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I don't want to give you guys too many ideas all at once. I need to save some for my old age when I start pushing my RUGF on everyone. But then no tanks will ever crash and I like having the oldest tank on these forums ;D

Here is a picture of the box fish we collected a few days ago. It is in my un lit, un filtered Long Island Sound tank which has raw NSW in it which is kind of green. I took the picture through a jewelers loupe but the fish never stops and is only a half inch long, the glass is also filthy. It is...

Nick, I also removed my old cast iron boiler myself. I broke it up with a large sledge hammer and brought it to the scrap iron dealer. It was 1000 pounds. I got $30.00 in scrap ;D Replacing it in the summer is the way to do it but I tested it yesterday when it was just about 100 degrees outside...

No but same efficiency same rebate and about a thousand less. I bought a Crown high efficiency boiler. I will also get a rebate on that and a tax break so it should be just about free. The Government is all screwed up now and I don't think they even know how much they are giving away on rebates...

As I posted in October I installed Solar electric on my home and I would like to report the results being it is almost 100 degrees here in NY today. I can access my electric bills for a year and I am happy to say that I have been saving about $110.00 a month in electric costs. My bill this month...

I use RO water for top offs and usually ASW for changes but I add about 50 gallons of NSW every year. I would use 100% NSW if it were not so heavy. I really don't like ASW and would not use it if I didn't have to. I only change about 20% of my water maybe five times a year. I do add bacteria in...

Steve I mix everything. I am in Long Island so it would be a long drive for you but I am sure there are places in Jersey that have sand flats at low tide.

See the tiny butterfly in this picture from last year's catch. Many of them are much smaller

We go to the south shore ocean beaches of Long Island at low tide and drag a 20' or 50' net through the grass flats. In my local tank you can see a pipefish in the center, a northern puffer near the bottom and a small butterfly under the rock to the right along with some shrimp. Every pull of...

] is sunscreen really that bad for the reef environment? I hope not, I lay in the water all week long with the stuff all over me :P

To change the water flow, you can just connect a few pumps to timers. I create typhoons every month or so with my diatom filter. I stir everything up. the fish love it.

See all of the tiny fry to the left of the nurse shark? They are all over the place on a healthy reef. This is what fish snack on all day. Whole, fresh fish, guts, skeleton and all. From the Cayman Islands

Every time I dive I think of all the ways I can make my tank more like the sea I get overwhelmed. First of all the sea is deep. Our animals know that they are in very shallow water and they would never venture into such shallow water if they had a choice. At the waters edge and in tide pools we...

Thanks Dave, it's surviving so far ;D

I don't know, I am on the NY coast 8)

I am going for tropicals on tuesday. There are lookdowns, puffers, filefish and butterflies

Today was an interesting day of boating and collecting. I went to my usual place at low tide, the tide pool goes under a road and on the other side there is a lake that spills over these 20' long walls ibnto this tide pool. At high tide the lake is almost the same height as the sea. Anyway these...

My bluestripped pipefish are again very pregnant. If I look close I can see the tiny stringy little babies stuck in his pouch under his belly. No I can't get a picture. Those things are impossable to photograph. They are always in a cave and usually in the back of the tank chasing the baby...

Actually they survive over a year. I throw the pregnant ones into my tank. The adults are too large for my fish to eat. If you have triggers, lionfish, groupers or eels, they are great food. They are interesting, free and plentyful so I always put a dozen or so in my reef.

They are all over my marina. I can collect a 5 gallon pail of them in a few minutes in a place near my boat in Port Washington. Thats five gallons without water, just shrimp. I use a 2 man net for that.