ThePremiumAquarium

Looking pretty darn good there Michael! Nice job on the coral selection. Once those thing grow out you will be way happy! Garrett

Welcome to the club! It sounds like you are off to an excellent start and you have picked out some nice equipment and a great tank! I love the freshwater tanks! Once you get into reefing, I am afraid that you are probably going to convert a few of those bad boys I didn't get a chance to chat with you at the meeting but next time I will definately say hello. This is a great place to learn and interact and thanks for joining! Garrett

I like the 7 inch heavy duty ones found here: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4680+13723+12037&pcatid=12037 The nice thing about bone shears vs. wire cutters is that they are stainless steal. Of course they do eventually stain lol but for the most part they prevent metal flaking from getting in your system. They are also sharper and stronger than most wire cutters. Wire cutters work as a nice cheap alternative though. Garrett

Here is a link to a few places with a few options. I like ones with about 1 inch blades. http://www.google.com/products?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS269US269&q=bone%20shears&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wf Garrett

Bone shears do wonders Awesome stuff! That is some really nice growth.

That is feakin rad! I am going to have to get you to hall a bunch of that rock my direction lol. Pretty nice looking stuff and will seed up real well! Before you know it, you will not be able to even tell the difference between it and live rock out of the ocean(since it is really out of the ocean anyway lol). Crazy crazy cool to have that kind of access. Garrett

Also give kalkwasser paste a try after injecting with lemon juice. Works every time and I have never had one pop back up. Aptaisa X is also a pretty good weapon, I just havn't gotten around to buying a bottle in a while. Garrett

I personally run both SE and DE. I am a big fan of the SE for several reasons. The bulbs are easier to find typically, they have built in UV shielding, the moguls are easier to find though I have easily found DE recepticles, and SE radiums look way cool powered by and hqi ballast! I have also run 400w xm 20k SE bulbs on hqi ballasts and had great luck. I have heard others have not and am not sure about the 250w hqi running xm SE's. Going the single ended route: Waves has some nice reflectors for $30 each and has moguls for $15 each I belied. You could also probably get the connectors for the ballast there or just buy the moguls that are from sunlight supply that have the connectors built in. I think those are around $30 each. Pretty much all you need after that is a couple of bulbs of your choosing and you are set. I personally like the radium 20k's and xm 20k's though I have heard great things about several other brands. Garrett

Guys I had a great time today! What a wonderful guest speaker! Thank you for all that you did to get this ready John! And thank you to all the others that helped out in this aswell, it was great! It was nice to finally put a name to a face for some of you! Glad I could make it today. Garrett

I guess I am talking to anyone that wants to bring a couple of frags to trade. My frags will be a mystery as I have not yet gone over to the tanks to see what I will bag up but I am sure that thye will be decent specimens. Stylaster, I would love a frag of each and will bring some things that you might be interested in. Garrett

I would be if no one else is. I will bring up some a couple of frags. Garrett

I agree, it shouldn't do anything but help and grow like made with a little light.

Funny stuff! I hope that everything turns around and does well for you! I don't think the coffee will be a problem lol. Who knows you may have some really active and wild polyp extension!

A lightning bolt hit my apartment! It was the craziest thing! Sounded like my 45 went off. Scared the crap out of me and popped every circuit in the panel! luckily no damage to anything in the apartment and all the electronics were unplugged(I was prepared). Did suck though because my neighbors satellite dish was pretty nasty looking ;0 I have never had lightning hit anywhere near me so that was pretty bizzare. Not to mention that it looked like it was 10pm when it was just past 4pm. Kinda creapy stuff. Garrett

LOL. And once your frag grows out, I would love a second generation frag. I hear they color up and do much better in captive aquaria after a generation or two.

Crazy beautiful stuff. Defiantley enjoyed the last half of the video the most. Such color and cool polyp movement.

This is clearly a touchy subject for discussion. I just caution people to be very careful what they say when typing responces on here. This business definatley is based alot upon ones reputation so it is important to keep a respectable competative nature. Take responces with a grain of salt and represent yourself clearly. Garrett

Acrylic rods would definatley work better! I thought about it and just decided to try it with pvc first before I went down and picked up the acrylic. Turned out to work great. With a littel epoxy and rubble in spots to cover up some cracks it should be complete. I think the krylon should scratch of just fine aswell. Its just a bit scary lol. Sounds like you will be having some fun this weekend and some nice pics to post for us! Thanks, Garrett

Pretty sweet coral with a great price! Good luck with the sale! Garrett

LOL me too! I would definately take this mess outside though. Just a heads up, it can get a bit nasty.

I broke one of the more dense rocks but could have probably avoided that if I took a bit more care. That being said, I would definatley have a few pieces of similar size and look around so that you can redrill if you break one. Also I would have a bucket of clean tank water and a tooth brush so that you can rinse and scrub off the gunk created from drilling. Expect to get a bit dirty and probably make a bit of a mess. (laugh)

I used my dewalt 18v cordless. It has a hammer mode which helped alot. You could do it with a regular corded drill and probably do just fine. My guess is it would take less time with a corded hammer drill.

Here is a rock pillar I built. I used a masonry bit to drill the rock and then carefully ran 3/4" pvc through the holes connecting the rock. I plan on doing another one in more of an elongated island format on the left side of the tank. This allows for pretty clean aquascaping with room for fish and lots of corals! Still some work to do as I was waiting on some bulbs to arrive before I made any final adjustments. Taken with my iphone and is of my father and I's 90g inline display. The left side is just a pile of rocks right now. Just wait, it will be sweet when I am done

Top secret, very need to know info. Just kidding. I will post a bit about it in my prop system build in the near future. Basically a masonry drill bit, some 3/4 inch pvc and some nice porous rock. I am doing another one in more of an elongated island formation. If I had the kind of deapth that Curtis has here... [language filter] that would be some amazing rock work! Garrett