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  Third clutch.
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Mar 10, 2012 02:42
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Wow, those lil guys are really going at it. Clownfish are awesome. And cute.
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Mar 10, 2012 03:27
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I've mentioned this a long time ago, but is there a good explanation why my tank's coralline algae is so vastly different from all of your guys' pictures? I've had my tank running for about 1.5-2 years now, and the dominant color of it is a darkish green, whereas everyone else seems to get purple. There are some small patches of purple, but my glass coralline is neon green, and in fact on the rock itself there are more patches of dark red(with some pink, some yellow) than the purple. Does this mean anything? Is it a sign of poor calcium levels or anything like that? I don't mind it, it just seems like my tank is very very green, instead of purple.
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Mar 10, 2012 04:44
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arioch posted:
I have one about the same size ready to hatch in a day or two. Too bad I don't have the equipment to raise the fry. Maybe next month though! Thinking a regularly spawning breeding pair, even if just a regular ocellaris, can be a decent moneymaker.
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Mar 10, 2012 05:16
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Murphy Brownback posted:I've mentioned this a long time ago, but is there a good explanation why my tank's coralline algae is so vastly different from all of your guys' pictures? I've had my tank running for about 1.5-2 years now, and the dominant color of it is a darkish green, whereas everyone else seems to get purple. There are some small patches of purple, but my glass coralline is neon green, and in fact on the rock itself there are more patches of dark red(with some pink, some yellow) than the purple. Does this mean anything? Is it a sign of poor calcium levels or anything like that? I don't mind it, it just seems like my tank is very very green, instead of purple. I have a similiar situation as you though my tanks not nearly as old, most of the CA on my glass is green. On my overflow and my pumps however it's purple, and on my rocks it's hard to tell as some of it was live rock with heavy purple CA to begin with but I know there's been at least some green growth on rock that didn't have it. Whatever the cause is it's not low calcium, my tank has abnormally high(550+) calcium. I think it may partially come down to light intensity, I'm using LEDs that don't really cover the glass significantly but the overflow and pumps are positioned more inside thier coverage as well the one rock that I know has green CA spreading is off to the side and the areas it's heaviest are shaded.
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Mar 10, 2012 08:54
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Elem7 posted:I have a similiar situation as you though my tanks not nearly as old, most of the CA on my glass is green. On my overflow and my pumps however it's purple, and on my rocks it's hard to tell as some of it was live rock with heavy purple CA to begin with but I know there's been at least some green growth on rock that didn't have it. What's your dKh with such a high Calcium level? You'll get way better growth with proper balance, greater calcium doesn't equate to optimum growth. Coralline algae can be all sorts of colours, if you want a purple type you could just borrow or buy a chunk of LR with that colour on it and then use a toothbrush in the tank to scrape the surface of it spreading particles into the water.
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Mar 11, 2012 01:18
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Perhaps you missed the part about me having a bunch of liverock with heavy purple Coraline already, or the fact that purple Coraline IS growing on my overflow and pumps, just not the glass walls. Personally the green CA doesn't bother me, I think it even suits some of my rock better than the purple. As for my dKh it IS lower than I'd like, typically about 8, but it's not as if I'm dosing for calcium, I'm not, I do dose for Alkalinity, I'm not sure why my Calcium is so abnormally high. I don't know Murphys situation though, perhaps some purple LR would work for him.
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Mar 11, 2012 05:33
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Sorry, the colour response was more directed at the other poster. I forgot you had addressed that as well. The calcium level is likely high because the carbonates are probably precipitating with something other than calcium (have you checked your magnesium level at all?) 8 is actually a good level to have, between 7 and 10 and you're golden. For what it's worth I have a similar scenario personally, I dose lots of Reef Code B (Carbonates) but don't have to dose calcium and it's still about 8/480. I only get green CA on my glass, although after I stopped scraping for ~4 months purple finally showed up on it. I decided that I prefer the crystal clear look and scraped it off last week, however.
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Mar 11, 2012 06:54
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From my limited experience it looks like the green and pastel-y stuff shows up first, then either turns purple, or is outcompeted by the purple. Maybe light intensity also affects which "color" takes hold.
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Mar 11, 2012 07:59
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Clowns laid eggs again, they've kind of settled into a 13-day cycle, toward the "mid-afternoon" of the main lighting period. This clutch is a monster.  
VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Mar 23, 2012 |
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Mar 23, 2012 04:19
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My clowns laid another clutch ONE DAY after their last clutch hatched. Crazy stuff. I really should get in on raising the fry soon.
