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Saw this at the LFS today, put it on hold until they were sure it was healthy  
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Feb 27, 2012 04:32
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nwin posted:So I think for starting out, since it's such a small aquarium, I'm just going to go with distilled water. After the live rock and the sand, I probably won't need any more than 10 gallons of it anyways. From all the research I've done online, it seems people can't make up their mind between RO water or Distilled water, although having both is the most preferred. I would like to just be able to go to the store and fill up 2 5 gallon jugs with what I need. Time for a stupid question, will I want Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals to mix with this, or Red Sea Coral Pro Set? I'm just getting my grocery list ready of stuff I'll be buying and want to make sure I get everything right. I'm definitely looking for a setup very similar to cculos'. - Heater: Marineland Stealth 50w. Whatever you use, make sure it has a way of holding a temperature. I lost fish that way. A thermometer is a big help too. You'd be surprised how much extra heat those lights can produce. - Skimmer: I found it to be useful, though I suppose the airstones did have to be replaced semi frequently. Also, it's an absolute bitch to take apart, though I wasn't satisfied with using the carbon filters that are provided either, so grain of salt I suppose. - Speaking of which; as far as salt is concerned; I haven't really noticed much of a difference, maybe some of the others on the forum can weigh in (Arioch is a veritable treasure trove of knowledge). - The clown is a great addition to the tank; tried and true. Be careful if you get more than one in the tank though, as they fight for dominance and it usually means one will be beat up if it gets out of hand. - Watchman gobies are supposed to be a good investment, though I haven't had any experience. Cool lookin dudes though. - As for the shrimp, if you want to absolutely be entertained; go with a scarlet cleaner shrimp over any other kind. If you put your hand in the tank to clean the glass, often times they won't think twice about leaping on your hand and going for the ride to try and clean your skin. If they're friendly enough they'll do whatever it takes to scoot to the top of the water to make sure they're on your finger; it's really funny to watch. The best advice I can give you is to keep reading; knowledge is key in this hobby. And go with distilled water, screw an RO unit. Your water bill will go through the roof and so will your bill for buying the damned thing. Esp. considering if done right, the tank shouldnt' cost you more than $5 / month to keep up with water changes (given $1 / gal for distilled and another $0.50 or so for salt per change).
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Feb 27, 2012 04:52
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SaNChEzZ posted:Saw this at the LFS today, put it on hold until they were sure it was healthy That's a loving beautiful score.
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Feb 27, 2012 08:53
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arioch posted:That's a loving beautiful score. They're asking $90 for it, but I'll make money back as soon as it gets cut in half
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Feb 27, 2012 19:21
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Not a bad price--compare to any online retail.
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Feb 27, 2012 21:03
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Yeah, that's why I was like 'ok hold it!' They're usually pretty reasonable, but this surprised me.
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Feb 27, 2012 21:28
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cculos posted:good info For the heater, it looks like the stealths have been recalled, so I grabbed a 50w that I think will be good. You were right on the shrimp though, a scarlet is what I was looking for...I must have seen it mislabeled as a peppermint shrimp somewhere else... Just bought a bunch of distilled water from walmart and a 5 gallon jug...now I just need to wait on supplies to come in!
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Feb 28, 2012 01:50
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Sadly I've been dealing with what I can now best diagnose as Marine Velvet, I've lost half of my fish and the others are recovering. There hasn't been any consistent symptom and no new fish were added in almost a year. The only stressor might have been the cold snap we had in January that dropped the tank temp greater than usual. I needed a medication that was "reef safe" enough i.e. no copper. I decided to try Metronidazole bound to food with Focus (both Seachem products) and added garlic concentrate, too. The meds are supposed to be effective for various bacterial and parasitic infections. They weren't expensive (~$5/week of treatment) and not harmful on the fish like a lot of the other medications are; however, it is not a quick solution like dips are so I can't recommend it for all situations. The flipside to all this is that my corals are doing amazing and my SPS have had consistent and quite full polyp extension since I started medicating. It's been depressing to say the least. No deaths of inverts (urchins, feather dusters, star fish, coco worm, etc.) either.
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Feb 28, 2012 02:17
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Updated pics of the corals (and YWG camera ham)! 
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Mar 3, 2012 00:27
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What the gently caress is this and why is it in my tank: It was stuck to the glass last night, and has since disappeared. It wasn't very big, only about 1 cm from tip to tip. I assume it's some kind of weird worm... should I be worried about this crawling into my ear canal in the middle of the night and taking over my brain? (Or more realistically, hurting something in my tank?)
