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That's pretty strange, I'll have to keep watching that to see how it goes.
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Sep 10, 2010 08:20
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ludnix posted:For a DIY LED array you should figure about $10 an LED. Mine was $800. Very steep compared to MH or T5's initial cost, but the eletrical savings will pay for itself within a year, even faster if you factored in the cost of replacing bulbs. How do LED's do with nurturing coral?
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Sep 10, 2010 08:27
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How do those dimming controllers work? PWM?
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Sep 10, 2010 13:29
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HClChicken posted:How do LED's do with nurturing coral? About the same, but I really think you want a fuller spectrum of lighting. In my ideal DIY LED scenario I treat LEDs as highly specific wavelengthed main source of lighting (consider it mostly as a distributed, wacky, MH bulb) and supplement with fuller spectrum T5 tubes. revmoo posted:How do those dimming controllers work? PWM? Depends on the driver, usually. You can build a pot harness for the driver or hook up a programmable arduino thing with PWM signals.
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Sep 10, 2010 20:07
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ludnix posted:That's pretty strange, I'll have to keep watching that to see how it goes. He posted a pic of a second frag. Looks pretty amazing.
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Sep 10, 2010 20:08
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This is totally sick. I want that frag so bad.
VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Sep 11, 2010 |
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Sep 11, 2010 15:14
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arioch posted:About the same, but I really think you want a fuller spectrum of lighting. In my ideal DIY LED scenario I treat LEDs as highly specific wavelengthed main source of lighting (consider it mostly as a distributed, wacky, MH bulb) and supplement with fuller spectrum T5 tubes. White LEDs are lacking slightly in the red spectrum compared to what corals would be using. Here is the CREE spectrum for the white leds.   The LEDs are a little lacking in the red spectrum, but that could be either supplemented with some red LEDs or a T5 bulbs. It's apparently not that vital though as the corals so far seem to be growing excellent under them as is.
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Sep 12, 2010 08:03
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Went ahead and purchased this really nice 100g sw tank, with a 40+g sump, 1262 eheim pump, generic lighting. Over 140 pounds of live rock!! Some testing chemicals, foods and whatnot, heater and a bunch of piping to go with the frame. All for 300 bucks. I have most of the live rock curing outside with some circulation, going to scrub the rest of it later today since it had been sitting in the air for a few days. To do list: Make tank stand with sump access. Design and build piping system/ overflow system. I might do a drilled system, tank isn't drilled yet so not sure. Purchase lighting system (metal halide/ t5 combo) Purchase protein skimmer Purchase second heater Research and purchase type of water movement system Of course cleaning everything we got since much of it is gunked up.
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Sep 12, 2010 19:17
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My office is setting up a saltwater tank. A guy who has several saltwater tanks at home is in charge, so he's taking care of it and making sure it's all set up properly. Anyhoo, we're still in the beginning phases and don't have much in it yet. What are some interesting fish, etc that we could add that are lower maintenance or less aggressive (i.e. doesn't need its own tank)? We're probably gonna get some clown fish, but I'm looking for some suggestions to throw out there. I've never had a saltwater tank, so I don't really know what to suggest, other than things that don't get along well with others, such as mantis shrimps or moray eels.
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Sep 28, 2010 19:54
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How big is the tank? And how reef-y will it be?
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Sep 28, 2010 21:13
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Billy Black posted:My office is setting up a saltwater tank. A guy who has several saltwater tanks at home is in charge, so he's taking care of it and making sure it's all set up properly. Get a diamond goby! They have great personalities, keep your sand clean, and aren't typically agressive.
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Sep 29, 2010 04:18
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I dunno, there are plenty of things that can keep the sand clean-ish without going to something that actually adds to the bioload and can screw with sandbed coral emplacements. I'd go with standard detritivore inverts that don't remodel.
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Sep 29, 2010 06:35
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arioch posted:How big is the tank? And how reef-y will it be? I don't know the gallons exactly, but it looks to be in the 50-70 gallon region? I can find specifics if needed. The coworker with saltwater tanks at home brought in some small pieces of live coral to hopefully grow in the tank, but it's mostly dead coral in there now for looks (at least, that's what I'm assuming it is). Edit: arioch posted:I'd go with standard detritivore inverts that don't remodel. I googled detrivore invert, and it looks like brittle stars fit this category? If so, we have one of those in the tank. I like him, he likes to hide behind rocks and stick his legs out during feeding time so it looks like a tentacled monster of some sort. Billy Black fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Sep 29, 2010 |
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Sep 29, 2010 14:15
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They count so long as you keep them fed with meaty foods regularly as well. In most tanks they will either starve or go hunting, and then your fishes start to go missing. I'm more thinking about little guys like nassarius snails, spaghetti worms, micro stars (whites and bandeds, the ones that don't get more than about 1.5 inches from tip to tip), and just a generally good pod population.