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Mar 23, 2012 12:47
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This is my 14 gallon Biocube after one year: Fish: Ocellaris clownfish Yellow Watchman Goby Tailspot Blenny Blue Sapphire Damsel Coral: Hammer Sprung Stunner Chalice Birdsnest Kenya Tree assorted Ricordea mushrooms assorted Zoanthids some little unidentified SPS (Pocillopara?) and either a Condy Anemone or super-bleached (not by me) BTA (not visible here) Inverts: Peppermint shrimp Tiger Pistol Shrimp Large Brittle Star a few snails two blue-legged hermits and an ever-increasing number of tiny brittle stars So far so good... I had to remove one fish due to incompatibility, and I did lose a duncan coral and a metallic green brain which I loved. But other than them, things have been doing really well and just in the last month or so the coral growth has really been taking off. The hammer has more than doubled in size and number of heads since I bought it. The chalice has doubled in size in ~2 months!
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Mar 25, 2012 04:38
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Gambl0r posted:This is my 14 gallon Biocube after one year:
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Mar 25, 2012 12:59
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Here's my 14g biocube: I just added a CUC from reef cleaners, so they are getting settled in attacking the diatom. I started the tank March 4, so it's been 3 weeks running now, cycle complete. I'm guessing I'll wait 2-3 weeks before I go for my first fish or zoa (haven't decided which I want to add yet). My stocking plans as of right now: 2 clownfish 1 yellow head jawfish 1 cleaner shrimp 1-2 pom pom crabs (MUCH later after the tank is well established). I've got the chaeto in the back with an LED light going as well as some upgraded pumps. One thing I'm running into is battling the heat of the tank. Here in Houston, it's already getting to 80-85 during the day, and I have the air on, but yesterday my tank went to 82 degrees. I am going to upgrade to LED eventually (once these bulbs go out) which I know will help, but I'm looking at upgrading the stock fans which apparently are horrible. For right now I'm looking at getting two of these. The only problem is it seems that they are 3 wires where the tank's fans are only two wires. Anyone know if I just leave one of the wires unhooked or if I splice it into one of the others? Better yet, is there a 3-2 adapter? I wanna get the fans installed soon before I even grab anything else.
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Mar 25, 2012 18:22
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Prop your feed door open and it'll help keep the water cooler. The heat from the lamps is building up under the hood and it has nowhere to go. Those fans you linked to include a 3->2 adapter already. You do not need the yellow wire at all -- it's just for signaling RPM. Also, you stated that you upgraded the pumps. While the pumps that usually come with these things are pretty horrible, some pumps aren't much better (in terms of heat dissipation). I'd go with a small Majijet Utility 900 for the return (or equivalent), and your koralia looks fine. They don't add much heat. I've had a few return pumps though that added significant heat to the tank. Also, if you're looking to keep the original size fans (which I'm surprised to see 50mm -- the ones on my AP24 were 60mm), I'd highly recommend Silenx. Otherwise, I'd enlarge the holes on top and go with 80-120mm fans mounted on the outside with a simple grill guard. A 120mm fan mounted this way will be nearly silent and you won't need to use 2 of them.
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Mar 25, 2012 20:52
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New orange maxima, $50 not too bad!
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Mar 25, 2012 21:49
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optikalus posted:Prop your feed door open and it'll help keep the water cooler. The heat from the lamps is building up under the hood and it has nowhere to go. Those fans you linked to include a 3->2 adapter already. You do not need the yellow wire at all -- it's just for signaling RPM. Also, you stated that you upgraded the pumps. While the pumps that usually come with these things are pretty horrible, some pumps aren't much better (in terms of heat dissipation). I'd go with a small Majijet Utility 900 for the return (or equivalent), and your koralia looks fine. They don't add much heat. I've had a few return pumps though that added significant heat to the tank. Also, if you're looking to keep the original size fans (which I'm surprised to see 50mm -- the ones on my AP24 were 60mm), I'd highly recommend Silenx. Otherwise, I'd enlarge the holes on top and go with 80-120mm fans mounted on the outside with a simple grill guard. A 120mm fan mounted this way will be nearly silent and you won't need to use 2 of them. Yeah, I have the feed door propped open for now, but once I get that jawfish I won't want to leave that open! Glad to know the fans I link to will work just as is, so that's good. I have a Hydor Pico 1200 for the return right now. I'll keep your suggestions in mind. Thanks!
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Mar 25, 2012 22:06
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nwin posted:Yeah, I have the feed door propped open for now, but once I get that jawfish I won't want to leave that open! Glad to know the fans I link to will work just as is, so that's good. I have a Hydor Pico 1200 for the return right now. If you're worried about jumpers, be careful with that back wall, the ceiling of the lid doesn't come down far enough to stop jumping into the chambers. I lost a fish that way when I owned a Biocube 14.
