dsoz

If you do sell, LMK. They look cool. You're right, only brown garbage gets the juice. Lavender and green is very cool! dsoz

I knew I shoulda toined left at abaquoikie... Eh, What's up doc? - BB

Glad to hear that it is buisness as usual at the MSC! I loved having a key to the library and going in there after hours. All those books... So little time... I hope that you are able to stay busy. and can at least get something productive done. I know that when I was there and needed an airline in the lab that I was using, my mentor had us run some line ourselves (Don't tell anyone, it is a secret). We needed air NOW, and we were put three weeks down on the list of projects to be done. Some PVC, and a couple of valves, and BAM, we had air. I am not telling you to take matters into your own hands, but sometimes you need to not waste the time that you are given there. Good luck with the project. dsoz

I may be new, but it looks like a zoa to me, not an anemone. dsoz

Howdy, howdy, howdy. Please try to make the meeting on the 20th, so that we can all meet you in person. PS- ask "smart" questions. There ARE such things as dumb questions, like "duh, was I really speeding, officer?" Smart questions are like "I don't know what this is, can anyone help me?" dsoz

it is not easy to give away a basket ball size piece when you are giving away a softball size piece. Good luck dsoz

I have a clump of chaeto that is about the size of a basketball to get rid of. If you want it you come get it. I can meet you in Oregon City (home) or Woodburn (work). Send me PM dsoz

Thanks for the offer John, but I think I have most of what I need. I have several junction boxes, and quite a few outlets. The only thing that I really will need to buy is wire, some switches, and a couple of in-line timers for the lights. I am thinking that if I make a couple of parallel lines off of each circuit, and put in a GFCI for each different line, then I get the protection of GFI, but the whole system does not go down if something trips the circuit. I would also like to have several switches so that I can turn off different components when I need to. A master switch is also a good idea. I have a couple of weeks to think about how I will design this projecet. Help with moving the tank and contents would be accepted. any volunteers? LOL I didn't think so.

If your problem is diatoms (brown), the problem will just fade away over time, and snails and hermits will not make it any better or worse. With my diatoms the tank was brown one day, then it started to fade the next, and then the next day it was green instead of brown. Diatoms should go away after about three weeks. I think the small black ones with the stripes are nerite snails. I saw a lot of then at WAVES a few weeks ago. He may still have some. You can also get them on-line. I believe that IPSF.com has them in their 9 for $99 special and the reef tank tune up special (also $99 with free shipping). Turbos are work-horses. THey are non-stop eating machines. But if you get big ones they also will bull-doze anything you have in the tank. This is OK at the beginning when there is only LR. But once you get some frags in there, they need to be glued down, or you will allways be picking them up and replacing them. If your LFS will sell you turbo's now, then exchange them 1 for 1 later then start with turbo's. Five of them in my 45g cleaned up the algae nicely. Now I am starting to get some small frags, I traded them in for some less aggressive cleaners, so I will need to get some backup help soon. If you have a sand-bed don't forget some nassarius snails. THey dig in the bed and only come up when it is feeding time. It is kinda fun to watch them surface out of the sand like a submarine. You first see a snorkel, then the sand starts to quiver, then BAM there is this snail coming out of the sand. Both of my kids thought it was kinda cool (or they just said that to make the old man feel good). I got a couple of the margarite snails, not knowing that they are the ones that don't live long, but they have lasted a couple of weeks. I just do a shell count each day to make sure that none have gone MIA. I also have a couple of cerenth, snails. THey are not as fast or as clean as Turbos and margarites, but they also don't knock over my new frags. This is why I need to get some backup. A couple of my rocks are starting to get green. I have some of the blue leg dwarf hermits as well. They are good once hair algae starts. They did little or nothing for the diatoms. Get them if you want, but you may need to feed them so that they don't go after your snails. A hungrey hermit is a nasty animal. I once watched a large red hermit attack and kill and eat a smaller red leg. It was cool and disgusting at the same time. Kinda like a car accident that people will slow down to see if there is any blood. Good luck with the diatoms. Enjoy your tank in all of its phases! dsoz

