Islandoftiki

Note: I added a second nano powerhead at the back right to help with circulation at the back of the tank.

Here you go... FTS:

Good news, the majanos won't care if there's no light...

Want some Majanos? I have the pretty green ones with red tips! Got some of the nicer brown ones, too.

This colony can be easily split, so one for each of you if you both still want some.

Ooops, wrong forum section, duh. Move to Buy/Sell/Trade section if possible.

Anybody want to trade a nice big frag of pulsing xenia for something that isn't pulsing xenia? Or, does anybody just want it as an awesome starter coral? This is a really hearty and really active xenia. However, given the limited space I have, I'd like to replace it with something else as I already have a large frag of it in the pest tank. I'm offering up the xenia frag from my main (pest-free) tank and I'm planning to replace it with some SPS. This is a fast growing variety and should be kept on a rock on your sand bed. I would not recommend letting it loose on your main rockwork, but it is safe to keep separated on the sand bed. I don't want any money for it, but if you have something to share in trade, that would be swell. Here's a video of the stuff... this is in the pest tank as the lights are off in the main tank, but the frag is about the same size and a piece of this colony...

Want this! Gonna have to pass right now...

Why have I not heard of this? Oh yeah, because these could suck up 1/3 of my tank's volume of water. hehe.

I have a model citizen sixline wrasse. They can be hit or miss though. I got mine when she was really tiny and she's been around shrimp all along. My current cleaner shrimp are almost bigger than the sixline, so I don't imagine she would even attempt any aggression toward the. And nobody messes with the pistol shrimp. She's good with the pom pom crab, emerald crab and all of the hermits. I have heard horror stories about sixlines though.

Hey folks, cast your vote. I think we can all agree that this is important research. Petition to Stop the Defunding of the Aquarius Project that studies in the deep ocean: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/defunding-aquarius-project-studies-deep-ocean/cJqhMnf1#thank-you=p

Interesting thread. Many valid points brought up. The ones I agree with most are the ones pertaining to us researching what is right for our tanks and choosing wisely. Understanding the limitations of our tanks and what we can and can't do takes an enormous amount of research and learning. I went the hard route. My first saltwater tank was a 2 gallon pico reef. I researched for months, and at the time I started it, there was not a ton of information about tanks this small. Most information came from online forums... reading hundreds and hundreds of posts and following what the successful people were doing, and more importantly, not doing. I would like to say, with the exception of a couple of odd failures, I got it pretty right from the get go, but it took months of learning before I was ready. Short story long... NONE of the local fish stores had ANY idea what was appropriate for a 2 gallon tank. Many though I was crazy to even attempt it. So, I never really got any advice from them because it was out of their realm of knowledge. So, I guess I was fortunate to start off with something that I knew nobody had a clue about and it was all on me to make the right decisions. I never got to blame anyone for the mistakes. They were all mine! And I wouldn't want it any other way. I did get to educate a few of the LFS about pico tanks, and they were all genuinely interested, but I wouldn't consider any of them knowledgeable about picos. Which is too bad, because there's a market that's just waiting to be tapped. How many people wouldn't love to have a little saltwater reef on their desk at work? I think what it boils down to is NO impulse purchases. Know what you're buying. Know how to care for it. That said... I miss the large selection of small frags that Rose City Aquarium always had. I can't wait for them to open! TPA always has a lot of good little frags, but I rarely make it down to Salem.

Here are some photo updates... Some of you may recognize some of these frags. Many of these came from PNWMAS members. Orange/red Monti: Fuzzy Chiton (looks like a wide flat potato bug). To his right, the TECO Forbidden fruit palys that I started with four heads. Above a new candy cane coral. This is my ricordea rock that I've been working on. Speedy sixline photobomber... A little more SPS action here.... already starting to grow new branches! Had to find a shady place for this golden eye chalice... seems happy now. Some pretty nice zoas. Anna Banana guarding her pistol shrimp's cave.

Really, all you need is a limewood airstone, air pump, and a hunk of tubing and some way to collect the foam that comes out of the top of the tube. It's dirt simple. It's my opinion that one of the things that keeps you from skimming dry with most of these limewood airstone skimmers is that they neck down at the top and kinda break down the bubbles as they come up to the drain tube. This seems to force you to have to skim a bit wet. It you just had an open top and a collection cup like most modern skimmers, you could probably skim a lot drier. And this is all just in-my-brain-theory, but it may be valid.

And don't forget, one fairly important function of skimmers is oxygenation of the water on top of removing icky stuff.

Well, for the most part, people have had good luck with the 9002. There are the few odd ones that haven't but the overwhelming majority have great success. And I wonder if the ones that have poor luck with it just don't quite understand how to tune a skimmer? At some point, I want to play around with building my own airstone skimmer, but that will probably wait till the fall or winter when I'm not playing around outside in the good weather.

Does the 9002 skim that wet? I thought it was capable of much drier skimmate. My Gnome glass skimmer on the other hand does skim very wet and with the ATO, I have to keep an eye on my salinity or it will drop over a week.

World of Wet Pets is still open. Stopped by there the other day to get some snails.

Rose City isn't open yet. I haven't managed to get by there when they're still there. The paper is still covering the windows, so I'm not sure what their status is.

As of a month or two ago, the Seahorse Aquarium was open, and Saltwater FantaSeas is reported to be all better after their copper poisoning although I haven't been there recently.

I think I just got an accurate ID on that macro algae. It appears to be Dictyota cf. humifusa.

Update time! Pictures! Full tank shot... notice the awesome hitchhiker macro algae that is growing like mad in the back left corner! Happy majanos! Note the baby one at the bottom of the rock! The devil's hand leather that Gill gave me is doing really well: The graveyard of shattered dreams and and cerith shells. Awesome macro algae... no idea where it came from:

I've been hearing a bunch of reports lately about tiny jellyfish-like critters showing up in peoples tanks.

Tiny with a jerky swimming motion would probably be a copepod.

I've got yumas and floridas touching each other with no problems. I believe they are cool with zoas, too.