Steve G

I just saw this ad suggesting that someone dumped koi in the public fountain at Meridian Hill (Northwest DC between 15th and 16th Streets, just north of Florida, which is just north of W St). http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/zip/2726160531.html Since they are going to drain the fountain, someone needs to rescue these fish. I may try to go and get some, but I can only handle one or two fish (depending on size) in my already tiny pond. Spreading the word. Koi (or whatever species of carp they might be) are very easy to care for, but I do hope we can educate people who take these fish. Steve

Great story, Paul. In my case my father always kept a 10 gallon guppy tank in our kitchen growing up (until my sister threw a football into it). Later on I tried my own 10 gallon freshwater (the "gateway tank"), graduating to 20 gallon, then trying different FW species. In graduate school I kept a 20 gallon goldfish tank for low-maintenance company. Many years later my wife, after watching me stare slackjawed in fish stores and aquariums, encouraged me to get my first saltwater tank -- 38 gallons was all we could fit in our space. I spent all my time reading about them before I put anything in it. Then I went slowly from FO to FOWLR to reef. Then we remodeled and I went to a semi-built in 75g reef, which I've had for about 6 years now. I grew up going camping on Cape Cod every summer, studying the hermit crabs, fiddler crabs, horsheshoe crabs, all manner of snails, sea birds, minnows, mussels, oysters, clams, razor clams, scallops, and various Atlantic fish (cod, hake, bluefish, rockfish, and sand sharks). I also remember the commercial operations at Provincetown Pier, especially the smell, with rows and rows of tuna and other large fish getting ready for market as you sneak through the warehouses. Then came diving. I was on a business trip in Brisbane and figured I couldn't skip going to the Great Barrier Reef. So I went on a discover dive and was bitten by that bug. After working hard for nearly a year to grow out a frag from fingernail to fist size I was amazed to encounter fields and fields of that same species of coral, consisting of bommies the size of small cars with schools of fish of all sizes and maturity levels. This was like a religious experience. There is an old Don Knotts movie where he sits on a pier, fascinated with aquatic life, and falls in and becomes a fish (I think it becomes animated). I feel like that a lot when I find myself on a pier in the tropics or even in a murky North Atlantic harbor. Yes, it's hard to describe the love of underwater life. Steve

Location?

I've been running my return (from Eheim 1262) through a SCWD for about 5 years. never cleaned it. Works fine.

I'm glad this thread came up. I've been meaning to tee off my RODI waste line (currently goes into the drain) to irrigate my garden. Keeping this tomatoes watered this summer was a PITA. Dave's creek should be fine as the water is pretty much tap water minus some sediment, and if it goes through carbon first, minus chlorine (and chloramine?). Heck, I might bubble the RODI "waste" into my koi pond -- continuous water change! I'll let you know if the fish suffer. Hmmm, now I just need about 500 feet of tubing... Steve

I used clear acrylic rods for my rockwork. I am pretty sure I got them at Home Depot or Lowe's. THey were replacement rods for venetian blinds and just cost me a few dollars. Good luck, Steve

Australian Flathead perch group buy! I'll take five. Who else is in?

I really, really x100 wish I could do this, but having a job and two kids, taking off for 3 days during the week (plus surface interval before flying back) would be close to impossible. Maybe someone else in WAMAS can do it and tell us about it. Divers Can Volunteer to Cultivate Corals and Restore Reefs Christina | Aug 9th, 2011 KeyLargoDive1-200x300-1KEY LARGO, Florida Keys

I saw this guy when I was snorkeling in St. Croix. He was about 2'. I kept having to back up to get him in the frame of the picture. I agree that specimens of this size are frequently found in the Caribbean. In fact, diving has given me an appreciation that most of what we keep in our tanks are miniaturized versions of what we see in the wild. My first dive in Australia I saw rabbitfish and tangs the size of dinner plates. Corals that take me six months to grow a few inches were found in bommies the size of Volkswagens on the sea floor. A saw an anemone that was about four feet long with half a dozen large clownfish living in it. You also see the same fish species in every size ranging from tiny to huge. Only the crustaceans seemed to be the same size as what we keep at home.

I had a pistol that I only saw parts of when he molted. Saw the real thing about once every two months. I did feel him though when I went reaching around the rocks. BE CAREFUL with your hands. The injury doesn't come from the snap but your reaction to it. I jerked my hand away and got a nasty coral cut and destabilized my reef structure. It's one of the hazards of this hobby. I have had so many beautiful pets that hardly even let me see them. steve

Ok, here's a question. What if I have a solution packet that's five years old. Still good? It's sealed in a pouchy looking container.

