barderer

in my 29 cube I siphon off my entire thin sand bed every 6 m and clean all the filth out of it. Then poor it right back in via a tube without even moving the rockwork. It really keeps the algae away. So much nasty out of the sand bed.

I apologize for being so direct in my original post. Thank you for providing some explanation about your opinion.

cool looking coral. I would be interested in buying a head mike.

Yeah I wonder how the poster who concluded its "garbage" went about making this decision.

Here are the peps that I KNOW eat the nasties, they also eat the goodies so remove them after they are done. Lysmata hochi (Can be found all along the southern Texas coast) Lysmata wurdemanni (Wide range all across Texas and the Caribbean )

Derek, its very important you get the right type of pep. Often the ones available to us are not the variety you need. When I get home I will send you pics that will help you identify what type you have. Also, mine only come out at night. That is when they naturally come out in nature as well. N

it blows my mind that people throw stuff like this away on a daily basis. Good job on being adaptable and recycling all that raw material.

I would think that would be a tad risky to introduce to your reef. I would get some peps from someone that has visited the coast lately. My rate of success with Texas peps is 100%.

excellent.

cool, I can also meet you this weekend at RC if that works for you. Or are you avail weekdays only?

ok how about I meet your employee next Friday 9/24 at RC at the time of his or hers choosing.

hmmm, crap my plane does not get in until 9:50pm on Friday. Could I paypal you the money then we can figure something out? I can do Sat and Sun times for sure.

hydro does the spoken for list include my hold? Or did you get others?

Hydro, I would like one of these as well but can't get it until next weekend. If you can sell it to someone else before then by all means. But just keep me in mind for the next round.

I would take the hard advice and cut the coral on a healthy spot and start over before you loose the whole colony. Give yourself ample buffer of good tissue as well. So many times I thought I could "save" the colony just to watch it evaporate. Cutting a lot of frags when you first start to see it go is the best method to save it. N

if the other acan is like the first one I will take it.

according to Aquatek they are still hard to feed because they are so small when they ship them to you.

+1 prof. Glass and acrylic don't bond together. And if its 1/4" it must be a turtle tank or something, because that would bust instantly with 220 gal in it.

nice.

Even tanks up to 150 gal would be fine with a simple powerhead mounted at the surface so enough oxygen gets dissolved for the creatures. A deep cycle battery designed to be charged all the way down and up mounted to a controller circuit jacked off a cheap UPS would be ideal. If you really wanted to get the most life out of your battery you could use a DC power head(Tunze) to avoid the costly conversion from DC to AC from your batt via a inverter. A large deep cycle could probably power your power head for days. During the summer this would be more than enough as heat would not really be an issue as you could avoid running your lights and heavy pumps for days and the coral will be just fine. The tank would stay plenty cool just by the top being open to the air. Now in the winter you would need to heat, so for larger tanks you might need a generator, If I ever did a 200+ gal tank I would throw in a generator to the total cost.

those are oliva snails and they are snail predatory snails. E.G. they will kill your good snails then die. The common coastal hermits are great for fish only tanks but are too aggressive for reef tanks. Nick

cool concept.

I bet most of the stuff we buy is made in China anyway. Anything that is not made with standard parts is almost certainly manufactured in China.

What worked for me. 1) Took out old filthy sand bed and ran glass bottom 2) Elevated rocks off the bottom so flow can get under them. 3) Took out most infested rocks and cured them in a separate dark QT tank. 4) Replaced sand bed with thin fresh bed cooked in separate dark tank. 5) Used phosphate absorption media and phosphate binder. 6) Water changes. 7) Added macro to the display to compete for resources. Phosphate kits are not sensitive enough to pick up the levels required by byropsis/hair to grow.

Fishtales, you have no idea what you are buying and where it came from. Collecting your own livestock is actually one of the most ethical and environmentally friendly things you can do.