NonSequitur

I'll be there, and I think I might have a table that will work.. I'll see how big it is and let you know.

I agree with gonzobob, the first two pics look like chitons.

Did the starfish get picked up? If not, I'm interested.

I want it if Mike doesn't take it!

Thank you very much for the urchin! He's currently working diligently on removing a spot of coralline algae from the back glass of the tank, carrying around an empty hermit crab shell.

+1 for brittle star. I know mine are great detritivores and don't bother anyone. Some of the big green ones can eat fish, but otherwise brittle stars tend to be Good Things.

Ooh, that's way better than cotton candy algae!

pm sent

It looks a lot like the cotton candy (Callithamnion) algae on the reefcleaners.org algae identification page: ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Nuisance Algae ID Guide

If he's still available I'd love to give him a new home.

How big is he? I'd be willing to give him a new home if he isn't too big.

This is perfect timing.. I was just thinking I want another fuzzy chiton or two.. the one I got on the last order has been awesome so far.

Works fine for me on firefox 3.5.5 on MacOSX.

Haha.. Nah, I'm not going to flush him.. He's actually one of my favorites. It's a running joke around my house "what's the urchin carrying today?" So far since I got him he's picked up zoa polyps, snails, hermit crabs, food of various sorts, cyanobacteria, those worms that live in tubes in the sand, macroalgae, dead SPS skeletons, rabbitfish poop... and now xenia!

I couldn't figure it out. My two gorgeous xenia colonies were looking good.. I was about ready to frag one of them, had it attached to two separate rocks and I had moved them apart, when one of the pieces ended up randomly on the other end of the tank. I had no idea how it got there, but ok, I'll attach it to a rock over there, see if I could get it to grow up the side glass of the tank. This morning I woke up and it was moved to the other end of the tank. Just sitting there on the sandbed. This evening when I got home my tuxedo urchin was right in the middle of the colony, pulling another piece off. He definitely fragged it, though I'm not sure if it was in the reefkeeper sense of the word or the first person shooter sense of the word. He then proceeded to haul his prize up onto one of the powerheads. Anyway, here is is, caught red handed. The xenia is still happily pulsing:

I was watching something on tv about those a while back.. they're really harming the japanese fishing industry apparently, killing fish and getting caught in nets. The fishermen cut them up and dump them back into the ocean, which they've found actually causes them to release eggs and increases the population.

It should be able to. I have a lamp you can try it with if you'd like.. it's beyond it's aquarium-usable life, but strikes and burns, so it would be a good test lamp.

From the research I've done, DE ballasts often have a higher starting voltage than equivalent SE ballats, and sometimes drive the lamps a little harder, but it will typically work. 150w aquarium lamps are expensive and hard to find (I think Iwasaki is the only one that makes them and choices are limited to 6500k and what they call 50000k but actually looks a lot like their 15000k aqua2 lamp) , but I've successfully run both ushio 10000k and sps 14000k 175w lamps on 150w ballasts. (Thanks Prof for that tip!)

It really depends.. a lot of houses use 15a circuits, but lately more are going with 20a circuits and heavier wiring (with 15a receptacles, probably to keep from confusing people when they see a "sideways" slot on their plug) to keep up with our power-hungry society.

From what I've been reading, LED lamps cost quite a bit more than MH initially (unless you DIY), but can pay for themselves over time in power savings and lamp replacement costs. If you haven't already, you may want to talk with Dena, her husband built a LED setup for one of their tanks and showed it off at the last meeting. It looked pretty impressive

I have four 65w straight pin 50/50 lamps of unknown age I could spare if that would help.. wouldn't really need anything for them, since I don't know how much life is left in them, but they light up (I took them out of a working fixture when I upgraded to MH). I also have a pair of 65w dual lamp magnetic ballasts (without sockets) that I'd be willing to trade for if you need a spare.

Please describe the symptoms you're seeing in your arrow crab. Also, if you can, please post your last salinity, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, ph, and alkalinity test results (or as many of them as you can (numbers please, they help more than "normal")). Any changes to the tank? What is your water change schedule?

I'll head south and pick it up from Mike tomorrow morning. I'd be happy to either drop everything off at Mark's house, or distribute them from my office in Cedar Park, whichever works.

Uh oh. Ok.. just sent John another email asking about the address.