrylic 29 gallon sump, a portion of which has sand, a big lump of LR and a huge clump of chaeto. I ended up getting a little bit of chaeto from about three different WAMAS members, all of which was full of fat pods and other critters - nice start. I later added a medium CPR with sand and leaf caulerpa to give me a source of pods for the display (that wouldn't have to get through the return pump). The caulerpa also came from members, and I "seeded" it with pods from an LFS. So that's kind of the history of the tank so far. Fish have come from many different sources, and most of the coral is either from members' tanks (THANK YOU!) and AquaCo. Thanks for all of the help and advice so far!

Mine also is a trip and behaves himself (hope I'm not jinxing myself here). It was my yellow clown gobies that ate all of my SPS......

I was on the GW Parkway when it hit - BIG mistake. Very heavy rain, lots of lightening, branches coming down, standing water..... Yuck. Glad the power didn't stay out for long up there. Here in Arlington I never lost it (no clocks blinking when I got home).

Marcia, what chiller did you order?

I got chaeto from several members, and most had pods in it. I also "jump started" my HOB when I first set it up by seeding it with pods bought at an LFS and turning off the pump for a couple of hours. Don't know if that was a waste of money, but both fuges are now crawling with them.

I would think that any kind of pad would trap moisture against those nice new floors. Not that anybody ever gets water on the floor when working on their tanks.....

Has anybody heard anything about this new book that's coming out August 1? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-d...155&s=books

I tried doubling the eggcrate, but it cut down the light too much. I ended up covering the second set of eggcrate with pond netting, and use it when I introduce a new fish only until I'm fairly sure that it will stay put (for at least a while).

I had a flame swim up the pvc into the HOB and then he jumped out. PVC is now covered with pond netting. Two McCoskers have jumped through the eggcrate I have on top, as well as a firefish (who luckily I was able to throw back in). I'm just going to have to stay away from smaller wrasses, I guess, and keep my fingers crossed that the firefish will stay put. Wish we could explain that the grass is NOT greener.... Sorry about the flame - females are so hard to find, and they're such pretty fish!

I am having so much fun thinking about what I want to put in the 24 gallon that I got from Jeff! There are so many wonderful little gobies and blennies who would just disappear in my larger tank.

Mine just about has finished splitting itself. A couple of months ago it grabbed a nearby rock (so that I couldn't move the rock it was currently on), and the other night I noticed that it was separating where it had stretched out between the two. Sure enough, this morning I even noticed a mouth on each side, and I'll bet that by tomorrow they'll be totally separated. Don't blame you Forrest for not cutting - for me there's a definite "ew" factor in cutting something fleshy that's still living!

Don't feel bad - I had to ask in order to find them. They're also usually kept on the shelf right above my head, so they're not necessarily at eye level...... (well, not for me, anyway )