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I recently moved my 100 gallon tank from a 3rd story apartment to a condo 10 miles away. It had been running for almost 3 years and at one point looked like this:  I got crazy busy with work and dropped the ball on maintenance over the last 8 months and ended up with a really horrible green hair algae problem. Basically everything was covered and I wasn't able to get a hand on it. The plan was to scrub all of the rocks once I moved and that is what I did. Unfortunately, even that didn't get rid of everything and now 3 weeks after setting it up again in the new place I'm still having a bit of a hair algea problem. I'm doing weekly 10% water changes while scrubbing the actual pieces off with a toothbrush, added a huge cleaner crew and have been running my lights for only 6 hours a day (TFHOs 54x4). The tank is lookin' pretty good. I have high hopes for my urchin which is supposed to munch on some of this green crap. The problem is some of my rocks have so many drat nooks and crannies that it makes it hard to get to the hair algae rooted there. Anyhow here it is now (excuse the blurry pictures I'm still trying to figure this camera out):             I'm going to stay on top of this one like a sonovabitch. I've got a buddy going to the wholesalers in LA today and I've asked him to look for some really bright and colorful zoos. I've always had the generic greens, maroons and reds but I really want some blues, oranges and yellows. Current tank inhabitants are: Purple Tang Kole Eye Tang Bi-Color Psuedochromis (This guy is a champ and I've had him from the beginning) Two Percula Clowns Flame Angel Falco Hawkfish Some kind of sandsifting watchmen goby I've asked my friend to also pick up a large blue tang (about 5"-6") and I'm really tempted to get a baby clown trigger. I know they are kind of assholes and nip at corals but I'm hoping if I get a juvenile one I'll be okay. I'm guessing I'll be maxed out as far as fish goes at that point.
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Oct 14, 2009 19:50
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| # ? May 9, 2024 21:21 |
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Just a quick update. Since putting in the new lighting the anemone has almost doubled in size and the corals are spreading like crazy (even the Birds Nest). We are still trying to trap the lobster, no luck yet.
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Oct 20, 2009 02:34
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Cycling is complete on my new tank. Me and the GF are starting to decide on what we're going to stock. Definitely gotta be a clown fish. I've done some research but invertebrates I feel like there's too much to choose. This is a 36G reef tank. Any suggestions? I see Peppermint Shrimp mentioned a lot. I was browsing reefcentral's forums and came across the rimless aquarium tank thread over there. They look really awesome.
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Oct 25, 2009 17:01
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Skunk cleaners are much more entertaining than peppermints in my opinion.
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Oct 26, 2009 01:08
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fanaglethebagle posted:Skunk cleaners are much more entertaining than peppermints in my opinion. Agreed, but there's nothing that says you can't have both. I had a 3-point "pep squad" in my 18G along with a cleaner. Peppermints are nice because they keep the tank cleaner and kill aiptasia. But they also die a lot. Cleaners are just fun and it's tough to kill them sometimes.
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Oct 26, 2009 05:08
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So...what's the best course of action when your two year old dumps a packet of gravy mix into your reef tank? 
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Oct 26, 2009 09:15
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spixxor posted:So...what's the best course of action when your two year old dumps a packet of gravy mix into your reef tank? Water changes, some carbon, maybe a polyfilter, and watch it. It's not a great thing, but if the tank volume was large enough, I don't imagine that it's TOO big of a deal, other than it just imparted some biomass and salt into it. Ultimately it'd be best if we knew what the ingredient list is on the gravy mix, but there's a good chance that if the water volume is large enough, you'll ride this out. It's when your twelve-year-old knows that copper is bad for the tank and decides to throw a bunch of pennies in to piss off mommy/daddy that it's a major problem.
