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Psimitry posted:Anemones or clams will do just fine under IR-T5HO. I kept a green BTA happy and healthy under them, my former roommate kept a HUGE Rose anemone near the bottom of the tank with the exact same IR-T5HO setup. The only reason one should HAVE to use MH is if your tank is 30" deep or deeper. I'm probably just biased, since now I have MH, I don't think I'd want any other lighting. I love the intensity and how it presents the colors of my tank. I was also told by several big clam keepers that MH are the best, but it's true that IR-T5HO would work as well.  I'm planning to get a baby clam and an anemone soon, probably a green BTA actually. How did you like yours? Aphelion Necrology fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Nov 10, 2008 |
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Nov 10, 2008 21:43
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Vigilantly Vigorous posted:Thanks for the quick and thorough reply. I think I'm just gonna buy a whole new lighting system. Hopefully this one will fit in my hood. http://cgi.ebay.com/ODYSSEA-48-260W...tem300270422031 is the one that I am thinking of ordering. The only problem I see coming up is finding a place I could buy bulbs for it. That's a decent fixture. I say DECENT. It will do the job. It's the same fixture that Aquatraders sells. Just be prepared on a few things: the fans will need to be replaced. Odyssea fixtures use crap fans and will need to be replaced pretty much ASAP. IIRC they use standard 50cm fans, but you may have to splice the wires in the event they use different plugs. As far as the bulbs, they're industry standard double-ended metal halide bulbs. You can pick them up pretty much anywhere, including Marine Depot. As far as the RO/DI unit, opinions vary. The best RO/DIs will be from Spectrapure (also available at Marine Depot), but they're pricey as gently caress. This page has some good systems, the $199 one has pretty much everything you'll need. The pressure gauge and TDS meter come in handy and let you know when your filters need changing. Otherwise, you have to guess. More Later
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Nov 10, 2008 22:03
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Vigilantly Vigorous posted:From what I understand I don't need to invest in a canister filter, just a protein skimmer that I will be putting in my sump? My tank will be glass so I am at quite a conundrum of what I will do about the siphon and overflow. A canister filter will simply be pointless. They may provide some decent filtration in a FW tank, but because saltwater has protein skimmers which work much, much better at removing dissolved organics. As far as your overflow, something like this will work as your overflow. You can also pick one up at Marine Depot from CPR aquatics, but you'll end up paying a lot more (but they do tend to work a bit better/quieter). As far as the return, that pretty much comes down to building a return hose system out of PVC pipe and using a strong powerhead/pump to do it. This is where you should go to ReefCentral and find a local reef club in your area. It's not a difficult thing to do, but it does take know-how. It's not really something I can explain. Also, there are other water polishing methods you can use down the road. Kalk reactors, Calcium reactors, ozone, carbon and phosban reactors, etc etc etc. Take it from me, don't look into those until you are pretty far into the hobby. Otherwise you'll probably end up making a bad decision that will cost you a ton of money. And unless you go 180G+, don't bother getting into Ozone. My humble opinion, until you have that large a tank size, you won't have all the equipment necessary to properly run it (injecting ozone into a protein skimmer is NOT the proper way). Finally, don't use bioballs. Ever. Just don't do it.
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Nov 11, 2008 00:48
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Hood Ornament posted:I'm planning to get a baby clam and an anemone soon, probably a green BTA actually. How did you like yours? I very much prefer the rose variety because more often than not, they look a lot prettier. BUT, the green ones can look really nice if you get one with nice coloration. Mine unfortunately looks olive green most of the time. Healthy, but not very pretty.
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Nov 11, 2008 01:30
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Just found out that ALL coral and anemone in Hawaii is illegal. What complete bullshit. That doesn't stop everyone from doing it though; there is a huge community of coral traders. I am still determined! Plus the fish are amazing! Do coral just randomly pop up on live rock sometimes or do I really need to get frags?
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Nov 11, 2008 09:22
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Vigilantly Vigorous posted:Just found out that ALL coral and anemone in Hawaii is illegal. What complete bullshit. That doesn't stop everyone from doing it though; there is a huge community of coral traders. I am still determined! Plus the fish are amazing! Do coral just randomly pop up on live rock sometimes or do I really need to get frags? Going for the "I didn't know it was there" defense?  Interesting corals are fairly rare to find on bulk live rock, except sometimes nuisance corals like Psimitry said. If the coral trade community is that large, you should have no trouble getting frags from other aquaculturists. This lets you get what you want in your tank, and it's environmentally responsible.
