Aaarrrggg

Wow, I think I found gifts for my Boston Terrier-breeding Mom for the next decade.

Hehehe! I do love Bostons! Got one myself

Interesting topic!

I run a few Zazzle stores. Zazzle is a website where you can upload your own art and have people buy it on t-shirts, mugs, iPhone cases etc etc... they have a crazy range of products. When someone buys something, Zazzle do all the "heavy lifting" of printing/shipping and just pay me a royalty. So no overheads and v few customers to deal with for me... it's pretty awesome.

If you're interested my site is http://www.cartoonizemypet.com. My husband and I have a few other Zazzle stores too which you can check out on that sites links page if you like. (I don't want to be cheeky and post too many links!)

BTW, feel free to use my cartoon fish as avatars, it's always fun spotting them in aquarium forums. In fact there's a regal tang of mine I keep seeing pop up in ARC hehe

Sorry to see this unique tank go, but in the long run I think you'll be much happier with a bigger tank + sump. So much easier to manage!

Don't count the water changer out just because of distance, I almost did, but the LiterMeter can pull some serious water! Mine goes about 45' -and that's including up and over pretty high doorway. (I believe 60' is mentioned in the manual... maybe more...)

The pipes are the same 1/4" ones you use on RO/DI machines, so it's all very discrete and cheap. The expensive bits are the SpectraPure pumps, but compared to the general cost of equipment it's pretty good really.

I do know what you mean about being able to vacuum though! Still I wanted to make sure you weren't put off solely by the distance. It's surprising what these pumps can do.

Crickey those renderings are good! For a tank this epic you might want to consider setting up an automatic water changer like I have for mine. Check out my thread in the tank builds forum for more info/pics.

I figure you'll have to have a bunch of water on hand anyway, so you might as well hook it up to a LiterMeter. Save having to do all those big water changes and risk spilling water on that soon to be beautiful room!

Black! Oh ****... too late...

Very cool!!! Beautiful tank shape! Can't wait to see this come together!

Nothing new to add, just wanted to say; good rules!

Yay!!

Cute dogs everyone!!

Here are my little guys...

Bandit (Chihuahua)

Don't be fooled by the cute expression... Bandit is a little jerk... which is why putting a silly hat on him is so amusing!

Smokey (Chihuahua)

Smokey IS as cute as he looks. He's not too bright, but he sure is a sweetie. He had to have some teeth out a couple of years ago and now his tongue is almost constantly hanging out.

Link (Chinese Crested)

Link's a real mummy's boy.

Krypto (Boston Terrier)

The youngest of our pack. He's kind of nuts and always up for some rough and tumble.

They all came over from England with us. They all seem to approve of Austin... particularly the interesting bugs and how it isn't always raining outside!

BTW you dog lovers might get a kick out of my site: http://www.cartoonizemypet.com/shop/dogs

(Sorry mods if this isn't allowed, feel free to remove the link and I won't post it again. I just saw all these cute dogs that I've drawn cartoon versions of and I thought people would like to know!)

Whoa great zoas and those yumas are beeeeeautiful!!

I'm still waiting on the AI Nano Sol light to come out, so I can't buy any corals until then. I'll definitely be interested in some next time round though! Keep on fragging!

If you still have some I'd love to take a handful I just set up my new nano and some chaeto would be great for the sump. I live just up the road from you at Parmer + Lakeline Blvd.

Let me know if there's an afternoon or evening that might work for you.

I'd love to see your 300g too!

Looking good! I really love your aquascape!! Kinda making me wish I'd gone with a tall instead of a cube.

Oh wow that's awesome!!! Argh, I want them even more now!

Argh, I'd be all over this if I had a tank right now!

Waiting for my 20g to be delivered and then I have to wait for cycles and whatnot, so it will probably be a while yet...blast!

Edit: Does the flaming prawn actually live in the burrow with the shrimp? I thought they were a non symbiotic kind of goby?

Is it still available? My hubby is interested in starting a FW tank. Any pics?

