Mr. Reef

Man, you have amazing taste in coral. I like the setup a lot! Great coral-scaping, color placement, everything. Very impressive. -Ricky Soutas Jr.

I'll try to keep this as simple as possible. A couple things I saw that you could change: 1. 83F temperature- Try to get this lower at least to 80F, if not 76-78F. Possible install some cheap smart fans to blow across and out of the canopy if you have one. Keep the lids off your tank. If you have some jumpers (like jaw fishes) get some cheap egg-crate and cut to fit. 2. Feed your fish more often- I personally feed my fish every day, not heavily, but a nice light feeding. Keep in my mind some fish need more than others. However, as long as the fish don't have pitted stomachs you could possibly get away with every other day if you wanted just depends on what fish you have. 3. Make sure the fish you are getting are compatible. That is a huge one. 4. If you've just had quite a few fish die in your tank consider waiting for about a week or two before you add anymore fish. It's really a good idea considering you're using a sock filter system in a 60+20Gallon reef tank. 5. Fix the lighting schedule. Put it on for at least 8 hours straight as long as it doesn't cook your tank. If it does, you might consider finding something with less heat output and is still compatible with your corals as well. Exploring the other options I listed above should help with that. 6. Try other fish shops. Never rely on one single location for fish especially if you're having bad results. Mix it up, find other shops that sell fish and try them out. If you still are having problems after fixing the above five things I would definitely consider trying another place. 7. The mystery problem: Without every single bit of information about your tank their could always be other problems. However, I feel that the above information will give you much better results than you have currently been having. -Ricky Soutas Jr.

and I still do, if I may say so myself. (laugh) It is definitely a type of turbinaria that you have there. It will have polyps that come out of it, given it's in the correct environment. Looks like it will be a bit on the yellow side, 10k light could help accentuate this. They are generally very hardy corals.

There's no doubt about it those are hairy mushrooms as stated previously by Perry and others. We've been aquaculturing these for a while along with ricordias and other various mushrooms, so I've come to know these well. I hope someone didn't sell them too you as Yumas. Because of what appears to be forked tentacles they are probably Rhodactis Sanctithomae. However, they could also be one of the similar below or something I'm forgetting: Rhodactis Rhodostoma Rhodactis Indosinensis I think Tim will know what they are. He's been in our store a few times. They look like they have a nice vibrant green hue to them! Best regards, Ricky Soutas Jr.

Glad to hear someone enjoyed the corals we provided! We truly meant to stop on by and hangout with you guys, but got stuck working on some projects at the store to try and get caught up not even realizing until it was too late that we already missed a huge chunk of the party. :( Sounds like you guys had fun, so that's whats really important. Best regards, Ricky Soutas Jr. -Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-

Alright guys. Every story has at least two sides to it, and now it's my turn to tell mine: Gentleman (origional poster) walks in. Gentleman looks around. I ask gentleman if he needs any help or has any questions. Gentleman responds "Not at the moment." I go back to work for a while. Gentleman summons me over for questions. Gentleman asks me if we are selling a medium/large colony of purple rimmed capricornis. I ask Rick (Dad) the same question. The answer is not at this time. I offer the gentleman a large 1.5-2in frag of this coral at a discounted price. Gentleman doesn't say anything and seems rather agitated already. Gentleman then brings me over to large colony of Ponope Birdsnest and asks if it is for sale. I know for a fact that they aren't for sale but I once again offer a large 1in frag (large for this coral) of this coral to him at a discounted price. At this point of time the gentleman seems infuriated with me for some reason and literally storms out the building saying out loud "Let's go! Obviously they aren't selling anything!!" Gentleman slams door out of anger. This is what really truly happened. I was very polite the whole time, and have no clue what I did to offend him. This is all we have to say on this matter. You can draw your own conclusions from it. We have not been closed during normal business hours for the past four months. I have posted this several times on the forums, and if you wish to call before coming please do so at least one minute after 12:00pm so that I'm present to answer your calls. Now has never been a better time to get coral frags from us! Most of our corals are around 50-75% off regular price, and you still get nice big frags as usual. Not only that but we have the cheapest prices and best overall selection *of chemicals, tanks/stands, frozen food, pumps, salt, light bulbs, books, and many other miscellaneous items that are used in the hobby. I can say for a fact that if you haven't come by our store you are definitely missing out on some fantastic deals. If for some reason a competitor has a lower price than us on anything we will do our best to match/beat the price for you. In short I'd like to state that this thread seems to have turned into yet another bash on Soutas thread while plugging other stores left and right. It also seems that the same people who have already done this in past are now doing this again on this thread. I would like to see a end to this in a pleasent manner. If you have a problem/complaint with the way our store is run you can come back in to the store and take it up with me. I'm willing to let you honestly know what I think as well and we can work together to solve this problem. Making random and obvious posts that are meant to hurt a business or making snide comments on the side while sitting behind a computer is a very immature behavior and one I'd like to see less of on this respectable forum. We support this club generously every year, and even more this year donating over $350.00 in actual coral to the Christmas Party alone. From what John Manrow has said many companies/sponsors aren't even donating anywhere near as much this year, so we tried to help fill the gap. That's all I've got say folks! Thanks to anyone who has tried to defend our name in this thread. Best regards, Ricky Soutas Jr. - Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc. -

