barderer

I have the following bulbs for sale. They fit in the BioCube and other tanks that take 36w bulbs. All are new and tested

2 36W 50/50 10000K WHITE, 03/BLUE 420NM ACTINIC PC STRAIGHT PIN - $10 each

exact bulb http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/product_in...products_id=999

1 36W 03/BLUE 420NM ACTINIC STRAIGHT PIN PC - $10

exact bulb http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/product_in...products_id=998

2 AQUA LUX 36W 450NM BLUE STRAIGHT PIN PC - $10

Or you can buy all of them for $40. I got these extra bulbs from a order mistake by Aquarium Hardware and I don't need them. They are brand new.

Thanks,

Nick

Central Austin

nckff AT yahoo.com

one left, thanks for stopping by Sean.

hmm, I would say the more diverse the better. I like to have multiple species of hermit crabs and multiple types of snails...but if I had to generalize

brittle star for the "under reef"

blue leg hermits

scarlet hermits

cleaner shrimp

a star fish that likes the "top reef"

a sea hare

turbo snails glass rock work

certh snails glass and rock work

nassuris or however you spell it for the sand bed.

bristle worms or other sand bed turning creatures

For sale, two 1" frags of pink birdsnest coral. Please specify if you want them horizontally (faster growth) or vertically mounted. $10 a frag. Central Austin. This is a photo of the mother colony.

Shot under half 10,000k half actinic lighting.

The Birdsnest Coral is also referred to as Seriatopora Bird's Nest, Needle, Finger, or Brush Coral. It is a small polyp stony (SPS) coral with very delicate, thin branches with needle-like tips. It is found in a variety of shades of pink. These are very delicate, but beautiful corals that offer a variety of shape and bright coloration to a reef aquarium.

The Birdsnest Coral needs strong lighting and moderate water current to maintain its bright colors. For continued good health, it will also require the addition of calcium, strontium, and other trace elements to the water.

While it does not require additional food to maintain its health in the reef aquarium, it will feed on micro-plankton and foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates. (Source www.liveaquaria.com)

Thanks,

Nick

I am looking for different types of macro. I already have

Dragons Breath

Caulerpa nummmularia

and the one that looks like long wavy grass which I can't remember the name.

I am looking for

Neomeris annulatis

Caulerpa racemosa (grape) purple or green

Caulerpa sertularoides (feather)

Acetabularia sp. - Mermaid's wine glass

Halimeda sp

purple macro of any kind. I will pay cash or trade.

Thanks,

Nick

I ended up buying one...and he is great! He will be up for rent after he eats everything. hehe

Well I have been wanting to upgrade my BioCube29s stock lighting kit to 144w for a while now but didn't want to drop the 180 bucks nano tuners demand for the 144w upgrade. I also didn't like the idea of placing all the bulbs in the stock light cover. So I found a nice 36wx2 retro kit for 80 bucks(w/bulbs!) and "tunned" it myself. The front feeding door was converted to a removable light camber. The stock reflector and moonlights were moved and cut to accommodate and extra bulb. Remounted the moon lights at a 30 degree angle from the back of the tank to give them more coverage. The nano tunners kit pretty much takes the moon lights out of the picture. I also replaced the fans with some extra CPU fans I had lying around, and sealed the venting so air would be forced from one side to the other, so now the hood stays much cooler (cool to the touch). Having the extra light in front of the tank is great as a LOT of corals are up there. The tank is now twice as bright. It was a royal pain in the *** cutting the acrylic and shaping it to make the extra light chamber but I would highly recommend giving a project like this a shot if you have a cube. It's bright!

Cube under 144w while maintaining the stock look from the outside.

was more of an experiment anyway...

If you part out put me down for

1 purple palys

1 head torch coral

1 green hairy mushroom

10 or so assorted snails and hermits.

Thanks,

Nick

It can be easy if you move slow and don't add too much stuff to the tank. Do your research on your corals. Make sure you put hardy species that will do under the low light conditions of the stock cube. Otherwise you are going to have to drop the cost of the cube+ on a lighting upgrade. If you aren't going to put any fish in the tank it will greatly reduce its maintenance. Basically the place people mess up the most is feeding. I only feed my fish twice a week (And they eat everything). I only feed corals that benefit from direct feeding with a syringe. I don't use a chiller, I don't use a skimmer, all I do is change the water and dose Ca.

BioCube 29

replacing bio balls with ruble (90% of the way there, removing 10% of the balls and replacing with rock on a monthly bases)

removed stock carbon filter and use a nylon bag filled with carbon in the 3rd chamber and I put floss on the trickle filter to catch the big stuff.

placed heater in chamber 1.

everything else is stock

40 species of coral

a diverse clean up crew with shrimp, crabs, sea stars and 5 types of snails (Key)

4 fish (dwarf lion, sixline wrasse, yellow wrasse, clown) I introduced the fish one by one over the course of 6 months to allow the system to handle the load.

