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 Click here for the full 720x540 image.  Click here for the full 720x540 image. His mate is already in the RBTA and now he's all alone in the corner   Click here for the full 720x540 image.
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Jun 23, 2010 13:33
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Do any salt water people keep Crown of Thorns?
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Jun 23, 2010 18:29
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Desert Bus posted:Do any salt water people keep Crown of Thorns? The gigantic sea star? e: A little googling leads me to believe there aren't many people who would keep this, it would be interesting if anyone here does. theres a will theres moe fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jun 23, 2010 |
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Jun 23, 2010 20:06
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Juice Box Hero posted:The gigantic sea star? Yeah, this thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown-of-thorns_starfish 
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Jun 23, 2010 22:06
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It would be ridiculously expensive to feed, I would be amazed to hear of someone keeping one outside of a research facility.
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Jun 24, 2010 03:51
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Eats up to six square meters of corals per year---ughhhhhhhhhhhhh
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Jun 24, 2010 04:10
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arioch posted:Eats up to six square meters of corals per year---ughhhhhhhhhhhhh I wonder if it'll eat xenia and gsp? I've got too much of that poo poo. I just gave my co-worker about 15 frags of xenia and ripped off 4 or so 4x6" sheets of GSP. Also, here are my latest pics. Getting rid of the flame angel was perhaps the best thing I've done to this tank. Everything is looking so much better.       
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Jun 24, 2010 04:47
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ludnix posted:It would be ridiculously expensive to feed, I would be amazed to hear of someone keeping one outside of a research facility. I found someone on Monster Fish Keepers who keeps one: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116411
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Jun 24, 2010 04:55
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I wonder how long he's had it and how long he kept it, because something like that is probably still starving to death even with feeding it market shrimp.
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Jun 24, 2010 15:54
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I just messaged him asking about it, so hopefully we'll find out soon.
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Jun 24, 2010 16:18
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If I may- They're coral grazers, but they'll be happy to eat other stuff (shrimp, crabs, algae), especially in the absence of any coral. Like many other echinoderms they can slow their metabolism right down and survive on what's available. The local aquarium here keeps them in their "dangerous tank" and basically have shrimp suction cupped to the walls of the tank, so you can see them feed. I wouldn't really recommend them as a pet, as it's pretty gimmicky, and you'd just have an empty tank with a sea star cruising around. If you did get one, you'd definitely want to be careful with them though, as their spines are very venomous. A tank that you'd never need to stick your hands in would probably be a good idea.
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Jun 25, 2010 14:43
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Grumio posted:If I may-
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Jun 25, 2010 23:44
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3 inch spines. Definitely not a touch tank.
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Jun 26, 2010 19:32
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Howdy. I've had this thread marked for a long time, mostly just out of interest. I didn't even own a tank, and haven't in probably 10 years. Just yesterday I helped a friend move after his buddies bailed out on him, so I got first dibs on pretty much everything he couldn't fit in his truck, which includes a 55 gallon tank. I'm just about ready to start it up, and was wondering (while I read through the thread again from the beginning) if anyone has any great combination's or particular setups for a tank about this size. By the way, you guys have some awesome looking tanks. I'm totally jealous of these pictures.
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Jun 27, 2010 06:50
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Are you lookging to go mixed reef, softies fish only? Also remember that you don't need fish to start the cycle on the tank, a little bit of fish food or uncured live rock will get it started fine.
