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Vitae posted:It's an experience, we learn as we go. I don't want to lecture, especially because I used to be guilty of this too, so I'll say it just once and let it go: there are enough reputable resources on the Internet, and likely near your home town, that you should never have to learn at the expense of the life of your tank and its inhabitants. Ask first, then back it up, then do.
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Jan 20, 2009 22:32
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So the best order to add things to a tank is sand > salt water > test parameters > add lr > cycle > parameters again > fish?
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Jan 21, 2009 01:51
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streetlamp posted: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. Is that aquarium concepts? That shop is great. edit: maybe not the lights in the reflection look off, but they have a extremely similar setup FireTora fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Jan 21, 2009 |
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Jan 21, 2009 02:33
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Additionally, the problem with dropping shrimp and anything else in too early is that the environment is way too sterile. You feed, but you have no nitrifying bacteria to detoxify the waste that is produced and/or the excess food that isn't eaten. There's really a reason that people recommend waiting a couple weeks before stocking a tank.
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Jan 21, 2009 04:55
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I am selling my Green BTA, and while removing it from the baserock, it actually split into two equal pieces. (Total accident, I didn't see that half of the foot was actually on a different piece of rock!  ) I believe it was in the process of splitting naturally due to the size and shape of the original 'nem. Nothing "came out" of the 'nem when it tore, and both parts seemed to pull their edges together, so I can barely see where they came apart. This happened over 24 hours ago and both halves look healthy, no shriveled tentacles or anything, their feet are unharmed, and my clowns are still hosting both parts. Should I be concerned? Each piece is about 2 inches across at the foot.
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Jan 22, 2009 18:32
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Dose a normal bit of iodine into the water (A couple drops of Lugol's solution should do the trick) in order to help it fight off anything that might try to attack the wound and to help the healing process. As far as if you should be worried... tough to say. You'll know if things start to go south, but in the meantime all you can do is watch and hope.
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Jan 22, 2009 20:41
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Psimitry posted:Dose a normal bit of iodine into the water (A couple drops of Lugol's solution should do the trick) in order to help it fight off anything that might try to attack the wound and to help the healing process. I dose iodine already.  Now it's a waiting game, I guess.
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Jan 22, 2009 21:11
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Just ordered a few things from marine depot! http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~ACUPDB.html http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~HD19101~child~HD19201.html http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~IC1515.html Hope I made the right decision. Cost quite a bit too! Anyone have experience with any of these things? I decided not to cheap out on the lights and get the retro icecaps. With that ballast could I add more caps and reflectors if I want to upgrade? I'm also gonna keep it fish only with live rock. What kind of bulbs should I get?
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Jan 23, 2009 13:10
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What size tank? I have that exact same lighting system and have been happy with it. The one thing that worries me is that since I didn't buy it from Marine Depot, I'm not sure if it includes bulbs (and I couldn't find any reference to the bulbs on the site). The reason I ask about the size of the tank is that I don't know if the K2 powerheads will be enough for it, nor do I know if the protein skimmer will be enough. Edit: Whoops! Just re-read the entire post. You'll want to keep the lights tilted towards the blue spectrum. Since you're not going to be growing corals, you won't need grow bulbs. I can't give an exact recommendation without knowing how many bulbs you need. Psimitry fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Jan 23, 2009 |
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Jan 23, 2009 19:20
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75 Gallons. I was hoping the powerheads would be enough but I guess I'll throw another one or two in there with my light bulb order. If it matters I want the colors of the fish to pop out a bit more. It's going in the living room and I want it to be appeasing to the non aquarium type of person too haha.
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Jan 24, 2009 04:17
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If you're not going to be running a reef, two hydor K2's should be enough. If you're looking for popping colors, you'll want an actinic bulb and a 10,000k bulb. Alternatively, you can go with a 7100k and a 10,000k. BUT that combination will probably be a bit two blue.
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Jan 24, 2009 05:59
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I've been giving serious thought to downgrading my 12g Nano, getting rid of everything but rics/zoas, and turning it into a tank for seahorses/pipefsh and small ornamental shrimp. I'm thinking of having the bottom of the tank for the soft corals, and then planting some plants to grow upward for the horses. I'd also downgrade from my Metal Halide lamp back to the stock hood with PC bulbs. The shrimp I'm thinking of are things like Sexies, 'Nem Shrimp, and perhaps Harlquins. I'd also dump my hermits for favor of sand-sifting cucumbers/starfish. A difficult adventure, but I want it so badly! 