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Oct 26, 2009 09:45
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spixxor posted:So...what's the best course of action when your two year old dumps a packet of gravy mix into your reef tank? mashed potatoes
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Oct 26, 2009 13:23
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Psimitry posted:Water changes, some carbon, maybe a polyfilter, and watch it. Ingredients: Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or cottonseed oil, enriched bleached flour(wheat flour,niacin,reduced iron,thiamin mononitrate,riboflavin,folic acid), food starch-modified, corn syrup solids, salt, sodium caseinate, mono & diglycerides, carrageenan, artificial flavor, color added. Water change was the first thing we did, and the tank is a forty gallon. The 2 fish seem to be fine so far, and it's not like we have a whole bunch of fancy stuff in there as the tank is pretty new (like 4 months old). Just a couple feather dusters and mushrooms. And yikes to the pennies.
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Oct 26, 2009 18:14
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Yeah, it's definitely a spike in bioload. I'm no expert, but I'm not seeing anything in there that might be toxic.
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Oct 26, 2009 23:57
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Your skimmer should actually be cranking out some delicious salty gravy at this point. Skim wet.
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Oct 27, 2009 00:07
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Just went to Reef-a-palooza this weekend, I got some cool corals that I'll be sure to post some pictures of. The sea-chem booth was giving out free "coral dip", I asked the guy if it was just diluted lugol's iodine and he said he didn't know what lugol's iodine was. The other person working the booth told me it was much safer than lugol's iodine because it was complex iodine. 
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Oct 27, 2009 00:57
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 This was my favorite coral there (that I could afford).
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Oct 28, 2009 06:13
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Oh drat, that's awesome. I so /nearly/ went up to reefapalooza, but I would have arrived at like 2pm on sunday heh
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Oct 28, 2009 06:45
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It's alive! 3 hermit crabs, 8 snails, 3 peps and 2 skunk shrimp, 2 ocellaris (one orange, one black), 1 blue tang, and a banggai cardinal all now call my tank home. Between all the live stuff, some food, and a couple other aquarium necessities we dropped a small fortune at the LFS. Maybe in early December I'll buy some corals and consider it an early Christmas present. I can see how this hobby can easily turn into an obsession. I'm already thinking "Man, this 36G is not big enough for all the cool poo poo I want in there."
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Nov 3, 2009 00:34
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Kill_Discussion posted:It's alive! Did you dump all of this in at once? And your right about one thing, that tank isn't big enough for all that cool poo poo, as in the tang specifically.
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Nov 3, 2009 03:39
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streetlamp posted:Did you dump all of this in at once? And your right about one thing, that tank isn't big enough for all that cool poo poo, as in the tang specifically. Sorry to say, but he's right. You'll be alright with pretty much everything except the tang (although the orange and black clown MAY fight. Tough to predict). And I also agree that I hope you didn't dump all of it in at once, else you might be likely to lose that very large investment you just made....
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Nov 3, 2009 09:56
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Here's some new pictures: The foxface always makes me laugh with the way he positions himself to get a good look at you.  New favia, I haven't tried any favids yet so hopefully it'll do okay. It's in a decently lit spot with moderate to high flow which the seller suggested. I got this piece at Reefapalooza as well.  I'm raising rotifers and phytoplankton with hopes to raise clownfish fry, but I'm worried my clownfish are not mating anymore now that I'm actually ready to raise them. When I came back from reefapalooza I found the clownfish eggs were pretty white/grey and looked misshaped. That batch should have hatched last wednesday if it weren't for the fact that they looked terrible, but they haven't laid a batch again yet which has me worried. I assume they are just taking a little longer to lay the next batch or the fact that I'm paying extra close attention is making it feel longer, but I'm really hoping the next batch will be good as I'm finally ready to raise some fry. Prior to this last batch all of the eggs have looked perfect and would develop normally, I just never had the food to raise the fry.
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Nov 3, 2009 13:11
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Just checking with you, but you know that is a camel shrimp and not a peppermint shrimp, correct?
