Why this hobby is so great - and some photos of my new fish.

[Quinn]

So I went to swap my CA reactor line that was plugged like Kari suggested. But I forgot that when with no line in it, the nipple on the reactor would spew water all over the place. So as I reached to plug that with my finger, I knocked over the bottle of skimmate next to the reactor. Luckily not too much water got out of the reactor, and not much liquid was in the bottle, but my room still has an odd smell to it. Otherwise everything is good. Here are some photos of my new fish, Amphirion percula, from Aquarium Illusions. They really seem to like HBH flake food, mysis not as much. Ignore the algae, I'm working on it.

[kari]

My shirt never gets wet. Its my socks that always get wet when I forget to break the siphon in the reactor before removing the output line

Did you get that unit working for you?

Kari

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by teevee

Here are some photos of my new fish, Amphirion percula, from Aquarium Illusions.

They look like they could use some company in your monster tank, Quinn. What kinds of fish will you be looking to add next?

[wayner]

How's that reactor doing from Jon, is it keeping your levels up?, how odten does the tubing clog?

[Quinn]

Kari, yup, worked well. Now to get my pH balanced again.

Bev, next I'll be looking for some clown gobies, some firefish and a nice pair of fairy wrasses. Big Al's had two but they wouldn't sell them to me. I'm also contemplating a longnose hawkfish, as I've mentioned to you, but there's the whole "can a longnose hawkfish get his mouth around a cleaner shrimp" debate still going on. As far as main display fish go, I've somehow developed rather expensive tastes. I'm looking for a good-quality Zebrasoma rostratum (black tang), and J&L is looking for a male Genicanthus watanabei for me. Whether I'll be able to afford them once they've been located is another question.

Wayner, the reactor is great. It's hard to really know what it's doing for me so far, since the tank is so young and has no calcium draw yet, but based on what other people say about their reactors, I think it was a good investment. No leaks or anything like that. I replaced the output tube yesterday, first one I've done, the rest don't seem to need it yet. I also shortened it down so it isn't exposed to as much light. I think if you can DIY at all it would be worthwhile to make your own, as they're very simple.

[wayner]

Quinn:

I have one of Jon's Reactors also but have yet to set it up, I'm still in need of a CO2 cylinder & regulator, how about Kari, has he had his up & running for awhile, like to know how his levels are doing, I keep all sps & clams so I guess once I get it up & running will see if can keep up, hopefully.

Thanks

[Quinn]

I'm not sure if Kari's reactor is from Jon, but Kari's tank looks awesome, he has some nice corals.

I got my CO2 tank from the Bargain Finder, the gauges/selenoid from SWC.

[kari]

I built a copy of Jon's reactor but used that thicker weldon since thats all I had and was too impatient. Pressure tested(too much pressure) and blew out the bottom end. My impatience/anger then made me beg Jon for the acrylic work.
As for how it performs, I made a few modifications last weekend to the recirc line so I need to test levels again to see whats up. In the past, my calcium/alk levels have been slightly lower than the text book levels but I am getting very fast growth rates with sps and stupid amounts of coraline. Maybe thats why the levels are always slightly lower??
Cavitation=zero, tinkering now = next to nothing, happiness level=high.

[EmilyB]

Are those black percs? As in "the saddleback variant" or a true black perc?

[Quinn]

Deb, they are either percula or ocellaris, the jury is out on which exactly and will probably be out for a long time, as I don't really feel like taking the time to count spines. They are definently not saddlebacks (checked photos on the web before I got them to make sure). I still haven't got a for-sure answer on whether both black percs and black oces exist, or just one of the two. One person on RC chat said he's talked to ORA about it, and they said only percs exist, then another guy piped up saying he has a mating pair of black oces. So go figure. No one seems to know for sure. They were sold to me as percs, and are apparently wild-caught. I would have preferred tank-bred, but these guys were there, in good health, and I'd already decided to do a black clownfish pair. I would have liked pure black and white, one of mine has a bit of gray on the nose and the other has bright orange/yellow on the nose and pec fins. They're happily poking around in a rather cloudy tank right now, as I've been doing battle with hair algae all evening (gee I love the taste of salt water, darn siphons).