I hope mine looks this good in time!

I've said it before and I will say it again....my only secret isn't a secret at all.....and that is consistency.....get your parameters right and KEEP THEM THERE....get your system tweeked to where you have less than a degree of temperature variance ever.....then you will have success.....

So, I did nothing with the tank yesterday except to throw some pellet in for the hungry looking fishies....I went to the junkyard and found some of the parts I need for my Recessionmobille and worked on it until I was nearing heatstroke....I hate living in Sunny Florida sometimes....We are having record high temps all this past week and for part of this week!!!!

By the end of it I was just too exhausted and had too much residual petroleum based crud stuck in the pores of my hands to want to stick them in the water....

I will not do it today either, as my buddy Juice is having a BBQ at his store, The Living Reef.....gotta go see how things are coming together for him....

Try to get some surgical gloves there Mitch. After wrenching bare handed for many years I finally started wearing them. We hired a guy who also rode as a volunteer EMT years ago. He wore them while working and we all picked on him....at first. Not long after we all wore them.
Keeps hand clean and soft for other-uhm- activities.

May be able to find them at Depot in the paint dept or auto parts stores and such. Nitrile or the blue colored ( forget the brand ) hold up rather well in solvents,oils and such. I even wash them and reuse if not torn.

Sorry to drag the thread way off track.
Just trying to help when I can.

Hope you have a great day

I have a bunch of purple ones I wear when I give piss tests.

I lub soft man hands

I don't wub sand paper man hands...jus' sayin'

The hubby knows bettah haha

See?
That's what I'm sayin Mitch

Gloves are the way to go. Being an EVT, I should really be wearing them anyway. Who knows what I may find in these rigs I work on

Without them I wash my hands 10-20 times a day at work. Totally drying them out rather quickly. At that point you can lotion them up till the cows come home, NG. Sand paper hands for sure.

Another plus, clean finger nails too

Edit- EVT= Emergency Vehicle Technician

EVT what..........................................................

Yup...I oughta know better...I used to be a Radiation Protection Technician in Nuclear Power plants, so I know the value of feeping com=ntaminants off....and now I'm a RN (but working in Administration) so again.....

I just never really thought about it for working on the car....I will have to grab a few pairs.....

I was looking back through my Photobucket pics this evening and I saw this nice shot of my Tri-Color Valida from July 13 this year....


Well.....this wat this evening....a day shy of 3 months of growth....

this picture is under MH still on to the right, and just actinics to the left....

This thing is growing like a monster....

Can you say "Frag Monster????"

Looks great!

This is the one that got smashed 14 months ago....it went from this....


to this....


in one second.....

i just read this whole thread!!!! awesome work !

Thanks a lot Scooter....I have done the best I can with what I have....I really wanted one of those cubes you were getting rid of, but knew I couldn't even get up there to get it....hope that all went well.....

Yeah that went great I ended up getting rid of 11 tanks in all. Down to 5 now 2 are wet working on a 40b right now

Wow....based upon your DIY job on the pico I would love to see your other tanks sometime....

anytime you feel like a day trip lmk just dont tell maria shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !

j/k M u can come 2 .........................i guess............. hahahaha

After a real good glass cleaning last night I realized that my cool Skunk Cleaner Shrimp was nowhere to be found....We named him Scamp when I got him, because the girls wouldn't let me name him Scampi....but, I guess the reality of him joining he food chain came to fruition....

RIP Scamp.....

Aww sorry Mitch
I haven't seen mine in the 125 for a few days either

Well....I gotta tell you.....I can't put anybody down for eating him....I mean I love shrimp too

shrimp are some good eatin! i got a CBS you can HAVE!!! hahahahhaha

seriously, sorry to here it

Ha I just had left over Shrimp Creole for lunch...my bro made it for my B-day dinner last night...mmmm mmm

but I bet cleaner shrimp taste like poo

edit- no one wants that crazy ass, frag knockin' over CBS lol

crazy bich eats fish too!

Well, It's time for a few more pictures of change.....I snapped a few nice shots tonight and just had to dig out some comparison shots.....
Blue-Green Acropora echinata
8-23-09


10-22-09


Raspberry Lemonade Acropora nasuta
7-13-09


10-22-09


Now, this one has just come to me, but I believe it's already becoming a Happy Coral...
Hawkins Blue Acropora echinata
10-9-09


10-22-09

Not half bad coloring over just 13 days!

nice pics and corals !

Thanks Scoot....I am just blown away with the progress of Happy Corals in my tank....I guess there IS something to that consistency thing.....

As for the pictures, I give full credit to my little Canon SX100is...it's a Point and Shoot, but gets some amazing pictures....I also shoot a LOT of pictures...I got the camera last year for Christmas and have taken 1925 shots with it now....I shoot them all handheld, but many will say practice makes perfect.....I just hope I don't wear the camera out!

thats some cool substrate u got there

I'm not sure what substrate you are talking about....not the fuzz turf I hope....those are all still on the frag rack....I gotta get some stuff mounted on the rocks soon.....Pretty much all of the out of focus background is acroporae....I love the sticks.....

Hey Mitch. Awesome tank thread. I've learned a lot from it. I live in Orlando as well. And I've got a spare box of nitrile gloves for you if you want them.

