Moogled

You make it sound like a drug trade. Ha! He said shrooms! :ph43r:

Hideo, it'd be awesome if you can lend me some clamps to prevent the wood from warping. However, since I am actually quite anxious to get this reef tank started, I think that if a 33 gallon does not necessarily need wood to be clamped, I'm just going to go ahead and boogie tomorrow. Now to creep some more friends for power tools, haha. :ph43r: :ph43r: :ph43r:

neely, that stand is definitely impressive. You should write a DIY article complete with step-by-step instructions for newbies like me haha. Maybe I am overthinking too much. If you guys say that my normal spruce 2x4 will do okay, then I'll go ahead and give it a shot. Hopefully it'll work out for the best. Also, another question: I've been looking at some of the Hagen stands that Petland offers. Are these stands really low quality? Because they seem to do their job nevertheless, and they seem to use much much less wood than most DIY plans would instruct.

My main concern is that alot of people seem to use 2x4, but fail to clarify which type of wood is suitable for building a stand since wood type is a personal preference. However, I am not picky, I just want to know what works and what doesn't. What type of wood did you make your stands out of, neely?

What do you guys use for wood material when building your own stand? Currently, I'm attempting to build a 33 gallon tank stand with spruce 2x4s, but I'm having doubts about the quality of the wood. Does it warp really easily? Should I change the type of wood I'm using? Also, I'm just going to sand the stand down after it's built, spray paint it and apply a couple of layers of verathane, but the main problem is I don't know how spruce will hold. Any suggestions?

Yes, I am quite excited to see how this turns out. Finally, an AA member with an octopus! I'm not sure who else has kept something like this, except for Albert's cuttlefish that met its untimely demise in a sump pump. X_X

I read a small tidbit about water softeners. If you're referring to fish that habituate in soft waters more than hard, water softeners don't actually make the water soft. However, I don't really know much more than that, but this is something you should definitely find out. PS: Happy Belated Birthday

Me and Mighty Prawn understand the concept of censorship quite well. :beer: Word to safety4fire. Freedom of Speech!

I think the color/composition is wonderful and it really shows the fine detail of the tulip. However, I think it would look alot better if you managed to capture the tulip in its entirety. It would give the view a sense of "wow, look at that nice tulip" rather than "what is that...a...tulip? Oh very nice."

Okay, sorry. Dunl has a point and I will not make anymore irrelevant posts.

Hey Chris, for the sake of the tone of your post, I'm really hoping you saw the post BEFORE it was edited. Otherwise, your post would be overreacting because my attitude towards this really wasn't what I intended at all. After all, having a couple words and a smiley emoticon taken off a post can easily change something like "stop being so mean! :bang1:" into "stop being mean."

HOW COME NO ONE EVER SYMPATHIZES WITH ME WHEN I HAVE TO TAKE 14 HOUR FLIGHTS BACK TO HONG KONG? Not to mention the return flight, as well.

Aw, that first picture would have been pro 10x if you managed to capture the surroundings too! I should get a SW tank soon....

Nature's very own sperm, if you don't mind me putting things into perspective.

Hideo, with some elbow grease, you can make a stand for a 180 gallon easily. Sift through some of the DIY plans that people have on the internet. Unless you want a piece that is strictly furniture type and professionally made, DIY is the best way to go. I estimate that a DIY stand for a 180 gallon would cost you roughly 300 bucks. Maybe less, because I have horrible estimation skills.

Put a bunch of powerheads at one side of the tubes. ONE WAY EXPRESS!!!! VROOM!

I'm pretty sure there is some sort of womanly hormonal response here. I hope moderators don't flag me for this, haha.

I concur. Although I haven't kept saltwater, there's obviously a problem if your buddy can't manage to keep his purchase alive until he gets home from the store. Is he referring to a LFS or is he bringing them in from out of town? The travel conditions for the two are very different.

Oh my god, I am interested in these as well. Seems like we're kind of forcing ourselves on this fellow, eh?

It's a pretty etchy theory, considering the ways animal identify each other, but do you think that the male mistook the new addition as its former mate and subsequently smashed the original one?

Just so there's nothing hidden between what I said and everyone else's opinion, I don't find fault in bringing up Rahim. I find that we're all supposedly mature adults and can handle use of an example (regardless if we think administrative decisions were right or wrong), as long as we're not trash talking people behind their backs. Or does someone care to prove me wrong on this point? It wouldn't be a problem unless certain members decide that it's too taboo to talk about what's happened in the past and end up losing a gear in their head.

Oh my goodness. Could you guys believe how awesome that thing would be if it were a reef tank? OH MY GOD. Would put oregonreef.com to shame.

HA! Way to go, Murray! How long did it take for you to acquire all necessary items? I'm planning to spend around 400 and leave it at that for a couple of months before I put more money into the tank. PS: How's that cleaner wrasse that you grabbed a couple months ago doing?

I'm not sure how sensitive people are with money spent on fish, so I'm going to give it a try. How much did you spend on a reef tank, from beginning to present? I've read a little on keeping reef tanks, but the whole price situation is still a mystery to me. Since I am a part-time student, money does not come very readily, and given the expensive nature of a saltwater tank, I was wondering what you guys think of reef tanks for a young adult. Is it something you shouldn't dwell into unless you have alot of spare money? How much am I looking to spend for an average Reef setup? I suppose the biggest right now I would consider is a 20-25 gallon, but no more than that. Some books suggest that I prepare around 50 dollars per gallon, but that is out of reach for someone like me. Any personal experiences will be greatly appreciated.

KA-CHING. Jackpot for RD.