KeeperOfTheZoo

I thought chromis were supposed to be pretty hardy. I've had an adult pair for a few months. They're pretty voracious eaters! Always the first to the chow. When you say 'long term' survival, at what point did you loose the fish and consider it early demise? I'm still adjusting to how long saltwater fish live vs most freshwater fish.

I did the same thing Ric. I found a plastic coated fan and clipped it on my sump. My temp had started to creap up towards 82 by the end of the photo period. With the fan it stays between. 78-80 perfectly.

Pending to Lou if it'll work for you!

AHH!

I made the classic mistake of thinking a 20g long would fit under my stand. Got it home and it will not fit between my braces. Grr! It was so, so close too.

So... I have a 20g long glass tank drilled with a bulk head at the upper corner on the long side of the tank (will post pics in a bit). The tank is freshly cleaned out, water tested and in good functional shape. It has (light) hard water staining so would be best for a sump/fuge vs. a display unless you want to get rid of the staining.

Here is what I am looking for:

20G TALL (I know this will fit, already have one under my display) tank drilled at the top either on the short side or on the long side very close to the short side (close to a corner). Must be drilled at the top of the tank!!! The closer to the top the better for my purposes.

I would also consider a smaller 10-15 gallon tank drilled with a bulk head at the top of the tank. Must be clean, water tight and in decent shape. I don't care if it's glass or acrylic, custom or prefab. I do want it to be clear so I can see into it.

Would prefer no bubble traps or anything else in the tank (gonna be using it as a fuge, not a sump).

I'm really looking for a straight trade but would be willing to sell my sump for $25 which is what I just paid for it.

This is AWESOME!!!

I love ideas like this where people find great ways to do things that aren't the 'Spend big money on big ticket items so you look cool amongst your peers' solutions.

I live so rural it would actually make sense to have a generator, although we've yet to need one. The battery set up would be perfect for running the tank, not overkill, easy, and economical.

Thanks for sharing.

I never did figure out what it is. Still in it's spot, still comes out at night to filter feed. Maybe some kind of bivalve? I dunno! It's weird for sure.

August, the white spots are spiorbid (sp?) worms. Little fan worms. They are all over my sump and were all over the fuge till I cleaned them out. I felt so bad taking down the 10g fuge and killing them all. A few of the larger ones might be limpets, I have quite a few of those too.

Not all non-photo corals are filter feeders. If you concentrated on those you can spot feed vs filter feed I dont think itd be any worse than anything else. I've contemplated a sun coral tank. I have a 20g I'm about to upgrade to a 55g, pondering nano ideas for the little tank.

Here is some food for thought.

When I bought my system the people I'd gotten it from had never, in 5 years, changed the bulbs. One ballast had gone out on the fixture but all the other bulbs still worked. It took me a few months of learning about SW to realize I needed new bulbs.

In that time I had a variety of softies and a few LPS & SPS growing great guns. I cleaned up a massive nutrient and hair algae problem. My corals looked good and healthy. When I switched to new bulbs a lot of my corals freaked out and I had to back way off on how long I ran my lights. I had some very negative color shifts and its taken a few months for the affected corals to color back up.

So, while I have no intentions of letting bulbs get 5 years old, I dont plan to replace mine before the 10-12 month mark. I'm sure there may be some spectrum shift and loss of output, but I'm not convinced it makes that much difference.

How about a non-photosenthetic coral tank? There's a beatiful amount of diversity in that group of corals. I would think you could spot feed easily enough in a tank that small so water quality could be maintained. Not sure of the growth rate of the non-photo corals but isn't it pretty slow for many? I've considered doing just this in a nano, I love the corals and they are so unique, It would be really different to have a 'no light' tank when so often 'max light' is what we're all going for,

Wow. That is an evil clown. Makes my tomato look like a saint.

Think I'm gonna stick to ocellaris clowns in the display. My little gal is just as sweet as can be.

I wouldn't worry about fish stress. My tank is against the wall in the larger of my two living rooms right in the center of my house. That wall backs up to my boys room & noise. I have 4 kids and they have friends over all the time. We also have a zoo. Needless to say, it is NEVER quiet in my house! The tank is also by the front door.

My theory is that like any other critter, fish get used to what is 'normal' in their environment barring something causing direct physical irritation (an aggressive fish, poor quality water, dangerous equipment, etc). My fish are unconcerned by the chaos around them. They do however swim to the surface and beg if anyone stops in front of the tank for more than a few seconds. Rotten fish.

My favorite (and I can't believe I'm saying this) is my tomato clown that lives in my sump. Normally the doors are closed. When I open them she swims over and 'clowns' around for attention. She is such a personable fish, even though she is a mean evil rotten no good beat up my helpless little ocellaris bully (hence banishment to the sump)!

Thank you! The powerheads work great.

I'm glad y'all met numbers. I'm gonna have to bow out. We're putting more down on the new Suburban than we first thought we would and Im feeling really guilty buying fish stuff when my hubby is stressing on finances. Since you don't need me for group head count now I can ease my guilt on the home front.

