badguitarist

what about firefish they are always fun

yea i may have to call them, in fact im gonna check their website right now. like i said they are made to withstand livestock beating them up. and im sure farmers just plop them down wherever they feel like not worrying about rock or root or evenness of the ground. but also like I said i drilled 2 two inch holes in the side so I dont know if that may void any warranty even though it has nothing to do with the crack. luckily I caught it early though, as the ATO would have screwed it up bad otherwise, the salinity was still at 1.019 nothing really to worry about. On a side note I bought a zoanthid colony today and broke it into a few pieces to put each piece in a different tank. and when i cracked the base rock open there were two 2 inch fire worms (genus: eunice or hermadice most likely) in the rock. I tried to get some pictures but they all came out fuzzy and I was in a hurry. anyways I cracked the base rock open as much as i could and didnt find anymore (i wouldnt be surprised if there are) I put all the peices on a bare bottom tank on some eggcrate so hopefully if there are more they will fall out into the bottom. otherwise i bet the zoanthids can tolerate a freshwater dip as they do get exposed to the elements at low tide. Anyways I though it was kind-of a neat story. Kyle

a 150 gallon one i beleive its somehwere around 54"X33"X27 LWH. but thats just kinda what i remember in my head that may not be exact. I moved all the corals to other tubs and am going to drain and assess the damage tommorow. it just makes me mad cause the things arent cheap and they are supposed to be durable.

well I got out to my greenhouse today and one of my rubber maid tubs is leaking water from a crack in the bottom panel. I am pretty disgusted as it is only about 3 months old. it is on a stand and i'm wondering if it could have cracked due to the stand being uneven although i re tested it with a level today and it appears to be completely level. plus these things are made to handle horses and cows roughing them up so I doubt thats the cause. all in all I'm pretty disgusted and im sure i cant take it back as I have drilled one of the sides. Anyways after my rant my real question is what do you use to try and repair a rubbermaid tub? would some type of weld on work or maybe an abs glue? I dont know what material they are made out of so im sure what is the best product to try and patch it. any and all advice is welcome. especially if someone has personal experience doing this, thank you, Kyle

Mike nice to hear from you I figured youd pop in with some smart *** coment I might get that skimmer yet I just gotta get dale drunk so he gives me a good price! Claythesavagefraser as far as the old one I dunno I might keep it, it just needs one small peice to work. but if not I'll keep you in mind, maybe trade for some ink? I dunno it does have the mag drive pump with it I'm sure itd be cheap to fix I just figured I may as well try a new skimmer as I haven't been very impressed with my remora at all.

thanks guys just for what its worth it doesnt have to be hang on i dont care what it is as long as it works. I am actually switching from an aquaC remora that I've had for about 8 years Personally I never liked it. Some of the best skimmers Ive run have been cheaper ones that have had needle wheel pumps put on them. I gotta pass up anything thats hard to start as I like things that are reliable not to mention being hard to start means i'll never clean the dang thing. Thanks for the input, Kyle

Hey all, I'm looking for a new protein skimmer for my 40 gallon tank price range under $200 but preferably under $150. I came across these protein skimmers on foster and smith and had never heard of them but the price is right and the video makes it look like they have good foam production, heres a link: www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4392+19865&pcatid=19865 What I want to know is has anyone had experience with them and are they good or are they crap! I know from experience that some cheaper skimmers work exceptionally well and some aren't even worth running at all. If anyone has any personal or anectdotal experience that would be great. OR if you know of a better option in that price range in sump or hang on I really dont care as long as its a good skimmer. Also If anyone has something used laying around that would work for my setup feel free to pm me. Im really open to anything I just want a skimmer that works well. Thanks, Kyle

In my orchid greenhouse I have a few propagation tanks. As the temperatures in the greenhouse fluctuate much more than in a house I bought some digital thermometers that record a high and a low temp, this was very instrumental in figuring out the best ways to heat/cool the tanks. The thermometers are not expensive about 25 dollars, you could easily put them in a test box with heat/cold packs for 24 hrs. outside to figure out what the best solution if for you.

The lyretail hawkfish (Cyprinocirrhites polyactis) might be your best bet, as it has a smaller mouth than most hawks. They actually mimic certain species of anthias and hang out in their school eating zooplankton with them. I had one in a 75 for about a year till it jumped (this was a covered tank) and he never picked at any ornamental crustacians. It also spent more time in the water column than most hawkfish do.