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Nov 11, 2008 15:11
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Vigilantly Vigorous posted:Just found out that ALL coral and anemone in Hawaii is illegal. What complete bullshit. That doesn't stop everyone from doing it though; there is a huge community of coral traders. I am still determined! Plus the fish are amazing! Do coral just randomly pop up on live rock sometimes or do I really need to get frags? This doesn't actually surprise me all that much. On the mainland, if someone decides to say "fuckit" and toss his tank down the drain or whatnot, no harm, no foul (for the most part). On the island, there's a good chance that someone's conscience could get to them and they could think that it'd be a great idea to try to return their specimens from "where they came from" and suddenly you'd have people dumping potentially invasive corals from like.. indonesia into Hawaii's waters. Also - I'm not certain it's that corals themselves are illiegal. I know hawaii just passed nasty legislation about ornamental harvesting (some senator got a bug up his rear end and figured it'd be a good way to get his name in the paper, despite not dealing with anything that does REAL damage to the reefs (pollution, concussive fishing, etc)) so the illegality of it might be about harvest of new specimens.
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Nov 11, 2008 16:05
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I think I'll concentrate on making the fish happy for now until I can find people to trade with. I'm kind of sick of my schooling fish so I'm sure I wanna get big colorful fish with personality. What is the logic behind not using bioballs in my sump? I plan to put a pad where the water comes in along with a protein skimmer but I'm not too sure what else to throw down there.
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Nov 11, 2008 18:59
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Vigilantly Vigorous posted:I think I'll concentrate on making the fish happy for now until I can find people to trade with. I'm kind of sick of my schooling fish so I'm sure I wanna get big colorful fish with personality. Be careful with that. Many of the larger fish need MUCH larger tanks. Most tangs are no good in a 75G tanks (you could probably get away with a scopas or a yellow scopas, but most others are going to be or will be too large for a 75G). Usually, instead of one large fish (which again, will usually be too large for your tank) you'll want to have 2-3 medium sized fish. quote:What is the logic behind not using bioballs in my sump? I plan to put a pad where the water comes in along with a protein skimmer but I'm not too sure what else to throw down there. Bioballs are no good because they're nitrate factories. You'll find that most experts will say that bioballs have no place in a saltwater tank unless they're in an ozone reactor. I would also advise against putting a pad in the sump. There's simply no reason for it. The purpose of the sump is to put things in there that you don't want in the main tank. Most of the time, it's unsightly equipment that goes in there. Protein skimmers, heaters, pH probes, etc. Strictly speaking, you don't HAVE to have one.
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Nov 11, 2008 21:05
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So I could get my cycle going with LR, Sand, SW and a few fish with a protein skimmer hanging on the back and still have it function? I'm pretty I'll be adding a powerhead or two to increase circulation.
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Nov 11, 2008 21:12
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Vigilantly Vigorous posted:So I could get my cycle going with LR, Sand, SW and a few fish with a protein skimmer hanging on the back and still have it function? I'm pretty I'll be adding a powerhead or two to increase circulation. You'll want all of that minus the fish. The live rock and sand will get the cycle going. If you want to kick it into high gear, add a couple raw (dead) shrimp to it and let them decompose. The type of fish you'll need to add while cycling... you won't want in the end. I certainly hope you'll be adding a powerhead or two. In a saltwater tank they're absolutely essential. Consider 2-3 Hydor Korelia 3's (also available at Marine Depot)
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Nov 12, 2008 00:39
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After reading this thread I have discovered that I was given a lot of bad advice on my saltwater aquarium. I have a 29gal Eclipse Bio wheel marine starter kit. I was told this was all I would need. I'm not as naive as that so I did buy a powerhead for added flow and the one and only protein skimmer they had at the store, its made by Nano Cube. I also changed out one of the bulbs for a Marine Glow bulb (blue light). Right now there is a glass heater it the tank, I have however purchased a plastic one to place in the tank. I have 3 turbo snails, about 5 hermits, an Atlantic anemone, an emerald crab, a cleaner shrimp, a firefish, a green chromis, and some kind of clown fish. I have about 11 lbs of rock, and about 12 lbs of live rock. I have a lot of what I assume is green and purple algae growing in my tank (not sure if that is bad