dweyant

They found each other yesterday afternoon. The wathman seems much happier now . He was just hanging out under a rock looking sad all day Saturday, he looked much happier gaurding the hole all evening last night. They have sort of run off the blennie that was using a hole in the top of the rock as somewhere to hide. He seems to have relocated to the other side of the tank. One questions though. Do I need to worry about the pistol shrimp getting aggresive and/or eating any of my other fish? He is fairly small, and I'm assuming (hoping) that if I keep him fed he will be ok? Thanks, -Dan

I picked up a Watchman and a pistol shrimp last night. The pistol shrimp took off into the rocks as soon as he got into the tank, and I haven't seen him since. The Watchman is hanging out on the sand looking sad. Will they find each other again (they where paired at the LFS), is there anything I can do to help, or will it just take a couple days for the pistol to get comfortable enough to come out of hiding? THanks, -Dan

Just wanted to post an update on the drama that is/was the exploding heater. I left some picture of the heater at Fishy Business a while ago, so I think some of you got a chance to see how it split down the entire side. The tank is back to normal, and everything seems to be doing well and happy. Shane at Fishy Business has been great in helping us figure out what to do with the tank, and getting everything back to normal. Rosemary with Marine Land (make of the heater) has also been quite helpful. She was very anxious to get the heater returned to them so they could figure out what happened. They also immediately agreed to pay for our losses, and we recevied a check for everything from them today. Also, thank you to everyone on ARC that helped especially offroadodge for loaning me lights (to heat the water) and giving me 30+ gallons of SW so I could do a bi water change the first night. -Dan

I'm a (semi) retired engineer. I'm now teaching (warping) young minds teaching them engineering (www.pltw.org). You think managing adults is fun, try the same thing with really smart, but no common sense teenagers . -Dan

Hmm, didn't realize that, but it makes sense I guess. I seem to loose about 1/2 - 3/4 inch a day in my sump. I was thinking about doing an ATO, I guess I need to up it on the priority list. I just got one of the reefkeeper lite systems. They sell an dual switch ATO that I might have to look at getting. -Dan

Wow, didn't realize that about the Hippo, glad I asked. I've got about 130 pounds of live rock now, and I figure I'll add a bit more as I find good deals and/or pieces that are interesting. Should that be enough live rock for a Mandarin? If not a hippo what else would you suggest? I was also thinking about maybe some frogspawn as an easy starter coral. -Dan

So, it has been a very eventful 2.5 months for our tank, but it seems to finally be settling in. The adventure with the heater made things quite "interesting", but thanks to some folks here we have mostly recovered from that. Marineland has been responsive, and has agreed to pay for our losses and expenses, so I have to give them credit for that. Anyway, it looks like things are working well, all parameters are normal, everyone looks happy, is eating etc. We currently have a Skunk cleaner (only thing other than the snails to survive the great heater explosion, so he is hearty), a yellow clown goby, a McCoskers(sp?) Wrasse, and a O. Clown. Plus about 30 assorted snails (margarita, Nasarius, etc.) 75 gallon tank, 20 gallon sump, currently two 36 inch T5 lights, but looking to upgrade to 4 48 inch VHO lights soon. I do have a couple questions. 1) The skimmer is still not doing much. It will occasionally produce a little skimmate, but not much, and I can't get it adjusted to do anything consistantly. Is that just because I still have a pretty light bio-load, or do I need to do something? 2) We are still fighting a bit of algae. Nothing major, but I'd like to do/get something to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. Suggestions? Is it time for some crabs? 3) What should we look at getting next? I'd like to add a Hippo Tang at some point, and I'd really like a Mandarian somewhere down the road (I know that tank likely won't be ready for that for some time still). Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. -Dan

Thanks, that is what I figured. If I don't have to plumb a drain line for the waste it simplifies the install a lot, and I don't waste a lot of water that should be fine for irrigation. -Dan

have a (maybe) sort of strange RO/DI question. I just bought the 75 GPS deluxe unit as part of the Bulk Reef Supply group buy. I have a pump house that has my well in it along with a 1500 gallon storage tank for the well water. I will be using (preasurized) water from the tank to make my RO water. My question is, how big of a deal would it be to run the waste water back into the tank? The vas majority of the water in the tank is going to be used for irrigation, and I'm thinking diluting the waste into a 1500 gallon tank shouldn't have much of an impact on the RO system? Thoughts? Thanks, -Dan

