Hi Mak.

But the point you made was that it boomed in your refugium and not in the main tank. This is perfectly reasonable. When they are safe from predators, even with a lower larvae survival rate, the refugium could allow large populations to quickly establish in a short amount of time.

Now, the problem I could have had in my main tank was that the larvae survival rate in IO was just good enough such that only a few of them could survive predation and thus I seldomly saw any in the tank. Once the larvae survival rate increased, more of them existed and predation could not keep up with them which is why I see them swimming everywhere now. I don't have a sump or refugium so larvae survival rate plays a much bigger role. With a refugium, even 1% survival could result in large populations rather quickly I'd imagine.

WRT spawning under stress. I don't doubt that it could happen. But I'm a believer that more often than not, animals require ideal conditions to spawn. But I can see how it may be hard to think that a tank can go to breeding condition after 8 hours of a water change.

Hi Mak. Paul's Aquarium is the only place that I know of that carries it at the moment. It was priced about the same as IO. Hm, Paul's might be close to where you live.

Actualy this has been well documented in dozzens of types of marine organisims. it is a servival mechanisim. Anemone, Urchins, ect.. when stressed may release eggs/split in order to increase the chances of there species survival.

Steve

Well the main tank, in 57g there used to be mass Mysids everywhere :eek: . They however are a little more scare since the addition of my two FLATWORM EATERS (Yea!!! no more whining from me as they have been totally erradicated from my tank), which are my little 6-line and my Neon Dottyback :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :cool: . The Mysids have also spread quite nicely in the 77g main tank as well.

But anywho if this stuff proves itself, I see no reason not to switch.

If this salt actually did bring optimal breeding conditions after 8 hours, I myself just might be sold. Something also tells me that the price of this salt will probably jump up more the IO.

Yeah, that's kind of what I mean. With predation, the larvae survival and hatch rate will play a bigger role in whether or not you will see lots of them in your tank. I have a leopard wrasse and still it can't keep up with the mysids now. Well, who knows. Hard to say unless there is a side by side comparison or a before and after scenario. I really wish I had lots of tanks to experiment with so I can make side by side comparisons of mysid shrimp reproduction and clownfish breeding. If I lived in a place with more room, I would have started these experiments already.

Interesting to me, someone else had a population explosion of mysid shrimps after switching salts.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...&pagenumber=20

Interesting poll here. Also, glad to read from JohnL that RC is conducting more salt tests to be published soon. Happy to see that RC is actually going forward with these tests so quickly.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...highlight=poll

How's your tank doing Brad?

Sam, I've had 3 of my colonies bleach after the water change. Can't say for sure it was the salt, but to be safe, I'll only use it to cure rock or something. :rolleyes:

Brad, very sorry to hear that. Were those colonies close to the light and did the bleaching occur on the top of the corals that receive most of the light?

Sam, one was right under the light, one was on the bottom under the cross brace and the third was up high but right at the side of the tank. Completely different light exposure on them. One acro, one pocillipora and a T. reniformis. No idea why these three out of all the corals. Again, maybe something else changed the same time I did te water change. I'm not chancing it though.....

Yeah me too!

That's why I called it quits on the CSBMM. I was just about to drop you a line Brad- to ask if your Pocillipora had been affected. I almost lost both colonies of that coral and also my big green Frogspawn :confused:

I'm going to stick with the brand that's worked for me for 6 years, or until a serious study of salt mixes and comparrisons has been done :smile:

cheers, Rich

dam Rich. That's a serious blow. I have both frogspawn and pocillipora with no problems. Is it because I use carbon? Either of you use carbon? Rich, I can frag you some frogspawn if you are interested.

Sam, I have both carbon and a poly filter in the sump. I also have 3 other pocillipora colonies that were NOT bleached. My hammer was also not affected.

Sam
Thanks for the frag offer :biggrin:

I didn't loose the green Frogspawn, it was however effected by the water changes using CSMBM. It remained completly closed for up to four hours after doing the changes. The Frogspawn and also the Pocillipora are both slowly rebounding back so I'm keeping my fingers crossed :exclaim:

And yes, I also use Chemi-Pure carbon in my sump as well.

Good to hear that they're making a comeback. I misread your original post when you said "almost lost". I thought you actually did lose them.