milesmiles902

7 hours ago, Trailermann said:

Why then is my tiny 120 gallon tank costing so much?

I asked myself this everyday when I had my tank.

On 9/24/2019 at 7:25 PM, SuncrestReef said:

While I don't have a garage full of stuff because I haven't been in the hobby long enough, I'm already working out my strategy to convince my wife to do a huge addition on our house (under the guise of having an entertainment/bar/game room with a bigger deck) for a way to add a fish room and big peninsula tank.  As we work with our financial advisor, there's no scenario where this pays off in the long run, and of course he shows us a graph proving it's a bad financial decision.  He's no help at all...

If you sell coral frags, it might lower the long-term losses.

Some memes for this moment:

5 hours ago, Gil&Fin said:

Yeah, I agree with the glove recommendation and raise it with full-on goggles and maybe a hazmat suit.  I still have PTSD from my encounter, although the ophthalmologists at OHSU found it to be a great opportunity to treat this rare and devastating toxin over the months it took my eye to recover.  Do not boil the rock either as the toxin is literally deadly if inhaled.  

Public service announcement over...

Mother, Public Official, Cancer Survivor, Purple Heart Aquarium Veteran, Cookie Baker - Gil&Fin.

@Raj , welcome! We like to call ourselves enthusiast. Here's a map of other enthusiasts in your area: http://www.pnwmas.org/membermap/ where you can put yourself on the map. It also has locations of a variety of things, including fish stores, public aquariums, and aquarium manufacturers.

As @Gumby stated, we have the NW Frag Fest coming up, Bob Moore in February/March and many monthly meetings that are posted in Meetings and Events.

Also, Picture of the Month is another thing we are heavily involved with. You can see past winners and upcoming contestants in the Show Off/Picture of the Month thread.

We do our best to promote sustainability in the hobby with members breeding clown fish, propagating coral and helping out with Tanks for Teachers for K-12 students to learn about how to maintain a healthy ocean ecosystem.

You can also get involved with borrowing our member only PAR meter:

At last, welcome to the Pacific Northwest Marine Aquarium Society! Thank you for being a paid member.

Happy Birthday!

Bump.

In my experience, these days - it is more common to see ozone run on extremely large tanks i.e. public displays or large in-home works of art. Small tanks can survive without it. I almost feel like ozone is the beat-all-end-all way to deter bacteria or other water-born lifeforms.

5 hours ago, albertareef said:

I don't run Ozone currently but did for a while on my old tank.  Ran outlet into skimmer air intake and monitored via the overall tank redox potential.  My Ozone unit had the redox reader incorporated into it.  Not sure that helps...

^explained it well.

47 minutes ago, MrBret said:

Now i guess i need to figure out the rotifers and green water stuff. I realy want to raise a few babie from this pair !

Congratulations on being a father.

I'll take care of it. I'm in Seattle daily. 

We could talk about your routine and the best way to manage stability in person...or you could just break it down. Both are possible, including having your trusted local fish store maintain it. 

I've done it a couple times and had a couple aquariums in my life too. I understand your pain.

I'm pretty sure pH and alkalinity are actually quite a bit different in the ocean, especially with people having upwards of 11 dKH.

2 hours ago, Kingtriton92 said:

Given our proximity to the coast is anyone collecting seawater for use in their reef tanks?

On my trip down the YouTube rabbit hole this morning I stumbled upon a few videos highlighting some stunning natural sea water reef tanks and my curiosity was peaked.

Check-out the health of most public aquariums. It's pretty amazing.

1 hour ago, spectra said:

my favorite...............

 

 

oh wait fish...................

No orangutan's allowed.

27 minutes ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

so basically the hannah was the most consistent and basically one of the better if not best option.   What good is accuracy if it is not consistent? 

Not to mention that you can literally check your alk in 1.5 minutes with the hannah checker. 

just my 2 cents

I've had consistent results with Salifert alkalinity test and believe most alkalinity tests are consistently precise, even though they may not be consistently accurate.

As long as there isn't aquarium swings, the corals fine. Maybe the aquarium is a 7 dKh and the test shows 9 dKh, but they don't care.

Note: Did not watch the video. 

As a colorblind person, I know your pain.

So, I too had to search for the best alkalinity kit.

It's Salifert's Alkalinity test.

*whispers* I heard there was photos.

I periodically check-out Thingiverse. They have plenty of free designs to offer. Scrapers, decorations, protein skimmer parts and other unique items.

https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=aquarium&dwh=435d6e6baf9af7d

It wouldn't matter at that point if you buy a waterproof LED strip: https://www.ledsupply.com/led-strips/waterproof-12v-led-strip?gclid=CjwKCAjw-7LrBRB6EiwAhh1yX_i10jXdhVbTUsfC2CNJiExKYItH2PR1UA1CmlCcomJhsxy6uGE76hoCMGgQAvD_BwE

The heater casing just makes it easily portable.

