Nate213

Looks good to me, except maybe the foxface. Read they are coral nippers, so I have avoided them. Maybe someone else has experience with them in a reef tank?

Rick, Im sure glad you boiled them first. I read on another forum about several people crashing their tanks because of suspected residual chemicals on these pre-packaged shells. Great find by the way.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but it is along these same lines. Yesterday FedEX dropped off my new filters for my RO/DI unit. It has been nearly a year since I bought my unit, so I figured I was due for a filter change. When I ordered the new filters, I also bought the TDS meter. In the past I have only checked the normal parameters, and have occasionally taken samples in to check TDS. Anyway I got out the new toy and checked the TDS of my tap water. It measured 42 ppm. Not too shabby since we run off a well. So today I went out to the shop and checked my 30 gallons of top off water. It was 366 ppm! :mad: I thought, how the heck can my outgoing water be worse than the water going in? So I tested the water going into the filter from the shop supply and it was around 53 ppm, so couldnt be bad pipes. It must be that my filters are so bad, that all the junk they have collected over the last year is breaking loose and passing through. Just goes to show that just because you have a RO/DI unit, doesnt mean the water is safe. Right now, Im better off to use my tap water. Another lesson learned... Thankfully this one was figured out before I crashed my tank.

I have my RO/DI setup in my shop and hold the water in a 35 gallon garbage can (with top) - no wheels (tipped the last one over DOH!). Before that I bought the 2.5 gallon Safeway water jugs "Refreshe" branded. I read somewhere that they are RO filtered tap water. It was a pain every 3 weeks to buy about 15 of them, but it started some interesting conversations at the checkout counter. Im looking into a 150-200 gallon holding tank to hold the waste water. I want to setup a system to pump the waste water to our hanging flower pots, or supplement the sprinkler system.

We love our jawfish. Probably my all time favorite. They have lots of personality and are fun to watch. They will relocate any snail or hermit that comes near "their" area. Havent had a firefish goby, but have always wanted one. We have a zebra goby, which is quite similar. There are so many other fishes to choose from, it makes a decision really hard. I try to mix up shapes / colors and swimming habits, but it all depends on what you like. My other fav, is our Midas goby. Really pretty and bold. I'll post some pics on my tank thread, so I dont hijack this one.

Rick is correct. I think that you could have a frogspawn or hammer coral without any issues. I have about 4000 gph movement in my tank, no issues. Just watch the placement and dont put it directly in front of one of the powerheads.

Oh. Forgot to add, your tank looks great!

Rick, Do you have any problems with that Niger Trigger picking on anything? I have heard mixed reviews on them being reef safe. They are a really neat fish, but I have always been worried that they would eat my corals.

CA2OR, That is pretty sweet, but that wasnt an accurate test (for a reefer anyway). You need to have about 20 open threads on PNMWAS plus a dozen more at reef central, while you are listening to Pandora radio and shopping at MarineDepot. Oh and upload some tank photos to photobucket, while you are editing some in Photoshop.

Radar, Your tank looks fantastic. I like how everything is spaced out nicely and has room to grow. It looks like you planned it out well.

Yah, I like the Maxi-Jets. They were left over from my FW tanks, so I went the cheap route. They also work good with a wavemaker. The only problem is every once in a while I get a real noisy impeller. I run an open top tank. So far no fish jerky, although I have found my zebra goby on the floor once and put him back in. And my dang clownfish jumps out everytime I have the light off. Mean little bugger is always trying to bite me. Here are some more Midas photos. My jawfish and Midas are my favorite fish. So much personality.

You have a PM.

Thanks Radar.

Looking good! Those pink zoas opened up nicely. You will have double the amount before you know it.

Make sure your wife likes them before you buy! My wife doesnt like our chromis. She thinks they are too plain looking. But Im stuck with them until they kick the bucket. They are practically impossible to remove without tearing apart the tank. Stay away from damsels for the same reason, they are also mean little buggers. I use the sites that Rick posted quite a bit. They have very good photos and decent information. From there you can research further. Live Aquaria has a beginner fish section.

Finch, I tried lemon joy - didnt work. Well it worked better, but not 100%. We didnt have any fresh lemons. I normally have lots of fresh lemons in the fridge when the salmon are running. Nothing removes Tule smell like lemons.

Vanz, that isnt a half bad idea. Id rather smell like a skunk.

No kidding. When I first started out I had a swing arm Instant Ocean hydrometer. I bought a refractometer, calibrated it, and checked against the hydrometer. The hydrometer was off by .009. So when I thought I was at 1.027 I was at 1.018. Into the trash it went, and now I use nothing else but a refractometer.

I came home yesterday and walked downstairs to get a huge whiff of Xenia. So I checked the DT, nothing unusual. Checked the QT in the other room and found that one of my frags came loose and got sucked into a pump intake. Geez what a horrible stink! I hate the smell of Xenia when it is alive, but it is downright putrid when it dies. Then I had to pull the pump apart and pick all the dead parts out. I must have washed my hands 10 times and I could still smell it. I even have fisherman's soap, and that didnt work. Anyone have top-secret soap that will remove Xenia stink?

Yes it had good flow. Maybe too much flow. Anyway, I fragged it into three pieces and placed in my QT tank. It has been in there for almost 2-weeks. One of the small frags died, but the other two look great. No indications of white coming back. How long should I leave it in QT? Both frags are already losing color due to the poor light.

How about an update? I see that you got some clowns.

That would be a pretty sweet private tank. Can you imagine the conversations? "What is your stocklist?" "Nothing much, just a couple of whalesharks and 20 manta rays."

We had 4 peppermint shrimp and they took care of the aptasia, but after it was gone they developed a taste for LPS corals. They ate all of my Duncans and killed a open brain before I got them out.DOH!