Just saw this in Advanced Aquarist. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/filefish-sleep-by-anchoring-itself-to-sps-with-its-teeth The article says Red Sea divers observed filefish asleep while latching onto SPS corals with their teeth. Note to self: go to Red Sea and do night dives until I see this. Does anybody keep filefish in their tank? With acropora or other SPS corals? I'd love to know if this happens in a captive reef. You'd probably need a lot of flow to test it. Steve

Welcome to WAMAS. Beautiful tank. I love the counter and stools. Wonder how you service the corner near the wall and counter.

Since I don't understand the question I'll say probably no.

So my wife buys my son a microscope for his sixth birthday and it turns out to be an awesome gift... for me. First thing I did was look at some aiptasia. You kill them to mount it on a slide but you can see the tentacle particles still moving and the main body ejecting cells. Individual cells. This thing is so cool. What should I look at next??? I'll try to figure out how to take pictures through the eyepiece so I can share with WAMAS buds. Steve

Awesome. Whenever I go to Cape Cod (every summer) I see huge colonies of fiddlers on the bay. You see holes in the tidal flats everywhere. They make me happy. Except of course you're interested in them for feeding, but still.

Thanks. Actually, I'm going well below 33'. My basic Canon with a Canon-made underwater housing worked great. Until I lent it to my 12 year old niece. I actually have the incriminating "black box" pictures of my nieces and nephews mugging underwater just before the housing flooded. Looks like they were having fun. Good thing I love them dearly and only blame myself for sharing with pre-teens. Lesson learned.

Sorry I didn't mean to gloat, well, ok, I did. But I am sorry to miss the fragfest, since I'll be in the market for frags when I get back. And, no, I'm not taking any from the wild. Leave only bubbles, take only pictures.

Thanks for the quick reply and warm welcome. On July 11 I will be on my way back from a Caribbean cruise where I'll be diving Cozumel and Roatan. It seems like I always have bad luck with the schedule of these meetings!

Sure thing. Um, let me go buy a camera! (Know of a good one that pairs with an underwater housing for scuba photography? SOmething <$400 for the whole rig?)

Hello WAMAS friends, As sometimes happens to us hobbyists, about 9 months ago I had a catastrophic tank fail, with mass die-off and subsequent tank upkeep morale problems and I basically checked out of the hobby and stopped checking WAMAS forums or going to meetings. All of this coincided with work and home life getting way too busy for me to deal with the tank grief and fix the numerous problems upon problems that got me in this situation. Even my digital camera broke (and then my replacement camera broke!) so I have not been able to document the misery. Month after month I would pass by my tank every day watching the algae bloom, the aiptasia multiply, and the remaining snail and crab populations dwindle. Somehow my hardy surviving fish (ocellaris pair, a royal gramma, and a mandarin dragonet) all hung in there and I continued to feed them. Those pathetic little creatures finally inspired me to give a darn and get back into it. I've been cleaning and upgrading equipment, focusing on water quality and parameter stability, preparing for a new cleanup crew, and eventually, once things get under control, back to corals. I'm also planning to check back in to the forums and stuff, so I look forward to rejoining, finding a weekend when I can catch up on the many months of posts and come back to club members with questions. I feel like I'm starting over, even though I'm sort of not. My deep sandbed and fuge are in great shape. I have some super-hardy fish in there, and a good base of equipment. Looking forward to the re-birth of my tank and reconnecting with WAMAS buds and meeting some new ones who have entered the hobby and the club since last summer. Cheers, Steve G in DC.

Over the last few years I've had mixed salt water sit for up to a couple of weeks with no circulation. So far no tank crashes. i keep a lid on it loosely and when it's time to use, let it heat/circulate overnight, re-checking salinity before the water change.

I have a pistol shrimp which I have seen with my eyes exactly once since I purchased it 6 months ago. I have been "shot" by it about 3 times, but (a) there is no sound and (b) it's not really that bad! Plus, I have peppermint and skunk cleaner shrimps and the pistol apparently leaves them alone. The video is all hype. I just wish the pistol would let me have a look at him every now and then, instead of just his molted claw. His paired goby died within one week of introduction to the tank (they were purchased at the same time).