Another new guy in missoula

[tehfeer]

Hey guys I am new to the hobby and live in missoula. A few weeks ago I purchased a tank from someone on craigslist. It is a 80gal bowfront. He was one of those guys who was not really into the hobby and had paid someone to set his tank up but did not pay them to maintain it. Anyways it was in pretty bad shape when I got it. Nitrates were over 100ppm salanity was .041 everything was covered in black algae the fish all had fin rot. Things are looking up most of the fish have recovered we did lose the tang . All the levels have dropped off so I will be purchasing my CUC this week

Here is a picture of my tank


Where do you all normaly meet up? I am looking forward to meeting you all at your next get together!

[lostcreekreefer]

Welcome tehfeer...we're sort of a mixed group, some from Missoula, Mission Valley & most from Kalispell & C-Falls. We have been meeting mainly in Kalispell. A few are rank newboies like ME and there are folks with a real depth of wisdom from many years in the hobby...most of us are somewhere in between. Never a dull moment, so welcome!

[DevonM]

Welcome! Glad the Missoula group is growing!

[charlie]

Hey guys I am new to the hobby and live in missoula. A few weeks ago I purchased a tank from someone on craigslist. It is a 80gal bowfront. He was one of those guys who was not really into the hobby and had paid someone to set his tank up but did not pay them to maintain it. Anyways it was in pretty bad shape when I got it. Nitrates were over 100ppm salanity was .041 everything was covered in black algae the fish all had fin rot. Things are looking up most of the fish have recovered we did lose the tang . All the levels have dropped off so I will be purchasing my CUC this week

Here is a picture of my tank


Where do you all normaly meet up? I am looking forward to meeting you all at your next get together!

Hey there


Glad to meet you!!!! Our next meeting is the 30th of May, down in Kalispell.
If you wanted to meet up with Devon, maybe you could hitch a ride up with him. He has been to the last couple of meetings here, and is definitely a welcome addition also!!!
Looks like you have your work cut out for you with that tank, but it also looks like you are headed in the right direction. We will try to help you out as much as we can here, don't be bashful.
Looks like the South end of the valley is growing

[Ramer]

Welcome aboard!! Looks like the Missoula chapter is now bigger then the Mission Valley Chapter.

From the picture it looks like you have a cover over the top of the tank?? If so you should get rid of it.

[tehfeer]

I do plan on getting rid of the lid. The water splashes up pretty high and was hitting my light so I am waiting on my acrylic shield for the light to arrive. It was supposed to show up Friday but UPS decided to send it to new jersey for some reason

[DevonM]

Hey there,

I noticed there isn't much on your profile. How about some more tank pictures and a little Bio, interests, etc.? It's a beautiful day in Missoula!

[tehfeer]

I dont have too many pictures yet but as I take them they will be located on my photobucket page Pictures by tehfeer - Photobucket

[DevonM]

I dont have too many pictures yet but as I take them they will be located on my photobucket page Pictures by tehfeer - Photobucket

Nice! Keep in mind that you can paste those photo's URL into the Insert Image function for them to show up here.

[tehfeer]

I just got my euro-reef rs135 skimmer in the mail today! The bad news is currently I have no way to get a decent sized sump into my stand. The stand was designed very poorly and I could barley get my 10 gal to fit under it. I may have to place my sump outside my stand

[DevonM]

I just got my euro-reef rs135 skimmer in the mail today! The bad news is currently I have no way to get a decent sized sump into my stand. The stand was designed very poorly and I could barley get my 10 gal to fit under it. I may have to place my sump outside my stand

It's funny, or not so funny, how that happens. I didn't really want to look at my refug either.

I had a hard time finding a skimmer that would fit inside my stand height wise, the things we do for a reef.

[Sarmo]

it's all part of the fun. i wish i could see everything. the wife on the other hand wants it all hidden????? i like to see how the skimmmer is doing and see all the critters in the fuge. in fact i think i like the mechanical parts as much as i do the fish.

welcome to reefland and the NWMRC!

[tehfeer]

I purchased some new LR the other day apparently some guy had broken down his tank because he was moving. There were some pretty sweet branch pieces I picked up but they are covered with these guys. It looks a lot like aiptasia from what I have seen in pictures can anyone confirm?

[DevonM]

I purchased some new LR the other day apparently some guy had broken down his tank because he was moving. There were some pretty sweet branch pieces I picked up but they are covered with these guys. It looks a lot like aiptasia from what I have seen in pictures can anyone confirm?

That's what they look like to me.

[DevonM]

Who did you get the live rock from? I think I ended up with some of it too and I gave it to a friend.

[tehfeer]

I got it from tropical world. I normally wouldn't shop there but its the only option for local LR.

I went in to purchase some more rock and some guy had just sold all his LR to them the day before. Currently the rocks is in a tub but looks like I am going to have to deal with all of the anems first My wife is starting to get annoyed by the 2 trashcans and the 1 large tub sitting in our living room but I guess shes just going to have to live with it a while longer

[DevonM]

Yeah I just talked to Mike about that. Another guy and I are trying to get him to set up his reef tank so we can sell some frags out of it. But I don't really feel like maintaining it. Mike's good if you want him to order in some fish but he lacks the money to make large orders. So his fish tend to be a bit high because of the shipping charges but he trys to match online prices. Because of the cost he rarely makes saltwater orders. Freshwater is what he's good at, less finicky and cheaper to maintain .

Before Mike's reef tank broke he probably had 600 glass anemones in there and he put 30 peppermints shrimp in and all the anemones were gone in a few weeks. Granted there wasn't anything else in the tank to eat.

There seemed to be a lot of spaghetti worms in the rock you got but boy was there some algae . I ended up getting that guy's long tentacle anemones, clown fish, plate coral, and I think his candy cane. I found a good home for all of it .

[tehfeer]

Hahaha so your the guy who beat me to all the good stuff! I try not to shop at tropical world just because of the conditions most of the animals are in is pretty horrible

I think most of the worms were dead by the time I got them into the tub I have not seen any at least. The LR was a pretty decent deal considering you cannot get Tonga branch anymore. Most places have jacked their prices up to over 10$ a pound on what they have left!

[tehfeer]

I got my first coral the other day along with my clean up crew! It is a purple and green ricordea

[DevonM]

I try not to shop at tropical world just because of the conditions most of the animals are in are pretty horrible

I find people's take on this subject very interesting. I've come to the realization that there are two different types of customers here in Missoula, Petsmart type customers and local pet store type customers. I think people that are Petsmart customers like Petsmart because they are a big warehouse type store, new and shiny with lots of stuff. If you need something they don't have they order it and their prices are generally low because they sell volume. They hire anyone who like animals but doesn't necessarily know anything about them.

Tropical World customers I think are able to see past the lack of space and animal smell. And you have to agree with me that most animals, when taken home, will smell unless you have a good air exchange system. Mike has been in the same building for many years which I agree, his landlord should be up keeping a bit better. But when you stop by Tropical World you can't tell me that his animals are in any worse or better condition than Petsmart's. He plays the cards he is dealt so if someone drops off a sick dog or a bag of kittens at his door he makes due. His structure isn't in as good of shape as Petsmart's but after 30 years I trust he knows what works and what doesn't. He would have to because if he didn't he wouldn't be in business today.

Tropical World does have some rather old animals that don't look aesthetically pleasing to the uneducated eye. But, I give him props for keeping those animals alive, many would have put them down just because they don't "look" right.

Well enough rambling on about customer types.

I really like your ricordea! I have some orange and green ones on the way!