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

I have not done it yet, but the plan is for me to move my tank into the basement when it is done (another story altogether). I have two circuits that are not being used right now, so I am going to rewire those two circuits into a wall pannel next to the tank. I think I'll have one for lights, heater, and skimmer. The other for the main pumps and powerheads. Like I said, it is still in the planning stages, and not likely to be done until summer. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Not that I want to hijack this thread... I'll start my own as time gets closer. dsoz

nice tank. I like the look. Did you add any rock when you upgraded? Or is it the same rock from before? dsoz

More ammonia would create more bacteria. But you could get the same results with adding pieces of raw seafood that will decompose in the tank. The more starter that you add, the more bacteria that you will get. Maybe start with some live steamer clams from the seafood section of the grocery store. If they live through the cycle, you could still eat them. Get a couple of dozen. That many would be plenty to get the bacteria going. It is not just the bacteria that you should be looking for. You also want other things crawling/swimming in the tank. There are many marine protozoa that are good for the overall health of the tank. Consider making a smaller first trip. Make sure that you collect some sand, rocks, and muscles and get some ocean water to add to the tank. Consider scraping some of the growth off of an encrusted rock/pier post/dock-side. You should end up with all sorts of neat little critters (amphipods are my favorite). Once that stuff gets established, then your second trip can be a little bigger. Good luck with the tank Someday I would like to try an Oregon Aquarium. I think it would be fun! dsoz

If you want to do the ammonia thing, make sure it has NO SOAP or detergent. Just plain ol' ammonia in a bottle (also known as Ammonium hydroxide). DO NOT use things like windex! If you don't want to use life, use death. Throw a little seafood in there. Or better yet! Just use the die-off from the live rock to start your cycle. (unless you get well-cured LR from a LFS that stays underwater the whole trip home). If you order it online, there will be a lot of stinkey, dead things that will decompose to make your cycle progress. The only cure for the cycle is TIME. Let it run it's course. (hard words to follow, I almost did. LOL) dsoz

don't use a syringe. Make a thick paste of the stuff and plop a mound of it on top of the little buggers. If they are in a hole in the rock, fill the hole with the paste. What calcium powder are use using? It needs to be Kalk, or calcium hydroxide. I don't think calcium chloride will work (not a strong enough base). Happy hunting! dsoz

No updated pictures because nothing has changed. The only excitement in the tank is watching the algae grow, and the snails eat it down. I am even getting sorry for the hermit crabs. Since the clowns are in QT, there is no left overs for them to scavange. I think they are starting to turn on each other. I saw two of them fighting over what looked to be a half eaten carcas of a third hermit. As long as they leave my snails alone, I am ok with them eating each other. Every now and then I will throw in a piece of Seafood Medley (clam, shrimp, squid...). I will cut it up into small bits and let it float around the tank. When it settles it is a race between the hermits and the nassarius. Once I even watched a nassarius chase a micro-hermit away from a piece. LOL! Payday is less than a week away. There should be some changes then. dsoz

Austin- If there are near 100 of them, do they breed in the tank? Or did that many just come in on a rock?

Joel- thanks for the compliment coming from an "expert" it makes me think I may be doing something right. The lights are up on 2x4's until I can get back over to J&Jr's place. He offered to help me make some plastic brackets to hold the lights up. He is such a great guy! Once I put the 2x4's the tall way (and turned down my heater to 76 rather than 80) the heat problem went away. Good advice though. The "sand" that is piled up on the left is actually CC from J&Jr's old tank. It has all sorts of neat things crawling in it. I have found amphipods, micro brittle stars, the other small stars that always look like they are missing one or two legs (I forgot their name), small snails that have white and black tiger stripes, strawberry anemones, and stomatella. That is only what I have seen. I am sure that there is much more. I will start taking it out slowly as I get more sand (only have 10 lbs right now). If anyone else wants some of this CC to put in their tank, just let me know. I'll probably keep it until summer, then I will either give it to a new person, smash it up to make sand, or maybe someone needs it for a Ca reactor. I'll probably keep a small bucket to use when I start fragging mushrooms. Diatoms are gone. They have been replaced with green algae. I do scrape the glass when I want to see in, but I am trying to allow the algae to grow and suck up some of the nutrient load. When I scrape the glass, I then syphon off all the algae-sheets that come off. A magnet cleaner is on my list of things to get. There are more important items on my list. I want to get the big ticket items while I am still doing extra work, and bringing home an extra paycheck. The small things (less than $30) I can get once I am back on a "normal" budget this summer. Again, thank you all for the nice comments. An update on my tank situation. The clowns are still in QT. It has been 14 days since they started having ick. I am going to slowly start increasing the salinity of the QT. I think I'll keep the copper level at treatment levels for another week or so, then start to lower the amount of copper to zero. I still have a month to wait for the main tank to clear out. Maybe investing in some RubyReef ick cure would be a good idea. That way I can treat the tank, and get the clowns out of prison, I mean QT. Lately my xenia has not been looking too good. It seems to be "wilting" and the hands tend to ball up and deflate for longer and longer times. I don't know. Maybe I need to get some more actinic bulbs in my light fixture. I have tried moving it around, but it still seems to not be doing like it was when it was in J&Jr's tank. Today it is out and pulsing, but it does not seem to have the "energy" that it had before. On a good note, the brown star polyps have been doing well. They have been extending fully, and even have places where I can tell that there is new growth. The GSP is also starting to extend polyps. Yesterday there was ONE for the first time since I got them. Today I just counted four! Pretty soon there should be so many that the thing will take over my tank and I will be begging people to come get some... I can only hope

welcome on board! Tell us about what you already have done with FOWLR, and what you want to do. Even if your plans change, it is a good place to start a conversation. dsoz

