PeeperKeeper

I feel for ya. I had a horrible HA problem several years back. I tried the lawnmower blennies, tangs, watching water chemistry, etc. I was about ready to break down the tank and forget it. As a last resort, I did a 100% water change, removed all the rock and scrubbed it with a toilet brush and toothbrushes, removing every bit of HA I could reach. Then I bought about 100 snails and hermit crabs (this is a 75G tank) in addition to whatever was already in there (obviously not enough). It worked. I little while later I got a fuge to further guard against it. I haven't had any HA since then until 2 weeks ago I noticed it on my returns where they hang over/on the water surface. The clean up crew can't get to them from walls or rocks, so I've tried to raise them off the water so that the HA will dry out, but of course it stays wet due to the water from the returns. I guess I can take the end piece that has the HA on it off to kill it. I really don't want to get that stuff started again!

You could do a little experiment and set up a small 10 gallon tank or maybe even just a bucket and spike the ammonia there (put some dead fish in it to rot) and set the rocks with the xenia in there for a day or two. See what it takes to kill it. I agree that spiking your whole tank could be disastrous. Aside from raising the ammonia in the first place to do the job, as soon as all that xenia starts dying, you'll get an even larger spike. That's why I'd just do a few rocks at a time. As for the overflows, sump, etc. I guess all you can do is try your best to scrape it out. Once you get most of it knocked down, your stars can keep up better.

If we piggyback the order to save shipping, do we still count as 10 people? I see there's now a dozen of us, but just wondered. If it doesn't matter to the group order, I'll split shipping with you, CB.

Salifert or Elos test kits? Does it matter or just pick the cheaper one? Oh, and I also meant to ask about the Tunze salt mix. I had been using Tropic Marin and happy with it, but willing to change if it's a good mix.

Actually, I like the fuzzy shrooms and the rocks they're on, there's just a little too many, and I thought I could offset the cost of the SPS I want by selling a few frags of what I do have. Most of them are on a large rock I'd rather not replace, but maybe the ones on a smaller rock could just be traded.

Thanks guys. Guess I need to get over to the bulk order. I almost forgot!

I usually use Kent's Turbo Calcium and Superbuffer DKH. I'm thinking of switching for two reasons. One is I'm just about to add some SPS to a formerly all softies and LPS tank (getting MH lighting finally) and the other is I'd like to take advantage of the bulk order being done with them here at ARC. So who uses the BRS two part system? It's High Purity Anhydrous Calcium Chloride, High Purity Soda Ash (Sodium bicarbonate) and high purity magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride that you mix with water in 3 separate containers. Looks like you mix the calcium and alkalinity products in separate gallon jugs and dose daily, then after you use them all up, you dose a 20 oz bottle of the magnesium mix. So my questions are: 1. Have you had success with these products? 2. Is it more or less hassle than other ways of providing these nutrients (excluding calcium reactors)? In other words, do you prefer other products? The other product of theirs I was looking at was the Reef Chili. Same questions.

I'll be the last "solid' person. I had some questions about a couple of their products, but instead of clogging up this order thread, I'll post separately in the reefkeeping section.

I'm wanting to make some extra room in my tank for some SPS now that I'm getting MH lighting. I have several big swaths of fuzzy shrooms that I wouldn't mind thinning out and I thought I could sell some of them or trade them here to offset some of the cost of the new corals. What is the best way to get them off the rocks and the best way to attach them to something else so the person who gets them won't have to worry about them floating all over the tank? Should I just get some small limestone rocks (cleaned well) or should I get some of those little plates that the frags come attached to at the fish stores? How do I secure them to the rock I want them to attach to and how long does it take? I also might do the same with some zoas. I think I read in a different post something about eye protection? As an optometrist, that's right up my alley, but I'm not sure what the protection is from. Do the zoas squirt at you? Any suggestions are welcome! Here's a pic of my tank just to make this post more interesting. The fuzzies are over on the right side, although I have several patches of them. Sorry about the bad pic. Hard to take pics of the tank without getting reflections from the window.

Did Leroy take this or do you still have it? I want to start some SPS now that I'm getting MH's, but I don't have much to trade unless you're interested in some zoas, shrooms or fuzzy shrooms.

Keep the kitty. She picked you. Make that she HIRED you. Dogs have owners, cats have staff. I don't think ears grow back. I have a 25 year old horse who had part of her ear bitten off by another horse when she was 2. It's still gone. I also had a dog who got in a tussle as a small puppy which caused just a split in her ear about 3/4" long and it never grew back together. I think I even tried taping it. Oh, and what about breeds that get surgically docked as pups like Schnauzers, Dobies and PB's? Nope, you've got a permanent Van Gogh there.

I may be interested in the MH ballasts. I googled the Blue Wave 7 but was confused by this in the description: • 150 watt ballast runs double-ended HQI metal halide lamps or medium base HQI metal halide lamps • 250 watt ballast runs double-ended HQI metal halide lamps or mogul base HQI metal halide lamps Does it run one 150W and one 250W bulb or can it run two of either? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I'm not electrically literate.