or good). Quick question on the cleaner shrimp. How often are they supposed to molt/shed? Mine molts about once a week, and even twice a couple times. He is huge now! Even my Emerald crab has molted three times since I have gotten him. Is this a normal rate of molting or am I stressing them? When I got the anemone I was told to buy some kind of liquid nutrient to put in the water. I did a little research however and have been feeding it shrimp pellets instead. He (it) has been looking great so I assume I’m not killing it by doing so. I have noticed all these white things floating around in the water. When they latch onto the glass they look like snowflakes. Is it plankton? Is there something I should get to eat it? There is a TON of it in my water. I don’t have any corals because I am too chicken to try them yet. I’ve only had this tank for about two months. I already want to upgrade to a 75 gal though! I bought a test kit and I have test strips that I use as well. I’m really paranoid about my water levels. So far its been perfect, which surprises me since I feel like I have no clue about what I am doing! At first I was doing 4-5gal water changes once a week, now its about every two weeks. As of now I will stop using distilled water (again I was told it was ok to use). Is the water from those osmosis machines that they have at the grocery store ok to use? Sorry about all the questions! Here is an older picture of the tank. I've added more rock and moved things around a bit since this was taken.  The "Clown" 
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Dec 7, 2008 05:27
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Since everything isn't dead, it's safe to say you're doing reasonably well. VyperRDH posted:After reading this thread I have discovered that I was given a lot of bad advice on my saltwater aquarium. 90% of stores specialize in freshwater tanks. Of the remaining 10%, I would say about 2-3% actually know what they're doing. A lot of bad advice is given that would be perfectly good advice in a FW tank. quote:I have a 29gal Eclipse Bio wheel marine starter kit. I was told this was all I would need. I'm not as naive as that so I did buy a powerhead for added flow Good call on the Korelia. A K2 should be just fine for a 29G tnk. quote:and the one and only protein skimmer they had at the store, This should probably be replaced. A AquaC Remora would do a FAAR better job and can grow with you should you decide you want that 75G tank. quote:I have 3 turbo snails, about 5 hermits, an Atlantic anemone, an emerald crab, a cleaner shrimp, a firefish, a green chromis, and some kind of clown fish. The clownfish is a misbar Ocellaris (or False Percula) fish. It's the species that "Nemo" was modeled after, but you have a bit of a genetic oddity in the striping. Most clowns will have a complete vertical line going from top to bottom, but occasionally you get some dormant genes that mess with the striping a bit. Other than appearance, it will act like any other Ocellaris. Don't expect to keep the firefish with the crabs for very long. At some point one of them WILL kill it. Firefish are really hardy fish as far as surviving different tank environments, but they're absolute pussies and get eaten by the strangest things (one guy I know walked in on his bluespot jawfish with the firefish half way down its throat). quote:I have about 11 lbs of rock, and about 12 lbs of live rock. What is the "rock" specifically? When adding things like that you need to be aware of EXACTLY what it is you're buying. If it's a solid piece of rock that isn't porous, it needs to be removed from the tank and replaced with live rock. If it IS porous, then eventually, it will become live rock, but the composition of it concerns me. If you do replace it, dry-live rock is an option, but make sure it's coral skeletal material (like the stuff you have now as live rock). It must NOT be lava-rock. Lava rock has too many deposits of assorted minerals that could end up being toxic to your fish (or more likely your anemone). quote:I have a lot of what I assume is green and purple algae growing in my tank (not sure if that is bad or good). It's the standard algae takeover that occurs with new tanks. The crappier algae (green, red slime) will eventually give way to the prettier coraline purple algae provided you're taking good care of your nutrient levels. If your nutrient levels are out of whack, then the green and red algae will take over the tank. quote:Quick question on the cleaner shrimp. How often are they supposed to molt/shed? Mine molts about once a week, and even twice a couple times. He is huge now! Even my Emerald crab has molted three times since I have gotten him. Is this a normal rate of molting or am I stressing them? They'll molt as often as they feel they need to. Adding foods that are fortified with Iodine will usually increase this rate of molting. The frequency of molting is of concern and is probably related to the food you're feeding. I will assume that it's some sort of flake or pellet food, this food is most likely LOADED with iodine. quote:When I got the anemone I was told to buy some kind of liquid nutrient to put in the water. Yeah. This is dead wrong. Liquid nutrient will simply turn into ammonia/nitrite/nitrate in your tank as there's nothing to absorb it. The anemone