JasonH

+1 You always see pictures of corals and the background in solid blue. Come on! We know that's not what it's really going to look like.

I have a Red Sea Prizm skimmer that I had when I started my tank. I'm not using it, so I thought I'd see if someone wanted it before I just tossed it. That sound you hear is the collective eye rolling of the entire forum. This is not a good skimmer. It's a hang-on-back skimmer. Doesn't do a good job. And it's annoying to use because it breaks suction every now and again and you have to reset it. So I'm not doing anyone any favors, you may hate me for giving this to you. But if you don't have a skimmer at all, it better than that. Not much, but better. First dibs to TfT if they want it. Otherwise, first to post gets it. You must be willing to pick up Friday-Sunday. For the price of free, delivery is not included.

Wow - if it looks anything like that in real lighting, I'd pay that much (I'm so ashamed)

Anyone that claims to be able to predict the timing of an earthquake within a few days is a quack.

Following along - very interested in this as an option to DA or Apex for setting up a new, larger tank. Good news about the customer service. And I am a geek...

Yeah, that thing is sweet. Nice find.

I'm too old and too square to even be on Facebook. But the website looks great.

Wow, that's a small swimming pool.

Oh yeah, I remember that one. Evenything that looks whitish in the picture above is actually this kind of glowing tealish color. Very pretty.

I was there - in fact, in one of those pictures you can see the empty spot where my new Acro used to sit (whistle). That's the nicest shipment of mari-cultures corals I've ever seen. I'm still kicking myself for not getting the other one (also in a picture above, but looks nicer in person - no offense to Josh picture taking). The good news is that I think I snuck the whole lot (5 or 6 bags) in without the better, smarter, prettier (but less observant) half catching me (naughty). Thanks, as always, Garrett. Great corals, prices, and service - hard to complain. And nice to meet you, Josh. Oh yeah, the flame wrasse pair was pretty. But I think the potter's angels take the cake.

Wow, Clay that look fantastic - congrats. And it's nice to put a face to a name. And, of course, amazing pictures as always.

HA! I remember my under-gravel filter

A couple of my favorites for a nice dinner: Serratto on NW 21st http://www.serratto.com/ Paley's Place, NW 21st http://www.paleysplace.net/

That's a very cool cool birdsnest, nice pick up. I've ordered from Liveaquaria before, albeit a while ago. The shipping and packaging is excellent. It will come in a big box in a bog bag with plenty of water. What section of Diver's Den did you order it from? They have Aqua-cultured, Mari-cultured, and wild in different sections. This certainly isn't aqua-cultured, those are all frags. I would guess Mari-cultured. Be sure to post pics after it arrives. Any new coral I get goes though a 2-stage dip of Coral Rx or Revive, and interceptor. That should keep you pest free.

Hopefully someone will chime in with another idea, but if you do have to cut with a router, have someone holding a vacuum nozzle right next to the cut and that should capture most of the flakes.

I think it's very likely that it could have molted and just be hiding. Water quality would have to be pretty bad to die in 12 hours, as long as you acclimated carefully. I believe that inverts are a little more sensitive to salinity changes - so if there was a big difference between your tank and the shop, that could have been an issue. Do you have any predators in the tank?

Garrett, I was thinking if trying to stop in Thursday afternoon. What time works for you - what time will you be in the shop. I don't want to pull you in off-hours again. Thanks.

Another option to look at sustainability of the aquarium industry, you should contrast Fiji and the Philippines in the collection practices and laws - and the benefit to the local people/economy. Fiji has done a really impressive of regulating the industry, and also of tying the economic benefit of the industry to the people. The local tribe "owns" the reef and receive the economic benefit of collection, and are responsible for the long term care of the reef. They understand the impacts of over-harvesting. Compare that to the wild-west approach of the Philippines where pirates will devastate the reef with cyanide or dynamite harvesting, or hire/force young children to manually harvest (and frequently drown). Very little of the economic benefit gets to the people and there is no long term view of the natural resource. That has far more impact on the long term sustainability of the industry, in my opinion.

If you really want to look at sustainability of the aquarium industry, you should contract Fiji and the Philippines in the collection practices and laws - and the benefit to the local people/economy. Fiji has done a really impressive of regulating the industry, and also of tying the economic benefit of the industry to the people. The local tribe "owns" the reef and receive the economic benefit of collection, and are responsible for the long term care of the reef. They understand the impacts of over-harvesting. Compare that to the wild-west approach of the Philippines where pirates will devastate the reef with cyanide or dynamite harvesting, or hire/force young children to manually harvest (and frequently drown). Very little of the economic benefit gets to the people and there is no long term view of the natural resource. That has far more impact on the long term sustainability of the industry, in my opinion.

If you really want to look at sustainability of the aquarium industry, you should contract Fiji and the Philippines in the collection practices and laws - and the benefit to the local people/economy. Fiji has done a really impressive of regulating the industry, and also of tying the economic benefit of the industry to the people. The local tribe "owns" the reef and receive the economic benefit of collection, and are responsible for the long term care of the reef. They understand the impacts of over-harvesting. Compare that to the wild-west approach of the Philippines where pirates will devastate the reef with cyanide or dynamite harvesting, or hire/force young children to manually harvest (and frequently drown). Very little of the economic benefit gets to the people and there is no long term view of the natural resource. That has far more impact on the long term sustainability of the industry, in my opinion.

As everyone has said, don't give up. This is a very frustrating, very rewarding hobby. Second, as others have mentioned, slow down. Many people think that buy starting with live sand and live rock, it eliminates the cycle. This isn't really true. The "cycle" is really building up a balance of bacteria capable of responding to your bio load - and then adding and changing slowly. When you start by adding three pretty large fish to a 60 gal, there isn't sufficient balance to allow your tank to absorb this increased bio-load without a spike. Then it sounds like you adding another big number of fish, probably before your tank had adjusted to the first batch. It's very tempting to jump in and start adding a lot of fish/coral, but the more patient, the less problems, and the less likely that you'll quite out of frustration. Take it slow, add 1 fish a month. And start out creating a complete list of the fish you want in the tank and make sure it's a reasonable list for the size of tank. Good luck - and don't up!

Wow - tough one. How big is it? it looks pretty small in the pic. Could it be a just forming ric? Do you have rics in the tank / close to there? Doesn't quite look right, but I have no other guess.

*cough* photoshop *cough* (cool picture, though)

Woo hoo - welcome to 1987. You around this afternoon?