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Mar 3, 2012 04:47
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Anony Mouse posted:What the gently caress is this and why is it in my tank: It's a Cirratulid polychaete, and harmless. It's sometimes referred to by aquarists as a "hair worm". It probably decided to go for a walk up the tank wall. Normally it'd be in the substrate or in a rock crevice putting out those long palps and feeding on tiny detritus in the water or sand. Probably beneficial to the tank! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirratulidae http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=919
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Mar 3, 2012 12:53
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Got my live rock today! And so it begins...sorry for the lovely pic. I have a magnet scraper coming that should clear it all up. I went with cculos' recommendations on a bunch of stuff here. BioCube 14 Hydro Pico 1200 replaced the stock pump Removed the bioballs and have a chateo fuge going in the back with some LEDs with filter floss on the top and then chemipure on the bottom. Haven't bought a skimmer yet...we'll see if I need it or not. Looks like I've already got some aiptasia. They are small...no bigger than the size of my pinky fingernail...s this the kind of thing I need to run out and get some aiptasia x tomorrow or can I buy it off Amazon and wait until Wednesday to start killing them off? Any suggestions? I'm not totally sold on the placement of the LR yet, so I can still move it around before I epoxy them all together.
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Mar 4, 2012 03:28
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If you see aiptasia out and about you have them deeper in the rock as well. I'd get with a biological solution like peppermints, before these things end up all in your plumbing and back chambers as well.
VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Mar 4, 2012 |
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Mar 4, 2012 04:14
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arioch posted:If you see aiptasia out and about you have them deeper in the rock as well. I'd get with a biological solution like peppermints, before these things end up all in your plumbing and back chambers as well. Is it a good idea to add peppermints only one day into setting up the tank though?
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Mar 4, 2012 04:50
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nwin posted:Is it a good idea to add peppermints only one day into setting up the tank though? You could just take the rock out briefly and chip the chunk of rock off with the aiptasia on it. Not like you have any livestock yet to disturb.
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Mar 4, 2012 04:54
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Here is a pants-down cellphone pic of of my tank at work having a few issues right before a waterchange. Just thought I'd share because it's more interesting than pics of perfect, groomed aquariums. It's an old 24 gallon Aquapod with the 150 watt HQI (in this case a coralife 20k bulb). The only filtration is a big sponge, and occasionally a packet of purigen. The tank has been set-up in this configuration for about 2 years, and has been extremely successful. Recently I was having trouble with this really annoying green algae on the sand and the poor heliopora, but some water changes and siphoning fixed the problem. The fungia was an attempted rescue from a different tank. It was badly stung by a Lobophyllia brain coral, and unfortunately eventually succumbed. Also, check out those flatworms! I usually just siphon them out and don't stress about it. 
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Mar 4, 2012 08:31
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Looks pretty nice to me! The algae kinda looks like diatoms or dinos,was it snotty or powdery? Also, I'm picking up that bitchin' nem today  Just need to find a place to put it haha.
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Mar 4, 2012 20:02
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It was very similar to a dino outbreak: a snotty sheet, but it didn't have the characteristic tendrils or the bubbles. Also it was bright grass-green instead of the golden color that I usually associate with dinos. v0v
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Mar 5, 2012 00:02
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nwin posted:Got my live rock today! Congrats, looks great! Brings back memories of when I had it up and running. A little advice for you: take a microfiber cloth and use it to wipe off / polish the glass on the tank. It's easier to see if you look at it up towards the light as well. IDK about the aptasia, never had a problem with them. I did notice one in the 40g recently though, so I may have to do what I can to squash it. BTW, setting up a new 30g frag tank soon, will post pictures when it's set up. It's going to be a shallow reef in my room. Complete 24x24x12 setup with new sump / fuge, quad bulb t5 light and a small powerhead to circulate water and a nice, powerful return pump. Can't wait!
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Mar 5, 2012 04:32
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So I went in to pick up that nem this weekend, turns out after they get comfortable they're about 6-7" across. Too big for my tank at the moment. Apparently the lady that brought them in has some smaller ones that she'll be bringing by soon.
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Mar 5, 2012 20:38
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Ask your LFS if they will ship. <----------
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Mar 5, 2012 23:55
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arioch posted:Ask your LFS if they will ship. Will do! They have them both in a display tank now, but for me they might just do it
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Mar 6, 2012 00:42
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How do people get big fish home? Like 7+" ? do they bring a cooler or something or just bag it or what?
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Mar 6, 2012 01:03
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Bucket? I imagine most salt water people have 5gal buckets
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Mar 6, 2012 01:45
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Spotted another polychaete worm on my glass today. Now that I know what they are, I think they're kind of cute. 
