badxgillen

Not sure where you can source either of these, they used to come in on transshippments but it has been a while since I have seen either.

We could just turn this thread into a trade thread since Ryan already got it going...If that is alright with you R-3?

Fresh Water Corals!? Very generous of you.

So, you breaking down the freshwater tank, or just going in another direction? If you lived closer I would trade you something, my son just setup a shrimp tank in his dorm about a month ago and it is not quite filled in yet.

Save me a piece for the meeting Roy, you probably don't want any but I have a very similar kind of ponope nest in one of my tanks.

From what I can see in the picture, without a macro lense it can be hard, they do appear to have the gills on the back as Nudibranchs would. The ocean if full of wondrous, and treacherous, things.

If you can find a macro lense get another shot yeah.

Unfortunately due to the convoluted structure of a seriatapora birdsnest coral I don't think a fish for control will be enough. I have seen coral eating nudibranchs of this size on soft corals but not Nests, that doesn't mean they are not out there obviously seeing what you have pictured above. In this instance you may have to remove all the infected corals and dip them. It may also be necessary to repeat the process a few times twice a week in case the eggs are not effected by the dips or the organisms/eggs are not present on the coral at the time of dip. Examine your other SPS closely and make sure there are no symptoms arising on the other corals. In an extreme situation you may have to frag the last of the living tissue, dip it, and dispose of the infected body. Even then you will have to dip again in a few days to be safe. QT would also be another possibility if you have the means. And as you know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Awww Man! You got me on this thread. I saw PODs and was thinking someone had the Tigropsis up for grabs again. If I saw that container at my door after ordering copopods for my tank I would be worried I might be getting these.

 

Got my tickets ready, I will go an check out the screening in Corvallis tonight. I might even get to talk to the panel like the last one held for chasing coral, regardless it should be cool.

I WISH!

Looks to be a Fragtastic event.

Looks like I will be rolling out to the OSU Corvallis screening, it is only  a few blocks from my house.

Man, that photo upload took forever! I am blaming it on the neutrality and not the server Or my computer, anyhow, sorry about the delay. After a couple hours of uplaoding and still needing 60 megs of pictures I just went to bed. Got it all squared away now though but SHEESH! If anyone else has any pics to put up I would love to see em.

As usual PNWMAS had an outstanding monthly meeting. Just In case you were not there or aware, this month one of our old school members that you all know as Stylaster opened up his home for the February 2018 gathering. Not only did he host the meet but he also put on a coral fragging demonstration for the club of two very different corals, a chalice and an acropora. But before I dive into the demo we should take a look at things from a proper order.

Due to the distance and a couple small accidents causing traffic Miles and I were a tad late to the party, but its cool. The demo had yet to begin, people were just getting social,

raffle tickets were getting sold,

and there was plenty of shrimp on the platters for me to "sample".

  I have to give some credit to the hosts offerings and all who brought a food item,  the appetizers put out were very tasty and much appreciated. So Yummy.

After making some quick greetings I made my way around to snap some pictures of Stylaster's main tank, and let me tell you, shes a beauty thats for sure.

Such nice dimensions and such clear acrylic, not sure how he keeps all that coraline algae at bay without scratching it all these years but he does and it is crisp! 

The dimensions make it necessary to take this shot in at least 3 parts. Each side being just as in depth and diverse as the other.

These fish are really lucky to have made it into Roy's tank, they got it made in there.

Once I got a number of pics of the display I made a dash to the garage...That is were the reefers were aggregating at, and I know why. This thing is a straight operation!

Pacific Corals Is In The HOUSE!!!

Actually I am in the house of Pacific Corals but you know, I just wanted to raise the roof on this one.

Who wants some Corals!? Roy has got a Plethera hiding out in his frag tanks, a straight treasure trove i'm tellin ya.

Better get those bone cutters out man, I am gonna need my Acro fix after seeing these colors pop.But I suppose thats enough of the marine systems for now, I will move onto some of the Human members who attended...Sorry Princeton and Max.

OH SHOOT!!! The Frag Demo is about to begin.

Gather round to see what Roy has in store for us. The club funded the purchase of two colonies for the meet with everyone attending getting one of each coral cut during the demonstration. How Freaking Cool is That!? Great idea Roy!

Here are the pieces half cut, getting ready for their turn under the saw for division amongst the club. An interesting Chalice here with UFO ringed eyes And...

This Crazy green tabling Acropora, I swear I saw something very similar at The Premium Aquarium a couple weeks ago. Good Stuff right here.

