KeeperOfTheZoo

Ok,

I'll bring ya some. Do note that you have been warned that this stuff has the potential to spread like crazy! I would strongly suggest you isolate it onto a rock, or as I've seen prof do (and am considering myself) attach it to the back of your tank or something like that. In other words, don't put it where you can't trim it.

I attached a picture of mine. It looks more pinkish but I have a lot of yellow in my lighting right now (playing with bulbs, trying to get it just the way I like it but not quite there yet). When I hit it with more blue light it looks more purple. You know how it goes with lighting...

I've seen anthelia/clove polyps get REALLY long (I'm having a duh moment on whose tank it was in, I've seen it in a couple tanks now), it's interesting how it grows in different tanks. In mine it has gotten very feathery with big skirts but not the huge long stalks and the colony is very dense. I really like it and hope it stays that way.

Are clove polyps and anthelia about the same or closely related? I have anthelia that looks just like rjohns pic. It's gorgeous flowing in the current and I like the soft pinkish color. But! It grows like a weed!!!!

I got a tiny frag that has grown into a huge colony in no time. I'm not sure if it always grows like this or not.

Derek if you want some I'll give you some. I'm trimming it back and tossing the cuttings because I don't want any more colonies in my tank.

I can bring cuttings to this months meeting if you'll be there.

Then there are those of us who see the challenge of tinkering, modification, taking things apart, making them better and never accepting out of the box as part of the joy of any hobby or endeavor.

But then, I'd rather build things myself or repurpose/modify something old any day.

I don't think HOB overflows are any more obtrusive than the built in style of overflows.

If I had my choice I'd go with a predrilled tank just to streamline things, but really a HOB is not the kiss of death some make it out to be. And if you ever decide to do something other than saltwater the tank doesn't have random holes.

I may be the exeption but I like both salt and fresh water tanks. I have 4 freshwater tanks to my one saltwater. Have a drilled 55g and an undrilled 55g that Im trying to find the time to get running. Will be salt and a planted fresh tank.

+1 on the aqualifter.

Late coming in on this between vacation and recovering from vacation.

Just want to say that with a properly set up overflow you can guarantee 100% that you will never have a flood.

It's simply a matter of correctly setting up the height of your overflow drain, the size of your return chamber in your sump and the overall capacity of your sump. Much harder to explain than set up!

First, divide your sump into chambers. Have your return chamber with your return pump be small enough that it can't flood your tank if your siphon gets broken and the pump pushes all the water up into your tank. My return chamber holds about 1 1/2 gallons. My DT can take that much extra water without overflowing.

On the other end, set the intake of your overflow high enough that if the pump cuts out and all the water drains down to your sump, the sump can handle the amount of water. There are calculators online that can help you figure out what volume of water will drain from x amount of surface area. My 125g drains about 10g of water when I cut the return pump and the water level drains below the level of the overflow intake.

I have a 20g sump, holds the overflow no problem.

So, if I loose siphon or my return pump there is no way I'll have a flood.

Hope that makes sense!

Oh I can see it now.... Think we can DNA type fish to verify genetics? I suspect they'd be a little hard to tag, brand or tatoo. Hmm, will we focus on sire or dam lines?

Seriously though, it's an interesting idea to ponder. Any time you have a captive breeding program that eliminates natural selection you have to be more aware of stock quality.

I made it home yesterday, missing the beach already! Waaa!

Most of my critters made it home alive. I lost a hermit the kids wanted to keep. Not to bummed about that aside from just general sadness a living creature died.

I have 3 fighting conchs, some snails and limpets in my old fuge which isn't tied into the tank right now. I also dumped in a bunch of mangrove pods. How long do I QT these

guys for and what am I even looking for disease/ parasite wise? I never QT snails, but for some reason since I caught these wild myself I suddenly feel like I should do something other than just dump them in my tank!

If all the conchs make it would anyone like one? I assumed one or more would die and I may still see a loss, but so far they are all doing good and I really don't want 3! They are about 2" long. I'm impressed by how tough those guys are.

I took the snail in to the LFS (which was very cool!) and the lady there said nassarius but I don't think that's right. I dunno....

As for collecting... going on what the long term natives are saying if something is washed up on the beach and you aren't stupid about grabbing it it's fair game. The 'law' may say otherwise, but I was sure not alone collecting things. There were folks on the beach with clear collection containers loading up and no one said a thing.

We went to a different beach today, didn't see as much stuff but it was still neat. Lots of little fish, big horseshoe crabs and tons of differnt snails and hermits. Only came home with a few more washed up mangrove pods.

I know this isn't the best picture, I can get a better one if needed but this one provides the basic shape/color so here's hoping!

This is a snail, good or bad? We collected a few because the shells are so pretty. Also gathered a few limpets, cute little guys but not at all flashy. They were chowing on the hair algae growing on a sea wall. Can't beat that!

Man, I don't want to come home. It's so pretty here and the beach... oh man... why don't I live on a beach???

