Best way to water change?

[+Grog]

In another thread today, Timfish acknowledged that he does not measure nitrate. Is that cheap enough? Patrick

I only test my SG with a refractometer when I mix new salt. That is the only test I do. No Amonia, Nitrite, or Nitrate.....

Stopped the others as they were all 0's all the time, so why bother? The other tests were an unnecessary chore IMO. I haven't even checked my temp in my display tank in 6 months.

And the tanks are fine.

It can be simple, or complicated.... I like simple.

[subsea]

In another thread today, Timfish acknowledged that he does not measure nitrate. Is that cheap enough? Patrick

I only test my SG with a refractometer when I mix new salt. That is the only test I do. No Amonia, Nitrite, or Nitrate.....

Stopped the others as they were all 0's all the time, so why bother? The other tests were an unnecessary chore IMO. I haven't even checked my temp in my display tank in 6 months.

And the tanks are fine.

It can be simple, or complicated.... I like simple.

Grog,

I enjoyed reading your post about the regenerated gorgonian under the 4500 kelvin light from Lowes. I found your results interesting.

Patrick

PS. I also like simple.

[Dustin Pedretti]

"Yeep! I work part time...7-30 hours a week, usually closer to 7. That's a month's paycheck for me. I know I know, I need a second part time job, but I'm going back for my masters in Biotechnology this fall, so its a bit of a dilemma. Who is going to hire someone who probably can't work for longer than 2 months? Don't say it: Domino's Pizza... lol. Okay, I'll come work for you. But seriously, for a get-through-college job, its not bad. They let you NOT work for 3 months, as long as you take 1 shift. Anyway that was way off topic.

But my point is, I need cheap!"

still havnt seen your application! lol

[ChaosFyre]

In another thread today, Timfish acknowledged that he does not measure nitrate. Is that cheap enough? Patrick

lol

Well, I'm a novice and I don't trust myself. I haven't quite found the balance of how much water I need to change and when. Every tank is different.. Some say 20% once a month, others 20% weekly, and others 10-15% daily. I do have a little testing kit I got from petco for $10, and it still has quite a few tests left in it. I can at least afford that.

[ChaosFyre]

Good point ckyuv. I kind of feel like through all the testing methods, gear selections, and arguments about what parameters are appropriate for what, thing thing that the OP can take away is...

Your goals and your livestock will dictate your tank husbandry. There are more ways to keep a reef than there are to skin a cat. Just depends on your budget and what you want to stare at in your home. I'm one of the newer reefers on this site and of all the advice I've personally asked for and read for others, that seems to sum it up. I now treat reef keeping like a problem/solution scenario. I desire something for my tank, I make it happen within my means. I don't like this or that? I research and fix it for whatever way works best. There are a few obvious absolute right and wrong things to do, but most of it comes down to your specific goals. And then there is alot of gray area. Hope that helps

You are absolutely right. I agree with this completely. I like to do a lot of research, and if I can find a solution I can afford, I'll happily go with it. If not, and its something big, (like my skimmer) I'll save up for it!

And yes, the biggest proof of that is this: I use tap water! Everyone uses RODi water, but it seems wasteful, expensive, and its taking nutrients out of the water that you have to put back in if you have coral that need dosing... It does prevent nuisance algae, but I've never had a problem with that. And I'm sure there are things in some tap water that certain corals don't like, but I've got (almost) dummy-proof corals lol.

You wouldn't believe how many doom-sayers were nagging on me about using tap-- "You'll have an algae explosion no matter what you do, its inevitable etc etc".

Well maybe its just the BCS water here, but a lot of people in town use straight tap for SW tanks.

[Bpb]

I'm pretty much the only BCS reef keeper that uses RODI water lol

[ChaosFyre]

ALL PHOTOSYNTHETIC CORAL REQUIRE NITRATE TO EXIST.

Patrick

Hey Patrick, that's an interesting fact. Could you find some scientific documents supporting the statement? I'd love to read up on it.

