ghiggi

Looks like it could possibly be an Asterina. They have mixed reviews an whether they are reef safe or not.

Wow, first no replies and now I'm going to get typers cramp from responding to them all. Oh well, here goes. No apologies needed. I'm sorta a night owl and kinda slipped this one in during the wee hours of the morning. Yea I was. My last meeting was in November and if my memory serves me correctly, you joined in October (I remember your user id) but I'm not sure if we met. Done, thanks. and Thanks for the offer. I just may take you up on that when it's time to move everything into place. I'll start a thread in Memebers Tanks and get some pictures posted as things progress. Not sure a bare tank is really picture worthy. But I will get some posted when I starting working on it. Thanks for the warm welcomes. I look forward to meeting everyone eventually. On a side note, I'm really a DIY kinda person. I hate buying something if I can build it myself. It has nothing to do with saving money, believe me. I have spent more money on trial and error than it would have cost to just buy the item. I just like to build things. It helps me understand how and why the work which in turn gives me a better understanding of how they interact with the reef. It's all about learning. So if anyone needs help on a project, feel free to ask. I have a whole shop full of tools and weekends off.

The water level of the overflow box should about an inch or two below the top of the overflow. This will help prevent the waterfall effect that both creates noise and bubbles. Here is a picture of a modification to the durso for when space is a factor: I'll be making some more of these when I redo my tank and posting the procedures in the DIY forum if you want to see specifically how it's done.

Goose, Are you referring to the ones by "Chiefreef" on eBay? I'm getting ready to make some homemade LR and I'd be happy to make up some of those frag rocks for you. Are you coming down to Eugene for the frag-fest? If so, I can have them made up and you'd just have to cure them yourself. Curing them is pretty easy. You just put them in the tank of your toilet for 2 weeks and forget about them. Everytime you flush, you do a complete water change. And because they're so thin, they cure faster than regular homemade LR. I'd be happy to make more if anybody else would like some. I have enough materials to make well over 300lbs of rock and I figure I'll only use about 250lbs in the tank. If anyone is interested, let me know before Wednesday morning. As far as payment goes, I'll be needing some new frags when I get my tank back up and running at the end of the year. So, let's say I give you 25 rocks now and, in a couple of months, you give me one back with a little something growing on it. Sound fair?

I just recently moved to Springfield and I would be interested in stopping by to meet some local reefers if you all don't mind. I'm in the process of rebuilding my 135g. Completely tore it down for the move, so I'm starting from scratch pretty much. I hope to have it up and running before Christmas. In the mean time, I just have to get my saltwater fix by admiring other peoples tanks and cruising the boards. Thanks, Glenn

Hi all, I just recently moved to Springfield from Las Vegas. I've been into saltwater for about 8 years now. Started with an Aggressive FOWLR with Tangs, Lions and Eels. Then converted to a reef about 2 years ago. Since I did the move in stages over the coarse of 3 months, I knew I wouldn't have the time to care for the system or get it moved and setup properly, so I gave away all of my livestock and corals and completely tore down the system. It was a 135g tall with a 40g fully planted refugium. It took me over 2 years, but I finally managed to get a fully balanced bio-system. The main tank had a 6 inch sandbed with 180lbs of LR, some clowns, my 2 favorite tangs and some inverts. The refugium had a 3 inch sand/mud bottom, 22 mangrove trees, chaeto and shaving brush. The only equipment I had was my heater, auto-top-off and return pump (Mag 18). No filters, skimmers or powerheads. The return pump went through a modded SCWD wavemaker with 4 returns (2 on each side) pumping about 1200gph through the system. For lighting, I had dual 400W MH 12k with 4x96W PC true actinic on a 14 hour cycle. Now that I'm finally settled up here, I'm ready to start rebuilding. This time I'm going for a reef and clown breeder system. In the past, I made a bunch of my own LR and I saw a post recently where someone mentioned covering the bottom of the tank with aragocrete bricks and a light layer of sand. This sounded rather interesting, so I think I am going to start there and do an entire self made aragocrete aquascape from the bottom up. No real LR will be used. It should prove to be an interesting experiment. Of coarse, it will take a few months for all of the aragocrete to cure, but I thought I'd stop by and say hello. Maybe I can make it too a meeting or two before the system is ready. I'm shooting for Christmas or New Years to have it up and ready. And then the real fun begins, filling it with live things. Anyway, from the postings that I've read, it seems you all have a good group here. I look forward to meet you all sometime soon. Glenn aka - ghiggi

When I first started out, I had crushed coral in my FOWLR. It was a constant nightmare like you described. Not only does the detrius build up, it usually contributes to continuously high params (nitrate, phosphate, etc.) I found the best way to manually take care of the detrius was just as you are now, using a turkey baster and a powerfilter. You should also have a good clean-up crew of crabs and snails. They'll help break down the detrius into smaller particles that can readily enter the water stream and get carried to your filter. Of coarse, the best thing to do is get rid of the crushed coral and go with a sand bottom. It didn't matter how much I cleaned and did water changes, I could never keep my nitrates down while I had the crushed coral. Once I changed to a sand only bottom, my nitrates became more managable. Hope this helps,