fishface

This use will be the same, frag and growout and a fuge. I see that they ordered the PAR meter. We'll get to see how they compare for real!!! Now watch watch happens, I bet the debate will rage on. One point that I read, and of course forgot is that the water quality - amount of particulate matter affects how much light get to the colonies. Makes sense. Even suddenly running carbon can shock a colony if the water improves dramatically. But someone, somewhere is then going to ask whether the salt mix matters... FF

Qty 3 99801 Italian Val, 1.09 $3.27 99932 Micro Swords, islands... $3.39 Qty 2 99560 Purple Cabomba ... $1.89 $3.78 99916 Red Wendtii Crypt $4.49 99540 Hornwort, $2.29 Qty 3 99860 Jungle Val, ... $1.09 $3.27 $ 20.49 Qty 3 119200L Green Chromis $3.99 $11.97 Qty 3 115100L Pajama Cardinal $8.99 $26.97 $59.43 tot + s&h Hi Howard, can this be added in? I'd pickup in Falls Church. Dave "Fishface"

Hey Emmisary: I bought one of your bulbs to try because I like the idea of an internal reflector. I also bought a 55 watt CF 65k that is equivelent to a 300w bulb., but it is exposed, so I need to get a housing. I guess the PAR meter will be a great asset though! FF

Hi Dchild: I met you at Krish's. I can't speak for other brands, but I've got a custom sealife pump and they are also known for running hot. I look at it as my heater is probably coming on less.... I wouldn't doubt that there are more efficient pumps out there that would use less electricity but I'm not ready to sit down and compare the two costs and extrapolate the heat/energy savings. Too geeky. But I did have some temperature spikes and I have to have the Air Conditioner set to 75 during the day. Any higher to conserve there and the tank gets to 82-84, something I'm not comfortable regaredless of those who maintain theirs at higher temps. And I removed the canopy. But then MI pendants followed shortly. FF

Alex: You bring up a lot of questions about Aquarium inhabitants or care and maintenance, but it doesn't sound as if you are looking up the information posted about these fish or coral on online sellers. At that info can be misleading too. Most of us didn't know the specific needs about these things until we bought a book. Or two, or three. So instead of making a hasty decision and buying a fish that is incorrect for your tank.... ....spend those bucks and begin to build your own "reference library". Whatever you buy is not a bargain if it doesn't live. Buy books at the WAMAS shop or pick up something used. Different authors offer different experiences and you use these as a basis to put together your own plan. Questions are always a part of learning and they are all welcome. However don't spend time focused on the tank, focus on improving yourself. Oh, and don't forget the regular water changes. Congrats on the RO unit. That will be your biggest improving factor for a long time. "Dilution is the solution to pollution". -Calfo

I think that it strongly depends upon the type of livestock that you are buying. Different suppliers or LFS have strengths and weakness. There are posts here and on Reefcentral that talk about bad experiences even with Live Aquaria, Dr. Mac (whom I hold in high regard) and other reputable e-tailers. I've seen that unless you are buying a lot of stuff (or working out a group purchase here) it may not be worth the aggrevation. It's not much of a discount after paying Fedex. And if it's $20 flat rate, then where is the money coming from to cover the real shipping cost? If you are buying a rarity or a lot of things combined that's one thing, but I've been better off buying locally for some of the more common fish and Corals. Marine Scene - if cost is no object, but it usually is. The Reef Tank guys have a broad variety and experience that comes along with the purchase. And the guy in Centerville has a limited selection but solid experience too. He keeps his cost/exposure low, so each colony is $ 36.99 regardless. He carries the more bulletproof items, so I never see Acros there though. Yet. Oh, and about online and WYSIWYG... I've been told that some places are doctoring the photos, so what you see really ain't what yer gonna get. Anyway, I do and will buy online, but there's various factors. FF

Happy Birthday, and many more!

Okay, so that's a big help to me. What I noticed about the Lights of Am. is that it has a sturdy but cheesy white plastic reflector. I initially looked that the other bulb and thought- well that's going to be another hot surface to have to clean salt off of. Then I realized it's still CF, it's shaped just like a flood but it won't be hot, and it encorporates a good reflector. So I had planned for using two lights - that should provide enough light for lps and low light sps frags. I already used one of the Lights of Am., but I'm thinking of installing the the one from Buylighting as the second one to compare. In the end, I think that we are often paying a premium for some of the light fixtures as long it it has the terms "Marine" or Aquarium" printed on the box. The plan is to put an eggcrate across the top area of the sump and use it as a place to keep frags safe and hopefully help them grow out. They are always getting toppled in the tank. So in terms of general opinion, is the 6500k substantially better than a 5100k? We don't have a par meter {yet!!}. But if the 6500 is more in the range for proper growth as I've read, even with the chessy reflector at least it's giving the corals the light they need. Even if a light is stronger, it's no help if it's in the wrong part of the spectrum. And there's always aluminum foil to line the cheesy reflector with... This should put a ton of light out in the correct spectrum using high efficiency rated bulbs. And the cost is cheap.But one might be a better choice than the other. Opinions? FF

