Um, anyone want my cookies?

Cuz I think I'm gonna toss 'em.......

Whats he dressed as, Evel KnAwful?

Cookie Chair!



















Did someone say COOKIE CHAIR!

Here's what happens when you spend too much time in the Cookie Chair!

I can't top a cookie chair, that's epic!

Just don't let yourself get hooked like our dear friend Cookie Monster did...

I like your answer, Chris! Thanks for sharing & let me be the first to say

to the list of the sacred few on Weetie's Lounge list of honor.

BTW Was your chair of choice ^^^^

Can I haz a cookie?

And I still haven't caught up with you guys.....

Sure! Anything for a fellow Reef Chick! Here you go. Eat more sugar & catch up!

Seez ya at 2. i will look tired, no sleep last night at work. There is another wamas person coming too, so I can finally sell my light to me.

If you're trying to sell your light to YOU, you definitely need sleep!
See if you can hit NRF up for some coffee, the Kona's not bad.
We eagerly await kmitch's initiation pic/s!!!
Hope you guys have a blast!!

I have to say that arwndsh is the undisputed winner of last night's contest with her fortune cookie chair:

This chair is so awesome that I have decided we need to keep it in Weetie's Lounge permanently.

And speaking of chairs, I just realized that I have been quite remiss and haven't awarded CM his official Weetie's Lounge Chair yet.
Now where did I put it??
Oh yes, here it is--
**furtively brushes off chair**
I have NO idea how those cookie crumbs got on there, but here ya go Chris!




I was just thinking this morning that I would actually be interested in hearing everyone else's answer to CM's initiation question as well.
For those who have forgotten, here it is:
"Seeing what N-R has become, what are you most pleased with ?
And on the flip side, what are you most disappointed with?"

I will post my answer later today.

I also wanted to give everyone a heads up on tomorrow's contest, so that you can prepare for it today.
Those who want to participate need to post a pic of themselves when they were a little kid.
The cutest or most outrageous pic gets to sit in the fortune cookie chair for the day and they can choose one fortune cookie to eat.
If you're worried about it being uncomfortable, I'm sure kmitch can provide a pouf!

And here I was thinking that when I clicked on this link I was going to see a tank... silly me

That's alright though, the rest of the posts here have been quite entertaining.

First, *pours fresh cup and passes to DT*- Ear ya go Buddy.....

Now,
I am most pleased with, and grateful for, all the good e-friends I have made here. Many of you helped me through the early noob days and gave me the knowledge and courage to continue with this most wonderful hobby. Books are great, but lets face it if I had been following most of the marine aquaria hobby books I would never have a nano reef in my living room would I.

So A great big Thank You guys, sincerely, and to you CM for this sight that I enjoy wast..oops sorry..spending time on so much!

As for the flip side of the question.......A few of us here have spoken about it and a great many others have too. The lounge I stay out of for the most part, really not my thing. A quick look see for the few funny " I haz a" or "I'm in yur" type threads and I'm outta there.

But the main thing is all the unproductive and oftentimes hurtful flaming that goes on here. At one time it was sort of playful and amusing even to the poor newbie asking about the white specks on his glass. But it seems to have increased the point that we lose new members and even established, insightful and helpful members that we all care about and miss dearly. This saddens me a great deal and I wish I had the gray matter required to provide an answer. The simple answer I keep coming up with is, if you are tired of the same old newbie questions then STAY OUT OF THE BEGINNER FORUM! Posting " use the search button " does nothing for the poor guy who has just enough CPU knowledge to log on to N-R in the first place. If you have nothing supportive or constructive to say, DO NOT POST.

*climbing off Oceanic salt bucket now*

M'kay- Richie returns to being the goofball.......

Cookie anyone?? Coffee? Aspirin?

The deed was done, chocolate pudding, fire helmet and all. I keep smelling chocolate pudding since it was right under my nose!

Daniel has the pics so we have to wait for him to upload.

i was REALLY supposed to take pics of that????


oops... \









will write out my answer to question in a little while...my proceessor will soon be overloaded with photo processing from initiation

My answer to the CM question:

- Most happy with how this community has helped my tank development and having seen other members grow from the information on here. Also made some good friends.
- Most disappointed with the turnover of some members and the way the makeshift lounge has gone recently. Also want another tank contest! lol

Alright...Excuse the bad pics...horrible lighting at the store...

Full images, followed by closer crops:

wow thats a hot mustache I had going there.....

AWESOME!!!!!!
You rock, kmitch, pull up yer chair!
You gonna stick with that bicycle seat chair?

So did you guys have fun?
Didja get anything?

(pssst, Daniel, didja get vid???)

tons o' fun and i got the extra puddin

dt sold his light to himself, amber found a new tangaroa goby, i got a pair of coral banded shrimp, and kmitch and I chopped up some nice pink zoas (of which, I think he gave me the wrong half...)



i really did forget the vid...I was too busy laughing (Ritchie predicted that one pretty well...)

kmitch hawt. She was a good sport and I finally got to meet her in person. Shame im married.

I got my yasha goby, daniel/amber and I split a chunk of awesome ultra grade pink zoas, and I got some new Prodibio stuff.

