KeeperOfTheZoo

Grr! I'm gonna have to miss this one too. GrimReefer reminded me the order was on... Both my little brothers hit me up for loans this week so my fishy play money is gone. I'm having to sit on my hands and not order to keep domestic peace in my household. I think my husband said something about a fish allowance and how it's been exceeded because of my brothers and...well... darn it sometimes I wish I'd been an only child. Hopefully there will be another group buy soon. I think I remember saying something like that just a few posts down. Liz

I've been using IO for a few months with mostly softies, my params stay very consistant. I do water changes every 2 weeks. The one time I tried red sea there was a ton of sludge at the bottom of my mix barrel. The various solids never would totally dissolve so I gave up. I don't know if I got a bad batch or what, never had that issue with IO. Liz

How much for the toadstools and what color are they? Ditto on the frogspawn. Need prices! Liz

Get a couple peppermint shrimp from Momma. They supposedly eat aiptasia and are a chemical free solution. That's one thing I haven't had to deal with yet, but getting the shrimp is a good excuse to go to Laura's house (she has all kinds of fun stuff)! If you haven't made it over there yet, she's right behind River City so would be easy for you to get to. Liz

Ok, well crud! I didn't realize I had to cut back that much. Poor little light shocked critters. Should I cut back now or just stick with it? Liz

All my zoas are loosing their colors!? They were fine, some even coloring up nicer than they were when I got them then I replaced my bulbs and over the last couple weeks all my colonies have started to fade to a tanish/brown color. I replaced 2 bulbs (everything was super happy, several zoas and palys turned brighter colors and I was excited to see things looking better than ever), then a couple weeks later replaced the second set of bulbs and ran them for a shorter time period for a bit hoping I wouldn't shock my corals. I have 4x96w PC lighting, nothing exciting. My old bulbs were *really* old though. Are my zoas just adjusting to the new bulbs? Will their colors come back? All water parameters are good, actually getting consistently better so I don't think that's it. The zoas are still healthy looking, open and several have added new babies. Actually now that I think about it, my mushrooms are kinda irritated too. Several detached and reatached in much lower light/shaded spots. They were at the very bottom of the tank to start with. I really didn't think I had enough light to upset the corals I have by getting new bulbs. The other corals I have are all happy, it's just the zoas and mushrooms. I hope they'll get over it! Liz

Awesome! Yes, more details please. I didn't think they could be kept in captivity. I may need to buy rock from RCA if those are the sort of hitchhikers you get. Liz

Huh, I have a yellow tang and want to add a blue hippo. Standard 6', 125g tank. My tang is still little, only about 2" long. If I add the blue hippo soon do you think having them grow up together will help diffuse aggression or will it still be an issue as they grow? I was hoping aggression wouldn't be an issue because of the very different body shape/coloring of the two tangs. So far my little tang is very peaceful, but I don't have anything else in the tank that resembles another tang! Liz

Thanks y'all! Jeff I love the planted tanks at Aquatek. Actually, they were my inspiration. I'd never seen planted tanks like that before and had no idea it was even possible. I've never asked about plants there though, just saltwater stuff. I'll have to pay more attention the next time I'm in to their selection of plants. Will ludwigia grow ok in low light? If so I'd love some. I'm shooting for about 1.5 wpg in the hopes that it'll let me grow a decent selection of plants without having to add CO2. I love the simplicity of my freshwater tanks and I'm hoping I can keep it simple and still grow plants. Have you ever bought plants from Gallery of Pets up on 183 & Duval? I haven't been in there in a long time, but I saw an online add saying they have a good selection. I'm starting to run out of room for tanks. The 125g takes up the entire 1/2 wall in my main living room, the 20g is currently in the second living area but will be moved when we put the 55g in there. I have a 10g in the kitchen and my boys have a 3g & 1.5g in their bedrooms. I love all the tanks. Gonzobob, I'm going to have to go research the dry start method now. How do the plants adapt when you fill up the tank and they are submerged? Bummer about the online vendors. I'd been looking at a big site thinking I might order from them, but now I'm leery. I've got a few plants growing in my two smaller freshwater tanks, I'm hoping to transfer some of those over to the 55g. I'm still trying to decide exactly what I want and can put in the tank. Did y'all use specialty substrate for planted tanks? I was looking around on a planted tank forum and found a link to a guys low tech tanks that were absolutely gorgeous! He used plain fine natural gravel for the substrate, had 80w of light over some good sized tanks (75 & 90g tanks) and the plants in the tanks looked fabulous. Liz

