Crab Rangoon

Still seeking some nice examples or matured specimens

Also adding to the list:

- medium/large Euphillia specimens, no frags

- ricordia yumas

Got a pic? And no cell phone pics, one that actually shows what the sponge might look like / how it grows?

I've got white sponge now growing in both my sump and refugium, that wasn't around until I was using the biopellets. Mine, however, seemed to suddenly appear and grow very quickly over a short time, and then has since stayed the same. I don't have it popping up in new places, and it doesn't seem like it's growing at a noticeable rate now - but I only have it in my pump chamber and fuge chamber of my sump.

Removing it manually and offering it to others isn't a bad idea, especially if you just bring a load of bags to the frag swap. I'm interested to see if what you've got is similar to mine, though. I know a lot of other people have had issues with the bacteria covering their substrate, or the surfaces of their rocks - but luckiy I haven't experienced that.

In my experience, both the tanks I had a single 6500k bulb over wound up growing too much green. Not like totally covered in GHA or anything, but absolutely impossible to keep plant life from growing inside. Plant life more or less ceased to exist after removing the 6500k in both tanks, which were completely separate and using two entirely different fixtures (one using 4 bulbs, the other using 8).

I look forward to an update featuring water

It really looks great Chris, I had no idea you were building your own stand - props, dude.

You also want to make sure that there is enough rise in the guard to keep fish from jumping on-top of whatever you're using. Applying a sheet of acrylic or a layer of mesh doesn't mean the fish cannot jump onto it and simply lay there flopping and dying. Due to finding deceased jumpers on top of glass tops and centerbraces, I know that just because it jumped out doesn't mean it can get back in

You could also consider a rubber gasket to line the top of the divider. Buying a bulk length of it, cutting it to fit, and washing / wiping it down properly to make sure that it's chemical free would give you a more flexible option, as you'd be able to remove it easily for cleaning purposes, and even if it was a little thick it would still depress to fit just right under the weight of the lid.

Are you getting the tank by AGE, or DSA? I was originally considering a slightly smaller tank (around 36x30x30) by AGE, but the savings to be had by choosing Marineland was too great for me to pass up in the end.

And yes, my question was referring to any sort of liner or tray you may place inside your tank to protect your floor. I've had no issues with all of my equipment sitting on the floor, even with a few salty spills. Then again, I'm just lucky we don't have carpet or wood floors

When do you plan on setting yours up, anyway?

this Summer I lost the first Butterfly I added to the tank

and this month, the most painful one ever my little Goldflake Angel

They're from the shipment that came into River City Aquatics yesterday. I was originally going to get 3-4 new Angels, 1 BF, and some more Chalk Bass, but then the Mitratus popped up.. & there went a majority of the month's budget

Is your 150 also a square base, or an elongate one? I'm so happy I went with the custom metal stand, it was well worth the wait & has paid off in being the ultimate convenience. What are you using on the bottom, inside your stand? I've got everything sitting on our ceramic tile, which is fine, but I am always considering re-doing it with DriDek under everything, since my stand is bottomless.

I got lazy about posting updates, and about keeping up with the forum, so it's been a lonnnnnnng time since I posted anything here, and my total stock (and aquascape) has changed quite a bit. All in all, here is the total up-to-date livestock:

- Flagfin Angelfish

- Blueface Angelfish (juvenile)

- Blueline Angelfish (juvenile)

- Majestic Angelfish

- Rock Beauty Angelfish (juvenile)

- Pyramid Butterfly x2

- Burgess' Butterfly

- Mitratus Butterfly (juvenile)

- Chalk Basslet

- Swales Swissguard Basslet x2

- Threadfin Cardinalfish x8

- Neon Cleaner Goby (ORA)

- Fire Shrimp x2

- Peppermint Shrimp

- Orange Tuxedo Urchin x2

- Blue Tuxedo Urchin

- Hairy Halloween Urchin

- Redfooted Conch x4

- Spider Conch

- Fighting Conch

- Mexican Turbo Snail x2

- Scarlet Hermit-crab x5

Coral wise, I have mushrooms, zoos, a couple Euphillias, some Acros, a Seriatopora, a green toadstool leather & a yellow toadstool leather.

Here are some pictures of what I brought home yesterday I'm especially lucky to have found the Mitratus this small, rather than their typical 3-3.5" size. Hell, I didn't even think I'd end up actually having a Mitratus for quite a long time - super psyched for this one.

I would gladly pay double for a fish that had a much better chance of not dying.