I have left for week long vacations before and its been ok. One time the heater failed and I lost some coral but it is because I was cheap and turned my furnace off and it happened to freeze that week. Anyway, its all worth it. I love having a marine tank. I will never not have one.

Nick

frag tank

correction clear some hair algae from some rocks with coral on them

I need to use a sea hare for about 2 days to clear some rocks from some coral I bought. Anyone got one up for rent?

interesting effects. Sounds like a nasty experience. What type of zoo was it?

Yeah that seems like a repackaged version of the dow flake solution.

I am trying to decide how I am going to dose calcium in my frag tank and I want to use kalk because its simple and easy and I can use my existing top off system. Ca reactor is out the question because of up front cost. I wanted to do the DIY three part system using dow flake etc...but getting the materials in the south is hard and there are the concerns with the excess build up unwanted ions due to the powders lack of purity as needed per its intended application. I wanted to know what you guys thought of this. Dosing Kalk with vinegar

http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/breefcase/kalkwasser.html

Also, if I dose kalk do I have to dose magnesium as well? What is a good cheap DIY way with materials that can be found locally?

Thanks,

Nick

there is a slug that eats it and only it. If you can find it...that will solve your problem. Just scrap it off the rick with your finger nail and do a water change and its gone.

note some zoo eating slugs are rumored to eat aiptasia. Try placing the slug in a jar with a aiptasia infested rock and see what happens.

hmm that one looks different from the 1st one. The first one looked interesting because of the white tips it had which make it look like

http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=aeolstep

but I think since you are dipping your zoos and they are falling off its a good bet to say they are the zoo eating kind. Are you zoos disappearing?

At the meeting we discussed auto top offs and I brought up the gravity driven auto top off which is a good choice in certain situations like when you have a small tank or a large area for your sump, or don't care about looks. Oh and also its dirt cheap and probably one of the most reliable systems. I just constructed a super ghetto auto top off system for my super ghetto frag tank and thought I would post how it is done.

This auto top off has a snail guard, quick connects, and adjustable water level latch. If you don't include these extras you can build this for 8 bucks. But as is it is $15 dollars.

Materials.

2 1/4" quick connect to 1/2 screw in adapters - $3

2 1/2" straight to 1/2" screw PCV adapters - $.50

a foot or so of 1/2" PVC -$.25

1/4" tubing of choice, I like poly tube as it rigid and good for going through stoppers. $3

Number 10 stopper from the home brew store $1.50

5 gallon water jug from H.E.B $5

2 1/2" PVC snap tub holders $.50

1 blue PVC electrical outlet box(Perfect snail guard) - $.36

1 suction cup thing from a power head - $?

Tools

Drill with 7/32(the one right below 1/4) bit

number 3 metric alan wrench for pushing tube through stopper

silicon sealant

pvc glue

cutters

Step 1.

Drill two holes through stopper with bit. You want the holes to be as close to air tight as possible so drill with a smaller bit then lubricate the holes with olive oil/mineral oil and put alan wrench through hole. Place tube over end of alan wrench and push through. The alan wrench will give you nice leverage so the tube should slide right through. Run one tube long enough to reach the bottom of the jug, and the other just long enough to get through the stopper. Wipe off oil and seal the tubes to the stopper with silicon. You can attach a piece of spare PVC to the siphon tube so it stays at the bottom of the jug. Note: you can also just use rigid tubing to go through the stopper but, eh, I didn't have any.

Final stopper assembly

Step 2.

Assemble snail guard and water level control. Attach suction cups to the back of box. In my case I just made two cuts and slide the suction cup block on the box. Attach the two 1/2" PVC tube holders to the inside of the box. Assemble 1/2" PVC, quick connectors and caps into one short tube(siphon output) and one long tube(water level control). When you are done it should look like this.

Step 3.

Fill Jug with water, place above sump or in this case tank. Set water level by moving water level control tube up or down to the desired level. Snap holder shut. Connect everything and start a siphon with the siphon drain tube and quick connect it to the siphon drain pvc connection. Bam! your auto top off is running. Snails can't stop it, You can adjust water level control just by moving the PVC tube up and down, and it almost never fails. Some things to watch out for. Make sure you run the water level control tube long enough or high enough such that the vacuum created by the siphon can't draw water up the water level control tube. Make sure your jug is placed high enough such that your siphon is strong and won't break by sucking air once the vacuum in the jug is created.

I hope someone finds this useful.

don't know if its too late to RSVP but I am going to try and stop by. Will be my first meeting.

Nick

Is there a coating out there that one can apply to plexiglass or glass that prevents or inhibits condensation?

That clam is bigger than my tank . I agree its worth 300 in terms of time and money you put into it, ppl just don't like forking over that much for livestock for some reason hehe. I hope you get a good price.

N

that clam looks great! GL selling it at that price though.

there is no way you can positivly ident that from the underside like that. Although I do agree it was wise to remove it while its an unknown. It could be an aptasia eating nudi as well. Don't kill it yet, can you take a photo of the front and post it so I can id it for you.

http://www.berghia.net/market_size.html

Nick