pledosophy

Where you at? Depending on location I'll take the no names.

Nope I know who he is. I thought I saw the other dude in the classified section. Can't find the post now, looks like I may have been mistaken. His SN took me at first cuz it was so close to Manrow's, but I might have been in error. My Bad. Party On. (rock2)

Your crusing my old stomping grounds. So Cali has some sick tanks for sure. I use no skimmer, and no phosphate reactor myself. I prefer refugiums and water changes. I don't even change all that much water anymore to be honest. It's kind of a regional thing IMO. Leng Sy the owner of Ecosystems is down there and holds court at many LFS's. After talking with Leng, and some of the other Ecosystem employees, I never saw the need for protein skimmers. I looked at all of my favorite tanks and none of them used skimmers so I never did. I have been thinking of cashing int he change jar for a very nice high quaility skimmer (possibly Euro Reef) one of these days just to see what all the hub bub is about, but as of now my tank levels are all where I want them to be. I feed 3 to 4x a day with no algae problems and 0 nitrates, so I see no use as of yet. I do want to try it though. I also want to play with a controller. Just the gadget hound in me I suppose. I prefer refuigums mostly because they are what I have always done I suppose, but also for there food production. Having a constant supply of food in my displays is cool IMO, as close to more natural environments as I can get. Ya the 5 cubes a day of frozen food help as well, but the more availbale the better. Jsut for the record I currently have a 29g with a 25g refugium, and a 65g with a 30g ish refugium. Both tanks are skimmer less, and doing awesome. I'm really happy with them, which is more then most can say for there tanks. JMO

On a 2.5g how much flow do you need? IMO alternating would be better. JMO. Keep that ish suspended. What kind of filtration you running?

I use the floss filter pads. It's a few bucks a square foot. Then when it collects crap you can rinse it off and remove detritus as well. JME Suction cups work well too IME,

Waves isn't that far from you. If you buy the water cards there premixed salt water is extremely cheap. (geez I hope Joel doesn't read this). It's cheaper for me then making my own. If I were you I'd call ahead and get water an incraments from them. JMO.

I say two returns on a SCWD.

IIRC JNarrow is a member here no?

Dude if you need help I'd be glad to help you out. Least I could do after all the help you've given me. Kevin

Can you post pics of zoo's?

Laguna Beach Orange County? Geez I feel bad for you. That a nice area. Loved it myself.

No experience with ozone, but I love my UV's. UV's at typical flow rates will not have an impact on copepods as it is not strong enough to kill them.

I'll preface this with that I am very opinionated on the subject. Just to be clear this is how I define the terms myself WC, wild caught fish are caught by collectors in the ocean and then distributed among wholesalers then to our LFS TR, are fish that spent some time in the ocean. Either they were collected as fry and then raised in a tank, or the brood stock was kept in tanks and the fry were raised in net pens in the ocean. CB, captive bred fish are fish whose parents are in closed systems, the fry are born in closed systems and kept there until they are sold. IME/IMO WC and CB are better then TR. CB being the best. Many companies have found the use of ocean pens to raise fish to be a good alternative and way of cutting costs down. The ocean provides the food, there is no need for water changes, or the electricity needed to run tanks. This process is also called maricultured. IME with maricultured fish, which primarily pertains to seahorses, is that the fry is packed in such tight quarters, they are more prone to carry different parasites. On a different forum I belong to we have been tracking many of the TR fish that are coming in and find there survival rate to be far lower then WC and CB fish. IME with CB fish they are parsite free, tend to do better long term, and have no ill effects on the ocean. The TR fish, especially those that are being raised in net pens in Asia have very bad effects on the local environments as it exposes the entire region to pathogens that were not introduced before. CB fish have no detrimental affects on the environment, and are not exposed to pathogens or parasites. For me use I prefer to get CB when ever possible. I like to buy corals as frags from local people. There are some fish that are not available as CB which I do buy from my LFS's since I want the fish and I'm not theat high and mighty. I do try to get CB speciments whenever possible and IME thus far have far better experience with them. I have purchased maricultured clams and kept them with succsess. JMO

A bit old but here was my last one. I need to update it soon.

What kind of protein skimmers.

The zoo's rock. They all opened up for me last night. Nice packing job too. Thanks.

The name is Southdown. I'm not sure if anyone around here carries it. How much do you need? I should have mentioned it, I do have some argonite, it was in the tubberware in the garage right next to the tank. lol

I run my refugium 18/7 during the black out periods.Helps to stabalize the pH and let's the macro absorb the nutrients in the water as well. I find with some dark periods macro's do better IME

And the tank goes to Neil for a handshake. Thanks Neil.

I've been doing this for about five years. It is pretty good. the skimmer will go crazy as the algaes die and release things ack into the water. Some years ago I read a study that said that up to 55 of the algae that died was reusable and made more algae in the tank, so the skimmer pulling that out is great. Sorry i can't find the link. The RC thred is great. For those considering this note that some SPS keepers hae not faired so well with Monti's and Acro's seeming to fair the worse. Many of these cases the pH in the system dropped. JME

Dibs on both of the cup corals, the yellow and the pink, as well as the Pink monit.(depending on your location, within 20 miles or so of Beaverton I'm intrested, and of course price) The pictures aren't working for me. We'll talk money if you decide to part out. Good Luck.

Thanks Joel. You still sell that sratch removal kit at your store right? I'll see you Wednesday (surprise surprise)

Good Looking out. I love that I find so much cool stuff to watch on this site. Props.

I'd love to take the zoo's. Kinda of a shame, I just bought those rics, but paid more. :( I have Wednesday and Thursday off this week, I can pick up. PM me and let me know if that will work for ya. If not we can work something else out.