KarenM

I'm still trying to find a good pic on the net to see what it looks like.

Hi, John. I use purchased RO water and up until my last water change I was using IO salt. Fortunatley, the algae hasn't gotten worse. I cleaned up a small part of it off the sand and cleaned the front glass and one side glass. I cut down on food, specifically spirulina cubes.It hasn't come back and hasn't gotten any worse.

How do you "blow it out of the rocks"? With a turkey baster? I have some pretty big "poo-piles" around the edges of my tank on top of the sand, some piles are the size of a dime. And by the looks of the poo it's my larger snails and not my tiny little fish. Would a starfish clean that up? What cleans up after the clean-up crew? Would anyone know where I could get tank vac attachment thats longer than the usual 8"-10"? Or maybe I could just use the tubing, if I could secure it to something rigid so I had more control over it. I know this sounds strange, but my arms aren't that long and it's awkward to try and vacuum the corners and around the rock and still position myself so that I can see what I'm doing.

Hi, Kris. I'm very interested in hearing about the HOB fuge system. Could you sum it up here? I'm new to SW, and I'd like to hear everyone's opinions and experiences with it as well.

I have an Emperor power filter with a bio wheel and a protein skimmer on my 40 gal tank. I change the filter media every 3 weeks or so. Every couple of days I empty the skimmer and wash out the top part. Should I be taking the filter and skimmer off of the tank and cleaning them out? My ammonia and nitrites are perfect. My nitrates have always been slightly high (at 10 or so), but lately they've spiked up to 40. I'm guilty of overfeeding, so I'm cutting back and doing more frequent water changes until they stabilize.

Ok. Thanks, Yun.

Joseph, I replied to your PM but I guess you didn't get it. I don't know what's wrong with my email. Anyway, I wanted to know if it's all hot pink, or just the tips. Can you send me a pic?

After the rock is cured and the tank is up and running, is there supposed to be specks of stuff still loose on the rock? I bought all cured rock, but anytime I bump it or if I accidentally aim a powerhead at it, particles go everywhere. I don't know if it's leftover food or rock "castoff" or what.

Hi, Adrian. This is what I used: http://www.shop.com/op/sprod-0-p55817440-k...shrimpery-nover I got it for about $3 at 50 percent off at Petland, plus I bought some extra "eggs" for when I run out. But after reading on the internet and such, you can use just about anything to hatch them in. This little box works out good because they swim up to the light in the little clear bottle and you can just dump it your tank (it says to use tap water, but I used tank water for the little bottle). That way the eggshells stay in the black box. Since the eggs are the same thing that is advertised as "seahorses" in the little kits for kids, I would imagine you could find them almost anywhere. It looks almost like a brown powder.

I did expect them to be larger, however. They little guys hatched out just as the box said they would, I poured the little pill bottle into my tank, and WOW! my whole tank came alive! My sea apple woke up and stretched it's arms out the farthest so far, the anemone puffed up, the hermits appeared out of nowhere,even the scooter blenny was going crazy. The only mistake I made was in not taking the lid off the little black box to see if there were more. I did put the pill bottle back in place, but there weren't as many the 2nd time. So I started another batch in a 2 liter bottle. THEN, my friend takes the lid off shrimp box and he discovered trillions more still in there. So I've got plenty of brine shrimp "brewing". I put some Micro-vert in the bottle hoping those would grow a little in the next couple of days.

Battle of the cocoa worms! How much are the purple ones? What do they eat?

Thanks, Bob. I need to get new batteries for my camera. I bought it at your store. There was a small clam and a larger one just like it - I bought the larger one. They were in the tank next to the one with the blue clams. I looked on the net for picks and it looks like a derosa.

Thanks for your info. I'm not going to keep the apple. After doing the reseach POST-purchase, I'm just plain scared of it. I don't want to take it back to the store where I bought it because they'll just sell it to someone else. It's really beautiful, and I don't want it to die. I thought I'd try to talk Captain Bob into taking it at his store. Does Horizon take trade-ins?

I saw the post below about Tropic Marin. I looked for it at the local chain store, but didn't see it. In my whole 3 months of SW experience I've always used IO (recommended by the LFS), however I ran out and this time I bought Coral Life Natural Sea Salt. Any strong opinions about any of these?

Thanks, Kat. I saw your reply to my coco worm post but I think I'd better get a grip on my algae before adding anything else. I have a 40 gal tall tank. I have about 5-6 large turbo snails, 4 nas. snails, 4-5 hermit crabs, and 2 larch conch snails. They usually only surface when at feeding time, but I can see their "trails" often.I'm in Georgetown and using RO water. As for phosphates, I don't even know what that is. I'm new to SW and learning as I go. Hi, Cindy. I'm using RO water from a store called H20 to Go. I do 12 gal water changes, and come to think of it, I've done the water changes weekly for the last 2 weeks because my nitrates were high. I put the 12 gal of RO into a trash can with the salt (IO), buffer, & a powerhead overnight, then do the change. I got the "changing equip", buffer, and the lights all about the same time. And it was about that time the algae began.

Ever thought about giving some away?

Thanks, both of you. I guess I need to step up my water changes 9I currently change 25% every 2 weeks), and cut down on feeding. I'm sure I'm guilty of overfeeding.

My tank is about 3 months old. I cycled it with Bio-Spira. Up until about 2 weeks ago I had only the generic flourescent lights that come with the black plastic hood, then I got some PC lights with actrinics. I've been burning them 8-10 hours per day, after building up to that amount the first week. A few days ago I noticed a little algae on the large turbo snails and some on the powerheads, etc. A couple of days ago I saw what I thought looked like some little shadows on the sandbed. Today I get home and there's brown algae on the sand and algae beginning on the glass. It seems to be increasing really fast. Should I do something about it (if so, what?) or is this a natural progression because of the lights, and if so, will it go away?

It's not gaping open, just not opening very wide. it'll slowly open, but the minute something swims by it slams shut. I recall at the store it opened and closed quite a bit. I do have a sixline wrasse, but it doesn't pay any attention to the snails.

Bought a clam a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what kind of clam it is, sort of brownish. Anyway, I don't think it's opening as wide as it should. I've tried 3 different places, leaving it 4-5 days at each place and nothing really changes. I have PC lights. Do they prefer to be up close to the lights (I tried that and the snails kept knocking it off), or just the bottom (where it was at the store)?

I PM'd you

Shame on you for hijacking!

You can't call dibs on ALL of 'em! Seriously, I' m in no hurry. I'm looking for coco worms, as well. I can't afford to buy much as one time so I may end up waiting on the shrooms anyway. Oh, <badword>. My 12 yr old just explained to me what "hyjacking" meant. Please excuse my blonde senior moment.

That's a good idea, I think we were about to empty poor Cindy's tank! It seems like most of us are looking for blue ones. Do you have any really good blue ones? Would you happen to have any orange coco worms?