I have a 6' tank, I'm not sure a 48" light would cut it unless you want the outer edges of the tank to house very low light/ non photosenthetic corals. Which is an option. The non-photo corals are really pretty, just higher maintenance. From what I've seen T5s and PCs don't seem to produce a large amount of radiant light (not like MH do). Not sure I'm using the correct term! The light simply doesn't radiate out far.

I have an almost 400w 6' PC fixture over my tank. I have softies, LPS and a few of the easier SPS growing great. I'd like to upgrade to T5s eventually and it is hard to find an affordable lighting fixture for the big tanks. Options in the 6' range are limited too. You can find tons of smaller fixtures, not the big ones.

I like the two separate fixture idea. I've even thought about a couple of the lower watt MH pendants. It might work out cheaper.

Thanks so much y'all! Really helps to hear so many positive endorsements.

My kids and I saw Dave & Robins giant black cucumber at the meeting they hosted. I wouldn't call it ugly, a little creepy maybe. We enjoyed watching it. My boys thought it was totally cool and are excited about getting it.

Hope the timing works out today Dave!

Do you still have the 20l sump? Sent a pm and didnt get a reply.

OK, so how much would you charge for a phosphate test? I'm not sure I wanna know an accurate number. I'm kinda enjoying my inaccurate test bliss.

Ok, Dave you are so gonna roll your eyes at me but...

I gotta ask the list at large. What's your experience with sea cucumbers nuking tanks? I've done some research and it seems like a lot of folks feel they're a time bomb. Not a matter of 'if' they will nuke your system but 'when' and how bad.

I love their sand cleaning ability and my tank needs it (still on the long recovery from nutrient build up when I bought it), but I would be devastated if the cuke had a bad day and wiped out my tank.

I don't think I have anything in my tank that would pick on it aside from hermit crabs. From what I've read physical stress plays the biggest role in them going into nuke mode.

Advice?

(ducking and running now before Dave hits me with a wet fish, I've been going round and round about his black cucumber for months now)

LOL!! TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!

I've wondered about that Dave. My phosphate reading has remained 0, but I don't think I have one of the more accurate tests. What kind of test are you using? I feed nori a couple times a week for my tang but all my fish love it. They rip it up as they eat and I find chunks stuck here and there. Like others said, my other critters eat it if they can reach it.

Hey Lamont, how old are the k2 & k3? If not too old and in good shape I'd like both. You wouldn't be coming into Austin on Fri would ya? you're a little south for me but I'd really like the powerheads.

Ric,

When I moved my tank across town my fish were in storage containers for 24+ hours. I put aerators (pumps with an air stone, though I've read this can cause pH spikes so I'm not sure it's a good idea, I think a slow power head would be better) in the containers and everyone did just fine. No losses as all. All live rock was in containers and covered with water, ditto my CC and the few inverts and corals (tough stuff) that came with the tank.

If you can get the real big containers it's like a mini tank. Fill it with water from your tank (which is what I did, didn't make new water), add in some live rock so the fish can hide. You'll be fine. Just make sure that you don't overfill the plastic containers and explode them, I've heard stories about it happening!

Coolers make great water containers too. I brought inverts home from FL in a cooler, 48+ hours on the road and pretty much everything did fine and that was quite a massive change in environment.

I'm setting up my account. Anyone else in the Killeen area going to order and want to be my shipping buddy? Or anyone in Round Rock or NW Austin area, my hubby works in RR and can pick up for me.

Thanks Tim, as always I love your replies. I'm gonna check oxygenation problems off my list of concerns. With an open top tank and 40g of open top fuge/sump under the tank I don't think it's gonna be an issue. Especially once I upgrade both my return pump and my power heads. My fish and I can both breath easy now (not that they weren't all along, silly me I'm the one having panic attacks).

I've been testing less and less as I relax into maintaining the tank. The other day my pulsing xenia just weren't pulsing quite as vigorously as usual. I tested and for the first time my pH, kH and calcium had dropped below where I'm happy with them being (pH was 8, kH was 7, calcium was 380). I dosed the tank for the first time, 8 months into having it. Being me (ie- paranoid) I did it slow over a couple days.The xenia perked right up. I've read in a couple different places that xenia are a great 'canary in the mine', I think I'm going to believe it. It's a little silly but I was rather pleased with myself for noticing & catching the issue before it got truly bad. My kH is back up to 9 pH 8.3 and my calcium is at 420 (normal numbers for my tank), I'm happy with that. I have a lot more calcerous growth going on and knew I'd probably have to dose soon. Now I just have to test and see what dosing schedule will hold the parameters there.

Thanks everyone, and yep Bill, I talked to Shane. I figured someone would catch onto that but I wasn't gonna mention names. He is a fascinating guy to talk to and very different in his approach compared to most of what I've read. I'm not sure I agree 100% and he was obviously wrong about my oxygen levels, but I do think it'd be interesting to set up a tank the way he advocates. He has some of the best looking tanks/stock of any of the LFSs.

. . . so many opinions on how tanks should be run . . .

Really!? Hadn't noticed

Yea, yea. But I'm great at stating the obvious, right?

Hey, I didn't miss that treky response to my weird sponge and critter post. I just had to shudder at the fact that I got it. That's what happens to a girl after 16 years of being married to a star wars/trek junky. I get that stuff. Ugh.