I'm honored to be accepted into weeties lounge and can't wait until we find a new member.... har har har.

Thanks for inviting me to join the party weetie!

Yeah he mixed up the halves but I don't mind if you don't mind. If you wanna swap later we can lol

Thanks but I still dont smell like a firewoman, just like chocolate pudding (which is making me really hungry...)

true^^

yeah, i'll have to get you some more to even it out. if you want different ones, i can chop up some ring of fires to even it out

saweet... I don't have any grow out yet but I've got some pretty sweet stuff that when it grows will make for nice frags.

So did you get any weird looks at the shop in your getup?

Wait, I thought you weren't gonna have softies in your tank.
Did Daniel talk you into it, did he, did he??

(psst, you know your chocolate pudding mustache was inspired by my 2 yr. old finger painting w/choc. pudding? Well, today he decided that maybe diaper rash ointment would make a better fingerpaint medium. Think you can do anything with that for the next initiate??? )

Whew!! Hey K, be REALLY happy you were initiated today! I don't even want to think of what we could have come up with for diaper rash ointment in front of a LFS...

Newest WL member!

What a great sport! I can just see people mouth agape with a WTF look on their face and you guys just cracking up in front of the store

Great pics Daniel!

And I'm happy you finally got that light DT!!

Yeah I'll stick with chocolate pudding! lol. We got a few looks, but whatever, I'm proud to profess my love for N-R!

And I've never seen zoas like these and I had a weak moment. I'm thinking the SPS dominated tank is going to turn into a SPS with a side of everything else

I gotz paid! from one pocket to the other. I was glad to be rid of that light. I could hear the owner of the store laughing inside.

Richie, tks for trying to set me up, but Iz married. Though kmitch would be a great girl to hang out with.

I'm still having my butt kicked in the hottest women thread... but I now know that I've got a fan club lol

LOL, yea, the fellow WL put the smack down on me pretty quick for that one!

Me>> Them>> Me>>

Me>

Its very cool you folks were able to meet and have a few laughs.

( Psst, Kmitch, take Daniel up on those ring of fires! dey is bu tee full!! )

who, me?? I only offered to split the cost and the zoas

who could resist half a colony of these:




at a price tag less than some single polyps?

(and that photo is with flash...you should see actinics-only! )



the owner was definitely laughing about the pudding and hat Said he was one of the oldschool NR members too, but hadnt been on here in a long time.

i'm so confused.

Glad I'm not the only one..

Wish I coulda been there, I can just see it!!!

Okay, I just took out the white screw from my Remora and cleaned the injector with a flexible wire brush. Richie, I don't know what kinda gunk you had around your screw, but mine came out just fine.
When you used the brush to clean the injector hole did you just move it straight in and out or did you try to squiggle it around?
(I just got this very vivid mental picture of a very large, very juicy haunch of beef being dangled in front of a salivating dog.)
One other question.
SDT told me that she keeps her injector screw screwed in so it's flush with the PVC tube. What I want to know is, do you keep it flush with the top part of the tube, or the bottom part of the tube? It's an angled tube, so I wasn't sure how far to screw it in.
What do you do?
(I'm actually serious about all these questions, btw.)

I have another issue that I'd like to get everyone's input on.
Kmitch knows about this, but I don't think the rest of you do.
I know I've mentioned that I want to get a new tank in the 30ish gallon range to consolidate all of my reefin' stuff into and just make one cool system so that I can keep up with it better.

One option that I've been considering is to get a 30g long tank. I'd have to take my existing 150w MH retro and 70w MH retro's and put one on each side in a canopy. I already have the canopy btw, it's been in storage.
I have a stand that would fit this as well. It's taken a beating and needs some refurbishing, but it's the right size for this tank.
I have a heater, the LR, plenty o coralz, and enough PH's for adequate circulation.
I like the dimensions and size of this tank and I have almost everything I would need to set it up.
BUT I worry about it setting low enough that my 2 yr. old would have access to it, I don't know how long it would take me to getting around to fixing up the stand, and I would miss the built in sump in the back of my current tank.

My second option is this 34g Solana setup in the Classified:
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=168943
It's a gorgeous system, it's just the right size, and of course it has that sump I like in the back with everything built in including ATO and a skimmer.
I wouldn't be able to afford to upgrade anything on it other than the fact that I have some good PH's and locline to increase circulation. I've spoken with some other Solana owners however, and they all seem to feel that I'd do fine w/a stock setup as long as I add my extra PH's.
It's also tall enough that my 2 yr. old probably couldn't get into it.
BUT because of the price, I'd have to sell my 150w MH retro, my 70w MH retro, my Nano-Remora skimmer, and as much extra stuff as I could find to raise the $$. As a result I wouldn't have any extra equipment to fall back on if the tank didn't work out for me for some reason.
I also feel kinda funny about the idea of selling my 70w MH retro since it was a gift from several of you guys.

So what do you guys think?

It's like an episode of Seinfeld. It only makes sense to the people in it. The rest of us just laugh.