How much does the LM blenny charge an hour? I am starting to get a little algae problem, and snails move as slow as.... well, snails. (laugh) I need to get about 4 or 5 more. But it will need to wait. The story of a reefer on a budget. The car was hit the same night that my son and I went over to help Joel (WAVES) with his computer problems. It was fine when we left Waves, but the next morning... SMASHEROO (flame) ... I guess that teaches me that no good deed goes unpunished. Just kidding. I would like to get ahold of the person that did it and make them pay for the damage. I am not sue happy, but people should be responsible when they make mistakes. I need to finish working down in the basement before chapter 10 can happen. I have a 90 year old house with a basement that leaks water when it rains. Some prior owner painted the concrete. In order to water-proof the concrete, all the paint needs to be removed. Paint-stripper does not work (I tried). So what I found that DOES work is an angle grinder with a masonry wheel. It is slow and dusty work. I have been doing this since Thanksgiving, and I see the light at the end of the tunnel. 95% of the floor is done, and 90% of the walls are done. I figure about two more weekends of work and I'll be done. Then I need to take everything out of the basement Sweep up all the dust that I can, and then hose it all down. Once this is all done I can move the fishtank down to the basement. and set it up in a temporary location down there. Then I need to do some electrical work to reroute two circuits that are not being used anymore so I have power where I want the tank. Then waterproofing can start. When I get the place where the tank will go waterproofed, it can get moved to it's final location. Then the rest of the basement can get done. It will be a lot of work, but I think it will turn out alright in the end. That is why chapter 10 will not be until June. dsoz

sugarbear- Just wait. When you get your tank up and running, you will be just as excited! Even baby steps can be a big deal! The best part is the people that are here that are friendly and encouraging. I am starting to make some good friends that have a common interest. Best of all is the fact that almost everyone is willing to share advice, and even go out of their way to help out newbies (or recycled newbies like you and me). dsoz

Chapter 9- lots of new stuff. Most of it free Well it is a new month, which usually means new stuff. But this month the expenses of the household exceded the income of the wage earners, so the choices are to charge the extra or take from the fish tank budget. Sigh, I guess the fish tank budget is where it will come from. (sad) There was only some MAJOR whining and crying on my part. But we gotta send the kids to camp this summer, deposits on major school trips must be made, and DMV wants to suck some of the blood out of my wallet. Oh and I almost forgot about my car getting hit by a hit-and-run while it was parked on my street one night. THe whole driver's side was crushed in. The insurance deductable is only $250, but it is $250 of MY FISH TANK MONEY!!!! That sucks big time! I did get some new stuff. First updates of existing material. Brown star polyps Green star polyps that are finally starting to open up Xenia that I moved to a new rock so I can gove the old rock back to J&Jr (thanks for the loan) Now for some new items: fuzzy mushrooms. Brown and green from SWFS $10 frag tank. The Purple one is one that I had from J&Jr. Some zoas, also from SWFS $10 frag tank Another fuzzy mushroom from wegotjs I think this is an acropora (not sure- help me out here) also from wegotjs An awesome frag of orange eagle eyes from wegotjs Thanks man! And my new pride and joy! FROGSPAWN! Also from wegotjs. Really cool, it has 3 heads now, and is splitting into 4 heads. I hope my clowns will find something that they want to host when they get back out of jail. Only one more month to go. I also am borrowing a Coralife SuperSkimmer from J&Jr. It is working OK, and is better than what I had (NOTHING!). It makes some skimate that is olive colored. I was kinda expecting darker, but anything is better than nothing. I still am working on getting a sump and refugium set up. That is all for now. Chapter 10 will probably be about the move from the attic (my bedroom) to the basement. The goal is to get it moved BEFORE June 1. Temperatures will soon be too high for the tank to stay in the attic much longer. dsoz

