NonSequitur

+1 to the kalk paste. The commercial products (aiptasia-x, joe's juice, etc) work as well, but a heaping tbsp of kalk powder mixed with just enough water to make it flow through a syringe is cheap and effective, just turn off your pumps, let the water become still, and squirt the kalk onto the anemone, being careful to minimize collateral damage.

Also interested in getting in on this one, need more CUC since something seems to have eaten most of my snails.

That's awesome! Sure, you could have gotten a new one, but there's something to be said about preserving something to be passed down through the generations, and when your son is old enough to understand the difference, he'll appreciate that you *made* it for him rather than just whipping out the plastic to buy it for him. And you're right on about getting kids outside and off of the game console.. so many kids now will never understand the joy of playing around outside, or riding bikes with friends, or just standing in the front yard and spinning in circles until they collapse. Sounds to me like you're on the right track.

Not to sound like a smartass, but eels are like that. In my experience their inquisitive nature often overwhelms their sense of self preservation. If they're not exploring places they shouldn't, they're jumping out of the tank.. my snowflake has jumped twice since I had him, toppled the rockscape a few times, nearly breaking the glass, etc, but he's still one of my favorites. They're amazing creatures, but more like toddlers than predators. I'm really sorry for your loss, but if it helps any I don't think you did anything wrong, eels are just like that some times.

River city usually has it, not sure who else in Austin, but Darby's Tropicals in New Braunfels has it, as does Aquarium Designs in San Antonio.

Yup.. he carried it around for a few weeks, then dropped it into a powerhead.

I asked my wife this question, and she wanted me to ask you what you mean by "love your tank." What is it that you want your wife to love about it? Comment on how it looks? Help with maintenance? This coming from a wife who bought me my first tank, then immediately regretted it because that's all I would talk about for months on end. She actually insisted on me joining ARC so I would annoy someone else with my obsession. Fast forward a year and a half, and she just suggested sticking around San Antonio for an extra hour so she could wait until her favorite fish store opened so we could get another skimmer to support the tank upgrade she just suggested I do. While we were there and I was deciding what to do skimmer-wise she picked out an urchin, and a new pistol shrimp so the watchman goby wouldn't be lonely since his shrimp died. She decided against a hippo tang after looking it up on her phone and deciding our tanks weren't big enough to keep it happy and healthy. She attributes her change of heart to a few things. First, when I joined ARC and could "talk fish" with someone other than her it took the pressure off of her to listen to me babble on and on about water chemistry, filtration, etc. As the newness started to wear off I kept tinkering with the tank, but didn't obsess to the point of neglecting the family. Just when I thought she'd had it with the entire hobby I mentioned wanting to add a clownfish to my already overstocked 12gal tank she replied "No way, it'll spike your nitrates!" Huh? She'd been listening all this time? It was backing off, not pressuring her to love my tank, that actually let her start to enjoy it, along with putting things in the tank that she liked. The symbiotic pistol shrimp/watchman goby relationship fascinated her. SPS corals bored her, but colorful zoas, softies, and LPS were huge hits. And then she said the words every married reefer wants to hear: "You need a bigger tank." And so our family has gone from a single resented 12gal to an interconected 90, 27, and 55gal system (plus multiple planted freshwater tanks), with her being an active part of tank care. I still service the skimmers, do water changes, etc, but she loves feeding the fish, watching to see how they're doing, seeing the interactions between creatures, she even noticed my lawnmower blenny was losing weight and rehabbed him to his former fat self.

I borrowed one from Jake at River City a few weeks ago, I think they charged something like $5, and I kept it for a week.

I did something very similar, set a 15gal acrylic wet/dry sump up as a remote DSB and refugium/mangrove filter. Drain flow from the tank is split, with part flowing through the fuge into the sump, the rest into the skimer chamber of the sump. Initially I used a separate return pump to lift water up to the fuge, then overflow it back to the sump, but after another flood from a broken siphon I redesigned the system to be completely gravity driven. Will post some pics later in the weekend when I finish moving everything around (upgrading the display).

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I'm stuck. I got my new 90gal delivered, set on its stand in the foyer. Two holes are drilled, the overflow box is made, but my wife hurt her hand and can't help me lay the tank on its side to drill the last hole or glue in the overflow box. If I can get the tank down onto the floor I can rotate it back and forth as needed to drill the last hole, attach the overflow box, etc., but I'm nervous trying to turn it by myself when it's on the stand. Anyone in the GT area have a few mins to help me out in the next few days? Thanks!

I understand how that goes, just finished drilling my new tank, trying to get it all set up as well, but nothing seems to just work together, constantly having to tweak the design. I'm looking for $25 for it, just send me a PM (I'll probably forget to check this thread) if you decide to go with it.

I have a 30 breeder I'm looking to sell if that would work: 36x18x12. One side is painted blue, but it's in great shape otherwise.

I've seen people use clip-on 150w MH lights on tanks of this size (I think there's one listed in the for sale section if you're interested in going this route) , but that requires removing the tank lid. Nanotuners carries upgrade kits that allow you to run higher wattage PCs over your tank (a 96w upgrade if I recall correctly). My 12g aquapod was running on a 96w PC for a while before I took it down, it worked quite well, but I'm probably going to switch to LED when I bring it back up as a mantis tank.

I had a peacock mantis shrimp when I first got into the hobby, and plan on getting another in the near future. Definitely a cool creature. I never had a problem with mine hitting the glass, but I did have a cutting board trimmed down to cover the bottom of the tank, since that's what I've heard they're more likely to break while burrowing. As far as clean up crew, she would eat anything I put in there, regardless of how well fed she was, so I had to think of CUC as expendable, but it wasn't a big deal, just did extra water changes when she succeeded in breaking open a turbo snail and clouding up the water. She absolutely did not like my hands near her burrow entrance, so I really had to be alert whenever working in that area of the tank, but anywhere else she didn't bother me, and I loved the "Feed Me Semour!" dance she did whenever I came near the tank, I can't know for sure, but it even seemed that she enjoyed coming out and entertaining the cats (I frequently saw multiple cats sitting in front of that tank watching).

+1 on grape caulerpa. My foxface rabbitfish absolutely loves it.. it was overgrowing my tank before I got him, within a week he completely wiped it out to the point that I haven't seen a single sprout of it in my tank in over 6mo.

Ouch! I believe it, Georgetown went to the new water meters and our usage jumped significantly, so electricity will do the same thing. I just got a $200 electric bill for my (currently vacant) rent house.. apparently one of the realtors turned the air conditioners on and left them. Ugh. I'm probably going to have to go out there this weekend and shut off the a/c breakers. Fortunately the house is in Taylor, maybe a mile from AAF, so I might be able to make the meeting this time. Just feels wrong not bidding on this week's auction, some really nice pieces on there.

You're not kidding.. $500 electric bill really cut into my coral budget this month!

Not sure if the Army would allow it, but CRDAMC would be a great place for it, either that or Austin Lakes Hospital. Either place could use that sort of calming, peaceful influence.

I'm probably going to end up doing the same, since nobody seems interested. I moved a few dozen into my sump, where they promptly clogged up my return and skimmer pumps.

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