eats like everything else in your tank - food. Whatever it can catch. quote:I did a little research however and have been feeding it shrimp pellets instead. He (it) has been looking great so I assume I’m not killing it by doing so. A frozen mysis shrimp food would be better for it (and your whole tank). Consider moving away from dry food into a frozen variety (don't forget to thaw it in saltwater and throw out the thawing water). As you get further into it, you'll probably end up doing what the cool people (like me ) do and make your own frozen food. In that respect, you know EXACTLY what's going into your tank and you can control the quality of food that goes into it.quote:I have noticed all these white things floating around in the water. When they latch onto the glass they look like snowflakes. Is it plankton? Is there something I should get to eat it? There is a TON of it in my water. Technically if it is plankton, the cleaner shrimp should be eating it. Without more information (or better yet a picture) there's no real way for us to know. What I'm concerned it might be is the aforementioned "rock" dissolving into the tank - saltwater tends to be pretty corrosive so if the "rock" that was sold to you isn't designed for saltwater, this could be happening. It's not necessarily a DEFINITE thing, it could be plankton. No way to know without more data about it. quote:I don’t have any corals because I am too chicken to try them yet. I’ve only had this tank for about two months. Probably a good idea. Get ahold of the tank for a while before you jump into reefs. I jumped right into it, but I also had someone that I still rely on for information guiding me. quote:I already want to upgrade to a 75 gal though! Yeah.. I remember those days.. I started with an 18G, moved to a 29, quickly to a 55G, stayed with that for about a year, now I'm in my 90G and wanting to move up to a 180. quote:I bought a test kit and I have test strips that I use as well. I’m really paranoid about my water levels. So far its been perfect, which surprises me since I feel like I have no clue about what I am doing! At first I was doing 4-5gal water changes once a week, now its about every two weeks. Heh. Wait until the laziness sneaks in. I think at this point I do a water change about every 2 months or so. As long as you've got a good skimmer and you are feeding the bare minimum of food, you don't really HAVE to do frequent water changes (although technically it IS much better for your tank). quote:As of now I will stop using distilled water (again I was told it was ok to use). Is the water from those osmosis machines that they have at the grocery store ok to use? Technically distilled water is ok to use. Technically. In theory, distilled water is absolutely pure. In practice though, it may or may not have copper in it which will kill your invertebrates (shrimp, crabs, anemone, snails, etc). RO is certainly better than tap, although if you have a water store near you it might be a better option. You might even ask if your water store will add a Deionization system to their dispensers. With my old water store, I asked them to add a deionize stage to one of their taps. They were initially reluctant to do it, but I started referring other local aquarium owners over to them asking for DI water. They added it, and also found that they were making sales based on people wanting a cheaper form of distilled water. quote:Sorry about all the questions! Why?
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Dec 7, 2008 07:43
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Thank you for all the info! I live out in the middle of nowhere in Texas. The only stores in town that have anything saltwater are PetCo and a local mom and pop store that seems to specialize in reptiles and birds. They have some saltwater fish but not much. I figured the protein skimmer wasn’t all that good. I will definitely buy the AquaC Remora. Here is a picture of the “rock” I was sold. It is very porous and already seems to have things growing on it.  After reading the thread I have prepared myself for my Firefish’s demise. I feel bad because I drove an hour to get him and he’s pretty awesome. I have an empty 20gal sitting around, maybe I will get it set up and give him a new home. I tried to get a picture of the things floating in my water but they are just too small. Even in super micro mode my camera couldn’t pick them up. So I did the next best thing, MS Paint. I am no artist. I don’t know if its plankton, but if it is there is so much of it that I don’t think my single cleaner shrimp could eat it all.  I have been using a flake food along with the shrimp pellets. I will stop using them and switch over to frozen. I am almost certain the food is what is causing my cleaner shrimp to molt so often. Nutrient levels? This may explain my algae problem. The tank as of this morning. 
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Dec 7, 2008 15:55
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VyperRDH posted:I tried to get a picture of the things floating in my water but they are just too small. Hey! You're in luck - does it look anything like this?  If so, what you have is a bunch of Cladonema jellyfish. More info (and credit for the picture here. I've never seen them personally, but they are apparently (likely) harmless.