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Mar 8, 2012 08:46
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Hi all, for years my dad has kept a saltwater aquarium and it's always been something cool to watch and I've toyed around with setting up my own tank. About three months ago my dad decided he was done and offered the tank to me so I decided the time was right to get into this awesome hobby. Cue two months of reading and researching and reading some more and ive finally started collecting all the pieces of what hopefully will become a successful aquarium. I am going to start off from scratch with his tank as there is no real wild life in his tank anymore with the exception of algae all over the live rock (which there isnt much of to begin with) It's a 40br. List of items I have acquired 40br tank and stand 700gph overflow kit from glass-holes.com Return kit Fluval 200w in tank heater (going to order a second for redundancy) Big rear end bucket of salt 40lbs live sand Aqueon sump system Aqueon 600gph return pump API saltwater test kit Things I know I need: Power heads! Haven't decided what I want to do here. Would really like a couple Ecotech mp10s but that's not in the budget right now so I'm leaning towards a couple Tunze 6015s, thoughts? Plumbing, which will be taken care of once I get the tank location figured out and my overflow/return drilled. More live rock, I currently have ~10lbs. Going to check out a few lfs to find a good deal on another 30lbs or so. I've been going back and forth between a refugium setup in the sump or a protein skimmer, leaning more towards the fuge but I'm all for ideas on this. I know I need a light down there and I plan on going DIY led for the entire tank set up. I plan on using whatever light my dad has on it for a week or two while I order everything I need to build a new one. I figured if algae can survive just fine with the one he has now then there shouldn't be a problem using it to cycle the tank Overall I'm excited to get this thing going. Expect lots of pictures and just as many questions
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Mar 8, 2012 17:07
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A couple of suggestions as someone who has only had their first tank up and running for about a year now. 1 - You can have a refriguim and a protein skimmer. They are not mutually exclusive. If you only have room for one in your sump, protein skimmer hands down. You can always add a GFO/Carbon reactor later as they are relatively cheap and take up minimal space. 2 - On powerheads, if you eventually want mp10s you can spend less on your "temporary" powerheads, but those Tunze are nice if you want to hang on to them for a bit. I'd go for 2 of them to start. 3 - Live sand. Ditch it, reusing live sand can cause a lot of problems. 4 - Live rock. I would honestly consider ditching this as well if he had a lot of problems with hitchhikers and stopped caring for the tank. If it's clean, keep it. If not, it is going to be more trouble than it's worth. You do not need all live rock. You can do like 10lbs live rock and 30-40lbs of dead rock if you want to save some money. 5 - You shouldn't need two 200w heaters. The problem with having a heater that is big for your tank is that if it get stuck on you are screwed. I would go with 2 smaller heaters, and even then I would still use something like a rancor temp controller as a backup shutoff. 6 - Do you have an RODI unit? If not, look into it. Probably one of the best purchases, although expensive. 7 - Get yourself an auto-top off. The in-sump models are nice. 8 - Don't skimp on the lighting. A 40br isn't too expensive to light properly and it will make a big difference. 9 - Those API test kits may be bad by now. They expire. If you haven't been hanging out on ReefCentral, I can't recommend it enough.
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Mar 8, 2012 17:31
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The live sand is new in bags, he currently has crushed coral in there which I really don't like the looks of. Good idea on the rocks tho I'll ditch what he's got and just get new, no reason not to really if I'm already buying rock what's a few more pounds. The API kit i just ordered and wont be here till next week, I'll check the dates on it to make sure it isn't expired when I receive it, I can always send it back and get a refund. If the protein skimmer is the way to go then I'll do that and look at reactors at a later date when my bank account rebounds, same for an auto top off and an RODI, I've been looking at The coral-life pure flow II, is this a good one? Also a recommendation on a skimmer would be dandy I'll heed your warning about heaters and check out a shutoff. Don't want 40+ gallons of saltwater soup. I've been looking at the aqua style 72 led set up for lighting, that should be sufficient right? Thanks for the help so far, I'm glad I posted
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Mar 8, 2012 18:35
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Henchman 21 posted:
Word of warning about the aquastyle kits. The LEDs are great, as are the drivers, fan and heatsinks etc. If you are going to get or build a controller, don't get the normal drivers get the meanwell ones. If you have the money, get the meanwell ones anyways. The potentiometers he uses are pretty poo poo though. Be aware you may have to replace them with local supply. I have one I keep on my blues that will flicker if not set to 100%. The one on my whites is solid as a rock. Other than that, I am very happy with mine (12 royal blue, 12 4500k white (dimmed)) over a 20H.
