JasonH

I will absolutely post a pic tonight. My wife hides the camera because my 2-year old likes to play with it. Apparently, I'm no smarter than a 2 year old girl, because I couldn't find it either. It doesn't look like much right now. It's pretty small. You can see the purple in the tips, but don't really get a feel for the tourquoise body. I dipped it with Coral Revive - tough call on a high $ coral, but I'm not taking any chances - and that takes some color away. Hopefully, it will be perked back up tonight.

LoL(laugh) - touche (see you Friday, Noah)

I was thinking the same thing as Wobble. Emerald crabs can get aggresive when they are larger (I'm convinced mine is plotting to murder me) but a dime/nickle size... probably not. Give him another day and see if he pops out of a hole somewhere with a shiney new shell.

I spent last night acclimating my newest frag - the 20,000 leagues lokani. (clap) Actually, I got two. One is small - the other is really small. I'll get a picture tonight, but couldn't wait to brag. (Hopefully, I didn't just jinx myself.) Hey, MrGreenThumb... one of these has your name all over it... whenever you're ready to cut off a small piece of that Fruitloop (naughty)

Yet another gamer and built-my-own guy here. Didn't expect so many of us on here. BTW, Eric, $5,600? Ouch. Not sure how long ago you built your box. Problem with spending all that money on bleeding edge like Extreme processor and SDD is that now, my $1,200 box is faster than your $5,600 box. Extremes are a total waste of money. I generally stay 1 generation back - 90% of the performance and 1/2 the cost. 45nm Duo Core @3.4 ASUS Maximus ATI 4870 4g (2x2) 1066 DDR2 MadReefer, what kind of TV tuner do you have? Like it? Most of them get horrible reviews. I wouldn't mind having one if I could find a good one. Wow, 4x320 in raid? Some kind of split between raid 0 and raid 1?

Does anyone have the ORA German green with blue polyp acro? I've been looking around, but can't seem to find one. It's funny, because it doesn't seem to be a high dollar LE coral, but at the same time I just can't seem to lay my hands on one. If anyone has one, I'd sure like to buy or trade. Thanks.

Yeah, Lowman is right. I understand the feeling - that you just want to do something... anything. But if it was ich, there is nothing to do but treat any affected fish and leave your display fish-less for at least 30 days (and 6-8 weeks is best). None of the things you're at will fix the ich problem - large water changes, filter options. Just be patient. Continue to feed small amounts of food for your hermits and to keep some bateria cycle up. Add fish back to the tank slowly (not all at once) so you don't get a chemical spike.

Eric, What were you told it was when you bought it?

Eric, You were pretty ticked at the LFS for giving you Ich. I noticed that you have a post in the WTB section about trading someone. Make sure to let them know you are currently fighting Ich in your tank before they put anything from your tank in their tank. Ich has a free swimming stage and you can get it from just putting water from one tank into another.

Eric, I'm glad you're not getting out - I think you would have regretted it. We all think of throwing the towel in once in a while when things go bad - and we all go through bad phases. You managed to set up a very nice tank in a fairly short period of time. But I think you fell into a trap that a lot of people - especially new-to-salt people fall into. You spent a fair amount of money of things that gave you a lot of visual return, but didn't follow the basics - like a QT. It's a very common thing - and I did the exact same thing when I first set up my tank. Then I got ich and learned a lesson. You can set up a fine QT for less than $50 - probably much less than that. My QT is a 10 gal, a cheapy hang on filter (for water circulation, no actual filter), and a heater - less than $40. I've quarantined every fish I have in that set-up with no problem. Toss in some coffee mugs so the fish can hide and reduce stress. Keep in mind, the fish can seem perfectly fine in a LFS and then get ich when transferred to your tank. The fish likely had ich the whole time and just didn't show symptoms. Not the LFS fault. They take what precautions they can and keep healthy tanks. Some stores run copper in their systems to prevent ich and such, but most don't - and generally, we don't want them to. That's why you have to QT. Also, your tank was a little over stocked. I have a 29gal myself, and I know the temptation to put in just one more fish. But having too many fish leads to all kinds of things - chemical fluctuations and stress, that lead to big problems like disease and tank crashes. Been there, too. The bottom line is that we are usually our worst enemy and you are learning the lesson than many of us have learned... the same way most of us learned it. Hang in there. Go slow. Follow the basics. And like Lowman said, if you do shut down, keep your equipment... 'cause you'll be back.

Shane - looking good. But, man, I think you're missing a few pictures in this series of your stand build! You went from: Pic.1 - looks like crap (and I mean this in the nicest possible way(whistle)) to Pic.2 - looks like fine furniture Come on now - there's got to be a few more pictures in there! That's some really nice work with just those few tools. Nice work.

