EMeyer

We ship out of Eugene and offer local pickup (meet at UPS) as an option

Orchard Reef

Lexinverts has awesome corals though, definitely look him up!

Yes, the new edit (2 min ago) shows up. 

Bug in the moderation software perhaps. The forum does not show any evidence the post was ever edited, at least not to the original author of the post. We can continue that discussion outside the thread. I leave this note here to explain that we are seeing literally different things when we view this thread. 

My post was edited and text deleted without any acknowledgement or discussion. I'm just gonna say that out loud and leave it there. 

And here people are still talking about this as if it was a standalone act that would be voted up or down in the Senate based on the merits and what their constituents want. But I guess when you refuse to acknowledge politics you end up drawing the wrong conclusions. 

[quote]The house passed the America Competes Act and within it they added the Lacey Act.[/quote]

Two key issues. 

1. The law would require federal agents to positively identify all species. Professional biologists with decades of training working in well funded labs can't meet this bar. But agents with at best TSA-level intelligence and training are going to somehow do it? 

2. The law makes absolutely no exceptions for farmed or captive raised animals. It would quite literally end the aquarium industry. 

Remember that the pH on a natural reef fluctuates from about 7.8 to about 8.1 daily. 

I'd focus more on alk. Keep Alk between 7-8, and unless your home has unusually high CO2 pH should stay in a reasonable range. 

Yeah, I'm skeptical that it makes any difference in nutrients. These things are tiny, the total biomass of water microbes is not very large. 

Completely changes the microbial community and completely eliminates the most abundant group of Bacteria. But I doubt it affects the nutrients much. 

5 hours ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

Here is the appropriate approach for all chromis.  When you see them in the store and you think "oh, I like those" 

Walk out of store and drive home. 

This matches my experience with Chromis. Such pretty fish for a couple days. 

I refer to this for practical advice on most diseases in the hobby, Uronema included

https://humble.fish/uronema/

Uronema has shown up in tanks with UV running. Maybe it helped, I don't know, but it doesnt seem to be a surefire way to remove it from the tank. 

Uronema is so widespread in the hobby. 10-20% of tanks of tanks we've tested have it.

Wholesaler tanks are so infested with Uronema that even the rocks taken from those tanks have it, let alone the fish. (Again, this is based on DNA testing)

Personally I've moved to using only peroxide and observational QT. Peroxide bath, then into observational QT with low dose of peroxide, then another peroxide bath after theyve been in QT a month or so. 

I've seen some good evidence that tanks infested with Uronema can be cleared using an in tank peroxide treatment. 

But whats really needed is still missing. We need a few cases where we first confirm the fish has Uronema (by testing rather than visually), then treat it, then confirm that the Uronema is gone (again by testing). This kind of experiment is on my list but hasnt happened yet. 

bump, still looking

While looking, I always check craigslist. craigslist prices are HILARIOUS lately  

In what other hobby do people sell used equipment for more than retail on a regular basis? 

9 hours ago, goldenbasketreef said:

They are also in talk to several livestock importers and retailers for possible consolidation or purchase in the quest to control the industry

hmm not sure what to think about that. 

On the one hand, there is so much shadiness and outright dishonesty at the current wholesalers, I can't cry too much if they get replaced. 

On the other hand, a conglomerate-owned wholesaler may be less likely to sell to small business, and may actually promote some of the current kinds of shadiness (restricting access)

I see no reason to wait it out at that stage - water change and you're ready to go. Whats the reasoning for waiting it out I wonder? 

If you have ammonia oxidization and nitrite oxidation you're set (in terms of keeping fish happy). If you'd like to be extra sure you can always add another spike of ammonia - got to 1, then make sure the ammonia and nitrite spikes go away within 24 hours. 

Dosing vinegar may remove ammonia but would compete with nitrification, not promote it. The bacteria promoted by carbon dosing are different ones than the bacteria (and Archaea) that conduct nitrification. Since your ammonia is already nice and low (I like to cycle with 0.5 - 1) I'd just leave it. 

54 minutes ago, Lexinverts said:

No tank, but I have a 55 gallon iron stand. Let me known if you could use it. 

Thanks! But actually these will be going underneath my existing tables so no need for a stand. 

