MisterTang

Good call. I pulled the rocks out today and scrubbed the bubbles off of them and then rinsed. We'll see how it goes...

Thanks everyone! The tank arrives tomorrow. I haven't yet decided on whether or not I'll be buying all new rock for this tank, or reusing the rock currently in my bowfront. The problem with my current rock is that it has some minor bubble algae on it that has developed due to not having any sort of skimming or filtration, and I'm not sure if I want to introduce problems into the next tank. On the other hand, it's starting to purple up and get some interesting biofauna, so I might just vacuum off the rock and hit the new tank hard with GFO after the initial cycle to starve off any remaining nuisance algae. Stand has a couple of coats of a nice walnut PolyShades stain on it. Initial results with the stain were not impressive, but my dad figured out that cutting it with mineral spirits made it coat much more evenly. Our initial assumption that oak hardwood and oak veneer would coat approximately the same was not exactly accurate, but that's why you test on discard pieces

As is frequently the case, now that I've got a tank up and running and stable, it's time to change everything around. Right now, I've got a non-reef-ready tank, and as the months have gone on, I've realized I'm fighting a losing and frustrating battle without having a sump/skimmer. As such, I've decided to upgrade to an Innovative Marine 38 from my current bowfront. Firstly - the Innovative Marine stand sucks. It looks like it's recycled from those middle school science fair cardboard displays, and it doesn't fit my ATO bucket and hardware, so I'm building my own. Livewyr25 on nano-reef built a custom stand, but he was a little sparse on the details, and his stand had a few structural weaknesses, so we're going to improve on that simple design. Nothing too complex, so others without a lot of experience or tools can duplicate it. Since this will make a grand total of two Google-able stands for the Innovative Marine 38, I'm going to generically step through the process so that people who hit this via Google get an idea of what's required, but would be happy to detail a specific step further if needed. TOOLS YOU MUST HAVE - A circular saw - A drill - Two-part epoxy - Clamps - Sander - Tape measure - Square TOOLS THAT MAKE IT WAY EASIER OR WILL GIVE YOU A BETTER RESULT - Table saw - Miter saw - Hand plane - Router - Nail gun that shoots finishing nails/brads First, cutting out the frame with 2x4 pine - make sure you get the straightest pieces you can get. My first batch was bowed/warped really bad, and I had to start over. Using 1.5-inch galvanized deck screws, craft the top and bottom squares of the frame. You will then need to fit the vertical support pieces, clamp the assembly together, and use the inner and longer vertical 2x4 pieces to attach the top and bottom squares together. Counter-sink your screws! You will have a much easier time during finishing if you take a few minutes to do this. You can also buy drill bits that will drill the starter hole and create the counter-sink divot for you in one easy step. This is what your frame should look like completed. Notice a few differences in my design - the two "L" shapes of the top "box" of the frame probably provide better structural support than the original. The long vertical "inside" pieces should be just slightly shorter than the entire length of the frame. Using a sander, or in my case, a nice sharp hand plane, take this opportunity to make sure the top and bottom of the frame sit level and that none of the edges protrude. It's not unusual to have some wobble in the frame at this point - this will go away once we attach the plywood. Find some nice, high-quality hardwood-veneer plywood. I chose a sheet of oak in this case, but you will also find maple out there, but be aware that maple can be harder to stain. I got this particular sheet at Lowe's - my local Home Depot did not have a really good double-sided pre-sanded hardwood plywood product and only carried single-sided, so you may want to shop around a bit. Single-sided will cost you less, but isn't as good quality IMHO. I opted for a combination of two-part epoxy to glue the plywood onto the frame, followed by some finishing nails through a nailgun. If you don't have a nailgun, you can probably get away with just using epoxy. Don't be afraid to make mistakes! Here you can see that I slipped while using my router on the front face. 50% of woodworking is knowing how to hide your mistakes. In this case, the door will hide it, so we'll just press on and not get discouraged. You can also use a saw to cut four pieces for the opening on the front face, but you will get a better result if you can use a router and cut the hole yourself, since there will be no "saw seams" on the front. Purchase some square hardwood trim to cover the rough edges of the plywood. Notice that my hardwood trim is slightly "higher" than the plywood face - you should do this to ensure a better finish result later. Glue these pieces on with epoxy as well. You'll probably get a better result (no gaps) if you glue on the hardwood trim all at the same time. Use a sander - or for a better result, a hand plane - and make the hardwood level with the plywood. Keep in mind that the nice finish on the plywood is really thin, so don't get carried away sanding. Find a nice, smooth-grit sandpaper for your sander. Also, consider practicing on a discard piece to see how much effort it takes to sand through the nice hardwood finish on the plywood so you know how much is too much. Here's where you should consider borrowing or renting a router. You can technically cut/sand your way to this result, but you are wa-a-a-a-a-a-y more likely to make a mistake and screw it up. If you're using the router, spring for the rounding bit that has the small wheel at the bottom. I'm not sure you can get a bad result from those. The door and top are just more of the same - plywood surrounded by a nice hardwood frame. I glued these with a proper wood glue instead of epoxy. At this point, it's just a matter of staining the wood whatever color you like, and attaching the door with a hinge. I was able to build this in what amounted to a long weekend over the Thanksgiving holiday. If you aren't as experienced with woodworking and don't have some of the optimal tools above, it'll take you longer. Go slow and measure twice!

As it turns out, I can get just as seasick under the water as above it. I now like to think of it as a "aquatic life summoning ritual" - kind of like AquaMan

Paul, I have an excellent solution for you if you'd like to see more wildlife when diving in Hawaii - vomit in your regulator. I did this in Maui on my honeymoon and was literally punching fish away from me who were trying to scoop up a "hot lunch" of sorts.