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Dec 8, 2008 13:50
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I finally upgraded my nano tank's autotopoff from a sun tea jar to a DIY electronic solution. The writeup is here: http://csammisrun.net/blog/?page_id=229 I'll get better photos of the tank itself at some point.
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Dec 8, 2008 17:14
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Psimitry posted:Hey! You're in luck - does it look anything like this? It looks a LOT like this. I probably have at least 100 (quite possibly more) of those little guys swimming around in my water.
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Dec 9, 2008 04:25
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VyperRDH posted:I figured the protein skimmer wasn’t all that good. I will definitely buy the AquaC Remora. Here is a picture of the “rock” I was sold. It is very porous and already seems to have things growing on it. That looks a LOT like what seems to commonly be called "Texas Hole Rock." No clue if it's any good or bad for SW setups.
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Dec 9, 2008 06:28
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Desert Bus posted:That looks a LOT like what seems to commonly be called "Texas Hole Rock." No clue if it's any good or bad for SW setups. If the guy at the mom and pop store can be trusted then its safe. I would not recommend it though(if it is safe to use), its really heavy rock. The Fiji live rock that I got is much lighter.
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Dec 9, 2008 22:00
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VyperRDH posted:If the guy at the mom and pop store can be trusted then its safe. I would not recommend it though(if it is safe to use), its really heavy rock. The Fiji live rock that I got is much lighter. In this case though, Safe doesn't equal good. The reason it's so heavy is (obviously) because it's much more dense than your fiji rock. Your rock is your primary biological filter, so the more bacteria you can get, the better. In my case, I have much more live rock than technically necessary because I like overstocking my tank (not something I recommend unless you know what you're doing).
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Dec 9, 2008 23:22
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Went by my local salt water hangout/store today, even though I don't have a SW tank, its just a really nice place. Here is a cell phone picture of their 1200 gal reef display tank. It is amazing. 
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Dec 19, 2008 06:11
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Update on my tank: There has been no molting since my last post! I have been alternating with frozen and then a small amount of flake food. My fish seem to be a little slow and don't like the frozen food as much as the flake stuff. I stopped with the shrimp pellets but had to start using them again for my anemone. It started to wander and move around a lot when I was using just the frozen. So it gets a shrimp pellet about every other day and he has been staying put. I also got two corals as an early Christmas present. He claims that the fish store told him they were polyp coral and brain coral.  Right now they are in my fully cycled tank. My emerald crab won’t leave the Polyp coral alone though so it might need to be re-homed along with the firefish. My husband has been getting into my saltwater tank almost more than I have. For an early Christmas present he bought me a 29gal BioCube that is now set up in my living room. At the moment it is cycling with just live sand. I have a shipment of 22 lbs of Fiji live rock coming from Drs Foster and Smith. I want to start off right for this tank. I did a fishless cycle for my last tank and I would like to do the same for this one. I would like for the new tank to be the home of my firefish. Keeping that in mind I need a clean-up crew that does not involve crabs. I was thinking maybe a tuxedo urchin, a cleaner shrimp, a pom-pom/boxer crab (I’ve read they really are harmless, if not I’ll take them off the list), some snails, and….? Would sexy shrimp be ok? I’ll also want a couple fish as well as the firefish. Would an onyx/black-white clown be suitable? I would also like corals in this tank. When the time is right I may add the polyp coral to this tank if my emerald crab is still harassing it. Edit: Who do you guys use online to shop for saltwater fish/inverts/corals? VyperRDH fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Dec 21, 2008 |
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Dec 21, 2008 17:37
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VyperRDH posted:He claims that the fish store told him they were polyp coral and brain coral. These are mixed types of zoanthids. The ones with the green fringe and alternating gray/orange circles look like the same species I have in my tank, they're really nice-looking
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Dec 23, 2008 00:43
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It's really a testament to the industry that corals that would have loving cost you an arm and a leg a few years ago are now considered "common." The zoanthids pictured are really awesome looking, hardy, and will frag very well. It's funny that a few years ago that that colony would have probably run 2-3 hundred bucks and it probably cost you what.. 50?
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Dec 23, 2008 03:33
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Psimitry posted:It's really a testament to the industry that corals that would have loving cost you an arm and a leg a few years ago are now considered "common." The zoanthids pictured are really awesome looking, hardy, and will frag very well. $45 actually, but we drove all the way to Austin to get them (about 4 hours round trip). The mom and pop store as well as the petco by me don't sell corals.
