KingOfAll_Tyrants

That's a bummer about PNG. And a bit unfortunate that most deaths occurred at the PNG transhipment point - but that means that the wholesalers do reasonably well. Various articles I've read suggest that wholesalers as a whole are much better, and it's isn't a "if they're over the weekend they're dead" deal anymore. Assuming from there that a well run retailer won't have a huge amount of deaths, that's better news than I expected - most of the deaths happen at a host country transshipment point and at the consumer level. The factoid about kosrae is very good news.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2510808 :D Yeah, for whatever reason it looks like they transitioned to artificial Walt Smith 2.1 for their seed rock. I’d imagine it’s to differentiate the product - easier to stack and less dense for customers, compared with the locally mined ancient coral rock most live rock aquaculturists use. I can’t imagine it’s cheaper for them to have rock shipped all the way from fiji. Either way, it does look more stackable, and they keep it in the ocean for the same 2 years, so i may vert well get my rock from them.

I thought tbs was using walt smith artificial rock these days. When the time comes, i’ll either go with them or kpaquatics.

That’s insane. Insanely awesome. Thanks for sharing!

Agreed with origami......

Very true in both fronts. Assuming the lfs actualy does a quarantine/treatment regime. And its tanks are reasonably pest free... Tom, yeah, the chain of custody worry of course is not an end in itself, but a theoretical way to minimize the amount of stress on the fish. Point taken......

Thinking about making a purchase with a certain online vendor lately for a particular specific fish, so it brings up the question: at what point do we use the LFS versus an online vendor. (apologize is this is thread drift, if so I can start a new thread) My conundrum: there is a certain fish I want, that's commonly available retail at LFS' (let's say, yellow tangs, though it's not that). Let's also say that I know many LFS' get their YT's from a (fictional) high quality collector (call him KonaTangs, inc). Let's also say that not only does (fictional) reeffish.com advertise they have YTs from KonaTangs, but that various online reviews say that when I order from reeffish.com, I get the shipment straight from KonaTangs- it has all KonaTang's markings, the return address is KonaTangs, and I know, from a site visit, that the Tangs are swimming in the ocean maybe 4 hours before they give it to UPS . Reeffish.com acts, then, basically as a broker for the collector's direct shipments Minimizing the aquarium chain of custody is highly desirable for me. Would buying the tang online in such a situation be better, than buying the same tangs at an LFS after they've been sitting there for a few days?

ETA: I have the TUSA fins because I lost my Jetfins (left it out to dry after snorkeling Hanauma bay, was distracted, and then drove away without them. In two hours they were gone. I was surprised - who wants someone's 20 year old jet fins - until I saw how even leisurepro wanted $150 or so for new ones. I got a very good condition pair on ebay for $35). My new jetfins are almost the same size as the TUSAs, so I'd recommend them because IME the jetfins are much better.

I’ve only ordered fish online from kp aquatics. The shipment and my jawfish were great! Definitely pick it up at the local ups service center, if you can.

Interesting. I will be doing the same thing in either this summer or the fall, and my initial thought was just to cycle the new tank before I move/take down the old tank. It seems I have other options. Exotic aquatics, some of us want to maximize out the length, not the volume…...ie 72x16x16 vs 48x20x20. We are worried about the tang police............ :)

Honestly, if you want to see them you have to know what species are in that area, roughly where to find them. Once that is done, asking some locals is important. One carribean species of some interest (because I thought I might have it), Palythoa mutuki, (one "green implosion" variant) IIRC has been found near cave openings. John Tullock, in his book on Natural Reef Aqauria, says that there are lots of lagoon-area rubble fields and patch reefs in the Florida Keys that have large green sea mat colonies. The cold water non-photosynthetic zoa I mentioned, Epizoanthus scotinus, lives in "vertical rock faces and overhangs" from SE Alaska to SoCal. I've only seen wild zoanthids once: in a very small branch of a fairly small tidepool, on Hawaii. (Honaunau, for those familiar with the place, at one of the tidepools on the rocks between two-step and the road. That being said, at high tide I've seen a small sea turtle in that tidepool; it's rather small but not really small. This means also of course that the pool has good access to the sea at high tide, so zoanthids are probably at other areas in the vicinity)

They grown in all tropical seas, at least. There are atlantic and pacific varieties. The are found in all sunlit zones of your typical tropical coral reef. There are at least a few cold water species, as well.

Just out of curiosity, what is the place’s definition of “long fitness”. Where are you going?

I use these. https://www.leisurepro.com/p-tsprtlf/tusa-sport-reef-tourer-long-blade-snorkeling-fins Nowhere near as good as jet fins. But, at least for size L feet, much more portable. :D. They have an MSF bag which is convenient. Snorkel is good. If the mask doesn’t work for you you can always sub another one. https://www.leisurepro.com/p-tspsdss/tusa-sport-splendive-dry-snorkeling-set

Haha, too true!!!! Too bad we didn’t record Rob saying it verbally. It would be very interesting to play with it in auto tunes.....

