Nate213

Thanks epicenter. Now for some Duncan growth pics. Purchased this in early May with 2 heads. 05-04-09 had 2 full heads and a small start: 08-01-09 Now it has 10 full heads and 3-4 small starts.

I forgot to mention in my first post that Eric's tank is amazing looking. He has the nicest zoa collection I have seen.

Can you get a picture of those zoas under your lighting? I would like to see what they look like under the 15k.

I finally met Eric yesterday to trade some things. He is a great guy and the frags he sold me were better than expected. So far everyone I have met to trade has been fantastic. Eric was no exception. Thanks!

Happy birthday! What are you thinking of getting?

There is no doubt that carpet anemones are beautiful. I would love to have one. The size and difficulty level have kept me away.... for now. If I can keep my RBTAs alive for a few years, then I will attempt one.

Your BTA is still very small. They will probably host when it gets larger. I have 2 RBTAs and they are probably 8-10 inches across. My clowns ignored it for about a month until it got bigger before it split.

PM sent.

Traded with Prada yesterday and he is great. Very nice guy. Gave me much more than I expected. They were all really nice corals and opened up right away. Thanks!

Well I guess you just need to try out a bunch of different ones and banish the bad ones to the sump! It seems like everyone has had mixed results.

Dell Vostro. They are the small business computers and dont have any junk loaded on them. Typically more bang for your buck than the Latitudes. I have bought 2 of them and am really pleased. http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/notebooks/vostronb/ct.aspx?refid=vostronb&s=bsd&cs=04&ref=lthp

This article is pretty good reading. GFCIs are a must, grounding probes maybe not. http://angel-strike.com/aquarium/GroundingProbes.html

Here are a couple of our fish:

X2 Looking great.

Thanks for all the help and advice. I'm definately going to do my homework and plan it right. (Im a mechanical engineer by trade, so my wife claims I tend spend too much time researching and I occasionally over analyze things. ) The spot that Im planning is in my hobby room. Right now it is setup as my gun & re-loading room, but Im going to move most of that to the shop. I want to put it in the corner, so I can view one side from the adjacent bedroom and the front would be visable from our family room. Im going to measure the space to see what looks right, but Im not sure if 10' length will work. It will probably have to be 8'-9' to be centered on the wall. That would give me one full side and the back with plenty of access. I have an alternate spot in mind, but it would involve moving our small built in wet bar. The plus to that is I would have easy access to the water and drain lines, but I wouldnt have as much space around the back of the tank, so I couldnt go as large. It would also be in direct line with the pool table, so I would have to put up some sliding doors to protect from flying balls. I can just imagine a wild shot shattering glass and dumping 300+ gallons of salt water into the basement.

Good. I was hoping you saw that one.

Those are good points. I was planning on going wider rather than deep. I dont want to go snorkeling to reach the bottom. The tank would be going into our basement, so load is not an issue and I could get by with a smaller chiller. Our basement has been under 70 degrees all week.

So I got the approval from my wife to go bigger and build an in-wall system. I want to start planning it out since it will be a long project and I want to do it right. With just about everything there is some point where it just doesn't make sense to go bigger, better, ect, and the additional cost / effort become exponential. What is the tipping point on a reef tank? I would like to know from the experienced members on here what their opinions are on this. Im thinking that I would like to be in the 300-400 gallon range, but if a 300 gallon tank is going to cost say $10k more than a 250, then I would like to know that up front. Also I'm not concerned as much with the upfront costs as the continuous costs and time requirements. Don't get me wrong, I know that any system takes time, but I don't want to have my life revolve around it (much more than it already does ).

I have had very good luck with these Jade Hermits. They seem to live longer than the scarlets or blue legs, and I have never seen one bother my snails or corals. http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=1914&parent_category=4&category_search=63&root_parent_id=4

(clap)(clap) Stylaster that is way too funny. I was drinking a powerade and almost choked to death. I could picture the whole thing.

x3 on galaxea. The 2nd pic is much better.

Rick - Im sure it will, your tank has had much better start than mine. Hows that Galaxea that I gave you?

Looks like some bubble algae on there as well?

Progression shots Here are some progression shots from back in January and some updated earlier this week. Birdsnest: Millipora: Torch: