thedude

A few people in Austin still have it. It will have to make a resurgence in your new tank

I looked for this species and couldn't find anything. Chances are, it's been incorrectly identified by the collector/wholesaler.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick

You recognize my avatar Brian?

I'm sorry but that made me fall out of my chair laughing haha! Big wrasses in every tank to come! John

Build the tank? I'll get a call into my tank guy tomorrow lol.

I think you're in the market for a nanocube then! What I was thinking was something like a 16x16x24 cube with a HOB skimmer, clamp on halide, and a Tunze nano stream.

I have baby ceriths all over my tank as we speak so don't give up on them too easy fish.gif

Exactly my thinking Joe! A tank like yours, only smaller and perhaps with one of those K2 Viper halides.

Well if you can come up with a design, I can check tank manufacturers for you.

Yes, you just have to clean out the cup more.

Have a big skimmer and skim wet. This means that instead of a dark brown colored skimmate, you'll get a tea colored skimmate.

Stephen, Call me tomorrow and let's discuss John

Personally... nanocubes are a flawed design. Their closed canopy and extra lights makes the tank run at ~84-85 in a cold room. If I were you, I'd get prices for a custom 24g cube!

Never heard of anyone having too much actinic light on a tank. The only way it could possibly too much would be just the tank looking too blue for your eyes. The corals can take all the blue light you can throw at them.

I can't comment on plenums either as I have no experience. Something I've read about, but never wanted to do. As for sand, a few people on here were talking about using crushed limestone from Home Depot. The only true reef sand you can buy outside of a fish store is southdown which home depot only carries on the east coast. I hate rinsing sand enough that I personally spring for the live sand bags everytime.

Velvets don't eat these things, nothing really does.

Aquamedic return pump with the suction cup bottom. Really quiet.

Welcome Willow! We have another member from Copperas Cove, Bcoons. Send him a PM as he always has some xenia to trade away!

Aquatek has a huge dendro colony FYI

I've been preaching tongan nassarius for awhile now and this article was extremely interesting. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/mg/index.php

I agree that DSB were all the rage approximately two years ago. Before that, it was the 1-2inch sand bed, and before that it was Berlin (bare bottom). Now we went back to bare-bottom and right now, I think everyone agrees a little sand is very attractive. Anyway, I'll lay out my opinions (for what they're worth). No sand (aka Berlin method, bare-bottom): Great way to see the exact waste a tank actually makes. Detritus is easily removed through a simple suction and water change. Glass is more prone to breaking during a rock slide (explaining many people's use of starboard material). I've run a tank this way, and I won't ever do it again (unless in a QT fashion). My nutrients were actually too LOW, and the tank in general wasn't as pretty. A tank in this fashion also lacks the biodiversity associated with a sand bed. DSB (deep sand bed as in greater than 4"): Originally developed as a more "natural" method of dealing with nutrients. This method is in fact not natural at all as this is a closed system with a limiting amount of sand. In the ocean, sand beds continue to FEET not inches and the waste created by fish is able to be completely broken down or transported away. This being said, a DSB is a great method but requires you to view your DSB as any other animal in the tank. This animal needs to be fed (fish waste), its waste must be dealt with (stirring with detrivores, sand-sifting organisms, etc.), and it must not be neglected. One other thing to mention is that once established the deepest part of the bed is toxic, and can not be exposed to animals. I personally would only keep a tank like this for a specific sand species, such as a jawfish. Jaubert (aka plenum system): This is essentially a system designed to export a DSB's wastes. Never tried one, never read of one that actually worked long term. SSB (aka shallow sand bed of less than 3") This is really a mixture looking for the diversity associated with a sand bed, with no anoxic areas. I like these beds because they can easily be changed, they can be gravel vacuumed, and they offer the beauty of sand. These two need to be treated as the animal they are and cared for accordingly. I love the look of sand, but like the nutrient export of a BB tank. Therefore, I use a SSB that I replace yearly to bi yearly and vacuum every half year or so. On another note, I've never seen sand act as much of a PH stabilizer until you move animals from a sand bed tank to a bare-bottomed tank (such as a QT). In those situations it is crucial to monitor PH.

I like your 1.5" sand bed personally as it is thin enough that no anoxic zones will ever happen. It also gives you the ability to replace the sand fairly easily should you ever want to. You never said though... what kind of sand are you using? John

I second that the Wave2k inventor/owner (Richard?) is top notch. I never even bought one from him and he was more than happy to walk through designing a custom one for a 30 cube for me.

Yes the first shipment came into Aquatek last week.