+mcallahan Posted July 12, 2008 Author Share Posted July 12, 2008 So are you quarantining the Yellow Tang that could? I put him in the quarantine tank last night and today....he no longer is the Yellow Tang that could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted July 12, 2008 Author Share Posted July 12, 2008 Well the Yellow Tang that could developed black ick yesterday. I did some research online and the outlook didn't look good for him, so I mosey'd (yes, mosey) on over to Aquatek to get their $.02. They recommended quarantining him and treating him with copper & hyposalinity in addition to a formaline (sp?) treatment. So I moved him over to my quarantine tank after chasing him around the 55g for 10 mins trying to catch him. He was fine last night, but today....no bueno. He found his last fight, then moved on. He was a soldier of Rome...honor him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 WOW! Sorry to hear about your lose. Now he is free. You will see him again. But not yet, not yet.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheetum Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Sorry to hear bout the lil guy but at least he went out swinging, and he had someone in his corner that was in the fight with him!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted July 16, 2008 Author Share Posted July 16, 2008 Well, miracles happen everyday. I checked my nitrates today and low and behold: I dropped below 30ppm for the first time in the history of the tank! Woohoo! I know the white balance on the photo is off, so its hard to see, but the orange on the card is 20ppm. I've made a couple of changes to the tank that I think brought about the drop: 1. Dropped back my feeding. I always thought I was overfeeding and thanks to the response of some of my blog readers, I took their advice and only feed about half as much as I did. while all the food was cleaned up, I think it helped the tank to not have as much bioload dumped into the tank. 2. Changed the light on my cheato. I went from the Home Depot cheap to the $12 eBay special that throws off light in the 6000's spectrum which is better for growing plants. My cheato does seem to be growing, but it certainly isn't running away like other people have described. I do think it is doing its job of consuming the nitrates in the tank. I'll check the nitrates again on Friday or Saturday so hopefully they are dropping, or at least holding steady. Next step: bubble tip anemone. I'll add it the weekend Aquatek has their customer appreciation sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 My name is Mark, and I'm an Aquatek-aholic. Whenever I go in there, even if I'm just dropping in to ask a quick question, I buy something. This weekend I took my wife with me when I was headed there to get my water checked for phosphates - just a water test - and from across the store I hear... "Oooooohhhh...honey, I want one of these...." One of these, is: Yup....I know, I know, Angels are prone to pick at corals and if I ever want to get this fish out of my tank, I'll have to tear the whole thing apart. But, I decided to take a risk as the colorings add a lot of my tank. And I talked with the salesman about what type of corals would for sure be out, and which ones would for sure be in and what he showed me would be in (mushrooms, xenia, etc) are pretty much what I was looking to get into anyways, so I was fine with the added risk of the angelfish. I don't see myself ever going CRAZY with corals, so perhaps the angel will keep me from my addiction. Oh by the way, I checked the nitrates yesterday and they are down to 15ppm. I'm only feeding 1x a day now and I'm not feeding tons so we'll see if I can get them to 0ppm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Aahhhhh!!! All I can say it's a beautiful fish. And in our experience (we got lucky), this baby turned out to be an exemplary fish. Never nipped at sps, lps, clams, zoas or any softies.......so we considered ourselves very lucky to have it in our tank. Best wishes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 We've found as long as you keep them fat and happy they will be great tank citizens. We've had ours for about a month and totally ignores our calms and corals. Very beautiful addition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 Good to hear that I haven't done myself in at least yet. dapettit - its encouraging that yours isn't nipping at your clams. the salesman @ Aquatek assured me that the clams would be the first thing to go. What is everyone feeding theirs? Mine is nipping at the LR I have in the tank (I have no corals yet), but after 48 hrs, she isn't eating at feeding time. I feed a mixture of frozen mysis and a color-enhancing cubes. I understand she might still be getting used to the tank and her tank mates, but I'd at least like to see her try to eat something. If she hasn't eaten by tuesday, I'll get some live brine shrimp. Any fish seems to go nutszo over those things. Thanks for your replies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted July 23, 2008 Author Share Posted July 23, 2008 Well, I now have 2 nephews that I'll have to convert to reef keepers! Nephew #2 showed up on Monday night so as soon as he opens his peepers and does more than eat, sleep and poop, I'll get to work introducing him to one of the most addicting hobbies known to man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 3, 2008 Author Share Posted August 3, 2008 If someone gives you something because they don't want it, then you turn around and sell it, is that wrong? Perhaps in our free market world, some people would say yes, but I'll go out on a limb here and disagree. If person A gives up something they don't want, then to me they've acknowledged that the item is of no value to them and that they'd rather have person B have it, then go through the hassle of selling it. Therefore, whatever person B does with the item shouldn't matter because person A gave it up! Now, enough of the hypothetical talk, here is the real world example. My wife's co-worker's husband, lets call him Bob, got all excited one day and decided that having a fish tank would be cool. Bob buys a tank and a few months later, doesn't put in the time to care for it and all the fish die. Bob is now off his fish kick and the aquarium and stand is moved into the garage. Bob's wife's Betty, my wife's co-worker, mentions to my wife that the aquarium is taking up space and that we can have if we want it - free of charge. Of course I'm for getting it as it might be bigger than my tank (free upgrades), and if not, I suggest to the wife that we can sell it and pocket the cash. At this point in time, the wife gets upset as she asserts that I'm taking advantage of her friend since they would be giving us the aquarium for free and then we'd be going out and selling it to pocket the