Here's one: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/986496?uid=3739656&uid=2133&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102053270343

Like I said ealier I do not test for nitrates but a common reason I have suspect people so often are advised to keep nitrates low is typically with measurable ammounts, as in 20, 40 or higher ppm or mg/l, is indicative of an aquarist that is not doing thier maintenace(but not necessarilly so). Corals and fish can tolerate surprisingly high levels of nitrates. One down side though is high nitrates can cause accelerated coral growth making for a weaker skeleton¹ While Delbeek and Sprung point out the DISSOLVED nitrate (NO₃-N) levels of natural seawater off Waikiki Aquarium measure 8 ppb (.008 mg/l) they reccomend for reef aquaria nitrate levels should be less than 1 ppm nitrate-nitrogen "ideally but need not be maintained so low"¹. Keep in mind if you are using a test kit that is measuring nitrate ion and not nitrate-nitrogen your reading is about 4.4x higher.

Phosphates and nitrogen (as ammonium and/or nitrites and/or nitrates) is essential and are limiting nutrients for plants and algae which includes the symbiotic dinoflagellates corals use. Too low and the plant or algae dies. This may not neccesarily kill the coral as they are capable of living without their symbionts. The mistake should not be made that reef systems in the wild are low nutrient systems, here's an interesting quote by Charles Delbeek "When I see the colors of some of these low nutrient tanks I can't help but be reminded of bleached coral reefs . . . Our crystal clear aquaria do not come close to the nutrient loads that swirl around natural reefs"². This was echoed by Dr. Gerald Heslinga, ipsf.com, in a conversation with Subsea I overheard at NextWave 2011 in Dallas.

1 Delbeek and Sprung "The Reef Aquarium" Vol III pg 175 & 176

2 Coral Nov/Dec 2010 pg 127

This is a great take-away, thank you. Then maybe the nitrate spike WAS responsible for that bit of coral growth after all. Since I have soft corals, would you recommend just leaving it between 20-40 ppm?

[ChaosFyre]

I'm pretty much the only BCS reef keeper that uses RODI water lol

Hey! You're in BCS with me? You should come check out my tank. I visit Dustin kind of often. Or have we already met...? lol I know Jonathon, Ron (moved to Paris, TX), and Dustin. I also met a couple guys at petco-- Michael (moved/moving, sold his tank I think) and I believe another Michael who gave us his card and just moved in, wants to start selling coral frags.

There are more of us around than are active on the BCS aquarist facebook group (or whatever its called).

[Bpb]

I'm Jonathan. I didn't know there was a new local. I imagine there are many many more people locally that have reef tanks but they just aren't big forum users. I've met a couple but its been more of a "here's your corals, now get lost" ordeal. Right now I just know you and Dustin

[ChaosFyre]

I'm Jonathan. I didn't know there was a new local. I imagine there are many many more people locally that have reef tanks but they just aren't big forum users. I've met a couple but its been more of a "here's your corals, now get lost" ordeal. Right now I just know you and Dustin

Well hey, jonathon, didn't know you were on here. and lol ^ that doesn't sound pleasant. I guess the most social ones are the people you meet standing in front of the saltwater section of petco, staring. Thats pretty much how I met everyone.. that and craigslist. I'll give you the number for the guy if I can find it. I think John has it in his wallet.

So what are your tank specs? Because dustin told me he gave you a frag and it took off. In a month, it went from 3 to 8 polyps. What do you keep your nitrates at, and what equipment do you have? Do you dose? What kind of lights? What do you test for?

I don't think I've seen your tank yet.

[Bpb]

Lol yeah I usually don't talk to people in the store. Awkward. I do know that one of the aggie football players has a reef tank of some sort. Saw him buy one of their carpet anemone and some fish one day. He sounded like he knew all the staff well based on their interactions. I stop by and look once every couple weeks but rarely buy. The corals are way over priced. Hopefully I have time to check out river city aquatics, aquadome, or aquatek in Austin this Thursday. Gotta love $5-$10 frag tanks

As far as my tank goes here's my build thread.

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/27270-bpbs-55/#entry204999

[ChaosFyre]

Lol yeah I usually don't talk to people in the store. Awkward. I do know that one of the aggie football players has a reef tank of some sort. Saw him buy one of their carpet anemone and some fish one day. He sounded like he knew all the staff well based on their interactions. I stop by and look once every couple weeks but rarely buy. The corals are way over priced. Hopefully I have time to check out river city aquatics, aquadome, or aquatek in Austin this Thursday. Gotta love $5-$10 frag tanks

Have you been to any of them yet? I hit up all of those places when I went a few weeks ago. The only one I didn't see was Aquafarms, but I heard they have really expensive corals. I'm all for cheap coral frags, so when I go to petco, its NOT the coral I'm looking at lol. I agree they are way overpriced-- $50 for a rock with few mushrooms, no way!

