SDBDRZ

Chris, I don't think the Red Sea would be adequate for your tank. Most skimmer manufacturers tend to exagerrate their skimmers capabilities. Like I said there are many opinions about skimmers all the way from significant skimming to no skimming at all and everyone has their personal favorites. I would stick with a with a needlewheel design (Euroreef, Southbay) or a beckett injected skimmer. As for the website try www.myreefcreations.com Dgasmd makes a good point about lighting and you can save a few bucks by going with Hellolights or DIY. I tend to prefer Icecap because they have a long reputation for reliability. If it stops working after the 3 year warranty you can ship it back and have it rebuilt for $65. If you get new ballasts I think they are all now dimmable. I dont have a lot of time to check the boards but I usually stop in and check WAMAS every day or so.

Well Chris I see you found your way to the WAMAS board. Icecap ballasts usually go pretty quick when people are selling them used. They also demand a higher resale value than other reef equipment due to the name and reputation of the manufacturer. If you are able to find used ballasts make sure of a couple things: Find out when it was manufactured. They have 3 year warranties. Not saying an older ballast is necessarily bad but make sure you know what you are buying. (I sold one that was 8 or so years old to another member and it works just fine). Also if you get the serial number you can find out if it has been repaired. The manufactured date is part of the serial number. Make sure it comes with a wiring harness and a heat sink. You can make a heat sink if you have to but if it does not include a harness you will have to buy one. Might be worth it just to spend a couple bucks more and buy new. If you search the normal online vendors you should be able to find them new in the $150 range. Also since I know you will need 72" bulbs it may be cheaper to buy a retro kit. As for skimmers you can occasionally find them used but everyone has an opinion on the best skimmers and the best type of skimmer technology. I would recommend contacting Jeff at www.exoticfish.com He sells a Southbay skimmer which is basically a copy of the Euroreef (that is what I use) They aren't really cheap but they do perform well. Beckett injected skimmers are also very popular but you need to push a lot of water through them for best performance. You could check www.myreef.com He sells a good skimmer and his prices dont seem to be too bad (I had one that I sold to another WAMAS member) . Email me at scott.blackburn@rsmi.com or call me if you want to talk about it. You might also want to check www.reefcentral.com Usually a lot of used stuff on that board but with the number of users they have the good stuff seems to go quick Scott

Hard to tell from the picture but if it has a branching skeletal structure it is a Blastumossa Merletti which will be pretty easy to frag once it grows out. I have a Merletti and it has done very well since I moved it to a lower light environment.

I am in the process of setting up a 40g breeder as a prop tank. It will be lit with a single 400w 6500k. I have a CSL pendant fixture that has 2 36w pc's in it but I have not decided if I will use them, just depends on how things look. I have radiums over my display tank and while the coloration of the corals is nice, growth seems a little slow.

I have a pair of cleaner shrimp in my 120. One is carrying eggs right now, good source of free food. Might dont seem too aggressive and I actually find them very interesting to watch.

Thanks for the kind words. The BTA is in a 30g acrylic tank which is plumbed into my system. The only filtration is macro algae in the refugium and a Southbay CS8-2 skimmer (Euroreef copy) I have a 120g display tank(predominately SPS), 100g refugium, 100g sump and the 30g which houses the BTA and a mated pair of fire clowns. The BTA tank has no pumps, it is gravity fed from my refugium and overflows into my sump (about 300-400gph with no direct flow on the BTA). It is lit with a 175w 10K MH. I feed my rose every other day with a large variety of foods but his main diet consists of whole peeled shrimp, squid, and a very meaty blender mush. I occasionally feed him krill, formula 1, formula 2 and I am going to start feeding him silver sides. I use the same feeding philosophy with the BTA that I use with my fish, variety and the more variety the better. The BTA has not moved more than 2 or 3 inches since I put it in the tank. I have not decided whether to keep the clone or not. If I do sell it my good friend Bob (Iceman) has dibs on the first clone, I may do this just to ensure that we have two in two different systems just in case.

I also noticed that Dr. Mac is selling rose BTA's for $129.

I think he said $150 which is about what Roozens wanted for one a few weeks ago and what one on RC will cost you after you pay shipping. I think the price of Roses is kinda rediculous but after shipping I did end up paying about that much for mine but I really wanted it. Also I think the coloration of mine is pretty sweet. If mine continues to clone I will be offering them at less than the prices on RC or any of the local stores, well at least for WAMAS members :D

I posted a few pics of the split in the gallery. Actually I have not decided whether to sell the first split or not. I already have two people in line for splits when I sell them, after that Wamas members get first dibs. I have had the BTA for about 3.5 months and it was a clone I got from a guy on RC. Hopefully the two I have will split again in another 3 months or so. If anyone is interested I was at Coral Connection Friday and he has 2 Rose BTA's for sale.