Aha!! I'm sure I clicked on a store link earlier, but it went straight to the CafePress shop. Must have been a different one, D'oh!

Thanks!

It's probably right under my nose, but I can't find it anywhere!

I'm going to be setting up my new tank soon (yay!) so I wanted to make sure I had my discount card ready for buying sand and what not.

We've been lucky, haven't had any blackouts here, guess it must just be happening further out. I've turned out most of the lights so hopefully someone can have that power for a tank!

I wouldn't be too worried about a few hrs without power. We used to get random power outages in England when some wally hit something they shouldn't while doing construction. I never did anything to the tank and it always came out fine. Mind you we still had heating in the house, because that was gas, but can it really drop that much in an hr in an insulated house?

Cold is at least a little easier for tank inhabitants to survive through compared to heat. They might get a little dozy, but at least they won't have the oxygen deprivation problems you get with overheating. Someone on another forum said their nano was down to the 50s and they were sure everything was a gonna, but as soon as it warmed up everything was fine (clown, zoos, mushies and some SPS I think?)

I've heard some people suggest boiling water and floating it in bags to help keep the temp up. That could be a thing if your temp starts dropping?

Good luck everyone!

Saw someone linking this page on another forum: http://www.coralpedia.com/articles004.php

Not sure if its the same thing or not, but I thought it might be helpful!

I had this happen in my old tank. Every darn frag would close up and melt away.

Never did get to the bottom of it, I ended up giving up on zoos altogether. I assumed I must have picked up some baddie like a sundial snail, that was chowing down on them. I must admit I didn't really take any steps to remedy the problem, just cursed my bad luck. Hopefully freshwater dipping and some drying out can help. Good luck!

Wowy look at those colours! Fantastic!

I can't believe its a 20g! You'd think adding all that back wall rock would make it feel smaller, but it's a beast! Looking forward to watching it fill in.

Awww thanks everyone! You Austinites really know how to make a gal feel welcome!

If you hear some crazy English lady chattering away at her poor husband in Aquatek, say hi, because it will probably be me.

Thanks everyone!

Congrats on all the happy things going there Welcome to Austin! What part? I love your avatar pic- super cute!!

~Stacy

The house we're buying is just off Cedar Park, can't wait to get in there and start decorating!

Hehe glad you like my avatar, the dratted thing took ages to draw! I did him for my website when I was pining after my aquarium. Cartoon fish are better than nothing!

If anyone is interested I have a bunch of cartoon fish on there (plus all sorts of other animals) www.CartoonizeMyPet.com

(Hope its ok to post the address, if not, sorry mods, feel free to remove... just thought people might like it)

Well it's been almost 3yrs since I joined this forum to ask about good Aquarium shops to visit on my trip to Austin. At the time I had 55g tank and was living in the UK with aspirations of moving here with my boyfriend.

Fast forward 3yrs and my boyfriend is now my husband and we finally made it through the red tape (and our own disorganization) to move across the pond to Austin!! We actually got here April last year, but as we've been renting and settling in, I haven't had much time to think about aquariums (ok, if we're being honest I thought about them a whole lot but couldn't do anything about it!) That's all about to change though as we'll be closing on our dream home next week and I cannot WAIT to get an aquarium in there!!

The (My!) original plan was to convert a wet bar in the family room into a huge custom build, all bells and whistles, plumbed in monster aquarium! Big is better right? But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the fish and corals I like the best are actually the little ones. I love my Yasha Haze gobies and my Sexy Shrimp... Rics, Zoos and general Softies! So after much soul searching I've decided to keep the dream aquarium as a dream (for now anyway!) and focus on something smaller.

Now I have my heart set on an Elos Mini (20g)...man those things are beautiful!

As soon as I order one I'll be starting a build thread, but I just wanted to poke my head in and say "Hi!" and that I'm so happy to finally be over here with you all (I guess it's y'all now right?)

Fran (aka Aaarrrggg)