Love this shot. Both of these guys are veterans to the reef hobby but Roy, right, being the owner of Pacific Corals was leading the demo for us today. And Roy is going to show us how its done!

For the chalice he used an Inland diamond bladed band saw to make short work of the plating coral. Just so oyu know Inlands do not normally have that nifty light unit attached tot he side, that is Roy's idea...That I am going to use. Love the little improvements and tricks each ingenuitive reefer has to develop.

You cannot tell by the picture but the band saw allows for very precise cuts even curved slices are able to be made. Something you can see in this picture though is to the bottom right is a HUGE thing of super glue. So many frags..

The acropora got its turn in the spotlight as well, Roy payed a special amount of attention here as some of the branches overlap making it harder to get the proper cuts.

Right after the Chop! The fresh frags go into a bit of tank water with a few drops of Lugols Iodine in it, this helps prevent infection to the damaged tissue.

These Bad Boys are now ready to be glued down or simply placed in the aquarium now to heal up. The whole process is actually rather quick, especially on a band saw.

As usual it was super fun getting to see many familiar faces and a couple new ones from the North.

The Clark here, he is kinda like super man, though he won't admit it. He is one of our IT Tech guys along with the Chief. He keeps the forum purring like a kitten, whenever there is trouble Clark and Chief are on the case. Good seeing you man, I am always glad to see you at a meeting. You always have some good ideas about reefer related equipment and have been a generous guy all around. Weather is warming up again so maybe we can work something out again ship wise. Oh, and I will be moving some GI Joes up in the tank for some higher PAR...Gonna BLAST em and see if I can get the effects you were talking about.

OptimusPrime, I didn't know you were getting into SPS. I could have brought you some frags just to try out in your tank. If you ever have too much problem with some of your zoas trying to mess with your acro base feed em a little bit of kalkwasser paste and they will go away right quick. In coral wars someone always loses, it is neveer fun but sometimes you have to pick a side. I will also see about getting you a frag of the Chongs Bongs and something else different. Looking forward to seeing your tank in the near future man.

Got to formally meet Lewisfisherman, left under the 460 nanometer LEDs. Hope you like the frags I brought over, the zoas are bright and beautiful and so is the yuma...But be careful, as that Ricordea will get pretty good size when it is happy and will win many coral to coral confrontations. Hit me up if you need a few more flavors at some point yeah.

Gumby on the right is another Outstanding member who lends a helping hand when he can in addition to doing a bit of behind the scenes work for the club here and there, he actually helped land the Fragfest Venue for us...What a guy. He is another person who also has some pretty intense corals in his system. With his connects in Washington it is not uncommon for Gumby to have something special on his frag rack.

Here we have Karen, our head of the Tanks For Teachers program and a great member of our PNWMAS BOD. We really didn't get to chat much this time around Karen, sorry about that.Don't forget though, if you want a coral or two for a TFT tank give me a shout out and I will see if I can get something your way. I always have something I can trim back or rehome. And apologies on the photo, I had very few pictures of her this time around so I apologize about the slight blur. Apparently I need to take more pictures, who would have guessed?

Now I know this is a saltwater reefer forum here but I thought that this picture of FlashyFins and the Carissa with their canine kin was too cool to not post up. They were both such well behaved animals...Cherany on the other hand!.. Just kidding, I kid, I kid. FlashyFins , left, does a great job sitting on our PNWMAS Board Of Directors making great use of her abilities in organization and enthusiasm. She did much of the coordination with Roy to make this meeting a success.Thank you Cherany, and thank you Roy and Carissa. 

Well, instead of being redundant with some of the pictures taken I decide that some of the raffle photos could serve as some "profile" shots as well. 

We had an impressive number of sponsor gift certificates to be had, as well as some killer door prizes given out by Pacific Corals. Upscales!, Barrier Reef!, Pacific Corals!, Seahorse Aquarium!, and some of my favortie frozen foods Rod's fish food!

Some of the ORA posters were Great! I scored one for myself but there were so many kinds it was a hard decision on which one to choose. Now I gotta collect a few more and get them laminated, they need to be in a fish room or by an aquarium.

 A funny pic here of AlbertaReef far right, enthused about his raffle win! You can practically hear him sayin, YES!!! Middle is The Clark, and Far left is Stylaster. Look at that blue background glow, like our own kind of Party lighting for a reefer atmosphere.

MilesMiles won in the ORA drawing and snagged this Sweet coral poster, way to go Miles! This is another member of our PNWMASS officers always trying to do his part for the team, good man. 

