Teresa

congrats - and thanks for the bubble - he's so cute

I love that you are in round rock . I live just south of you in Pflugerville and I'm used to having to drive really far to pick up frags, etc. Yay for living North East!! I won't be able to pick up until the evening however. What are some good times (I'd prefer not to interrupt your dinner or anyone's bedtime)? Thanks for everything T

I hope these are better pictures - someone told me the other was too small. Let me know

Now includes free delivery to any place within a 40 mile radius of Pflugerville! With gas prices nowadays that's a steal!

How incredibly frustrating!! As I get more and more into this hobby I am realizing that the only companies worth doing any business with are those with superior customer service. Companies are going to have to realize soon that if their customer service doesn't catch up to their technology - then they won't have any customers to do service with. I think it's important that we share this information to save each other from having the same headaches. On the flip side of that token - I think it's incredibly important that we share with each other which companies have superior customer service (sometimes at the detriment of their own profit). We need to support those that truly care about this hobby! That being said - I will say I have had amazing experiences with captainsalty's (ebay), reefcleaners.org and seahorsesource.com. I'm not yet willing to spend a ton of money on technology - but the goods I have purchased from these retailers stand out in my mind due to their excellent customer service. Thanks for the heads up Steven!

mine originally came as a loose clipping and has grown great on its own! I have since attached it to a frag plug with a rubberband so it stays in one place. It has continued to grow well (I originally tried super-glue, but it didn't like that much and "freed" itself). Pieces have fallen off in my attempt to move stuff around and these "new clippings" have also grown great just floating around the tank or pushed slightly into the sand (though I've found the algae is much more appreciative if you dig a hole first and then push a tiny bit of sand over it to hold it down - rather than try to push the algae through the sand). Good luck!

Hey - I just ordered from them yesterday and didn't realize we had a group buy going on. I emailed John at reef cleaners to see if he can add my order to the mix. If so, I'd be in for $24.48 or $19.48 if he lets me keep the five dollar off coupon. We'll see. Where do we pick up our order when it comes in? If we don't qualify for free shipping - how do we calculate our shipping cost in a group buy?

i'm new to this so I don't know. But I do know that Dan and Abbie at seahorsesource.com are very knowledgeable! They have helped me so much. I highly encourage you call them or whomever you first purchased the horses.

I agree with Robb. Clowns usually have a territory they like to protect and will bite other fish if they get too close. Moving the rock around was a good idea so everyone in the tank has to reestablish their territory. If your tank provides the space, and you don't already have one, you might get a bubble anemone the clown can host. Mine never travel more than a few inches from their anemone and other fish have learned to stay away.

'course I always feel guilty about the cycle of life humor - I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed being thrown away if I was a sculpin. Comment made me laugh none the less

Ok - so i've been waiting to respond until I heard back regarding job interviews. Well good news - I've been accepted for a new job today!! Now I'm ready to join everyone on the trip. Where do people stay? I can camp, but to be honest I prefer a motel/hotel room with shower. Can I bring my dogs - or will they scare all the collectibles away?? I'd love to stay where other people are staying to socialize more - It'll just be me and my dogs (if allowed). LMK Teresa

I only bought the nano cube 8 mo. ago brand new. As I am now recalling, the GFCI circuit used to trip when I had my old aquarium and 70w viper. I would come home from work and the system would be off. I always assumed there was a power failure during the day or something. I agree that there seems to be too many amps pulling on the system when the lights come on. I'll see what my builder has to say first. They are really good at getting back to me - already had a faulty kitchen fixture and broken/leaking ac that they fixed inside of a week's time.

So when only the light are plugged in, the system handles it fine. When I leave the lights on and plug everything else in, the system stays on. The power trips when the lights go from being off to on. I wouldn't think that there is too much electricity running through the system that it can't handle the burst of energy that happens when the lights first come on. I'm thinking something is wrong with the GFCI in the kitchen. It's tripped throughout the year at random when even less items have been plugged in. It's a brand new house so I have a bumper to bumper warranty. I'll submit a work order just to be sure. Could it be something else? Is it possible I'm running too much electricity on the system? It's only a 2 gallon nano w/13w light, canister, the 12 gallon nano with stock light and pump, a couple of fans, etc. hummmmmm.

ditto - i live in north pflugerville if one location is more convenient than another.