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Dec 23, 2008 03:49
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I found a hitchhiker in my established tank. I'm guessing its an Asterina starfish. I'm not sure if he was on the corals I added a few days ago or if he was on the new piece of live rock that I added today. I am very happy with the live rock that I got from Drs Foster and Smith. It has TONS of stuff growing on it. My only complaint is that I ordered 22 lbs of live rock and got it in the form of three large rocks. Two of them are in the new tank along with a couple rocks from my established tank. I added the other rock to my established tank.
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Dec 26, 2008 02:06
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VyperRDH posted:I found a hitchhiker in my established tank. I'm guessing its an Asterina starfish. That's an asterina alright. For the most part perfectly harmless. In theory, they chew up coraline algae, but I've never personally seen them make much of a difference on that. quote:I am very happy with the live rock that I got from Drs Foster and Smith. It has TONS of stuff growing on it. My only complaint is that I ordered 22 lbs of live rock and got it in the form of three large rocks. Three rocks for 22 lbs is pretty much standard. Rocks don't start getting classified as "large" until they're 20#+. And in truth, you'll find that as your tanks get larger, you'll hate having all these 5# bastards all over the place making your structure unstable. HOWEVER, in the meantime, if you're unwilling to accept the pieces as-is, the backside of a clawhammer will change the situation nicely.
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Dec 26, 2008 08:10
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Our newly converted 20gal Freshwater to saltwater nano. We are starting it as a Fish and Live rock only, and adding corals as space will allow. The tank, with its current cleaner crew.  Our brittle star and one of the hermit crabs. I'm thinking of naming the star liam gallagher  And the peppermint shrimp. Who is blurry and likes to make love to the corner.  There is also another hermit and a turbo snail lurking around the top. Current system is a fluval 205 (rated for 40gal) maxi-jet 600 powerhead with hydorflo deflector unknown heater: being replaced this weekend. Fission usa Nano-skimmer 2x65w compact florescent system with moonlight led's. Right now its on the glass top as the legs are coming in probably friday. Live rock is coming tomorrow. This is our first saltwater tank, currently awaiting our first algae bloom.
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Jan 20, 2009 14:21
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You didn't cycle the tank first?  There's a good chance the chemical spikes from the live rock will kill your new critters. Sorry.
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Jan 20, 2009 14:33
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No, we used live sand with biomix and Ro/DI for the initial fill, and after consulting 2 different local shop owners, I was told I could add invertebrates and live rock. Anything else will have to wait about a month after water changes.
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Jan 20, 2009 15:01
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There's a good chance the fish store was wrong.
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Jan 20, 2009 16:36
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Psimitry posted:There's a good chance the fish store was wrong. Yes. Invertebrates are especially intolerant of spikes during a cycle, which you will have as the organisms in the live sand and live rock die off. Google isn't telling me what "biomix" is, but unless it's something like BioSpira (a refrigerated colony of live nitrobacters), you're going to get a cycle. The best bet you have now is to watch the ammonia / nitrite / nitrate levels like a hawk and do water changes to keep things under control.
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Jan 20, 2009 17:05
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I have a couple of questions since I have had some changes in my tank. A little back history on the tank: Original stock was 2 occelaris clowns, a firefish goby, and a watchman goby. Everyone was happy but I was having algae issues. I bought a couple astera snails to clean up the algae on the glass and a couple nassarius snails to sift the sand. Everyone was still doing well. Then, we had a huge wind storm here in Cincy and my power was out for a week and a half. I had an air pump going that whole time and did a couple water changes. Casualties of this were my two occelaris clowns (who got sick and no matter what I tried, never recovered) and an astera snail. I am not sure on the nassarius since they burrow anyway. A couple months later, based on the wonderful advice of you folks, I have added some more nassarius and astera snails to the tank to try to keep up with the algae on the glass in between my scrubbings. However, I am still have problems with some thick green algae on the rocks. I was told to check for phosphates, I did that. The shop that checked them said there were some in the water, but not a crazy amount. I have also added a ViaAqua 404 water pump to get more circulation in the tank, as recommended. Everyone seems to be healthy and happy and the algae is just a nuisance. Is there a good way to get rid of it other thank reaching in there and pulling it out? (Which is what I have been doing during my water changes) Sorry I don't have pictures at the moment. Thanks for all the help you folks have given me in the past!