What a good looking bunch right here. Danlu and family made it out to the meeting, as you can see Daniel took home the ORA Tridacnid clam poster. And you can also see that his son doesn't need no regular blue, he wants a nice black and gold striped Maxima. He knows whats up. Always fun to watch the next gen reefers grow up.

Before I say thank you I have to apologize on not getting everyone picture in here, as well as not having all the raffle shots. I was having some technical difficulties with my camera battery dying and am now ordering a brand new one, I think the existing one is no longer holding a charge. Who knows how many photos I have taken with it though so it is what it is. To those I did not have in here, please forgive me, maybe Cherany or someone else had a few pictures to share with us that will have a different set of faces in it or another vantage point.

And at last I must say a BIG Thank You to all those who made this possible. Thank you to the Officers of PNWMAS and to the Board Of Directors for keeping this whole Marine Aquarium Society thing running, it is no easy task that no one person could do. All of your selfless participation means everything to the club. So Keep up the good work!

And a BIG Thank You t the club members to whom without there would be no club at all, thank you all for being who you are, considerate, conscientious and thoughtful reefers. Thats what we all try and promote here.

Thank you to all that is PNWMAS!

 

 

 

It was another killer meeting for the PNWMAS, Miles and I carpooled and got home rather late from the long drive around 8. For me it was dinner and acclimating corals...Actually, scratch that, it was the other way around. Then a little work this morning, attending a birthday party, meeting up with a few of our local members, and am now going through the pictures I took yesterday. Bear with me and I will have some good ones to share with you all. 

Thanks Roy! Thanks PNWMAS's killer Officers and Great BOD! And thanks to all who attended. It was awesome!

These above are devils armor and to answer the other question you had very late, I was sold the initial posts zoas to me as a blueberry fields zoa...But I had blueberry fields zoanthids already so these are a morph I believe.

The Sasquatch AND Miles are February 9ths!? Well HAPPY BIRTHDAY you two. Both cool cats from the PNWMAS crew. I hope I get to see you both today at the meeting, either way, may you have an awesome weekend.

Cheers you guys!

Well that's too bad Taylor, anybody need a tierra or a Upscales Microlados frag?

And Lewis, I got a number of zoas if you need some. Raptors Rainbows, Devils Armor, Passion Orange Guava, fire in the sky, and so many more.

Love those Bat Signals.

This is gonna be good, Stylaster has some mighty fine pieces in his collection, I don't get that far north that often so I am sure things have changed alot in the last few month. Looking forward to seeing everyone there yeah, save a spot next to the tank for me.

NO!? You Didn't!? You got that Red Sea Reefer!?

Hey TalorHardy,  I didn't see you at the last meet. I brought a nice piece of tierra del fuego and the upscales microlados for our trade but I did not see a name tag in the crowd and the people I asked where not sure either. I presume you are attending this meet, maybe we can work something out for that a tenuis frag and another acro? When at a PNWMAS meeting you can usually spot me pretty easily. I am the old red skin, with odd hair, and no fashion sense. I will make sure to have my name tag visible this time around too.

As requested, a thread starter for a Frag Swap at our February 2018 Meeting at Stylaster's, I used my own previous template, so if it looks familiar...It is.

 Being a meet and greet type of gathering it seems like it would be a good time to get the old coral trades going on.

If you would like, you can do your trading on the fly by just bringing by a few pieces and hoping that some one will have a desirable coral you want...Or better yet, you can post up what you have to trade and work out a preemptive exchange here on the forums, that method always works best for me. You can feel free to use this thread to post your trade-ables in or start a thread of your own.

But First, let me get you some of Bert's basis tips for success here.

1.) make an attempt to have a fragment of reasonable size and health and try and get things cut and ready a few days to a week ahead of time to have the wounds healed up for the exchange. And double/triple check for pest invertebrates or algaes before sending your corals out, we try to keep invasives to a minimum here...And once you get your frags home, just in case, always acclimate the specimens then dip the corals before you put them into your personal aquarium. QT Aquariums are best but good old Revive, Coral RX, Melafix, Iodine, or Bayer will do much better at prevention than nothing.

2.) Try to package your corals appropriately. This can mean not putting a spiny coral like birds nest into a thin dollar store bag or not utilizing insulation on an extended cold or warm trip. Try a small cooler or Styrofoam. If you can't find either of these and the destination is a long distance, keep the vehicle air conditioned or heated appropriately. As far as packaging goes you can double bag and use thicker mil plastics, or something else like a Tupperware or specimen container. I have even used washed out yogurt or cottage cheese containers that stack well inside the coolers. Just use something that will work, nothing like losing a nice and colorful animal because the bag got too cold and leaked all the water out on the way home.

