pledosophy

Let me know if you want some macro's. I have a few that I pruin kinda often. If your in the area I'm sure I could give you some of the clippings that would give you a good start. I currently have: taxifloria ochotode red grape suction cup Dwarfs are fun. I've never kept them myself but am active on another board that is seahorse specific. Would love to here more about your dwarf tank.

What do you want out of the refugium? I tend to go more fuge less equipment myself. I have a tank that is all natural and a tank that has a smaller fuge and a skimmer. The all natural one runs much better, but I did order a bigger skimmer for the other one.

What are your Alk, Mg, and Ca levels at? I shoot for 8.4 as well. To test the swing test right before the lights go on, and then again right after they are about to turn off. The difference in readings will show you the swing.

There guy is a "professional". I hope they didn't pay to much for the aiptasia corals. At least all the lights work now, even if they don't turn on at the same time. It sucks to not see as many fish as last time quite often. I wish they would have gone with one of the others who bid on the service contract, we used to sit there a couple nights a week and enjoy the tank. One night when we were sitting there we met a guy who told me about this club, that's how I found it. I must have just missed you.

Yall are some fast drinkers cuz I was there at 6 and none of yall were there.

I remember there being some odor but not much more odor then a noraml fish food after it's thawed. I'm not one to smell the fish food to often though . . . My clown and leopard love it, I don't keep the other species of fish you have. My midas blenny and bi-color both love it to though. HTH

I don't get off work until 5:30 but I will be there by 6 if anyone is still there. My wife and I go there every Sunday night, they have free pool and a great Happy hour. It's a fun place.

Thanks. Looks like we goofed.

Vanz, if you haven't ordered your clean up crew yet, I'll split a package from Etropicals.com with you. They have a sale and free shipping on orders over $60. What I want will easily cover half of that, so then you wouldn't have to get so much of what you don't need. Cyano sucks. If you don't have corals three days with no light will kill it, but if the source of the problem is not corrected it just comes right back. Even if you have corals many can go for the three days but some don't fair so well. How high is your phosphate level?

I'm not the best at clown ID. As far as I know that is a perc, true or false, IDK. I would consider both a 3 and not really keep either with a seahorse IMO/IME unless you have another home to put them in. IME with the clowns they are fine at smaller sizes and then get more aggressive. Clowns are fairly aggressive and tend to defend there turf. Can be problematic with seahorses. There is also some feeding issues that need to be carefully worked out IME. If someone could confirm the Perc I will make the updates next time around. We are already working on the next update, will include some more fish, more corals, and a brief little description about the various fish and the best ways to keep them with seahorses. Our goal is to make it the best compatibility chart for seahorses anywhere, it's a hefty goal, but we're up for it. I'm glad it could hep someone. Ya we hooked it up. There is a lot of research in there and ancedotal reports from a few thousand people. You can't imagine how much fun it was researching and organizing that.

So a few friends and I have been working on this for awhile. Take a peek. (Shameless self promotion (naughty) ) http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/tankmates/tankmates.shtml

I got my Rod's today. My fish loved it. I was pretty surprised to see a couple of the corals react to it, I thought that would be bogus. Good Stuff.

In my 20g long I ran 2 MJ 1200's, one in each corner behind the rock. I had them on timers so they alternated being on and off and for five minutes out of 20 both were on at the same time. I also ran a Seio 620 out in front. The return from the sump was about 250 gph or so after head loss. After a day or two the sand settled where it would and I had no more problems. The most flow at a time was about 1400 gph or so, in a 20g. Closed loops are pretty nice though. I use one on my 65g and have spraybars come from the back and under the rock, it works great.

There are some other facilities that pump water directly in from the ocean and then back out to it. My "online friend" David Warland ran a seahorse breeding facilites in Southern Australia for years this way. He UV'd the water before it came in, and then again on it's way out. He still used sumps and alrge protein skimmers. You need to treat the water on the way in for your protection, on the way out for natures protection. Many of the bacterias we put into our system are not native to the region. Introducing a steady stream of bacteria to an eo system could be very bad. Think of what small pox did to the Indians. Very bad. There is a guy on Long island who continually pumps water into his tanks as well but all of his food for the displays comes from nets in the harbor. HTH.

Try etropicals for pricing. I don't think that so large of a cleanup crew is our answer IMHO. I have much less in my systems and have no problems with alge despite having no filters outside the refugium. I have one turbo, two emeralds, a scarlet hermit, and 3 astrea in a 65. IMO that large of a clean up crew is a temporary band aid that will leave a bigger problem.

