gastone

I volunteer Rik as well. Someone can distract him while I rob him blind. Garrett.

I'm usually pretty adept at killing everything by my lonesome. I don't need no stinkin' coral to do my work for me. I've had it for a week. First I hope it survives, growth would be nice after that. Thanks Steffie... and welcome to the club. It's not linear at all, kinda curvy like. I'd say you could fit it into a 7"x3"x3" box when it's completely retracted. Expanded it's quite a bit bigger.

Thanks to Sean at F&F I finally have the cataphylia I've wanted for the past 5 years. I never wanted to pull the trigger as indo elegances have had dismal survival rates in that time, but with the trade gates open from Australia... well, you decide: G.

For just 2 4' lamps I'd use the 430 as well. Overdrives the bulbs which is nice (if you're into that sorta thing). In addition to a 660 I also use a workhorse and an advance without issue, but the IC is my preference. G.

I'm with Dave on this one. That being said, I would use the refractometer once it's calibrated with salinity calibration fluid a la this. I've had my refractometer read both north and south of true. Once is read 1.026 and it was at 1.031. More recently it read 1.026 when it was actually at 1.022. Garrett.

Chris, isn't Sanjay doing spectral plots on T5s? I thought I saw that somewhere. Perhaps you could wait until the spring meeting and ask him there. FWIW I use 4x39w overdriven on an IC660. blue+, SA, Procolor (for the reds and oranges in the LPS-par sucks) and blue+. The acans look good, but I don't have much in the way of challices to compare. I also use an HQI to run my radium which is much whiter than the electronic ballast which I believe you used to use. G. Edit: Have you tried the geisemann pure actinic? They put out a spike at the mid 500nm just like radiums.

Funny, I've been feeding mine near the bed. G.

guess you gotta add that one to the database.

I've got a 42 hex per my sig. Not sure what the size difference is between our tanks, but mine is a PITA the outfit... with anything. I had to build an oversized canopy to accomodate the lighting. If you don't feel like doing something similar, I would recommend a nice pendant. I think a single 250w pendant with a nice 14k(ish) look to it would be nice. The second you start tacking on 24" actinics, things get screwy. You could always drop down to a 150w halide pendant, but your bulb options are much more limited. Garrett.

http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=18019

Dave, IME my BTA has never eaten/attempted to eat any fish in the tank, including slow moving fish. To boot, they just don't seem sticky enough to do it. I've got a sixline is my 30g frag tank, which is just egg crate and a few frags. Sometimes that thing will disappear and I'll look all over the tank and floor, only to find him swimming around a few hours later. In a larger setup I can see one "hiding" for days. FWIW I recently found a bangaii that I lost about a year ago... he was a bit dried out. G.

Dave, just stick your hands in there and grab that thing. G.

Dave, I'm way serious. I'd love to get ahold of one. My stock tank is fishless/fragless(save for some odd mushrooms/xenia/mine tapetums). Do you have any idea what this guy is eating? If it's softies I'm sure someone can donate some capnella/kenya tree to feed this guy. Garrett.

speaking of silica, despite this discussion I totally forgot that about a year ago or so I accidentally dumped about 500g of silica beads in my tank that i was using as a dessicant for my ozone. Oopsy. I contacted the guys on the chemistry forum on RC here No issues to date that I'm aware of. G.

Staten Island and now Philly... WAMAS is expanding. G.

Sorry I didn't address you question. IMO clean up crews are overrated. I like a few snails and a few hermits just cause I think they are kinda neat, not because I see them contributing any significant amount of "cleaning" to a tank. Good liverock, a functioning sand bed (if that's your thing), good circulation and good skimming are going to do more to remove/break down nutrients than a few snails and crabs. G.

Your alk test doesn't say what it's measuring. My guess is ppm (which most hobbyist that I'm aware of don't use). To convert to meq/l divide by 50, to convert that to dkh, times by 2.8. So, 90 ppm alkalinity is 1.8meq/l or 5.04 dkh, both which are below NSW levels. Which test kits are you using? Garrett. BTW, the calcium number may be a bit low for most people, but it isn't that bad. I look forward to pics of your setup.

Rik, ummm... nice new chromis. G.

I can think of 4 drastic changes that I made that probably brought this about. At least 3 of them would confirm that I am an idiot and I refuse to say what they are. Actually, I can fairly certainly eliminate one of them (not that fact that it was idiotic, just that it induced spawning). I still won't tell though. G.

Chip, as Daniel Shaw has proven in another thread I don't know jack about Jack... or chemistry for that matter. So I cannot comment on your statement that UV doesn't change the water chemically, but it does affect the biological what-have-you of the water. So we cannot just conclude that UV won't have an effect (or affect for that matter) on the corals as a result of the biological changes brought about. Could the use of a UV filter bring about bleaching (directly or indirectly) in corals as well? FWIW I use ozone in conjunction with copious amount of carbon (to remove the ozone) to achieve water clarity. I suspect that I'm getting double duty as not only does the carbon remove excess ozone, but it removes other organics (and non-organics???) as well. Garrett. To boot, I think you and Justin (and Daniel) are all smarter than me and aren't you all glad that I'm the educator?

Was looking around and came across this These guys did a pretty good job. Would be nicer to see more test kits used, but then again outside of a few outliers they do seem to be fairly consistent. Mostly my test kits ran out a few years ago, though I do check for calcium every now and then (I just assume as I use kalk for my topoff that my alk level is balanced in relation to my calcium level). Seeing how the APIs are comparable to the more expensive kits I ordered a few of them from the good Drs. G.

Luciano, sure. I'll have to hunt down my busted up ole nikon d1. I need something fancy like the rest of you guys. G.

Robert, 6x8... ouch. You may have to look at a skimmer with an internal pump a la the bk minis but even the smallest is 7.1" square... and a bit over 400. Is there anyway you can go with an external skimmer as opposed to in sump? G.

Daniel, it is my understanding that quartz is insoluble in water. After being humbled by you (BTW, for all I know you could be making this up. I don't know your credentials, but I did in fact sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night) I found this article: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm Well aware of other possible contaminents in silica play sand. I've got around 400# of southdown in my sump. At the going rate of ~$1/1# of aragonite sand these days that would cost me $400. If I went with silica sand I could do it for $20 and a couple hours of rinsing. I don't think anyone will be able to assure me that "reef sand" is without contaminents itself. Since I'd be rinsing anyway, I'll do the silica sand. g.

My GSMs finally laid their first clutch. Originally my girlfriend purchased me a pair of premnas from roozen back in 2003 for Christmas. I suspect the female had brook and passed in just a few days. I went back up to Roozens and purchased a larger specimen that quickly paired up. Fast forward about a year. Was out of town when my tank split a silicone seam, lost 90% of the livestock, including the female. About 9 or 10 months later after I had put the tank back together and upgraded things I went up to F&F as Sean said that he had a small juvenile in stock. Drove up there, picked up the baby and was back to having a pair. For 2 years they've been paired, but have never laid eggs. The fish load is quite small with only 4 fish in the tank, the biggest being a coral beauty. I've never done anything to "encourage/pursuade" them to lay eggs, was always hoping that it would happen naturally. Yeah for the club idiot. G.