I strongly suggest Divers Den, then. To be perfectly honest, I don't care how much you may dislike DFS or think you know about them and how they handle their fish - all the rare/finicky/difficult fish of your dreams can be had through them and sold to you only after being QT'd and confirmed to be eating. Not to mention the fact that MOST of their livestock is covered with guaranteed live arrival, and everything in the Divers Den is WYSIWYG. However, when I see posts from anyone, anywhere complaining about purchasing a tang that looks to be in good health, but contracting ich within 24-48hrs in their tank.. all I can do is further preach extreme care of acclimation and QT.

All things considered, 95% of the fish in my aquarium are Angels and Butterflies, neither of which "mixes well" with it's own kind (or one another) due to aggression, and all are known to be finicky eaters & quite disease prone. All in all, I've lost TWO fish to jumping (can't blame a dealer or LFS for that), and 3 to starvation (or possibly internal parasite, since they weren't eating the medicated food that would otherwise prevent/treat it). I know that for me, it's my diligence, patience, and over-cautious fishkeeping that pays off in the end and lets me get away with what I've got going in my tank, and in good health. By that I mean that I keep fish that cost hundreds-of-dollars (each) in my refugium section of my sump for weeks or months until I think it's safe and smart to introduce it to my aquarium. I introduce it to the tank by keeping the fish in a "Critter Keeper" by itself in the tank for about a week, and then later releasing it to roam free.

I've dealt with ich being on every single fish in my tank, even all of them at once, and I didn't end up losing a single fish to it (this has happened multiple times - now if a fish breaks out with ich, it's typically isolated to just that fish & not spread to the others). I've even endured a heavy bacterial/fungal infection on one of my Angels + the fins of 2 BF's in the display for about 5-6 weeks, but still managed to fight it off without any losses. All I can say is that if the proper precautions are taken to ensure the health and comfort of a fish before introducing it to your aquarium, you should be in complete control over it's general well being. Most people are 100x more 'lax about their new fish additions and medicating and feeding than I am, and most people think I'm insane for the amount of attention and food I give to the fish - but it certainly makes for some success, and very happy healthy fish. I hope your experiences, both locally and mail-order, turn around, and that you have fewer fish lost as your tank matures - but please try to keep an open mind about "who's to blame" for an ill or dead fish.

BTW, I have these under LED's. If anyone is curious about LED does with the coral colors, they can see first hand.

Which LEDs are you using, by the way? Is your main tank fully lit by LED, or just a frag tank?

I'm using the PAR38's and Stunner Strips on mine, and so far so good.

Shane has some of pic 6,7,8 up at Fishy Business.

Arg, that is exactly what he has, and many of them! I'm just worried about their size being small enough to become possible "snacks" but I'll never know, until I try. I swung by, but he says they are currently NFS - I gotta wait a month! Hopefully I'm able to find me an ORA example, and at least one of the yellows before that long, and I can pick one of the Tyree's from him in October.

Awesome, thanks Melissa! I think I can swing by there tomorrow since I'll be up North, and have never been in before.

It would seem that I've still yet to have anyone follow up on a yellow or green toadstool leather. I'm still interested, and wanting to feel out some locals before ordering elsewhere and dealing with shipping. ...but Divers Den does have a green one and a yellow one that are tempting

Anyone?

I have one that is about 1 1/2" to 2" tall, but only an inch wide. It's the green polyp toadstool...not sure if it's Tyree or not. You can have it for $20.

Cool, any way you could get me a picture of it? A pic of it closed/agitated won't be very telling, but if it opens up at least halfway and you can snap a pic of it I'd just need to see it before trying to meet up. Just let me know

hi ive got some cabbage leather corals n some xenias and kenyas if interstyed lmk thnks

Thanks, but I'm not looking for any cabbage, xenia, or kenya tree corals. Only the Fiji/Tonga yellow leathers, and the ORA/Tyree green toadstools.

we have many nice tyree green polyped toadies, check my avatar!

Cool, thanks for the heads up - I'll check your site.

I have a lot of Yellow Fiji Leather, including a 2" piece that needs to go and maybe could even work out something on a bigger piece. Let me take some pics tonight and send to you to see what you think. Since you are in S. Austin, if you are interested maybe you can just come by and decide what you want.

Thanks, I'd love to see a pic of it. Please let me know when you've got some pictures The bigger the better (or at least medium > small), as I'm not the biggest fan of growing out frags

I'm looking to buy a few leather corals. I would prefer they were not frag size, hopefully already 2"+, but if you have a good deal on a frag I may take you up on it anyway.

I'm looking for the following:

- Fiji Yellow Leather

- Tonga Yellow Leather

- ORA Green Toadstool

- Tyree Green Toadstool

Here are some visual examples (none of which are mine)

You can PM or e-mail (oovwoo at gmail dot com) me for quickest response - thanks!

