cmanning

Scissortail is doing great, its been eating real well for the past 3 days, so appetite was not an issue. I believe something or someone scared him to go an hide, and now its swimming about and eating.

Some LPS's do this . - Ours does. (This is different from ejection where the entire head comes out, right?) I've seen candy canes reproduce this way, as well as frogspawn and torches. - I think it may be a stress induced type of reaction.. If you can get it to become stable somewhere (instead of floating all around the tank) then that is what I would do until it calicifies a new base. Anywhere you can trap it and still get light and some (reduced) flow will work. (this can be hard to do). There's been times I wised I had a tiny plastic cage for those things. - We have very high flow in our tank - and they always get lost back in some dark corner (where they die without light). Any ideas anyone?

OK - sorry we got on your case about the ammonia . - We wondered if the ammonia was really 10 - I don't think I know of a test kit that will even read that high.. The gasping for air would be either symptomatically suffocating or just plain scared to death of something. Could it be the foxface is just harrassing him to the point where he is wanting to "get out of the tank" ? We did own a foxface early-on (1st year) in our reef life. (about 2003 or so I think) and we really liked him..BUT he did turn the tank into a nervous wreck with his constant full bore dashes from end to end and it got to the point where acclimating any newcomers was really impossible with his antics.

I agree w/everyone, if the temp. is accurate them you need to bring it down. Do a water change to bring down the ammonia. Do anything you can to get the fish out of the high ammonia. Immediately!

I believe you might be right. Someone came to visit and took a look at it said the same. The back part of is shows more of its baby blue encrusting flesh, probably need to move it midway for stronger lighting. Thanks for the info. -Cindy-

Clowns & anemone--SOLD

The anemone is under 145w PC, we know that it would do better w/ halides and probably color up a bit more. By the way, you, your wife and daughter have been to my house. If you remember, you bought some zoas frags from us. -Cindy-

I need to break down 50g. tank, but first, livestock has to go. Light green carpet anemone 12" dia. and pair mated true percs. Asking price $85 for both.

We recently replaced the old bulbs w/ the new bulbs, and this encrusting monti is starting to get more color. Can anyone ID? TIA, -Cindy-

Welcome to the club!

I agree w/the reply above and go w/someone more reliable. When it comes to bulbs, the packaging and handling is important for customers to receive undamaged merchandise.

Question.....In this meeting, what's the topic going to be about? -Cindy-

Okay, I'll give it a try.