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Mar 26, 2012 00:47
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mediabaskets sells an acrylic piece that fits nicely in that position to prevent jumpers, but it's also thick and pretty well prevents the use of the biocube skimmer (which isn't that great of a skimmer, but it's better than nothing)
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Mar 26, 2012 01:17
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MKLKT posted:If you're worried about jumpers, be careful with that back wall, the ceiling of the lid doesn't come down far enough to stop jumping into the chambers. I lost a fish that way when I owned a Biocube 14. From what I've read, there's been a few reiterations of the Biocube. The first one was like you said, it had that gap in the back, then they made another one, which I have, which has that gap completely blocked off. When you close the lid, there's no way for anything to get into the back chambers. I guess they've made another one now which says it's made by Coralife instead of Oceanic (even though it's the same company) that does something different with the lighting with expansion spots for LED's.
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Mar 26, 2012 01:25
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nwin posted:What mods have you done to it? Looks great! Thank you! I am really happy with how it's looking now. I'm running out of space, but I guess that's not a bad thing... all the corals are starting to fill in the gaps. I added the Biocube protein skimmer, changed the pump to a Maxijet 900, added that basic powerhead (can't remember the model), and did a DIY LED upgrade from RapidLED. Now I kinda wish I had gone with a single Kessil lamp and removed the tank's hood... Because in the warmer weather the tank still overheats, even with the LEDs installed. But on the positive side, the LED upgrade looks 100x better than the stock lights and the corals seem to love it. optikalus posted:Otherwise, I'd enlarge the holes on top and go with 80-120mm fans mounted on the outside with a simple grill guard. A 120mm fan mounted this way will be nearly silent and you won't need to use 2 of them. I never thought about mounting a larger fan to the outside of the hood.. I might have to try this in the summer! Gambl0r fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Mar 28, 2012 |
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Mar 28, 2012 00:39
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Gambl0r posted:Thank you! I am really happy with how it's looking now. I'm running out of space, but I guess that's not a bad thing... all the corals are starting to fill in the gaps. How much total did the LED cost you? I see some prices that look around almost $200, but then they both say I need my own dimmers and stuff.
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Mar 28, 2012 02:21
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nwin posted:How much total did the LED cost you? I see some prices that look around almost $200, but then they both say I need my own dimmers and stuff. It cost about $150. I bought the Biocube 14 Dimmable Retrofit Kit, Potentiometer and Dimmer Power Supply. Unless you want to set up a reef controller, that's all you need. If you buy this setup, note that the potentiometer will corrode from the saltwater very easily. It needs to be mounted outside of the hood. I thought I could put it inside the hood and wrap it with electrical tape... but it died in a few months. I've been meaning to buy a new one, but I just have been running at 100% brightness in the meantime. Edit: I forgot, I bought a 2 LED moonlight kit too, which you gotta have. It's much, MUCH better than the built-in Biocube moonlights. 
Gambl0r fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Mar 28, 2012 |
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Mar 28, 2012 02:39
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Gambl0r posted:It cost about $150. I bought the Biocube 14 Dimmable Retrofit Kit, Potentiometer and Dimmer Power Supply. Unless you want to set up a reef controller, that's all you need. Perfect thank you! I'll be adding that on the wish list for down the road after these PC's die out.
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Mar 28, 2012 02:52
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arioch posted:Now I've got a sudden urge to go have some sushi.
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Mar 28, 2012 05:42
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Mar 31, 2012 15:58
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Man, that is beautiful. Some sort of Sea Fan?
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Mar 31, 2012 16:07
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Internet Explorer posted:Man, that is beautiful. Some sort of Sea Fan? Looks like a blueberry Gorgonian.
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Mar 31, 2012 18:35
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Yep. Eats like a damned pig too.
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Mar 31, 2012 20:05
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Yikes. I just realized I haven't done a water change since before Thanksgiving. Funny thing is, the corals all look fine still.
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Mar 31, 2012 20:23
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revmoo posted:Yikes. I just realized I haven't done a water change since before Thanksgiving. Funny thing is, the corals all look fine still. I generally only do two a year, and ~20% during that. I just did one yesterday, everything's happy now.
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Apr 3, 2012 03:11
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I'm of the opinion that water changes are really only necessary to get rid of things like nitrate and phosphates, or add back things like magnesium and calcium. When I had my 100 set up I didn't do a single water change. Trimmed the chaeto once every week or two and I dosed to keep my calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium in line.
