ClarkiiCircus

LOVE THE CLARKII PAIR!!

Hey Grog, *in reference to your march 4th ID's*

The thing you think is a mushroom or "hard" seagrass is actually a kind of green macroalgae called Udotea, not sure of the particular species without being able to look at it more closely. They love the gulf and the Caribbean. Feels hard from some nice calcification going on. The stacked hard one is also likely Udotea, as like halimeda, they stack but not as completely.They need a sandy substrate to stay anchored so make sure they stay "planted". My inner phycologist is reallyreally jealous of you. I love macros.

pH buffer, DIY sodium carbonate: Bake Arm&Hammer baking soda (1lb) on cookie sheet (spread out) for 30mins at 350. Store in airtight container. Dissolve some in RO/DI water for a quick, cheap, buffer.

We make our own fish food :] Be sure to add garlic extract (or something like garlic extreme!), any old flakes, Zoe, vitamins to make it completely balanced! Made a legitimate 6 month supply for only about $10!

Thanks so much biocubed! I will be putting the UV on in the morning first thing as soon as the lights come on. It was great meeting you too! Also, keep us updated on those copepods we talked about. Thanks again HI, I really appreciate it.

As an update for anyone else reading, I put the clown in QT this morning and let her acclimate for a while before adding the first half dose of copper, per the cupramine directions. I have towels around the edges so theyre blacked out, and only gave her about 10 hours of light today. Before moving she was eating fine, 3 big meals. SInce putting her in, she has yet to eat but mostly I think she is still just adjusting. She zooms around fairly normally and honestly I think I moved her at a good time in the phase of the ich: Lots of the parasites seem to have receded and she has far less spots than yesterday. We'll see how she is in the morning!

Much thanks everyone! I set up the QT this evening, waiting for it to come to temp before starting the copper treat on her tomorrow. Hope all goes well, keep your fingers crossed! HI, I will stay in contact, and will probably be using the UV for about a month, not any longer than that I expect. Also, bought zoe today to dose the food with in addition to the garlic. Thanks again, you've all been so great.

Sargassum fluitans. Thats what's up. Should go nicely in your 18,000g set up.

Cool. H.I. Do you think you could bring the UV sterilizer to Bio^3 up in North Austin? Then he can bring to to me on Wednesday?

Thanks so much, let me know if that works out!

Dapettit,

I will start to soak her food as well. Right now she only eats cyclopeeze and literally spits anything else out, even mysis. How long should I soak just a very small cycolpeeze block do you think? I feed her 4X a day, but just a small amount, I usually buy the stick cyclo and wave it in the water for about 2 secs, which makes guessing an amount to soak hard

Hydro,

Thanks for all the great insight and info. I am thinking of putting her in a copper QT for a month. You don't think she is too small to do it? (She is a juvenile, only right over 5mo. or so I believe) I have heard hypo is the least stressful, but I have also heard its super intense to keep the SG just perfect while keeping pH in check... I am honestly more inclined to copper but I just want to make sure.

By the time QT is over, (Most say 28 days?) all of the cysts should have died/starved, etc. so I should be able to replace her in the display after leveling the copper and observing her in QT for an additional few weeks. (~6 weeks QT total) You think? In the beginning (a couple of weeks ago- she didn't start showing signs until yesterday in the AM) I did a big water change (about 40%) and I have been doing a 15% water change every other day.

Also, I have no idea how UV sterilizers work exactly, do you think it would be possible to rig it onto the outflow of an Eheim 2213 that I am currently using to filter the water? I honestly would still probably want to use UV in addition to just the time without a viable host to be double sure.

Thanks again for all your great info.

Hey there,

I'm sad to say that it looks like my 10gal w/ a juvenile "super-red ocellaris" appears to have ich. The male died a few days ago, but the female is still kickin. She is eating fine, protecting her anemone, zooming around per the usual, but is covered in white spots. I don't want to QT her because she is pretty small and I have heard mixed results moving them when they are still lively in the first place (more stress for both her and me than its worth...) I also can't add any rid-ich or any of that, or copper, because I have corals, inverts, anemone, etc.