If you stir the bed, then oxygen will get in there and the dentrifying bacteria will not be able to work. They need low or zero oxygen to do their job. dsoz

If you want to keep the sand and CC separate, you could sift them as they come out of the tank. Use a collander (?spelling?) from the kitchen- like the ones you would use for spaghetti. Get one that is plastic (not metal) with large holes. The sand should fall through the holes and the CC will stay in. Then you can make a pile of sand, and a pile of CC. Add them to your tank as you wish. I would QT your sensitive animals because stirring up a sand/CC bed could release a bunch of decaying matter that would cause an ammonia spike. Not good for the fish/corals. Once the old sand has "cycled" then the animals could go back in. If you like the look of CC on top of sand, I can give you some more CC for your tank. It is really "alive." It was given to me by J&Jr, and I used it to seed my sand bed. I am almost ready to take it out of my tank. I don't want to just toss it, if I can find a good home for it. If you (or anyone) wants it I can bring it to the next meeting (Portland or Eugene). There are stomatella, micro-brittle stars, small snails, amphipods, copeopods, and some of those small stars that only have 3 or 4 arms. I don't remember the names of all of them. I should probably write down the names of all these things as I learn them... dsoz

After spending it all on the reef, there would be none left over for the film... I can't wait to see more. POTM!

If I were you, I would go with the acro and dendro for POTM!!! Very nice. Are these digi or film? If they are digi, who cares if you only get one good one out of five. If they are film, that would be a lot of cash going out. Very nice, I wish I could tale pictures like that! dsoz

I hear the theme to "ROCKY" playing in my head. Dun da da dun ta dun ta dun... Adrian.... I love you Adrian...

J&Jr Good to hear that it is now where you can see and feed it. It made it very hard to appreciate when it was in the back of the tank. Maybe your clown will switch from the xenia to the anemone. Then it won't get mad when the host does not eat the offering! Good luck with it. If yours does well, then I will think of getting one sometime at the end of summer. dsoz

Welcome to the club! Books are great, and so are message boards. But also find a "mentor" that is successful. Someone that you can go to when you have a question that you need answered NOW. Most of the stuff that we learned 10 years ago is no longer considered "good." You will need to re-learn a lot of stuff. For example, bristle worms were considered "bad" and should be removed. Now they are considered to be "good" because they are detritavores, and eat stuff in the sand-bed. I am finding it difficult to get over my predjudice against them and put them into my tank. Wet-dry filters are now "bad." I can give a thousand different examples of this sort of changes in theory. Cheers dsoz

What andy said. They dig in the sand bed, and keep it turned over. They eat food that hits the bottom. Mine are lots of fun to watch when I feed, the surface like a submarine out of the sand bed. If you only have the one, get more. Usually about 1 for every 10g for your tank. Most LFS have them. If yours does not, ask around and you can find them somewhere. By the way, nice photo of one. Mine spend too much time in the sand to be very photogenic. dsoz

If you ever get over to the LA area, there were some stores that were selling the AP150w for $320. I don't know if that was just a special, but I almost picked one up when I was in Anaheim for spring break. Then I decided to change directions and keep my 45g. If you do make it to LA, I may have the names of the stores still (somewhere). Or you can get on a socal forum and ask around there. When you do get your tank going, let us know and we can do some thermous swaps (I have wanted to do one of these since I have heard of them on a different forum. It sounds like FUN!) dsoz

Don't forget to ship a frag to EACH of us of EVERY cool coral that you find down there. Just kidding. I hope that the heat does not get to your new tank. Best wishes dsoz

How do they fit inside the skimmer??? Do you just put the cord down the riser tube? Does it interfere with the bubbles? Confused... dsoz ps. Nice looking tank. May you never have algae problems.

Trade them in for margarita, cerenth, and asteria. They tend to not knock things over as much. OR get some large hermits. Can you say escargot? dsoz

I notice the time... On line at work. Is that what management does when they are in their office? I know. You are on a break. Just teasing. dsoz