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Jan 24, 2009 17:48
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Looks like I got hosed again  .I bought the Ice Cap complete retrofit kit from Marine Depot. http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~IC1515~tab~0.html You would think that it would be easy running a salt water aquarium in Hawaii, being surrounded by the ocean at all but so far its been hard. I got my package today and decided to order the bulbs. When I added the bulbs to my cart, it costs over $100 to ship them to my area! Does that sound right to you? I have another t5 light fixture for my freshwater so I took out the bulb to see and it fits perfectly on the fixture. Should I buy the same bulbs except longer?
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Jan 25, 2009 10:14
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It could indeed be that expensive. Because T5 light bulbs are so long and delicate, it wouldn't surprise me if they are that much to ship there. Try and see if you can buy them locally from some fish store. You could also try some other sites for bulbs. Hellolights.com or reefgeek.com are good sources.
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Jan 25, 2009 19:18
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Saltwater tanks are so cool. There is a big one outside of one of my lecture halls and I always hurry to that class so I can stare into the tank for awhile. It has all kinds of coral and hermit crabs and snails and fish and and and! Well other stuff I guess, I don't really know what to call of it. Either way, I wish I had the drive to build one of them and maintain them. They are just so cool!
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Jan 25, 2009 19:58
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Week 1 has passed on our saltwater 20g tank, so far so good. We added live rock last week (Tuesday) and everyone seems happy and alive. We feed the guys some frozen brine shrimp and they eat it up. Our only problem is we have something growing on one of the rocks that looks like aiptasia? I don't have a picture of it right now, but it's about dime size circular white boogar with tenticles. I do believe the peppermint shrimp is a natural preditor of aiptasia so hopefully it will find it to be a nice snack.
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Jan 26, 2009 23:45
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My reflectors came in and the bulbs that my local store has works with the system !All I'm waiting for is the 20g long that I will be using as a sump, 10,000k bulb and actinic bulb. I ordered them through the store and they should be here on Wednesday! Almost ready to put the whole thing together and test it out. Gonna be using an overflow box for this one. Any tips on setting up the sump/refugium as far as plumbing goes?
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Jan 27, 2009 03:26
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Vitae posted:it's about dime size circular white boogar with tenticles. I do believe the peppermint shrimp is a natural preditor of aiptasia so hopefully it will find it to be a nice snack. It COULD be aiptasia. They're pretty distinct. You'll know one if you see it. They look like this: http://www.melevsreef.com/id/aiptasia2.jpg A peppermint shrimp is a potential natural predator. Oftentimes you have to try 2-3 of them before you find one that will consume the annoying anemones. Alternatively, you can get some Joe's Juice to nuke this one early, but chances are, if it is an aiptasia, then you're going to have more than one (I tried to control the one in my cube chemically. It didn't work). Vigilantly Vigorous posted:My reflectors came in and the bulbs that my local store has works with the system Really, all you need is a tank to hold your equipment. The more advanced models you see with baffles and whatnot are designed to eliminate deadspots in the sump flow. Because the water HAS to flow over and under the baffles as it moves through the sump you get a more efficient sump. They're not hard to build, but they do take some know-how, and precise measurement and cutting of your baffles as you can't really shave them down to get them to fit. Once you have baffles, you simply silicone them into place.
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Jan 27, 2009 08:17
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Psimitry posted:They're not hard to build, but they do take some know-how, and precise measurement and cutting of your baffles as you can't really shave them down to get them to fit. Unless you use thin sheets of acrylic/plexi, in which case shaving them down is as simple as a Dremel with a sanding drum. I use this for baffles all the time and it works great. Baffles are also used to reduce flow in large areas, usually for in-sump refugiums. This is the general layout of my acrylic sump. code:csammis fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Jan 27, 2009 |
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Jan 27, 2009 14:18
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Psimitry posted:It COULD be aiptasia. They're pretty distinct. You'll know one if you see it. They look like this: http://www.melevsreef.com/id/aiptasia2.jpg I found a picture on google that looks EXACTLY like whats growing on the rock right now. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/Vitae/Glassy_anemone.jpg That's not my picture but yeah looks identicle. It's labeled as aiptasia. So far I only see 1, I'm keeping an eye out for any more. I'll get more peppermint shrimp no doubt but I'm going to wait a little while before adding anything more to the tank. I know we pushed it too much too early by putting what we did in there so I'll wait to add more.
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Jan 27, 2009 16:26
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It's kinda too small to tell,but I don't think that's aiptasia. I think that's a strawberry anenome. Harmless.
