Rgwiz11

My roommate recently purchased this awesome coral. It was sold to him as a hammer coral, but all of the pictures I see of hammer coral don't look like this. Some of the hammer corals I've seen don't have the "trademark" hammer-shaped tip, but I'm still not completely sold that this is a hammer. It looks more like a frogspawn to me, but figured I'd get some more input.

Well, I have 400 in my 3 gallon pico. It is just a big bucket of emerald crabs, with a little bit of water. No algae problems, though.

This made me laugh pretty loud when my students were taking a test

They weren't happy with the fact that I could "surf" while they were suffering

ugh...all these FPS players

I never liked them, probably because I'm never any good at them

gDUBizzy on XBLive, but usually playing Street Fighter 4 or Dragon Age

I had 2 in my 75g and one morning I just noticed all the bubble algae was gone. Alas, one of them got too big and had to be taken out when "Bertha" as I called her, decided to eat a Chromis for a midnight snack.

Found 2 of these guys as HH's in my 75g. Both of them lurk in the shadowy areas of the tank

picked up a ginormous crab and some chromis tonight

i'm gonna go ahead and call bs on this line : " and somehow they seem to have the ability to aim for the mouth and eyes of the propagator."

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss that claim. Spitting cobras do the same thing, but the eyesight of the cobra is awful. Researchers still don't know how exactly they know where to spit their venom but get it near they eyes/mouth of the victim with something like 85% accuracy.

My roommate and I should be joining in on the fun. Looking forward to meeting everyone

captive bred that eat pellets!!

First batch is in and look to be doing OK so far. The hermits are scavenging over my rock, peppermint is hiding in a cave, and I've lost the emerald in the back somewhere

Thanks a ton Laura! Was great to meet you.

183 / Duval?!?

We are practically neighbors

I'm at 183 / Braker.

Anyway, welcome to the site!

I have a Koralia 5 (1650gph) on one end of my tank and a Koralia 4 (1200gph) on the other end. It's a 75 gallon, and flow looks good to me. I'm not growing anything particularly difficult yet, but the corals I do have are doing well.

From what I've been reading, most people worry about "flow" in their tank when they really are talking about the velocity of the water moving. They are two different things. If you're worried that the K4 is just too powerful, put some nylon over it, or break up the direct flow with some rock-scaping.

IMO, it's seems better to have too much flow and adjust from there, than not enough

Here's what happened with my 75g. It's not a 55, so I'm sure your times will be different. Also, all tanks aren't going to go through their cycles the same way and in the same amount of time. With that disclaimer out of the way ...

75g tank arrived, we filled with water and sand (didn't use live sand). At this point we also added a phosphate filter to get those nasties out of the water.

Took about 4-5 days for the water to clear up, at this point we tested our salinity and made sure it was where we wanted it. I wouldn't think you would want to test the salinity with the sand still in solution as that can mess you up big time, especially if you use a hydrometer.

We added one ~15lb piece of LR to start seeding the sand. Gave the tank about a week and tested our parameters. Everything was through the roof But, this is to be expected as you're going to have some material dying off the LR you put in and it will take time for the bacteria to catch up and "de-nitrify" it.

After two weeks, we found a great deal on some LR and put in another ~100lbs of it. This put our cycle into overdrive. There was a HUGE ammonia spike about 3 days after we put it in, but we quickly saw those levels begin to drop as our bacteria was developing. We continued to watch our levels closely and saw the regular dips and rises in our levels.

Finally, after another 2 weeks our levels were starting to maintain themselves. Ammonia was staying at zero, nitrites were at zero, nitrates were holding steady (~40ppm). Time for our first water change!

We did a 20% water change and tested our parameters again 2 days after. Ammonia still at zero, Nitrites still at zero, Nitrates down to ~20ppm.

That's where I'm at with the tank currently, so the cycle isn't completely done yet, but it's getting there. Total time from when I put my first piece of live rock in to this point has been about 4 weeks.

We are planning another water change this weekend, so long as our parameters stay near where they are at to help bring that nitrate level down further. Then we'll be putting in the CUC.

As I said, though, each tank is going to be different. A co-worker of my roommate started his new tank the same time we started ours and he is still having trouble getting his parameters where he needs them to be.

On average, I'd say you'll be looking at anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 weeks minimum, but I'm no expert

Just keep testing the water and watching those numbers.

One thing that I think is worth mentioning is to watch how much of the CO2 you actually remove. I have heard about tanks that use the scrubber and end up removing too much CO2 and their fuges get killed off. Plants are plants and will need some CO2 to keep them functioning and healthy.

And, lets face it, it's fun to say fuzzy chiton.

LOL

It was Narsarius that I was thinking about

I agree, Fuzzy Chiton is fun to say, but to me, they look like cockroaches.

I like the look of hermits, and I could watch them eat with their tiny little claws all day. Maybe I'll cut back on their numbers and get a blue-tux urchin. Love the look of those.

I'll definitely look into the ceriths though, and maybe decrease the astraeas.

Tiger Tails look great too, and I didn't think about getting a cucumber. Something more to think about.

Thanks for the input.

Most of our rock is pretty well secured in there. Will the turbos detach corals and nems?

Being the ceriths are burrowers, is it better to wait a couple of months to add them? I've noticed with a lot of sifters that it's suggested to add them later in the life of your tank to allow the substrate to develop the material needed. The trochus look good though. Maybe more off them if the turbos are going to cause problems.

Tank finally looks like it is just about done cycling. Ammonia and nitrites have been at 0 for about 3 weeks now, and nitrates are continuing to drop (at about 10ppm right now). My roommate and I decided to give the tank another week or so and throw in another water change before we added a clean-up crew. From what I've been reading, we should be shooting for approximately 1 snail per gallon and about 1 crab per 4 gallons. Obviously, not adding them all at once.

Anyway, here's a list of the clean-up crew I'd like to have in the tank and wanted some input. Tank is a 75g, has about 100-120lbs of LR.

First addition:

10 Astraea Snails

3 Blue-legged hermits

3 Scarlet hermits

5 Turbos

1 Peppermint

Total Crew (eventually):

30 Astraea Snails

15 Turbos

15 Nassarius

7 Blue-legged hermits

7 Scarlet hermits

1 Emerald Mithrax

2 Peppermints

Think this will be enough to keep the tank clean? More/less? Also, will everything get along OK? I know that the crabs will likely attack the snails if there aren't enough shells or food for them, but hopefully that problem can be avoided. Any other suggestions for some things I may be missing or haven't thought about?

EDIT: Forgot to mention a cleaner shrimp as well

If only my tank was ready

I've read you can superglue the tube openings and they'll die off.

I'm sure if it got really bothersome, you could find 55g plastic drums. I've seen them floating around for $30-40 before.

Otherwise, I've never automated anything before, so I'm no help as far as commenting goes

I didn't think clowns liked condys ?

Is that over the period of one day mcallahan? Also, how did you get the measurements to make the graph?

Good Video

Nice to see some of the effort put in by these companies and a "behind the scenes" look at where our stuff comes from.

I'm wondering if the methylene blue the soak them in causes any side-effects that have to be overcome before they ship the livestock. I know that stuff can turn urine blue, and I'd freak out a little bit if one of my fish was leaking something like that

Happy Mole Day to any fellow science teachers out there

...and everyone else too!

I've been reading that the Star Polyps are only aggressive if stuff isn't growing around them, if that is the case, can the be "sequestered" using other corals to kind of box them in? Not that I don't like the little fellas, but I like other stuff too