The good news is, she is the only fish, so nobody else is at risk of being infested as well.

SO, I was wondering if anyone has a UV sterilizer I could borrow for a couple weeks? Since its a small tank (only 10gal) it wouldn't need to be a high intensity/power/turnover rate. How long do you think it would take to work out most of the ich? Would this even be effective? Right now I am adding garlic extreme to the water daily (not soaking her food, but dropping it straight in, the instructions say to do that method if parasites are already externally visible).

I couldn't get a pic of her w/ the spots, but here is a cute one of her snuggling in her anemone. For no real reason at all, other than it is cute, and I like posts with pictures on them.

I could pick the sterilizer up from anywhere in Austin area, on any evening. Thanks so much for your help and responses!

The life span of the rotifers in a tank with no filtration would mainly depend on food availability (and the rate of which your filter feeders can snack on them!). They eat phytoplankton (or greenwater). Without adding live phytoplankton to your tank, I would say they would last at least a week circulating in your tank. But remember as the time rotifers go without eating increases, the nutritional value of the rotifers decreases. Big fat rotifers with full bellies of fresh phytoplankton will be of much higher value nutritionally to your filter feeders, than rotifers that have not eaten in five or six days. I am not saying you should add live phytoplankton to your tank (I feel like that would trigger alot of other process that you don't want in your home aquarium).

One other thing (that Im sure you already know, but I just want to say it incase.)- With no filtration, you still want good water circulation via powerheads or whatever. Rotifers are motile, but this does not mean they are good swimmers in an aquarium. Without decent water circulation the odds that a rotifer 150 µm long will swim into your sponge is pretty slim. Adding live rotifers to an aquarium with stagnate water would not be very beneficial to your filter feeders.

oh yea,

FYI they are type L rotifers. Brachionus plicatilis

Ok, they would last a week in the fridge for sure. There life span is normally ~7-14 days. Once they are not being fed the population will steadily decline after 7 days.

As far as quantity, Ive been bringing 2 liter bottles to the LFS'. But if you don't want or need 2-liters, I can do whatever quantity you prefer, if you bring your own bottle, lol. I was thinking around 10$ for a 2-liter? Is that reasonable? Im open to trades or negotiations. Just let me know!

Im currently culturing live rotifers in my apartment to feed my clownfish larvae. But rotifers can be fed to all filter feeders (sponges and corals) and they love it. Let me know if there is any interest to buy or trade for some!

-They will last at least a week in the fridge.

-Currently, rotifer density in each batch fluctuates daily according the amount harvested the day prior.

- They are Type L, Brachionus plicatilis

Timfish,

It was me (Emily ) and its looking pretty excellent in my aquarium actually, opening up and expanding! I made sure to keep it far away from my bubbletip and its about a foot under my T5s and currently by the eheim outflow. Here's a pic! (now, I took this with my cell, it does not reflect my photographing skills/tips I picked up during the meeting haha ) Just to double check, is it fully photosynthetic or should I be mindful of feeding it?

Since its such a small tank, some natural remedies may be hard: normally I would just say toss some foxface in there and let them have at it! For a natural grazer try an urchin (relatively small one!) or 2, and sell them or pass them along when the job is done, since the tank may be a little small to sustain them long term. Do you have corals? If not, try reducing the photoperiod drastically. The fish will handle it fine (as it basically just mimics a natural "overcast" or thunderstorm day). Keep doing large water changes to get rid of the spores or any GHA that might be floating around loose. Also, a phosphate reactor may help! In addition, reduce feedings to the fishes, not drastically however, to try to reduce waste in the system (nitrates) that could be driving their growth!

Don't get frustrated, just stick with it, the GHA tends to stick around a while because of loose spores or particles that re-attach and keep colonizing.

Aquadome has a decent selection most of the time!

Hi,

Im trying to find a relatively small cube aquarium, but not a bio cube or anything like that. Maybe 10 to 20 gallon? Anyone know where I can find and purchase one?