I'm interested in the blue. Could you post a pic?

Okay I'm lost. Could you elaborate a bit on what you did for those of us who didn't see the presentation? Are you just cutting an anemone in half? What type of anemone are you doing this with and were there any specific methods you are following based on Anthony's presentation? Oh and what is "TMAC"? I'm not up on all the text lingo, or is it an acronym for something else?

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks Andrew. So tell me about the Premium membership. I don't think you had that when I used to be here a lot.

Oh, and I also tried to PM a mod with this question but still got the error message.

I had a few PM's to reply to in my mailbox, but when I tried to send the second one I got an error that said "you can't send another PM until April 28 12:25 PM" I've been a member here for several years, but haven't been active for a while until just lately when I posted a few things for trade. Is there a new rule that you can only send PM's every 5 - 10 minutes, or what? Oh, and I wasn't sure where to post this question so if there's a better place, just move it. I tried using the help menu (as the error message told me to do) but it didn't have anything for the keywords PM error nor when I typed in the whole error message. Thanks, PK

Cool! It worked. Here's one with less magnification. You can see the line where I put my finger down on it!

Found them! Lets see if I can attach the picture.

Probably not. They are pretty tough. I have mixed feelings about them. Yes, they do some clean up, but they can also get pretty big (not too unusual to see them 4 or 5 inches long in my tank) and it does hurt when you accidentally touch them. The spines are like small cactus thorns. I'm always getting stung when I go to pick up a rock in my tank. I had a picture of my finger with bristleworm thorns in it, but I can't find it right now.

Yes, I think you are right about keeping it running even when you aren't "using" it. When you're first starting out (meaning the first year or two) unfortunately, you will probably have some casualties, even if you do everything right. Sometimes you get a fish that for whatever reason is not able to survive, perhaps even from the way it was captured. Anyway, the point is that you will likely "need" your QT for a while. Secondly, I think it would be a bad idea to use an "empty" tank. When fish come in, they are really scared and stressed. They would be much more likely to succumb to the stress and die if they didn't have some places to hide in the rock. I also agree that you need to let the QT cycle with some rock and/or sand just like a regular tank. Since the new fish are already stressed from their travels, you don't want big swings in the chemistry of the water to stress them further. If you have to use strong medications in the water, it would probably also kill the inverts that come in on the live rock, but it's actually the bacteria you want on the live rock to help cycle the tank. Depending on what type of meds you have to use (copper or other antibiotics) the bacteria may or may not be affected. I'm not sure which "fish people" you've been spending time with, but be sure to go to MANY local live fish stores and talk to LOTS of different people. You'll get many differing opinions and will probably want to pull your hair out because one person will tell you something that you think makes sense, then you'll talk to someone else who will tell you it was completely wrong! That's the best way to learn, though. Then come here and tell all these great reefers on ARC what you heard and you'll get still more opinions! Good luck!!

I just went there for the first time in a very long time and got the message that the server was down or something. I wondered if they had just changed web addresses since it had been so long since I'd used my bookmark. I came here to see if there was any word about what happened. I thought I might find a post a few months old about MAAST moving, but I didn't expect to see the post about it in the Emergency forum. I was looking in announcements and general discussions, etc. Found this when I clicked on recent posts. Well, hopefully they'll get it up and going again soon. Meanwhile, I like ARC.

I do okay keeping up with the day to day stuff on my tank, but when something needs to be taken apart, I get a little intimidated. I've noticed lately that the flow is reduced through my system. I'm not sure if the main pump needs some maintenance or if there's something clogged on the SKWID or in the plumbing or what. Can someone come in and see if they can figure out the problem before the tank inhabitants start getting sick? I'm willing to pay cash or if you need any eye care or new glasses or contacts, I can trade out. Also, recommendations on tank maintenance companies who can work on an as needed basis would be great. Seems most of the ones I know have their regular customers (doctors' offices like mine except the doctors aren't into the hobby so much as they just want a pretty tank in the waiting room) that they do EVERYTHING for but since I generally take care of the water changes, cleaning the skimmer, etc. I only need them when something comes up and then it's hard to get on their schedule.

As I just put in another thread, I just got a Mandarin who eats frozen mysis. Like GK, I don't know about Omega 1, but frozen mysis has always been part of my regular feedings.

I do quarantine my new fish. I've been burned before with having a healthy tank and bringing in a newbie who sets off a chain reaction of ich. With all the rock and corals, once a fish is in my display tank, there's no way I'm going to tear everything up to try to catch it if it's sick, so I'd rather put them in a Q tank first so if I have to medicate I can. I've had my Q tank running with no fish for a while, but every once in a while I put some food in it to keep it cycling. Now I just bought my first new fish in ages, a Mandarin, and he's in the Qtank. On the plus side, since there were no fish in the Qtank, there are lots of pods. It's a small tank, so I'm doing regular water changes in case it can't handle the load of a fish who's actually getting fed regularly.