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thedude

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Posts posted by thedude

    Miscellaneous questions from a newbie (long, I'm afraid)

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    We always love to recycle styrofoam containers as they can be reused time and time again, anytime you purchase something new. It's is very polite to bring one back in but we'll never mention it if you don't. That's a GREAT questions and as Robert said, your quest for knowledge and patience in yet again refreshing. These should give you success in the marine aquarist hobby in the future for sure!

    John

    Anyone lose power?

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    We lost power at the store for 24 hours and it sucked. 10 pm Tursday to 10 pm Friday. 3 generators managed to keep most of the livestock alive but I shudder at what would have happened had it been hot out.

    green slimer in austin

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Robert I know a bunch of people that have it, including myself. Mine isn't ready but I can definitely hook you up with someone who is.

    Discus - That's a really cool coral but not the green slimer. The slimer (a formosa I believe) has electric green polyps and corallites.

    Are leather corals toxic?

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Leather corals, especially sarcophytons, do release a toxin into the water continuously. It's a major growth inhibitor that allows the leather to flourish and the other corals to wane. Running carbon in a tank with leathers is always a good idea as it soaks up many of those toxins. Leathers and SPS DO NOT mix.

    Tropic Marin Pro

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    The deal with all LFS stores is this, they can't compete price wise with the online vendors on dry goods. Think of the online vendors as the wal-marts of the fish world. They can buy pallets and pallets of salt so they get a great deal on it. Then they can sell it to you cheaper and normally do.

    You're paying a slightly higher premium to support your local fish store. This is the place you'll NEED in any time of emergency, where you get to see your corals and fish before you buy them, and the place that offers education and sponsorship to sites such as this. Sometimes the choice is obvious, you'll have to support the big online giants because they have SUCH a better price. My opinion though is that if you can buy it at the LFS for a reasonably higher price, I'll take my LFS anyday.

    John

    ID this please

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    I think we'll have a for sure ID when it begins to grow out a little more. If it tables, it's an A. cytherea and if it keeps a typical baseball shape like most acro colonies, it will be the A. vermiculata.

    John

    Great picture btw Mike.

    Carbon Test

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    The typical fluidized filter most notably the phosban reactors increase the efficiency of the carbon by something like 200%. That's a TON and if at all possible, run the media in one of those reactors. I don't have the space for the phosban reactor and run it in a bag in my sump's drip tray and it works just fine.

    John

    Let's see those clam pics!

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Mike,

    Just an FYI but in the pictures you've posted (especially the picture of the two croceas side by side, top down) the clam on the left seems to be very very distressed. He's gaping severely and almost looks like there is a piece of rock or something inside his mouth.

    John

    Getting our local stores to carry velvet and berghia nudi's

    in Off Topic Discussion

    Posted

    Just to clarify, they are not orange nudibranchs you're dealing with I believe. I think what you are referring to is the reddish orange flatworm. They are a predator and can smother a coral with their numbers jumping into the thousands. Flatworm Exit is reef safe but the chemicals the flatworms release are very dangerous. The best method is to actively suck them out of your reef daily for clost to 2 weeks then follow the directions on the chemical. The chemical praziquantel is another viable option to eradicate them.

    John

    Getting our local stores to carry velvet and berghia nudi's

    in Off Topic Discussion

    Posted

    They aren't readily available and die often in captivity. We've had berghia's before and they almost always sit in our tanks as I feed them every aptasia I can find, while they slowly starve to death. The velvet nudibranch only eats flatworms and we don't stock them because they also have a horrible death rate in captivity with no lasting food supply. The velvet nudibranch is definitely something that needs to be left in the ocean IMO and there is a local guy who raises berghia. His handle is Instar on MAAST.

    John

    Coralvue Reeflux Bulb Problems

    in Emergency Discussion

    Posted

    All,

    These are the best bulbs I've used so far but Coralvue is having some consistency issues. The bulbs are supposed to be a crisp white with a blue tint when burned in but many people running more than one are reporting different colors between bulbs and most notably, a gross pink hue. David from Coralvue is replacing the bulbs that are defective. David's contact info is below:

    His contact info as at coralvue.com.

    http://www.coralvue.com/contact.html

    Vue Technology LLC

    Phone: (985)781-9078

    Toll Free: (866) 277-9078

    Fax: (985)781-9081

    Just a little FYI for all those not entirely pleased by their bulb. Clint you might want to look at this if your bulbs are at all pink. It also seems to have occured after they switched to the new blue boxes with reeflux stamped all over them. When I received my bulb it was in a plain white box with almost no label showing what it was.

    John

    Future Maxima Clam Imports

    in Reef Keeping

    Posted

    Jim,

    I know that back in the day you were the clam god. Is there anyway to get maximas in right now, even if they're on the small side? I think everyone would be real interested in a group buy and the such and I've always had great luck dealing with Barry at Clamsdirect.

    John

    Austin Frag store

    in Off Topic Discussion

    Posted

    A couple large problems to consider;

    First, the reason a place like exoticreefs is so successful is their coral farmers. Every farmer that they have is a world class reefer that most of the SPS community know and respect. Hard to say, but I'm afraid none of our tanks come even close to that of SniperSPS's beautiful aquarium.

    The second reason most other frag sites like Atlantis Aquariums and Frag Farmer are successful is because they have access to all the premium acros coming in from overseas. We just don't have that same ability here in landlocked Austin. If someone came forward and said they knew such and such coral gatherer on Vanuatu, then it would be a different story.

    The third reason is that once a frag goes "LE", how long would it take to acquire a piece of that coral, then propogate it enough to sell? I mean the oregon blue tort CRAWLS along to grow and the true purple monster is even slower. I'd have to think that you'd have a much easier time "financing as you go" by selling on frags.org, reefcentral, or best of all locally.

    I think having a collective frag bank locally would be a great idea but nationwide? When I say collective frag bank, I mean a directory, linking each person with what they have growing currently and the asked price. Then there is the caveat, what if one person gives terrible frags and (god forbid) spreads red bugs unknowingly cross country?

    Haha and then the obvious reason is that we only have 35 members and all of them are by no means active on the site. I do like the idea however of a local frag directory so that if you are looking for a specific coral, you can check to see if it is to be found locally. This way, the money goes immediately back to our local reefing community and not to LA.

    Just my 2 cents,

    John

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