Electrokate

I have this one in with my filefish. It's a spazz, kind of like a tang, and does not like too much activity around the tank while it is eating but the rest of the time it's not so skittish. So I put the food in and back off fast. They like to pick at things so if you can tie down their food that helps too. I put DIY or cubes of something with gel in a square of plastic mesh like you get onions in and use an algae clip to hang it. Works great for files, copperband. In the big tank that lasts about 3 seconds as the wrasses, tangs and clownfish love tearing into it. Here is a picture from when the filefish were new and still skinny

About 4" lips to base of tail but maybe more. Well nourished, no mouth damage or fungus, not had ich in my care. Nibbles tips of aiptasia but not manjano and not seen eating other coral, but your mileage may vary, I feed 5x a day! I have had it about half a year. Must sell due to flooded basement, need to tear down tank and he's too skittish to put in a 20 til the carpet's redone. $25 pic of this and the filefish I have on another thread pics are from october, fish are slightly bigger and fatter now Thanks, Kate

Hoping to sell the entire system, actually. It's a Marineland hang on filter, has a biowheel. I have to turn it upside down to read the model number, very annoying product design. Guess I better do that since the guy who maybe wants to buy the system also asked. I do have a bunch of hang on filters if you need one, depending how big your tank is. THanks, Kate

In the morning I feed SF Brand "Plankton" and "Reef Plankton", they chase it around but not sure how much they eat. Then they get a chunk of DIY food, I hang it in an algae clip and they pick at it. They will eat bloodworms and blackworms, again not in huge amounts but I toss some in since I feed them to the freshwater fish. Mid afternoon I toss another chunk of DIY food in an algae clip. Evening they get mysis shrimp and krill, they take a few pieces of each but are slower than the other fish so don't get many of them. Then they get their 3rd helping of DIY food. Basically I think they live off the DIY food. Both files initially lost weight but gained it back, one actually looks fat. If I don't give them 3 feedings a day of the DIY stuff they eat the Montipora digitata. They seem to leave plating monti alone, and already took all the polyps off the acro a long time ago but it's not dead. There are a couple birdsnests in their tank in poor health but they fell into mushrooms so hard to say which did em in. They do not eat softies, zoanthids, mushrooms, clove polyps, gorgonians or clams. I've seen them eat hair algae too, but not to the extent of eliminating it. Their mouth openings are tiny but tiny food does not catch their eye, I think that is why they eat coral. Even mysis shrimp is a stretch. Going to be really hard to sell this fish... Kate

Thanks everyone. We got the dehumifier last night, and I did immediately crawl around for 2 hours with the shop vac and got 15+ gallons out, but the carpet and pad are still sopping wet. My husband is vetoing removing the carpet and remodeling, does not want to involve insurance, not til a few days of dehumidifier and after the surgery. I guess I see his point, why remodel if I am going to continue to keep fish down there. Really covet a tile floor though, this is not the first time I have spilled water of course, but not usually this bad. My last fishroom was great. Concrete floor with sump. So for now I have to remove the furnishings and roll the carpet back, rip the pad out. Am going to work on getting the 55 out first and make room upstairs for a 50 gallon holding tank by selling the plant tank. The 120 and 55 are on the only dry patches, but I don't know if it's ok to have a reef around a carpet that is being shampooed. Anyone know? I'd like to at least get the most valuable corals to a safer location. If I am not completely burned out on fish by the end of the month I guess I will hire to build those shelves in the non carpeted areas and get my broodstock set up and a tank with my frags that I need to sell. We shall see. Right now it's not sounding like such a hot idea for some reason. Maybe I should go back to rock collecting. (: Thanks, Kate

So where is the emoticon for drinking heavily? We got a dehumidifier for tonight. Tomorrow will move whatever stuff Nick can use to his shop, maybe post a few things here, and hit up Wet Spot for extra freshwater, move what I can into 20 and 30 gallon tanks upstairs, and then start pulling the sopping wet carpet pad out. Spousal unit is pretty unhappy, wants to try the dehumidifier thing a few days in hopes it works. Then wants to try shampooing the rug but without removing the reef tanks. Which is not my favorite plan. Has anyone tried carpet cleaning next to a reef tank? Assume fumes and perfumes would not be healthy. I kind of feel like letting the insurance people in and letting their guy rip the carpet out, rip down the tacky walboard, do whatever they do with the mold in the walls, put proper sheetrock up and maybe we get an electrician in since I can't touch any light in the basement without getting zapped even when the carpet is dry, and who knows, after blowing a few grand we might have a pretty decent looking basement instead of a classic 70's rumpus room with poor light and dreary office carpet. Funny how it was a python brand hose that led to this and the results smell exactly like what comes out a python snake. I don't like my house smelling like a pet store. Thanks everyone for the tips and referrals. I will definitely have to work through this list with my spousal unit, who is understandably quite fried at me. I hope I didn't blow things with him. spousal units are expensive and complicated to replace and such upgrades at my age are difficult, plus not covered by insurance. He particularly hates freshwater and thinks all fish people are insane. In my case that might be true. This from a man whose job was to book and handle the musicians at Satyricon in it's heyday. I suppose that was entertaining insanity. Now I am rambling, sorry. THink I will be having a hangover tomorrow. Ooops. That probably won't help a whole lot, but you never know.

