BeltwayBandit

I wasn't trying to imply that everything was hunkey dory with the marine ornamental trade. However, I think that the marine ornamental trade has made great strides in becoming more environmentally friendly and developing sustainable harvests from the reefs in many areas. I do think that more work needs to be done. What I was concerned with, and Larry and Dave both seemed to agree, was the effect that the appearance of this article about the seafood industry in an aquarium magazine could have in creating a negative (or more negative) perception of the marine hobby with the public. I'm by no means saying that we as a hobby are perfect. There are still species that are over harvested, but as a whole I think we are moving in a positive direction, and I don't want to see it get sidelined by articles like this which are not necessarily related to the hobby. Again I agree completely. We should be concerned about this. However, we should also be cognizant of the fact that we could easily get lumped in with these blokes by the general public if we aren't careful. I hadn't seen that before. Quite nice. I do try to follow many of their guidelines. For example I stopped eating patagonian toothfish (chilean sea bass) and orange roughy (two of my absolute favorite fish) because of their recommendation. I disagree with their listing of farmed salmon on the avoid list. I think it is hypocritical of them to go on at length about overfishing of wild stocks and to then turn around and list farmed fish as bad too. That to me is stupid. If you have a problem with the way the fish are raised, work to fix the problems. Honestly, I think that fish farms are going to become more and more common as we work to protect wild stocks. I think it is an activity that should be encouraged. So, yes I do try to follow their guidelines but I also disagree with some.

It appears this article is dealing with food related overfishing, not the collection of ornamentals for the aquarium trade. Granted, regulators often times won't make such distinctions either. It is worth trying to highlight the differences between impact of the ornamental trade versus the impact of the seafood industry.

I resemble that remark... I had an 18" CPR HOB fuge on a 20L and it split the seam. I now have the new larger (24" I think) on my main tank (AGA 120) and it works great. If you look on Ebay there is a guy who sells factory seconds from CPR. I got the large one w/light for about $150. Here is the guy I bought mine from: http://stores.ebay.com/amekaaquatic

You could try a soda bottle trap. Take a 20 oz (or larger depending on the size of your shrimp) water bottle. Remove the label, rinse it with tap water (or RO/DI if you wish), cut the neck where it flares out to the widest point, then place a bit of food inside the bottle, invert the top and wedge it back into the bottle, fill with tank water (you might have to add a small piece of rock to weigh it down), and place the trap near where you think the shrimp is hiding. Wait til the lights go out and carefully check periodically to see if you have caught the little bugger. Be careful, Mantis shrimp are also affectionately known as 'thumb splitters.' If you do a google search for 'soda bottle mantis trap' you will find some sites with instructions and illustrations on how/where to place the trap.

I guess you hate me too, I snorkled there in 98.

As far as dividing the sump, yes it is quite common. Most people put the skimmer after the refugium section (I think). The idea being that you don't strip the nutrients out of the water before running them through the 'fuge section. As far as dividers go, I have used the thin cheap acrylic from Home Depot with success. It is much easier to work with than glass. Just cut to fit and use silicone to hold it in place.

Ahh ok. We used to do that periodically on the ship too. Everyone griped that it gave them the runs. Granted when your dosing consists of dumping a bottle of chlorox down the sounding tube, its pretty easy to screw up the dose. (I think the shock treatment was administered based on how long we had the water onboard. Our wing tanks often went months without being used and the water just sat there.)

It wasn't clear why, but I got the impression that it will be a brief switch from chloramine to chlorine for maintenance reasons and then back to chloramine. (I have no idea why, how, or what they are doing that would precipitate the switch.)

Thats good to know. It has been 5 or more years since I used water treatments to remove chloramine from tap water, so I'm a bit rusty on the process. I was just going on the text in the article that mentioned aquarists should be aware of the switch. Thanks for the additional info.

Additionally fragging large colonies is akin to pruning ornamental shrubs to increase growth. By removing sections that might be shaded(stunting their growth) you can optimize the growing conditions for more of the colony and thus maintain optimal growth. As the colony gets larger it becomes harder for the new heads to compete for space/light/food etc. By separating them out you can provide each one with an optimal growing environment to reach maximum growth potential. For example, I have a large frogspawn that has grown from a single head to well over 20 heads. I have noticed a distinct slowing in the growth of the entire colony as it has filled out and occupied almost all of the available area for it to grow. This thread reminds me that I need to get in there and frag it out.

Yup, but for those who just chemically treat the tap water to remove chloramine, it is important info. (NADC comes to mind....)

http://wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1105506 Granted, for aquarium purposes I think that chlorine is easier to deal with than chloramine. But, regardless its good info to know.

