PeeperKeeper

Hey you live very close to my office, which is at Parmer and Mopac. Can I just come by and gaze at all your beautiful coral? What a colorful tank!

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?

I have several frags from this mother coral. She is not for sale, but I may be able to be convinced to sell the large frag above her, which probably has at least 20-30 heads. "Mother" is about 4 1/2 " across and beautiful! The photos do not do justice. VERY glowy-green and grows like crazy even though I only have her under HO T5's and my calcium us usually below 400. : Here are a few. They probably have from 8-12 heads on each frag. Let's say the price will be $9/head to make it easy. My tank is in my office which is Parmer Eye Care at the corner of Parmer Lane and Mopac, in the HEB shopping center. It would be easiest if you could come pick up, but I may be able to deliver if you're not to far from either my office or my home which is in Georgetown. Oh, as you can see, I also have quite a few mushrooms and fuzzy mushrooms. If you are interested in them, or maybe some pink zoas (if I can find an easily removable rock that has them on it) let me know. I may not check my PM's here every day, but I'll try to watch them closer while I have this ad up.

I think I'm going to go ahead and post this in the "for sale" forum. I'd still trade one for a nice fat flame angel that's accustomed to tank life, but I think I'll have better luck just selling the frags for a reasonable retail price and buying a flame at the LFS. Anyway, I'll take $70 for the 8 head frags. I think some of them have more heads, so we'll adjust accordingly.

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.

Thanks. I replied to your PM's. I'm really looking for a fish that's been in someone's tank for a while, which is why I posted to trade. I want one that's already been acclimated to tank life. Otherwise, I could just take a frag in to River City and I think they'd trade me for a flame.

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

My stand is looking kinda shabby and I wish I had a taller hood so I could put metal halides in. I also wish I had more room in the stand because it is crammed FULL of sump, skimmer, top off and fuge right now, and I really need a bigger top off. My current stand is about 2 feet tall. Another 6-8" would help, or I might be willing to go for a bigger tank as long as it was just deeper front to back, not lengthwise nor height. If you have something you think might work, let me know.

First picture is of the Mother Candycane, which is not for sale, but I have several frags from her. She is about 4 1/2 " across and beautiful! The photos do not do justice. VERY glowy-green and grows like crazy even though I only have her under powercompacts and my calcium us usually below 400. Most of the frags have about 10 or 12 heads, so I figure they'd be about $100 in a LFS. I think Flames still go for about $50, but if you have a nice fat healthy one who is acclimated to tank life, I'd be willing to trade straight up for one of the frags. If you have other interesting fish I might be willing to trade for other types. Perhaps a Flame Hawk or Royal Gramma, although either of them may be too territorial. Also, you can see in the pics that I have a bunch of mushrooms and fuzzy mushrooms. I could probably stand to part with a few of them if someone really wanted them.

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 generally subscribe to the "hope for the best" alternative, but unplugging the tank is a really good idea. Unfortunately, mine's down at the office. The closet under the stairs is our safe room. Boring and cramped. At least you could do laundry, or sort clothes, BMWaaron. We were just North of the strike zone tonight, at least for the tornadic activity, but my daughters (8 & 10) were worried enough that they wanted to go in the closet. I humored them and let them camp out in there awhile, but my hubby and I stayed out in the living room to watch Mark Murray. That's some fancy-schmancy radar he's got!

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.

I've wanted a Mandarin for a long time, but while they aren't all that expensive, I never felt my tank had enough pods to support one, especiallly since I also have a 6 line. So I didn't want to get one and kill it. But the other day I was at the new Deep Blue Aquariums and they had two of the most beautiful HUGE male Mandarins. I asked if they happen to eat frozen food and he said yes, they do! Really? Can I see? Well, they were more interested in "talkin' smack" with each other through the glass than eating at the time, but he said they were normally piggies and they'd been there a couple of weeks. I decided to take a chance. Well, sure enough, the next morning after I put him in my quarantine tank, I offered some frozen mysis and he TOTALLY went after it! I'm so excited! I think Mandarins are the most beautiful of all fish! This guy is awesome!

Oh, I hate to hear that. He was gorgeous! (Andrew, we need a crying graemlin)

I'm so mad at myself! I totally spaced on the frag swap Sunday. I really wanted to go too, and there's no reason I couldn't have made it except I totally forgot about it. To answer your question, I originally said $10 a head on the frags, but that was when they were 4 or 5 heads and now they're 8 or 9 each. So I may be able to frag one again into a 4 or 5 head if you don't want to spend so much, or I'd take a little less than $10/head if you want a big piece. I've got 2 left still, but I need to look at them to see if there's a good way to frag one again. If you want to see them live and in person, my office is Parmer Eye Care, in the HEB shopping center at the intersection of Parmer and Mopac.