Thanks

Do you think if I get the 110 filter that 500gph might be too much flow for a 20gal? Do you think the 300gph (the 70 filter) would be too little? I don't know if I should just go big and risk everything being blown to pieces, or underestimate and then have no flow. Tricky tricky.

Subsea,

Amazing, amazing idea! I think that's what I may do. I was considering doing an eheim canister w/ powerhead too, but I feel like for almost the same price, making my own hang on refugium is an amazing idea. Genius! Plus my light is just a touch longer than the tank so any macro I put in the refugium would be able to grow on the same light cycle as the aquarium. Do you think a powerhead would be a good idea to add a touch more flow, or skip that all together?

Haha an algae sink is basically a tiny weighted strip (or sometimes fishing line sink) that I wrapped my algae around so it is in the main tank for the copepods to breed in, but looks "decorative" and makes sure the algae doesnt get sucked up into my current filter. Silly I know, but I hate it zooming everywhere.

Where could I get an HOB with refugium at a reasonable price do you think?

Hey there,

I'm setting up a new tank for a pair of mated clowns, and am thinking a 20(tall)-29 gallon tank. Anybody have any filter setup suggestions? In the actual tank I have about 20lbs of livesand, 15lbs of liverock, hermits, and ulva, caulerpa and chaeto on algae sinks.

At this time I'm not looking to do corals(although I have a light capable of maintaining corals), but rather an anemone for the happy fish couple, so I need a fair amount of flow.

Canister route? I have space for a sump but its not preferred. hang on the side refugium? (if so, anywhere know where I could find a prebuilt one for cheap?)

Would love your feedback! Thanks so much!

Hey there,

Have a Sebae anemone for sale or trade! Clowns don't like it, and wont go anywhere near it haha. Couple inches in diameter. Willing to trade too. No firm price in mind, just make an offer! Thanks so much!

Hey,

I have a maxi jet 900 currently in use, but Im planning on going to buy a bigger pump this weekend to replace it. I need something to provide a bit more flow. Ill send you a message if I able to buy a new pump this weekend. Ill be able to hook you up with my maxi jet. Its like 4 maybe 5 months old.

Hey there,

I'm actually in the process of starting a mandarin goby tank at this time: currently I'm letting my water culture the pods for about 1 month just to be sure. Your best bet is to take a few precautionary steps to ensure the pods can maintain themselves. Firstly, start by buying LIVE pods from a fish store: aquadome does this- they will walk through all their tanks with a sieve and snag pods out of their tropical and coral tanks for you and put them in a baggie for $10.That will give you a baseline to start a culture. Because they're not cold water species they will survive in your tank longterm no problem. Secondly, try to build an environment for the copepods to thrive in. A good method of this is to make sashes out of very fine netting like cheesecloth that the pods can freely pass through, but the goby cannot. Aquatek has a great example of this in one of their front tanks last time I checked. You can fill the sash with either live rubble (very finely crushed liverock and shells, aquatek sells it, or smash some of your own), or macroalgae such as chaeto: this will allow a breeding spot for the copepods while not being preyed on. It looks a little silly, so just shove it in the back of your tank. Also, I've heard of great success getting the goby to eat other kinds of food by learning from other fish especially tangs. Try to spot feed the goby some brine shrimp in a QT and see if he attempts to hunt it. If he does, release him into the normal tank and spot feed him periodically: Brine shrimp is like french fries for fish, not very nutritious but theyll gobble it up! Because of this though, slowly mix in frozen brine if you see him eating it, and continue to spot feed. Finally, if he eats that mix frozen brine and frozen micis to wean him off pods entirely. Note that all gobys are different so its kind of a crapshoot. But, if you have little copepod colonies in the sashes, and have that stable population you'll have plenty of time to try to teach. my friends goby did learn to eat and love pellets though by literally just watching his tang do it. What it comes down to is bottle of pods to stock your tank always is super expensive: try to each other ways and even breed your own pods! Try a variety of techniques and he should be fine! Good luck!