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40g breeders are a great display tank, from what I hear. Have one as my sump.
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May 27, 2011 13:02
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Got a question for you all, the LED system I was looking at I really like but, as mentioned, is too expensive for what I have. Right now I'm going to be setting up a 5 gallon nano tank, in which I do want corals, and I don't want to worry about not having enough lighting for whichever coral/invertebrate I want. So, that being said, I am looking for a good lighting system. Since it is a nano tank it has to be able to "fit" the tank (it can hang of course above the tank, but not be wildly big). Money to be honest is not a factor, I'll be saving up for this and while I am not rich by any means I am patient enough to save for a long time to get a quality lighting sytem. I really like the Aqua Illumination Nano which would roughly be about 450$ if I get that and the controler, or 360$ without the controler. A lot of people have told me that I can actually make an LED system that has the same power a lot cheaper, however, I'm not very good with building electronics or wiring, so I would much prefer something already prebuilt. I'm also willing to explore different types of lighting, like metal halide or T5, but I still want something strong enough to not worry about lighting for any type of invertebrate I want.
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May 27, 2011 19:30
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I like the hybrid T5/led fixture from nanotuners.com, similar in terms of featureset (except built-in controller). LEDs do tend to utterly BAKE a tank that small, though. These units are meant to light like 20gal tanks. (see video for that fixture) I would still suggest just buying one of the (reef capable) PAR38 LED units and mounting it with a heavy-duty architects lamp clamp fixture. Total cost to you: $125, max. VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 20:10 on May 27, 2011 |
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May 27, 2011 20:04
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Thanks for the input I ended up returning them this morning. I traded them in for a peppermint shrimp and a turbo snail.
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May 28, 2011 19:32
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Hi Guys, Just realized this thread existed. Figured I would post some pics of my tank in here and start trolling this thread. Some awesome tanks up in this thread nice to see other saltwater geeks on SA. I have been into salt water reefs for about 7 years. with a 6 year gap in tank ownership. When I was 18 I kept a 10g modded cube reef for about a year before moving out of my parents house and leaving it behind. They fed and maintained it for all the years I was gone and unable to have a tank. This April I was finally able to set up a new tank. Wanted to go bigger then nano but not too big as im in an apartment. Went with a 57g Rimless lit by T5's. Here are some pics. This is what my house looked like for a while:  Plumbed the overflow:  Return and drain  Built some hangers for the lights out of square barstock.  Purchased way too much LR and started filling:  The final product, along with the IKEA cabinet I bought to hold the piles of crap and electronics.  Already running out of room.  Tried to get organized with the test kids so maintenance is easy and enjoyable.  Got an apex to monitor and control via the web and prevent heater mishaps.  Installed carbon and gfo reactors and moved a lot of rock to the sump.  Weeks after the small cycle I added my two 7 year old fish from my nano at my parents. A true perc and a pink spotted watchmen goby.   And picked up a wrasse on divers den a few weeks after that  And a little neon cleaner goby  Picked up a number of test frags over the course of a few weeks, mostly at a frag swap that was held by our local club. Got cool stuff for killer prices.         Some corals eating:  All the corals and fish are thriving and for the next few months im mostly going to monitor and maintain the tank. Will be adding a few test SPS soon, and I just started dosing 2-part manually. Sorry for the stupid amount of pictures. I hope you at least think they are pretty. IM FROM THE FUTURE fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Jun 1, 2011 |
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Jun 1, 2011 19:00
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Very nice setup. I can only wish to be so organized!
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Jun 1, 2011 19:07
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While on vacation I got to stop by World Wide Corals. They've got a pretty unassuming storefront behind some strip malls, but their selection is gorgeous compared to anything available in Ohio. I ended up picking up a Red Acan, 2 frags of orange cyphestrea, and a lavender acro colony to ship back to my house. I also got some advice about my return pump problems and will be switching to a smaller one (more like a Mag 7) and adding a few powerheads to make up for the flow.
