cmanning

That's great! They're usually mistaken w/conch, until you see them in action. Good to hear you save the rest of your cleaning crew.

Steve, Thanks for allowing ARC to host this meeting in your home. Your tank is coming along nicely and you got a great start on your sps collection, great food and good information. -Cindy-

What an awesome pic. of your tank. Very colorful. What size tank? and What kind of bulbs are you running? -Cindy-

Husband and I will be there.

What kind of coffee are you drinking?

Good info. on this article http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php

Several yrs. ago we thought we got a fighting conch and instead it was a whelk (predator to snails. Personally, I've never seen a reef safe conch attacking other snails or eating them, except that whelk we got by mistake. -Cindy-

Its a type of bubble algae. Google under "valonia utricularis" images, you will get several hits and images similar like yours. It seems you can remove it easily without bursting those suckers, just be very careful. Also if you have a tang, rabbitfish or even a emerald crab, one of those will be able to eat it off the rock. Good luck. -Cindy-

Keep an eye on your zoanthid colonies.....if there's one, might be more. Just be watchful. -Cindy-

Welcome to Austin and the forum. You must have a sense of humor, regarding your screen name---"El Guapo", reminds me of the movie "The Three Amigos".

Let me know when you decide to sell it. -Cindy-

I think that's a good idea to add a review section, whether is online vendors or your locals. And we don't have to be nasty or crude but keep clean and direct to the point. Wondering if it would be too much work for Andrew (Starfire)

For the past 4 days the coloration of the polyps has become intense. I'll keep you in mind when it comes time to frag. I'm trying to start a collection of encrusting montis, just like Andrew (aka Starfire). I think they add a nice texture to reef.

Hey ! let us in on the other online calculator.. It's always good to have a few of these in the arsenal. --Robert and Cindy.

Hi Dave - this is Cindy's husband - Robert.. The brand of Epsom Salts is not really as important as the purity. So, just check the label make sure it's USP (United States Pharmacopeia (USP) ) This means you are getting the purity that's pretty much regulated and monitored by some type of an authority - and this one is for standards for human consumption which I can pretty much guarantee carries much more legal weight than technical grade substances (like road de-icer salts) . (Magnesium Chloride) do some of your own Google research using keywords "epsom salts FDA" and you will hit some goods links with PDF files which are MSDS sheets from a company called PQ Corporation which is one manufacturer of both Technical Grade, and USP (Pharmaceutical Grade). Any Pharmacy which sells "Epsom Salt, Magnesium Sulfate, U.S.P. " should be suitable. (We get ours at HEB pharmacy - just because that's convenient for us). Again - use the calculator on the SeaChem Website for quantities to adjust per gallon. And don't raise it more than 100 ppm/day. <-- This is important! It wouldn't matter if you were using SeaChem's Magnesium Salt additive, or Epsom Salts USP as far as the rest of the calculations go. - Just do the changes slowly, because each day it raises, organisms are going to react. (Some things will start new growth spurts - but this means they will start consuming Calcium and Magnesium and Strontium at an even faster rate than before). --But don't worry, this is usually what we stony growers are after anyways, - just be aware that you are going to be altering the water chemistry, and don't shock them - let them adjust. It also takes time for the water to balance so I would wait 6 hrs after adding to re-test for Mg/Ca/KH levels. Do you guys run Carbon? -We do, (Kent Reef Carbon - the pellets). This is to remove any impurities in the additives (we don't trust the industry "completely" on the purity thing, since nobody's watching (regulating) them like USP FDA., etc. The purity of the Carbon is also just as important. For all we know - someone could be bottling USP grade chemicals, and selling them, OR they could just as easily be bottling technical grade chemicals (purity in question). And - it's the impurities we wonder (worry) about. We have observed the chemical content labels on one Manufacturers' brand (will remain nameless here, since this is a public forum): and we note the Mg additive contains 2 types of Mg salts: Magnesium Sulfate, and Magnesium Chloride. The interesting thing is - they don't give amounts like 50/50 or 75/25, or what... so for all I can tell, this could be 99% Epsom Salts (sulfate)and 1% Road de-icer (chloride). There's no way of telling what they are doing, really. At least with the Pharmaceutical grade stuff, we know the purity of what we are getting - check the labels. Most USP labels I see show guaranteed analysis of 9.8 percent water soluble Magnesium. and 12.9 percent Sulfur. Each molecule contains 1 sulfur Atom, 1 Magnesium atom , and 4 Oxygen atoms. (for your weight proportions), so - yes you are buying a lot of oxygen..(in the salt) heh..

Either 4:30 or 5pm will be a good time. Thanks! Here's my phone # 260-3454.

Tomorrow, both my 15yr. & I are celebrating our birthdays, so Monday will be best. Just let me know when you are stopping by.

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-