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Jan 27, 2009 17:22
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It's cool if it is harmless, I'll leave it be to see how it developes. I was looking at the tank yesterday and I seen something really weird.. it looked like a shrimp was floating under one of the rocks, I thought the peppermint shrimp had died but it just didn't look right. I got the thing out of the water and it was an empty shell. I thought maybe something got to the shrimp and ate him but out comes the peppermint shrimp from behind a rock just running along... I then remembered.. oh yeah they molt. Also, the sand is getting some brownish stuff on the top, is that diatomes? I'm going to do another 10% water change and lower the timing of the lights just in case.
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Jan 30, 2009 00:03
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Don't bother with the light cycle changes. Diatoms are normal and will pass with time. The molting shrimp are pretty disconcerting at first, but you'll get used to it. Keep your water changes normal. I wouldn't alter anything. Diatoms are pretty much the first part of the "new tank syndrome." Once you get done with the diatoms, you'll be on to your red slime and green hair algae. If everything stays cool, it will all pass and be crusted over with coraline algae.
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Jan 30, 2009 00:30
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Would it help these cycles blow over faster if I used the RO water from the stations outside of grocery stores? What would be the best way to clean sand I get from the beach? Ordering sand isn't an option and none of the stores carry anything other than crushed coral. Reef grows not too far off shore and our reefs are popular collecting grounds for aquarium fish.
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Jan 30, 2009 03:43
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Vigilantly Vigorous posted:Would it help these cycles blow over faster if I used the RO water from the stations outside of grocery stores? If you're using tap water, you're going to hate life. Yes, the RO water will HELP, but RO/DI really is your best bet. Make it your next purchase. I don't care if you have to save up for it. RO/DI systems are worth their loving weight in gold (and you don't have to get some badass Spectrapure system, just something that will output 0 TDS water). Chances are, your water around HI is full of phosphates, and who knows what else as you have so many volcanoes lying around. quote:What would be the best way to clean sand I get from the beach? Ordering sand isn't an option and none of the stores carry anything other than crushed coral. Reef grows not too far off shore and our reefs are popular collecting grounds for aquarium fish.  I thought we put this issue to bed. Crushed coral is an option. It's not the most attractive option, but it IS an option. I really would try to avoid grabbing sand off of the beach if you can. To make absolutely certain you don't have any contaminants in it will require treating with a hell of a lot of carbon, phosban, and running a SHITTON of water through it. There's a good reason that most of the sand that is collected for aquarium use is done a few miles offshore. One option for you is to get silica based playsand (the really white stuff) from you local Home Depot. Granted, you don't get the pH and Alk balancing effects of aragonite, but if it's designed for playsand use it has to be clean and sterilized before packaging (make sure that it IS the silicate based stuff. It should look really white and relatively equal grains. They also use it for ashtrays).
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Jan 30, 2009 06:26
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Psimitry posted:
But I'm just so CHEAP:(! For all the awesome advice I'm getting here's some pics from my vacation to the Philippines. There was a district dedicated to pets and it was just stall after stall of aquarium stuff. I could start a whole new thread with all the pics I took of all the types of puppies/kittens/fish/birds/whatever they had but since this is the SW thread I'll keep it down.       Sorry for the poo poo photography, it was just so surreal being surrounded by all this coral/life when all of it is illegal where I live  .
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Jan 30, 2009 10:09
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Vigilantly Vigorous posted:But I'm just so CHEAP:(! Then you, my friend, are going to find keeping a saltwater aquarium a living hell. This can be an expensive loving hobby if you're going to do it the right* way. *right being the way that causes minimum stress and maximum health to your tank
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Jan 31, 2009 02:09
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I've already blown quite a bit not cutting corners and decided on the RO unit and crushed coral. I'm very confident in having a successful run at this.
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Jan 31, 2009 02:45
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Having a bit of an issue with my 24g AP.. I added a small frag of red zoanthids, small frag of pulsing xenia, a coco worm, and a nassarius snail on the 2nd. When I got home from work the day after that, I noticed that both nassarius snails in the tank are at the very brim looking like they're trying to get out, and my GSP is completely closed up. The GSP came back a bit the next day, and was looking like normal this afternoon. Within the last hour, though, the GSP closed up again and the snails made the trek back to the brim of the tank. When the GSP closed up, I noticed that my largest hermit was crawling on it, so I suspected that it just closed up because of that, but the snails at the top again worry me. I tested the ammonia, nitrate, and phosphate levels -- all 0. I'm going to pick up a pH test kit tomorrow. Perhaps it is swinging too wildly throughout the day and pissing off the tank inhabitants? If that is the case, should I use a buffer or adjust the lighting duration (or both)? Any other ideas? edit: the zoanthids don't seem affected, but the xenia closed up this time. my frog spawn also closed up a little bit as well.
