Nate213

Thanks Roy. The frag is getting big, she turned 10 months old yesterday. Now she is getting ready to walk and is becoming quite the chatterbox. She says "fish". It's one of her favorite words. Daddy is so proud! On another note, I have a milli frag for you. I put it on a plug a few months back and haven't contacted you about dropping it off.

Yep not much floor space. I'm getting tired of pulling out half the tank to clean the glass. My upgrade should fix that, at least temporarily.

Some updated pics. Sorry for the crap quality. I've been too lazy to get out the real camera and used my phone instead.

Yes, much easier than I anticipated. I lost sleep the night before. Kept having visions of laying at the bottom of the stairwell under 400#s of broken glass.

It wasnt so bad. This is how you do it: Recruit 3 family members and a buddy, have them meet at your house. Round up all the equipment and head off toward town. Realize when you are near your work to pickup a dolly, that you forgot your keys. Then your buddy convinces you that you have enough guys to carry it out. Drive the rest of the way (45 minutes) to pickup the tank. When you get there and look at the tank, 4 out of 5 decide that you need a dolly. (Your buddy who resembles Shrek only slightly thinner and less green, is still convinced that you can carry it up the flight of stairs. Heck he can do it himself.) Drive to the local hardware store and buy a dolly because U-Haul is closed. After your jaunt to the hardware store your crew needs refreshments so you stop at the AM-PM and buy a Red Bull, a Mountain Dew, 3 gatorades, 3 pepperoni sticks, some beef jerky and a bag of Fritos BBQ twists. You go back, move the tank up a flight of stairs, through a garage and into the back of your truck. Drive 1-hour home. Move tank & stand into house. Provide more refreshments: 3 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon, 1 can Heineken, 1 can Miller Hi-Life, 3 pints of homebrew IPA, 2 pints of homebrew amber ale, and one pint homebrew stout. I think that about covers it...

Started a new project this weekend. Picked up lewisriverfisherman's 150 gallon tank and stand. This is going to be my temporary tank while we start a new in-wall build for our family room. I put the tank in our unfinished "hobby" room in the basement. We are going to install wood floors in the rest of the basement, so I'm going to get this tank up and running and then transfer over my 75 gallon to it. That will free up the space for the floors. Once the floors are done, I can start the big build. . The size of this tank (48" x 30") is perfect for me because I can use most of my existing 75g equipment and save the $ for the final tank.

So your the one? Im glad you got it. I had to hold my wallet down every time I went in the store, it kept trying to leap out. Pylei fairy wrasses are super nice.

I wish I had that problem.

What kind of tangs & wrasses?

Im glad. I would much rather shop local and keep the money in our area. We need to spread the word about this website to more people in Cowlitz County. I would have started into saltwater much sooner had I known about the resources here.

We bought 2 of the fairy wrasses today. They are in the sump heat acclimating.

Im running Phoenix 14K in my Outer Orbit 2x250 setup. I did a color comparison a while back here: http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?14808-10K-Current-250-DE-vs.-20K-Radium-SE&highlight= Look toward the bottom of the page. It has 10k stock, vs 20k Radium, vs 14k.

Thanks CoralCrazy! We visited the store a couple of times in the last 2 weeks and it looks great. I'm excited to see that there appears to be more interest in saltwater again.

Yep, all the missing ones have been smaller rock type blennies, gobies and several wrasses. That is why I got back on the mantis as a suspect.

I havent seen the clowns pick on anything. My last set was a terror, so I got rid of them, thinking they were the issue. The new pair are really small. The big one is less than an inch long. Also this problem existed before this particular pair of clownfish.

Im stumped. Just got another Midas Blenny and it disappeared before 48 hours was up. For the past 9 months, I have run nearly fishless. I have taken out nearly every rock and run the coke bottle trap for many nights. I cant find evidence of a Mantis, but I sometimes hear clicking noises. Every time I have heard it, i jump up and run to the tank. Most of the time there is a snail in the corner of the glass knocking his shell around, but sometimes I cant find the source. This is driving me nuts. I have three fish in the tank - 2 small clowns and a small flame hawk. Anything else I add lasts less than a week before it disappears without a trace. It doesnt seem to matter if I QT or not. I have tried both ways. Im convinced now it is not a parasite or water quality problem, but something in the tank. Maybe a small black hole that sucks up our fish? I think Im going to tear the thing completely down and start over.

You can't go wrong with either Canon or Nikon. My sister is a professional photographer and she prefers Nikons. She goes through several every year (after 200k -300k photos). She tells everyone it is a personal preference thing and both brands have advantages. My wife (semi-pro) uses Canons. The main difference that I have noticed is the higher end Nikon glass costs considerably more than the Canon. Snowpunk and Finch are correct about the kit lenses. They are pretty much junk compared to a quality lens. We always buy the camera body only, then spend the money on nice glass.

Controlling your Apex with a Smart Phone is worth every extra penny.

Awesome Impur! I was wondering if you could do that with one of those fridges. I didnt want to buy one then find out I couldnt fit the kegs inside. Now I know. My wife bought me a brewing kit for Christmas, so me and my brother in law brewed up our first batch on New Year's eve. Looking forward to the next recipe. Should have done this along time ago, but already have way too many hobbies.

I have two 1400s in my 75 running off our Apex. They work great. Have been very happy with them so far. Much much quieter than the modded Maxi-Jets we had. Now the overflow is too loud...

Pet Works on Commerce has a small saltwater section. Nothing like any of the Portland shops, but sometimes you get lucky and find something unusual. They had a nice Pylei fairy wrasse when I was in last week.

Two year progression Found a December 2008 FTS. and yesterday via Iphone:

I have been using H2Ocean, but have been battling algae also. Tank seems to look clearer, but not convinced it's salt related. My other prefered salt is Seachem Reef Salt. Never had an algae problem while using the Seachem.

Actually for the last few months I have used Rod's Food. I don't see much of a difference, so when I run out Im going back to the home brew.