I agree Ive never reached the bored point. I do however slack on my tank when the weather gets nice as I'm sure many of us do but winter will be here soon enough and I'll have plenty of time to catch up!

i have all sorts of macro algae (cheato, halimeda, etc.) growing in my greenhouse under natural light, it grows the stuff great, even in winter. No reason to waste electricity on it if you can do it for free!

I've recently had favorable results with a very underated fish in the marine hobby, scats. I have kept this fish many times but never in a fully marine tank. I had some live rock with aptasia and valonia on it sitting in a rubbermaid tub. I added 3 silver scats - one died within 24 hrs. probably due to transferring them from fully fresh to full salt water in about 4 hrs - and virtually all of the aptasia is gone and even some of the valonia is being eaten (this tub is in my dads orchid greenhouse so it is getting full sunlight). I found them to be a very good option as you can easily find them for under 20 bucks a pop. I was worried at first about them eating corals but since the aptasia disapeared i have added sps, brain corals, euphylia, a couple tridacnids and a few colt corals. none of them have been touched by the scats. I also agree that joes juice and aptasia x do not work, I have just never had good results with them. I will post some pics of my corals in the greenhouse soon I have them on my computer, im just not that good with computers so i havent figured out how to put them on the internet. Kyle

you didnt mention if you are using ro and/or di water, could it be a new (worse) water supply you may have. it is also possible that the old sand bed being old and healthy may have been processing a lot of the nutrients and your new sand bed hasnt caught up yet, just one possibility to think about.

simple baking or washing soda works very well and much cheaper than the stuff made specifically for aquariums. Washing soda is preferred as it has no phosphates. baking soda can easily be used just bake it in the oven for about half an hour. This will get rid of any moisture which can contain phosphates in it. there are some great guidelines as to how to dose it on reef centrals chemistry forum, look for a sticky about homemade 2 part solutions. one word of caution keeping your alkalinity at 12 dkh when your calcium is already at 450ppm is a bit sketchy as any miscalculation in dosing could easily cause your solutions to precipitate.

got my issue today, its awesome as always, theres even an article on the sea grasses of Yaquina Bay. I havent read it yet but I thought that was interesting.

yea, thanks for letting me know I was getting worried mine got lost in the mail or something.

If anyone on here subscribes to this magazine I am just wondering if any of you have gotten the fall issue. I got an email saying it would be sent shortly about 3 weeks ago and I still havent received it. thanks!

well said reefboy

although i have never kept maldiviensis I have kept several other pavonas. I have also noticed moderate to fairly strong light with heavy but indirect flow to be the best way to keep them alive. keep in mind pavona is a very autotrophic animal so organismal feeding isn't very necessary, more important is getting good light to it.

fox coral nemanzyphyliasp.? comes from fairly deep water. you could give that a try.

I also agree, for a very messy fish like that bare bottom will make it easier to keep the mess clean. If you decide on a sandbed I would go with very fine sand as waste wont be able to get stuck in it as easily not to mention I have personally had more than one large predator die from ingesting large grains of sand going after food and having sand get stuck in their intestinal track. Believe me watching a two foot moray die from pooping out its intestines over the course of a week is nothing fun to watch.

yes it can work if you keep them in a larger group. As a minimum 5 would be ideal, although sometimes you can get away with 3 or even 2 tangs of the same species. Generally, though, the larger the group the less aggression you will have between fish.

check out mike palettas ultimate marine aquariums book. there is a tank in there that is just anemones and clownfish. I'm sure one of the pet stores in the area has a copy you could look at.

that 1.5 inch hole sounds good. I personally usually do at least two holes in case one gets clogged (algae, snails, etc.) as far as returns go you can always just go over the top of the tank with pvc and not have so many holes in the back of your tank. as far as water flow it depends what species of lps and softies you are keeping. but yes generally speaking they dont need so much water flow. water flow is important to more than just the corals though, the higher the water flow the more waste will be kept of the substrate and sucked out via filters and skimmers. make sure that your return doesnt pump more water than your drain can handle. good luck

so im about to buy tickets for the bob fenner thing on sunday. and am wondering if they are mailing them to me they probably wont be here by sunday. is there some other way to verify that i paid. maybe printing tickets out or something? thanks, Kyle