Well I got some pretty neat stuff for christmas but the neatest thing was this morning when I went down for a visual inspection of the tanks. My Rose BTA split sometime last night. I will post some photos in the gallery tonight after the lights come on.

What do you want to trade it for? I am interested and could trade you some frags or something. Let me know. You can email me at sdblackb@aol.com Scott

I would suspect it is because the 6-line and the Mandarin have the same diet. Hopefully the 6-line will stop because the Mandarin will probably not do a lot to defend himself. Good luck.

David, The only real advantage I see to Sch 80 is that you can get the fittings and pipe threaded and the pipe is grey. I use it for my closed loops because my tank is not drilled. I have intakes down in the tank and the grey pipe is not as noticeable as the white PVC. Also when I take the closed loop off for pump cleaning, etc I have a cap in the top of a tee where the intake goes down into my tank so that I can prime the pump. If you are just doing regular plumbing for a reef setup I cant think of any application where you would really need sch 80.

You know I doubt a lot of people realize the damage they are causing. Just as an example I was diving in Cancun in July. I went out on a small dive boat (3 other divers) and the captain could not find the buoy to tie off his boat at the site we were diving. Instead of looking he grabbed his anchor and got ready to throw it over. I commented to him that it was not a good idea to anchor and the divemaster ended up going in to find the buoy. These guys running the dive boat had an idea of what damage the anchor would have done and were willing to drop it anyway. The tourist dollar they make today is more important to them than sustaining the reef for generation to come. Very sad.

You could also try a regular plumbing supply house. Most plumbing supply shops will probably have sch 80 PVC in stock.

David, I have never been to another Lowe's so I can't really answer the question. I can tell you that the Lowe's in Frederick has a much better plumbing department than Home Depot. Conversly Home Depot has a much better electrical department. What exactly are you looking for? I am at Lowes frequently right now working on finishing my basement bathroom, I could check and see if they have what you are looking for.

I have gotten threaded schedule 80 gray PVC pipe and fittings at Lowes in Frederick.

Larry, I use the two smallest sizes 20-80 and 60-100. I have some of the larger 100-200 micron but these are big enough for fish to eat.

I will second what Michael said. Leon has been getting some colorful corals in and his prices are reasonable. I have gotten several frags from Coral Connection and all have done well except 1. Of course the 1 frag that did not do well was the nicest but that is how it goes. Since I live way out in the sticks (Frederick) it is nice to have someplace reasonably close that even has stonies.

Michael, I did not really want to start a big issue over this, maybe I should have not mentioned it. Since I have mentioned it I really don't think it is a big deal, as you said Leon is pretty sacrcastic. The 25% issue I told him I would post, the comment about his complaining was totally from me and not from Leon so take it for what it is worth. I will tell you that he seemed pretty happy about the meeting that we have scheduled at his store on the 26th.

I would not make too much of it. I just thought it was worth posting. I know that the guy at Coral Connection is a nice guy but he is also running a business. Having a pet store is tough but being a salt water only store makes that even tougher. I just think that if you are going to use his store as a meeting place it should not be just to trade stuff. Like I said he is a nice guy and I am sure he will be supportive of WAMAS I just think we should support him as well. I have been in a few times and bought at least a few frags each time.

Didn't really mean to imply anything. I just didn't want guys to go down expecting a 30% discount. As for whether he was upset or not I really cant say. I have been in a few times talking to him and we get along pretty good. When he was complaining about the 25 or 30% discount he was kinda joking but you know there is always some truth in a joke. All in all he seems like a really good guy so Iam sure it is not a big deal. I can tell you he did complain to me about WAMAS club members (he mentioned no names) who would meet at his store for trades and not actually buy anything. Don't know how often this has occurred but I probably would not meet at a LFS for trades and then not buy anything.

I was at Coral Connection tonight and actually the discount is not 30%. The discount is 15% and he said since it was already posted on the WAMAS site that he would add the 10% WAMAS discount on top for a total of 25%. He actually did not seem real thrilled but said he would honor that. As for SPS corals there was a decent selection of frags and small colonies with a few larger colonies. Also had a few nice clams. Scott

Well I will throw in here. I am running 2 400w 20k's on Eballasts on my 120 and I love the color. I was running an IC660 with 2 4' 10k bulbs but I like the radiums alone so I dont even run the vho's anymore. I guess it depends on what you like. I have seen Georges tank and it is beautiful the way he has it setup. His lighting is very bright, my 20k's give the tank a bluer look and it does not appear as bright to the naked eye. In fact I was running 250w 10k's before I switch to radiums and I think the tank looked a little brighter under the 250 10k's. As for coloration of corals I think lighting plays a part but it is not the only variable. I have seen tanks with beautiful coral coloration under many different lighting setups. So I would go with what is asthetically pleasing to you.