I had a brownish one in my tank it was pretty small and I think that it was a smasher too. I found that it liked a specific hole in a piece of LR, and with my wife's help we tried flushing it out but that didn't work. Then I decided to just kill it and tried routing it out with a wire hangar. It popped out when I put the rock back, and off it went unharmed! Later on I determined that the hole was over 3 inches long and curvy. I figured that I'm in for a whole tank breakdown, but my wife saw it lurking around about 20 minutes later. We managed (while screaming and hopping around like a bunch of nut cases) to corner it with standard nets and pulled it out. I was too scared to grab it with my hands, because apparently either type will turn your finger into either kabob -if it's a stabber, or hamburger if it's a smasher. I didn't test either theory. The mantis has the fastest strike speed of all land and sea animals. I moved it to another tank but it didn't last. But it's kind of ironic to suddenly finding yourself hoping the "enemy" will eat a snail that you've put in the tank for it. Anyway, see whether you can find it's lair. If it prefers a hole on LR, remove the whole thing and dump it in FW. I had fairly new LR that stiil has live mussels and things on it so I didn't wish to sacrifice those things. It's Florida aquacultered and it probably came in on it. The asian stuff is sprayed down to eliminate mantis and I think it loses tunicates, mussels etc when treated that way. FF

Check out the analysis on bulbs by Sanjay Joshi. A web search will find his work and others -such as http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/jg/index.htm. These papers are really helpful. Some aquarist's analysis suggest that for most tanks under 24 inches there's no point in gettting 400 watts bulbs. I think his paper on the 400w bulbs might support his. And the cost to run them daily is significantly higher. IMO though a 250 is usually not much more expensive than the 175. In any case be sensitive to corals and research them to know and observe which corals do not tolerate the extra light. They may exist but not thrive if they are sort of cowering under a light that's too powerful. And when adding light, or just changing bulbs- or even suddenly filtering the water more aggressivley, be aware that the corals need to adjust, so raise the light if you have pendants, or use screens to reduce the intensity. Otherwise your brand new bulbs may bleach the corals that you bought them for. Now the whole issue is not about watts, but about PAR, Photosynthetically Available Radiation. After someone was asking about buying a PAR meter the WAMAS offices decided to buy one to rent out. Stay tuned. FF

Check www.iprf.com He's a humorous writer when describing them. I do like to watch my tank, but he does say that they have an erectile penis. I can't say that I'm capable of sitting in front of my tank for THAT long in order to determine whether that's true. Makes me wonder about some people though....

I'd go on the cautious side, but the details of watts and light output are a mixture of points. On usage- If the higher efficiency bulb uses only 23 watts regardless of the output, it's pulling 23 watts thru the fixture, I believe you just need something that will handle it. Not much of a challenge in this case. Post an update on your results. I saw a post by davelynn123 on a CF light from HD that he suggested for temporary use to someone whose ballast needed to be sent back to the mfr. I decided to try these too. It has a plastic housing and lens and is weather rated. I'm trying two. Maybe I'll have it together this weekend. FF

I couldn't tell you for certain without a picture, but they probably are "SeaBunnies" mentioned on the IPSF site. I bought mine at the Reef tank. They are an Ophistobranch, so a biologist might argue the finer differences between them and snails that carry a full shell. They procreate prolifically. I have a population that peaks and drops back. They can appear to be everywhere sometimes. I have them in an LPS tank with a pair of clowns that I hope will breed, so I really am not concerned that they are all over. I do plan to add them to my main tank though. Once I setup a 'fuge they will go into it. Basically if you are interested in letting them spawn to add to the floating food particles in the water column, then you will be fine. Your corals and other filter feeders (depending upon the size particles they are designed to catch) will benefit by the fresh food. That's their main contribution to your tank. And there's a lot to be said for free food. And I couldn't tell you how to remove them at this point if you wanted to, but the Reef Tank might have advice. FF

Two comments: 1. I remarked earlier that I was surprised that I had never seen the long polyps on another Sarco. In my tank the poylps are now short, but it is inflated and healthy anyway. I'm going to do a few water changes to see whether that helps. 2. If you have slime and stuff in the water, consider that softies will exude toxins ino the water. So again, you want to do changes to dilute them. Right now the recovering corals are sitting in a combination of various chemical defenses.