I came over here with a purpose then got distracted by the 'who's expecting' post. Jeeze. Ok, are there any great 'local' resources for folks with planted tanks? I have a 20g freshwater angel tank that has a few random live plants. I'm upgrading that tanks inhabitants to a 55g and would like to go for a true planted tank. Gonna keep it low light and simple (the saltwater tank is all the high maintenance I can manage right now). I'm just in the planning and putting together stages right now. The tank, filter, etc is sitting in the garage awaiting occupancy. Aside from ordering online, where's the best place for plants? Thanks! Liz

Thanks Mike! Well, that sure makes things easy. Tons of little bitty clowns out there. Now I just have to get my quarantine tanks set up. Liz

How about mixing different sized clowns of the same type? I have an ocellaris (the one in my avatar) that is about 2" long. I'd really like to get another, but all the ones I see at fish stores are teeny tiny. How likely is it that the bigger clown would really hurt the smaller one? Liz

How do y'all set up and maintain your quarantine tanks when they are occupied? Primarily: - what size tank do you use (I doubt I'll quarantine more than one or two fish at a time, I was planning on using a 10g)? - what sort of filtration? - how do you keep ammonia, nitrites & nitrates in check (would one of the simple little sponge filter/aerators with carbon work if I put the sponge in the sump for a while before using it in the QT?) - how long do you quarantine for and what logic do you use for the length of time (I've read different things) Anything else I should be aware of? I'm getting itchy for a new fish, but unless I can find someone here selling one I want I will need to quarantine (yes, I know I take a risk not quarantining everything that comes into my tank but...). Thus far all the fish I've bought except my ill fated mandarin were from fellow ARC members and I didn't feel the need to quarantine. Liz

Oh wow, now I see what you mean about the giant toadstool when it is open. You have really nice tanks and I enjoyed seeing them and meeting you. My new kenya is doing great! Hands down you have my new favorite fish... your moorish idol is just beautiful. After all I've read about how hard they are to keep it was neat to see one that is so healthy (and eating like a piggy!!) Liz

It looks like a little Asterina star. I thought they were more or less good? http://www.wetwebmedia.com/asterinafaqs.htm I have several in my fuge and they mow serious paths through the algae on the glass. I have a few in my main tank and they never bother anything, just graze on the rock. I'm kinda confused now. I've heard a couple people say bad things, but most are good. Liz

Lol! You're gonna have me convinced to get a rabbit fish. I just left RCA and they have a big one. Really like the coloration. Well, I guess it's good to know my urchin isn't alone in slacking. My kids are waiting for it to pick up something interesting, so far it's just hauling around CC and little shells. They are keeping a running count on how many pieces it can carry at once. Liz

I bought a cute little royal urchin hoping it'd be a good algae CUC member. Well, it ate the very small patch of hair algae I had in the tank and is refusing to eat what I think is derbesia. I noticed this morning it ate a path through some coraline. :/ If it's gonna refuse to eat the derbesia how and what do I feed it to help encourage it not to munch on coraline? It's a neat little critter so I don't want to get rid if it. I don't want it to starve either. Haven't found much info about feeding urchins aside from their supposed fame for mowing through algae. Apparently mine didn't read the mass algae consumption memo. Liz

Are you saying the clown is bad as far as eating pods? I have an ocellaris clown and I've never seen her cruising the tank hunting for food. She spends the majority of the day hosting her hairy mushrooms. When I had damsels they would actively cruise around hunting pods. It was interesting to watch. The Sgt majors were very agressive hunters. Liz

Is the target 'goby' a target mandarin?I had a gorgeous, fat green mandarin that disapeared out of my tank overnight. Nothing in my tank would have hunted/eaten him alive and there was no trace of him come morning. I'd just added a little very busy (but not agressive) Pygmy angel. Are mandarins jumpers? I loved that fish! I was worried about him starving, not suddenly going missing. I never found remains but I have a cat and dog inside. I really miss my mandarin. I wish I knew what happened. Liz