I'm more for looking at the livestock. Yesterday they had two snowflake black ice clowns, and a gorgeous wrasse. Dustin took home a large blue hippo tang and an engineer goby.

Also, bought some lights and frags from a guy named Richard in Austin. You may check him out if you can find him on here, he had some awesome neon green leather frags with neon green polyps, that doesn't shed. I really wanted some. I can text you a pic of it. He also has cotton candy blue and pink cyphastrea I wanted, and kryptonite candy cane I got, and some other good stuff.

[victoly]

Lol yeah I usually don't talk to people in the store. Awkward. I do know that one of the aggie football players has a reef tank of some sort. Saw him buy one of their carpet anemone and some fish one day. He sounded like he knew all the staff well based on their interactions. I stop by and look once every couple weeks but rarely buy. The corals are way over priced. Hopefully I have time to check out river city aquatics, aquadome, or aquatek in Austin this Thursday. Gotta love $5-$10 frag tanks

As far as my tank goes here's my build thread.

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/27270-bpbs-55/#entry204999

I tried to give JOHNNY FOOTBALL MANZIEL some zoa nudi's but he just got drunk and punched me in the face with his heisman.

[Bpb]

Been to aquadome and aquatek. The dome had an amazing variety of things for sale. You could easily spend 2-3 hours looking around if you haven't been. It's two stories. Aquatek had some awesome cheap corals and a few good lookin lps in their $10 tank.

Richards green toadstools are killer looking but a bit rich for my blood.

A note on growth. I've seen you mention several times wanting to have faster coral growth. Every tank is different so I can't pinpoint what you personally could do for faster growth, but in my own experience...growth tends to be exponential. Smaller frags grow slower. Bigger frags seem to grow alot faster. Full blown colonies need frequent pruning like plants almost. Something to think about. This is also a generalization. May not apply to EVERYTHING.

Also. I mentioned a while ago I think. Alot of times when I get a new frag from someone. It will take a good 2-3 months before it REALLY has acclimated to my light and nutrient level. It may not bleach or brown out, but won't do much for a while, then once it has adapted to my spectrum, photoperiod, and food availability, it'll start growing.

I got a tabling acropora from SAM about 2 months ago. It sat there looking the same as the day I got it, then all the sudden last week the tips all turned purple and grew about 1/2 cm. that's good growth for a week. But it happened after a lengthy acclimation period.

Be careful what you wish for on growth. Sometimes fast growth becomes an invasive annoyance that requires weekly pruning, removal of rocks, and rescaping.

[ChaosFyre]

Lol @ richard's green toadstools. Me and dustin talked about going halves on one then waiting for it to grow out in someones tank and frag it between us later.

Aquadome was cool, I LOVE their black snowflake clown pair ($500 ) and their radioactive red clowns right at the front (what color morph IS that?? I have seen it before). I didn't buy anything there though. Some of the stuff I wanted was too small but still full price. I liked some of their stars, the red/orange glowy ones, but I think they were $20 and it wasn't really worth it. They had a LOT of great coral, but not much I would keep as a beginner. I spent a good hour there just looking.

Aquatek was also cool-- very helpful staff, love the weekend deals. I got a 6 pack of frags for $28. He threw in some random stray polyp I pointed out, for $1.

Fishy business was okay, kind of small but they had some interesting stuff. If you go, flatter the owner because he can be a cranky old guy, but he's nice if you are. The display tank in the front is PINK. So much pink. More pink than I have seen in any tank. I got one of his neon pink glowing mushrooms for $12, and he threw in a little purple mushroom for free. I also got my black clown from him, misbarred on one side, normal on the other. You've seen the pictures I'm sure.

That pink mushroom and the kryptonite candy cane I got from Richard are the two brightest things in my tank. And maybe the dragon eyes from Dustin. I love the red ones (eagle eyes?).

