rossco

I thought it started mechanical then the chemical kicks in...?? Nooooo...didn't hypo the anemone - it stayed in the main tank. It woulda burst its bubble or something worse wouldn't it????

Its interesting...the discussion around whether they can 'feel'...last month I removed all my fishies from the tank to undergo hyposalinity in response to the WS outbreak that bowled my PB tang. This included removing my maroon clown from his/her BTA. The second night without clown the BTA moved and kept moving every night for the month the fish were in quarantine! (one night resulting in my previous post of photo of BTA stuck in my stream!!!) The fish have been back in for a fortnight and the BTA has stayed put with a big fat happy clown on top of it! I agree with the mechanical/chemical thing but the result is a very symbiotic relationship. Is our reproduction any different...?

Hi mid life crisis man... Aaaahh damsels. The delightful little creatures, can't catch em, can't kill em. Yup, plenty of colour and usually always there to see. I have two yellow tails in my 90g that haven't given a bit of trouble at all in the 6 months I've had them. Are quite territorial but don't harrass other than when someone gets too close to their patch - only a relatively small area. Like all fishies - they all have different personalties and behaviours. Is one of the problems because we introduce them first cause they are so hardy but because of their territorial nature we should introduce them last? But who would then? :-?

You must give your customers a great service if you apply the same standards in your business as what you do to your tank!! Thought about starting a branch in Hamilton??

Is a .2 to .3 spike in pH okay? Shall I start using Kalk again? Is this to be expected when using Kalk? Will pH keep increasing if I keep using kalk and 'pickle' the inhabitants too much?

Talking chemistry again... I was using kalkwasser but it seemed to 'spike' my pH higher (as you would expect) but it seemed to stay that way too much. Hovering around 8.4 - 8.5 (or higher perhaps at times) made me a bit nervous to keep on using it so went back to the old add calcium and carbonate separately routine. For the kalk I dripped solution overnight and rechecked the right amount. Even only used a litre of solution for a 400 litre tank. Calcium around 420 and dkh 8. Any comments what was happening and recommendations?

He must get booted out quite often cause he quite often posts in the wee hours! But so do a lot of fishy folk...!

And for us peasants - wot kinda coral it be? I'm sure I would come home with something else if I asked for a 'cool coral' in the shop!

How much? And where from?

As a matter of interest, anybody have any idea what percentage of the fish that end up in our tanks have been collected from the 'wild'? Puts a different perspective on how we decide what to put in our tanks...for me anyways!

For my tuppence worth...I think you would be pushing the proverbial uphill to demonstrate that the goods (fish) was faulty which is the only real circumstance to demand a refund. Most of our purchases are designed for an implicit (if not explicit) purpose so its relatively easily to determine if it fulfills that purpose or not. What is the purpose of a fish??? Its a living animal by its very nature having a wide range of behaviours. The only way to give ourselves some sort of comeback is to ask the retailer for an explicit guarantee eg this little critter won't eat your corals - guaranteed. Its circumstances like these that really test the customer service attitude of the retailer.

Hmmm...how about this? http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

Try this calculator previously posted http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/reactor

Stick an anemone in your stream, saves the sand!! I have the same problem, the worst where current deflects off the glass (especially a bow front!). I am trying coral fingers at the points where it is the worst. Stops too much sand getting shifted.... Not as pretty as a nice beach though.

Yup, tried one of them. Absolutely no connection at all (probably) but installed a Seio, next morning it was whirring without anything else happening, and one of my fish had also stopped!!! :evil:

Yup, lucky its got size 12 feet, a size 10 woulda been mincemeat! Still have to wait and see how much it has been affected by it getting its toenails clipped!!!!

PS No, wasn't that much of a dickhead to have stream that close to rock - took it off its bracket and put it there to try and encourage anemone off it. Apparently its also really hard to get magnetic holders (which is what I need to position stream the best) separate to pump.

After a fair bit of deliberation I added another stream to my tank. That was on Sunday. This morning I woke up to find: I started hyposalinity for my fish (because of whitespot) a couple of weeks ago and the anemone has moved almost daily since taking the clown away. The anemone after getting its toes out of the stream and finding a slightly more normal place to anchor itself. I can't wait for the hypo period to finish..!

And whats left of the shrimp!!!!

Can't be a REAL marine man...anyways its only been two weeks lets see how long he holds out! I haven't had a problem with my damsels (touch wood) with other fish even though they are still small etc. Must admit though, hard little critters to catch. I emptied my tank out and the last damsel still managed to hide in the last bit of rock....!

Hey Layton and Alastair, thanks heaps for your effort to share the info so we can understand more rather than just trying to react to stuff happening!

Being very new to this hobby...and now being exposed to a number of different sorces to purchase 'stuff' from, I make the following observations: There is a lotta stuff out there and a lot of conflicting advice. Thats where these forums are good. You can go to one spot and get all the conflicting advice and opinion you need in the one place Shipments come in to various retailers and rapidly go out the door. Although there is a lot of impulse buying there are also a lot of buyers looking for something specific. Few retailers even have their own website that promote their stock on hand. They must rely on buyers travelling the country and the impulse buy philosophy or think SW people aren't very techo... The biggest enemy of this hobby is failure, newbies especially need a higher degree of confidence they are following a successful path. Too much futile trial and error and their motivation and money dries up. What is the 'product' they are trying to sell - bits and pieces or the end result - a great fish tank? When someone starts putting together a business doing that, showing people how to put together a great SW fish tank, and supply them with the stuff to do it, they won't have competition!

He seems to be able to challenge a few 'myths' !

Thanks guys for your support. Its only salties like yourselves that truly do know how it feels to lose a 'stupid fish' (that I'm sure used to smile whenever I walked into the room ) So also know how it feels to want to beat 'it' so we can better enjoy a neat part of our lives! So understand why the next fish I get is going to be another PBT when I have got things more sussed... :roll:

Afraid it tipped over yesterday. The WS seemed to have made too much of an impact on his skin and immune system as once he started to deteriorate he just got worse. Right up until he started to 'peel' he was eating well and behaving as though he was reasonably comfortable. Its a real lesson for me to not underestimate this WS threat and that there is real FINE line between the road to recovery and the road to dead. I'm still proceeding with hyposalinity for the rest of fish so I at least 'know' that WS has been eliminated from my tank and I can then try to keep it that way! I'm gonna have a real neat tank one day....