Talk to Shane at Fishy Business, he drilled my 75 and did a nice job with it. -Dan

I bought a 1500 gallon tank from them for my water well last fall. They where easy to deal with, and I thought very reasonable price wise. Oh, and just as an FYI, if the tanks you get are for rainwater collection there is no sales tax in Texas. -Dan

I want in! -Dan

I'd like to get in on a group order, end of the month is fine with me. -Dan

So we went down to Fish Business Friday evening (also went to RCA but didn't buy anything). Talked with Shane for a while and wound up with... six more nasarius snails six more margarita snails Skunk cleaner shrimp - This guy is wild. He mostly hangs out behind a piece of rock, but will occasionally just start shooting all over the tank. At one point yesterday he was actually walking upside down just below the water surface. He has also tried to clean the Clown and Blennie with limited success. Bi-Colored Blennie - Was a little worried about him at first, did not seem happy by the time we got him acclimated and ready to put in the tank, but he was swimming around eating algae yesterday and seemed pretty happy. Thinking about maybe a Hippo Tang next, but I'll probably wait a week or two for that. -Dan

Do/will the Nassiruis eat copepods? I would like to get a mandarin somewhere down the road, so I want to be careful about adding anything that might make that more difficult. The wife and I are thinking about going down to the RCA sale tonight to look at some stuff. Just want to have some idea of what is appropriate before we show up. Try to minimize the chances of an impulse buy . What about adding an urchin and maybe a few emerald crabs? BTW, the tank is cycled and seems stable, but is still a new tank. -Dan

Ok, The 75 gallon seems to be doing well. All of the parameters are good. We put our first live stock in it last weekend. One small clown that is doing well. Screaming all over the tank. we also added 6 bumble bee snails, 18 (?) snails, and one nassarius snail. I think one of the snails isn't doing well/is dead, but everyone else seems happy. We are having a bit of a problem with algae, but from what I understand that is probably normal/to be expected at this stage. So, what should we look at adding next? I "think" I need some more CUC stuff, it seems like the algae is getting a bit better, but there is still a lot of it. Suggestions? -Dan

Don't they know they are supposed to be eating my algae, not hanging out at the water line....

Thanks, everyone seems happy so far. We also got a clown fish yesterday. He(?) has been flying all over the tank checking everything out. Seems to be having fun. My daughter has been having a lot of fun just watching him. -Dan

Hi, Picked up about a dozen snails yesterday for my tank. They seemed to be ok last night, but most of them have spent the day hanging out at the very top of the tank right at the water line. Is that normal, are they just getting acclimated to the tank? All of my parameters are good. I took a water sample into Shane at Fishy Business yesterday and he checked everything for me. -Dan

It is an Aqua C Ev-120 in a 75 gallon tank. The instructions said to keep the outflow above water level. It has been running for about six days, and it just started making a lot of bubbles today. -Dan

It is an in sump skimmer. I have it elevated just a bit so that the outflow is just above the water level in the sump. Nothing new lately, just a new tank. I think the tank is cylcled. All of the readings have started to stabilize just in the last day or so. -Dan

I've had my skimmer up and running for about a week. This is on a new tank, with nothing but live rock (and some hitchikers) right now. Today I came home and the skimmer was producing a lot of foam, i.e. filling the chamber with very wet bubbles. I slowly opened the valve (per the instructions) to try and get the skimmate adjusted. However, I now have the valve all the way open, and have even started to choke off the air intake, and it is still producing large amounts of very wet bubbles. How should I adjust this thing? Thanks, -Dan

Is it too late to get in on this? -Dan

I'll take it! PM Sent. -Dan

At the suggestion of several people we decided to have our 75 gallon tank drilled so we could use a sump without hanging a box. We had Shane at Fishy Business drill three holes in the back of the tank, and he did a very nice job. However, after having it up and runing for about 24 hours, we are noticing how loud the flowing water is. I'm fairly sure the noise is coming from the water going over the overflow(?). Is there anything we can do to help mute the noise some? Put some sponges in the boxes maybe? Thanks, -Dan