ejaustin

You might try putting a small mirror by the tank before you put a lot of work into a reflective back wall. The inhabitants might take exception. They don't know about reflections and will see other fish (if you have fish) and may react badly. Probably depends on the fish, but a small test run might be a good idea. Just my 2c. ej

Me, too, dude! ej

I hardly ever know enough to add anything useful. I've heard that high nitrate levels are bad, although I've never actually seen anything talking about studies that support that statement. As far as nitrate reduction goes, what I've heard recommended most often are 1. water changes 2. growing macroalgae in the sump 3. using an external deep sand bed (there's a thread on this on Reef Central, but if you want more info, I'll tell you what I can remember) Of course, everyone agrees that it's important to try to identify what the source of the nitrates are. The most common things I've heard accused of causing high nitrates are 1. overfeeding 2. bioballs (or their equivalent) in trickle filters Have you taken a water sample to an LFS for testing to validate what you're seeing? ej

Works for me here. Firefox on a winXP Pro machine tonight. ej

I think damsels were recommended before people realized that the life on live rock is enough to establish the beneficial bacteria populations, which is sort of the point of cycling a tank. I don't know of any sources that recommend this any more, though. Damsels were recommended because they are hardier than most marine aquarium fish, but the cycle is unnecessarily hard on the fish and, as Gabriel pointed out, they tend to be aggressive as they get older. You can get some live rock to add to the tank to move things along. The biggest thing in cycling a tank, though, is patience. ej

What do you love about your aquarium stand? Your canopy? What do you hate about them? What do you wish they had that they don't? I'm getting a bigger tank after I move (thanks, dark angel) and I think I'll be building my own stand and canopy. Since I'm still so new to all this, I thought I'd draw on the collective wisdom here. Once the stand and canopy are built, it won't be an easy matter to change them, as you all know, especially once the tank is set up. So I'm asking about functionality, but aesthetics as well. I know mojo's stand has doors on the side, too, which I think is a wonderful idea that I'll incorporate. And I know that little doors makes it hard to add equipment or work on it. I also want to have a refugium that can gravity-feed into the display tank. At this point I have no idea how big it will be and I don't really have a good idea whether to put it above the canopy or where (or how, for that matter). So before I go too far down the road thinking about all this, I want to know what I need to keep in mind. ej

I don't have anything educated to add, but I'm sorry to hear about the mandarin. They are cool little fish. ej

I'm interested in the tank if you can hold it until I move. I'm in the process of buying a house and the closing is currently scheduled for Oct 26. Also wouldn't be able to pay for it until this Friday, but could pay cash then. ej

Well, I think I'm going to go the multiple-tank route. I really like jawfish, but I know that Joey won't be a good tankmate for them. So I plan on getting a long-term home for Joey and then setting up the jawfish tank. From the time I put the jawfish tank in, I expect it will be 6 to 9 months before I'm ready to look for the jawfish themselves. I don't have any corals at this point. I have a few zoas that came on an overflow box I got from Robert, but everything else is pretty basic, low-maintenance kinds of critters. So I'll have at least 3 tanks: the current 29 gallon, the damsel tank, and the jawfish tank. So I'm trying to figure out the footprint of the damsel tank so I can think about placement and plumbing and that kinda stuff. It's much more calming to think about the tanks than to dwell on the terrors of buying my first house.! ej PS Andrew, can we tell the spell checker that jawfish and tankmate are perfectly good words?

I've found a house and agreed with the seller on a price, so barring foundation problems or funding problems (neither expected), I'll have a home for the human folk of the household. I plan on getting a 3' x 4' x 25" tank to feature jawfish, but I need to figure out what to do for Joey. He's my neon velvet damsel fish. I know he's destined to become a fairly big fish and crotchety on top of that. So how big a tank will he need when he's grown and who could live with his temperament? I need to start planning its location, now that I know what floorplan I'll be working with. ej

Just in time for a meeting! blob7.gif ej

Maybe you could just have an algae trough. PaulB on ReefCentral uses one (you can try to search there, if you'd like). It's basically just like 1/2 a plastic gutter across most of the top of his tank, inside the tank and lower at one end to keep the water flowing. You can't really see it looking in the front of the tank and it gets light from the lights for his tank. I can never search on ReefCentral successfully, and I probably am not explaining it well, but maybe someone else who has seen the pics can explain it better/more accurately. ej

I'll bring 2 or 3 bottles of Dr P ej

Okay, time to talk about carpools. I plan to go to the meeting and I'll be coming from South Austin. Two caveats: I'm a smoker so my car is smoky; I drive a very small car (Mitsu Eclipse) so I can probably only take 1 rider. If anyone is interested, PM me. ej

I can make this one! I thought I would be working but through a fluke, i'm not!!! Yay! blob7.gif

That's the *funniest* think I've read in I don't know *how* long. hello2.gif ej

Thanks.

Okay, I think I'm finally ready to start seriously trying to find the house I want to buy. Can anyone recommend a good real estate agent? Preferably in South Austin. Also, once I locate a house, I'd like to have an independent appraisal done. ej

I'd wish y'all would quit scheduling these things on my weekend to work. *sigh* Well, maybe I'll catch it next time. ej PS. No, I don't seriously expect that anyone knows when I work and when I'm off.

Yep, it's entirely possible she's just been pigging out. She keeps changing colors, though... gets darker for a while and then lightens up (literally!). Most likely wishful thinking on my part. Still, keeps me keeping a close eye on the tank, in a fun kinda way. ej

This morning I noticed that Bertha Blenny is huge! I mean her belly is very, very round. All of the blennies seem to be happy and they are all growing, but this is different. I don't know if she just pigged out on the algae I put in the tank last night, but I'm thinking maybe she has eggs. (I've been reading fish-breeding forums, so maybe it's a simple matter of my own suggestability.) I'm excited and saddened by the possibility. Excited because, well, there might be babies! Saddened because I really have no way to help them along at this point. The tank is too small and I don't have anything to feed tiny guys and everyone else will just gobble them up. OTOH, maybe it bodes well for the future, when I am more prepared to provide room, food and safety for a brood. ej

I don't know a lot about octopi, but seems like I read somewhere that they die shortly after spawning. Could be wrong, though, and seems like it might be species-specific. ej

Pods of some kind, maybe? I *love* pods. Every morning I check my sump to watch them swimming around for a little bit. When I move my tank, I'll have a pod farm about the main tank so I can gravity feed pods to the display. I can hardly wait! ej PS Yes, I'm a little quirkier than most.

From UT, take the Route # 5-WOODROW-NB to Northcross Mall (which is a big transfer center for the bus system). No changes. Takes about half an hour. The buses are free for UT students, last time I checked. See http://www.capmetro.org/ for the Austin bus system. BTW, when I was at AA a few days ago, they had a Help Wanted sign in the window. I have no idea if the position has been filled, but thought I might mention it. ej

40g? I'd probably be tempted to buy a new tank and get it as ready as you can ahead of time. After the move, use the old tank as a sump or something. ej