KeeperOfTheZoo

I have yet to participate in the whole group buy deal. I realize I just missed a reef cleaners group buy. Grr!

Anyone gonna set another one up soon? There are a few things I'd like to order, if shipping could be avoided that'd be great. Only problems is I live very far N. of Austin. Not sure if there is enough interest out where I am to do an order for locals (Kempner, which is outside of Killeen), or would someone in Austin be willing to hold my shipment for me next time a group buy is done?

Liz

Hey Ric,

If you wanna bemoan algae with me we can talk at the meeting. Heck, I'll even bring pictures of my tank. Misery loves company!

How does one go about using a filter sock? I know, I know... but I keep hearing references made to them and as simple as it sounds I'm not sure how to implement their usage. What are they made out of? Could I make one?

Liz

Wow, my local Asian market (in Killeen) has 1oz bags of Nori (totally plain, just seaweed) for $1.99. They have a whole isle that is nothing but seaweed in various forms and flavors.

My yellow tang is ignoring it thus far, but unlike some people with their beautiful tanks mine has a plethora of naturally growing algae that my little guy is glutting himself on. My oldest son named the tang 'Sprite', like the soda because his belly is so stuffed with algae he looks yellow and green... lemon lime!

If you ever want to loan out your tangs Laura I have an all you can eat buffet and their disposal...

Liz

Is anyone bringing name tags?

Patrick, right time of year if the weather is wet the creek on the 100 acres that ties into my place is crawling with crawdads. Nasty little things. My kids like to try and catch them.

Years ago we caught one and put it in one of our freshwater tanks. After it ate a couple fish I banded it's claws together. After it molted several times and started looking more like a small freshwater lobster than a crawdad we released it. It was an interesting experience. I much prefer them in creeks and tanks than as food.

Liz

Wow 1' mushrooms? Now that I can see eating something. I keep looking at my hairy mushrooms (the biggest is about 4" across) and wondering how it would even be possible for them to consume a 2"+ clown.

Sundra, you do have some awesome hairy mushrooms and I just read you have a mandarin as well. I was quite worried about the possibility of my slow, docile little mandarin getting eaten too.

I think I'll just keep all parties involved and only pull the mushrooms if they get monster sized.

Crazy J, not getting rid of my clown! Was considering getting rid of the mushrooms but wanted input first. As long as the mushrooms don't act like they are going to eat anything I'm going to keep them, my clown loves them.

Liz

Not sure if I really count but I'm closer than most. I'm in Kempner out towards Lampasas. Still a ways from Belton. I've met (and saw the beautiful huge tank) of another reef club member in Kempner. Met another gal that I'm not sure has joined the list, but she and her husband are setting up a new tank and they live in Killeen. So, there are a few of us out here.

Sure wish there were some better LFSs around here! We go to Fins & Flowes in Cove all the time because we buy our ball python's feeder rats there. I bought a very healthy banded serpent star from them. I get a huge kick out of the ladies that work there (and all the birds)! They'll happily special order fish and inverts if you want them too. Not always the best price available (mostly because they are so low volume), but I just like the store. Seems like one of the biggest gripes of everyone I talk to out this direction is the lack of a good, big, well stocked LFS.

Liz

Oh... the dreaded super glue! I am so horrible with that stuff y'all. I had to fix my daughter's barbie doll bed a while back and I was peeling glue off my fingers for days!

I checked again today and a few of the yellow polyps have attached to the rock rubble. Not exactly where I would have put them, but they are on there. Many are still loose though The zoas aren't even opening, let alone attaching to anything.

I'll have to just try the glue. At least I have some disposable gloves now. Might keep me from gluing my fingers together.

Bill, my mushrooms have obviously all been male. I told them to stay, gave them *the look* and not a one has budged from where I initially put it. Helps that I have 3 sons and a husband, I am well versed in subtle raised eye brow communication of threats. Which by the way don't phase my daughter one darn bit.

