OU12004

The Westside is recruiting if you know any volunteers, their numbers are a little thin.

I added another 20 pound bag of black sand that was a heavier grain and I have been shiphoning out the lighter sand when it makes its way to the top. So far no more sand storms.

SPS side after the crash

LPS side

Good to know about the uv, I should have asked about the buffer before I used something that I didn't fully understand.

If it ain't broken don't fix it.

The corals originally bleached white but I reduced the lights to 25% blue and 20% white max and the color came back and the LPS opened back up. They were happy for a few weeks then I decided to change the ph and the with in a few days of the change 3 of 5 sps RTNed. I'm sure the change to LEDs did stress them and didn't help.

I used the Kent superbuffer DKH at a quarter teaspoon every other day and watched the ph until it hit 8 then stopped, but it went up to 8.15 after I stopped putting it in.

I did not test or add anything to my 30 gallon tank and the only loses I had were from corals falling on each other or them attacking each other over a 2 year period.

I got the Apex and figured I could keep everything inline if I could check it everyday for swings, but I am thinking about leaving it alone and just going back to weekly water changes. My concern would be that a drop back to 7.8 would do even more damage.

I have had 3 sps mini colonies die this week and I think it is because I increased my ph from 7.8 to 8.15 over a 2 week period. All of the other corals look stressed out now to. I tested my other tank and it is still at 7.8 with all of the coral looking good. I guess this is what I get for chasing parameters that are listed as ideal instead of keeping everything stable even if it is out of range.

Put me down second.

I moved my Dragon Soul favia over to my new tank and in the process I accidentally broke the rocks it was growing on apart and split it down the middle. I usually see frags that follow along the heads and not split down the middle, should I be worried?

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I submitted the following response.

"I have been keeping reef tanks for nearly 10 years and I have received a large part of my coral population from fragments of other enthusiast corals. Fragging corals and spreading the diversity to multiple tanks increases the population and strengthens the survival rate of the population. Preventing the spread of specified corals, which can be difficult to identify even by educated scholars, will cause a significant reduction in the coral populations being proposed for protection.

The goal of the reef keeping community is not to collect and kill species for display. The reef keeping community spends millions of dollars a year on equipment, supplements, and lighting research all in an effort to preserve and propagate the very species the rule would ban. Please consider the consequences of prohibiting the ownership of live coral from a significant population of conservationists committed to care and wellbeing of the very species the rule resolves to protect."

In dealing with political issues, sometimes people support an issue but do not know how to express it. While a personalized letter is the best, sometimes a form letter people can personalize, allows people to express messages they may not know how to articulate themselves.

Would anyone be interested in working on a general form letter that could be used by others to express their support?

Also bringing this issue to the attention of your reps is helpful as they may not even be aware of the situation and the benefits reefing brings to their district.

What's the green colony next to the right of the Duncan?

It is a neon green from Fishy Business, they had a colony but it was a little to big for my 29

Sold

Picked up these 2 today, hopefully I can figure out why my sps are bleaching out so I can move them over.

Did you make the ATS yourself?

Yes the Dome had 2 Copperband Butterflies, one was swimming around and looked good the other was hiding behind a rock and was not very active. I asked Hunter to feed them and the active one did not eat and the shy one attacked the food. I guess that's why you should see them eat and not go off which one you think looks better.

Found a single Aiptasia so I added a Butteryfly, so far, Butterfly 1 Aiptasia 0.

Does anyone know if the butterfly eats all of it or will it grow back?

Pending thanks for looking.

$50 or open to trades, just no mushrooms they spread way to quick for me.

I have a mushroom rock that will not be making the move so I was going to offer it here before trading it in. It is about 6-7 inches long by 5 inches wide. There are over a hundred purple and green mushrooms as well as a forest fire montipora and purple velvet coral attached.

I'm in the wrong business $940 from selling coral. Hopefully with this new tank and Apex I will be able to grow something big enough to sell it.

LPS side

Happy early Christmas and Merry New Year.

I have started moving coral over and the LPS look good but the Forest Fire and Seasons Greeting started bleaching out so I have moved them back. I have left some German Blue frags in, which bleached out, but are starting to look better.

I have reduced the light to 25% blue max and 15% white max. Ramping up over 8 hours on max for 5 hours.

There are a lot of different ways to be successful with SW tanks I have a 29g with a hang on the back filter and I change 3 gallons once a week. I have an 18 gallon tank with an all in one setup with cheato, and purigen, also weekly 2 gallon water changes, I have had good success with this tank as well. My new tank is a 100g with a sump, skimmer and bioreactor, LEDs and a wave maker pump.

You can have a successful setup with very little equipment but you will have to be very diligent in your tank maintenance or your can go all out on equipment and save yourself a lot of trouble. But like Robb said patience is important.

I am not quite as patience as he is, there is no way I could wait 2 months before adding stuff to my tanks, 2 weeks maybe but I added microbacker 7 everyday for a week and used 30 gallons of water from another tank.

If you go with t-5's and you decide to add coral later go with ATI or Giesmann bulbs.

I went with shopping with the wife and kids today and I will list the fish requested in order.

Can we get a shark? No their not reef safe

Can we get a sting ray? No their not reef safe

Can we get an eel? No, well maybe.

Can we get the pretty black and white pokadoted one he's cool (clown trigger)? No he's aggresive

Can we get the cool one with the horns (cow fish)? No, that will kill the whole tank, it has toxins

Fine what what about the blue one(red tail trigger) Maybe but it is $150 and I think it eats clams.

"Clams just sit there" we should get the other one (blue cheek trigger)

We can get the black and blue stripped one (chalk bass). "That's boring like the fish we already have."

How about the pretty blue one (Macneill's Assessor Basslet) "Boring!"

Please note this was a discussion between my 10 year old dauter and my wife.

My wife was the one asking questions!