Matt LeBaron

It came form AlanM’s tank breakdown 2-3 years ago. I’ll just stick to calling it a blue tort going forward I think.

Do you have some kind of open blade pump in the tank like a gyre or vortech pump? Maybe the anemone got chopped up by that and the Scoly just took advantage of the anemone soup floating around?

Any idea whether the coral on the right may be an Oregon tort? I know the naming thing is extremely hit or miss but are there other torts that are close to the Oregon that this could be? I was told it's an Oregon tort but think I may just be better off calling it a blue tort, not that I really know how you verify the lineage of almost any coral without a seriously clear path back to some original.

Are there other tortuosa varieties out there than Cali and Oregon? Those are the only two I’ve ever heard about but I was wondering.

I wonder what frags of this thing are going to go for?

The Hanna tester is the HI98319 one right? I read about it a couple of weeks ago and have been considering picking it up. Having to rinse with RODI water isn't an issue for me since I I could just swish it around in my top off water container after each use. Where did you pick yours up from? Looks to be $70 on the Hanna site and I'm curious if I can get it a bit cheaper or not.

I love Milli's normally but this is just jaw dropping...man I want one so badly. Interesting times we are living in.

That is a bummer, I have ordered from them on and off over the years, always received good service. Makes me nervous for Live Aquaria's future.

I have the same problem with artificial salt water Dave. As I have gotten a bit older I have had issues with dry skin and after working in my tank for long periods of time it's usually less than 24 hours before I'll start to get cracking skin on some of my finger tips but I can spend hours in the real ocean without a single problem. Makes me wonder what is different with the artificial brands and whether there's some room for improvement there that could have some benefit to our live stock...

Bayer has worked for me. The club gave out small samples at one of the meetings years ago and when I tried it I was impressed by what fell off the frags I had and have never looked back. No bad experiences with it killing the corals either.

This topic (wild caught live stock) is always a tough one. In the past year (for a variety of reasons) I have personally shifted towards trying to only purchase captive bred fish. I'm not absolute on that but when I am looking for new live stock I am looking at my captive bred options first before I even consider something that isn't. My reasoning is that it is important for those of us in the hobby to incentivize captive breeding, which boils down to buying those fish. But my opinion on this matter has a giant flaw, if everyone magically started doing what I am, how would the breeders know what species to work on captive breeding next? Right now they tend to focus on the more popular fish unless it's a case of a research organization doing the work but if no one bought wild caught fish they couldn't tell which species would be financially viable to put the work in. (And often times even research organizations focus on the more popular fish as well to reduce capture stress on the species in the wild) It's not a black and white situation and there is no easy solution but the last 10 years have been an absolute amazing time in reefing. I started in the salt side about 10 and a half years ago with Seahorses which were considered difficult to keep alive and just about the only fish being captive bred were regular clownfish. Now just 10 years later captive bred seahorses are common, you can buy captive bred clownfish in an insane variety of colors/patterns, and the captive bred fish list on Live Aquaria is pages long. I'm optimistic that the next 10 years will be just as amazing in advancing the hobby, which reduces our impact on wild populations as well as advances our scientific understanding on the oceans and their inhabitants.

I'm split on this, on one hand how are we supposed to learn to care for them without trying? Our hobby would barely exist at all if people gave up easily, I mean there was a time when keeping aiptasia alive was an accomplishment in the hobby. The flip side is that I really wish that the price on these guys had an extra 0 on it. For $100 there are a lot of careless hobbyists that will give it a try without taking serious care in trying to keep them alive and thriving. Someone that paid $1000 would be inclined to try much harder and smarter and most people would not even consider the purchase without thinking they had some chance of success.

Pipefish, like Seahorses require multiple feedings per day (2 at a minimum 3-4 is better) along with food that they like, generally mysis for Seahorses, some pipefish will eat the same but getting them to eat frozen vice live can be tough. Basically the reason you only see captive bred seahorses now is that wild caught have a *very* high mortality rate due to trying to get them to eat and other illnesses that affect wild specimen. Pipefish share the majority of the same challenges as Seahorses, which is probably why most did not last long. MD/DE/VA is right on the edge of the range for some seahorses so I imagine it is the same for some species of pipefish. They can live in the higher temperatures that our reef tanks are generally kept at but vibro infection is a concern for both seahorses and pipefish and it is significantly less of an issue if the water temperature is 75 degrees or lower. The transition from brackish to salt likely does not help but you could likely acclimate them over a period of time.

Lighting has not changed still LEDs, my alk was sitting around 8 and I was having alright growth but wanted to try and get more so I started raising my alk, honestly at around 12 I see insane growth but it's a pain to keep it at that level without pushing it higher to where it could do damage so I've targeted 10 as a good middle ground. Could the higher alk be causing the problem? I dose vinegar to reduce Nitrate and PO4, which works well and requires less equipment than biopellets, which is why I finally decided to get rid of the pellets. Vinegar, vodka, biopellets, are all the same, source of carbon for bacteria.