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Sep 29, 2010 22:07
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Flame angels have a lot of bright color and should do well in that size tank. As with all dwarf angels it only reef safe with caution, it's not unheard of for them to nip at large polyped corals and clams. Other cool fish are the hawkfish such as the long nose or the flame hawk. They are not safe with ornamental shrimp but otherwise get along fine in a reef.
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Oct 2, 2010 08:42
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My new build   
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Oct 2, 2010 22:05
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That's a good looking setup.
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Oct 4, 2010 22:21
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If I change out the crushed coral in my tank for live sand will it cause a crash and have it cycle again? I've had it in there for over a year but want to get something new in there so I can keep it looking better than the coral looking green after an algae attack
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Oct 15, 2010 02:57
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If you did it all in one go it would depend on how much your bioload is being handled by the crushed coral. Since it's hard to know that I would just remove the the crushed coral slowly over a period of a few weeks. Each water change I'd take 1/5th of the crushed coral out for example.
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Oct 15, 2010 04:19
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There should be relatively little bioload as the only thing in there are corals.
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Oct 15, 2010 05:02
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I'd probably just take it all out then add the sand.
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Oct 15, 2010 05:25
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I got a great deal on a used Current USA Solana from a guy I know. As such, I'm happy to be finally able to post in this thread! I'm mainly a freshwater guy, so if these questions are pretty stupid I apologize. A few questions: 1.) I've got aragonite and a single piece of cultured live rock complete with coraline in the tank right now. Do I need to dose the tank with ammonia or drop in some food to get it cycling, or will it just 'handle itself'? I am hesitant to drop any fish in there for a while, obviously. 2.) The tank came with a 20" T5HO fixture which contains 6 18w bulbs (3 10,000K, 3 Actinic). The thing is like a tiny sun and lights up the entire room when it is on, but the guy I bought it from said it would only be sufficient for soft corals. Their site seems to infer I could even do SPS corals if I wanted. What do you guys think? 3.) What is the prevailing opinion on osmotic shock therapy as a method of acclimating new fish? To me it seems pretty radical, but I want to keep marine ich out of this tank and away from livestock which will be way more expensive than I'm used to. Thanks in advance!
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Oct 18, 2010 16:26
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Melchior posted:stuff 1. Just test and let it sit for a while. 2. Sounds like you've got the Nova Extreme Pro. I have the same fixture on a Solana right now, and my SPS are perfectly happy. 3. Quarantine. Just get a small tank, a heater and a HOB filter. A freshwater dip is not enough to eradicate ich, and marine ich is a bitch and a half to deal with once you've got it in your display.
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Oct 18, 2010 20:41
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Trillian posted:3. Quarantine. Just get a small tank, a heater and a HOB filter. A freshwater dip is not enough to eradicate ich, and marine ich is a bitch and a half to deal with once you've got it in your display. That's the thing. It isn't just a freshwater dip. A friend told me he starts off all of his new fish in quarantine at like 1.013. Drops them in right from the store, they freak out for awhile, and he gradually increases the salt content in the quarantine tank over ~3 weeks. By the time the quarantine tank is back up to standard salinity ich's lifecycle is long complete. Apparently OST can make ich parasites basically 'explode' so I'm not sure that a month in quarantine is necessary, but hey the dude overthinks everything.
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Oct 18, 2010 20:45
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Melchior posted:That's the thing. It isn't just a freshwater dip. A friend told me he starts off all of his new fish in quarantine at like 1.013. Drops them in right from the store, they freak out for awhile, and he gradually increases the salt content in the quarantine tank over ~3 weeks. By the time the quarantine tank is back up to standard salinity ich's lifecycle is long complete. Hyposalinity is a big stressor, especially with no gradual drop. 1.013 isn't low enough to kill ich, either; it needs to be 1.009-1.010 consistently. Too high and ich survives, too low and you kill the fish. It requires daily monitoring of pH/ammonia/nitrates, to boot, because hyposaline tanks are unstable. So a lot of people gently caress up. If you do it perfectly, you're still piling hyposalinity stress on top of shipping/retailer stress. Too easy to kill an otherwise healthy fish.