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Feb 7, 2009 05:17
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If you have a glass thermometer, check to see if it's cracked.
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Feb 7, 2009 12:42
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Psimitry posted:If you have a glass thermometer, check to see if it's cracked. No glass, two digital thermometers. Heater is plastic as well.
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Feb 7, 2009 18:01
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I posted a while back about my 1.5 gallon pico, I figured I'd update. There's no fish, just a hermit, nerite snail, and some button poylps, a few zoos and a rock of GSP. Normally I wouldn't touch GSP with a 10 foot pole, but this is a closed system that won't be going anywhere near my main tank so I figure I'd give it a shot. I built the pico out of 1/8" acrylic using a torch to heat and bend the corners. I had never worked with acrylic before so that's why there's the unsightly seam on the left. There's a filter box in the back that has a bunch of live rock rubble in it and the rio90 that provides flow for the pico. There's a 5watt hydro mini heater in the back as well to keep the tank a stable 80F. The light is a 10watt coralife power compact screwed into a lamp kit. I'm planning on building a new light out of 120 LEDS but we will see how that goes.
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Feb 7, 2009 22:36
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optikalus posted:GSP problems After much observation, it appears that my hermits are pissing off the GSP. One hermit in particular (the largest one in my tank) will cross over the entire patch until its all closed up. I can't see it physically attacking it, but something is obviously happening as the GSP doesn't want to open back up right away. What should I do about rogue hermits?
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Feb 13, 2009 18:09
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optikalus posted:After much observation, it appears that my hermits are pissing off the GSP. One hermit in particular (the largest one in my tank) will cross over the entire patch until its all closed up. I can't see it physically attacking it, but something is obviously happening as the GSP doesn't want to open back up right away. Just walking over them shouldn't really be a problem unless it's being bothered by something else as well. However, most LFS will take a free hermit. I recently got rid of all my hermits by just giving a few away with each coral frag I sold to private buyers.
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Feb 13, 2009 18:26
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RO/DI and refractometer came in the mail today. Trip to Home Depot to plumb it and to buy a few bags of sand and I'll be ready to set this bitch up. It's been pretty enjoyable getting everything together (not so much for my wallet), doing all the research, and bothering Psimitry for his opinion. I'll have pics up tomorrow of setup.
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Feb 14, 2009 04:55
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So glad you ended up getting the refractometer. They're so nice compared to a hydrometer. You don't have to sit there and think "well.. is it steady? Is that the salinity or is there a rogue water current getting in there and forcing the arm up/down?" And RO/DI.. yeah. Congrats. You already have a leg-up on any saltwater competition in your area where the others don't have them. Edit: And with some bits of extra plumbing you can have free drinking water! Just get a few of those metal water bottles (or plastic if that's your groove) and never buy bottled water again!
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Feb 14, 2009 06:09
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The RO/DI is filling the tank at a beautiful trickle. Gotta keep an eye on this thing while it fills. The RO/DI is treating me really well so far and according to the local aquarium forums my area is known to have some pretty bad tap water. In the mean time ill be looking up fish profiles to decide how I'm gonna stock this thing.
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Feb 16, 2009 05:29
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I was able to take a few photos of my 120 today.   
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Feb 16, 2009 07:14
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Eagerly awaiting critters from LiveAquaria today. A Bluestripe Pipefish, some Ghost Pipeshrimp, and more Sexies. I've spent time totally redoing my tank into a ornamental shrimp/pipefish/seahorsie paradise. Hope to get photos up soon.
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Feb 17, 2009 18:08
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Hood Ornament posted:Eagerly awaiting critters from LiveAquaria today. Have you bought from them before? I'm curious as to how well the stuff do in shipping from them. I bought from Drs. Foster & Smith before and shipping was amazing -- >100lbs of stuff for like $16 shipping. I've currently got 2 sexies in my 24, but wouldn't mind a few more -- they're so awesome. I figure that they're hard enough to get that I'd hold off on getting any more so that other people can have their fun. How do you plan on feeding your pipefish and seahorses? Are you going to dose copepods regularly or ? I'd love to have a 6g pico with a seahorse or two.
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Feb 17, 2009 20:18
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