Dwarf Angels are also recommended to not be treated with copper. I have had fairly good luck with six-minute freshwater dips in lieu of copper and then restricting them to a bare-bottom 10-gallon observation tank for several weeks for these types of fish.

I dunno... people in this club say that they trust buying stock from you and not needing to QT - if that doesn't earn you "celebrity status" in a hobby where people drop a thousand bucks on mutated clownfish, I don't know what does!

And here I was half-expecting a twenty-year-old Bobbit worm to grab the camera

I saw a group of Peppermint shrimp devour aiptasia, and the demonstration was done multiple times with varying sizes of aiptasia. I have heard some various reasons for the mixed results on this - including assertions that Peppermint shrimp are "social shrimp" and prefer to be kept in groups, whereas people tend to purchase one and have it immediately go off and hide. They may also hide from other aggressive shrimp, particularly skunk cleaners. All I can attest is what I've seen - the Peppermints (about 15 of them) appeared to be able to "smell" the aiptasia, because they would immediately cluster around where a single instance of the nuisance anemone was and try various strategies to devour it without getting stung. I wish I would've recorded it, but even then I'd probably still have people arguing with me that Peppermint shrimp don't eat aiptasia

I stopped by BRK on Friday to check them out - I actually got started with WAMAS at BRK five years ago, so it seemed fitting to make a return visit as I get back into the hobby. As always, their customer service is great - Yiannis in particular helped draft some stocking ideas for my tank and obviously is very experienced with fish. I'm not sure how valuable that a vendor review for a celebrity like Johnny will be, but did want to thank them for helping me out!

I'm actually going to start my own phyto culture in a month or so - using a giant restaurant-style pickle jar as the habitat!

Looking back, I have regretted every fish & invert "impulse buy" I've ever made. Some of them died, and that's on me, and the ones who lived, I wanted to get rid of after a few weeks. I have resolved with my new tank to not buy any fish or coral that I haven't thoroughly researched and seen in an actual tank (not just pictures). This resolution has already saved me from killing a Catalina Goby that someone was trying to sell me - I was intrigued by the fish and knew it would look great in my tank, but didn't pull the trigger, and only found out when I went home and looked it up that it is a cold water marine fish and not suitable for any tank over 72 degrees. If you didn't wake up for the last three weeks, look at your tank, and imagine the fish you're about to buy swimming around in it, reconsider the purchase. If you hadn't heard of the fish before you walked into the fish store, or cannot articulate what its care requirements and temperment are like and are about to buy it, stop.

imgur is probably the most "stable", and they don't mind "hotlinking"...

When you upgrade, I might be interested in the tank. How do you like the IM that size?

Now I feel nostalgic How's the old tank doing? I just decided to get back into aquaria after a several-year hiatus where I was traveling overseas all the time. I have a 30 gallon that is currently cycling my live rock

I did this with my first tank, and was immensely glad I had; when I had to get rid of the tank a couple of years later, the mat matched the color of the underside of my stand, which would've definitely stained the carpet.

Thanks for the info, Paul - I believe I'm going to try a white worm culture once my new setup finishes cycling. I don't have any particular problem with Cyclo-Pleeze or any of the other botique marine foods on the market other than they seem to be really bloody expensive for a small container of sea bugs. I already have a pretty good brine shrimp hatchery set up and will add your white worm suggestion along with a plastic 5 gallon kids tank for breeding amphipods and copepods.

Just wanted to chip in my interest for such a class. I'm getting back into the hobby after several years and want to see the advancements made on this topic...

Tank is gone... well, except the sand. The new owner didn't want it, so to anyone who wants some live sand, I'm selling mine for $15. I don't know how much there is, but it covered about three inches in my tank, and it's almost two IO salt buckets worth of sand.

Want to meet up somewhere in Ashburn?

TheWire, Sorry, I haven't come up with a date yet... I had to leave work early this week because some knucklehead rear-ended me on MD-32 and I've had to shuffle cars around. Next week will work better, as it's not a holiday week and I hopefully won't get hit again

None of the corals have been taken yet. Here are the new prices: **CORALS** Item #1: 10+ Headed green frogspawn from DaveS's tank $25 Item #2: Half-dome brain coral from AQUACO $20 Item #3: Kenya tree colony. This thing is ridiculously large and is constantly self-amputating to spread new colonies because it has outgrown its isolated rock $10 Item #4: Duncan colony. Started as a one-headed AQUACO special and is now 6-7 heads $10 Item #5: 2 Galaxia frags from my first WAMAS meet - free to anyone who wants them $0 Last chance before they're Craigslisted! Don't make me risk getting knifed by some Craigslist Creeper, people! Take my corals!

Rock is gone, thanks to Sam's neighbor. Right now, the ATO, fish, and frogspawn are spoken for. I still don't have anyone lined up for the tank or skimmer. I'm going to give it a couple more days and then Craigslist it... I'll throw in the light and tank/stand setup as described above for $225, meaning you get the light free. Act now - operators are standing by!

Thanks for the interest, everyone! So far, I've had a couple of offers for the ATO and fish, and one for the rock. As you guys know, catching fish with rock in is next to impossible, and I'd like to keep the ATO until I've at least gotten rid of the fish and rock. Someone offered to come get the rock on September 15. For those of you who are interested in the fish/ATO, we probably won't be able to do business until that occurs. I will try to PM those who made serious inquiries with this information. And if you know anyone who wants 100+ lbs of rock, please let me know . You'll get your stuff sooner!

Oop, sorry... um, $15?