I also strongly suggest cooling the actual reflectors or lights themselves. Keeping your housing/reflector cooler will be more efficient, but will also reduce the chance of stale hot air above the tank. If you only focus on using fans to cool the surface of the water (or even the air directly above the tank) you will still have an increase in evaporation.

Also, be sure to keep ballasts OUT of your stand and canopy - keeping them cooped up inside aquarium furniture only makes them run hotter and less efficiently, not to mention they will radiate heat to your other equipment, or the water in your sump. If you don't currently have them mounted/installed to a breathable area where they're allowed to vent or cool easily, try moving them.

I've had my calls answered 75% of the time, or more - and have had a decent rate of calls returned to me via voice-mail. I haven't really had luck with the online contact form, though. Just be sure you're calling during business hours - but they are indeed a pretty busy 2 man team, and cellphones & water don't mix well ask me how I know.

..keeping a dozen even very small fish in a 20G would mean needing a skimmer, running carbon/another chemical media, and a huge amount of live rock to keep your ammonia below 5ppm Maybe if you had a 40G sump connected to it you could keep things in line, but then it's not really a 20G tank.

I never advocated trying to cheat and make a system of beyond 20g with only a 20g display tank - but I don't think that a 20g would need anything beyond, say, a 2217 or 2227 filter on it (avoids frequent filter cleaning and the need for powerhead) and about 8-12lb of liverock to give all your different fish territories. Sure, a 5g waterchanges every 10-15 days, but that's no daunting task since I know many customers who already do this on their 20-35g tanks that don't even need it that frequently. No skimmer necessary unless you're feeding a staple diet of frozen food - but smaller less delicate fish typically wean onto pellet pretty easily, so why not set up an autofeeder to drop a minute amount of food in 4x a day? Done. Anyone that thinks that is nuts hasn't tried it, but like I said, I'd never stick fish in that small a space unless they were able to cohabitate without quarrel.

..the smallest schooling fish would also be impossible to keep in a tank that size because they need a near continuous food supply to stay alive (we're talking more than 4 feedings per day). Also going even with peaceful gobies generally makes problems, because gobies and blennies of the same body shape will often fight with each other, and of course non-paired ones of the same species would also fight.

While I do have a skimmer, I certainly don't have any chemical/media form of filtration to make up for my feedings - and I feed well beyond 4x/day (and never even hit 20-25 nitrate, nor have I/do I register any ammonia or nitrite). You have to be smart about feeding - know how much to apply per feeding, how many times to feed per day, and what foods to/not-to use. Like I said, feeding pellets and flake every day will make for a cleaner tank and less need for skimming/carbon, but if relying on frozen foods you will certainly need to rinse them well before feeding, as well as use carbon or a skimmer. You're probably thinking of gobies that are inopportune for mixing. Having a nano yourself, I presume you're pretty familiar with gobies that AREN'T sand dwellers, and AREN'T jumpers. There are a lot of small options out there, well under that 2" mark, that wouldn't quarrel in close quarters (well, beyond 10-15g) because they don't eat very much, move very much, or have a very competitive or dominant demeanor. When you get into sand-dwellers, its a whole 'nother story, and I suggest avoiding mixing them at all costs - you'll just end up with one jumping.

I've also heard the opposite about cubes, that some fish which like to swim a lot do better with one long dimension (for a straight swimming path) than in the equivalent cube tank, but I don't have experience with that, just what i've heard.

I did say that the cubed dimensions would only work better for SOME fish, but when dealing with custom tanks, you're really not limited to anything. For the sake of the 55g argument, it could be a 48x12x20, or a 48x18x15, or 36x24x18, or even 40x40x10" Just for the record, long & skinny isn't always best, and while a longer/larger fish will certainly want to be able to dart in one direction without interruption, that same fish isn't comfortable darting back and forth down a narrow stretch with nowhere else to turn.

Compare it to couping your dogs up in a part of the house, when you're at work. Would you close your adult Great Dane in a long narrow hallway, that might have some decorative pots along one wall? Or would you rather he was in a wider, but shorter, rectangular or square bedroom? If you had 10 3-5lb puppies, would they be better suited to be in a 12x4' area, or a 8x9' area?