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Nov 3, 2009 16:31
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Psimitry posted:Sorry to say, but he's right. You'll be alright with pretty much everything except the tang (although the orange and black clown MAY fight. Tough to predict). drat, I never wanted to be "that guy". The tang was one of those spur of the moment purchases and the guy who was helping us, while knowledgeable, was older and seemed to get a little confused and hard of hearing at times. It's possible he mistook my tank size when I was asking if the tang would be ok. On the upside, the girlfriend said we'll just have to get a bigger tank for the tang. The snails/crabs were added last Sunday. The fish and shrimp went in yesterday. I've been monitoring levels daily and have done a few 5G water changes but they weren't prompted by ammonia/nitrate spikes. Just to be on the safe side. VVV: Yeah, I was joking about a bigger tank. It's good to know she's open to a bigger tank but there's no way I'd want to drop the money on setting up one anytime soon. Kill_Discussion fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Nov 3, 2009 |
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Nov 3, 2009 20:50
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Kill_Discussion posted:drat, I never wanted to be "that guy". The tang was one of those spur of the moment purchases and the guy who was helping us, while knowledgeable, was older and seemed to get a little confused and hard of hearing at times. It's possible he mistook my tank size when I was asking if the tang would be ok. On the upside, the girlfriend said we'll just have to get a bigger tank for the tang. Always take anything the LFS says with a grain of salt. They're in the business to make money, and sometimes that is not in the best interests of the creature they're selling. Example: if a LFS is selling a goniopora, you can tell right away that they sometimes don't care about the livelihood of the creatures they sell, unfortunately. I'd take the tang out and return it instead of getting a new tank 
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Nov 3, 2009 21:41
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fanaglethebagle posted:Just checking with you, but you know that is a camel shrimp and not a peppermint shrimp, correct? Yep, to my surprise he's been completely reef safe in my tank. If he ever does start going after any of the zoos or LPS I can take him out pretty easily.
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Nov 3, 2009 22:40
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Has anyone kept a Linckia sea star for any appreciable amount of time? I picked up a blue Linckia starfish, Linckia laevigata, but it died after a few weeks. The only reason I picked it up was because I have a red Linckia sp. that appears very healthy that's been in my tank a few months. I'm not certain why the blue Linckia died, but it's flesh started disappearing on the ends of it's rays until I finally saw it laying in the sand upside down. While my red Linckia looks healthy, I've never seen it extend it's stomach. It's tube feet go in and out as it decides to walk around or stay still, but I've never seen it extend it's stomach on the glass to eat like the tiny asterina sea stars do. It's possible that it's only eating on the rocks where I can't physically see it's stomach if it was eating, but I'm concerned that it might not be eating at all.
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Nov 5, 2009 16:47
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Whenever we get blue linckias into the fish store I work at we lose more then 50% of them. If they have any damage on them at all they die within the week, even some that dont have visible damage will die. I just think its very difficult to get a good one. We have customers that have had theirs long term in 75g+ tanks though so it is possible.
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Nov 5, 2009 22:31
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Yeah, I had thought I heard of people keeping them for years with no issue. The one we got looked perfect physically, but it crawled into a cave as soon I released it in the tank and never came out until it died.
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Nov 5, 2009 22:48
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I have a 30g with a clarkii clown and a sand sifting goby (this kind). I've had the clown since July or August, and now I'm thinking I want to get a second one. Is it too late? Would they get along even if they're not introduced together? edit: And just because, here's a pic of my crab Sig.  He's got his own home separate from the fish, don't worry.
TauntTheOctopi fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Nov 20, 2009 |
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Nov 20, 2009 01:39
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TauntTheOctopi posted:I have a 30g with a clarkii clown and a sand sifting goby (this kind). I've had the clown since July or August, and now I'm thinking I want to get a second one. Is it too late? Would they get along even if they're not introduced together? If you add one that is small enough, it should get the poo poo beat out of it and submit to the female. You risk losing it but if you try to get an evenly sized one you risk losing them both.
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Nov 20, 2009 01:42
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Help! I have a Precision Marine RLP1500 pump for my Redline series protein skimmer. Today the needle wheel broke. I have google searched, and checked everywhere I know and I can't seem to find any parts for it. I don't even see the pump being sold by itself. I would hate to have to spend $300 on a new skimmer for a $4 part.
