Recent content by newkie

Just a heads up if you happen to be using a pressure activated solenoid to cut off your waste water (such as Kent's Float Kit or one of the many generic solenoids on the market): Visually your waste water stops in 20 seconds or less. If its not, then the pressure exerted on the membrane will...

Look up welding supply in the yellow pages...

I'm confused, are you wondering why milleopora's polyps extend the way they do or did you mean to saw you are not noticing much polyp extension?

I have a fire shrimp and a common cleaner... the fire shrimp is so shy he never cleans anyone. The common cleaner does clean my anthias on a regular basis. He also always looks like he want to hop on my face when I look at him closely through the glass.

I've been ordering online pretty regularly recently, mainly because I'm too lazy to waste an entire Saturday to drive 2 hours and back to the best store in the bay area (www.gotpa.com). I've placed a couple of orders with FFE, coralcity, drmac, reeftopia, etropicals, and others. Each have...

Mag drive pumps like the little giant won't add any heat. that's a really good quiet choice. The blueline pump would be a less expensive option and still much more quiet than the iwaki. Anything above an iwaki md3 is too loud IMO. GRI 518 is another option and is supposed to be fairly quiet...

A 6-line wrasse can be employeed to eat the snails. Do some research, there are many fish that will prey on the snails. Its not a waterquality issue, they are parasites pure and simple. Regarding the bristle worm, I prefer they do not live on or near the sensitive bysal gland. Derasas are...

Hi, the chalk bass are good reef residents. I have three. One is dominant and will occasionally chase the other two but never causes any damage. It reminds me of chiclids and their dominance heirarchy. Scott Michael wrote an article about them a few months back in AFM. He said they were one...

IMO and IME the best return pump for a water replenishment via a float switch is the minijet606. It can run dry without burning up. FWIW

Thanks Tex! Yeah, never seen one before. According to Borneman's book that color shouldn't exist! But it was IDed by him.. so go figure!

New side-shot from last weekend. Note the chalk bass saying "hi" in the lower right corner. A Reeftec PE-1 is blowing straight at ya from the left far corner. Just showing off some growth of this green acro. Its a brilliant coral in person. The difference in color between photgraphs has...

I like to cherry-pick.. I go to the following on a regular basis www.flyingfishexpress.com www.cquarium.com www.coralcity.com www.phishybuisiness.com www.eastcoastclams.com www.clamsdirect.com If you are looking for frags that's another list. The above (for corals) are best for wild...

The things to look at with this plague are nitrates, silicates, and phosphates. If you're nitrates are >=10ppm you might ask yourself why. Is your skimmer up to the task, are you feeding too much, time for a water change, do you need to beef up your cleanup crew, maybe macroalgae for nutrient...

Thanks guys! Yeah.. that cap is a lot of fun... Its so cool to watch it grow from a tiny fleck to such an elaborate formation in just over a year! A very rewarding, fast growing coral.

Did a waterchange last weekend and took some above tank shots. This guy I can't even remember where I got it from. Its really taken off in the last few months. I would classify it as a slow-medium grower. I love the bottle formation (what's that called?) and the color is pretty different...