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I am pleased to announce that the board and officers agreed unanimously to add Andy aka Lexinverts to help out with the Vendor Relations role. Mattv remains in the role but we have a lot of sponsors and this is one of our more time consuming roles so we wanted to bring in some help! Please welcome Andy! Thanks for offering to help!

Thanks for the welcome. I am happy to help out.

$170.00

Nice add! Matt and Andy are a couple of great guys!

Cool that you're stepping into this role. It definitely takes a lot of time managing and facilitating all the correspondence with the sponsors. I wish you good fortune in this position!

Thank you for donating the coral. I will be at Holly's

One aspect not mentioned yet, is that supporting universities and private industry in raising marine animals supports marine research and helps increase our understanding, and husbandry of marine animals common in our hobby. It supports our personal duty, as caretakers of these animals we enjoy in our mini reefs, to protect them in our tanks and in the wild. I'm not perfect, but do understand I have a responsibility that may mean voting with my dollars (as in pay a little more for aquacultured animals) or having forbearance/patience at times. LFS and online stores generally do not get my money for livestock unless the creatures under consideration are aquacultured. Otherwise, I look to fellow hobbyists' livestock to stock my tank (of which I do have two wild-caught fish, live rock, and some inverts). And, of course, I look to everyone on this forum to help me stock my tank with your frags :-)!

Obviously there's a responsible, ethical way to manage the industry. The issue - as with everything - is how do you safeguard against the people who just don't care about your ethics or regulations? We can say 'only x number of angels can be exported,' but that doesn't mean x number more aren't shipped illegally. IT also doesn't take into account the total number that are caught to cover losses before reaching that export number etc. Add in truly nasty stuff like cyanide fishing and we all have to accept we're supporting a hobby that takes at least some toll on the reefs. Hopefully it's minimal and the fish we're mostly buying are extremely plentiful. My favorite fish - the Naso Tang - is listed as 'least concern,' so I feel decently OK taking care of them in a large, well-maintained tank. That said - I don't think I'd feel ethically OK with purchasing a fish that was at all at risk in the wild. Whether or not I felt comfortable in keeping it alive and happy, I wouldn't want to be responsible to driving up demand on that particular species. Either way - it really annoys me when people treat fish loss so flippantly and just disregard the lives of these fish. The number of fish it took to get the one you got means that many, many fish have to die each time someone doesn't want to cycle a tank etc. If you don't care about valuing the life of a fish (which I suppose is fair...we eat a lot of fish), then at least stick to freshwater species, where they'll breed in motor oil. **Full Disclosure: I get all my fish at C&C and I imagine most are wild caught. I also spent 20 years with wild caught African Cichlids...to increase value of fry. So I'm absolutely not standing on a soap box.

100% agree. We harvest allot of fish and clams in the Northwest here. The model is proven. Reef harvest as a business is sustainable, creates jobs and awareness of the reef. I believe that reef keeping will ultimately help the reefs if managed well (eg no cyanide and limits, like any natural resource).

The ornamental trade gives many poor countries an incentive to take care of their reefs and mother nature is far more capable than us at replenishing. On the other hand, captive bred fish are important to safeguard against future laws preventing wild collection and help in the case of fish with extremely limited ranges in the wild. Plenty more pros and cons to both types, of course, but those are the things I think of first. The fish I keep aren't commonly available as captive bred, if at all, so mine are all wild caught. If given the choice, I would choose captive bred in some cases (seahorses, Banggai cardinals) and wild caught for most others (genetic diversity, personal preference).

Woo-hoo! Go, Andy! So many great people in our little club.

Welcome! Glad to have you on the team.

Now that is a great addition to our clubs leadership. Thanks for stepping up Andy. It will definitely be a good thing for the club

Welcome and thanks for helping out !

I buy captive raised whenever possible, and support sustainable harvesting of wild fish. If ever I have a choice, I will choose captive raised over wild caught. The future of our hobby will depend on the development of captive breeding programs for marine fish, since the reef environment is severely threatened by climate change and ocean acidification. I have the same stance when purchasing corals.

Hey all, I have a partial Apex system with the following stuff: PM2+Probe VDM+Dimming Cable Base Unit MPR ALD+Solid Surface Detector WXM Salinity Probe Temp. Probe +A lot of the connector cables Do you think it's worth the time to part the system out or is do all you cool forum users think that it's smarter to offer the items as a package deal? I'm not sure how much I should price it out for? I am breaking down my systems because I'll be moving and with my swarm of dogs I think it would be easier for me to find a place without the burden of a 93 gallon cube system. I think the E8 bar works but am not sure I know I severed the cable for the display. It's more for parts

I found some shots of my last set up. This was an acrylic 180. It was a nightmare to keep that acrylic clean without scratching it all up.

Worked from home today cause of the weather. Had some time to take a video and pictures with a new phone i got. Still too blue but better than the last phone. First picture below is actually a video, click on it and it should take you to flickr and you can watch it there. hopefully it works. http://VID_20161208_140845 by kilmca, on Flickr http://IMG_20161208_141435 by kilmca, on Flickr http://IMG_20161208_141426 by kilmca, on Flickr http://IMG_20161208_141412 by kilmca, on Flickr http://IMG_20161208_141359 by kilmca, on Flickr http://IMG_20161208_141358 by kilmca, on Flickr http://IMG_20161208_141616 by kilmca, on Flickr http://IMG_20161208_141459 by kilmca, on Flickr

I'd like to get a few people together for a little frag swap. I have tons of zoas, yumas, and euphylias but I'd like to see if there are anymore people who would be interested in a little dinner/frag swap. Lmk.... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can you make it to the January's monthly meeting? http://www.pnwmas.org/topic/39515-january-2017-meeting-at-hollys/ There will be a frag swap then: http://www.pnwmas.org/topic/39558-january-2017-meeting-frag-swap/

Thanks, Karen! KKnight takes it. Please send $170 via Paypal to jessicab.lund@gmail.com I'll send you a PM about when I can bring you your frags. The meeting at Holly's will work if you can attend. Thanks again for helping out a family in need.

Went and visited higher thinking today and man did he hook me up with some corals and more knowledge and awnsers to my questions. Very generous and exciting!!! Thanks so much man! And everything put in!!!

Here are some photos of my problem and how I fixed it. Thanks for the advice everybody! I had a two inch bulkhead and drilled a 3 inch hole. Even though several websites say to drill a 3inch hole, it is too big. I found out the perfect size is 2 7/8 Here is what it looks like with the nut I bought some rubber material on amazon to make larger gaskets and used the 3inch hole cutout to make a ring to help keep the bulkhead centered in the hole. I drilled pilot holes and screwed the disc down before cutting it with the 2 7/8 hole saw Here is my ring! I sanded all the edges and sides with 100 grit sandpaper to smooth it out Perfect fit! and IF the bulkhead slid down to rest on the edge it would still have a seal. This shows the left side with the added ring the right side without. you can see how there would be a chance for a potential leak if the bulkhead did not stay centered. after adding my oversized gaskets between the outside of the tank and the external box. It is all mounted and my shiny new overflow box is ready to go! I filled to the tank after plumbing my bean animal style drains and it has been running for a couple hours now while i clean my 140lbs of new dry sand without any leaks. Thank you to everybody who gave suggestions. And I learned to not trust the internet bulkhead hole size info! A different manufaturer who makes 2inch bulkheads might need a 3inch hole. But in my case 2 7/8 was the correct size. I guess its better to make the measurements yourself! I also have a 2inch bulkhead im attaching to my sump for an external pump. I bought that one from brs and it will also take a 2 7/8 hole perfectly...