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Jun 2, 2011 03:45
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Melchior posted:While on vacation I got to stop by World Wide Corals. They've got a pretty unassuming storefront behind some strip malls, but their selection is gorgeous compared to anything available in Ohio. I ended up picking up a Red Acan, 2 frags of orange cyphestrea, and a lavender acro colony to ship back to my house. I also got some advice about my return pump problems and will be switching to a smaller one (more like a Mag 7) and adding a few powerheads to make up for the flow. Yea the store is amazing. It's a mile or two from my apartment. Their display tank is amazing
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Jun 2, 2011 04:02
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Cause I'm bored.. have some cell phone maxis! Also, I'm going to fragglereef's warehouse/growout location tomorrow so I'll have some new stuff to show off tomorrow evening most likely 
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Jun 3, 2011 23:08
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SaNChEzZ posted:Cause I'm bored.. have some cell phone maxis! I just picked up some stuff from fragglereef, actually. Among the haul: a neon green on neon green toadstool frag 3 heads of a purple with neon green streaks frogspawn
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Jun 4, 2011 02:26
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So, my acro colony arrived. I drip acclimated it for 3+ hours, and transferred it into the tank. I ran only 2 18w actinics instead of full lighting for the rest of the night and today, and now I have what I believe is bleaching on the tips and some 1" long pieces of the colony. I took it out and did an iodine/freshwater dip and let a slimecoat form, then put it back in the display. It's shedding that slimecoat (like acros do when they are stressed) but I'm hoping I didn't just waste money. I know that World Wide Corals has a 10-day guarantee but man, what a hassle. I am keeping a very healthy ORA green slimer frag with no issues, so I figured I'd probably be okay with a new colony. At this point do I have any chance of saving the whole colony without fragging off the white parts, or should I just call WWC and do that with their blessing?
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Jun 4, 2011 05:24
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Melchior posted:So, my acro colony arrived. I drip acclimated it for 3+ hours, and transferred it into the tank. I ran only 2 18w actinics instead of full lighting for the rest of the night and today, and now I have what I believe is bleaching on the tips and some 1" long pieces of the colony. I took it out and did an iodine/freshwater dip and let a slimecoat form, then put it back in the display. It's shedding that slimecoat (like acros do when they are stressed) but I'm hoping I didn't just waste money. Did you pick it up locally or was it shipped? I thought most coral shippers state that you must not acclimate (other than temp) as opening the bag can cause the water parameters to change dramatically and very quickly.
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Jun 4, 2011 06:27
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Shedding slime coat is ok, wholesale sloughing off of actual tissue is not. Typically I'd have avoided freshwater dipping of acros, it can be done safely but an iodine+tankwater dip is enough to knock out hitchhikers. Which this isn't. You have probably fallen prey to the assumption that since you are keeping a high generation aquacultured piece you should be able to keep a wild/maricultured colony. (I assume it is a maricultured piece). It is not a given. Maricultured colonies, while they have been propagated from proven stock, are grown in an ocean environment which is absolutely unlike home systems, and are shipped, trans-shipped, then warehoused, then shipped again, stressed to an alarming degree, THEN dipped by your LFS (if you're lucky), then are usually sold the first week, out of the lookdown tank. Then yours got shipped again. The process usually works out. (There are other pitfalls in maricultured colonies--such that some of them are grown in high nutrient run-off water and will never do well in home systems, period)
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Jun 4, 2011 09:37
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I purchased it (and a few other non acro frags) in the store and had them ship to my home. I'd never be able to make it through Orlando International with a 7 lb box of coral and water. When I got it, I followed their acclimation guide, doing a drip for about 3 hours, then taking them out and discarding the water they were in. These don't look like they were maricultured, but then I can't be sure. It's actually on a fairly large circular plug-like rock (like 3" around). I was spending quite a bit more money than I usually would on coral, so I talked to the LFS guys and they seemed to think my tank could handle it. I checked this morning and for the moment, the march of bone white seems to have stopped. There isn't as much slimecoat breaking off of it either, so I'm taking that as a good sign for now.
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Jun 4, 2011 13:06
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The round 3" plugs are a sure sign of mariculturing--they make those things by the truckload, plop a frag of their stock on top, put them on racks in the ocean, and come back to collect later. Currently the bulk of that stuff is coming out of Bali. edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47eiNkGKDXk VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jun 4, 2011 |
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Jun 4, 2011 14:10
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IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:
I think your pictures are amazingly pretty. What is the i.d. of this coral?
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Jun 4, 2011 17:18
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ReD_XIII posted:I think your pictures are amazingly pretty. What is the i.d. of this coral? Looks like a goniopora from here, and as far as I know they're mostly not at the "name, pump and dump" stage yet to get a trade name like zoanthids have.