Liz

Hmmm... lizard skinned puffers.... wonder if anyone has ever considered making puffer skin boots...

I'm glad the eel is doing so well! Yep, he was a horrible beggar. We always thought it was really neat when he'd come out of hiding and swim the length of the tank looking for food. Very beautiful to watch him in motion.

I got him some baby octopus once. He refused to eat shrimp for several days until I forked over the octopus. I found it very amusing that he could be so selective. He really liked scallops too. My husband started accusing me of feeding the eel better than him!

Liz

Yep, I'd second the start of cyano especially the red growth on the rock in the upper left. That is how my nightmare outbreak started. Red growth on rocks, bubbles... now it's all over my substrate.

It seems like it's getting better the last couple days but I'm almost afraid to say that and jinx myself. Gotta go knock on wood, throw salt...

Liz

Gotcha Wayne. Well, I'll happily take as many as you'd care to unload. I'll bring something to put them in. I had a damsel that like to pick at zoas. What I found is that if they got knocked over/picked on too much they stopped opening. After that, it seems like they were a free for all for anything that wanted them. I watched that stupid damsel eat most of a frag. Made me SO mad.

Liz

Oh, hmm.... I thought you meant your frags got knocked over. What kind of snails are these? I had a zoa eating yellow tail damsel. They are just so cute when they are little... then they turn into big, mean, ugly rotten fish. It's living at Aquatek now. If you go, check out the holding tank with the odd assoreted big fish. That giant blue damsel? Yep, used to be mine.

I haven't had snails eat zoas. Laura gave me a neat giant snail. It's an algae eating machine. It's a little clumsy but hasn't knocked anything over yet, probably a good 1"+.

Liz

Is there magic to the water entering at the bottom and working it's way up through a reactor?

The baffles in my sump perfectly hold the two plastic media containers (side by side) that used to be in my big double bio-wheel filter. All the water in the tank has to flow through those baffles! Of course the water enters from the top then goes to the bottom.

Ric, read through the links on that website and if you decide to reduce your CC let me know how it works for you. I wish I knew if it was coincidence or a direct connection between the shallower CC bed and the nitrates. It sure looks nicer if nothing else.

I did remove it slowly so I didn't release too much nasty stuff into the water at once. When it was real deep I'd scoop about 1/2" worth of CC out on one side of the tank at a time being very careful not to stir it up too much. Then I'd do my water change and siphon the CC. I never had any problems with toxins being released.

I took it from a pretty deep bed.... 4-5"+ down to 1/2-1" deep right now.

I think I'm going to mix some sand into it eventually, just not sure how to do it without making a mess of the tank. Still gonna keep the bed 1"- 1 1/2" or so deep overall.

Liz

LOL!!

Ah, the mystery of the missing zoas...

How large is large?

If there are more after Ric is done making his selection and they are under the size of a key lime I'll take what you have left. I have plenty of algae for them to work on....

Liz

How do I go about securing loose zoas and yellow polyps?

I bought a rock of pink zoas and yellow polyps from peeperkeeper (they are doing great and my daughter loves the pink zoas!). The yellow polyps had started to encroach upon the zoas and one part of the zoa colony was no longer opening.

Sundra had tried to inject the yellow polyps with a hyper saline solution to kill them and it didn't work. So, I got brave (or insert other adjective) and decided to just cut some of the polyps off. Armed with gloves, goggles and a very sharp small knife I set to work on the colonies.

It was a great success! No problems and now the pink zoas are all opening up beautifully since the yellow polyps aren't all over them.

Which leads to my question... how do I get all the loose polyps I cut off attached to something? The first polyps I cut off I placed in a small container of rubble rock, covered with net for 24 hours in a low flow part of my tank. Took the netting off and some looked attached to rock, but they weren't so I repeated and have since just left them in the cup. No idea if they are attaching to the rock or not. The second bunch I trimmed off the parent rock included a few of the pink zoas. These I placed them in a small cup with crushed coral. My thought was that if I could get them to attach to anything at all I could then glue the little bits of CC with attached zoa to a bigger rock and away we'd go.

