dsoz

are the "neutral" and "ground" wires reversed? How does that work??? Is the shock all the time or only part of the time? If it is only part of the time I would call it the heater. Replace ASAP. Heaters are known to fail often. Usually after a while they will fail in the "on" position and cook your tank. Better to spend more for a better heater now than replace everything later. If it is shocking all the time, then it could be a powerhead or a return pump leaking voltage. Again, replace it ASAP. Get a grounding probe. They are like $12 and they could save your life. dsoz

That does look like a spawn to me. I have never seen that. I was expecting to see black strings of Zooxanthellae coming out, but I think you called it. Turn up your skimmer (if you have one), and run carbon for a few days. Maybe do a water change sooner to get rid of some of the excess nutrient in the water from the spawn. dsoz

Welcome to the group. What is your masters in? dsoz

nice! more babies in the club. We will start needing to offer babysitting services at meetings if it keeps up like this. dsoz

Purple thing looks like it may be some zoanthid corals or a sponge. Either way it will be good once you get better lights for it. Looks good otherwise. where is seabeck? dsoz

very nice. What camera body are you using again?

This is a great idea. This needs to be brought to the attention of the powers that be. I am sure that there is a seaworld type theme park out there that needs more sea lions. dsoz

Where to buy this waterlox? I am caveman when come to finishing. dsoz

When? Call me to see if I am home. I can put some coral into the TFT program. Do you need any more white xenia? I still have that duncan that was donated a while back. Maybe some other stuff as well. If all else fails, I can get it to Calvin's and he can get it to you. dsoz

Take 205 south. The "stark st./washington st." exit (they are a pair of one way streets). Turn right (west) on Stark (before the Taco Bell). Get into the left lane and go up about 4-5 blocks and it is in the red building on the left side of the street. To get back on the freeway you need to use the other one way street (one block south) and head east to the freeway on-ramp. Really easy to get there and back. HTH dsoz

I have seen it in someones tank before. It is more like small pebbles you would find in a stream around here. It did not look like it was carbonate based. It has been a while since I saw it, but what I remember thinking was "wow, that is weird looking in a reef tank." I cannot attest to how "good" it is for the tank, but I hear that it has all sorts of good stuff growing in it. You could probably get a similar sample of life if you get a cup of live sand from several different people here. I know that when I first started in this club that "sand swap" was a popular event. Then people started sharing things like flatworms, and other pests along with the good. Then the sand swap sort of phased out. dsoz

LPS and SPS are NOT real classifications in terms of biology. Both are grouped together as stony corals. SPS and LPS are convienences for and by people in the aquarium hobby. There are some genera (plural of genus) of coral that contain BOTH SPS and LPS corals. People put them into these categories because, in general, the smaller the polyp the more exact the water conditions need to be. Although this is a misnomer because there are more tolerant and less tolerant varieties of both SPS and LPS. HTH dsoz

Anemones usually either grow or shrink (and die). No matter what size tank they are in they will grow if the conditions are right (light, food, etc.). A 29g tank is on the small side to keep an anemone AND corals. Expect to loose one or the other. You can keep the anemone artificially small by "fragging" it when it gets too big. I have split anemones many times and BTAs are some of the easiest. There are many youtube videos you can watch to learn how when/if you need to. dsoz

They have a shell, it is just very reduced and flat like a shield. It covers about 1/2 the back. I have tried picking them up before and they tend to "drop" their tail that is not under the shell. I have seen the front half live even after dropping the tail, but the back half does not. A defence similar to some lizards I believe. dsoz

By definition, specific gravity is a certian amount of mass salt dissolved in a certain mass of water. Since most of the salt brands that we use are trying to get close to "natural sea water" at a SG of near 1.023 to 1.025 then they will pretty much be close to 1/2 cup per gal. Not all salts try to be equal to NSW, so that is why some of them are a little more or a little less. dsoz

I start at about 1/2 cup per gal of water. Then I check with a refractometer after about 20 minutes of mixing and will add more salt or water to get it in check. But 2 1/2 cups in a 5 gal bucket usually gets right near 1.023 dsoz

Welcome to the forum and the addiction. Besides books, I spent 100s of hours reading on the forums before getting wet. This one is good for local. Nano-reef.com has a lot of good ideas about how to get things working in small tanks (75g does not count, but some of the ideas will work for you too). Reefcentral.com also has some good ideas, but unless you are a paid member all the functions do not work (most important is the search function). Good luck and take a lot of pictures as you are setting up. dsoz

Don't put in sand or rock. If you do end up medicating, then the carbonate sand and rock will absorb the medication so it does not work like it is supposed to. Then it will release the meds back out into the water once you do a water change. If you use copper based meds, this can be detrimental to any inverts. Are you thinking as a QT for fish or for corals? If it is for fish, just the HOB filter with some floss. Fill with water from your tank when you start it up, then empty in between new arrivals. Be sure to dump a bit of water (10% or more up to 50% for a small QT) or so every couple of days and replace with water from your display. Then new SW into the display. This will help with the nitrogen cycle in the QT. If the QT is for coral, then you want a descent set of lights that is somewhat close to what you have in your display. Even a bank of PC or T5 lights could be enough for corals for a few weeks while they are being watched for signs of nudibranchs, acro-eating flatworms, zoapox, nuance algae, etc. dsoz

Get a photobucket.com account. Upload your photos there, then copy the IMG code under the photo and paste it where you would type your message. HTH dsoz

I have torch and frogspawn that have grown together so the tentacles touch. No problems yet and it has been several months. dsoz

This is what I replied to your PM, I am posting it here in case it will benefit someone else in the future. They may be trying to cluster together for protection. It looked like the one you had was small (compared to the 9 inch diameter one that I have in my tank and 12+ inch diameter ones that I have seen in the fish stores). So splitting probably was a sign of stress from moving from one tank to another. Just let them heal and don't mess with them for a few weeks. Once they heal and start puffing up more they will probably both wander until they find a good spot. This is a dangerous time because they can get sucked into powerheads and that can be bad. If you can catch one of them on the move, they are easy to remove and you can put it where you want it to go. The best spot would be a hole in the rock that is slightly larger around than the base, and slightly deeper than the height. That way it can suck down into the hole if it feels threatened. This is a double edged sword because if it likes the hole and it sticks in there, you will not be able to get it out easily, but it will stay there and not disturb your other corals. Once they heal you will be able to feed them. Get some frozen silversides (fish smaller than your finger) from the fish store. Patrick at Fanta-Seas usually has them in, and most other LFSs have them too. It looks like the nems that you have will end up with a "foot" smaller than a quarter. Break up the silverside so that it is not too big for the nem to ingest. You will need to learn from experience, but a good rule of thumb to start with is about 1/2 the diameter of the oral disk. Feed as often as once a day, or as little as once a week. The more you feed the faster they will grow, but they are sloppy eaters and a lot of the nutrients in the fish end up also feeding the algae in your tank. So the more you feed the more water changes you will need to do, and the larger CUC you will need to get. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. PM me or make a thread on the forum. Good luck! dsoz

Is that called the "cold shower" method of stopping spawning? LOL Good luck with that tonight. I hope you can make it to a LFS to get some water in the morning. dsoz

You may even be able to have a montipora in there. But most of what Rick said is true. Put a yes next to candy cane (Rick said maybe). There is nothing from keeping you from having an interesting softy and LPS tank. You will just be limited to no "fuzzy sticks" dsoz

Not a good idea to move a BTA so soon after splitting. You can draw a name, but let the clone heal for at least 3-4 weeks and it is eating before moving it. dsoz