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Jun 4, 2011 17:33
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arioch posted:Looks like a goniopora from here, and as far as I know they're mostly not at the "name, pump and dump" stage yet to get a trade name like zoanthids have. Thanks red. Yep its a goniopora but specifically it is an Australian Goni (I was told), apparently these aussie goni's are very hardy unlike their indo-pacific green and pink counterparts that die after a year or so. Ora has been growing red goni's in captivity for a long time so hopefully I have success. http://www.orafarm.com/products/hardcoral/other/red-goniopora.html I got it from reef koi. Hes actually got one online similar to now it for multiple times what I paid at the frag swap. http://reefkoi.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21&products_id=2275 It currently opens up fully all day long. Here is a graph of a weeks temperatures with my apex. Looks like my heater is currently doing nothing, might bump it up a few degrees, but I can never find a straight answer on the best temps for a reef tank, some say 78, some 80, some 82...  Picked up a new fish a nice size royal gamma, hes already swimming around eating chilling. 
IM FROM THE FUTURE fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Jun 5, 2011 |
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Jun 5, 2011 01:57
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Yeah, I hear good things about Aussie corals in general in terms of hardiness. I actually believe in a slight temperature fluctuation of within 2-3 degrees on a daily basis, just so your livestock are not just used to only a constant temperature, depending on your heater thermostat. My tank has a hysterisis set on the controller so that it kicks on the heater at 78 and turns off at 80. Beyond that, for any tropical reef system, you can pretty well run it at anywhere from 74-ish to 82-ish, any higher is getting into a danger zone in terms of negative effects on respiration if the temperature even jots slightly higher a degree or two. Just keep the fluctuation low, anywhere in that range.
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Jun 5, 2011 04:12
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arioch posted:Yeah, I hear good things about Aussie corals in general in terms of hardiness. Yes I've also read that fluctuations are an important process that helps coral and fish hardiness when and if a larger temp swing happens. And I know diving on reefs I've hit thermoclines of many degrees. But I've read so many opinions on the benifits to growth of running different average temperatures etc but no definitive answer of a good target.
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Jun 5, 2011 05:15
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I don't think there is a straight answer on the best temperature, it just doesn't matter that much as long as you're in the safe range.
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Jun 7, 2011 10:32
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Recently my tiger watchman goby has been massively rearranging the sandbed to accomplish one thing - burying my closed brain coral. Every morning I have to dig it out, and as time has gone on the sand on his side of the tank went from about 3 inches deep to 5, with the other side around an inch deep. Unfortunately there isn't anywhere else to move the coral and the bottom parts that are most frequently sand-covered are starting to die. He was fine with it being there for weeks, so it's odd that he suddenly decided to get territorial about it. Any suggestions? It's too bad you can't train fish...
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Jun 8, 2011 15:03
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Move the coral to the rockwork, or move the fish out.
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Jun 8, 2011 15:34
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In my experience, you're going to have to ditch the fish or ditch the coral. Once the goby gets it in his head that the coral is his mortal enemy, he'll keep going after it. I ended up having to get rid of my goby doing the exact same thing and no matter where I moved the coral, he'd hunt it down.
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Jun 8, 2011 16:20
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Well, there isn't much room on my rockwork since I only have a 24G tank and most of it is taken up by my hammer+frogspawn, and I know they all have decently long sweeper tentacles. I'd hate to get rid of either. I highly doubt it's relevant, but he(the goby) only seems to do it on nights that I'm home. The other day I was gone for 2 days and I came back and he was fine, but the next night after I got back he did it again. I've just been unburying the coral and putting him up higher on the sand, hoping eventually the goby would run out of sand on the other side and quit, but I know having a 4+ inch sandbed can lead to other problems...
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Jun 9, 2011 00:10
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a duck posted:Well, there isn't much room on my rockwork since I only have a 24G tank and most of it is taken up by my hammer+frogspawn, and I know they all have decently long sweeper tentacles. I'd hate to get rid of either. I highly doubt it's relevant, but he(the goby) only seems to do it on nights that I'm home. The other day I was gone for 2 days and I came back and he was fine, but the next night after I got back he did it again. I've just been unburying the coral and putting him up higher on the sand, hoping eventually the goby would run out of sand on the other side and quit, but I know having a 4+ inch sandbed can lead to other problems... can you not remove a load of the sand?
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Jun 9, 2011 10:55
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thegasman2000 posted:can you not remove a load of the sand? Moving deep sand in a live system is a tremendously bad idea. And no matter how much sand there is, there's always enough for the goby to bury your coral in.