Ok James - special note #1: Never add anything you don't test for. -Arm thyself with a good Mg test kit. Seachem's - gets you 75 tests for about $48 and includes an 1180 reference mix. If you find a better kit out there for Mg - let us all know (after you've used it). Initial test: Find out how bad your Salt Mix is on Mg. Mix a fresh batch to 35 ppt, --> Aerate till PH is up to 8.2 --> run Mg and Ca tests on this batch and record the result. Use this as a reference point on where you are starting off at. Remember - each time you do a water change with a Salt Mix that has only 950 ppm Mg you are "hurting" your Mg levels in your tank. I know - it bites... but every Salt manufact is doing the same thing..and then selling us "additives" to make up for it - no amount of complaining from us is going to get them to change this practice, as it makes them a ton of extra $$$. -the Epsom Salts quickly pays for itself at 1.89 for a 4.4 lb (2 Kilograms) bag. It took us initially 5 Kilograms to get our 300 gallon system raised from 950 to 1350.. (about 5 bucks in MgSO4) Now - since our favorite salt mix (because of the other things it DOES contain in NSW concentrations) happens to read 950ppm Mg We only need to put about 1lb into the RO top off every time we do a 30 gal water change to keep our Mg at 1350. Useful tool: I found at Seachem's website --> their calculator which lets you figure out how much of their Mg product to add per gallon to raise the Mg from your starting concentration (whatever your testing showed) up to the recommended endpoint of 1350 ppm The calculator is very easy to use, and (it works out the same for Epsom Salt quantities per our testing here). go conservative a bit.. and test and tune to suit.. (This is why getting a 75 test kit was worth it). Note: do not try to add MgSO4 crystals directly to mixed salt water--> it's already super saturated, and you may force the water to precipitate it right back out of solution.. Instead - try to mix it with pure RO in your top-off water. Don't raise Mg levels too fast.. .no more than 100 ppm/day Final Note: raising Mg from 950->1350 ppm in a 300 gallon system using this method initially raises your refractometer reading form 35ppt to 36ppt but don't panic - I have seen it drop back to 35 ppt as the week progresses and as evap gets replaced with RO once you stop adding MgSO4. You may notice you don't need nearly as many CaCO3 additives once Mg reaches NSW level. For us - we have saved $40/month in additives by getting our Mg right. (We do run a reactor constantly though). We haven't had to add any other additives (which we used to have to do pretty constantly before we tested/remedied our Mg problem). What's bizarre is how much the montipora growth rate has shot up since doing this back in August. I never thought possible to see these growth rates (without tons of additives) in a home tank. Oh - and we have to credit the info /lectures on Mg levels and the importance to the overall chemical balance we got from the last ARC meeting we went to. I had my suspicions abut Mg levels before that meeting, but afterwards I was convinced to finally do something about them. I was initially shocked/dismayed at the Salt Manufacturers mixes reading so low in Mg...they must think we hobbyists are a little "chemically challenged" or something. They way I see it we have three choices in the world for adding Mg MgSO4 (magnesium sulfate) MgCl2 (magnesium chloride) MgO (magnesium oxide) Of the three, I don't like add chloride, as there's enough sodium chloride in the system already (salt) and the precipitate release is chlorine. (Yuk) the oxide one is very unstable, and reacts too violently (won't stay in solution long enough to be useful), so that really only leaves the sulfur choice as practical. H2S is a natural endpoint of the anaerobic bacteria process (later turns to DMS before released into atmosphere) - since this process is prevalent in the oceans already I feel safer introducing an excess of sulfur atoms into the system than an excess of chlorine atoms.

If you get a chance, check out the members gallery pics. "House Filters". -Cindy-

James - we have been using a Milwaukee Model "MR100ATC" (see specs at www.milwaukeetesters.com) for the last - uh... I guess it's about 4 years old now. We only paid $79 for it back about 4 yrs ago. No problems with it yet. We do clean the prism lense on it with R/O after each use. We just calibrate it to zero with R/O (there's a tiny adjustment screw and screwdriver comes with it). The housing appears to be all metal - but encased in rubber (nice grip) and the eyepiece turns like that of a monocular to get the scale "in focus" (for different people's vision). -So you don't need glasses to read it. comes in a nice vinyl case, but for the price I guess I couldn't expect leather case eh ?

#1: Epsom Salt. 100% (pharmaceutical grade) at your local pharmacy. #2: Got Vampires? - just kidding.. - never used it myself As for suppliments : Just the Calcium Reactor.with ARM. plus 3 drops of iodine per 300 gallons about once every 2 weeks. (Lugols - in the sump). Return water from sump goes through 2 GE Whole-House filters - one loaded with Kent Marine Reef Activated Reef Carbon, the other loaded with Phosguard. All we do is: Weekly: change 30 gal of water (300 gal system). and add 1.5 Kg of Epsom Salts to make up for the Salt Manufacturer's Mg deficiency. Once a month - change the Carbon and the Phosguard out of the return lines filters. Twice a Month: 3 drops Lugols.. and clean the skimmer bucket (both skimmers output chambers) We use a DSB in both the 125g sump. and the 215 display. Sump is lit all night via PC's.(off in the day when display is lit). Macro grows in sump.

I figured that since my Naso and the rest of the crew eats all type algae......they would probably finish it off. I keep it in seahorse tank, so it's pretty safe there. I was wondering whether tangs/rabbitfish would eat it , Im assuming they would.

IMO, setting up the calcium reactor would be the best way to get your SPS to thrive. You can keep your PH in check w/a ph monitor probe. And check your magnesium....this will help tremendously in the growth for your corals. -Cindy-