Hi All, My 12 gallon jbj nanocube stock lights (2x24wPC) keep tripping my kitchen GFCI and the power goes out to all the outlets in the dinning room and kitchen. I discovered it was the lights through lots of trial and error - but I don't know what this means. Is there a short in the system? Do I need to replace the bulbs (they are about 8 mo old)? What's strange is that this tank has it's own GFCI power cord, but this isn't tripped - just the main one for the kitchen/dinning room in my house. Do I have too much electricity running through the system? I have my 2 gallon nano in the dinning room and my office supplies as well. I've unplugged my laptop, printers, etc, but the system continues to trip. If there is something wrong with the stock lights how do I fix them? I've got corals that need light! Ideas? Help!! T

pmed

I had a squareback anthias in my tank for a month. Absolutely loved him! My bad for not setting up a quarantine. I didn't know it there was a bacterial infection floating around until after he died and my chromis showed red splotches. The squareback really did have a purple square on his side. It was so cool looking!! Once I have money and a quarantine tank - I'll be looking to get a new one.

bump for the three day weekend - will be available at most times.

Love the pics!! Every time I see the larger sea horses I have to stop myself from setting up a second tank On the red macro - I ordered three frags from ebay. So far I'm very happy with the purchase, they were inexpensive, arrived healthy and have been surviving in my tank for 2+ weeks. These frags are small - but mine are already growing .

You should be able to google this - try "auto water change top off" or any combination thereof. I've recently done a ton of research for ATO for my very small tank and ran into a lot of discussions on this topic. Most people say they turn off the ATO, drain the water for the water change as normal, then hook up the ATO pump to the new saltwater and the pump will fill the tank to the correct level due to the float switch. It sounds like you'd like to do both simultaneously - as you drain the water the pump would bring in the new saltwater? I remember reading on another discussion forum someone that did water changes like this and it worked well.

I hope Patrick is okay??? I know he was really looking forward to the meeting . . .

I was really looking forward to meeting everyone - then I took another look at my gas tank and the distance. Money's tight right now so the drive was just a bit too far for this weekend . Please post what ya'll learned - I'd love to hear!!!

Its all about watts per gallon. Depending on what you want to have you need anywhere from 3-6 watts of light per gallon. For soft corals and polyps (you mentioned above), you can do the lower end of 3-5 watts per gallon. River City Aquatics is maybe ten minutes or less directly north of Gallery of Pets and they are much more knowledgeable about salt water. I too, started with Gallery of Pets but over the past two years they have significantly reduced their salt water inventory in favor of exotic birds. GoP usually only has one staff person (if that) on duty that is knowledgeable about saltwater. Everyone at River City Aquatics can help. RCA is right off the 183. Take the McNeil exit, continue on the service road heading north and then turn right on Roxie drive (it's before Anderson Mill Road). RCA will be on your left. They also sell okay reef light fixtures at Petco for a decent price - but no one there will be able to give you advice. Go to RCA. PS - Aqua Dome is down south and they are very knowledgeable. I mention RCA cause you'll be up north returning the light anyway. Hydro Innovations lives in Buda - send him a pm and ask where he likes to shop down south. You really need to go to a saltwater aquarium specialty store to get the right advice and products.

I'm the same way. I've been using the test strips because they are so easy - but I've lost fish and coral to their inaccuracies. Currently I do a head count and visual check. I use the visual check to monitor if everything is ok - but this is usually too late. Anyone have suggestions for those of us without time for daily testing (or in my case lazy)? What tests should be done at a minimum and how often?

tried it today. The goby and shrimp came out and ate some bbs from under the waterer - but the sea horses stayed in their hitching spots throughout the tank. I even tried to corral a couple of them and they wanted nothing to do with it. I decided it wouldn't be nice to make them go without dinner, so I ended up dosing the entire tank again. I'm going to give it another try tomorrow - but I doubt they will go for it. The last thing i'm going to try and am in the process of making is a completely mesh feeding station that maybe I can drop into one of their favorite hitching spots. Really not sure if it'll work, but we'll see. Any other ideas or clean up suggestions are appreciated!