I just ordered one of the RC Pacific Coast skimmers. Haven't received it yet to report back. They seem to be the same as the octopus ones, just a different sticker.

This was my first year ever of getting a refund. I got a skimmer, it's on the way once there in stock again. Maybe with the spring one I'll buy a different kind of skimmer for the other tank so I can run them next to each other and compare. I expected to owe, like every other year so I was quite pleased.

You got any shrimp or pods in there?

I keep posting while your posting. Cause could be a few things. Deadspots building up detritus. Kelvin range of the bulb. Photoperiod. Just hasn't had time to invade the display yet. Lots of things. If your going to be moving that would be a great time for cooking. I would say 6 weeks or longer is best IMHO. 8 months worked good, but I don't think I'll do it again.

Didn't see Ed's post before I posted. 6 drops a day? I would cut that. Cooking rocks like Miles is talking about is cool. I ended up cooking mine for about 8 months ( I planned on two, some things came up . . .) but I couldn't be happier. The 65g tank the cooked rock is in still has very little algae growth despite a very cheap and I think broken skimmer, and a 20gish refugium. Tank will have it's one year birthday in a couple weeks. I used a 55g rubbermaid, a 800gph pump and a pair of 100W heaters set at 91. I fed the tank pure unscented ammonia (about 5mL) a few times a week and added vodka once a week or so as I remembered. Over the course of the 8 months I am sure I missed some feedings, thought I missed some and fed extra, I'm not that calculated of a person on somethings. When I removed the rock and placed it into my system there was no cycle. I added 5 cubes of food the first day, tested after 8 and 12 hours, tank was ready to go. It was easy for me moving here from out of state to do such, but at this point it would be hard for me to tear down a tank just to rid the algaes and phosphates. I do think it is good practice and am happy I did it but would understand if you didn't want to tear a system apart. HTH

IMO three days with no light on the sump will tell you if the problem has been corrected, or if the problem still exists. If the problem is still present the cyano will return. IMO flow has something to do with it when keeping cheato as it can be a detritus collector, you do want a good amount of flow through the refugium IME. By keeping the flow up you keep the detritus suspended so the other filtration can remove it. Also IME 3 days with no light won't even phase cheato. I would be very leary about osing Iodine without testing for it and make sure your supplement is actually IodiDe not Iodine. Iodine is found in salt and food and IME is never something I have needed to supplement. I'm not anti supplement, I dose for a ton of stuff including Iron and amino's so I do use stuff most wouldn't, but not even I touch iodine. JMO

Turn off the sump light for 3 days.

I've QT inverts for extended periods of time without an issue. Other then a few Emerald crabs every other invert in my tank has gone through at least 6 weeks of QT, the first ones about three months. I'm pretty freaking paranoid about parasites. I haven't had an issue with fish illness in a long time.

Scrub the shell of the snails and hermits with a toothbrush before putting in QT. You could use your current QT for the inverts. You can add liverock if you like but if your on a budget other things will grow algae on them (PVC, plastic chain, your a handy guy). Using the water in your display you remove during water changes is always good as it will increase the algae foods. Using bulbs with lower Kelvin spectrums will help grow the algae faster. You will still have to feed the QT tank. Emerald entree or nori would be good. Just about anything for the detrivours. It's kinda the opposite of running a good reef.

I still have my old school Cannon rebel. The first one. It's a 6.3 MP but it does what I need it too. I can print 40"x60" prints off the large Jpeg setting, I don't need more then that for my work. At least IME with the Cannon lines (it's really all I use) the new camera's IMO are trying to pack to much into a small machine which causes to many problems with overall performance. Personally Id invest the money in lenses. A nice lense makes all the difference. Here's a fun analogy. You can buy a super dooper BBQ with all the gadgets and features, but if your cooking chuck shoulder roast, it's going to taste like chuck shoulder roast. A ribeye on a coleman stove is still going to taste better. You can have a super nice camera with a really cheap lens and the picture will still not turn out great. What's the camera doing that your not happy with? The new camera's are nice, they have some nice features, but for me I'm going to open any file I shoot in PS anyhoo so the features don't do that much for me. The best advances in equipment I have made have all been with the lenses. It's amazing the differences in a cheap lens and a really good lens. Same with printers. HTH