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Dec 3, 2009 02:28
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VyperRDH posted:Help! I have a Precision Marine RLP1500 pump for my Redline series protein skimmer. Today the needle wheel broke. I have google searched, and checked everywhere I know and I can't seem to find any parts for it. I don't even see the pump being sold by itself. I would hate to have to spend $300 on a new skimmer for a $4 part. Usually those pumps are rebadged from some other manufacturer. My needle wheel pump on my Reef Octopus NW150 looks suspiciously like an eheim. What part of the needle wheel broke? If just some pins on the wheel, get yourself some plastic mesh insulation (1/2") and some zip ties and take the opportunity to improve your skimmer's performance. I can't imagine that your impeller has broken in such a way that superglue won't fix it (I've fixed a few impeller shafts with a drop of superglue before, works great).
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Dec 3, 2009 03:06
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Reviving this here thread with pictures    My nuclear greens and purple deaths are breeding
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Dec 17, 2009 09:55
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Wow, I can't say I have ever seen that before
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Dec 17, 2009 19:10
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How do you get your acros so furry? Mine just keep their polyps in until the light goes out, then they're furry, but you can't see it without a flashlight heh
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Dec 18, 2009 04:47
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I just give them lots of light, flow, and calcium and they seem to be happy.        
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Dec 18, 2009 06:01
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Been working on this tank for the last couple months: Click here for the full 1920x1440 image. It's basically a babby's first sw/reef tank in terms of livestock, except it's a pico at 5.5g and has a custom-made LED fixture. I'm going to clean up the glass and get some macro shots of the livestock as they adjust and flourish under the new lighting. The 'scaping isn't final either, I've got to get some more dry rock from BRS or so and build up a little tower on the left and shift the center rock to the back right a bit. VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Jan 13, 2010 |
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Jan 13, 2010 07:07
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Wow, that tank looks packed. By BRS do you mean the Boston Reefers Society?
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Jan 13, 2010 14:32
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fanaglethebagle posted:Wow, that tank looks packed. By BRS do you mean the Boston Reefers Society? Bulk Reef Supply, they sell these fossilized reef skeleton pieces in a plastic mason jar thing. The aquascaping in the middle of the tank right now is rubble of that stuff that a friend had left over that I epoxied together. VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Jan 13, 2010 |
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Jan 13, 2010 17:50
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 The prettiest part of my 30g. I'm adding corals slowly.
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Jan 19, 2010 16:56
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arioch posted:Bulk Reef Supply, they sell these fossilized reef skeleton pieces in a plastic mason jar thing. The aquascaping in the middle of the tank right now is rubble of that stuff that a friend had left over that I epoxied together. Oops, ordered 25 POUNDS of this stuff. With as light as this stuff is at least I'll have spare material. (I'm adding rockwork to the 5.5 tank as well as making rockwork for a BC14 I took in used)
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Jan 25, 2010 13:31
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I would really love a reef tank, but something is bugging me. How possible is it to stick to aquacultured livestock? I have found some live rock and fish specifically labeled as aquacultured, but not much, and I'm guessing it's "wild-caught unless stated otherwise." I realize the aquarium trade is nowhere near the magnitude of other threats to reefs, but I don't want to pluck critters off a reef for my living room.
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Feb 2, 2010 23:37
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| # ? May 9, 2024 21:21 |
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Trillian posted:I would really love a reef tank, but something is bugging me. How possible is it to stick to aquacultured livestock? There's always the option of getting your livestock second-hand. That way you're also getting fish & corals that are already adjusted to living in a tank. Some of the aquarium clubs have swap meets for corals people have propagated, and usually there's somebody wanting to get rid of their livestock and/or rock on the boards. That being said, there's more stuff being aquacultured than there used to be, but you'll probably have to seek it out. I think the most responsible thing that people can do is make sure that they're responsible with the livestock they DO get. For example, mandarin dragonets are show stoppers, but unless a person has a large enough tank with a large enough copepod population, that poor fish will starve to death.
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Feb 3, 2010 00:35
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