Jesse

Thanks, sir!

Thanks for the replies! Do you have details for how to take advantage of the club discount? Is the best approach to buy a cylinder and take it to one of their locations to have it filled? Do they sell the cylinders or should I get one elsewhere and just have them fill it? Jesse

Does anyone have a good supplier for CO2 in the McLean area. I am switching to a calcium reactor and looking to see if anyone has any good recommendations to buy and refill the cylinder of CO2. Thanks, Jesse

Mr. Saltwater Tank posted the recording of the video. It can be viewed here: www.mrsaltwatertank.com/site/masnadonates

I agree. There isn't much anyone can or would do with existing corals in your tank, but it is extremely likely you will not be able to trade, buy or sell any of the listed corals in the future without PIJAC's help. The way the law is written, anything that looks like one of the listed corals to an inspection officer (mainly for shipping/receiving corals), can be considered as a listed coral. This is a slippery slope. I for one do not like the possibility I am not allowed to buy a new branching frogspawn if there further action taken.

I will post the link to the video of today once released. In the meantime, I wanted to share a couple other articles of interest on the subject. Rich Ross, the speaker at our next club meeting, posted this article: http://www.reefs.com/blog/2014/09/09/pijac-organization-support/. One thing he mentioned that I was unaware of is that MASNA was offering a matching donation to PIJAC for anyone that donates thru this link: http://masna.org/blog/masna-accepts-donations-for-pijac/. This is a wonderful thing that MASNA is doing. I urge anyone that is donating to please use his special link. Rich mentions in his article the post that Ret Talbot made today: http://rettalbot.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/pijac-goes-public/. This is another great article with good information.

Yes, you are correct. These are two different things. I imagine that Mark will be talking about it tomorrow, but I understand it that NOAA has currently identified the 20 species as threatened. The trouble is NOAA left the door COMPLETELY open as to what this means or being able to move them to endangered or provide the threatened corals protections that endangered species receive. Basically, we could wake up tomorrow and all be breaking the law for having an endangered species in our homes.

I wanted to share the link to this upcoming event Mr. Saltwater Tank is hosting. While at MACNA both last year and this year, I was fortunate to hear Julian Sprung and others talk about NOAA's listing of 20 corals (some of them are corals we all have in our tanks) as "threatened". This is an important issue for anyone wanting to keep a reef tank in the future. If you are not able to join the live event, subscribe to this thread and I will post the link to the replay once it is released. Here is the link to Mr. Saltwater Tank's talk: https://new.livestream.com/accounts/1673384/events/3370656. This is the description that Mr. Saltwater Tank emailed out about this event: The subject line isn't a joke. This week's live Q&A is all about the recent ruling by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that listed 20 corals as "threatened". That might not sound like a big deal until I tell you that several of these corals are common corals kept in saltwater tanks. After talking with several industry experts about the ruling and posing questions such as, "not a big deal, we have plenty of aquacultured corals, right?", I'm concernedto say the least. Even more concerning to me is the lack of awareness amongst hobbyist about the topic, especially considering how nearly every hobbyist will be affected by this ruling. Therefore, this week's Q&A is all about this recent ruling, how it will affect your saltwater tank and what to do about it. If you haven't attended a live Q&A yet, this is the one to watch. Full details below: What: Live Q&A About Corals Being Listed As "Endangered" When: Tuesday, Sept 9th, 12pm (noon) Central Time How to Watch: Follow This Link Note: A recording will be posted in the days after the event for those of you that can't attend the live session. - Mark Callahan Mr. Saltwater Tank

I don't think it is needed, but i like a fuge. It is fun to see a good assortment of algae and pods growing. I have all 3 on my tank (which is another reason I don't use a full brs recommended dose of gfo. I have found the fuge and gfo to accomplish closer to the same thing (in terms of cleaning the water) and carbon cleans the water differently. A fuge is definitely not as effective as gfo, but is theoretically more natural. You need a really big fuge to accomplish what a little gfo can do in terms of bringing nutrients down. I imagine there are a lot of currently unknown benefits to a fuge beyond the reasons so many folks have them. Carbon and gfo require routine maintenance, but it is easy. The fuge doesn't take a whole lot, but there are things you need to do here, also. I would suggest you start slowly with whatever path you pick and ramp it up from there based on how your tank reacts.

