SeanF

Yes the solomons are definately where we can regularly get the nicest zoos. I order them from other places like Fiji and Jakarta just so that I can try and get some different ones but every time I order from the solomons they send a lot of different colors and most of the zoos are outstanding. You tend to get several different colors on a rock and some of the colors we have seperated off to start growing out new colonies to frag. We intended on keeping and growing some of every nice color we get in. That way it will be like going to the hardware store and buying paint for your house. Ohh I would like to put some reds over here right next to some greens and then maybe some pinks. It is going to take some time and I know some of our customers get a little irritated because I have a lot of different colors that are growing out but in order to have the nicest zoos all the time it is just going to take a little while. It is rather funny because we still have new customers that come in and are just amazed because there are so many colors of zoos they have never seen. Not that the Eugene/Springfield area is a Mecca for nice corals but eventually this will change.

It might be stepping over the line a little but my store (Cichlids and Salt) has quite a selection and we get more every week from the solomons where most of the cool zoos are coming from. We don't have as many as those places yet but eventually we will be aquaculturing all of our own zoos. When we finally find a larger location I am thinking of doing my 240 gallon tank exclusively in zoos that we are aquaculturing. I am not a really big colored stick fan myself but really like all of the different colors of zoos.

There has been some slight price increases due to fuel surcharges and such on the dry goods but I think most retailers are absorbing those costs at this point in time. I was talking with one of my salesmen the other day and I don't think it will be much longer before the manufacturers and wholesalers can afford to keep absorbing the increased cost of shipping without starting to pass it along to retailers and therefore probably on to consumers. The biggest increase has been to livestock with all of the water weight that is involved in transit and the distance it travels most of what you pay for when you buy livestock is freight. On most of my shipments I am paying between $3-$4 a pound in freight charges. So the more gas costs this is where you will see the biggest effect.

Those are some pretty sweet zoos on those pages but I might know of a place locally that has a lot of those varieties available.

Now that we have a title we just need to bring a camera to the barbeque so that we can film our new blockbuster film. We can all have money to support our habits.

The sad part is that I was up at 7am to check and see if my order came in on the early flight.

It is 3am and 18 people have already visited the site today. Get some sleep people.

I will measure them tomorrow when I go to the shop and get back with you. There will be some variation depending on which mounting option you decide to use. Ohh I just realized that would be today when I go to the shop.

Depending on how much space you have available I would probably go with the 1500. You really can't have too much flow but the size of the unit might be problematic finding a place for it.

Sorry it was late and I didn't think about where I was posting the prices. Reefgeek are you wanting to do SPS or a mixed tank? What you want to keep will have a lot to do with what size you want. I will definately kick Kevin in the butt. Definately have some suggestions on some things that can be done differently with the mounting because those suction cups are definately worthless particularly when mounting up one of the big boys.

I thought I would post the PNWMAS member prices on the Seios 620 29.99 820 39.99 1500 59.99 2600 62.99 I will probably be picking up the 1100s at the end of the month I just don't have many requests for it.

I personally have sold hundreds of Seios and have only had 2 that had problems from the get go. The problems usually occur from impellers from what I understand but even then I do think that it happens all that often. Hopefully they will also be getting that elusive controller on the market here pretty soon. When you get ready to buy one I guarantee that I can get you a price on one better than anyone else on a new one. I just set up some 2600s in some of our reef tanks and I like them. The only problem with the 2600s is that they don't sell them with the over tank mount anymore just the suction cups but I will be talking to the RIO rep about that on the 26th.

I just can't believe that they stage a nationwide protest. We should have just rounded them up and sent them back across the border when they refused to do the only thing that we want them in the country to do. It is rather obvious that we should not be doing anything to help them out. I do think a guest worker program is a must. We make all the agricultural companies pay the cost for it. Require background checks and heck might as well make them wear a gps tracking device so that we know they leave when they are done picking the crops. Make sure we get the tax money from them. We spend far to much money catering to people that can't speak english. Pretty soon the road signs will be in spanish also. Oregon has got to be one of the worst. All of our state agencies bend over backwards for non citizens while people that pay the taxes here can't get services.

You were really just mad because you couldn't take the frags admit it.(plotting)

Now seriously is the name of that Falls Pee Pee. If so someone has one heck of sense of humor.

Just couldn't resist. I have a saying that it just ain't fixed until you have about a roll of duct tape on it. Still working on more Blue Stripes particularly some small ones.

