ejaustin

I think I'm about ready to add fish to my tank. (Currently has mostly macroalgae and snails, with a few hardy corals.) I plan to add a shrimp/goby pair and a couple PJ Cardinals. My question is which should I add first and why? I think if I add the shrimp/goby pair first, they will be able to explore the tank more leisurely and find the best home in the tank. OTOH, I think adding the cardinals first would give more life and movement to the middle part of the tank and might encourage the shrimp/goby pair to settle more quickly when they come. I plan on waiting a couple weeks after the introduction of the first fish before adding the other. Just interested in others 2c. ej

An open source alternative to Photoshop is GIMP. (http://gimp.org) I've never used Photoshop, but the GIMP works well for me and is available for Win, Mac, and Linux. ej

I plan to be at the meeting as well. My brother will come with me. Maybe my grandson (age 6). Possibly my son-in-law (but I doubt it). Could be my daughter will tag along. How important is it to have a firm count? ej

Cool. Thanks for the information. ej

I received 2 free corals as part of an order. I'm pretty sure this guy is a toadstool: And I think this guy is a leather: Am I close? I actually got 2 of the 2nd one, but the other has moved down in my tank, in the back. I didn't know corals could move around like that, but he seems happy enough so I'll just leave him. And I'm assuming I don't have to feed these guys directly. (I know you do have to feed some corals.) Is that right? Should I add phytoplankton now and then? ej

Never mind. My brother figured it out. ej

Okay, I have one of those snazzy Hydor Koralia powerheads with the magnet to hold it in place. I took it apart and cleaned it a couple weeks ago. My daughter put it back together. But the shaft is not lined up right. If I have it sitting on the magnet end down on the counter, which way do I turn the cage to get it off -- clockwise or counterclosewise? It doesn't seem to want to go either direction very easily, and I'd rather not break it if I can avoid it. (I have the little cage off. I'm talking about the one that the end of the shaft rests against.) Boy, do I feel dumb! ej

Reybeast, sorry to hear your order went astray. My snails and hermits were mixed together in one bag and I didn't actually count them. (Some of the dwarf ceriths are t-tiny!) I did get some critters that have shells that are striped like bumblebee snails but with a cerith shape to them. Might be the hermits. I don't see anything like them on the reefcleaners.org site. ej

Got it. I'm so happy!!! Thanks so much, Rob. ej

Are they here yet? Are they here yet? Are they here yet? ej PS. Are they here yet?

Check. If you let us know when you receive the order, I might elect to zip out to your place for my lunch hour. ej

I work up by the Arboretum and don't get out of the office until between 6 and 6:30. I'll come wherever I need to come to pick up my order. It could be close to 7 before I could be there. That's a long time for you just to hang out. So I guess I'm saying I need to know where to pick it up around 7. ej PS Sorry to be a pain.

I'm in. $64.15. Also, I work up by the Arboretum and live near Brodie and William Cannon. So if my stuff could get to 183 and Lamar, I can pick it up there more easily than on 290E (although I'll make 290E if that's how things go). Also, if any of my fellow South Austinites would like me to carry stuff to this side of town for them, I'd be happy to. (I'd like to contribute to the community and there's so little I have to offer.) ej PS Robb, I knew a kid who ran a BBS called RoBBS. His first name was Robb. It's not a common spelling and I can totally imagine that Robb getting into marine aquaria, so I was just wondering if you were the same guy. I ran a BBS called Loaves & Fishes.

So if I want in, I go to reefcleaners.org and go to the Group Buy section and say I'm with ARC and pay for the order. Is that right? We're planning that it will be delivered next Tuesday? And where do I need to go to pick up my stuff? ej PS. Robb, do I know you? Did you run a BBS about a million years ago? (Okay, about 15 years ago...)

How very kind of you! I'm not quite ready yet. The tank is still cycling after a crash. It will probably be a couple weeks before I'm ready to think about checking parameters to see if the tank is ready for new life. In the meantime, I'll just let it run and feed the 4 surviving nassarius snails. (A couple of them were cruising the surface under the lighter earlier today, so I'm taking that as a sign that they need a bit of food.) One thing I heard early on is that if you do something suddenly in this hobby, it's generally the wrong thing. So I plan on taking lots of time this time around. I'll send you a PM when the tank seems ready. Thanks so much. ej

I'm not likely to participate in any kind of frag swap (since I don't have coral and plan to have only like xenia and GSP in the foreseeable future), but I'd be happy to help. I'm handy when it comes to technical stuff. I could set up a database to track however y'all want this to work and web pages to display and enter information. I don't want to set up forums and all that, since we have that here, but if there are other things that would help, I'd be glad to do what I can. ej

Hi, fishypets, I remember your nick. I think we even met in 3d a time or two. ej

Hi, guys, I used to hang out here quite a bit, but I got out of the habit. Now I'm back. I have a 29 gallon tank that I bought a damselfish for before I knew anything about keeping a marine tank. He died a few days ago as the result of an accident. After I cleaned a powerhead, it fell off the glass overnight, so it was blowing sand all over the tank. It hit a kinda-deep pocket. (Joey liked to arrange the sand to suit himself.) Either there was something toxic in that pocket or the sandstorm just went on too long before I saw it and moved the powerhead. I know I couldn't put any other fish in with him, but I'm sorry to lose him anyway. Other than a few hardy nassarius snails, he was the only visible critter in the tank. So now I'm looking at restarting the tank. I suppose I should put the details of that in Reefkeeping. I also have a much larger tank (245 gallons or so) that I bought a long time ago from a fellow ARC-er, but time and money has kept me from getting it set up yet. Anyway, I know this is a good place to come to hear what other people think about things. I'm glad to be back. ej

I haven't made any DIY rock yet, but everything I've read says to use cement, not concrete. Could be the aggregate in the concrete is making your rock crumbly. ej