Recent content by murph

It should be kept in mind that in years gone by this list would have been much larger and include many animals and inverts that now are kept by even novice hobbyist. There seems to be some sort of bizarre need by many hobbyist these days to find a reason to feel "conscientious". Hence the...

IMO its a place where the tree huggers can suth there guilty conscious by labeling this or that "responsible" keeping of this live stock in extremely confined quarters. There was a day when the majority of hobbyist were of a scientific mind and all of this nonsense was met with the appropriate...

Probably a more appropriate question/poll would be; Can qt and treatment methods at the hobbyist level be relied on to keep parasites out. In most cases I would say no. Combine that with the deplorable state of most wild caught specimens, questionable if not down right unethical capture and...

Originally Posted by Golgi Aparatus Will turning off your lights for a few days to kill cyano have an effect on coralline? No. In nature coraline can be found deep and growing under overhangs that get no direct light at all.

It is light dependant. Cut off your lights for a few days. I do this once a month with no harm to my corals. IMO we are putting far to much light on our tanks. I have read that the natural reef receives 85 days a year of overcast/low light conditions. That works out to just under two days a...

I would get a small brown brittle star. This is a scavenger star fish and will feed on fish feces and disregarded food. Any other type of star fish is probably not a good idea as was said. Other than that five or six turbo snails. Personally I don't like hermit crabs. They will eat your...

I am getting bored and need a new project. I have a couple of standard dimension 75 gal tanks and was wondering If I could silicone them together to make one eight foot tank. I know I could use a dremel to cut holes/passthroughs in the end of each tank leaving a 3 inche border of glass. Then...

First off this has been an excellent debate and this community should be commended. It is a rare Internet forum were such strong opinions get expressed and the thread does not degenerate into mindless arguments and name calling. Good job everyone. On the other hand I believe this thread speaks...

Originally Posted by 1journeyman Guys, I'm trying to nail down your argument here. So, is the argument that keeping Tangs in smaller tanks is revolutionary? Is the argument that subjecting Damsels to high concentrations of Ammonia will advance the hobby? Of course not. The point I am try to...

A large percentage die before they ever make it onto the plane from the Indo Pacific. An equal percentage die before they make it to the wholesale or retail level. And everyone now that anther percentage will die in LFS holding tanks. 30 to 40 percent loss is a conservative estimate.

Originally Posted by GrouperGenius I'm a newbie to this site. I'm a newbie to trying a "reef tank" to todays standards. But I have been keeping succsessfully SW fish, inverts, and soft corals for 35 years. Way before refugiums, test kits, 6' tank rules, power compacts, T5, and even friggin'...

Lots of different opinions here and I will admit that have not taken the time to read through all of them prior to this response but here is one thing I know to be fact. If it were not for ammonia detoxifiers and other chemicals that unfortunately can not be tested for this hobby would not...

I believe the issue of cycling demonstrates the point of the original poster perfectly. I have repeatedly explained the difference between free ammonia and ionic ammonia in this form. Here is a little refresher course as it relates to a seachem product and cut and past from there faq [hr] Q...

I have to agree crimzy and these misconceptions that tend to get stated over and over in these forums is one of the reasons I tend to post less and less. I could add several more but the best thing to keep in mind is when it comes to people who tend to state "absolutes" about this hobby its a...