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Mar 8, 2012 19:13
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Jonny Nox posted:Word of warning about the aquastyle kits. The LEDs are great, as are the drivers, fan and heatsinks etc. I have the 72 kit over my 24 (only using 48 LEDs though) and all my pots work well. Got 16 whites on one string, 16 blues on one string and 8/8 on another. Check the growth! (Don't mind the blue one, drat clown goby killed it  )
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Mar 8, 2012 19:43
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Henchman 21 posted:If the protein skimmer is the way to go then I'll do that and look at reactors at a later date when my bank account rebounds, same for an auto top off and an RODI, I've been looking at The coral-life pure flow II, is this a good one? Also a recommendation on a skimmer would be dandy You should move the RODI thingy up on your list. Buying it right away is cheaper and easier than buying RODI water and then buying an RODI thingy.
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Mar 8, 2012 20:21
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Got a Mandarin Dragonet the other day. My girlfriend has been begging for one every since we set up the tank. Figured it's finally been up long enough to get her one.
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Mar 9, 2012 00:46
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Internet Explorer posted:Got a Mandarin Dragonet the other day. My girlfriend has been begging for one every since we set up the tank. Figured it's finally been up long enough to get her one. Bloodworms work wonders if you're going to try to frozen train it (if it's not eating frozen already)
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Mar 9, 2012 18:58
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Thanks for the suggestion. I will give them a shot.
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Mar 9, 2012 19:00
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Internet Explorer posted:Thanks for the suggestion. I will give them a shot. Is it eating any prepared foods at all? If it's eating Nutrimar Ova or something similar, buy that and slip in a couple bloodworms. Then wean it off the OVA, slip in whatever you feed your tank, mysis in my case. Then wean it off the bloodworms until it's only eating mysis or whatever. I've had two take right to bloodworms from Ova, it's really not as hard as people say it is, just takes some patience is all. Also if your tank is rimless/topless I'd suggest putting something over it. Something spooked my mandarin and out he went! By the time it was feeding time he was a fish chip
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Mar 9, 2012 20:20
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I bought it from LA so I did not get to see if it was eating prepared foods. I haven't seen him go for pellets or cyclopeeze, but he seemed somewhat interested in the frozen mysis I was feeding. I have a 90g tank with a 40g fuge full of large balls of chaeto, so he should have enough pods. I went and bought 2 bottles of Dr G's Live Copepods just to be sure. Put one bottle in the DT and one in the refrigium. But as soon as I get a chance I will try your advice.
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Mar 9, 2012 20:46
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Internet Explorer posted:I bought it from LA so I did not get to see if it was eating prepared foods. I haven't seen him go for pellets or cyclopeeze, but he seemed somewhat interested in the frozen mysis I was feeding. I have a 90g tank with a 40g fuge full of large balls of chaeto, so he should have enough pods. I went and bought 2 bottles of Dr G's Live Copepods just to be sure. Put one bottle in the DT and one in the refrigium. Oh nice, in that large of a system he should be fine regardless of supplemental feedings or not. If he's interested in the mysis he should take to bloodworms rather quickly. The one bummer is, since mine is trained only to come out and eat when the pumps are off for feeding, he doesn't really forage too much anymore, just swims around with the other fish. So now I have pods a-plenty.
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Mar 9, 2012 21:20
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This may be a dumb question, but can mushroom coral (a ricordea to be specific) move itself like anemone can? One of mine recently split off from the main polyp I bought, and a snail knocked it off. It is now under some rock that is completely inaccessible by hand without dismantling the tank (I tried to grab it, couldn't reach it and only managed to piss off my goby). Anyone have any ideas of how to retrieve it, or is my first baby ricordea doomed?
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Mar 9, 2012 22:21
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I have seen them release and go with the flow, only to settle down later. Speaking about a ricordea specifically. No idea on how to fix your problem. I have not had good luck with them, but I do know they need a lot of light and low flow.
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Mar 9, 2012 22:33
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Murphy Brownback posted:This may be a dumb question, but can mushroom coral (a ricordea to be specific) move itself like anemone can? One of mine recently split off from the main polyp I bought, and a snail knocked it off. It is now under some rock that is completely inaccessible by hand without dismantling the tank (I tried to grab it, couldn't reach it and only managed to piss off my goby). Anyone have any ideas of how to retrieve it, or is my first baby ricordea doomed? They can release their foot and float, but they can't walk. I've had the same thing happen to numerous mushrooms and a few rics in the past. I've had a ricordea recover after being in the dark for a few months. It was completely white but I left it on the bottom somewhat shaded and it got its color back after a few more months. You might want to try a turkey baster and see if you can't move it with a water stream to somewhere where you can reach it. If you succeed, put it in a small container with live rock rubble and put a bridal veil over that on the bottom of your tank. It'll attach to a rock within a week or so.
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Mar 9, 2012 22:34
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