About growth and the 2 month acclimation period, that makes sense. I started seeing a lot more growth on things that have been in my tank for a while vs. things I recently got, but I also just got new lights and saw growth OVERNIGHT after I added them (kenya tree, mostly, though there was polyp extension too). Except for the GSP--that stuff was growing from day 1 and is already twice as big as it started out a couple weeks ago. I don't think I'd mind rigorous pruning of invasive corals. I love how they look, and I can't keep my hands out of the tank anyway. I am constantly OCDing... All I do is stare at the tank and talk on the forum lol (embarrassing) . So... at least it would give me something to do.

But, as a beginner, everything is new and exciting. I'm sure 5 years down the line I'll be sick of xenia and will have moved on to hard corals. At least I know how to kill it now =P. I'm pretty sure my xenias are all dead.

Speaking of, I think I have some red shelf coral with the spikes coming out of the top that is growing on my live rock. It used to look like coraline algae but has steadily grown outwards.

Also, today I saw a clam in my tank. Or a mussel or something. O_o where did that come from and when did that get there? Its alive and moving. I found it on my eagle eyes. I have no idea what kind it is.

I'm way off topic. I might have to move this to private conversation lol...

[subsea]

Good point ckyuv. I kind of feel like through all the testing methods, gear selections, and arguments about what parameters are appropriate for what, thing thing that the OP can take away is...

Your goals and your livestock will dictate your tank husbandry. There are more ways to keep a reef than there are to skin a cat. Just depends on your budget and what you want to stare at in your home. I'm one of the newer reefers on this site and of all the advice I've personally asked for and read for others, that seems to sum it up. I now treat reef keeping like a problem/solution scenario. I desire something for my tank, I make it happen within my means. I don't like this or that? I research and fix it for whatever way works best. There are a few obvious absolute right and wrong things to do, but most of it comes down to your specific goals. And then there is alot of gray area. Hope that helps

You are absolutely right. I agree with this completely. I like to do a lot of research, and if I can find a solution I can afford, I'll happily go with it. If not, and its something big, (like my skimmer) I'll save up for it!

And yes, the biggest proof of that is this: I use tap water! Everyone uses RODi water, but it seems wasteful, expensive, and its taking nutrients out of the water that you have to put back in if you have coral that need dosing... It does prevent nuisance algae, but I've never had a problem with that. And I'm sure there are things in some tap water that certain corals don't like, but I've got (almost) dummy-proof corals lol.

You wouldn't believe how many doom-sayers were nagging on me about using tap-- "You'll have an algae explosion no matter what you do, its inevitable etc etc".

Well maybe its just the BCS water here, but a lot of people in town use straight tap for SW tanks.

I have been using tap water for 40 years. Straight into the tank from the Aquifier. Patrick

[Planeden]

I'm Jonathan. I didn't know there was a new local. I imagine there are many many more people locally that have reef tanks but they just aren't big forum users. I've met a couple but its been more of a "here's your corals, now get lost" ordeal. Right now I just know you and Dustin

Yeah, you aggielanders are invasive. One of you hitchhiker in and before we knew it You are popping up everywhere .

[Planeden]

But, as a beginner, everything is new and exciting. I'm sure 5 years down the line I'll be sick of xenia and will have moved on to hard corals.

I'm way off topic. I might have to move this to private conversation lol...

I'm definately with you on the first part. Not sure about the second. I am not as big of a fan of the SPS that many others seem to be. I think a few SPS mixed in may look nice, but I don't like them enough to dedicate a whole tank to them.

Which works out well for me since the ones I do really like are supposed to be easier.

Can I just say, your tank seems to be doing quite well, with the exception of the Xenia. It seems that a lot of the tests you are considering, and dosing you are talking about, and for more advanced things that you don't have. I may be wrong (using my normal don't know much caveat). But just be careful about doing too many things at once. Of course, feel free to tell me to shut up and mind my own business.

[Timfish]

This is a great take-away, thank you. Then maybe the nitrate spike WAS responsible for that bit of coral growth after all. Since I have soft corals, would you recommend just leaving it between 20-40 ppm?

Thank You! Like Grog I stopped testing for nitrates because for several years with multiple tanks and consistant maintenace using API's test kit my nitrates always was undetectable so it would have certainly been less than 5 ppm. The few times I've checked since I stopped testing regularly it's still been undetectable with APIs test kit. I would consider monitoring pH, Alk and calcium far more critical and would not put much emphasis on nitrate. As far as reccommending something I'll go with Delbeeck and Sprungs suggestion and point out they do not put much emphasis on exact numbers.