I'm staying in Spring Hill, we went down to Madeira Beach across Tampa Bay. I think we'll hit the beach again today.

Laura, I could hook ya up with a serious number of conchs, I bet my kids would work cheap (free!).

That's exactly my plan so +1.

Already google mapped the LFS and will head there in the morning.

It's a long drive, will be a couple days on the road. I enjoy the drive though, so much pretty country to see.

Lol! This haul is mine.

We road tripped it so I'm haulin the hardier stuff in a cooler. Hope they make it.

The pale pink thing was solid, no inflation. Kinda rubbery. It was so neat looking/feeling. Wish I knew what it was.

Any chance the sponge could make it home alive, or is even still alive? I couldn't get it to stay out in the water, kept washing back up on the beach so I took it home. Figured itd be a gonner anyway.

Here are a few othere random critters. The crab was so much prettier in person, it was purple, yellow, orange and more. So pretty! The body was about the size of my fist.

Most everything was let loose at the end of the day. I'm gonna try to get the conchs and some of the snails & crabs home.

The kids and I hit the beach here in Florida today and had a blast finding cool stuff.

We found tons of Florida fighting conchs, lots of hermits, mangrove pods, some neat snails, starfish, an amazing colored crab and the following two things.

The pale pink/white colored one was kinda slick. I was about 5" or so around. Under the water its surface was like an opal, just gorgeous. Under it was a big hairy looking hermit crab!

The other thing is very orange and sponge like. It was not attached to the big shell, we were holding it with it.

Any ideas?

Well,

All went totally well. No problems at all and I think I'm past the danger zone. Good sand.

I am now a HUGE fan of converting nasty old CC sand beds.

Just wish I was home to enjoy it. Currently in Mississippi en route to N Carolina for a family emergency. I hate leaving the tank.

I think I'm gonna sneak in a trip to Florida on the way home though!!

Ric, I'm gonna get Koralia 3s. I figured I'd start there and add more if needed. Gee, I'd love to help you change over your cc bed but I'm a couple states away! LOL! It's really pretty easy and so worth it.

I will Gabriel and thank you for the heads up. I'll keep testing and watching. I mixed up more water so if things start to head downhill i will be ready.

Well, I would think stress then. That said, from reading is seems that the dusters/worms can be challenging to keep. I have tons of the itty bitty feather dusters on my rocks, no idea what did my big hawaiian in, it may not have been food related.

Glad you got your canopy to work for you! Do you have fans in it? Don't cook your tank with those halides.

Thanks for the warning Hamp. I am going to watch the tank closely. Will run water param checks again tonight.

Bummer on your tank crashing. Ouch. Did you have a lot of live rock?

I don't know why my tank didn't crash after the move (it's been 6 months now since moving it and its done nothing but improve). It was *so* neglected when I bought it. The CC bed was filthy, hair algae out the wazoo, massive nutrient build up (with high nitrates and phosphates). Maybe it was just so bad nothing could possibly make it worse!

Oh, and thank you for the compliment on the tank. It has come so far.

Danny,

Do you have any softies or LPS? Will you be selling fish and other livestock this weekend as well?

Sorry the time to end the tank has come. I'm sure that's gotta be a hard call to make.

Liz

Hey Teoahnna, what LFS was this? One in Killeen?

Hope your anemone feels better soon.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think coco worms can be hard to keep especially in a newer tank (because of the lack of plankton). I had a hawaiian duster and a cluster duster, both died. The cluster duster was doing great (making new tubes/babies) until my eel buried it,several times, then it never recovered. The hawaiian just up and blew its head and died one day. On researching more I learned filter feeders like these can be hard to feed. They eat little bitty plankton and can easily starve to death. I think that's what happened to my hawaiian duster. I'm going to try another one and specifically target feed it. They'll also blow their tops/jump out of their tubes because of stress. Your water params look great now (yea!!!!) but that KH spike you had was probably enough to stress a lot of your inverts.

All is well this morning. Water params last night and this morning are good. Everything settled, the water is totally clear (was by lights out last night). The stuff swirling around settled down, there's a different pattern in the sand now so I guess it adjusted to my power heads. I'm getting new PHs this weekend, hopefully they won't blow the sand around too much.

Ric, I'm just teasing you. If anything I do helps you at all I'm pleased! My tank is just one long, ongoing science project anyway.

Gabriel, I've done major moves and stir ups of my CC sand bed a few times now (the biggest when I move the tank and stupidly put the CC back in... didn't know at the time it was not what I'd want to use), it never sent my tank into a cycle. I tested for the complete nitrogen cycle right after moving, never got an ammonia reading. Ditto the 3 other times I took out significant amounts of CC from the tank and exposed the underlayers. Now, I don't know if that's because CC doesn't compact the way sand does thus allowing better water circulation through the whole bed, or if I just got lucky! The live sand I put in my tank had also just been moved a couple times and I dumped it all into a container and poured new water over it. With that much stirring and moving I'd assume I would have seen some sign of a cycle, right? Ammonia or nitrites (I left it in a container overnight then tested the water the next morning)? I didn't so I'm going to assume (hope!) that it was truly live and cycled and good to go. I'm not arguing with you, just kinda questioning the 'Don't re-use sand' theory because I've seen good arguments for and against. I'm hoping I'll dodge the 'against' bullets. Oh... might also help that I have a good amount of rock.