We get some in from time to time. We have a couple of bangaiis left in stock right now though.

Thanks for all the compliments and the great review, but you actually caught us at a very bad time. :P We had to catch up on some projects we were working on and the store definitely wasn't as "Up to date" as it normally is. Water quality and health of the occupants in it always comes first before aesthetic's (I.E. Coraline on front of glass). We normally have a huge selection of Net/Hand/Tank Raised/Mac Certified fish in stock. A wide range of Tangs, Lionfish, Seahorses, Blennies, Gobies, Damsels, Triggers, Cardinals, Wrasses, Anthias, Dartfish, Angels, and Pipefish are some of the most common fish you should see in. You came in during the end of our last shipment. There's still a few good fish to go round, but we'll be getting some more in here soon. The invertebrates were on the same level as the fish when you came in. We usually have a good selection of nassarius snails (vibex & distortus), margarita snails, trochus (black foot, white foot, red foot), tiger/zebra turbos, pacific turbos, normal astreas, ninja star astreas, blue leg reef hermits, mexican red leg reef hermits, anemones rose/green, crocea clams, maxima clams, derasa clams, emerald crabs, peppermint shrimp, blood shrimp, cleaner shrimp, banded coral shrimp, large neon blue leg hermits, electric lipped scallops, random starfish and quite a few other interesting critters. What we had in at the time though was mainly nassarius snails (vibex & distortus), margarita snails, tiger/zebra turbos, normal astreas, blue leg reef hermits, mexican red leg reef hermits, anemones rose/green, crocea clams, maxima clam, cleaner shrimp, banded coral shrimp, large neon blue leg hermits, electric lipped scallop, a random starfish. One of the things we don't like bringing in however are Sea-Hares. We believe that these creatures deaths are easily caused by a lack of food in tanks and the majority of them should be left in the wild. Some people have reported great luck, but the majority of them die. We have kept our dolabella genus in with massive amounts of chaetomorpha algae for quite a while and it has thrived. He takes up the palm of my hand. He's a well fed, slimy, yet cute creature and we're glad to have him, but we suggest putting these into a refugium with algae for maximum life capacity. Taking them out of the refugium and placing them right next to a hair algae clumps can be useful, but putting him back into the refugium is advised after he has navigated away from the area. This is a completely different subject though, so I'll stop rambling on. We are currently aquaculturing over 135+ corals ranging from SPS, LPS, and Soft Corals. I definitely advise anyone who loves coral as much as we do to come in. I guarantee you won't be disappointed! Best regards, Ricky Soutas Jr. -Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-

Thanks! Yeah, your not alone, believe me. I think almost everyone suffered from that a bit. I had about 30 or so people come in that told me they lost everything but the Electric Green Hydnophora they received from us due to their tanks climbing over 85f and going as far as 95f. One thing I will say is that hynophora seems to be quite tolerant as many people experienced the same thing with it during this event.

I'd definitely like to see them! Acropora Yongei has some serious growth potential, at least that variant does. (laugh) Best regards, Ricky Soutas Jr. -Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-

Wow, sounds like that frogspawn was huge! It will think twice before messing with that hydno again that's for sure. :p I look forward to seeing you! Now that is some heavy duty Acontia distribution!:eek: Best regards, Ricky Soutas Jr. -Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-

Thank you guys for coming in! It was good talking with both of you again. Glad to hear the corals are doing well! Best regards, Ricky Soutas Jr. -Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-

It's absolutely beautiful! :) :) I knew this would happen one day! Ricky Soutas Jr. -Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-

We are interested in aquaculturing this species of clove polyp. When do you think you might have some available? Best regards, Ricky Soutas Jr. -Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-