[victoly]

ALL PHOTOSYNTHETIC CORAL REQUIRE NITRATE TO EXIST.

Patrick

Hey Patrick, that's an interesting fact. Could you find some scientific documents supporting the statement? I'd love to read up on it.

Here's one: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/986496?uid=3739656&uid=2133&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102053270343

Like I said ealier I do not test for nitrates but a common reason I have suspect people so often are advised to keep nitrates low is typically with measurable ammounts, as in 20, 40 or higher ppm or mg/l, is indicative of an aquarist that is not doing thier maintenace(but not necessarilly so). Corals and fish can tolerate surprisingly high levels of nitrates. One down side though is high nitrates can cause accelerated coral growth making for a weaker skeleton¹ While Delbeek and Sprung point out the DISSOLVED nitrate (NO₃-N) levels of natural seawater off Waikiki Aquarium measure 8 ppb (.008 mg/l) they reccomend for reef aquaria nitrate levels should be less than 1 ppm nitrate-nitrogen "ideally but need not be maintained so low"¹. Keep in mind if you are using a test kit that is measuring nitrate ion and not nitrate-nitrogen your reading is about 4.4x higher.

Phosphates and nitrogen (as ammonium and/or nitrites and/or nitrates) is essential and are limiting nutrients for plants and algae which includes the symbiotic dinoflagellates corals use. Too low and the plant or algae dies. This may not neccesarily kill the coral as they are capable of living without their symbionts. The mistake should not be made that reef systems in the wild are low nutrient systems, here's an interesting quote by Charles Delbeek "When I see the colors of some of these low nutrient tanks I can't help but be reminded of bleached coral reefs . . . Our crystal clear aquaria do not come close to the nutrient loads that swirl around natural reefs"². This was echoed by Dr. Gerald Heslinga, ipsf.com, in a conversation with Subsea I overheard at NextWave 2011 in Dallas.

1 Delbeek and Sprung "The Reef Aquarium" Vol III pg 175 & 176

2 Coral Nov/Dec 2010 pg 127

This is a great take-away, thank you. Then maybe the nitrate spike WAS responsible for that bit of coral growth after all. Since I have soft corals, would you recommend just leaving it between 20-40 ppm?

I have serious doubts that a nitrate spike was the cause of a growth in coral of just about any variety. In terms of efficiency, macro and nuisance algae are able to take and use those nutrients at a much more rapid pace than any coral that I'm familiar with. I would expect an algal bloom to take place *before* i saw an increase in coral growth rates.

IMO, 20-40 ppm is too high and it's too easy to export (water change, skimmer, fuge, whatever method) to let it get that high. It has been my experience that phosphate is going to be the parameter that you need to be pickier about watching. You might have some nitrate swings come and go without noticing, but you are very likely to get GHA or cyano if your phosphate isn't under control.

Like most have said here, it's like cooking: When you start out you definitely need to measure and fret, but as you do it longer you can just tell when something isn't right wrt to NO3/PO3. Alk/Ca are a different story, but with the stock you currently have, those parameters are not as important until you start to get into the more demanding acros/SPS.

[subsea]

ALL PHOTOSYNTHETIC CORAL REQUIRE NITRATE TO EXIST.

Patrick

Hey Patrick, that's an interesting fact. Could you find some scientific documents supporting the statement? I'd love to read up on it.

Here's one: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/986496?uid=3739656&uid=2133&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102053270343

Like I said ealier I do not test for nitrates but a common reason I have suspect people so often are advised to keep nitrates low is typically with measurable ammounts, as in 20, 40 or higher ppm or mg/l, is indicative of an aquarist that is not doing thier maintenace(but not necessarilly so). Corals and fish can tolerate surprisingly high levels of nitrates. One down side though is high nitrates can cause accelerated coral growth making for a weaker skeleton¹ While Delbeek and Sprung point out the DISSOLVED nitrate (NO₃-N) levels of natural seawater off Waikiki Aquarium measure 8 ppb (.008 mg/l) they reccomend for reef aquaria nitrate levels should be less than 1 ppm nitrate-nitrogen "ideally but need not be maintained so low"¹. Keep in mind if you are using a test kit that is measuring nitrate ion and not nitrate-nitrogen your reading is about 4.4x higher.