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Jun 9, 2011 17:37
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I took the advice offered here and did a little research around the googles about quieting overflows and sumps. I ended up with a couple of these contraptions that seem to be called reverse dursos. They're connected with some flex PVC to get rid of those 45deg doglegs around the edge of my stand and to make it a smoother ride down to the sump in general. MUCH quieter and no gigantic bubbles making my water look like it's boiling. It was a major pain to do with the tank against the wall but I'm glad I got it done. Next step is to put some padding or something under my return pump because it's vibrating the whole goddamn stand. Edit: There's a hole in the cap of the vertical piece in case that wasn't apparent. Air goes out there, water exits sans bubbles. Most of the bubbles, anyway. porksmash fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Jun 10, 2011 |
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Jun 10, 2011 08:32
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Anyone have any experience keeping goniopora and alveopora? Lighting, flow, placement? Right now both of mine are mid placed, the gonio is med-low flow and alveo is med flow (both variable flow from my vortechs). They have good access to lighting and decent par but nothing too intense. I know they need a good amount of nutrients, so I'm wondering if I should turn off my GAC reactor or not? Or possibly run it only certain hours of the day?
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Jun 12, 2011 23:39
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Yeah, I yoinked this as soon as the update e-mail went out: http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/itemdisplay.cfm?c=2733+7&ddid=123600 Saw one a few weeks ago on DD, been kicking myself ever since for not grabbing it.
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Jun 13, 2011 23:15
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arioch posted:Yeah, I yoinked this as soon as the update e-mail went out: drat, that's got some amazing color. I wish I had gotten into mailorder when I had my reef tank setup. I also wish I had built a QT. Live and learn. That said, I *almost* jumped on a 200 gallon tank and stand that came across CL for $300. I slept on it Saturday and was sold by Sunday. Wasn't meant to be, I guess. I definitely am done with full reef, though. However, a 7-8' long aquarium would be nice for keeping sharks and rays. I figured KISS -- just the tank and fine sand, couple power heads, some LED light strips, and a 90+ gallon sump filled with liverock and a great skimmer. Since sharks and rays are intolerant of copper anyways, could eventually combine the sump with another display tank (24g or so) if I wanted to try to get back into reef. I think I might get another tank if a deal like that comes across CL again, though.
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Jun 14, 2011 00:05
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Picked up a Elos mini with stand/sump/everything else this weekend for $300. Will post some images when it gets all put together. Just waiting on a LED fixture for it. Really want the AI Sol Nano but the ship date keeps getting pushed back.
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Jun 14, 2011 00:34
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Now that I have a 90g up and running and on its way to becoming a reef, I find myself questioning why I have two reef tanks.
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Jun 14, 2011 05:33
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Melchior posted:Now that I have a 90g up and running and on its way to becoming a reef, I find myself questioning why I have two reef tanks. Incompatible livestock--run one as a softies or anemones tank? Plumb both together and run one as a frag tank? Breed and raise fish? The plus is that if you keep one tank with good water quality with dosing/reactors/water changes/whatever, you can use the change water from that to put in the other tank.
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Jun 14, 2011 07:23
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What, if any, are some species of sea stars or brittle stars that would do good in a small, say 20 gallon, tank? 55? Always debating on a marine tank. I'm in love with Banggai cardinals and would love to do a small 55 setup with them.
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Jun 16, 2011 03:38
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Has anyone found a reliable low energy system? I had a fish tank (a great 50 gal, I would post pictures if I could find them) but it cost easily 200 dollars a month in just energy. The lights especially ate up so much.
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Jun 16, 2011 03:50
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Cowslips Warren posted:What, if any, are some species of sea stars or brittle stars that would do good in a small, say 20 gallon, tank? 55? The trouble with sea stars in a small tank is that they starve. Lots of people would say you'd be fine with one in a 55 with a deep sand bed, but personally I wouldn't. Shaman Ooglaboogla posted:Has anyone found a reliable low energy system? I had a fish tank (a great 50 gal, I would post pictures if I could find them) but it cost easily 200 dollars a month in just energy. The lights especially ate up so much. 200 dollars a month sounds bizarre. Where do you live? I have a 60 gal reef lit with metal halide and I spend <$25 in increased hydro. Trillian fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Jun 16, 2011 |
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Jun 16, 2011 04:05
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If it's counted as "excessive use" by some utilities and in those areas, that could be as low as like 500-600 watts of continuous use. Not out of the question for MH.
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Jun 16, 2011 05:28
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If you live in an area with abnormally expensive power I would hop on the LED train ASAP. They pay for themselves pretty quickly when power cost is an issue. Doubly so if you have to use a chiller, as they run much cooler.
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Jun 16, 2011 13:21
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| # ? May 10, 2024 09:38 |
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Internet Explorer posted:If you live in an area with abnormally expensive power I would hop on the LED train ASAP. They pay for themselves pretty quickly when power cost is an issue. Doubly so if you have to use a chiller, as they run much cooler. Not to mention that if you do it yourself, LED fixtures can be relatively cheap (and easy) to setup.
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Jun 16, 2011 17:46
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