3.)Do your best to be courteous and fair to one another by not take advantage of each others ignorance or generosity. These are people of all levels in the hobby so give them the benefit of your knowledge and experience instead of the cold shoulder. And speaking of generosity, that giving nature has always been smiled upon here at PNWMAS and pay it forward tends comes back around these parts.

Well, the meeting is closing in fast, less than two weeks yeah.

So Let's see em folks,  Whatcha Got!? Corals that is!

Personally I have a ton of things I can cut if someone wants to ask for a general type of coral. For now here is a picture of some sweet zoas I have to cut before they attach to something they shouldn't. And I will add some things here once I can go and grab some pictures that don't suck.

Well I must say, the January 2018 meeting went great! A meet and greet at the Premium Aquarium made a splendid beginning of the year event. Tons of beverages, pizza, and sweets were provided by the club and Garret so no one was left hungry during their socializing or shopping, I mean who wants to raffle on an empty stomach? As always the shops tanks were packed and looked great! So many fish and corals, so little time, and so little tank space at home. 

I mean take a look at these crisp and clear displays, very nice.

Even the rock work was not only well planned, it is well executed, made with the forethought of corals growing in.

You can''t help but stop  and take an extended look, every time it gets me salivating...And envious!

I saw Chef Dave working at getting the tanks looking their best when I arrived, a having a prime reef tank is an endless task.

As far as frags and colonies go there was a very nice blend of SPS, LPS, and soft corals that were available, whats that? You like that chunky teal frag in the middle?

 well its in my tank now, along with a few others. Had to replace my red dragon and Chris hooked it up with some insane prices. Good man that Chris, good man.

And I know I usually open up with people but I want to throw one more up here and then I will move on from the non human life for a minute or two. Although there were many amazing fish and inverts int the store, I had to throw this pic up of Garret's anemone tank. It is simply spectacular, so many nice anemones it is slightly sickening...And I don't even like anemones that much, but these I had to give props to.

And believe it or not this picture does not hold a candle to the colors I saw in person. It was a vibrant mix of reds, oranges, greens, and purples...Some having splotches inside or almost that glittery appearance. A couple had the "sheen" to them that makes them glow. looking into this tank and the clam tank would make any one want a lagoon on the side of their tank.

And speaking of colorful vibrant specimens... Here we have Albertareef left and Flashyfins right. As usual they are laughing or giggling about something that I am clueless about. Alberta, I glued down that frag and put it in a tank in my kitchen so that I can keep a close eye on it, I think I can keep this guy going but we will see. And Cherany, Thank You very much for your assistance running the raffles, you and Shaun make a great team. Much appreciated.

I also realized going through these pics that y'all have such good fashion sense at these meets, where is I have none. 

Hey! Now who is this that walked in the door!? Our wonderful president Emerald and first lady Sirena! 

I didn't get the goombas names but they are little cuties aren't they. All ready to do some aquarium window shopping and get an ear full about marine biology. We love our geek outs don't we, it always makes me happy to see children enjoying aquarium life, little minds are at work for sure.

And did somebody say Geek Out? No offense meant guys but this...

This is a geek out right here that I wanted to be part of. Garret of TPA and Gumby to the right are ogling a sweet piece of montipora Jim brought in to share. Garett thinks it very well could be a rare undata. You know I had to snag me a tiny piece to see what it may do in my tank. Thank You, Jim, your corals and assistance is really something. And Thank you Garret, for opening up your store to us, getting all that food setup and taken down, and all the killer deals and information you give us. You are one of the good ones my friend.

Now here we have the rare Stylaster under actinic lighting, I like to keep him under AISol lighting instead of the radions...To get the colors to really just pop!

But really folks, Roy here is another of the good ones I was talking about. Informative, generous, and kind make this someone you should always give a shout out to when you see him. I didn't get much face time at this meet but I am looking forward to next months meeting in Washington at which point I will be able to just talk his ear off. I saw those treasures you picked up at TPA, and I saw that lowboy thread you started. You know I will be needing some of that reef candy.

Youcallmenny and son here brought some candy themselves, I see that cooler in hand man.