Phosphates and nitrogen (as ammonium and/or nitrites and/or nitrates) is essential and are limiting nutrients for plants and algae which includes the symbiotic dinoflagellates corals use. Too low and the plant or algae dies. This may not neccesarily kill the coral as they are capable of living without their symbionts. The mistake should not be made that reef systems in the wild are low nutrient systems, here's an interesting quote by Charles Delbeek "When I see the colors of some of these low nutrient tanks I can't help but be reminded of bleached coral reefs . . . Our crystal clear aquaria do not come close to the nutrient loads that swirl around natural reefs"². This was echoed by Dr. Gerald Heslinga, ipsf.com, in a conversation with Subsea I overheard at NextWave 2011 in Dallas.

1 Delbeek and Sprung "The Reef Aquarium" Vol III pg 175 & 176

2 Coral Nov/Dec 2010 pg 127

This is a great take-away, thank you. Then maybe the nitrate spike WAS responsible for that bit of coral growth after all. Since I have soft corals, would you recommend just leaving it between 20-40 ppm?

Chaos,

At 20-40 ppm nitrate you will have problems with nuisance algae unless you get an army of herbivores. Most of my systems are commercial grow out and I do have an army of herbivores. Don't fret when it gets that high, but don't plan to maintain it there. Commercial maraculture facility regularly add nitrogen fertilizer to increase growth of clams and soft corals.

Enjoy the hobby.

Patrick

[Dustin Pedretti]

I'm pretty much the only BCS reef keeper that uses RODI water lol

dude!...i use rodi water!...lol

Lol yeah I usually don't talk to people in the store. Awkward. I do know that one of the aggie football players has a reef tank of some sort. Saw him buy one of their carpet anemone and some fish one day. He sounded like he knew all the staff well based on their interactions. I stop by and look once every couple weeks but rarely buy. The corals are way over priced. Hopefully I have time to check out river city aquatics, aquadome, or aquatek in Austin this Thursday. Gotta love $5-$10 frag tanks

As far as my tank goes here's my build thread.

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/27270-bpbs-55/#entry204999

that is awkward

I'm Jonathan. I didn't know there was a new local. I imagine there are many many more people locally that have reef tanks but they just aren't big forum users. I've met a couple but its been more of a "here's your corals, now get lost" ordeal. Right now I just know you and Dustin

Yeah, you aggielanders are invasive. One of you hitchhiker in and before we knew it You are popping up everywhere .

Hey!...theres an idea...maby we should start our own forum...course there'd only be 3 people on there...pretty boring lol

, isnt it!?!...leme know if you see anything cool tomorrow

dude...i use rodi lol

[Bpb]

Dustin I thought you used Jacobs well, or that glacier water machine. Those aren't ROdi. They get the water pretty clean but not ROdi clean.

They should be reading anywhere between 5-10 tds depending on how diligent they are with their membrane changes. It's better than our 550 ppm tds, but not quite zero yet. That's where the "DI" in ROdi really comes into play. Could be a moot point through since we have no way of actually testing what the remaining tds is. It could just be carbonate ions lol. 60% of the total tds from our aquifer is carbonate ions of some sort.

[Dustin Pedretti]

ewww...yeah thats right...i forgot jacobs well was just ro water lol...my bad

makes me want to test it though just to see...ya know

[subsea]

Chaos,

With respect to physically moving water, I use a Danner Mag Pump. A mag 7 should be adequate. Buy an adapter at Lowes to go from pipe thread to male hose bib. Use standard garden hose from bucket to tank. On the display tank side of hose, I make a hang on assembly with PVC pipe and two 90 degree elbows.

For Aggies I give unlimited advice. I graduated from Texas Maritime Academy in Galveston in 1974. I did not know I was an Aggie until the end of first semester, when I returned to my mothers home for Christmas. With a large Cajun family of 6 boys and 4 girls, Christmas was a big reunion of extended family. Being one of the last to arrive, the merriment was in full swing as we arrived from Galveston. The theme of Aggie jokes was in the air and I joined in with the few that I knew. After several hours, I found my grades which had been shipped to my mothers permanent home address. As I looked at the envelope with Texas A & M written on it, the light came on.

A Cajun Aggie is born.

La bonne temps roulee,

Patrick