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Jun 27, 2010 09:07
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I'm looking to do a mixed reef tank. Once the rock sits a while and I've got the setup running I think the first fish I'll add are either a Clown and/or a Damsel. I went to check out the fish store nearby, "Saltwater City", they had pretty much everything you could imagine for setting up a saltwater tank. Here's what they suggested for a 45 gallon tank, which I guess is close enough for starting a 55 gallon tank:quote:Aqua-C Remora Skimmer ($200) So this is kinda what I've got for a "to-buy" list so far. To be honest, at the moment I don't even know what half that stuff is. I'm in the midst of learning all this. It's the exact list from the store for a deal on a 45 gallon cube glass tank and everything on this list for 1000.00, I just excluded the 45 gallon tank. I'm sure I'll need to modify the measurements of things like the amount of live rock and tack on some gallons to better fit a 55. Sump is kinda out of the question for me, I'd like to stick with the protein skimmer method. Any advice on what kind I should buy for my tank? Should I just stick with what the fish store had on this list? I'd imagine there are cheaper things out there, but I do want good quality. I've read all over the place about how it's good to just save up some bux and not half-rear end it, because it won't be long until you want to upgrade and you've got a ton of extra poo poo laying around that you could've saved money on. Keep in mind I don't have a lot of money and plan on taking this hobby slowly, buying things as I go. So I really want to keep price in mind, but I don't want jap-crap quality that I have to replace later. Any help or pointers would be awesome. And for future reference, here's the pile of poo poo laying on the floor. I haven't even cleaned it yet. Pretty much everything inside of it is garbage. The only useful things I have to go with it are a siphoning tube thing and a fish net.  Edit: Another thing, most of the tanks in the store were bare-bottomed. I'd like to have some sand in the bottom of mine, so that's some more stuff I need to tack onto the list after I figure out what kind is best. Nerolus fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Jun 28, 2010 |
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Jun 28, 2010 03:27
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That is actually a really good list but definitely don't get the power compact fixture, go for T5 or halide.
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Jun 28, 2010 03:46
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revmoo posted:That is actually a really good list but definitely don't get the power compact fixture, go for T5 or halide. Nice, thanks. As far as lights go, what size should I get for a 4' wide 55 gallon tank? The tank that they suggested the Current USA 24" light for was a cube setup only about half as long as my tank, so I figure I'm probably going to need one that's longer, like a 42" or two 24" side by side. That is, unless I can get away with having a 24" light in the center over the top of a 4' long tank, but that just sounds bad to me. Nerolus fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jun 28, 2010 |
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Jun 28, 2010 04:05
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Nerolus posted:I'm looking to do a mixed reef tank. Once the rock sits a while and I've got the setup running I think the first fish I'll add are either a Clown and/or a Damsel. I went to check out the fish store nearby, "Saltwater City", they had pretty much everything you could imagine for setting up a saltwater tank. Here's what they suggested for a 45 gallon tank, which I guess is close enough for starting a 55 gallon tank: Holy crap $10.50/lb for liverock?! I paid about $1.50 for mine (craiglist find) to *at most* $4/lb for 'premium' fiji liverock from the LFS. Unless that liverock also includes corals attached, that is a ridiculous price. Power compact will only be sufficient for a fish only, fish only w/ live rock, or softies tank (mushrooms + some zoas). You will want a T5HO or metal halide if you want to keep most corals (once you go Metal Halide you never go back though). I've owned several Current USA fixtures (their HQ is about 4 miles from my house), and currently run a $200 2x 250 HQI from aquatraders.com and can honestly say that the build quality on the aquatraders fixture is exactly the same as the Current (they both outsource to China). On a 55, I'd go dual 150s or a 4x54 T5HO. That thermometer is $4 at petco, fwiw. Also, you should mix your own water -- >$1/gal is a complete rip off for something you're going to be dumping 15-20% down the drain every week. If you're going reef, get a good mix (instant ocean reef crystals or tropic marin reef), but you don't need to cycle with that. If you have the space, invest in a decent RO/DI for yourself. It'll more than pay for itself (around here, 5 gallons of RO water from outside the grocery store is about $1.25). I get 200gal boxes of reef crystals off ebay for about $50 shipped. Nerolus posted:So this is kinda what I've got for a "to-buy" list so far. To be honest, at the moment I don't even know what half that stuff is. I'm in the midst of learning all this. It's the exact list from the store for a deal on a 45 gallon cube glass tank and everything on this list for 1000.00, I just excluded the 45 gallon tank. I'm sure I'll need to modify the measurements of things like the amount of live rock and tack on some gallons to better fit a 55. The usual recommended amount of liverock to size is 1 - 1.5lbs/gal. Depending on how deep you want your sandbed, you typically go for ~2lbs/gal. Nerolus posted:Sump is kinda out of the question for me, I'd like to stick with the protein skimmer method. Any advice on what kind I should buy for my tank? Should I just stick with what the fish store had on this list? I'd imagine there are cheaper things out there, but I do want good quality. I've read all over the place about how it's good to just save up some bux and not half-rear end it, because it won't be long until you want to upgrade and you've got a ton of extra poo poo laying around that you could've saved money on. Keep in mind I don't have a lot of money and plan on taking this hobby slowly, buying things as I go. So I really want to keep price in mind, but I don't want jap-crap quality that I have to replace later. Nothing on that list is spectacular quality-wise. Also, none of that stuff is 'jap-crap' -- its all made in China. If you want high-quality stuff, you need to look at eheim (though I'm not sure where they manufacture), but it'll cost more. The aquac is an OK skimmer. You always compromise with a hang-on-back skimmer instead of going with a sump and an in-sump skimmer. Having a sump also gives you the benefits of having a central location to place all your other components (return pump, skimmer, heater, auto topoff, etc). You can also build in a refugium with chaetomorpha and use it for nutrient export. In my case, it also is an ideal location to blow a fan on to keep the tank's temperatures in check during the summer.