What part of town are you in? I'm in Winter Springs....love to have you over some time....What kinds of corals are you set up for?

I could prolly scare up a frag for just about any tank!

Our club had the final Frag Auction of the year tonight and I didn't have any money to spend on the auction, but I didn't come home empty handed. I did a couple of swaps and also made out in the raffle.....more on the raffle in a minute....I did a swap for a piece of my Rose Mille and got a nifty Cadlights fuge light that will end up on my Frag System when I set it up, and a frag of an un-specified Fiji Acropora....Here it is....

Let's give it a couple weeks in Quarentine, then see what it will turn into in the tank of Happy Corals!!!!

Now, for a little more fun...The Raffle....My club has rally nice raffle items at the monthly meetings, some months even nicer than others...well, this was one of those nicer than other months...The raffles are done in the form of putting your tickets in seperate containers for each item you want to try for....the first thing I won was a two gallon set of my favorite Two-Part supplement...the second item I won....well...it was what made this month's raffle a little nicer....


I now have a Nano Tank....Unfortunately, as has been discussed on several other threads throughout NR, the lighting on these setups is really only good for fish tanks, so this one will remain a fish tank, allowing for a dedicated Ocellaris FOWLR tank, as I don't have money to take on the mods needed for this to be a reef....

Another great swap item that I brought home was a 20 Long, that will become my Frag Tank...so, to have no money for bidding on corals, I must say I came home with lots of goodies!!!!

nice! hey mitch did u get my pm on the trade?

That's so cool Mitch!!!
Love your new thread byline.

Scooter...I just saw it....brain damage, no other excuse...replied...

Weetie, I just had to nab your thread title....I've always loved that one...

I'm really excited about that little tank....My little girl wants to put a pair lf baby Clownfish in it, and I may indulge her...just some white sand, a couple small pieces of LR and a couple of little Ocellaris'...a friend in the club raises them and sells to club members for $5 each....

Can't wait to see how that Fiji acro is going to turn out

When I get this new tank nice and stable we're going to have to work out some trades!

Absolutely...I look forward to it....I just love getting new corals....The only problem is that I am fast running out of room!!!!

Hey Mitch.
I live just south of downtown Orlando. I have a 20 high with 96 watts of t5 above it. I am trying to keep it on the simple side of setup. I have about 25 pounds of live rock and an ac70 with some cheato and chemi-pure in it. It would be awesome to see your setup. I'll pm you with my info.

Sounds like a plan...I am mostly available only on weekends, as I am currently employe as a Slave....I work hideous long and unpredictable hours...but that's Okay...I'm salaried, so I don't get overtime either!!!!

So, here's the new frag after about 12 hours, allowing for initial Polyp Extension.....


The Mother Colony is Baby Blue, with Purple tips and long polyps....Can't wait to see it fill put and color up....Bear in mind, this is in the QT, under crappy lighting, so it will be a couple weeks before I start the process....

We decided to go a different route with the Edge and set it up Freshwater, so I will not start a thread here for it....I will prolly pop up an occasional pic of it, but my Bride wanted to go that route with one tank....

Freshwater planted tanks can be done very beautifully indeed. I much prefer them over the standard "driftwood/gravel/chiclid" tank.

This project will be pretty much my Bride's...I know nothing about Freshwater, as a matter of fact, I seem to kill every freshwater fish that I try to keep....I've even managed to kill off 2 Pleco's and I understand they are virtually impervious to the universe....

She has done the FW thing before and is going to be in charge on the project....

Fresh water! Now you're gonna have happy plants!!!

I can't wait to get the goodies, just bummed it's still a few weeks away!

Pacience young one......you must wait for those that are special....

I realized that when I ship I'm going to have to float that Acropora desalwii from a styrofoam block, and it's going to have to be in a 7" diameter bag....to keep it from possibly breaking against the sides....Shipping is going to be a ##### on this one....But some of them will go okay into little bags....

Oh boy....maybe I should just drive down and pick'em up! Good excuse to come to the warmth anyway!

I'm up for that...we have an extra room, at least until Winter Break from FSU.....and what is it, just like 18 hours each way ....you are young

Closer to 20 hours, but what's the difference? I only do one round trip a year, might as well make it two!

Okay, now after spending a week in quaratine, going through super-magnified inspection and passing with flying colors I have placed my new Un-named Fiji Acropora onto the sandbed to start acclimating....I will be interested to see how well this one colors up, as the Mother Colony was a real nice Baby Blue with deep purple tips and polyps....


After several months watching a couple of bubbles of Valonia growing on a rock, I decided to pull it out and get rid of the bubbles...I took the rock to the kitchen sink and had a pitcher of RO/DI water standing by to rinse with...well, the bupples were actually attached to a bit of micro-rubble stuck in a nook of the rock, so I was able to just pluck it off without popping it....

Like I said, I've been watching it grow for a while now....

Check out that coraline growth!!!!

I want to put up another pic of my ORA Hawkins Blue Acropora echinata....

It continues to color up nicely....23 days in my tank.....

that blue hawkins looks really nice.

bubble algae with coraline....nuts.

Hey....I said I was watching it for a while....