It is a food grade calcium hydroxide. It is added to the tank to increase calcium ion so the stoney corals (and other things) can have calcium to grow. Kinda like parents make children drink milk to grow strong bones and teeth. If you dose with calcium from the LFS, you are paying WAY too much for those little bottles. Get some of this and make your own. There are instructions somewhere on how to do it. Most of the people that have been around awile can tell you how to do it (I would need to look up the recipe). I hope this helps dsoz

get a tripod. It helps A LOT! Not that I have ever taken a good picture, or even my own advice. When I take a pic it is of something that is moving, and I don't have time to go get the tripod. Keep the great pics coming dsoz

Welcome to the site, and your first posting! Nice looking tank:) (welcome) (To) (P) (N) (W) (M) (A) (S) I can't wait to see the competition develop between you and your dad. (popcorn) Is he on this site too? If not, get him on board!

This is the simple version. If you want a more complex version, I can loan you my old molecular and cellular biology book. Then again. This is good enough. The sugar/alcohol is a carbon source. The denitrifying bacteria need two things. One is the nitrate. NO3. The O part of NO3 means three oxygens (please forgive me if you already know this, but I am a chemistry teacher.) The bacteria get their oxygen from the nitrate, it is not food. They also need FOOD. This is where the sugar/alcohol comes into play. The bacteria will eat the food, then use the oxygen from the nitrate, and do cell respiration. Happy, growing, bacteria. Happy reefer with reduced nitrates. I believe that after a while, the dissolved organics (mainly protein) in the water may be used as a food source. I think this is bad because protein contains sulfur, which is where the hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell- very poisonous) comes from. This can wipe out the tank. Your U shaped tube may be a good idea. The water would need to be pre-filtered to remove large debris that would clog it. I was thinking a very weak powerhead, and make the tube zig-zag back and forth a couple of times (water moving horizontally or up, not down, so gravity does not speed it up) before it returns to the sump to be processed by protein skimmers, etc. I know a little on the theory end, and I remember reading about these things 12 years ago. But I am not an expert. More research would be needed before jumping into building one of these things. I'm interested in helping whoever wants to take this jump (reef165). Once summer hits, I'll have a lot of spare time on my hands to help. dsoz

PGE (portland general electric) has been doing this for several years.

could you cut a couple more bulkheads in your sump, then have them go into a bucket of sand and/or crushed coral. A small, weak, PH would provide slow flow that would become anoxic, and dinitrifying bacteria would start turning the nitrate into nitrogen gas. I believe that people used to do this, and they would "feed" the reactor with either sugar, or alcohol (vodka reactor?) as a carbon source. This should be researched more. ps do you still want to get rid of that torch (?) coral? I just got my lights from J&Jr. I have 4 of 6 bulbs up and running. The other 2 will need to wait for payday. Let me know what I can get for you to exchange (I don't want to take it for free, you have already given me enough). Zoas, shrooms, rics. Something reasonable. dsoz

It is always a good thing to chicken out of an impulse buy to gather more information BTW- contact impur. He posted on my thread that he has the same TEK T5HO lights you (and I) have, and he said that his clam does great under the same light. http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3651&page=2 (see post #27) I also want to get a clam. But I am going to wait until AT LEAST September, maybe October. That will also be the time that I want to get a BTA (if the clowns don't start hosting something else sooner). Just make sure that you get the "easy" clams first. I hear that some are easier to keep than others. If you chicken out again, you can always get some sandbed clams. SWFS has them for $5. They bury in the sand and are not photosynthetic. They also look like steamer clams. Not as good to look at as Maximas! Has your GSP opened up again after the fragging you gave it? The pieces that you gave me have not yet opened up. The BSP are open and happy most of the time, and the xenia opens and closes in a periodic fassion. Good luck, I may just need to come by and OOH and AAH once you finish your research. dsoz

Have you checked craigslist? dsoz

I gave this a little bit of thought in the 10 years that I was not in the hobby. If there is a slow moving flow through a length of PVC pipe (3 or 4 inch diameter) that is filled with sand (even coarse playground sand should work). It would get to the point of being anoxic or anaerobic enough for the denitrifying bacteria to go to town. The only problem would be having a discharge that is low in oxygen. If you have this then flow into a skimmer area, then it will get oxygenated before returning to the main tank. I guess this is the same theory as a DSB in a bucket. Maybe I am just trying to make things more complicated than they need to be. If you want to try this idea, call me up. I would love to experiment with the idea and see how it works. dsoz

If you go the refugium route, LMK. I can give you some chaeto (just dip it in your ruby reef to make sure you don't get the ick from my tank. Dsoz