Anyway, my next step is hopfully meeting Prof on Sat to get more sand, finishing off the sand bed on the front part of the tank then working on the back.

Here are a couple of pictures with the sand in. Not great pictures, my camera was dead this morning so I took these on my iPhone. One thing I've noticed is that the sand is so much brighter than the CC!

Hey Glenda,

When will you be close to Lampasas? If you are close I could meet you somewhere or of course you are welcome to come out to my place. I live rural, so a bit off the beaten path. Are you out in this area? I've been trying to keep tabs on the folks that live out by me (Killeen/Cove/Harker Heights).

Did you get my PM (private message)? I'll go ahead and send another and hope we can work something out.

That is so cool!!

Think you furture MIL would like to host an ARC meeting? LOL!!

I was wondering the same thing about these anemones. I assume they are the rock anemones others have been talking about. They are pretty, but sound like aggressive little buggers. Clowns aside, what about other fish wandering into them and getting stung to death? Or is that just a risk you take with any anemone? I like the idea of the rock ones because they don't need as much light.

Ric, are you trying to use me and my poor tank as a guinea pig? A blog would have been a good idea. Sadly my allergies are making me miserable and since the water params on the sand came back great I just wanted to get it in the tank ASAP while it was still live. I will share my process & progress though.

Chris, the sand (as far as I can tell!) is awesome. I found a tiny frag of zoas in it (that are already open) and a cool little snail is climbing up the glass in my tank... not one I've ever had before so I assume it came from the sand. All water params in the container where I had it tested perfect across the board (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and phosphates). Thank you again.

Well, I had a lot more sand or maybe just a lot less actual 'floor' volume than I thought across the front of my tank. I do have a pretty good amount of rock. I ended up removing just over 1/2 a bucket of CC from the tank and replaced it with a slightly more shallow bed of sand (between 1/2-1", I may build it up a little more in spots eventually) that spans almost the entire front of the tank. More than I'd anticipated replacing, but I've taken a full 5g bucket of CC out of my tank at a time with no ill results so I'm not too concerned. Since the sand going in does seem to be fully cycled and live, I'm going to hope for the best and be happy I got so much done in a day. ** One note, since I was battling nutrient build up issues with this tank I had been doing deep siphoning of the CC bed to clean out old crud. It got fairly well rinsed when I moved the tank, but it was still kinda dirty. I'd also reduced the CC bed to less than an inch. If you have a deep or really dirty CC bed I suspect you might have more problems with releasing nasty stuff into the water column. When I was researching before doing this I read in several placed to deep clean the CC before removing it and in the case of a deep one to reduce the depth before finally taking it out.**

Removing the CC is very easy. I used (4th time around now I've done this, I've got the technique down) a small fish net. Scoop up a net full of CC, let small particle crud settle with the net low in the tank, lift it up and let the water drain a second then dump in a catch bucket. Easy removal that leaves most of the water in the tank. This only let me get to the CC in front of the rocks, the stuff behind/deep between the rocks is going to be more challenging. I did leave some of the CC around the rocks, no idea if it'll help with seeding or not, but it was easier to leave some than to try to remove it all.

Since the sand going in was wet it did not want to slide down a pipe (I tried a 5/8" flex tube with a funnel... it clogged too easily. A wider pipe and a DIY coke funnel might have worked better). However, since the sand was very wet it didn't float away much so I just scooped it up with a small cup and poured it out in the bottom of the tank. Easy enough. I'm going to have to get used to how sand swirls around. Nothing moved the CC... now I have sand blowing around from my powerheads. That's novel, for me.

The whole process did make a good sand storm in the tank, but neither my corals or fish are upset. A couple corals actually seem to me enjoying the mess (my candy canes have had their feeders out all day)! It's been about 4 hours now and there's a slight haze in the tank but you can see through it and the worst has already settled down.

I'm going to test water params tonight and in the morning. Thus far everything in the tank is doing great, no distress at all. I have 15g of saltwater made up in case I need to pull critters or do a water change, another 15 of DI water I can convert to salt in an emergency. Makes me feel a little better. I may just be in the calm before the storm (or crash), but it's been a few hours and all seems well so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed

For the CC behind the rock... I think I will siphon it out a bit at a time during water changes and then try filling it back in with dry sand and tubing. That's going to be the harder part of the change to accomplish for sure.

Overall, I'm really happy. The sand looks *SO* much nicer. I mean wow... world of difference! Will update tomorrow on the condition of the critters in the tank.