gastone

I fear for your scolymias. They shouldn't be touching... ummm... the sides of the tub. They should immediately be removed and ummm... put into my tank.

IMO I would skip the two part solution. In a tank that size you can do weekly 100% water changes and replenish alk and calc. Do a search on RC in Dr. Randy Holmes Farley's forum. He has a sweet little nano tank and that's how he does it. Good luck. Garrett.

I'd be in for a slab on the next group buy. Garrett.

I'm with Dave on this one. For a couple of days the fish can forage for food. My Coral Beauty grazes constantly and the maroons have various pods/shrimp they can eat. Even for a week I wouldn't worry about it. Of course, if you had anthias then perhaps it is a different story. Garrett.

David, I don't know about the maxi carpets as all of mine are the mini variety. But those mini carpets are insanely sticky. It wouldn't suprise me a bit to see a maxi grab an unsuspecting fish if they are as tacky as their little brothers.

I started with two about a year and a half, maybe two years ago. Last time I counted (six months ago) there were over forty.

Horseshoe crabs feed by filtering through the substrate, and they require an insane amount of re-populating fauna to subsist. I've read online (Dr. Ron's old RC forum) that 50 square feet of well populated substrate would probably do the trick. Making them not an option for me at least.

Get an arrow crab. They will definitely do the trick and they are fairly inexpensive and easy to remove if you don't want they anymore. Do a search on RC. There was a video up a few years ago of an arrow crab tearing bristle worms to pieces. Garrett.

I was in SF this past weekend for the niners game. Decided to use some of my free time to check out a couple of fish stores in the bay area. Went to New Alameda (pretty decent selection, some primo zoanthids) and then down to Atlantis. Wow. Talk about amazing. Everything in the shop is premium. If you are ever on the west coast I would recommend Atlantis as a place of "interest"... at least that's what you can tell the significant other. Garrett.

Hey Chris, I've done quite a bit or reading on this myself. Seems that many agree that the best course of action is to give the zoas high flow with frequent water changes and to remove carbon from the system if you are running any. Not much to go on. Garrett.

Charlie, if there is room in the car as Rudy isn't going can I just hitch with you? Garrett.

For years Dr. Ron has been saying that these guys have no place in our tropical reef systems due to the fact that they are collected in sub 70 degree water. Throw in the flukes and the predation... what a nightmare. I do believe that I have one in my tank that came in on a piece of liverock I purchased during a tank breakdown. Thank God I have only 1 and not 200 a la Steve. Garrett.

Ditto.

I'm with Dave on this one, I wouldn't quarantine a mandarin. With the likelyhood that they won't immediately accept prepared food it is important that they have a large, constant source of liverock to graze. The rotating of chaeto wouldn't seem to be effective, IMO as you are returning the chaeto back into the main system, defeating the purpose of quarantine. Garrett.

Jim, there is more information out there than you could imagine. Just don't make any rash decisions. I've been through multiple lighting schemes on my tanks and I regret not doing significant research and making one informed, final choice. Check out RC and look around for 75 gallon build threads... I'm sure there must be quite a few. Find out what people there are using, what they are happy with, what they would change. You say you want to keep SPS eventually. That is a good start. I would recommend either MH or T5 in that case. PCs and VHOs will give you limited success with SPS, IMO. If T5s are your thing check with Grim on RC. He is the T5 guru. As far as MHs go the options are almost limitless. If you are a DIYer you can choose almost any setup/configuration that you'd like. Pick which bulb you want, choose a relfector, choose a ballast that works with that bulb (magnetic/electronic/HQI). If you do go MH, stick with 250s. They will allow more flexibility and greater performance than 150s. If you go T5s, make sure you get the individual reflectors. I believe they put out something like 50% more par than the single unit reflector. If on the other hand you want a pendant, they are certainly out there. They can be pricey though and don't transfer as easily if you decide to upgrade down the road. (It is much easier to rip apart a retro kit to re-use than to rip apart a pendant/fixture). Good luck Jim and let us know what you decide to go with. Garrett.

http://floridapets.com/ I think shipping is reasonable.

As well, Jon Lazar is attempting to bread neon gobies I believe. He may have successfuly reared at this point... I'm not sure as I haven't spoken to him in a while. Garrett.

I wouldn't scrape them. Doing so would probably disrupt the integrity of the egg sac. Perhaps instead you could place a few adult ceriths in your fuge. If you are looking for more info check with Dr. Ron Shimek here: http://forum.marinedepot.com/ He is quite the resource for marine invertebrates. G.

Ceriths go through a planktonic stage. The chances that they will survive free floating in our closed systems is fairly slim. They have to survive being fish/coral food, pumps, skimmers, etc. That being said, I have a low flow refugium and have had ceriths reproduce quite often. At any given time I can count 50-100 baby ceriths moving around on the glass/sand bed. Strombus grazers and stomatellas are much better candidates for survival. Both are benthic and do not have a free swimming planktonic stage. Good luck. Garrett.

Those are consistent with cerith egg strands. Garrett.

Howard, what are you looking for for the lobo? Check my pics on page 3 and see if there is anything that interests you. Garrett.

I've got a 42 hex with an equally oversize canopy to accomodate a 250W MH and 2x24W T-5s. What are you using for lighting? Garrett.

WTB or WTT: I'm looking for a few extra red-tipped hermits if anyone has extra from the group buy. I can trade frags (see my post for pics), I also have ceriths and strombus grazers (IPSF). Thanks. Garrett.

Chris, how about a trade? Blue zoas and some frogspawn for a frag of your sun coral and some red macro? Garrett.