elbowdeep88

I have seen wholesalers that sell it for $5-8 for a jam packed quart. Add another dollar or so for the freight.

Ive read every post Paul. I think it would be a mistake to not learn SOMETHING from each of them. You offer an awesome perspective that I truly appreciate. My motto has always been "nature does it best" but sometimes it is hard to remember that with all the gadgets, procedures, and scary stories. Your reefing philosophy reminds me of sending toddlers to play in mud. They are exposed to germs and get sick, and are usually better for the wear compared to bubble children who are very clean but when they inevitably do get sick it's often quite serious (or they have constant maladies). Sterile doesnt really work long term and is much harder to maintain than creating an ecosystem that is as balanced as possible.

Maybe this: http://nyagua.sourceforge.net

Is that Ilyanassa obsoleta? The "black nassarius" snail that supposedly doesn't do well in tropical tanks? I am appreciative of your first hand account/experience with these. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/mg/

Have you ever tried those mud snails in your tank?

This is really interesting to me. Did some skimming through your old threads. Now that you are thinking warmer water could you try throwing in some misc inverts (crabs, hermits, snails, etc) to crawl around as natural prey? It looks like you got one to eat a (coctail?) shrimp once but I didn't see anything else on the feeding issue. I know a lot of reef industry florida divers offer octopus crabs for like .25ea.

Are you saying folks can get 10-20 heads of blasto for $5-10 or $5-10 per head and you have 10-20 heads?

Great writeup and valuable first hand account. Thanks. Do you plan to get another? In Hawaii I noticed a lot of cucumbers hanging out on the rocks, it made me wonder why we always think of them as sand sifters.

Is that some sort of algae growing on it? High lighting, esp if flow isn't very turbid, can promote algae growth which will cause the flesh to die back. I've done a lot w gorgs but never worked w this one. Does it shed? Turkey baster blasting to help them shed seemed to work well when mine were having skin issues. Also, I have found that intense reef lighting can burn them (Caribbean ones anyway). The photo ones definitely like a lot of light, but TOO much light can definitely cause issues too. Never seen a gorg bleach, just wither away, then pop back to life when temporarily moved to shade and given a good blast.

i think it was in bornemans coral book that he suggests using fruits/vegetables of different colors as a way to possibly boost coral/fish color due to the amino acids. think carrots, eggplant, kale, etc. eggplant is technically a fruit right?

I had some at one point. they seemed to prefer to open up at night for feeding and always positioned themselves in an area of high lateral flow. they would also open up at feeding time during the day. i think i remember reading that they "filter feed" as davelin suggests. aparently they strain out particles and roll them into bite sized pellets as they pass them down their arms. fascinating to watch them do this. sad to say mine lived 2-3 months which means they probably just slowly starved to death. the tips of their feathery arms would start to fall off and that was the beginning of the end. For your little guy i would say probably not mysis, maybe cyclopeeze, probably smaller is better like coral frenzy or rwef chilli? or a few squirts of water from thawed food. i think their care can be imagined similar to a NPS Gorgonian. in other words not the 2-3x/weekly feedings i was attempting to make work.

I can understand why whis would be very frusterating and upseting. I know that venting can be helpful. You mention great experiences before with the assumed owner. I'm sure "he" would value a quick note as to your experience so he can determine problems. Any decent owner will greatly appreciate the opportunity to improve and make it right. If he wasn't there he probably doesn't know.

Many of the pincushion urchins from the caribbean are white. The other main color for those is pinkish/purple. Their spines are shorter, thinner, and there are more of them compared to rock urchins. I agree that the spines look more like a rock urchin.

The purpose of the warmers in the box is to warm the air in the box which in turn warms the bag water. Those heater packs need air to activate/stay activated. If they get wet they stop working. Those are the reasons shippers tape them to the top even though that seems counter intuitive since heat rises. If the warmer won't have an hour to get fully activated and warm the inside of the box it won't be that helpful. Considering your box won't be sitting in an open air airport hanger for hours I would just use one regular size heat pack for a large box. Water conserves heat well so assuming the bag water doesn't get too cold before placing in the cooler all you really need to do is keep it at temperature. Different brands of heat pads will also peak differently, usually the longer the heat pack time rating (6 hrs, 12, 18, 24, 72) the longer it takes to reach its max temp and the lower the max temp it will reach. You don't really want a 6 hour blast of 120 degrees in a small box. It is much worse for critters to get too hot than too cold. Corals can tolerate 65 much better than 85 even for short times (depends on species of course). For small coolers (like the neat little 12" square ones) if you can't find the mini hot hands (the ones for toes) you can actually cut a regular sized one in half and it works just the same (seal the end with tape so the granules don't get everywhere). Using a bag/bottle of hot water I generally find is worse than no heat at all due to the rapid heating/ cooling that tends to happen. It will likely go in super hot and get stuff way too hot, then lose heat rapidly. Or you put it in at a reasonable temperature like 85 and it doesn't help all that much. This is the advantage of slowly heating the box air with the warmer, it is more gradual temp changes. Plus since the container with the hot water will be heavy they always tend to settle to the bottom and super heat neighboring bags. The techniques for overnight shipping should be applied cautiously for shorter periods...I think if you when you put the bags in they are close to tank temp and the box hasn't been in your car and you seal it well you will be fine without heat packs.

They "dance" when they are trying to find a spot that suits them. Since they don't have legs they use jet propultion to move around haphazardly. usually has to do w finding the right flow ime. once it settles down it's best to leave it alone. chances are it might settle into an area that isn't very condusive to viewing it but it knows what conditions are most suitable. it being able to select its own placement will be critical to giving it any chance at survival long term (over a year). even if you feed it the perfect diet, if it can't consume because the flow is wrong it won't last long. My friend has had one for a year and a half. she thought it had died when it disappeared and didn't even know she still had it until she moved rocks around a few months ago and there it was totally out of sight but happy. they are beautiful...

They are going out of business. I just got an email yesterday from them indicating they are done at the end of this month. Lots of huge sales on dry goods...

So I remembered this thread when I was in IC the other day. Clams/bivalves can be great filter feeders in large systems with heavy bioload and suspended organics. How are yours doing after a month? Seems the concern was that they werent tropical and might not do well long term. Anyway, I saw they have a handfull of misc scallops/bivalves from the Florida Keys for filtration. Some were cool-maybe in a sump or fuge. Who knows the exact species/care requirements but might be a better bet if you are adventerous given that at least you know they are from warm water...

Sorry to hear man. Cant believe all that in one day! Sounds like a lot of hassle but at least you don't have an uber reef to tackle! Good luck with the process.

Nice lot!

I also love the idea of surges, but didnt want the spray. I had a friend w a surge and nothing seems to compare with the force and effect of several gallons intermitintly surging across the reef. Plus it means less electronics in the water and fewer places for critters to get shreded. So I found some plastic, stainless, and silicone 3/4" gravity fed solenoids on amazon for like $15ea and hooked up some digital timers to make a surge unit with 5 outputs. Each would surge every 5 min from two pillars of water (since height adds force). It was mostly a prototype but I am satisfied enough with the results that I plan to incorporate a beefed up design into future tanks. Surge with no bubbles. I did a build thread on another local forum I could probably find the link...

Wait so theoretically speaking one could buy a bunch of marco rock and let it sit for a while in muriatic acid bath and it would come out porous like pacific rock? Has anyone done anything like this? Would it really make pores or just eat away the surface? how long would it take and concentration? I love the structure of Marco rock and find it easy to aquascape with due to the huge holes but have never really considered it because of its density.