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Jun 28, 2010 04:29
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 Nearly all set. Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to organize wiring and power strips and such in the stand.
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Jun 29, 2010 00:40
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I'll be moving soon and going to have to take down my 75Gal Mixed reef I've had for over 4 years. I'll be selling all my equipment and once I get settled down again I'll rebuild a tank. I'm cruising for ideas on a interesting tank size. I was thinking of doing a 55Tub but as a peninsula set up. I know I will be going the LED route since helping my friend set up his on a 135 SPS tank. Anyone have any strange or interesting tank sizes they have seen or set up? Here is a crappy video of my current tank. A lot of stuff has been fragged up and sold to support the next tank. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnNt8kzF-W0 TooLShack fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Jul 3, 2010 |
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Jul 3, 2010 09:17
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Dvfx0LL0w That's not hair algae growing on the bare live rock ... that's ulva.
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Jul 6, 2010 15:44
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Teasers from the tank: Click here for the full 1280x960 image.  Click here for the full 1280x960 image.  Click here for the full 1280x960 image. I'm lining up some more cultured colonies from Bali, and then some Aussie acros: I'm going to order and split an echinata, as well as a Strawberry Short Cake. (Disclaimer: there's plenty of this poo poo, expensive and "rare" as it is, and the Australians have a decent/good policy and system on collecting, but a bunch of this stuff is getting cultured as well and that's just kicking into gear, so I'd expect cheap(er) cultured SSC and echinatas available "soon".) edit #2: My tang is not visibly chowing down on this ulva at all 
VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Jul 7, 2010 |
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Jul 7, 2010 05:06
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I have 2 tanks right now - one I picked up on Craigslist, and it was an GHA factory. It's doing better now - all the coral is healthy & I'm well down the road of eradicating the GHA. I am also building a new rimless reef tank. New tank. This is a 4'x2'x16" rimless tank, lit by LEDs. Haven't done set up the rock scape yet or mounted any of the corals, etc. Clownfish in the new tank. These are captive bred and are the only fish in the tank so far. I do have a bucnh of snails, hermits & a couple small coral pieces in there as well, but nothing as cool as these clowns. Old tank. This is a 75 gallon w/ four 4' T5s. Open Brain coral. Plating Monticap, you can see some Candy Cane corals on the right as well. Galaxea coral, with Green Star Polyps on the right and Candy Canes behind. My Powder Blue Tang decided to drop a deuce for you guys. Cleaner Shrimp w/ some Candy Cane corals.
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Jul 11, 2010 06:24
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Sweet tank, what kind of LED fixtures are those?
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Jul 14, 2010 22:36
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Would it be hard to just build your own LED fixture? Buy the LEDs from some place (I know Edison makes a bunch of different types, just need to find a retailer) and wire them up? It can't be that hard or expensive to do yourself with some electronics knowledge. I don't understand why these LED fixtures cost so drat much. I ask because I used to wire up stupid easy LED arrays with little science kits my dad got me when I was a kid. LEDs are not hard to understand. The Edison site even tells you what color they burn and how many watts they are. Has anyone tried this with their tank? e: I guess what I really want to know is what I am missing. How is a handful of LEDs with an AC adapter worth five hundred bucks? theres a will theres moe fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Jul 15, 2010 |
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Jul 15, 2010 07:17
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Because the LEDs that are used in Aquarium lighting aren't cheap. My friend did a DIY led set up and the CREE leds he was using was around 6 bucks each, multiply that by 70+ leds and it adds up.