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Jan 20, 2009 17:08
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What kind of water are you using for changes? How often are you changing it? Is it hairy green algae or hard (diatoms)? Any skimming involved? There are critters that'll eat hair algae. I believe emerald crabs do a good job on it, as do lawnmower blennies. The trick is feeding them after the algae's gone
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Jan 20, 2009 17:26
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^^^ Sorry, meant to put that info in. I do 20% water changes every other week. I use tap water treated with AquaClear to remove chlorines and chloramines. I know it's not the best but I don't have a store around here that sells RO and I can't really afford a unit. I am not trying to do corals or anemones now. When I do, I will pick one up and get a more powerful light. No hair algae but I do get some hard algae occasionally. I scrub it off and it doesn't come back for another month or so usually.
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Jan 20, 2009 17:47
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csammis posted:Yes. Invertebrates are especially intolerant of spikes during a cycle, which you will have as the organisms in the live sand and live rock die off. Google isn't telling me what "biomix" is, but unless it's something like BioSpira (a refrigerated colony of live nitrobacters), you're going to get a cycle. The best bet you have now is to watch the ammonia / nitrite / nitrate levels like a hawk and do water changes to keep things under control. I hope two different stores aren't giving me the wrong info then. The live rock was supposed to be here the same day that the cleaning crew was, but the guy was late coming to my area, so I'm getting it today. Oh well. Mistakes will be made. Just expensive ones.  Also after watching the brittle star eat today I'll feel bad if it dies.
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Jan 20, 2009 18:24
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supercheesy posted:^^^ Sorry, meant to put that info in. I do 20% water changes every other week. I use tap water treated with AquaClear to remove chlorines and chloramines. I know it's not the best but I don't have a store around here that sells RO and I can't really afford a unit. I am not trying to do corals or anemones now. When I do, I will pick one up and get a more powerful light. No hair algae but I do get some hard algae occasionally. I scrub it off and it doesn't come back for another month or so usually. Diatoms are pretty common with tap water, and AquaClear or Prime or whatever won't get rid of them. The only thing you can really do about it in the long term is switch to RO/DI, otherwise scraping + water changes will mitigate the growth. You could also try cultivating some macroalgae like caulerpa. I think they absorb phosphates as well as nitrate/nitrite, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
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Jan 20, 2009 19:22
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Laser Vampires tank is our tank. I don't remember the name of the biomix we used, but it came from this package of live sand http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=16764&inm=1&c=3578+7390& I'm worried about the inverts but we are being very very involved with the tank and are keeping up with water changes, I don't have a marine test kit yet-going to get one very soon. It's an experience, we learn as we go.
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Jan 20, 2009 20:53
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The live sand probably will not help you to much. With one of my tanks I bought the rock local and it was only out of the water for minimum amount of time, when shipping the rock is out for a longer period of time. This will bring a stronger cycle(more die off), and I would say the right thing to do would be to find another temporary home for your inverts at least for a few weeks, they might survive but its going to be rough. I don't know how much a serpent star can take, I would bank on the shrimp not making it. After you add your rock some wait a few days run a few tests and then you will know where you are at with cycling. If you purchased your rock locally, not saying its better, your cycle would be less maybe this is what they were using as reference for the advice they gave you.
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Jan 20, 2009 21:29
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bobbert posted:The live sand probably will not help you to much. With one of my tanks I bought the rock local and it was only out of the water for minimum amount of time, when shipping the rock is out for a longer period of time. This will bring a stronger cycle(more die off), and I would say the right thing to do would be to find another temporary home for your inverts at least for a few weeks, they might survive but its going to be rough. I don't know how much a serpent star can take, I would bank on the shrimp not making it. After you add your rock some wait a few days run a few tests and then you will know where you are at with cycling. If you purchased your rock locally, not saying its better, your cycle would be less maybe this is what they were using as reference for the advice they gave you. I agree with this. Shrimp are VERY sensitive and yours will most likely die, but I have a serpent star just like yours and it has survived many accidents including a mini-cycle. It took my tank almost 2 weeks to completely cycle after I added my liverock, so I would think of returning your inverts or finding a babysitter until you're sure everything is safe.
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Jan 20, 2009 21:37
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