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Oct 18, 2010 21:59
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This is only tangentially related to pets but I thought a bunch of aquarium enthusiasts might know the answer. I'm working on a project that needs an electronic pH sensor. We decided to use an aquarium pH sensor since we have a small budget and industrial ones are expensive as hell. The company we bought it from says it's a standard aquarium sensor that works with standard aquarium controllers. The problem is we're custom programming our own controller so we need to know what output from the sensor = what pH. Oddly enough the company doesn't have this info, anyone know where I can find it?
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Oct 19, 2010 01:29
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My PH is about 7.8 right now, will this raise naturally during cycling with rock, or do I have to dose something to get it up to the 8.1-8.4 it should be?
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Oct 21, 2010 18:32
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Mine has been at 7.8 for two years and it's never caused a problem. I'm also a big fan of letting the tank do things on it's own instead of micromanaging parameters, though, so ymmv.
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Oct 22, 2010 00:57
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That's pretty much how I handle my freshwater tank, but I wasn't sure if that approach was viable in saltwater. After looking at your photos in this thread, it appears it is!
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Oct 22, 2010 03:47
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As long as your pH hangs between 7.8 and 8.5 it should be fine for a reef tank. Your rockwork and sand (assuming it's the real stuff, not decorative plastic or whatever) will help buffer your pH and cellular respiration will do the rest. I monitor my pH with a RKL controller but I'm never too concerned, mine fluctuates between 7.95 ish to 8.25 ish. For my tank I really only worry about phosphates and alkalinity. (For the first, I have mangroves and I regularly harvest chaeto from the fuge to export, and for the second I dose 2-part) For content and bad photography, we had a swap meet last weekend, and this is some of the stuff I came home with (mixed in with stuff I already had):  Click here for the full 648x484 image. Pictured: A. kimbeensis (front left) A. nana (tricolor, mid front) Goochster palys (not sure on the id, but I like the look so meh) Those 2 echinata frags in the second row were mine to begin with "Mystic Grape" identical morph favia, a good 30 eyes at less than a dollar per eye ($20 frag, lol) 3rd row left, a war coral I've been nursing back to health A. suharsonoi (? you see a tiny bit of it, it's very pale fluorescent green, I'm not sure on the id) A. hoeksemai (very nice piece, pretty rare to get it in now) A. lokani last row, no idea what that acro is and, a pink Stylophora frag  Click here for the full 648x484 image. Pictured: Pink tipped frogspawn (not a swap purchase either) A. sp. (green body, purple corallites, blue polyps, very cool) Seriatopora caliendrum (ORA birds of paradise identical, some tissue recession from where it was getting too much flow, was mine to begin with)  Click here for the full 648x484 image. Pictured: the rest of that bird's nest mini colony A. millepora (a blue mille, nursing this back to health, was in too nutrient rich water so turned green and had a melting event) A. tortuosa (cali tort) VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Oct 23, 2010 |
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Oct 22, 2010 14:57
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Also finally managed to line up a couple pieces of Strawberry Shortcake (A. microclados) Now let's all join together in prayer that the stupid thing holds its color. I'm using a balanced loadout of T5 tubes right now so that most things that I have (that aren't holdouts from the browning from dealing with a wildly swinging LEAKING biocube) are totally and vibrantly fake-looking in terms of colors (especially warmer colors like pinks) so I'm hopeful. VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Oct 23, 2010 |
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Oct 23, 2010 00:24
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About a 2 months ago I got a 24G JBJ nanocube (3W/gallon). Right now I have 4 Astrea snails, 2 nassarius snails, 3 hermit crabs,skunk cleaner shrimp, a tiger watchman goby(big, about 3"), tiger pistol shrimp, and a just today added semi-picasso clown. I also got a great polyp colony for 10 bucks from my LFS with around 40 polyps. Here are some pics:  lots more polyps have opened up since that pic, about 38 in total. I found a zooanthid similar to this where they wanted 59.99 for 4 polyps so I think I got a good deal. In any case they are healthy and doing great. Plan to get a mushroom next. Eventually I want to get a frogspawn for my clown. Anyone have any experience with raising one in a 3W/gallon tank? I'd also like to get a wrasse. I was going to go with a Mystery Wrasse until I read that they have a tendency to eat cleaner shrimp, and I couldn't deal with losing the one I have. He's very friendly and curious and I'd hate to see him die. Any suggestions on a cool looking wrasse that won't kill anything? I'm pretty limited base on my tank size so I'm willing to go all out on the few fish I can have, as long as they don't kill everything. edit: i also have 25 lbs vanuatu live rock(180 dollars, good deal from aquacon.com with 5-8 pounds of fiji foundation rock, and 40 lbs of tahitian black live sand if it matters yeah I eat ass fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Oct 23, 2010 |
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Oct 23, 2010 02:21
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Also, my goby has been aggressive toward my pistol shrimp. During feeding time, the goby charges the shrimp when it comes out of its burrow, so I am a little confused considering that they are supposed to be friends in the wild. I think my goby might just be a dick. Even when I put food directly inside the shrimp's burrow, the goby goes in and steals it. I don't want my shrimp to starve, any suggestions?