Is there a better way to do this? I know the safer method to propagate zoas is to place a rock next to the colony and let them grow onto it. But, since I needed to thin the colony that wasn't really an option.

Now I have all these loose polyps and I'd really like to get them secured where I want them instead of where they want to be, or where my urchin has decided they should be after picking up a few that escaped the cups.

The only other loose 'corals' I've worked with are mushrooms and xenia, both of which happily secured themselves where I wanted them within 24 hours.

Thanks!

Liz

Hey Ric,

No great advice, but I feel your pain. I'm basically in the same boat, err...tank?

I've got what I think might be bryopsis taking over a couple rocks and cyano decorating my crushed coral. It's very.... festive.

I've been using the DI water from RCA and I'm very happy with it. It always tests well.

I started with nitrates at 60+ and phosphates at 5+ back the end of September. The main things I have changed with my tank are:

- No more tap water, all DI now

- 10-15% water changes every week

- reduced my CC to less than 1" and saw my nitrates drop significantly (I read a lot about CC on www.wetwebmedia.com in their substrate FAQs)

- added a 10g fuge with chaeto & live rock rubble and a 20g sump w/ a chunk of live rock and a hermit that can't behave in the main tank

My chaeto is under cheap-o grow lights from Walmart! I have 2 strip lights on a reverse cycle. I've already had to thin the chaeto as it had grown so much in 2 months that it was getting compacted

- bought a good skimmer

- Have been running phosphate reducing granulated media as well as polyfilter pads

My nitrates are reading 0 (though they are not gone, no telling how much the algae is using up. At least I'm not getting high readings in addition to tons of algae now) and the phosphates are at .5.

I'm frustrated because I'm still battling all the junk even though my tank is so much healthier and my nutrient export systems are working. I'm hoping that I'm on the final leg of the nutrient battle and that within the next 6 months or so all the nuisance stuff will die off. Heck, I'd be happy if the cyano alone would just go away. The macro algae doesn't bug me so much and my little tang snacks on it all day long.

My tank was neglected before I bought it and had a lot of nutrient build up. I have yet to find a concise plan for rehabbing a reef tank where that's happened. I'm muddling through.

Hope you find a solution for your tank! If you do, please share. I too have had moments where I just want to rip everything out of mine and start over. However, it's a little on the cost prohibitive side! Replacing all the rock alone would be painful.

Liz

Oh wow!

The eel jumped out of my tank just once right after I moved him and re-set everything up. Maybe it's a getting used to a new environment thing. He never jumped again after that.

It was kinda funny... I'd read all these horror stories about eel bites and how bacteria laden their mouths are and how you're not supposed to touch them, hand feed them, etc for fear of getting bitten. So, I figured if the eel ever jumped (I don't have a top on my tank) I'd run get the dust pan and continue the rescue from there. Of course, when I found him on the floor (he was still slithering and wet in a puddle) I totally panicked. Ran over, scooped him up in my hands and plopped him back in the tank. Then realized he could have bitten me if he chose to.

Those eels sure feel weird. For some reason I was expecting him to be, I dunno... less slimey? We have a 5' ball python and the eel is so snake like. I guess it was a 'duh' moment when I realized he didn't feel a bit like a snake.

How is the eel doing otherwise?

Liz

LOL!! 3 out of 4 is darned good Laura. Some days I have to go down the list to get to the right kid. Soren is the only one you missed, which is fine, because he's little Mr. busy body and will happily remind you over and over who he is, what he's doing, what he's gonna be doing... ah the joys of 3 year olds! Thank you so much for the compliment on the kidos. My kids absolutelty adore you and are ready to swing back by for another cleaner shrimp and more conversation.

Dave, I will bring some drinks and snacks. I also have a screened tent/canopy if you think you'll need more than one and would be happy to bring it.