Wow thanks for all the great referalls!

You are definitely on the list. Tile ain't cheap! (: I like it a lot, not just for aquariums but for cleaning up my other hobby of painting. Yes I oilpaint around reef tanks. So far so good. Much easier to clean oil paint drips from tile than rug. I use new products that are geared toward safety and clean up with soap and water not turpentine. Still it's quite scary. subfloor is uneven, will need leveling. Another big concern is where is the drain or is there not one at all? Insurance claim is moot if no drain as they will not pay unless we install one. They will claim substandard construction caused the damage. I do miss having a sump to drain my tanks to like in my last house, it was awesome. They are not very attractive though.

Thanks, will put him on the list

Was looking at your carpet during the meeting. You and I both need these: http://www.amazon.com/Leak-Frog-LF001-Water-Alarm/dp/B000WMSTUO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1295421553&sr=8-1 Thought about ordering 1 for the water heater, 1 for the washing machine, 1 for each large tank and 1 for the mixing barrel but it was late and I was tired so did not submit the order. Constarndit! (no swearing on the forum!) (: This was about 10 days ago, they were 2 for 15 bucks. Kate

Assuming that was not a portland company that worked on your vacation home, but if it was could I get their name?

Hi, I flooded my basement a few days ago and tried wet vac and fans but the pad was soaked. Just had my sis over, she did insurance claims and now sells floors and she says it's hosed. Pun intended. She had some device to measure water in carpet. The only thing good is the water was clean, but the carpet and the wallboard gotta go, and there is a ton of mold already. House smells a lot like the defecation of a large snake, if you know what that smells like. Unhealthy, and I have asthma. I have 4 snakes, a parrot and 20+ aquariums that aside from us will be affected. OH and a very angry spouse. I need to remove my 2 reef tanks, racks of other stuff and desk out. We have no garage or extra space for all this, but some can go to Rose City for store cred so I get it back later or something similar. Wallboard is of a vintage no longer available which means insurance will upgrade us to sheetrock. Will sheetrock application mean fumes that are toxic? I assume so. If not then it's the paint right? Insurance: anyone here ever dealt with insurance companies on a stupid aquarium mistake? I was filling the mixing barrel, I have ADD, I got hungry and then decided to watch TV... oops. Trying to think of things I could say that would sound smarter than "I ran a hose to a garbage can in the middle of the floor and left the room." Not really coming up with anything here. Geez do I really gotta tell the truth? Anyone recommend a company that will move my tanks and bill the insurance company? Contractors will not do it, not that I would let them. I can help with the move and pay up front, this would be my deductible. Maybe more. I will ask Nick and am friends with the guys at World of Wet Pets but I don't know how much I can do on a short notice. Been meaning to redo the wiring in the basement so I don't get a shock every time I touch my tank. Guess now's the time (: Not sure I will be allowed to have a tank though. I know I can set up an RO unit with auto topoff but my last RO unit leaked! While we were out of town of course. Right into the baby peppermint shrimp I had just gotten to settlement. New floor: carpet is out. Probably will go for a fiberglass based linoleum which is waterproof. No glue, not toxic. Yay. Is it normal for a 1952 bungalow with basement in PDX TO NOT HAVE A DRAIN?!? Maybe the drain is plugged. That's all for now. Really I am just *****ing. Did I mention I am having surgery on thursday at 7:30? Kate

I flooded our basement and it stinks so the carpet has to be removed and the concrete ground down... tanks are probably going to have to go. Can anyone take an orange spot filefish? Needs feeding 5 times a day. Am going to keep as much as I can but am probably going to have to drastically cut back for a while. I'll be taking Nick frags and stuff since I can buy it back from him later. Don't suppose anyone needs a 50 gallon plant tank with everything for 150 bucks? Kate

