Recent content by theonella

Thanks for the advice. There is quite a lot of cyanide poisoned fish out there. I actually have been diving in the Philipines. I was a wasteland. The corals and sponges were quite abundant though. You would not believe the fish these people were eating. They caught and dried fish that we...

All: I just talked to my LFS about a copperbanded butterfly. He told me that they do better in pairs. I have never heard that these fish are social with each other. Any opinions? Theonella

Thank you: I think you are correct. I have PC lighting, and I did not change it on the regular schedule. Normally, I change the PC's every 6 months. I did let it go. Shame on me. Thanks for the information.

I don't know why, but my four Entacmaea Quadricolors have bleached. One is recovering the zooxanthellae, but the others have shrunk and I am very concerned. Since they have lost their symbiotic algae I assume they are not getting the nutrition that they need. Is their anything that I can do...

I would agree with liquidshaneo. The four stage are the best, and definitely get a TDS meter, which really measures the resistance of the water to electrical current. Pure water does not conduct electricity, but ionic impurities in the water will allow it to pass some current. So, you will...

Hope things work out for the best with your bubbletip/maroon. James: Yes I know of La Jolla pharmaceuticals. I work about 1/2 mile from it. They call the area Biotech Beach here in San Diego.

Yes, I have had the same experience, with exactly the same organisms. The first time, I put the anemone into the tank with the clown. The clown basically pestered the anemone to death. The second time I tried the opposite introduction strategy, that is I let the anemone get settled, then...

Oh forgot: Jeff's exotic fish: 8.5 Ordered livestock. Everything arrived well except for a torch coral which had gotted banged up quite a bit. I contacted them and they were willing to replace if it didn't recover. The coral recovered, and the E.Quad that I ordered has divided into 4 in the...

Marine Depot: 10 Good prices, and service on dry goods, haven't ordered livestock. Fed Ex returned my order of PC lights to Marine depot saying that it was "incorrectly addressed". It was correctly addressed, so I called up Marine Depot and they reshipped with no additional charge. The...

After reading a lot of discussions on light intensity, I don't see a lot of people using light meters. I bought one for around $40, and it is essentially a solar cell on the end of a stick, that you can place anywhere in your tank. The read-out is in Lux. For example with 1 55W 6500K PC + 1...

I live in San Diego about 5 miles from the ocean. The oceanograpic institute at UCSD has a saltwater tap at the end of the pier which the public can use. I don't use it because I hate lugging buckets of water around. Since I have a RO/DI sytem at home, I find it much more easy to make SW...

I have also had severe caulerpa growth. I got rid of it by pulling it out every day. the holdfasts will regrow the plant, so you have to make sure to get those too. If you start at the end of the piece, and carefully work backwards, detaching the plant from the rock down the holdfast, you can...

I store both my DI and SW in 5 gallon white plastic pails purchased from Home Depot. They are polyethylene and come with airtight lids. I believe they were sold as "paint pails". They are very sturdy and completely inert to SW. Also inexpensive. Normally, I mix and aerate (with a powerhead)...

Water changes are certainly in order, I do have a concern about your water source though. You mention using RO water, does the unit have a conductivity meter on it to let you know if the water you are producing is pure? When was the last time you changed the membrane? I ask this because at a...

Davelin315 is certainly correct. Chillers don't create "cold" they just move heat from one place to another. If the destination of the exhaust heat is the room, and you have no AC, the room will heat up. Like any air conditioner, the exhaust heat has to go out of the house for proper...