($%(@$* #@&$(@)$*@& those are the same $(@*&$( nuisance zoas that I can't get rid of either. $)(W#)*$)($#

Cool, glad to hear it is working out. Sorry if Gatortailale came off a bit gruff. We have had some issues with some folks doing drive by bashing of stores in the past and the threads sometimes degenerate into chaos. We are just trying to keep it under control and keep the content of this forum directed to objective reviews of stores and online vendors. I'm not saying that there was anything wrong with your initial posts, its just some of the topics that you hit on have started flame wars in the past. I realize that you have no way of knowing that, since the offending threads no longer exist or are buried. Please don't take Craig's comments the wrong way, while they were directed at you it was more of a preemptive strike to keep you from unknowingly touching off a flame war. (We had that happen recently with another new member in one of the other forums. She made a post, unknowingly touched a few wrong buttons, and some of our more....vociferous members jumped in and it started a flame feeding frenzy. ) I think you can agree that such behavior is bad form at best and an unconscionable way to treat a new member. Please accept my apologies if Craig's words came across as harsh, we are reef geeks and not all lit majors after all (although I think there might be 1 or 2 of them running around here). Sometimes our words don't convey the intended tone. Welcome to WAMAS and hope that we can help each other enjoy this great hobby! One other comment, I don't know if you noticed or not, but Gatortailale is the club President. Beltway Bandit (one of the other Craig's) WAMAS forum moderator

Posting to RC would be a good idea. I would go ahead and post it now, and see if there are any doctors who would be interested. That way they can at least help you from the data collection standpoint, and the perhaps they could do a 'scientific writeup' from there.

Steve, I'm sorry to hear about your predicament. However, on the bright side of things I can see some benefit from this. As you have discovered there is a lack of information regarding the effects of palyotoxin. This would be a very good case study and research opportunity for the marine hobby field. My recommenation would be to keep good notes and perhaps enlist your doctor to help and once this has run its course write an article for publication. This type of info needs to be passed to the broader community, and perhaps you can turn it to your advantage and make some $$ of your misfortune. Or at least score a free ticket to MACNA, or the like to present your case study. Just a thought, trying to help you make some lemonade out of this lemon you were dealt. BB

Hi Barry. Sorry to hear that you have to break down your tank. BB

It looks like the fish was probably nipped by one of your other fish. I just added a new rabbitfish to my tank and my powder blue went berserk on it. Have you noticed any aggression toward the pyramid?

In the 4 years that I have had my tank set up I have added live copepods once. I did this when I set up my refugium just to spike the pod population and get a jump start on the colonization of my 'fuge. Was it worth it? I don't know, I have tons of pods in my refugium now. I probably would have had tons in there without the product. The one benefit that I saw from this and other products, is that you are perhaps introducing new species that you don't currently have in your tank. Therefore, it is an increase in the biodiversity which IMO is always a good thing. So I would say these products are helpful, but should be more of a one time or every several years type of purchase. Also, I would recommend against mail ordering these products for pods. The quality and quantity of the critters in the bottle seems to vary by manufacturer and lot. Much better to see the bottle in person and then decide if it is worth the $$ based on numbers and vitatlity of the critters. BB

If you want absolutely the best SCUBA in the Carribbean (the islands not including central america) I would say hands down Bonaire is the way to go. But, if you aren't into diving, there isn't much else to do. A nice compromise is Aruba or Curacao both neighbors of Bonaire with a bit more to do other than diving and almost as good diving. Of all the diving I did in the Carribbean (Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Tortola, Bonaire, Guantanamo Bay and Key West) Jamaica was by far the worst of the lot. It was still pretty, but lots of dead coral and overall pretty boring in comparison to the other places. BB

Actually it might have helped. He did mention that once he got the spatula in, that it cut like butter....

I would go with the bigger pump. For throttling purposes I would recommend a T with a return line to the sump. Put a ball valve on that return line and then use that control the ammount of water sent back to the main tank. (Yes a gate valve is technically the one you should use for throttling purposes, but with the flow dynamics we are talking about in a reef tank you can get away with the cheaper ball valve.) This gives you 2 advantages, IMO. One is it is better for the pump since you aren't throttling the pump directly, instead you are diverting the extra water back to the sump. Two having the T allows you to use this bypass line for other purposes (say running a refugium or remote DSB or a carbon filter or whatever). All in all, I would go with the bigger pump. It is easier to bleed off excess GPM than it is to have an undersized pump and wish you could push more. (Especially if the cost differential is negligible) BB

I did the math too, but I rounded up on the amps..

If memory serves correctly they pull about 20 Watts or about 0.2 Amps, roughly.

One other thing to look at is the directions on the PVC cement. They will usually tell you how long before the glue is set for pressure applications. (The one I was using recently said 2 hours for the cement to cure). My opinion is to try and plan the project so that you glue the stuff first and then do some other things while giving the glue the longest possible time to cure. But, if you have to glue'n'go I would wait at least a half an hour just to be safe. You can also rinse the pipe really well with water after the glue sets (don't know if it helps, but it can't hurt). BB