wade

Thanks! Here is another shot, this one from the right side angle. I like that it shows both the ledge on the right and the main channel (its cut at an angle to the back) in the center.

Update 10/28/2013: tank pictures. Algae mostly controlled (found out my 3 month old RO membrane has already gone bad and I burned through a full 10" DI cartridge in 3 weeks... so a little dusting on the sand and the back has returned). Rocks are quite clear now.

I like this idea, I may try to do this today. Certainly easier for recordkeeping.

I picked up 13 frags - graham and john both have excellent corals. I also picked up a RBTA (cringe) to host "the wife's" clowns down the road. I'll try to get pics soon.

+1 Also, if you know the approximate color of your lamps, you can set the WB to that color temp. (eg, 10k, 12k) Be warned though... all that blue is very little light for most sensors.

Blackworm sources: Dan Garcia. www.aquaticfoods.com He grows them in fish-free ponds, whereas many other sources harvest them from fish farm waste settling ponds. Shipping cost makes them pricey if you just get a couple pounds, but if you can order 6 pounds or more it gets reasonable. Also check with Craig Shaubach at Eastern Aquatics in PA - much closer to DC. (http://shop.easternaquatics.com/) Both have excellent quality worms, (usually).

In NC we always did monthly orders of them in bulk. I will find the old source and let you know. Just wash em, put em in fridge and you have fresh food for a while. (for the fish!)

FWIW my dry base rock took about 4 months to settle down. Still no sign of corraline on it. The hair algae LOVED the stuff in the beginning - even though the holding tank showed no measurable phosphates, I'm sure it was embedded in the rock. It seems to be stable now. I would also advise to cut back any really long stringy algae when it goes to display. Most fish/inverts cannot eat really long strings of filamentous algae. Give it a good cropping and the critters may do the rest. On the positive side, the benthic plankton love all that habitat.

Congrats! My boy is 11 months now - this nearly a year has gone by so fast that I feel like it almost hasn't passed at all. BTW- Fish tanks are great attention grabbers. Mine loves to stare at the fish. Still hoping his first repeatable word is "fish".

Almost all corals (I think all hard corals?) are protected by CITES. If you don't have permits, it is illegal to move them into/out of the country.

Honestly, don't do it. The overhead costs (insurance, rent, operations) rarely bear out the added sales. Unless you want to get full spread like Quantum did, its too much. You will need other people present to operate things and you'd have to have financial backing to get enough stock in to make it worthwhile - including tanks and all materials to set things up. I've helped set up 2 LFSs in the Raleigh, NC area - both have lasted a couple of years and folded due to time requirements/monetary loss. It'll probably kill your ability to drive up and handpick things as often as you do as well. They are an intense amount of work. That said, I'd visit. But the hours have to work as well.

Thanks. It blows enough air to make a difference then? I'm discovering online that some of the cheaper 3 or 4" fans put out very little air overall.

The inside of my cabinet has become rather covered in moisture. I put a clip on fan inside 5 months ago that kicks on when the temp is over 80, but it is already rusted through. So, I want to get some cabinet mounted fans (the kind that go through the wall of the cabinet) to aim into the cabinet. I have a 10"x3" vent on the sump side, so that should work fine - if I can find a good quality fan that will last and isn't toooo noisy. Anyone have any suggestions?

Whole tank shot, this represented the colors fairly well. Had to adjust it to 12000K. I'll do this as an attachment as well, since I think its a bigger image.

Can do. Still have some items to get together on the tank before that happens. Need to rework my return line and get my reactors flowing again (using powerheads is a mess). Give me a few months and it'll be ready to go!

Since I'm stuck at home, I just tried to take some more pics of the tank. These LEDs make photoraphy tough... at any rate, here are 3 images of the tank. Nothing is cleaned up, just 'as is'. This is ~4.5 months in. Seeing some great growth. Colors are generally staying bright. Down to only yellow tang, flame angel, 3 firefish, and a scooter blenny from my previous post (the video above) due to fluke infection. My cleaner wrasse did a bang up job on the tang and angel before it succumbed itself. Lesson learned... get 2 so they can clean each other. Anyway, here are some pics. I'll try to stitch together a pano of the whole tank so folks can see more detail.

I pre-paid and then couldn't make it. Really sad about that... next year!

I would add a couple of thoughts to this... 1- Stability is the key to growth... the exact temperature doesn't matter a ton as long as its within normal ranges. If you check out surface temp data for reefs worldwide, its quite variable. 2- The counter to this issue is that corals grown in very stable temp ranges can't handle larger swings as well. you tend to get die-off faster when you have an abnormal temp swing. That said, I aim to keep mine around 78-80 with alarms set at 81 and 76.

So do you use your well water straight then? You aren't running it through an RO? I had my well water tested. The hardness is good. No strange chemicals. BUT - I have measurable nitrates. I'm concerned that could cause algae problems and so I'm using a very very wasteful RO for the tank (I get about 40gpd from a 75gpd membrane and probably reject 3x that).

Did you ever start a new thread? Was looking to see if anyone followed up on these barrels.

amphipod carcass most likely - they shed just like all crustaceans. i see them often

The pond at Roozrns is (or was a few weeks ago) a dessicated death pit. It was all dried algae and mud. No water at all. Sent with Tapatalk 4.

I've never done this, but I remember having many conversations in the past. A couple of the things that jumped out at me are: 1) the need for intense light - and that light needs to both remain intense and SPREAD as the trees grow. I've never seen anyone without natural light or large halides get them past maybe 4-6 leaves. 2) you have to spritz or wash the leaves off with freshwater. One mechanism they use to handle the salt is to excrete it... rain naturally washes it off, but in a house, that won't happen. Keep the leaves clear of salt.