Thanks, Tom. Fair enough point. So, a bit more about my question: I am considering buying a Walt Smith International product, namely a Pocillopora eydouxi frag (WSI's trade name: cat paw pocillopora) in the next few months, and I'm wondering where I could get it from. I assume that if some vendor regularly works with WSI they can put it into a regularly scheduled order. I do admit this is a bit of a silly request. Ostensible P. damicornis* are available everywhere, and the extra effort to get a different species might be a bit too much work for too little gain. I also got nowhere several months ago when I asked WSI if there's anyone who I could get their aquacultured rock from - they referred me to a distributor which ignored several email requests for an LFS. So, I'm trying this from the other wide, as it were, especially since it's a much smaller potential order. * the one I have, similar to many online, do not look anything like the dozens of wild P. damicorni I've seen in the past week. Though, of course, coral ID is very fluid due to the not-so-great scientific consensus on many corals, the fact that different growth conditions make coral skeletons look diffferent, and the fact that trade names frequently have no connection to scientific names.

Hey all, Just out of curiousity, are there any LFS’s that import Walt Smith’s (maricultured Fiji) corals?

Wow. Is it an end of the era for your 40+-year-old tank? :D

Culturing them doesn’t seem that hard. If i didn’t live in an apartment i might do so. (my wife is prettier than a supermodel, but I’m not anywhere near The Great Man that PaulB is, so making worms here is out of the question for now. if that changes, i would let ppl know that pick up was possible in Arlington)m Paul, Could you at least give a ballpark diameter for the nuclear transparent aluminum space tubes that you use? : D : D

+1!!!! The feeder thing is brilliant. (what was it before?) Anyone have any ideas for how to do this for fish that feed from the water column?

I am not in the game, and I apologize for being dense, but i will be watching. Heck, maybe I’ll get myself a new zoa (just for fun, and if I post at all I wouldn’t post in this thread). However, how do you win?

I've had a similar situation where my pH and (therefore) alk have been dropping. This isn't due to misreading the (Salifert and Hanna) kits, though. I'm just including it for reference, maybe it'll be useful for someone one day. I did some googling, and there is an alleged link between elevations in nitrate and reductions in alk/pH. Which I think is the main cause of my pH/Alk problem. As a result, though I played with dosing two or three times, I have not done it permanently, lest something go out of control (beyond my nitrates! :D )

Interesting. Do you have pics of this set up?

Been a while. Haven't had time to add pics. :( Hopefully over Christmas. Big news is that I swaped two Petsmart 170 gph powerheads for one Jebao PP4. I was hoping that it could simulate wave action in the tank; it doesn't really because it's wave setting's slowest speed is only about 1s between pulses. I guess if I want more I'll have to program an aquarium controller....... Did a 30% water change last week, but only measured the water again today. Unfortunately, I haven't set up the skimmer, that's next on my to do list. Pre-water change numbers were 25 nitrate (salifert), 8.2 pH (salifert), ~9.7dkh alk, 420 calcium, 0.28 phosphate. Not where I'd liked to have been, but OK. Today's measurements were much different; well over 25 nitrate (estimate ~30-35), 7.8 pH (salifert), 8.0dkh alkalinity, 410 calcium, 0.58 phosphate (both salifert and Hanna). A bit shocked, because otherwise it seems to have been doing OK. I thought feeding was under control, and that microalgae was down (however, I did feed about 1/4 a baitfish for the CUC yesterday, which I think as too much. A little was still left over in the AM, which was eaten fairly quickly) - Microalgae growth is way down (i've cut the macroalgae photoperiod to like 6 hours in the AM with a cheap 20w ~6500k LED, though I turn on the kessil 360 from like 5-10pm, at generally the lowest blue setting) . I've also been fairly aggressive in removing most major algae groupings the CUC don't get). - The two likely palyzoas are growing well and are often expanding (and eat happily - I spot feed them during my normal fish feeding process about once per two days and they retain the food). - Everything else is alive and accounted for. - The jawfish are eating well and agressively during the morning - I think I've figured them out (they like routine, and they like eating in the AM). I vary diet between (rehydrated and selconed) freeze dried mysid, Omega one frozen predator cubes (2x a week until I'm done with them, I'm still evaluating whether I'll use it in the future), and LRS reef frenzy. Fed once a day, poured into the aquarium flow (PP4 is set to constant mode), in the hopes that the food circulating will mimic zooplankton going by. It does. Part of me fears that stuff gets caught in the sand, but the cleanup crew's fairly good on this - the shrimp will also try to get food from the water column during feeding time. - The ghost shrimp, in particular, appear to be growing even larger. The only thing off is that many Caulerpa sertularoides are disintegrating long before they are fully grown, and that a peppermint shrimp is a bit clear in the center. Anyway, population is now: 2 yellow headed jawfish 1 large turbo snail. This thing goes through microalgae like undead dragons through ancient walls. 1 large olive snail (Olivia sayana), ostensibly a part time voracious predator but I've not noticed livestock losses 1 nerite snail 3 nassarius snails (4th might still be around; it's very hard to get an accurate count unless I'm lucky to have all four out at the same time) 2 ghost shrimp (appeared out of nowhere one day; hitchiker) 1 cleaner shrimp 1 peppermint shrimp a decent number - maybe see 5 at any given time - of small cerinth snails a small number of asterina starfish (much reduced from like 20 at any time a few months ago, hitchhikers) around tiny 50 bispira feather duster tube worms (most tubes still have a worm in it, hitchhikers) My thoughts: I'm oversnailed and overshrimped. I should not have gotten such a large cleanup crew. Anyway, pictures will come once I have more time.

Nice, you've added corals. Seems like it's coming along well!