I asked Dr. Thusen for a quick update.:

Tank #1:

Tank #2:

Wow! That is a beautiful aquarium.  A lot of your questions can be asked on this thread: http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/forum/62-tanks-for-teachers/

Although, I am sure @Flashy Fins will provide assistance no matter the post location. She is the Tanks for Teachers coordinator and does a really good job at it.

Also, I am unsure on the depth that Tanks for Teachers provides, but the thread demonstrates good examples for what we have done. I believe we are flexible to most schedules, live-stock, equipment and/or maintenance.

On 5/19/2019 at 9:11 PM, Spschampion said:

Hi,

     Just wanted to take a minute and introduce myself and my tank. I’m relatively new to the hobby and I have a 120 gallon reef tank with a 30 gallon sump. I bought the system used and have had it up and running for about six months. I have a bunch of different types of corals, but I seem to be into sps the most. Looking to learn anything and everything I can! Thanx 

One of us. One of us. One of us.

Glad to see some healthy corals. To further spread your coral love, please take a moment and fill out the member map: http://www.pnwmas.org/membermap/

On 6/9/2019 at 10:42 AM, Spschampion said:

Thanx!!! This hobby is really addicting. Very enjoyable though! Look forward to watching things grow! 

Also, if you can handle those corals, you should join us in future grow-outs. They are some of the most fulfilling coral efforts on the forum. Not only do we make 10-20 frags of a unique species of coral for propagation and vitality, but it's also is a good team effort to get cheap coral.

Please vote once! 

Voting Closes:

September 5th @ 11:59 pm

2 hours ago, talkalot82 said:

Five gallon bucket of reef crystal salt on amazon.com right now is $19.99. it says $39 but when you go to check out and you put your payment information and it drops down to $19.99 which gives you $20 off. You can buy up to 3

It makes you think how cheap salt actually is.

6 hours ago, Higher Thinking said:

If you've read this far, congrats and thanks!

 

Final note, I have been blessed to dive Kauai, Oahu, and now Molokai. Molokai absolutely has the best reef that I've seen in Hawaii. To be fair, the fish quantity seemed lower on Molokai, but the overall reef was far and away the best! Mostly all SPS, a few fungia plates. Primarily acropora, pocillopora, and montipora. As if it wasn't already ridiculous to see people selling "colonies" that are 2", when you see coral colonies that are 10 feet, your perspective starts changing.

 

Main fish I've seen pretty consistently:

 

A bunch of tangs (yellow, Sailfin, Naso, convict, orange band, and Kole), countless butterfly fish, trumpet fish, eels, several triggers (Humuhumu, of course!), lots of parrot fish, Moorish idols, and a couple white tipped, reef sharks. Of course there are thousands of other fish I can't even identify.

 

One thing that is abundantly clear, I NEVER see fish in someone's tank that get as big as these fish in the wild. I'm talking yellow tangs that are over 8".... All day! The more I watch fish in the wild, the more I think that it's impossible to provide adequate tank size for a lot of fish.

 

Whether your tank is 55 gal or 250 gal, I can't possibly see how it would make a difference. Apart from aggression and territory issues (that's a whole different thing), you are placing fish in something that is a billionth of it's usual size. I can't understand how a couple hundred gallons makes any difference. I, of course could be totally wrong, who knows? Like I said, more space is absolutely needed for territory and aggression issues, but as far as giving the fish "adequate swimming room"....I think it's impossible for many fish.

 

What does this newfound perspective mean to anyone, myself included? I guess nothing... I'm not changing anything with how I stock my tank. Anyway, just rambling at this point....

 

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree. Most tanks are relatively small for these fish, especially Nasos. The highest prevalence of "pacing", "re-tracing" and/or Zoochosis I see in fish is with the Naso tang. 

That's why I am happy to see breeding of tangs in general. I can guarantee it helps the mental state to breed and domesticate them. 

..would I buy a Naso tang? Eh, if I had a big enough tank, but for now. There are enough smaller fish that appeal to me. 

Glad to hear Hawaii was fun. I'm sure I could wrestle you to the ground, but I am not sure who would win. 

Appreciate the wicked photos.

Cheers!

1 hour ago, BeardUp said:

So I should stop trying to crush the ones that are taking over my other rocks? 

 

Yeah, don't eat them either. 

Welcome! Glad you can be a part of the Pacific Northwest Marine Aquarium Society! 

To demonstrate that we can Pacific Northwest the reef - add a contribution to the member map: http://www.pnwmas.org/membermap/

Also, among the events coming up - we have ~October Fragfest located in the Portland area. Following, another Pacific Northwest event usually near February. 

By the way, I love the tank. Red Sea tanks are some of the best all-in-one tanks on the market. I am glad you can share your growth. I'm definitely jealous.