FWIW, I'm not arguing, just helping the conversation move forward. I really promise that most people do NOT think out of the box - whether it's what fish 'can go together' versus 'would do exceptionally well together', or their diets, or fitting a fish to a tank. This is a healthy conversation, and I hope you're not taking this as snippy I can tell you that my 150g has 3 Butterflyfishes, 5 Angelfishes, 10 Cardinals, and a Wrasse (and til this weekend, a Moorish Idol). I feed nori/algae 2-3x a day, pellet 2-4x a day, and frozen 3-4x a day - and sometimes more on the weekends. I just make sure to never introduce any more food than will be immediately eaten, and often the fish are left having had something, but not enough to be full. They're all actively and readily eating directly out of the net, or biting at the syringe/baster, and I seriously have the most lax maintenance regimen you can imagine. Feeding my fish MANY times a day, in very small controlled doses allows me to avoid all their aggression, and to avoid getting any sort of waste build up. My skimmer doesn't exactly go crazy, but I've never tested out with an undesirable amount of ammo/nitrite/nitrate - and I'm still adding more fish to the equation. For those on the side of "you can't fit that many fish in that size tank" or against mixing certain types of fish with one another, you should really branch out and start viewing some of the Japanese tank blogs, they'll blow you away with how much harmony and balance they achieve with insane amounts of fish, unbelievable #'s of feedings, and never a speck of algae (and without being invested in many thousands of dollars in equipment). To each his own, of course, but thinking outside the box is definitely a good and fresh thing for this type of hobby.

More on the matter was posted this weekend: http://glassbox-design.com/2010/rice-biopellet-nitrate-bacteria-aquarium/

Chili Pepper Monti $10 PENDING CHRIS

Frankenberry Montipora $10

If these two are available, and you could bring them to RCA tomorrow, I'd gladly buy them. If Chris follows through on the CP Monti, I'd still take just the Franken by itself. I'll be there from 12-6pm.

Dozen 2" fish in a 20G...... that's insane!!!!!

That is just a matter of opinion

The 20g could be 24x20x10" or 20x15x15" and the concept of keeping 10-15 small fish in a layout like that (unless it's absolutely crowded with 20+ pounds of liverock..) is not far fetched. Imagine a species only tank with a school of damsels, cardinals, or chromis. You could even mix & match a dozen different gobies of 1-2" size as long as avoiding aggressive ones, and still experience no difficulties other than finding an occasional jumper on the floor. People just don't think outside of the box enough, and often don't feed frequently enough and/or give too much food per feeding.

I think people focus too much on the number of fish per volume. People think a 55g tank, and they picture a 48x12" footprint, rather than a 24" cube. In the cube, there is enough space for some fish that would otherwise not fit comfortably & happily in a long narrow tank with it's girth crowded by a long wall of rock.

An aquarium should be stocked based on what kind of health and longevity you can provide the fish with.

- If you are considering fish that are grazers by nature, and have a high metabolism - do not put them in a tank that only eats once a day. (Only keep fish you can maintain the appetite of)

- If you are not equipped with a fuge, adequate skimmer, or a nitrate reactor - do not stock the tank with grazers, and feed them many times a day. (Only feed as much as you can clean up after)

- If you're keeping a variety of coral that only thrive in a brightly lit environment, and have a high-powered light over the tank - do not put skittish fish, collected in deeper waters. (Only keep fish that will thrive in your temperature and light environment)

- If you plan to have many fish in the tank, that are constant active swimmers - do not keep shy/solitary/cryptic fish. (Only keep fish that will be comfortable & compatible with one another)

- If keeping fish that are famous for not accepting prepared foods, do not stock multiples that will compete for the same limited food-source. (Only keep as many as you can DEFINITELY sustain the appetite of, NEVER MORE)

Realize that your aquarium is a habitat, or environment, that you are responsible for. When a Tang eventually gets too large for your aquarium, or begins fighting with similar inhabitants, or keeps getting skinnier and skinnier over time - only YOU are to blame, not the fish. You are the one responsible for where the fish is today, and the condition that it's in. Only purchase fish that you are SURE you can maintain, as it's not just money lost when you lose a fish. I hope this is read as considerate and helpful, rather than ranting and fish-nazi

If that doesn't work I'll order a few nudi's.

If you add the Berghia, please make sure to do one/both of the following:

1) turn some of your bigger powerheads off

2) dial large powerheads down

I've had far too many friends and customers purchase & acclimate them, only to have them get vaporized by a Tunze/VorTech/MaxiJet/Korallia That being said, if you purchase the Berghia, do be sure to get an adequate number of them for your size aquarium. It should be pretty easy to resell them to somebody else after you're done, to ensure they keep doing their job & do not starve to death. There is always somebody in town with Aiptasia who could benefit from helping the little guys food supply, and help you recoup some of your cost

Sunday - AutoX in AM!

where? and what're you driving?

Thanks for the blue digi. It's all acclimated and already has some polyp extension. Was nice meeting you and your family.

It was nice meeting you and your well behaved children. Did you win the soccer game?

He needs to teach his kids how to be goalies.. on ice!