And wouldn't you know it, he has a beautiful blastomussa frag for me, Thank You guys. It is going next to my TECO blasto frag...YES! Hope the acro frags work for you and if you want a few more I will get some cut for you. I have a killer blue that is pretty nice.

And here are some more of the PNWMAS crew. 

Emerald smiling on the left and Fishoutofwater on the right.I feel like I was supposed to bring you a frag man, but I just cannot remember what it is that I had that you were interested in. Refresh my memory sometime and I will get you squared away yeah.

Whats up Man! Higherthinking here and Lauren, on the right obviously. Getting ready to pounce on some of those killer clams TPA had in stock. A maxima and a derasa later and I bet you are feeling much better, get that salt water fix. I hope to see you both soon yeah, see what you have done with your place, and that big reef tank. Have not been out since the calcium reactor talk/meet.

Bicyclebill and Mark are in the House! glad you made it out to another meeting. Always happy to see either of these two faces. Bill, as usual, was being generous and handing out monti frags like it aint no thing. OG coral gansta style, Insert low bass hiphop beat for a few seconds for bill here...Yeah Yeah.

These next too can have a little theme music too but something softer.

Gill&Fin on the left and Lexinverts to the right. Both a couple of awesome people who I always enjoy talking with. Holly, I wouldn't mind seeing your setups again soon, or maybe you will be having a meeting in your area sometime this year perhaps?..And Andy, I will drop you a line in the next few days and see if I can't come by and be of some assistance. I know that slimer colony has grown out  the water and need to go under the saw...Not sure if bone cutters will cut that massive stalk. If your lucky folks I will take pictures when I get to that particular event.

Danlu of Reefi left and Optimus Prime right. I like both of these guys. Daniel has a pretty nice setup going on and I hear Optimus does too, maybe I can sneak a peek some time? I love seeing other peoples setups no matter the size of complexity. Let me know if that Shazam gives you trouble and I will see what I can do. I will be cutting the chongs bongs soon if you want a frag of those. That goes for both of you. I love trading zoas.

Its Ron! Scoping out some fish and torches no doubt. This guy has a collection going on that he needs to share with us...Relax Ron, I am talking about pictures, I would never want to hurt those scrumptious Glabrecens. 

I didn't get a chance to speak with everyone and Brandon here on the left was one whom I missed, sorry man, be assured I will be at another meet though. On the right is Paratore of WCC. Cody my man, my son is going to school out at Western which means that maybe I can come by your place and snag something here soon. Maybe get a trade going on. I know your zoa game is strong.

JFry, glad you could make it man. We gota meet up outside a meeting or working, get to catch up on the business and life. I like talking maintenance, so many experiences, so many right and wrong ways to do things, and along with the other random events thrown in it never gets boring.

PDXMonkeyboy. Awesome work on that PAR meter man, I saw you test it side by side the Apogee and it was so close it was almost sickening.. Those meters are Sooo much Money. Good work man, and thanks for sharing it with everyone.

Colby here of PIA, coming in and swooping up a TTON of clown pairs for his massive breeding project in his Tangent facility. I mean it man, I am going to cruise out your way this next week and see whats up. Those systems should be rocking and rollin by now yeah. I be you have some wild stuff in.

A last couple relevant pictures with Sharklover taking home the MP10 Circ pump. Happy day!!! Just a terrible photo on my part, so sorry, lots of motion.

Eccotechs are some super nice pumps.

And here we have Reefermadness taking home the ATO.

Very cool man, I swear we were talking about one last month, now you can implement it into the reef tank. And let me know when you want some easy going acros. I got you covered there man, I owe you.

And I guess I will finish this off with some nice Anthias that were at The Premium Aquarium.

And my usual Big THANK YOU!!!

THANK YOU to all the Officers, Board Of Directors, Sponsors, The Premium Aquarium Crew, and club members who make all this possible. I know you are all tired of me saying this but...

You All ROCK!!!

REEF ON!!!

 

The meeting is in a few hours folks, get those coolers loaded cause there is a ton of stuff at TPA right now. And to help you all get that coral or fish of your dreams we are also having a Premium Aquarium gift certificate in the raffles today, now How about that!?

Well, I will see you all there, I will be rolling around with my styrofoam box getting my trade on and talking reef.

My son would probably love a frag if you end up having another one at some point, I can throw something back your way.

If your rolling out to the Salem meeting at TPA on the 27th I can bring you something, what are you looking for mainly?

I will see if I can get those all fragged tonight or tomorrow. Could I snag a piece of the yellow tenius? Maybe a green acropora mystery frag if you have one extra?