JamesL

This is what I use to mix my saltwater in. Works great.

Stay away from Talbot Damsels. I tried to do a school of 4 of them ... they ended up being territorial On they plus side, they have spawned ....

Me too. Though I am not sure the wife would like the fact of having to feed it starfish...

It might be a Euclid worm ... I have one in my tank that is yellow/brown. It has never bothered my zoa's though, it normally captures snails (and I have heard they might go after Rics, but it has left mine alone).

I think mine is working on that system. I swear I hear the pistol shrimps napping at the left end of the tank sometimes, but I have not seen any exit points over there. I have only seen the fish & pistol come out on the right ride of the tank.

I think they still had some Tuesday when I was there.

Emerald crabs sometimes work. I had a few bubble algae bubbles near the base of some SPS. The emerald crab ignored it. But a pencil urchin came right up and ate all of it, along with a small chunk of the SPS

While I don't have the time for web development, on the merchant side you might check out www.esellerate.net (depending on what she is selling). They are mostly a digital goods delivery system, but I believe they also can handle you shipping out product. I have used them for many years, and they have been great (their cut is currently 11.9% if you sell <$100,000 I believe, then the percentage goes down from there).

Thanks! It is finally at the enjoyable stage. No more cloudiness, no more diatoms

I woke up this morning to find my orange barred shrimp goby paired up with my red striped pistol shrimp! The shrimp was busy making an entrance to a cave, luckily towards for the front of the tank

See previous blog entry for details, just continuing with the pictures. Candy cane near the top of the tank splitting like crazy: Pulsing xenia: One shot of the flame angel: Another of the flame: Some zoa's with orange ball anemones in them: Best picture I could get of the new wrasse... he was staying in a corner of the tank yesterday: Left side of the tank (picture came out kinda dark): Right side of the tank: Full tank shot:

Ok, not only did I go to Aquadome yesterday and pick up some new stuff, but I even took pictures last night! Picture taking quality is still a little shotty, just haven't had the time to spend quality time fiddling with the settings. I didn't even bother to pull out the tripod. I picked up a Flame Angelfish, Blue Sided Wrasse, Orange Bar Shrimp Goby, and an Orange Brain Coral. The stupid Talbot Damsels think they own the whole tank, so they gave the angel and wrasse some initial guff. But the angel would have none of it and fought back. After a couple hours the damsels were leaving the angel alone and he was out eating some of the pellet food off the bottom I fed earlier to distract the fish. And without further ado, here are the pictures. You can click them for larger versions. Jawfish in his cave: New organ brain near my existing cynaria (bought it at a cheap price as a recovery coral): Sun Coral: One of the pencil urchins: Another of the jawfish: Organ bar goby, hope he finds my pistol: Yet another of the jawfish (can you tell I like him ): Emerald crab hiding in one of the candy canes: Bad picture of some of my zoa's: Little bit better picture of some zoa's: More pictures to come in next post...

Additionaly, how old is the tank? You might also be just dealing with the typical first wave of brown algae that most new tanks get.

That makes sense.

My sun coral and gorgonians love the stuff. I am almost out, and will definitely be buying more soon.

Want to go to Denver and get another one? I am not sure if this thread on Nano-Reef is for real, but supposedly someone there had a blue ring accidentally shipped to them (they had ordered a dwraf "reef" octopus or something like that).

Very nice pictures! Glad your jawfish moved to the front, I really love those fish.

Another "easy" one that I have had great luck with is a bubble tip anemone. They seem to be a little bit less demanding on the lighting. You can find some nice looking one with purple bases (though they hide their foot in the rockwork, so you won't see it much), or the beautiful rose bubble tips. Only thing I would say to watch out for is them being torn at the store when they are trying to remove them. I have had one wither away due to that. But my current one was attached to a small rock already, so no messing with the foot. It is very happy in my tank, albeit facing the rear wall

Well, things must be going good in the 75g tank, as my three Talbot Damsels spawned over the weekend! Now, I am not sure which are males and which are females. I have three, and one has always lived in a cave in the live rock. This weekend, that one got a bluish/grey patch on the top base of his tail (I am suspecting this is the female) , and starting courtship dances with one of the others. They would then both zip into the cave (which up to this point, she never allowed anyone else in the cave). Then it would repeat with the other damsel. Now, the other two damsels (the supposed males) have taken to digging holes in the sand at opposite ends of the tank. I took a flashlight and can see eggs lining the walls in the cave, and the (supposed) female in there fanning them. I don't expect the offspring to survive, as I don't have the time to try and raise them outside the big tank. But cool non-the-less.

I think everyone asks this question at some point or another. It might be right after a crash, or just due to boredom. What made you get into the saltwater hobby in the first place? I think this should answer why you have spent so much time, energy, and money on your tank. For me, it was the fascination with how much life is contained in every square inch of live rock. I like the little things in a reef. The interaction between animals such as clownfish/anemones, shrimp/gobies, etc. And the diversity of corals. I have dropped out of keeping fish on and off over the 20+ years I have kept fish (fresh, salt, ponds). But there also seems to be a call again to return to the hobby. Maybe you feel like you are no longer challenged with the tank. In that case, I say pull up a chair and just watch and enjoy the fruits of your hard work

Congrats! Your youngest is about the same age as ours

It might be too late for this, but for my jawfish, I put a 4" piece of PVC pipe in the front of my tank near some live rock. When I added him to the tank, I released him near the pipe, and he has lived in it every since. He adds shells and rocks inside of it to make it smaller. This way, I see him all the time. The past few days he has been excavating more sand, so I think he is borrowing under the live rock (which is sitting on the tank bottom .. I pre-planned for having a jawfish ). I have seen fancier designs where people glue shells to the entrance of the pipe to hide it more. Here is a pic of him. You can only see part of the pipe.

+1 to liking the dome. And I understand the addiction. It is real close to my allergy shot location, so it is hard to not just stop by and see what they have (I think I will be stopping by tomorrow ).

Sounds like cerith or narcissus... (if you have either of them ).

You really like the challenging stuff, don't you? Ribbon eels, octopi... I really admire the amount of time and research you put into keeping these harder species.