I *think* I am nearing the end of a 2 month battle with cyano. I don't have enough experience to say 'X' worked 'Y' didn't. I attacked the cyano on all fronts as close to it's root cause as I could get: nutrients. I had insane high phates and trates. Had to knock them out so I utelized as many export means as I could. I added a fuge with chaeto. I have been using granular media as well as polyfilter nutrient absorbing sponge. I bumped up to weekly 15% water changes. I hit the area (the entire front susbstrate of my 6' long tank) where the cyano liked to grow with direct flow. It's gone from a red film all over the substrate to one little fading patch! I'm afraid to get to excited. I agree that phosphates seem to fuel it. My nitrates were easy to get down, still struggling with phosphates. Oh, I've also been feeding the fish lightly. I never tried lights out, I was worried the cyano would come right back if I didn't fix what was feeding it. I think the lights out would probably work well for the periodic random outbreak. I think though that if you are fighting a nutrient build up (I bought an established neglected tank with a big old nutrient load) then you really need to export the nutrients until the tank reaches a point where it's functioning in balance on it's own again. I'm seeing a reduction of macro pest algae in my dt as well as the massive reduction in cyano. I'm really hoping that I'm getting closer to hitting a nutrient export balance. It all seems to boil down to excess nutrients resulting in the growth of something, usually something you don't want. Of course. That said, I've read xenia are good nutrient cleaners. I have two types of xenia that are growing like mad! Liz

Do you know what kind of hermit it is? I have a big Gulf of Mexico hermit living in my sump for just the behavior you described. He wasn't such a bully but he's just so big and clumsy he was destroying stuff. I have another smaller one who isn't a problem, yet. Even my little blue legs pick on each other. Crabs are just stinkers, I think the trick is having ones small enough that they don't get into trouble with their antics. They are such good algae grazers I put up with the fights and plowing over stuff. I even have a ton of empty shells I bought just for the crabs and they still fight with each other. If you don't want to kill your crab, take it in to RCA. I was talking to Jake one day and he told me to bring my GOM crabs in because some people like to buy them for their predator tanks. Now, I don't know if that's to feed to other predators or just to have a big old rough and tumble crab in their tanks, I assume the later from the tone of the conversation. Liz

Thanks for the feedback! The crushed limestone sounds worth trying. I think I'm gonna get a bag and see what it does running in a smaller tank first. Experiment time. Liz

Yea, I'd read that it dusty and that you have to really rinse it. How old is your tank and what kind of water are you using? You think the diatom blooms are above and beyond the establishment of a normal cycle? Don't mean to be nosy, buy I sure don't want another substrate that's gonna cause me problems either. Ya think anything else could be contributing to the diatom blooms? Thanks for the input! If I can't find it and decide to use it I may take you up in the offer of the extra bags you have. Liz

Curious if anyone here has tried it. I've read quite a few reviews online and it seems like a good alternative to the rediculously overpriced special for saltwater bagged sand. I really find the price of the bagged sand offensive. Talk about taking advantage. Anyway, I saw lots of talk about 'tropical' play sands (same mother company as caribsea, same aragonite sand but so much cheaper) but n one of them seem to be available locally. After much reading and thought Id like to get rid of the cc in my tank. Aside from making the change slowly, Im not exactly sure what the best way to replace substrate in an established tank would be. Would leaving a shallow layer of cc to maintain some of tha infauna be asking for problems down the road? Ive read mixed things but nothing that really defines why some cc and sand mixed would be bad. I'm going for a shallow bed, possibly a remote dsb when I get around to making changes to my sump & fuge. Would appreciate input on the substrate and how to replace substrate. I do in theory have a second tank I could move fish into (have an empty 55g right now) but I'd really like to avoid totally breaking down the 125g to replace substrate if it can be avoided. Thanks! Liz

I've got all the other zoas/palys in my tank ID'd exept these two. I'm sure they are common, just haven't stumbled on a pic to ID them yet.