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Oct 23, 2010 02:37
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a duck posted:Eventually I want to get a frogspawn for my clown. Anyone have any experience with raising one in a 3W/gallon tank? I got a frogspawn for my clown in my AP24. The frogspawn does fine in just about any light, so don't worry about it. The clown probably won't host it if that's your main reason for getting one. They'll only reliably host a few types of anemones (bubble tips mostly), and even that isn't guaranteed.
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Oct 23, 2010 03:19
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optikalus posted:I got a frogspawn for my clown in my AP24. The frogspawn does fine in just about any light, so don't worry about it. The clown probably won't host it if that's your main reason for getting one. They'll only reliably host a few types of anemones (bubble tips mostly), and even that isn't guaranteed. That's part of the reason but not the only reason. I just think they look cool. I can't really do an anemone tank and I know he doesn't need a host, but it would be interesting if he'd host in a coral. My clown is still alive after ~24 hours which is a good sign. If my goby ate my new 90 dollar fish I would be a little upset.
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Oct 23, 2010 09:44
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Tiger watchmen gobies are not shrimp gobies, so that's why there's some aggression. Also I've never had any issues in getting clowns to be hosted by pretty much anything, I had a pair of tank-raised ocellaris jump right in a hammer colony, then when I sold that pair off to a friend they jumped right in a RBTA, and I have a pair of TR onyx percs that jumped right in a RBTA as soon as the RBTA went in the water.
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Oct 23, 2010 13:53
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arioch posted:Tiger watchmen gobies are not shrimp gobies, Well, that would certainly explain it. I should have known that. I had gone in planning to just get a yasha hase goby but all they had were yellow watchmen and this tiger, and the owner assured me he'd form a relationship with the pistol shrimp. Oh well, he's still an awesome(but territorial) goby. edit: does anyone know of an online store to buy ORA GLO fish food from, or some other way to get it? I checked at my LFS and the awful petco as well as online and can't find it. The LFS never even heard of it. The actual ORA website says something like they only ship to distributors...I guess I could ask the LFS to order it. To clown owners, have you ever used it, and if so, is it worth all the hassle of finding it or will other food such as new spectrum pellets be just as good? The site I ordered my clown from said they fed him that(glo) and arcti pods, which I just got today - my goby freaked out over these by the way. They seem to love the stuff. Also, this is probably a dumb question, but is it normal for him to be near the top of the tank most of the time just swimming into the flow of the powerhead, or if not, just wiggling up and down on the side of the glass? I know they don't necessarily need a host coral/anemone, but I'd feel bad if the lack of one is making his transition more difficult since he doesn't have a place to hide. Sorry if I'm asking obvious questions, getting into this hobby can be a bit overwhelming at first. yeah I eat ass fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Oct 23, 2010 |
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Oct 23, 2010 14:14
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Here are some full aquarium pics  Pictured are my new clown, unknown zoo polyps, one of my hermits, an astrea that badly needs to get that algae off of him, and my cleaner shrimps whiskers in the second pic. I'm a little worried about just toothbrushing the snail's algae in fear of spreading spores all over the tank.  And here is the goby out and about being a jerk and tossing up a bunch of sand/whatever and making the water look dirty right before I take his picture  I wish the pictures had come out better. My old canon 7.1 mpixel powershot didn't pick up all the colors of coralline on my rocks too great. On the top left rock I can see the neon green that's all over the small piece of rock next to it, a deeper forest green, blue, purple, red, and yellow.
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Oct 23, 2010 20:20
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My clown spends a lot of time just swimming against the powerhead. Spectrum pellets are good food. I feed Spectrum pellets and frozen mysis, emerald entree and cyclopeeze. You're probably American, but here's a Canadian store selling the ORA food, if you really want it: http://www.reefaquatica.com/store/index.php?cPath=1_2_110
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Oct 24, 2010 02:22
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Unfortunately it doesn't seem to ship to the US  He does eat the pods though so I'm not too concerned, I just want to give him the best care I can, and that's what I was told to feed him. Thanks for the link and confirming that my clown isn't just retarded for trying to be a salmon swimming up stream all day.
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Oct 24, 2010 04:01
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