That's pretty much true, I had to laugh at that!!!
Lemme see if I can give a short explanation.
On my old Prop tank thread, there was a group of us who got on just to hang out and be crazy and talk about whatever. This was the beginning of Weetie's Lounge.
I recently decided to revive Weetie's Lounge on this thread, starting around pg. 20 or so.
We have a core group of around 10-15 original members.
We also have 2 new members, Christopher Marks and kmitch who recently passed an initiation to earn the right to become official Weetie's Lounge members.
Shenanigans, lightheartedness, and goofiness are heartily encouraged in Weetie's Lounge, seriousness only when clearly warranted.
Crudeness, trolling, and putdowns are strongly frowned upon and will be shamelessly edited by me whenever they dare to raise their ugly head.
We like contests, cookies, coffee and reefing, not necessarily in that order.
I guess that's about it.

Come around more and you would know.

Everyone wish me luck. I am hoping to trade a 2X24W T5HO for 250W MH. I really hope this one goes through! I even offered to provide brand new lamps in the color temp of their choice to sweeten the deal.

*crosses fingers*

The solana does look really nice. You could also try to set up a long/breeder style tank, but it will take a lot of DIY to not be cluttered in the display.

ok, i'll answer the questions now:

Most pleased with...
the sense of community that NR has developed among many of its members. It's a lot of fun to "hang out" with the e-friends online, and even meet a few in real life. What other reefing forum is cool enough to encourage member initiation?

Most disappointed with...
the amount of bickering that sometimes makes it into the non-lounge threads. Unfortunately, it has gotten old members packing, and scared new members away from what, otherwise, is a GREATwebsite. More unfortunately, I can be...and have been...easily worked into those fights myself, so I avoid those forums where they most frequently pop up.

Ok, I think I sorta caught up on what's going on..... is MoldyBread welcome here, Weetie?

Weets, I am home alone right now and I was LMAO so loud the neighbors must have heard me!
*still wiping tears from his eyes* Ok, seriously. My screw was VERY tight , but it did come out. I always try to squiggle it around .....no, really. I did not have the original brush, but I had purchased one of those mutli brush packs way back when and the small one fit. I tried to reach all areas of the injector and tube. The screw itself was flush with the top part of the tube, and when I re-inserted it it seemed to get tight at that point so I stopped there. ( just let it go, way to many shots to be taken with this conversation )
Skimmer has been working awesome since cleaning it.

IMO that Solana is rather sweet looking, but there is certainly nothing wrong with the 30 aside from the two year old factor lol.

As for the "gift" light fixture. We got that for you. That is what you needed at the time. If selling helps you get what you want now go for it. It is YOUR light. We chipped to give you a gift to show are appreciation for all you do here. I doubt anyone would think poorly of you for selling it anyway, 'sides it'd be like we chipped in towards your Solana!
All only my opinion folks.

First- Like everyone else this site has been and still is a great help to me in reef keeping. I have also made some great forum friends and enemies. It is also nice to be able to meet people from the site and I have gotten some great corals here.

Second- Bickering is bad and lately there has been alot of scams with members not getting what they have paid for.

The Solana sounds nice but having to give up all of that equipment to basically just have a taller stand for your tank doesn't click with me. I'd much rather rebuild a stand or just build a new one and retain my equipment, even if that equipment is excess. I'm all about building with what ya got and then considering buying and all of the mess that goes with it.
Any tank is a work in progress so the next few steps of your work in progress could be to drill or HOB an overflow on your new 30L and rock a sump or go crazy DIY and make it into an AIO or whatever you think up. With a straight-up 30L build you retain all of that equipment and your initial investment is pretty low. That leaves you cash to refurb the stand or garage sale and craigslist a new one.

Just my .02.
If it helps, I've got a nice stand for a 55 sitting right behind me with stuffed animals on it that's tall enough that a 2 yr old couldn't get into the tank on it. Let's get crazy and weld some stuff to it and make an AIO 30L that looks built-in to a metal wall!

Bill

^^^agreed.

I think either option is a good one for you. The less time and effort reason for choosing the Solana is a good one, but it is a big investment for an unknown outcome.

One of my ballasts just took a dump on me.

I think it's a sign.

Oh sheet. that stinks. Sorry bud.

I didn't even get a chance to say good luck!

Seems it is my turn to answer the question.

What I like about the site is all of the information and great people.  It is so nice to feel apart of a community and that I could ask any question on a subject that I need help with without being rediculed too much. 

What I don't like is all of the negativity that is caused by the arguing and bickering back and forth between some members that sometimes leaks out of the lounge.  The lounge is nice when all the focus is on funny pictures and events, not so nice when its full of arguments.

Overall I <3 nano-reef.  Thanks CM for making this place possible.

I suppose if I'm going to rant about an AIO 30L in a metal wall I should answer THE question as well.

I really like the community aspect of NR and all of the great people I've met here. It's always more fun to bounce your crazy animal nerd ideas off of someone who knows that coral is a living thing!

The downside is that, like any community, you can't keep the dregs out. It sucks but it happens. It'll never go away but, just like the real world, I strive to avoid it and clean up as best I can when I'm able.

Bill

So I posted one of these pics as my facebook pic and I am getting the most bizarre comments ever!