I think the biggest issues for most stores is going to be two things: The I think $1500 it takes to be certified and having to have a dedicated system just for MAC certified fish at least for right now when there are so few species available that are certified. I didn't read the newsletters yet. I just know that I have yet to see any species pop up on any lists from the wholesalers I get lists from. There is one place that is certified that I don't get there list so there is a slight possibility that there are a few fish that are coming in certified. I think the difference in fish cost will come in on the cheaper fish and not the more expensive ones. The more expensive ones are already individually bagged and in generally have a great survival rate. Its the fish that they sell cheap that are packed in. Like 5 green chromis per bag. 6 Yellow clown gobies. This is fine to pack them this way the majority of the time but when you get a weak fish that doesn't make it very far into the shipment it can spell disaster for all of the others in the bag. The problem for most of the stores around here is that we don't buy from the traditional wholesalers out of LA even though our fish are coming from the same collectors they don't qualify for MAC certification. I personally have have much better fish since I quit buying from the LA wholesalers. I don't ever have fish come in covered in parasites they are much healthier and cheaper to boot.

Hey Jordan your light holders are going to fall to pieces you forgot the Duct Tape.(laugh)

Probably the biggest reason most stores don't carry them is that none of the major wholesalers in the area carry them. It seems that there are not many distributors for them so that makes it difficult for us to get them without buying them for the same places that you would buy them online. Hard to make money on something when you have to buy it from the same place as your customers would be considering buying it from. I personally would like to carry the Tunze but have not found a distributor to buy them from. Hopefully Rio will have their new controller out for the Seios at the upcoming tradeshow.

I thought I would take some time to educated the masses on MAC certification. MAC is short for the Marine Aquarium Council. The Marine Aquarium Council started a program a few years ago to try and bring about improved survival rates on Marine Fishes. This program requires training of the collectors and facilities that these animals pass through. Every one who touches a MAC certified fish must have been trained in the ideal methods of packing and handling of these fish. The goal of MAC certification is to reduce the Mortality rate on Marine Species to 1% however they do not know if that is an attainable goal. They have set standards for each batch of fish imported that cannot be exceeded for the batch of fish to remain certified. These standards can be found at their website along with a list of MAC certified facilities down to the retail level. The web address is www.aquariumcouncil.org This is a lofty goal but would be great if they could attain it. The progress: Ok so far we have lots of Collectors that are certified, A few wholesale facilities that are certified and a few retail locations that are certified. This sounds great doesn't it. So far the only livestock that has been managed to be certified is Live Rock. Ok to the reason that I feel I must inform the masses. I have learned that at least one retailer is claiming to have MAC certified fish. I just wanted people to have all of the information so that they could make educated decisions. Also just so everyone knows most of the stores that I know where they buy from buy from MAC certified wholesalers or exporters. In fact from the list of collectors on the MAC site I would say that the good majority of them are MAC certified.

Yeah that humidity sucks. When we were living out in Oklahoma we came up to visit for a couple of weeks in June and it was 70s and 80s the whole time we were out here. Nice and pleasant. We drove back out through Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. It was about 110 in some of the little Arizona towns we passed through but dry as a bone. It was 107 in Amarillo Texas still fairly dry. We pull in to the house it is 109 outside with about 70% humidity. My glasses fogged up when I cracked the car door open. It sucked. Probably the worst climate change I went through was flying over to England on our way to Saudi Arabia in August. We almost couldn't leave Mildenhall in the morning because there was so much fog nice and cool. In general good old England. We landed in Saudi and cracked open the back door of the plane open and you could just feel all of the moisture get sucked out of the plane. It was only like 115-120. Either way this weekend is going to suck.

Yeah it was already starting to get a little busy along the coast in Florence and I have never seen so many people at Sea Lion caves. They were piled up. I made the mistake of going over last year when it was really hot over here and couldn't hardly find a place to park to go out to the beach. I will just have to settle for sitting at the shop enjoying the air conditioning.

Well with all the talk about the beach. I decided to go for the day. All I can say is wow 70 degrees sure feels good this time of year.

The coast is supposed to be close to 90 this weekend. I beat the rush this heat wave and bought the biggest available air conditioner for the shop before everyone else heard that it was going to be hot and bought them all. Air conditioners would probably be even cheaper except for all the wonderful people that go and buy them and then return them after it cools off. I went to Jerrys and Home Depot and there was a bunch of open box air conditioners laying around. It is just sad that people do things like that.

Well perfecto is now a division of Marineland. From what I have seen they use thicker glass in them but I have never owned one myself. Marineland bought Perfecto about 6 or 7 years ago before that the tank were garbage but I think Marineland is now producing a quality tank.