PeeperKeeper

I'm thinking pretty much the same thing as chrisfowler99. I currently have 6 in my 75G and wondered if I could get a couple more.

It also depends on the age of the tank and what kind of corals you are keeping (ie how pristine the water quality needs to stay). I think mine could probably handle a couple more fish because it's been running for almost a decade so the biofilter is very mature, but since I'm just starting to do SPS I'm not going to chance putting in more bioload right now.

My current residents are all pretty small: 2 mature PJ Cards, a firefish, a small/med flame angel, a large Mandarin dragonet, and a Mystery Wrasse who isn't full grown yet. I'd like to add a sandsifter goby to stir up my sand and a Purple Tang for some more color, but especially the tang would probably add a lot of bioload and I don't want my water quality to suffer at all.

It does frustrate me though when people look in my beautiful (IMO) reef tank with all kinds of colorful soft corals blowing in the currents and say "Where are all the fish?"

Mark, thanks so much for hosting a great swap/meeting! Your tank is beautiful and I really appreciate you opening your home for this!

I learned today it's better to take small pieces to a frag swap than bring the whole rock. Thanks Robin and Laura for helping me separate some of those green paly's into pieces people can actually fit in their tanks.

Robin, I'm really excited about getting the pocillopora! Since seeing the big pieces of it in the show tank at Aquatek, it's been at the top of my want list.

Don, I'm also excited about the rainbow monti. Can't wait to see what it looks like tomorrow after it's settled in a bit. I had to just acclimate all my stuff and leave since my tank's at my office, but I'm going down there tomorrow to see what it all looks like.

Michael, thanks for the purple shrooms. I hope the little red guy you got spreads as well for you as it has for me. If not, let me know and there's more where that came from.

I think it was cmanning I traded my green paly's for birdsnest with. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm trying to cement names and faces in my head. I have to work at that.

Anyway, I hope everyone's trades made them as happy as mine did!

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I never did it, because of the mess. The other reason is that my top off is barely big enough to keep up with my evap and frequently gets drained completely so I didn't want to have to have the dead space in the bottom for the kalk. This sounds like the perfect answer.

Hi Keith! Good to see you posting here.

+1 to above comments. I like mine to be 78-79F but lately since I added the Metal Halide's it's creeped up to 82 on occasion. I added a fan to blow across the sump whenever the MH's are on and it's kept it between 78-80. My plan is to have fans on the canopy to run with the MH's and hopefully that will keep it more stable. I don't like it to vary more than 2 degrees.

Have you seen these locally, or where did you see the $38 price? I'd like to give it a whirl. I don't have a calcium reactor of any kind, but I do have auto top off and always thought I should be using Kalk in it. This would certainly be better than nuthin, right?

I'll try and make it. We were going to be setting up a Halloween scary trail in the back yard, but with all the rain and money being a bit tight this year, I just decided to scrap the idea for this year. Actually, the fact that this frag swap is happening Saturday helped me make the decision because I'd rather go to this!

*Whaps Clint upside the head*

OMG I log on to ARC and gasp when I see your post. My co-worker asks what's wrong so I'm reading it out loud as I look at it . . .then get to the part where it's just a dream. You really had me going!

I'd like a piece of the birdsnest. I'll PM you.

Okay Zara, you're gonna have to post a pic of that coral. I'm trying to imagine it.

Gabriel, those are beautiful acans. Too bad about the Harlequin.

Andrew! C'mon you must have pics of your fave? You're gonna make me Google scolymia?

Zarathustra, I think I saw white lightening sponge at RCA the other day. Euphilia I know, Duncans I'll have to look up too.

Can you do it? Can you pick your absolute favorite? Mine changes from one month to the next even if I don't change what's in my tank.

I'm sure this question has been asked here before, but I couldn't find it when I browsed old topics, so I thought I'd ask it now. I do have an ulterior motive though. I'm getting ready to embark on the SPS route and I'm trying to decide what to get. I only want you to choose from what you currently have or have had in the past in your own tank, not what you saw online or in a friend's tank and wish you had. Take into consideration not only how it looks, but how well it does in your tank, growth rate, care requirements, whether it died 2 weeks after you introduced it, etc. It doesn't have to be SPS, but lets not count the fish in this one, just corals, anemones and other (relatively) stationary inverts. Oh, and I guess if you want to pick two things, your favorite that you have now and your all time favorite that you ever had in your tank, that would be good. Pics if possible, please!

My favorite as of now would probably be my fuzzy mushrooms, but I'm sure that will be changing in the near future when I get some SPS. I like the way they move with the water and the tips have a little bit of a blue glow in the actinics.

My all time fave would probably be the tube anemone in my avatar. I'd say my RBTA, but it was a pain the way it moved around all the time.

IChristin, you seem to be fixated on HA. In addittion to all the other preventative cures, might I suggest a "little patience".

Pat C

I'm not sure how much HA Christian has now, but from my experience, it's hard not to fixate on it when it is all you see in your tank. That's how mine was. I had tried other methods for over a year before I finally got it under control. Patience is definitely important in this hobby and I agree with everyone who says not to do the "shotgun approach" and to give things time to work. However, in the case of HA, there is a fine line between patience and apathy and if you let it take over, it's really hard to combat.

The fact that he made this post shows he's not apathetic, though.

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!

I had been using Tropic Marin for the past several years (not sure if it was pro or not, but didn't have many stonies anyway). This time when I ran out and went into RCA for another bucket, I balked at the price and bought Red Sea.

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.

Rock has not been positioned yet, just sitting in there to start curing. You can see the acrylic rods in the tank currently that will be used for arranging the rock. LR on the way.

Why does non-live rock need to cure? Just wondering. When I first read your post I didn't see where you said "LR on the way" and thought you were saying what's in the pic was live. Didn't think that looked right, lol.

Looks like a great job on the cabinet. I just finished staining my canopy that Prof built for me last night so I know the excitement of getting new stuff set up!

I think I'll be ordering this pocillopora:

http://www.vividaquariums.com/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=05-5825-10&Category=Coral%20And%20Invertebrates:Acropora

It's priced as $21.99. If anyone who lives in the Georgetown/Leander/North Austin area wants to piggyback my order with theirs to save on shipping, I'm up for it!

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.

One of my patients claimed the red shroooms. So all are spoken for, but only one has been picked up.

How long do you think the meeting will last? My husband's class reunion is this weekend, but I might be able to squeeze it in between the lunchtime picnic in G'twn and the evening soiree at Dave and Buster's.

I may have missed it in the previous posts, but is there a specific topic or speaker for this meeting?