Mitch

+1 definitely very easy and inexpensive to construct, then tune.

ooh, keeper, your red ones sound nice... what'll take to get one from you?

ditto... would love to get one... if so, can i pick up on sun eve as i'm heading to houston this afternoon? thx in advance.

what time do you think you'll start the tutorial part of the meeting? i may need to come late (uh, defensive driving) and wouldn't want to miss this part.

thanks for sharing

just curious if folks turn off their return pump when feeding, and if so, for how long? and how about your skimmer... turn off? and how long? if you could do it automatically, would you dial down your powerheads too? thanks in advance.

pm sent

pm sent.

heads up... i have accepted the last 2 reefcleaners group buy shipments and both were scheduled to be shipped out WED and per USPS arrival estimate it should have arrived on FRI, but both ended up arriving THU instead...

fyi, i saw about .25" of it's crown peak out of the tube last night, but now it's completely retracted as before... oh well, at least i know it's still alive for now... thanks ya'll

awesome. count me in.

RCA will be open for their sale... not sure about their hours... call them... http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/9477-rca-first-friday-sale-new-years-day/page__pid__59713__st__0entry59713

austin home brew typically carries 2 types of barrels (previously had syrups in them)... ones that have a removable lid and ones that don't... they all have 2 2" bung holes, and they're made of pvc so easily drillable... you should call first before driving all the way down and going home empty handed... there's currently a waiting list for the removable lid version (as i'm still on it)... aquatek carries a new non-removable version for $35... if AHB doesn't have any available and you want it now and don't want to pony up $35 for the new one, i've got 2 non-removable versions earmarked as rain water barrels you can get from me (my cost of $10ea, but they're clean of any syrup they used to hold), and i'll just get myself back on the list... lmk

fyi, a purple/green one @ RCA is only $35...

oh, and one difference is that it did not abandon it's crown... at least none of it is/was floating in the tank

@polarbear, thanks for sharing your experience... so i'll be crossing my fingers this is just normal... btw, did you (spot) feed while it was in the tube?

yeah, i've been warned/read about gsp. my long term plan is to only have it on the overflow and/or back wall, but in the meantime while i don't have much else to stare at as i let the tank mature further, so why not if i had been quick enough, i would have grabbed some of your great corals - but cest la vie.

Well, the tube feels firm towards the center and the tube is now attached to the neighboring rock. I'll give it a couple weeks and cross my fingers. Thanks for the advice.

While waiting for the tank to cycle, I ended up grabbing vwmike's LS from his 29g and adding it to the 1" of reefcleaner's mud giving me about 3" of SB in the refugium. As an extra bonus, and unbeknownst to vwmike, an old frag w/ 3 polyps of orange bam bam zoanthids survived! Thanks vwmike =) The tank finally finished cycling just in time for RCA's sale (12/12/09), so I promptly picked up 7 blue-green chromis, some green star polyps, and a scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp. The 7 chromis quickly dwindled to the 3 that now remain (which was really my intended target). On 12/17/09, I added my CuC from reefcleaners - a mix of nassarius snails, dwarf ceriths, hermits, limpits, and a fuzzy chiton. I added some red mangroves plus a red macroalgae (can't recall the name right now) to the existing chaeto I had picked up from Mark on 12/1/09. And realizing that my rockscape was a bit too tight and didn't offer many hiding places or caves, I opened up the arrangement. This took away a lot of the open SB area, but it now has a better feel to me and lets me isolate future additions from growing onto other rocks. After giving the tank a little time to settle in (12/21/09), I picked up from Fishy Business a hawaiian feather duster, a tube anemone, and a diamond goby. The goby quickly went about making caves under the rocks and mixing up the SB surface which started developing some diatoms. On 12/26/09, I noticed the first signs of coralline algae in various places (overflow, glass, vortechs, frag rack), a new zoa polyp developing, and the gsp's mat starting to extend. I also added another rock about 2.5 lbs to the island on the right, and took the old "cap" and combined in on the wall on the left. Oh, I also scrubbed loose the red hair algae developing on the overflow and back glass. There is also a green algae that has covered the rock, so i've reduced the photoperiod. Lastly, the FD was doing fine for the first 3-4 days, but has now been retracted for the last 3-4 days. Based on what I read, I'm just gonna let it be and hope it's still ok. Next on my list of to-do's, setup the ATO and Ca Reactor. Here are some current pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitch_sengson/sets/72157622967192125/show/

i bought a hawaiian feather duster from fishy business last mon. for the first 4 days it was alive, eg crown would retract etc etc. for the past 3+ days it's been retracted the whole time. my water parms (salinity, ph, temp, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) are all good. the top of the tube is somewhat pinched together so i can't see down into it. how do i know if it's still alive?

will you be fragging your corals? or just selling entire colonies as-is?

package is here!

got confirmation from john that it was sent today... but he still has not sent me the tracking number... so i'll be working @ home waiting for the package tomorrow (thu), and will post to this thread if it does arrive so everyone stay tuned...

heads up... last time on the day of shipping i received notication that the package was shipped... this has not happened for this order... i sent an email out to john inquiring... however this note on their website concerns me: "Orders placed today will be shipped next Monday. We will be heading to the Keys this week, and may not be available by email on Thursday." so let's cross our fingers that it went out...

for chaeto, check w/ jeremy: Algae need trimming - Austin Reef Club