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Apr 3, 2012 03:14
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So I've got a yasha haze goby and a Randall's (candy cane) pistol shrimp now, in a pico, and I've spent the past few weeks feeding and coaxing the yasha out to be less shy about just hanging out outside the burrow. I was feeding the tank last night and I honest to god watched the goby gobble up food particles (freeze dried cyclopeeze, in this case), then turn around and kiss the shrimp, like it was feeding it. I've never even heard of this behavior before. The standard described behavior for a shrimp goby pair is that the shrimp simply scavenges off the bottom, while the goby will eat whatever you feed it. But it seems pretty obvious at first glance. So I'm not sure what I'm watching.
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Apr 4, 2012 17:26
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Dug through reefcentral archives and there ARE other sightings (like 2 or 3 posts about it in the past 10 years) of this behavior, though it seems to not have been written up in any of the usual places that I looked at, WWM, Advanced Aquarist, etc.
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Apr 4, 2012 17:44
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arioch posted:Dug through reefcentral archives and there ARE other sightings (like 2 or 3 posts about it in the past 10 years) of this behavior, though it seems to not have been written up in any of the usual places that I looked at, WWM, Advanced Aquarist, etc. Seems kinda similar to a clown feeding it's host. Not too strange if you think about the relationship they have, but very cool to see in person.
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Apr 5, 2012 00:49
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alright, here's the deal. With stock biocube fans, my temps had been getting up to about 82 degrees during the day. So, to stop this problem, I bought these fans and installed them. They came with 3 wires (black, red, and yellow [yellow being for the speed adjuster]) as well as an adapter that took those 3 wires and knocked them down to two (black and red). I then spliced these black and red with the black and red on the circuit board. Turned it on, everything seemed great. The fans seemed to move a lot more air, and it seemed like it had brought it down a bit. However, the last two days, I've had temps as high as 84 degrees with my digital thermometer. Now, I have calibrated the thermometer and there is an error of about 1.5-2 degrees, so when it reads 84, it's really probably 82 in there. The aluminum shield that you can see when you lift the hood, I have expanded those vents to allow more air to push. Also, on the top of the hood, the black plastic vents, I took a dremel to each side of the hood and made those vents a bit bigger. I have one fan pushing in/one fan pushing out, and you can definitely feel the heat coming out of one fan, so it seems to be working. However, for some reason...the temps still high. Here's a few more things: It has been a bit warmer here (Houston) the last few days, but not out of control. Instead of 80 it's been 85. I've had the air at 78 during the day and when I come home it goes down to 70-75. I also checked the water temp with my infrared thermometer. The sand is 85 and the rocks are around 84. So, here's all I can think of: 1)Instead of having red/black/yellow wires go to red/black, take the 3-2 adapter off and splice red to black and red to black, taping the yellow off. It was recommended I do this by some people but didn't really think it would hurt anything since it has the adapter 3-2 anyways. 2) I upgraded the sump to a hydor pico 1200 and I have chaeto in the media basket in the second chamber. I've heard that chaeto can start to grow and move into the third chamber, or the sump can just start to get clogged and lead to overheating. I felt the pump, and it didn't feel warm at all. I'd have to take it out to make sure. Further, are these hotter than the maxi jet 900's? I read somewhere that the MJ is actually 10w vs the pico's 8w. 3) I have a koralia nano 240 in the front, but I don't think that will generate enough heat. Any suggestions?? I'm at a loss here. I plan on eventually going for LEDs and that will help, but I'm not doing that anytime soon. I need a fix now. Thanks everyone.
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Apr 5, 2012 02:42
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Are the fans sucking out or blowing in? Also you could prop the hood with something to increase over-water airflow.
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Apr 5, 2012 05:05
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Those fans only pull heat from the ballasts and bulbs but do nothing for heat added by pumps and stuff. I bet if you turned the AC off, the tank would rise several more degrees. This is because ambient temp is the minimum temp the tank can be at the moment. It needs forced evaporation to cool it below ambient. To accomplish this, you'll need a fan moving air across the surface of the water. Obviously you're going to have to do more top off and the evaporation may be pretty significant so you may want an auto top off if you don't already have one.
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Apr 5, 2012 08:54
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SaNChEzZ posted:Are the fans sucking out or blowing in? Also you could prop the hood with something to increase over-water airflow. Looks like I'm going to add another fan or two to the hood...
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Apr 5, 2012 09:33
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 18:23 |
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The problem with those fans in the hood is that AFAICT they only move the air around inside the lighting splashguard, so they're not cooling the water for you at all.
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Apr 5, 2012 15:09
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