Dan H

^^^^^^^^

As stated above, there are a million ways to do it, and do it well - so you've got to figure out what works for you.

To expand on why I have no mechanical filtration in my tank comes down to a few things. I'm a believer in keep it simple, and create as few maintenance points as possible... I know I'm lazy. If I constantly have to do maintenance on the tank, it makes it less enjoyable to me. The other problem is anything that requires maintenance more frequently than once a week creates problems when going on vacation. Meg and I have made travel a high priority in our lives, and to be able to do so we need to have confidence that our tank won't crash when away and in the hands of a care-taker.

Mechanical filtration generally has to be cleaned reasonably frequently, ideally every few days. Poo on that. If you don't clean it frequently, it blocks up, and all that bad stuff starts to rot / die and makes even worse water quality.

Mechanical filtration does remove a lot of good stuff. It does remove some bad stuff too... But I'm going to argue it's nothing that a skimmer can't do just as well.

The only thing about no mechanical filtration is that sometimes my water has a bit more particulate matter or isn't quite as polished. I really could care less about that.

No mechanical filtration costs less.

Mechanical filters smell.

That's my logic. Doesn't mean it's right or wrong. It's just how I do.

Why use the filter block at all? I'm not a fan of any mechanical filtration for this reason. It's a PITA to keep clean and it's also removing good coral food.

Lol. Y'all realize she was using her indoor voice right?

When we went to Palau, our hotel had an outdoor pond that was getting fresh seawater pumped in. It was really cool, lots of huge fish, clams, corals, etc... They even let you feed them a few times a day. They even had a little bridge.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g294136-d501941-i178259850-Palau_Pacific_Resort-Koror_Koror_Island.html

Just thinking aloud, but if the event was speakers first, then swap, arguably you probably would need the "frag check". You may want a cooler / bag check just in case you didn't want to carry your bag around, but it would seem less necessary.

Speaking as a vendor, I will tell you it's hard to organize everything by price. Plus I actually want people to ask / talk because then they have to engage with me and I'm more likely to get a sale. But as a buyer, I understand the frustration of being disappointed. At the same time, if you see some stunning coral, are you really that surprised when it's expensive? That's kinda the MO of this hobby.

And on that note, each vendor has their own setup, their own system, and way of doing business. Many of them are hobbyists, so organizing 150 frags by price can be a challenge.

Keep the feedback coming! This is really helpful and lots of good idea.

The only other thing is if it's on the EB8, then you can see how many Amps you're consuming total, which isn't such a bad thing.

Ah yeah, I have a bit more complicated schedule that that. I need to translate it into some profiles.

Ha! I like that idea, a frag check service. Although I have to say that could be really confusing to figure out who's are who's.

I've asked that of myself as well. At this point I still have mine plugged into the EB8, but that's more a function of laziness than anything since I don't need anything else to be plugged in to it. The only thing I haven't figured out yet (not that I've really tried) is to see if I can slow the Gyre's down or even turn them off using just the speed functions when in feed mode. If that can happen, then I don't really see any reason to do so.

Just bumping this as a reminder that it's only a few weeks away.

Looks like you got a lot of goodies. That's a really nice looking Acan.

I would say asking vendors to do that is going to be nearly impossible.

First off, thank you to all of you for coming out to C4. Hopefully you had a great time, learned some new stuff, and picked up some new frags!

While C4 is fresh on your mind, we'd love to hear some feedback on how to make next year's C4 even better. We have some ideas on how to possible improve it but would love your thoughts as well.

It definitely sounds like name-tags or lanyards with our ARC membership cards would be good.

Another thought is to have the speakers and frag swap held at different times - I.E. Speakers are in the morning from 10-noon, then frag swap is from 1-4 or something like that. This way the swap and speakers aren't competing for people's attention. Also, this would shorten the duration some which may be good for those that can't hang out all day.

We're also thinking of having a frag swap only in the springtime.

So let's hear it, what's your thinking?

Yay! Glad you and Noah had a good time. The addiction has begun.

It was really hard not to spend all the money. We certainly picked up some awesome frags.

Yeah, those all kinda look like Watermelons. Well, you can always re-sell some.

So glad to see you have an ATO set up now.

I'm not hearing a problem with that plan.

But those look like happy corals to me.

Can you buy corals throughout the day or at specific times? If you buy one early in the day, will the vendors generally hold them until you leave, or what usually happens?

You can buy anytime during the event. The only exception is that we're asking the vendors to halt sales during the presentations out of respect for the presenters so everyone can participate and hear them speak.

I wouldn't expect vendors to hold, so I would bring a cooler to keep everything at a good temp.

Anyone else excited that C4 is tomorrow? I can't wait! This is going to be awesome.

LOL. Ok, good point.

Ah, well... It's a reasonable experiment to conduct.

Nassarius snails are meat eaters and detritivores. They won't help 1 bit with cyano or hair algae. Also, hermit crabs are omnivores so if there's other food in the tank, they aren't going to touch the algae. They will help clean up extra food that isn't being eaten so in that respect they help clean up stuff. .

You need turbos, astrea, trochus, conch, cerith, and maybe get a tuxedo urchin or 2. Those will actually eat hair algae. Not much will actually eat cyano. You can suck it up using a turkey baster, and help prevent it from coming back by adding some more water flow. I've even added some bacteria additives that has helped with cyano so that may be something to look into.

What are your water params? Specifically your nitrates and phosphates? Likely that's the problem. If either of those params are high, then you should definitely add some of the CUC, but also consider some substantial water changes. That will help quickly get your params in order.

Does the QT have any medications in it?