Hey Know some of you like me use tap water. I am just posting to let tap water users know Bull Run is offline this week, the city has switched to ground wells and from what I have read over the years those are not clean. They do have nitrate, phosphate, ibuprofen, industrial waste and whatnot. No idea if the dose of chloramine will be the same either, they boost the ammonia sometimes even with bull run, and the buffer dose will change. http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Portland-switches-to-backup-drinking-water-114003454.html So me I am not doing any water changes this week. Didn't want to anyways since I flooded the basement and standing on wet carpet is a total downer. No I still won't buy an RO unit. (: Kati Ani maybe. Kate

all right I am in, need ATI T5HO bulbs

Ditto, that was fun, even with a migraine! (: It was not the worst migraine ever. I took a photo of a gramma showing short depth of field, it was an F2.8 shot using the Canon's setting to only focus on the center which was aimed at the eye. If you shoot a fish or any animal and the eye is out of focus people don't like it. Kate

Let me know when you need plants. I just composted tons of them, even rare stuff cause I don't know what to do with it all. I agree you should hold on to the skimmer and other gear that is expensive to replace. You never really know. I agree on the noise thing though. Do NOT fall for the ADA substrate. Total nightmare. Kate

The EOS 450D/xsi looks pretty similar to mine in features. How are you liking it so far? One setting with halides I needed to change was contrast. Out of the factory it was set rather high, and I lost both the shadows and the highlights even on very well lit tanks. Also thought the saturation was set a bit low for reef tanks and botanical subjects. I aim to match the picture to the naked eye view, and out of the box the settings were not getting me there. I like being able to choose spot metering when shooting one coral and you can make the camera focus only on the center as well, if you wish. Not so handy shooting groups of people or full tanks, so don't forget to change it back. Like I do (: Kate

Canon shooters: you get purple over the color of your blue tangs? My Canon 50D and my Dad's T1i can't shoot blue tangs or grammas with true color. I asked on another forum and the Canon users there all said you have to photoshop the fish to more normal color. Tried switching all the lighting thinking it was the bulbs, and tried all the presets along with custom K settings. No luck. Hmmm. Maybe I need to switch to one of those 5K LED lighting systems just so I can take better pictures of my blue tang and royal gramma (: I need the phtography workshop next weekend. Now that you have your camera you should come too, it will probably be a lot of fun. One thing about photography, there is always more to learn. No matter how much reading I do every shoot reveals more. The internet has unlimited resources for problem solving too, and there are videos with lessons. I have learned more about photography in the last year than I did when I studied it in school. Thanks, Kate

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Kent aquadoser http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/doserstosupplies/gr/aapraquadoser.htm I like it for newbies because you don't have to explain about putting topoff water in the sump in an area of high flow "slowly" which is an arbitrary term. I add ph buffer with topoff myself to an aquadoser which puts it in the sump, all other additives I am ok with dumping in. To a "high flow area". Another arbitrary lingo set. I know it's all a lot for a newbie, hard to know what to tell as too much info usually means you don't know when they stopped listening and started drooling. Do manuals come with the setup in Tanks for Teachers? Seems like a good idea. I know plastic refractometers are wrong, but usually they are consistently wrong (: Plus if it gets dropped, lost or swiped it's not a huge deal. They probably should have something to use... Found out I can't be there tomorrow, got a baby shower I forgot about. Good luck, let me know if you need anything. I am in that hood. Thanks, Kate

I can help too. You have a heater? Thermometer? Powerstrip(s)? salinity meter of some kind (am thinking plastic one with the correct level circled) I think one of those Kent dripper things would be awesome too for topoff water. Kate

Bought a Canon EOS 50D last year with 100mm macro and 24mm consumer grade, since read the kit lenses are pretty sad. Having shot alongside a shooter with a D90 plus several friends with Canon Rebel packages I can compare the results side by side, and the Nikon kicked all our Canons' butts. Better low light and speed performance, far far less grainy and more accurate color in poor light. Nikon can shoot outdoors at night by the light of a firepit and get a decent portrait... Lenses for the Nikon are more expensive, but if I could do it again I would choose Nikon hands down. In fact am probably going to sell my whole outfit and get a Nikon at some point. Pro Photo guys can get very weird especially if you don't want to spend pro bucks. Try Advanced, they are great. Prophoto does rent though. Are you looking for a DSLR for sure? I have seen some fixed lens cameras in that price range with all the features of the DSLR plus vibration reduction. From a price point of view considering the consumer DSLR lenses are not so hot, I think the fixed lens cameras are a good value that will last a while and be more portable. Plus you won't spend a grip on accessories with a fixie camera. Photography makes reef aquariums seem like a cheap hobby once you get hooked... You can't really go wrong with Pentax. Not so many bells and whistles maybe but a good value and well made, well designed gear. They last a long time, unless you drop them. (: Speaking from experience. I bought a camera based on whether or not I can splash water on it and drop it without breaking it. Kate