cash. But wait - didn't Betty say that we could have it, therefore acknowledging that she doesn't want it anymore - i.e. get it out of my house? Betty has a brain and could easily list it on craigslist.org and make at least $20, but instead she just wants it out of her house. I think that gifts should be given with no strings attached. If you give someone a gift, and they have the resources and know-how to sell it for $$, then props to you and perhaps if I did a little homework, I would have figured out how to sell it to. What do you all think? Has my entrepreneurial mind gone too far? Or is my wife just a softie and I should never let walk onto a used car lot alone again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefytang Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 I've seen FAR worse things happen in the name of capitalism. Some people don't seem to value things like tanks and would rather give it away than go through the headache of selling it online etc. In this instance, you have nothing to lose really. Otherwise the tank will probably either stay in their garage or end up on the curb for trash collectors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headless_donkey Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 NEVER mix business with friends or family. Why don't you sell it and take all four of you out to dinner. Maybe, even to see "the Dark Night." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 4, 2008 Author Share Posted August 4, 2008 NEVER mix business with friends or family.Why don't you sell it and take all four of you out to dinner. Maybe, even to see "the Dark Night." I see both sides of the family & Biz conversation. I haven't seen the tank yet, but considering I decide I don't want it, I'll see what I might be able to unload it for and dinner would be a good idea especially if this guy keeps going through hobbies like he does, he might have other hobbies that he is giving up that I might be interested in! The Batman flick was ok. Good character development with the Joker, but some of the segments were clunky and the ending was like, "WTF?!" I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renman303 Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 This is neither "family" nor is it "business". It IS opportunity. One man's trash is another's treasure. If a close friend, I'd suggest an "offer" to be polite. If declined, happily take the tank. "Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose." Dave "renman" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 9, 2008 Author Share Posted August 9, 2008 Ok..ok...I didn't name my clownfish Marlin, but I did add an anemone this weekend after I dropped in on Aquatek's sale. I didn't have a drip setup available, so I floated the bag for 15 mins, then added about 1/8 of a cup of water every 5 mins for 1.5 hrs. Towards the end of the 1.5 hrs, I started adding 1/4 cup since the volume of water in the bag was getting bigger. After the 1.5 hrs, I placed the anemone in the tank in a medium to high flow area and waited to see if my Tomato clown would take to it as I've read that it can take a clownfish 2 weeks to accept an anemone. Well, within seconds of placing the anemone, the clownfish was all over it. She was burying her face in it, then taking tentacles into her mouth and within the first minute she was 100% in the anemone. She played it in for about 10 mins and now she's swimming all over the tank like a happy kid telling the world about their new toy. I have my concerns about the anemone as it is fairly small compared to my clownfish, but I got the biggest one I could get. Hopefully the anemone takes to the tank and it will start growing quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefytang Posted August 9, 2008 Share Posted August 9, 2008 Great clown. I hope she doesn't love the nem to death. Got my fingers crossed for ya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 9, 2008 Author Share Posted August 9, 2008 thanks...4 hours later, she's still at it. I'm going to turn the lights off early so hopefully she'll chill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 10, 2008 Author Share Posted August 10, 2008 Yeah, I got sold. I swung back around to Aquatek yesterday to get 10 gallons of saltwater to do a water change and what do you know, I walked out of there with my first piece of coral - some green mushrooms. Wait, it gets worse... Mushrooms Today I got back to Aquatek with my wife. I told her, "lets just look around, I'm not buying anything". Well, we walk by the frag tank and I notice they have some new frags for $15. (Quick math for the customer appreciation sale discount - $13ish after tax), so I'm thinking, what the heck, its cheap! I got sold again. Zoos Star Polyps Bruce has good sales people. That, or I'm just addicted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefytang Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 Nice score! I have to stay out of that place best I can...I always hurt my wallet every time I go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 11, 2008 Author Share Posted August 11, 2008 Nice score! I have to stay out of that place best I can...I always hurt my wallet every time I go. Why can't they have "frequent fraggin' cards" where after you guy so much coral, you get some free? Hmmm...niche market.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefytang Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 Hah great idea. But business is business I suppose. However, I can always spare a free zoa or paly frag for a fellow ARC'er if you're interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted August 11, 2008 Author Share Posted August 11, 2008 Hah great idea. But business is business I suppose. However, I can always spare a free zoa or paly frag for a fellow ARC'er if you're interested. Thanks! I might take you up on that as last night my long spine urchin cruised over my frag of star polyps and I haven't seen them since. Urchin are reef safe according to every site I checked, but I'm still nervous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefytang Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 That's a drag....no pun intended. I recently read about a pom pom crab that would go around the tank tearing off polyps and mushrooms until it found a suitable pair of mitts. PM me sometime about the frags. Might can help out on some new GSP too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishypets Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 To help your anemone grow you might want to consider feeding it some fresh seafood. When I had one I would feed it a couple of medium size shrimp (cut into pieces) about once a week. Go to HEB and buy a shrimp or two and try it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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