I like glass for the most part as well - but I live in fear of glass breaking. I know the chances are remote, but... Also, I wonder if the silicon seals will last 20 years.

I love the small (young) Cubicus boxfish - one of the coolest fish, but they get to be a foot and a half. Have you considered an Hawian blue box fish or the Whitley's box fish? Those only get to about 6 inches. I can't speak to the poisoning the tank when stressed or die, but I'm betting it's an overstated concern (scary). There are a lot of things that can foul the water if the die. But hopefully someone can give you some first hand insight. If you do get a box fish, please post about it - I'd love to follow along and see how it goes.

Another thing - sorry if you already know this - but make sure that you are running your internet line (post cable or DSL modem) through a router. The router is huge in virus protection - it will prevent the push tactics.

Try Spybot. Great program and totally free. Do a search on your file manager for any program created today (option in file search window) and delete it. That sucks - sorry.

Another note - if that is ich, then they are absolutely eaten up by it and will not shake that off on their own. They need to be medicated quickly, though I would try to keep the dosage as light as possible to be effective to avoid further stress.

Hard to tell for sure based on the pic, but it doesn't look like ich to me, more like a fungal infection. Does it look like small, pin-point bumps? From the pic it looks more like a flat, white coating - more like some kind of fungal or bacterial infection. Problem is, no matter what the problem is, you probably won't be able to medicate for it in your tank. Pick up a cheap 10g from petco (or used) to be a QT tank. As you have learned the hard way (usually how I do it, too) it's worth the few dollars to have a QT tank as an insurance policy. Keep a close eye on the tang, they are more susceptible to disease, especially in smaller tanks where they tend to be a little more stressed. Also, it will be harder to see against the yellow coloration, so could go longer before detection. Good luck. Clown are pretty hardy fish. If you can treat it effectively, they have a good chance of survival.

Yikes, I've only used the RC salt since starting my tank - - I hate change. I think I'll pick up that 200gal box and then start figuring out what salt to change to. Although, could mean nothing. Chpt 11 just means they are reorganizing and defaulting on debt.

Wow - great top-down shallow water pics of the dolphin and turtle. Very cool. I got a chance to swin with a pod of dolphin off Lanai (i think that's it) and that was amazing - unfortunately, I just had a cheap disposable camera. Nice pics. Which island?

I had to treat a flame angel when I first set up my tank, and I just used Rid-Ich+. Not sure if others have had any different experience, but it worked for me one out of one time. Edit: to clarify, this was still done in a QT - do not medicate your main tank.

I'm sure you'll get some responses from people more knowledgable than myself, but just to get you started: Yes, you definately need to treat in a different tank. Any medication that will treat the ich will kill off all of the invertebrates in your tank. Also, don't use any equipment (pumps/heaters) in your main tank once you've used them in your QT tank. Take the tang out and put it in a seperate QT tank - and leave your main tank fish free for 30 days, minimum. It's the only way to get rid of ich in your main tank - that will complete the life cycle of the ich and it will die out. Then be VERy sure to quarantine all new fish before putting them into your main tank. Tang's are very susceptible to ich, BTW. Those specs on your tank aren't ich, they are pods. Non treatment is not an option - the tang will eventually die. Also, when it's in the QT tank, try to put other things in there so that he can feel like he's hiding to reduce stress. I usually use several coffee mugs - makes the wife very mad (whistle). Good luck.

Do you have a picture, Ben? I've been looking for some different Blasto's - something other than the normal red/green. I'd be interested in seeing a different variety.

I just picked some up from Waves on Sunday. Fish love it, but my algae blenny hasn't quite adapted yet. There's plenty in there for him, he's just used to his old food. Lord knows I have to feed him something since he doesn't eat any algae from my tank!

I sincerely doubt that the O cares enough about the situation (or the truth in general) to print a follow-up explaining the issue of dead coral fragments vs live coral importation and aquaculture. But then I have little to no respect for the Oregonian to begin with.

Thanks, Mike. I think the sump will work. It's a bit smaller than I would like, but it's a (i think) good design and cheaper than buying new. I'll double check some meaurements tonight and get back to you. Can you PM me the price for the Sump (excluding ATO) and Pump... and anything else you have that rhymes with ump. (laugh) anyone? Is this thing on? Any just to confirm, any issues (cracks/severe scratches/leaks) with the sump or (rust/leaks) pump? And if I do buy it, don't worry too much about cleaning it. I won't be setting a tank up for 4-6 months, so I'll have plenty of time.