thedude

Ok a couple thoughts about our next meeting: 1. Steve Byrd's collection trip in conjunction with MAAST and MARSH in Port Aransas is the weekend of July 15th so no go on that weekend. I'll be going and I encourage all of you to as well. 2. I was talking with my good buddy Mike (Mojo) and he suggested we have a 2 part meeting format. The first being geared towards the newer hobbyists and the later to the guys who have been around for longer. Both groups are very important to our hobby and I feel that one or the other are often excluded in the meetings I've been to in the past. Without the continued interest of new people, and the knowledge of the veterans, this hobby will never progress. We've got enough topics for 8 meetings already but here is my plan after seeing some sick fish recently and what they REALLY should look like in the wild. Fish and Coral Nutrition - The beginning part of the presentation would focus on many of the different species of fish and their individual needs such as herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. It could also include a very rudimentary section on coral feeding. The advanced demonstration would be a homemade food mix demonstration where everyone who wishes, is able to purchase a bag of this food mix. My food mix contains just about every frozen food I can get a hold of, fresh seafood, various macro algae, fat, protein and vitamin supplements, coral foods, phyto and zoo planktons, even oddities like broccoli and bananas. Austin Aquariums would be able to get a large order of frozen food in for me at a discounted price and all I would need would be a headcount as to how much food I'd need to prepare. Clint (fishypets), Mike (mojo) and myself have all used this food to great effects and the recipe originally was distributed by Eric Borneman. Now this could still include a frag swap but I'd prefer to postpone the swap until we all have a couple of successful meetings under our belts and our fish and corals are receiving proper nutrition. Let me know what ya'll think, John PS: Andrew I'll probably have you make any computer presentation happy2.gif

The skimmer is still cranking it out but had some major issues due to me not calling you to check it Mike. I think in effect it was off for at least a week as the collection cup was completely full. It's rocking and rolling now though and I hope to have everybody back to speed in no time. And I did lose one coral but not completely. For whatever reason, the blue selago frag I got from Clint (fishypets), which has been in the tank almost 4 months and laid down a nice base, RTN'd sort of. The biggest branch has a huge dead spot right in the middle of the branch but the top portion and the bottom portion continue to live. Very very weird as their are even single polyps in the dead spot still living and nothing else in the tank was affected. John

I don't think that the 60lb rock difference would do anything to the fish but the way you're keeping up with the tank might. This tank was very neglected before Dylan got it and there was PLENTY of nuisance algae/cyano. You've been doing regular water changes, ditched the old nutrient laden sandbed and if effect, put effort into this tank. It could be that he's become stressed from the move or that there simply isn't as much algae in your tank. Moving him will only stress him more so I say you try to remedy the problem in tank. Keep up the nori feedings and if I remember correctly your tank came with formula 2 flake food. Try feeding him that as it is a blend specially made for herbivorous fish. John

Tomorrow will be 4 weeks into the system and the results are still great. My roommate did a great job dosing the tank for me while I was gone and the only thing I came back to was fantastic growth!

There is no real way of knowing if you'll have heat issues or not. I would definitely put a fan blowing into the rubbermaid cooler then just monitor the tank temperature during the cycling process and see what kind of swing you get. We'll be able to give you an apporpriate solution after we see what your temperature looks like. John

Ok yellow headed jawfish.... first off, they are serious jumpers. I would never keep them in a tank without a lid because they can and will jump out to carpet surf eventually. They are an extremely fast and jumpy fish and the slightest scare could send them rocketing out the top. I've lost two jaws that way. I would go with a sandbed closer to 6 inches as they dig extremely deep burrows in the wild. I saw several diving in St. Croix and they live in open sand, and the burrow went down FEET as far as I could tell. I'd also be sure to get a sand from the Carribean that includes many different grain sizes. The only way they can successfully make a good burrow is with many different shell fragments etc. to use as braces. Caribsea sells a dry version and a live version. I think the live version is $30 for a 20lb bag and and the dry is $30 for a 30lb bag but I'd have to check to be certain. Note that the dry version has TONS of dust in it and must be rinsed before using. Keeping a sandbed that deep I would include LOTS of nassarius snails to help with waste removal and turning the sandbed over. Hope that helps, John

Lawnmower blennies are notorious for withering away and dying in some tanks and thriving with a potbelly in others. As others have said, I wish I had the answer. Remember that Nori is algae that is very high in phosphates. It makes sense that if you put too much Nori (algae) in your tank, you end up getting a problem algae outbreak. How long had your lawnmower been in that tank? If it is a relatively new addition, the constant cleaning and starving seems indicative of a stomach parasite. If that is the case, there isn't a whole lot you can do. I say go with the Euroreef. Skimmer tank recommendations are flaky at best IMO and I love my ER.