For whatever reason my ORA Red Planet and Red/Pink Millepora have started looking really washed out the past month or so. I increased my vinegar dosing around that time to offset removing the biopellets that I planned to remove and have since done so. My initial thought was that it put my tank into the ULN realm, and the total lack of algae growth tended to support that theory but my other acros of other colors like green, and blue look great, or at least normal to what I am used to. My understanding of color loss due to ULN was that it was a universal change, not something that focused on the red corals. Growth is great, I've started focusing on keeping my alk up in the past 4 months or so and have begun to see fantastic growth from corals that previously showed little growth like my Orgeon Tort so I don't believe the issue is one of bad parameters. I dose Acropower every once in a while but to be honest it's a bit hap hazard. My parameters are: Calc:400 (Salifert Test) Alk 10-11 (Still trying to dial in a steady level with my dosers so it shifts a bit as I manually dose) (Hanna checker) P04: <0.1ppm (Hanna Checker) Mag: 1500+ (Salifert Kit) Ph: Around 8, moves around a bit as the day goes on Temp: 78 Potassium: 460 (I have been dosing Postassium recently also but don't think that should affect the red) (Salifert Kit) I guess I'm looking for any experiences anyone has had with a similar issue, any theories on what may be going on, or any recommendations. In another 3 or so weeks after it has been a month without the biopellets I do plan on reducing my vinegar dosing slowly to see if that helps but I do like the total lack of algae growth but not necessarily at the cost of how some of my acros look so hoping that someone may have a solution or idea. Edit: Should have mentioned that I also have a red plating monti that looks fine, no clue why it's fine but the others are washing out a bit.

Like BowieReefer said you can have the shippers hold the package at their location and you can usually pick it up very early in the morning. PAE actually does that as a special kind of shipping for the shipping "zone" around them. Check it out https://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/shipping_policy.html I've done that with them several times and have been very happy each time with it. Not sure if other vendors would do something similar but I do know that if you make an account with FedEx and UPS you can request something similar be done with packages being shipped to you.

I'm with Zygote2K here, I can understand removing the plug from the frag for aesthetic reasons, although honestly once it grows out you won't even be able to tell there was a plug but from a pest/sanitation point of view, the coral itself is just as likely to harbor pests as the coral itself is. If it's been dipped it is as clear as the frag is, whether it is still attached or not. Having said that, dip all corals you receive, no matter where you got them from! Cannot stress this enough, no one, even the most responsible reefer is not immune from getting hitch hikers. And if you do dip and find something please let the seller know, odds are good they may be unaware and that allows them to alert others they may have sold to.

So I have been both dosing vinegar and running biopellets for a few years now. I'm actually in the process of increasing my vinegar dosing to remove the biopellets now. I haven't had any problem with the pellets and I originally got them as a curiosity and to try something new. Honestly I didn't notice much of a difference and I have just kind of left them running and added more every 6 months or so as needed to keep the level even. But the reality is that it's one more thing to take care of so I decided to remove them but I am slowly increasing my daily vinegar dosing to offset their removal. Vinegar dosing would be my recommendation. Pick up one of the BRS dosers, go to Costco or your warehouse store of choice spend a couple dollars buying a huge bottle of vinegar, drill a hole the size of the dosing hole in the top, poke another hole so air can get in as the vinegar is removed, and let an auto doser do it's thing. if you have a controller of some sort (I use a Reef Angel) it's even easier as you can adjust the dosing without having to mess with a timer but I am sure a timer would work just fine also. It's cheap and easy, for less than $75 you are up and running. Just take it slow.

Just to chime in I also bought a captive bred Orchid Dottyback from the Petco near me up in Ellicott City. They are doing well, today marks their 2nd week in QT. It's eating very well and has already started associating me with food, as long as I don't move up to the tank quickly they come out and stare at me waiting for their dinner. Since there have been no signs of sickness I'm thinking I'll move them into my DT on Monday I think when I'll be around for most of the day to monitor the transition. Captive bred fish are good for the hobby in just about every way, I want to support that however I can.

Hey, yeah like Aaron said drop me a PM and we can work out some time for you to come check out my system. I have a 90G, with 40G sump, and 20 gallon frag tank system. Mostly Acro's but I have a fair bit of other corals like a huge Pipe Organ, some Zoa's, and gorgonians. I live on Old Mill Rd right off of Route 99 in Ellicott City and I am always happy to help out local folks, there don't seem to be many of us in central/northern Maryland for some reason. There is not much in the way of shops out by us. There's the pet store in Columbia near the Costco that has some selection but not a lot. Fintastic over in Frederick is another option, and then House of Tropicals over in Glen Burnie are the three options within a reasonable distance for us. If you can make the trip there are some really amazing stores down in Virginia (many of them are WAMAS sponsors) and a visit in person to Pacific East Aquaculture over on the eastern shore is a must at some point in my opinion. Like I said though, drop me a line. I have a 20-30G acrylic sump that has been hanging out in my attic for years, assuming it still holds water (which is should) you're welcome to it for free. (Not above bribing folks who live nearby to increase the number of us in northern MD. )

The advise of finding a local reefer to help is a good one. Being able to see a few setups and get in person advice from people can be invaluable. Plus most of us will help you try to avoid the mistakes we all inevitably make.

I think the biggest issue for WAMAS giving it a go would be an easy to use interface. I have to use an FTP client for my webspace, which is not the most user friendly thing ever, not to mention managing accounts and such. I guess maybe WAMAS could do some kind of "extra" account and maybe raise their attachment quota? Not sure, it may be more trouble (especially long term like you pointed out) than it is worth.

I wonder what the business model would be for people like us who won't be hosting pictures out to 1 million people but want to be able to share a few photos occasionally. I have webspace that i use for that kind of thing but I think a lot of people would pay a couple dollars a month or like $20 a year to have an easy way to upload and share pictures.

I'm with YHSublime if there wasn't some chemical reason that the corals died (and since you are considering using them in your reactor I am assuming not) just reuse them.

To be fair though, when people ate filthy half spoiled food the death rate among the human populace was very high. Having close to 10 children but only having a few survive to adulthood was not uncommon. But in general I agree with you, I think it is the reason that LRS is doing so well because it's real (albeit frozen) food instead of triple processed flakes or pellets that destroy anything remotely natural about the food. Many of the recent successes in breeding salt water fish are in large part due to advances in raising live food for the fish when they are first born and then having good food like Fish and Reef Frenzy as they grow up.