I like the idea of the web cam but I haven't set mine up yet, it still sitting in the box. Forget vacations, it must be great to be able to have a look at your tank(s) occasionally from work. FF

I believe strongly in bonding with my tank inhabitants. Can we add a couple of tubs of instant ocean to the pool and have a cross-species social? Mmmm. Maybe that's a little too out there.... FF

How's the Sarco doing?

Thanks Guys, that both ideas are great, and the link was helpful. I'd still be interested in buy pods to add diversity to my pod poplation. Well...I'm assuming that I'd be accomplishing that by adding from another source. FF

In the future, particularly since you'll probably pick things up at the WAMAS meetings, bring bags and make sure you bag the softies separately. They will impact stoney corals. And discard the water since it's full of slime. If your tank has a lot of soft and hard corals, if something suddenly goes off kilter, like the temp or salinity then either change water or run carbon for a few day. The softies may slime and degrade the conditions for the hard corals so you want to filter that out of the tank. In general they don't recommend a lot of softies in a tank with hard corals. Xenia are a low toxicity colonial animal and are fine though. Sarco, Colts, etc are noxious. FF

Keyoke: You ought to start saving and replace those pumps. Now. The imortant details you've missed out on are in other conversations and on other BB's, not this thread. When the Rio starts a meltdown the hot copper coils melt the encasing epoxy. The coils become exposed and suddenly you are now dosing your tank with copper. Just about the worst thing that you can do since inverts can't handle copper. Make up a spread sheet and add up all of your expenditures and compare it to the price of a 1/2 tank of dead things and pump that fried. And heading to the LFS for Activated Carbon at 10 minutes before closing. Changing water with fresh saltwater late in the evening - if you have it, or you'll buy that too. Oh yeah, and remember - dead things. It's probably cheaper to accept sage advice and get that pump out of there unless you know it is not a Rio. I was lucky, I got home and actually smelled the burnt smell in my living room but I didn't lose anything after the panic and above treatment. I can't imagine what it smelled like to the fish and critters. FF

I have the same idea, and I found that there is a company that sells them bottled for feeding specific fish, and it is also useful to inoculate a new fuge. www.Seapods.com is the aquaculture firm and they sell thru some distribution listed on their site. I haven't decided if I will buy them, but it's due to the fact that I need to piggy back that with something else or the bottle $20 will be rediculously expensive. FF

For specialty items and probably a lot of basic items, there's Booz plumbing right at Nutley and 123 in Vienna. I ordered a pressure reducer some months ago. I'd call ahead if you're looking for bulkheads or other Marine items. I never looked at pricing for fittings, but it's close by. Except for valves, you probably won't go broke. You can get bulckheads at The Reeftank, or the Sterling Home Depot- but they are no longer stocking marine fitings, so it's whatever is left on the shelve to pick at. Lowes usually has an ok variety, and I buy there because the people actually know the different between mip and fip and NPT. I'll buy nails and drywall at HD. They can't screw that up. Much. FF

They look great! One man's weed is another man's flower I guess. I have two mojano that I thought were a treasure on a peice or LR. A little over a year ago I had bought an existing setup, and added a few pieces of LR. I actually bought a piece of rock because one was on it. Leesburge Pets thought it was a rare dwarf species...go figure. Anyway, they've been around almost a year, and split occasionally. I haven't tossed them yet, but maybe this weekend. FF

Sorry, lot of posts here, I have to catch up. The Sea Bunnies are available at our freiendly neighborhood Reef Tank, so if you are going to the social, check in advance that they have them. How and who trademarked the Sea Bunnies I'll never know. (Next someone will trademark an Acropora, and we'll be paying license fees to look at them in our own tanks, like we pay to Mr. Gates to "borrow" his software.) Anyway contrary to IPSF, I don't watch them long enough to see them copulate, but I digress...Mike at the Reef tank offered me other some other personal insight on IPSF. On the lighting: Davlin135 mentioned elswhere that Home depot has a weatherproof light that may be a good choice. I bought two and will put them in a 100gal trough this weekend. I'm going to sink a 20 tank in there and add mud, cheato and bunnies. They should throw a lot of light. I think I mistated the lumens but it up there. They are 65k which is key, appear like a 150 watt and use 27watts, I bought 2. So they are efficient and I don't have to worry that I've added another heat source to the tank. Oh, and they have a housing, so they aren't exposed like most floodlamps are. It's in the lighting-security section. PM me if they don't have any Sea Bunnies, and I'll bring some babies to spread around. I'm looking for the little starfish to toss into the fuges. FF

I've pretty much given up on figuring that out. And although you are supposed to have enough flow to prevent any serious buildup, you can't aim a powerhead at every rock in the tank. I have one powerhead near the from of my tank on an extension cord and I use that to blow up a nice cloud of marine snow. I see two camps: Some don't like it at all, others state that their coral trive on it. I don"t know, but I sit in the second camp. And forget to do it regularly anyway.