I have a few spare MJ1200s that you are welcome to one if it fits this reactor. I stronger suggest the reactor method, if you start using activated carbon. This is getting a little off topic, but the high nutrients might also be helped by a little GFO. Maybe you run both in a single reactor or get two reactors, but either way, GFO is helpful to keep your nutrients in check. Someone mentioned that you shouldn't start with the BRS suggested doses for carbon. The same is DEFINITELY true for GFO, if you aren't running this now. I run both in my system and have been happy. I don't run the full BRS recommended amounts. I use the BRS ROX .8 Carbon and the standard (not high capacity) BRS GFO. My personal opinion is the high capacity GFO is a little too aggressive at cleaning the water. As another aside, I recently heard Julian Sprung speak about cyano issues in the reef tank. While I don't think most people will argue that the root cause of cyano issues is a high nutrient level in the tank, he mentioned that a higher alkalinity level helps combat the growth of cyano. I do not know (and he didn't expand upon) the reason why this is, but it is worth looking into a little more. You also asked about changing the carbon. I like to change mine every 2 weeks (during a water change - for the same reasons already mentioned) and I change my GFO monthly (also during a water change). I put a reminder on my calendar for the same day of the week I normally do my water changes and it helps me remember. Jesse

I have been using LRS food for about 4 months and love it. It is extremely clean food and I haven't had any fish not like it. There is literally something for everyone in the mix. I do seem to have an issue breaking it apart, from time to time. This only means a bigger chunk than I would like gets dumped in the tank. Not a huge issue for the number of fish I have. I have been feeding this heavily in the evening once a day (and flakes, pellets, or nori in the morning) and my phosphates and nitrates stay very low (.01 and 1 respectively). I would recommend this food to anyone. Jesse

Just realized my autocorrect uncorrected my post. It is 'Planet Aquariums'.

It is a Planet Aquarium tank. I sent you a PM with more info.

I have an external overflow on my 300 in wall and it is perfect. I couldn't go any other way in the future. My tank has a PVC then glass then PVC bottom. It was built like a tank (the military one...).

Depending on how the bathroom is laid out, if you can get easy access through the bathroom to the storage room, I vote for a 7' tank where the blue line in the top picture is. I just did a 7' in-wall tank and remote fish room and it is great.

I'm not sure if you have checked, but some companies distill their water on copper coils. I don't know how much copper would come thru in the process, but if have seen other posts on RC with copper issues using certain bottled distiller water. Http://aquariumwatertesting.com is a good resource to give you another look at your parameters as well as checking for copper. Jesse Current Tank - 400 Gallon Mr. Saltwater Tank Designed and Built System, 300g Display, Fish Room with 55 Gallon Sump, 50 Gallon Fuge and Separate Fish and Coral Quarantine Tanks

Hi Doug, Thank you. I am not sure exactly what you mean. If you are referring to what medicine I keep in-house, well, not a lot. I don't want to use anything if I don't have to (and I don't want to hold onto something that might go bad or expire), but I have found places online to overnight items from Mr. Saltwater Tank's very valuable guide (https://www.mrsaltwatertank.com/quarantine/). I have also found most of the common ones in LFS around the area that I can pick up in a pinch. Jesse

Thank you, very much. It was fun to setup and gives me an excuse to keep more fish and corals!

In a previous thread, I was asked to share information on my quarantine system. I have taken the approach to keep things simple with the quarantine system. I have two main tanks that I plan to keep running for a while. Both are on a heavy-duty shelf from Lowes. Each shelf holds 1000 lbs (more than enough for these tanks). I did beef up the support under the shelves to help protect it for any water spills. You can see the top shelf holds some of the fish I have in quarantine and the bottom shelf holds corals. For the fish quarantine tank, I only have a light, hang on back filter, heater and mj1200 for circulation. The bottom tank I have the same, but I am running an original model Radion I upgraded to a gen3 pro for better lighting for the corals. There is an Apex system setup to control both tanks. My quarantine procedure is as follows: Corals - currently running in a 40G breeder: Quarantine for 8 weeks Dip corals before putting in quaraninte Monitor daily for signs of problems Weekly water changes of 20% total water. Dip again before putting into display tank Fish - currently running in a 75G: Quarantine for 4 weeks Monitor Daily for signs of problems Ensure they are eating well and train finicky eaters to eat frozen/prepared food Weekly 50% water change. If I put a new fish or coral in either of these tanks, it resets the clock on these times. I do have a spare 20G Long and 40G Breeder in case I need more room. I do not prophylactically treat my fish in quarantine, but I have no issue treating at the first sign of a problem. Here are a few of the pictures of the fish in the current 75 gallon quarantine. All of these fish finished the quarantining process today. I was fortunate all of these fish came through the process without needing any treatment. (FWIW, these trigger fish have a great personality. They act more like a dog than a fish.)

Thanks! Now I just need a little more nutrients for the algae to eat. The water is still a little too clean. Hopefully after the Goldflakes make it in the tank, they will help on that front!