Recent content by skylsdale

March 1-2, 2013 I want to extend an invitation to everyone for MICROCOSM 2013, which is a different sort of event that brings together a variety of naturalistic 'glass box' hobbies and specialists together under one roof...from poison dart frogs to orchids, aquatic plants and shrimp to...

I bought a damsel today for $3.99, which brings my total to around $15. :D

The FF cultures are what prevented me from doing it for a while (I'm not much of a 'bug guy,' plus the idea of being tied to having to make cultures, etc. wasn't all that appealing). However, it's really not all that bad. If you only have a few frogs, you don't have to produce tons of...

They definitely pull their weight in the tank. This guy has definitely earned his place (despite the detrital load he contributes). The tank has been setup for a few weeks, and up until recently I was having quite a bit of salt creep coming from underneath the lip on the outside of the...

I've been lying pretty low for awhile as my focus and attention have been drawn to other things. However, here is the current volume of saltwater in my possession, which sits on the kitchen counter. I don't know what the volume is, but it's one of those hex tank kits from Wal-Mart (I think...

Um, let's see... old hex tank from Wal-Mart: free silica sand: free couple pieces of LR: free (received in a trade with another reefer when I gave them some LR that I had obtained from someone else). corals: a few tiny xenia colonies on the LR turbo snail: $2 salt: $5 lighting: 20 watt curly-Q...

I went to turn off my 96w Aqualight tonight and got a HUGE shock to my hand. I couldn't figure out where it could have come from (other than the switch, which I then felt around, but nothing happened). As I was looking, my finger moved over the screw in the back on the right side panel...POW...

Sorry for the lack of reply, guys...but Reefs.org always logs me out and for some reason I wasn't getting any sort of e-mail notification when people replied. This tank is no longer up and running in the 15 gal. I actually moved everything over to a 55 gal to give the chromis some more...

I went down to check on the tank this morning, and overnight had a sudden explosion of these little things all over the glass. They are so tiny (1 mm or so) that it was really hard to get a picture with my camera. Most of them had a more solid white part (as can be seen in the picture) toward...

Watch the chitons--they are notorious for scratching acrylic!

There is a hang-on-back powerfilter (Aquaclear 500). Inside that I have a 50 watt Tronic heater and the probe for my pH meter. I took out everything that the filter came with (sponge, grate, etc.) and keep it wide open and empty. It gives a bit more water volume and works well at keeping...

The light is a 96 watt Coralife Aqualight...which I'm not all that keen on (loud, a pain to have to move all the time, etc.) but it was all I had on hand and I don't have the funds for a MH setup, so it will have to work. There isn't a sump, nor any plans for one. I WISH there was one, though...

Absolutely fantastic! This is a wonderful project and execution. Do you have a fish list of what's in there (or going in there?) If I could make a suggestion, I would definitely think about adding a small group of Assessors in there--they would feel right at home hanging out under all those...

Okay, I figured I would post a couple pics of the 15 gal I have up and running. It was started over a month ago when someone I knew was breaking down a larger system, and I offered to take a few of their fish and some rock. I traded a bunch of the rock with a local reefer for some frags (just...

I don't believe it actually exists. I think his livestock photos are produced through an early version of Photoshop and an obscure form of Haitian voodoo. On a different note: That earlei is absolutely AMAZING... 8O