I finally got a source for some live sand so I'm setting up yet another set of tanks... and the space under my coral growout tables was the only space left available. 

Thanks - I will have to take a look at local Petcos, good call. 

Looking for several 55 gallon tanks, anyone got sometime taking up space in your garage? 

We make fun of this one (rightly) but I see the same thing every time I check craigslist or many forums. 

"Buy this used item for the low low price of ... almost the same cost as a brand new one!"

At some point people convinced themselves hobby equipment was like real estate investments or something, instead of following the appropriate pattern for other used equipment (the new car loses half its value the second it leaves the lot). Used gear should be priced like used clothing in goodwill as far as I'm concerned, but too often its priced like real estate. 

10 hours ago, obrien.david.j said:

Okay - I'll fess up.  I didn't know what Uronema Marinum was.   So I googled it.  

https://humble.fish/uronema/

Some quotes;

• These are the red sores most often seen on chromis damsels; however it can afflict any fish.
• There is no fallow period for Uronema. Once a tank has Uronema, it must be assumed that the disease can survive in there almost indefinitely.
• [treatment]  has a slight chance of working because usually by the time you see the red sores on the fish it’s too little, too late. 😞 I personally just euthanize the fish to prevent the disease from spreading. 

Is it really this bad?

Its the most common parasite we find in aquariums. It appears to be really, really common in the supply chain. 

It can occur in tanks without any reported fish deaths. But I believe its contributing to a lot of undiagnosed deaths of recently added fish in many systems. The things that make it tricky IMO are 

a) no obvious symptoms in most cases before death, and 

b) no clear way to rid the system of it once it appears (fallow periods dont work). Some people are experimenting with H2O2 treatments and reporting good results, I've seen some pretty convincing before and after tests. 

I defer to Humblefish on the question of is it that bad, I'm just the DNA guy. But thats my 2 cents. 

Indo Pacific stuff. Several wholesalers are still getting occasional shipments. NOTHING like the old days - this is the material I'm breaking up and testing for sale as Live Reef Rubble. Its not aquascaping rocks, just rubble. But its great stuff for seeding a system with microbial diversity. Until it hits the wholesaler systems and gets contaminated with Uronema. 

I have not tested any Caribbean/Gulf rock, I'm working with a supplier to test some soon. I expect that the farmed, fresh off the boat rocks will be relatively free of these things.  

Just wanted to say that over the last few months the live rock systems of at least one major wholesaler have become increasingly infested with Uronema marinum. 

I don't benefit financially from sharing this information since unfortunately I don't have any clean live rock to sell either -- the last few shipments I've had a bad run of luck getting contaminated material. They swear they don't keep fish in their rock systems but the fish DNA I find in their samples casts some doubt on that claim. 

On average overall I've found 20% of batches are contaminated. The average over the last 3 orders is 66%. My most recent order: 100%. 

Whether this is seasonal variation, just a bad run of luck in the supply chain, or an overall increase in the prevalence of this parasite in our hobby I do not know. But based on these findings I'd suggest we might want to consider imported live rock as a likely carrier of parasites just like we do the fish themselves, at least for now! 

I dunno.

On the one hand, I am very skeptical that any of the tropical parasites we deal with in this hobby will be present in PNW marine sand/mud. I'd be more concerned about possible chemical pollution than parasites I think.

On the other hand, I'm similarly skeptical about the survival of PNW marine bacteria in our tropical tanks. 

For whatever its worth, I visit the coast regularly, have been known to spend money on marine mud or sand, and have never bothered to bring home any PNW mud or sand into my tank. But lets not base this on gut feelings... if anyone is adding local mud or sand it would be fun to test before and after to see what effects it has! 

Certainly PaulB on R2R has had good success adding mud from Long Island Sound to his tank over the years...

Holy hell man, the cost of the acrylic material *alone* for that tank must have cost more than the sum total of all my aquarium equipment, and I'm running a 12x15 greenhouse full of reef tanks. ([language filter] is up with acrylic costs?)

Nice tank!

Thanks! Deven is a fun guy to talk to. Lots of interesting questions and went perfectly smoothly on the AV side as far as I could tell. 

Sounds like we'll do another one when we talk about his test results in a month or so. 

how dare you guys lowball him like that