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Jul 15, 2010 10:46
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The other thing about LEDs is that they've discovered you can substantially alter their brightness with thermal dissipation of heat. That's how LED televisions started competing with LCD and Plasma. They've altered the SMT packaging for the LED's and also for the chassis of the television to sink heat out of the junction of the LED and make them brighter, which allows for better contrast (I think?). There is probably a non-trivial amount of mechanical engineering that went into the thermal considerations of the fixture.
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Jul 15, 2010 13:44
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A standard reef-capable LED DIY setup only runs about half as much as the "built" fixtures, but "built" fixtures like the Aqua Illuminations modules have some stuff going for them, like varying amounts of programmability, controllability, etc. Which isn't cheap/trivial in DIY-land. On the other end, the nanotuners guys, with their own products, tend to design/build high quality basic fixtures that aren't terribly more expensive than DIYing. See: http://www.nanotuners.com/product_info.php?cPath=74&products_id=667 http://www.nanotuners.com/product_info.php?cPath=73&products_id=669 VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Jul 15, 2010 |
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Jul 15, 2010 13:53
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ludnix posted:Sweet tank, what kind of LED fixtures are those? MaxSpect 110W G2
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Jul 15, 2010 18:37
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Lots of people are building DIY LED fixtures; they are not that complicated. You can build them cheaply & simply (DC PSU, some resistors/fuses), cheaply & complex (do your own PWM circuits, etc) or expensively (dimmable Meanwell drivers), and everything in between. For me, the fixtures I bought were close enough to the cost of DIY to save myself the time. The nice thing about DIY is that you can build exactly what you want. Reef Central has a lot of threads on this. Here is the largest. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1678127
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Jul 15, 2010 18:41
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So, I've got a small colony of these things in my 5.5g: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdmAH3HjZrg They freaked me the gently caress out when I first saw just one and thought it was some form of dangerous hydroid... but they're actually pretty cool. They hide on the lower sides of rocks, mostly, avoiding direct light, and spread out a lot more during the night portions of the light cycle. The problem now is that I don't really want to put them in the big tank, so I'm committed to running the 5.5g if just for them.
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Jul 20, 2010 23:37
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I've had freshwater for years and I currently have a 60 gallon freshwater setup with live plants. I've also done brackish water but changed to freshwater because brackish fish are almost impossible to find. I'd really like to get my hands into saltwater. Doing a nano tank (5 gal - 40 gal) seems like the best bet since I don't really want to spend an ungodly amount of money and then kill everything by accident. I also want to know if I like it before I spend big money. What's the best bet money wise for a small tank? I really like the bio cube/red sea max/eclipse tanks but I don't know if it'd be cheaper to get everything separate. I'd like to stay under $400 if at all possible, not including live rock or actual fish/inverts. I'll probably also be able to find a decent deal for a used tank on craigslist. I'd really like to have at least two fish in the tank. Or a mantis shrimp. After having only freshwater, saltwater seems really insane to me. Does anybody have any links of book suggestions as a starting point on understanding all the pieces of equipment? I use two biowheels on my freshwater tank but it looks like I need to use something completely different for saltwater. Why is a protein skimmer necessary on saltwater but not freshwater? What are with those blue plastic balls? Is it just all the inverts that make those complicated filtration systems necessary? How do I know what kind of lightning I need out of all the gazillion possible options? 
