NonSequitur

That's awesome! Sure, you could have gotten a new one, but there's something to be said about preserving something to be passed down through the generations, and when your son is old enough to understand the difference, he'll appreciate that you *made* it for him rather than just whipping out the plastic to buy it for him. And you're right on about getting kids outside and off of the game console.. so many kids now will never understand the joy of playing around outside, or riding bikes with friends, or just standing in the front yard and spinning in circles until they collapse. Sounds to me like you're on the right track.

Yup.. he carried it around for a few weeks, then dropped it into a powerhead.

I asked my wife this question, and she wanted me to ask you what you mean by "love your tank." What is it that you want your wife to love about it? Comment on how it looks? Help with maintenance? This coming from a wife who bought me my first tank, then immediately regretted it because that's all I would talk about for months on end. She actually insisted on me joining ARC so I would annoy someone else with my obsession. Fast forward a year and a half, and she just suggested sticking around San Antonio for an extra hour so she could wait until her favorite fish store opened so we could get another skimmer to support the tank upgrade she just suggested I do. While we were there and I was deciding what to do skimmer-wise she picked out an urchin, and a new pistol shrimp so the watchman goby wouldn't be lonely since his shrimp died. She decided against a hippo tang after looking it up on her phone and deciding our tanks weren't big enough to keep it happy and healthy. She attributes her change of heart to a few things. First, when I joined ARC and could "talk fish" with someone other than her it took the pressure off of her to listen to me babble on and on about water chemistry, filtration, etc. As the newness started to wear off I kept tinkering with the tank, but didn't obsess to the point of neglecting the family. Just when I thought she'd had it with the entire hobby I mentioned wanting to add a clownfish to my already overstocked 12gal tank she replied "No way, it'll spike your nitrates!" Huh? She'd been listening all this time? It was backing off, not pressuring her to love my tank, that actually let her start to enjoy it, along with putting things in the tank that she liked. The symbiotic pistol shrimp/watchman goby relationship fascinated her. SPS corals bored her, but colorful zoas, softies, and LPS were huge hits. And then she said the words every married reefer wants to hear: "You need a bigger tank." And so our family has gone from a single resented 12gal to an interconected 90, 27, and 55gal system (plus multiple planted freshwater tanks), with her being an active part of tank care. I still service the skimmers, do water changes, etc, but she loves feeding the fish, watching to see how they're doing, seeing the interactions between creatures, she even noticed my lawnmower blenny was losing weight and rehabbed him to his former fat self.

I borrowed one from Jake at River City a few weeks ago, I think they charged something like $5, and I kept it for a week.

I've seen people use clip-on 150w MH lights on tanks of this size (I think there's one listed in the for sale section if you're interested in going this route) , but that requires removing the tank lid. Nanotuners carries upgrade kits that allow you to run higher wattage PCs over your tank (a 96w upgrade if I recall correctly). My 12g aquapod was running on a 96w PC for a while before I took it down, it worked quite well, but I'm probably going to switch to LED when I bring it back up as a mantis tank.

Not sure if the Army would allow it, but CRDAMC would be a great place for it, either that or Austin Lakes Hospital. Either place could use that sort of calming, peaceful influence.

I'm probably going to end up doing the same, since nobody seems interested. I moved a few dozen into my sump, where they promptly clogged up my return and skimmer pumps.

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I've decided to thin out the population of asterina stars in my tank, since I think they're irritating my zoas. I don't want to leave them out to dry, but from what I've head harlequin shrimp love them. I have a couple of dozen in a cup already, will be pulling more out as they move into areas where I can catch them. If you want them, they're yours. I also still have plenty of kenya tree and finger leather frags that I'm happy to share, all I ask is that you come to georgetown to get them. PM me.

My first impression was toadstool leather.. could be a majano as well, but I wouldn't kill it until you know for sure. If in doubt, I'd say put it in your sump/fuge until you can make a conclusive identification.

I think Hydro posted a while back about a local hydroponics shop that stocks something like that, trying to find the post.