capty99

mhart - you wouldn't steal the tank of a prospective new guy who wants to move up from his nano now would you?

I want to ammend my previous statement. I don't think its what that link was. They actually have dark backs, black or grey.... i say they because there are 2 now. I don't see a shell but honestly can't tell if they're just young and its small on the back. Two antennae (correct terminology?) and they just walk around eating algae it looks like on the glass.

cant find him now to identify split tail, but yes, it looks just like a slug white-ish semi-opaque

apparently a few snails sitting around produced some offspring, they were bored or something. he's just crawling around with no shell. there isn't anything int he tank besides these guys + some LR + coral.... so will he be cool as - is for now? what kind of shells or where do i get shells that will work for him?

MAYBE interested in the tank post-everything else obviously?

just a note, i was reading about a brand of powerhead that had a manufacturing problem and alot of the magnets were not covered correctly and it was causing problems, so yeah, don't use bare ones.

medi - still starting up my tank don't have anything to trade, but i will pay it forward when the tanks up and running if i can grab one as well.

hey look its a fellow shaggy-ite.

How do you guys know how much to feed your tank? Everywhere I read says 'whatever they will eat in 3 minutes' but thats a pretty terrible way to measure so far since my shrimp just sit and wait there for the food to come to them before attacking it. They'll eat for a while too. Current tank is 3 peppermints and an 1 1/2 inch ocellaris clown -- but don't be specific for that I want to know as I scale the tank up what I shoudl be dropping in. Thanks

pics by chance? i might take the small / and or med off your hands. where are you at?

I went to hawaii for a wedding a few years back, took a bunch of pics , was really excited about them, and a giant monk seal swam over top of me, scared the living stuffing out of me, i dropped the camera and got a nice coral cut on my leg... so all i have to prove of my trip is a nice scar on my knee.

i think it was one off for a science magazine, i feel like i've seen this before. though if you could make those on the cheap i bet you could sell a few

no -- and i have a reason for my indecisiveness. a) i keep hearing that this size tank can be run with just constant water changes (but then again i've heard they can't) but i might just try it for a while w/o the real reason is that i'm already considering the upgrade, or at least envisioning it, and if that happens i don't need to double purchase the 10 will get incorporated into a sump or something and not a standalone anymore and i'll obviously need a more powerful skimmer. we'll see

gracias - both of you

OK - finally got my light set up on. its fugly due to the fact that i messed it up about 15 times but thats what happens when people 'borrow' your power tools and your left using scraps. I'm gonna make it pretty later but I wanted to get some light on the tank. How much light is too much light? It is pretty intense IMO but that may be normal - I'll try and get a shot but I doubt thats gonna help you guys. I've got it sitting about 3 in off the water I would say, so as to get light to all parts of the tank, but i juts may be throwing too much down on it. My peppermint shrimp I put in there to grab some aptasia come and play in the light for a few minutes but then hide behind rocks -- is that normal or a symptom of too much light? Next question is -- am I good to start slowly adding to the tank when I hit 0 on all the right tests? I'm 0 on ammonia and coming down on nitrate so it shouldn't be too long. Is there a way to add guys besides slowly? As a freshwater guy I'm thinking I want to do fish first, but maybe I need to start some corals. (bunch of you guys i've been buying parts off have offered small frags for free and its about time I start taking you up on that. )

I am also right on that in between on if my cycle will be done and ready for fish in time for aquatek's sale. tough isn't it? @zarathustra2 i might jump in on that, though for my 10g I won't need much.

if you want a quick primer i found this helpful : http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=115933

Yeah i was afraid any sort of skimmer was going to take up 1/3 of my tank. The position my tank is in doesn't have any space for a sump right now so I was wanting to avoid it if possible. I may see how natural filtration does for a little while with real regular water changes. If I do get a sump I'll probably go for a 20 gallon DIY that could later get used on a bigger tank but I haven't thought that far out just yet.

and thats why i asked - thanks. any recommendations for a nano?

http://anythingsaltwater.com/fission-nano-skimmer-p-1560.html is this a good buy for me?

dena, i picked up the nano. was just stopping by to say thanks medi, got it in the tank and running and i'm sure as soon as the cycles over the new inhabitants will love it.

k - thx again. also, thanks msmmze who came over to grab 10 lbs of sand and gave me a nice one hour crash course in what i can do with my tank - i needed the info. question about my MH light. Just got everything rigged up as far as wiring goes (though I still have to make the fixture correctly) and plugged the bulb in, after letting it warm up for about 5 minutes I started to smell it a little bit -- normal or is my wiring f'ed up? The ballast has a shut down if wiring is screwed so I think I'm good just making sure a little smell is normal for a first time start up ($50 bulbs make you over cautious) Also, anyone have experience putting a hole in a metal bowl haha - I thought it would be an easy deal with a hammer + nail or screwdriver to punch one through but I can't get it. Only recourse I have now is a drill I guess. Anyone who could spare a punch or something? thanks

ah, the lovely aptasia, read many a thread about it on RC, thanks for the ID, will do.

k - thx. Got a few questions. 1) you can look @ these crappy pics and see where I have my tank. It fit sort of perfectly under this shelf that divides my kitchen / living room so would be a nice place to be seen from both sides -- but is that shelf going to cause problems -- aka major heat issue? My plan right now is to have the lamp that I'm building sit on that, and then hang over the open side of the tank. The lamp that is currently there is only for my purposes when I was moving stuff around inside, but it does seem to hit all corners of the tank even under the shelf. It looks pretty bad in the pic but its a cool little spot in the house for a tank if it works. 2) Should I get rid of this little guy that came on the rock -- or is it not a problem? 3) What should I be monitoring right now -- I have the 'master reef test kit' from a LFS that does : calcium (420) phosphates .5 ppm carbonate hardness (alkalinity) which is my problem right now - 4 dKH and nitrates are at 0. salinity is a tiny bit low i think, double checking that via a refractometer tomorrow (gonna order one soon) it seems when you guys report you have a lot more info than me. much. appreciated.

question : Since I got the rock from prof, and its all LR, and it was out of the tank for about 15 minutes, I guess I'm not going to get a cycle going right? I read on reef central one guy suggested drop a couple table shrimp in there to kick start a cycle of some sort. Is that the thing to do?