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Aug 9, 2010 00:52
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Amaterasu posted:I've had freshwater for years and I currently have a 60 gallon freshwater setup with live plants. I've also done brackish water but changed to freshwater because brackish fish are almost impossible to find. I'd really like to get my hands into saltwater. Doing a nano tank (5 gal - 40 gal) seems like the best bet since I don't really want to spend an ungodly amount of money and then kill everything by accident. I also want to know if I like it before I spend big money. I don't have any books to recommend, but tossing any questions into google brings up a LOT of forums where you can find answers. I would recommend doing a shitload of research. Figure out what kind of tank you want. Fish only? Reef? Inverts-only? Modern saltwater tanks use live rock and sand for biological filtration, and filter pads + protein skimmers for mechanical filtration. Protein skimmers catch little animals and slime in the bubbles and get them out of your water. You want these animals and slime in your tank, but the protein skimmer helps remove the excess. There are also carbon or calcium reactors, for those who need extra pristine water. You can get by with a filter pad and live rock/sand, but after a while you will probably have the urge to upgrade. There are No biowheels in a saltwater tank. The plastic balls ("bio-balls") are supposed to provide a place for biological filtration to happen, and having them in a place where water falls helps oxygenate your water, but I haven't met anyone who really thinks they are worth anything. You don't need them (IMO). I only keep my bio-balls because without them the water falling makes too much noise. I've had a 29 biocube for almost a year now, and I really like it as a beginner reef tank. It was a good relatively-inexpensive place to start experimenting and comes with almost everything you need at about the same price it would cost to buy everything separately. If you go with anything bigger, you will want to build a sump, which is like buying an even more expensive, smaller tank to hold all the filters and stuff. DO CHECK AROUND for predrilled used tanks on craigslist. I spent too much on a brand new biocube, but the thing has served me very well. Don't go out and buy anything until you figure out exactly what you are trying to do. Start saving up and plan everything out, then save a little more because unexpected stuff always happens with saltwater tanks. It can be an expensive adventure I was happy to see that someone had posted in this thread. I am not the most experienced person here, but I would love to help you figure out what you're doing.
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Aug 9, 2010 06:13
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I would not start with a tanksize any smaller than the BC29. It can get pretty involved to keep water parameters (including salinity) in check in small tanks. The larger the tank the easier it is to work with it, and the benefit is that if you can keep water parameters stable (and water clean) in a larger tank, you can cheat and use the changewater to do water changes for smaller tanks. Reactors that polish/clean the water: carbon reactor, phosphate reactor. Calcium reactors are for keeping up the calcium levels in a tank if you keep stony corals, and as you start out with stonies you should really just be doing 2-part dosing (and one does not simply walk into stonies).
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Aug 9, 2010 11:32
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I originally meant to say but accidentally deleted that I will not be setting this tank up any earlier than the end of the year. I actually just got a 130gal tank on Saturday for $75 off craigslist but I think that will either be turned into a terrarium with dart frogs or day geckos or a large freshwater tank. I've never had a tank that large before but it seems perfect for an awesome cichlid tank. I highly suggest checking out craiglist to anyone who wants a fw or sw tank. I have seen some absolutely amazing deals on there for complete setups.
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Aug 9, 2010 14:36
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Setup 12 LEDs over my 10g frag tank. This is replacing my 150w MH so it should save a ton of energy. Thinking about switching over my 120g to LEDs as well if the frag tank works out.
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Aug 9, 2010 20:00
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Amaterasu posted:I originally meant to say but accidentally deleted that I will not be setting this tank up any earlier than the end of the year. I actually just got a 130gal tank on Saturday for $75 off craigslist but I think that will either be turned into a terrarium with dart frogs or day geckos or a large freshwater tank. I've never had a tank that large before but it seems perfect for an awesome cichlid tank. If you get a large tank for your saltwater aquarium, you might consider investing in an RO/DI unit so you can filter your own water at home. It saves you from having to run to the fish store every week, and guarantees you're actually getting RO water. Something like this http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html is what I am talking about. That site also has a lot of interesting info about keeping a marine tank.
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Aug 10, 2010 06:07
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A friend gave me a shell that he got at the beach several days ago. In it, to his surprise, was an aquatic hermit crab. He's been incredibly active, eating shrimp pellets like nobody's business and he's been fitting himself for a new shell amongst the ones we put in with him. He's been in a small tank for the past day or two, with water collected at the beach, but we need some help setting up a tank. I've been interested in setting up a saltwater tank for a while, and this offerred the perfect excuse. This 10-gallon tank with this skimmer are our initial purchases, and I have access to deionized water and Instant Ocean. Any pointers on other equipment we would need or some advice would be much appreciated. Here's the little bugger.  Click here for the full 2000x1500 image.
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Aug 11, 2010 23:23
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| # ? May 10, 2024 05:42 |
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Where do you live? I'd look for a 30g tank or bigger so you can use that skimmer and still have some more water volume. Small saltwater tanks are harder than bigger ones.
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Aug 12, 2010 05:54
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