I will admit to buying a couple things from there......I have picked up a couple little nano type gobies from the frag tank in the hall and now this urchin.....they actually had a very nice, healthy looking red golden dwarf angel that had me tempted.....



might be sooner rather than later.....Ive been digging around a little because the reef safe with caution thing was bugging me...I must say there is surprisingly little about them on the net in relation to the aquarium..I found a thread on another forum where a guy said one of these urchins ate his blue linkia seastar......of course this is just on a forum and not anything solid but this may be the with caution part of the equation.... Ill keep digging....in the meantime Im nervous because I have a blue linkia in the tank:neutral:

so I finally made up my mind about skimming on the big tank......my original thought was to keep my BK mini 180 and get another skimmer rated for 200-300g...I was gonna do a vertex alpha cone 180......but after doing some reading, the general consensus is that one big skimmer, rated for your tank size is better than two small skimmers adding up to the size of the tank.....still not exactly sure why, but anyway, thats what the masses say, so it must be true right?.....Ive decided on and ordered a vertex alpha cone 300, rated for 600g http://www.vertexaquaristik.com/Prod.../Alpha300.aspx .....that ought to be enough of a beast for my needs.....I should get it at the end of this month:biggrin:

I had a conversation with a fellow last year that has some connections with some of the big name skimmer manufactures and long story short he told me that having a skimmer rated for double you water volume is needed.


What's your thoughts Dougster?

Oh ya...........that's one kick arse skimmer beast.

now see!!!.....I had a convo with a guy that distributes some of the higher end skimmers a couple years back and he said not to over rate the higher end skimmers.......dont you just loooove all the contradictory little tidbits in this hobby:lol:......the system will likely be around 400g if I do a small satellite tank like in V2......and I tend to stock my tanks a touch on the heavy side so.......

Skimmers are one of those things I just really don't understand because of all the contradictions.

apparently my math sucks and Im a little slow......30" tall stand......30" - 1 1/2" (steel frame tube)= 28 1/2"...... 28 1/2 - 3/4" (for plywood) = 27 3/4..... 27 3/4 - 1/2" (foam)= 27 1/4........27 1/4 - 1/2" (bottom pane of glass in the sump( Im assuming)) = 26 3/4...... vertex alpha 300 = 27"......:doh:.....not to mention the 1/2 of clearance needed to get the cup off.....:doh::doh:.......vertex isnt gonna fit.....order cancelled.....next size down for the vertex cones is rated at up to 300g.......gonna be too small for my needs......the thought briefly crossed my mind to go with a cheaper brand, but I knew I would likely regret that later......sooooo......I went with what was my dream skimmer for this tank.....ordered up a shorty BK SM300 rated for up to 750g......Im justifying it by telling myself that "one year down the road Im gonna be sorry and wish that I had spent the extra coin".....



.........*sigh*...........freakin urchins:neutral:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...2/IMGP6118.jpg




I did a little trade with a fellow canreefer......I flipped him the birdsnest and he gave me the corky finger:mrgreen:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...2/IMGP6123.jpg

It seems like your new urchin is getting in with the wrong crowd and following your old urchin's bad habits.

I lost a super nice frag from Snappy tonight ("lost" as in, it fell off where it was glued and I can't find it.) My only hope at this point IS one of the urchins finds it for me before it's a goner!!!

... I'll rehome your purplish urchin if his frag movin' ways is too much for ya :p

new urchin is grasshopper to the old sensei urchin.....he's learning from the best:neutral:


what kind of frag?......I learned my lesson in V1 not to put any frags where they can potentially fall behind the rockwork......lost two or three NICE frags before I clued in.....

if things had worked out to where you came over for those frags you may have ended up with my multicolour (sensei).....if I could find him that is.....

smore pics

strawberry shortcake
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...2/IMGP6134.jpg

unknown Walt Smith wild acro
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...2/IMGP6133.jpg


RCCR monti
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...2/IMGP6132.jpg


tyree setosa
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...2/IMGP6129.jpg



have you ever had one of those corals that every single person that has seen your tank has bugged you for a frag of???....."are you fragging that one?"......"well when you do frag it, keep me in mind"...... my most requested coral would be my granny.....recently someone was over picking up a frag and saw it.....he jokingly pushed me pretty hard to frag it and I didnt budge on my "Im not fragging it yet" stance.....I got a PM from said coral junkie this morning with an offer that I couldnt refuse( the gent at one point offered me his wife:surprise:..... (which I declined, for the record:mrgreen:).....so I fragged it today.....ended up with a couple frags....a larger one that will go to Mr. Pushy (j/k:mrgreen:)...and a smaller one that will need a place to call home.....problem is the list grew so long for this one, I cant remember who was at the top of it:redface:......someone in another thread said something about a frag auction.....that would be somewhat pretentious tho methinks (although fun)......anyway, I thought I would snap a pic of it before I snapped it up.....

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...2/IMGP6124.jpg