That temp shift is alarming. I try to keep the swing day to day below three degrees. As others have said, install some fans blowing across the tank and the increased evaporation should help with the cooling. John

I run a 30 gallon oceanic cube with 250w DE halide, two Tunze 7400's, and a mag 9.5 for return. I'd estimate my sump to be about 15 gallons as well and found that I definitely felt more comfortable running a chiller. Pacific Coast 1/10th HP model is worth the 300 bucks and piece of mind IMHO. John

I've kept yellow-headed jaws and will post on my experiences with them manana.

Plane leaves tomorrow at 5am, uhhh I need to go to sleep soon. Livestock can be returned for 1/3 store credit.

I got a piece of it from Clint as well. One of my favorite corals because it's a fantastic color and even better grower!

Crabs are all opportunistic and unfortunately the only way to know if you got a good one or a bad one is to try them in your tank. I've had three different emeralds over the years and only one of them decided to chow on things he wasn't supposed to. John

So tommorow will be two full weeks into the treatment and I'm still impressed. Growth is increased, color is increased, the pod population has exploded, and the skimmate volume is now greater and less chunky. I'll be gone vacationing in St. Croix until June the 11th and my roommate will be dosing the tank. Very scared about leaving it for this long but I'm sure it should be fine. John

Never used one personally but I have heard of them breaking. They seem to be very accurate until "that day" and then go nuts as you're describing. Looks like someone needs to buy a reefkeeper 2... happy2.gif

That fish is called a "Honey Chromis" but is much more closely realted to the damsel family. The azure is an extremely territorial fish and will nip the honeys until they leave your tank. In the ocean, the honeys would leave, in an aquarium they will be picked to death. John

Ok let's not let this thread die. Michael (the owner of AA) would love to host another frag swap and even offered to let me host a group buy for fragging shears from aquatic ecosystems. I'll get more information when I return from my vacation and set a date and prices in stone. So my question for all of you and especially those who attended last time: What can I do to make this swap better than the last one? What would ya'll like to have at AA (special order, fish, cleanup crew deals, etc)? What would you like demonstrations or information about for this event? Specifically do we want a fragging workshop of some kind or do we want a coral predator and prevention workshop? Any and all suggestions are always appreciated, John

You're actually the second person recently that has had ammonia coming out of their tap. I have no idea if it's supposed to be there or not but I do know you'd be amazed at the amount of crap they put into our water. Do you have a TDS meter on your RO unit or a DI cartridge? The color changing DI can be a lifesaver along with the dual tds meter and both can be had on ebay for under 20 bucks.

Yeah it's a very very weird food. I haven't really ever seen anything like it before as I've never seen a huge feeding response from soft corals. Try targeting some or your zoas, they have a crazy weird feeding reaction. Each mouth gets like a little nipple on it confused5.gif

Day 8 update - Fuel dosage increased to 1.2 mL *Corals show new growth and have recovered from pseudo crash. Color still lacking *Skimmate production has not changed in quantity but the skimmate is different. Less chunky and different smelling *Water is crystal clear *Coralline algae and pod population have exploded

Agree with Robert, go very easy on acclimating the corals to the new light. You will be doubling or even tripling the amount of energy your corals receive and they need to be weened on to it. The only other thing that I can see is flow and the related problems. What kind of flow do you have in the tank? With that much rock, it would be very easy to have dead spots accumulate and trap pockets of waste. What does your phosphate level test at? Do you have any nuisance algae growing?

Sounds to me immediately you aren't putting out enough par in the 420+ range. Lights that come in 10k are there simply because they encourage extreme growth with a high par. With a 20k, not much energy is getting to your corals. As Andrew said, let's get some pictures and more information about your setup. John

Welcome! How long of a drive is it from Oregon to Austin?

Everything is refrigerated except for the fuel portion. The fuel smells like acetic vinegar of some type and has been reported to taste the same (I did NOT taste it). The bacteria, acid, and coral food are all refrigerated and I'm not really concerned about them going bad over time. If something like that should occur, I'm sure I could just talk to David at polyplabs and get it replaced. Day 4- Water still crystal clear, corals are showing more polyp extension and are slowly regaining color from my barebottom pseudo meltdown. Skimmate production has not changed.

Dipping and QT'ing would be a GREAT workshop EJ. Actually it might be a great thing to start with by going over the different pests available to us and how they get in and how to stop them. Anyone else think that perhaps the best first step would be going over coral predators and methods to prevent their introduction?