Liz

So, as I kinda suspected it would my crazy clown has decided to host in the new green hairy mushroom rock I added a week or so back.

I was doing some reading online to see how the mushrooms hold up to clown love and stumbled across a forum post where someone had a healthy clown eaten by a hairy mushroom!!

Kinda has me wondering... What are the odds? The mushrooms don't seem overly irritated by the clown. Hope they aren't luring her in to be a midnight snack...

Liz

Hey,

If kids are ok my 12 and 9 year old boys would love to come. They are saltwater aquarium addicts already.

Quick Laura... What are their names??? Lol!

And +1 for Seaworld. My kids would live there if I let them.

I can't wait to meet everyone.

Liz

Hey Daniel I just checked out both the products you suggested and wow, they sound like an almost perfect solution that would be truly beneficial to getting my tank back on track. Easier on my mind too than venturing into vodka dosing. At least for the tank anyway. My hubby and I discovered Dripping Springs vodka a while back. Good stuff and it's locally brewed. Much too good for the fish.

Liz

Hey Daniel I just checked out both the products you suggested and wow, they sound like an almost perfect solution that would be truly beneficial to getting my tank back on track. Easier on my mind too than venturing into vodka dosing. At least for the tank anyway. My hubby and I discovered Dripping Springs vodka a while back. Good stuff and it's locally brewed. Much too good for the fish.

Liz

As someone battling a nutrient build up problem due to neglect and the use of tap water by my tanks previous owner (see the phosphate battle thread a little while back to see where tap water use will lead you)... I think I can say with assurance despite being new to this hobby myself that you should probably just drain the tank. Before doing it you could run water parameter tests and see where you are at. If you are getting readable phosphates, ammonia or nitrates out of your tap water then it's bad.

I'll second getting water from RCA. I really, really like Jake and the rest of the crew there. Check and see what SG they sell their saltwater at. I know when I looked at Aquatek their SG was lower than what I would want to keep a tank at (.021 or .022, something like that but don't quote me on it). I shoot for a SG of .025-.026. Natural seawater is .026, I don't think you can go too wrong trying to mimic nature and the general consensus seems to be to keep it around there. RCA gives a little discount if you buy your water 5g at a time. I use the 5g water bottles from WalMart and it's $1 per bottle per fill up. Best deal I've found. These are the blue bottles with twist on lids, not the 5g buckets. The 5g buckets don't really hold 5g worth of water. Sad that I know these things....

It very well may be easier the first time around to just buy saltwater and then mix in a little more salt at home if you need to up the SG.

Since I don't have an RO/DI unit of my own yet <hence buying water> I've been buying fresh DI water then mixing saltwater as I need it in a big trashcan. This allows me plenty of fresh water for tops offs and I can mix saltwater when I'm ready to do a water change.

If you haven't found it yet, I really like all the FAQs at www.wetwebmedia.com. There's so much info there it's overwhelming but I've saved myself a few headaches aleady by researching there before doing something.

Good luck! Where you warned that this is an amazingly addictive hobby?

Liz

I got a lot of sediment the one time I tried Red Sea salt. Mixed it the same way I mix the IO (trash can w/ 15-20g DI water,pump with a hose attached for ease in filling buckets, pour in salt, heat & mix 24+ hours ). I've haven't used the RS salt since. I have almost no sediment with IO. When I first got my tank I had 1/2 of a 5g bucket that I think was just labeled 'reef salt'. It mixed so well! I haven't seen it locally and there's no telling where the prev owner got it.

Is it beneficial to periodically change salt brands?

Liz

Interesting Mike and thank you for sharing.

The fact that the red slime showed up as your nitrates dropped caught my attention. I too had real high nitrates. They are now testing 0, as the nitrates dropped Ive had red slime show up. Is there a connection there?

So, did your tank get cloudy as the bacteria took off?

Did you run carbon or any other media while dosing?

Liz