First Time Build

[Planeden]

the pictures i'm finding of the flower nem are kinda all over the map. some look good, some look not good. i think it may be one of those "see it in person" things. i know i have seen some gorgeous things in the stores and found out it was that fugly thing i saw on the internet. oddly, i don't think it's ever gone the other way.

[Planeden]

Also. if your OT is going to be a long term spot, I recommend using biopellets as scattered substrate..

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-plate.html

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/eheim-substrat-pro-bio-filter-media.html

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-1-1-2-spheres.html

If youre using a HOB, check out the above links... Im going to be using the plates in my new zoa grow out system.

interesting. i have a ton of the eheim biomedia. i just had to replace a filter, so i have all the old ones. i never thought about just filling hte HOB with it. i'm not sure what i'm going to do with the tank long term, though. but it will be up for the next few months at least.

[esacjack]

yeah as a matter of fact Im going bare bottom in my frag tank, but i'll be using the small bio pellets in the hob and on the tank bottom. Ive also been reading about aquarists getting the big block, and sawing it up into cubes using a wire saw. it apparently works better when diced into cubes and tossed into the tank or hob.

[esacjack]

6 months is when almost all of my tanks hit their stability point. Then you start messing with dosing and it gets a little wonky for a bit till it stabilizes again.

wow, leathers? they must be really pleased with that. a snail was cruising around on mine yesterday and he was about as mad as i've seen him. today some macro was touching him and he was half mad. but maybe the lady clown can host in the frogspawn and the leather.

i already had some aiptasia growning in my QT tank. clearly, that one is ready for nems (no, i can't spell it either, but i can't spell anyway).

i should take a picture of my rock tomorrow and post it. after removing the ugly rubber coral. i don't think coloring up is apt, exactly. they are covered in some sort of algae, but not the good kind. it may be diatoms, but i am not sure. just a thin coat of something greenish brown. it doesn't look hairy nor slimey. i'm not too concerned with it, though, as i just figure it is part of the process. i haven't checked parameters in a while, but my macro in the sump is growing well. it has probably doubled in size.

but honestly, i'm not sure what nems look for. i just know that people say "six months". safe to say my bioload is going up slowly, though. i've added two clowns about a month ago and a goby/pistol shrimp a week and a half ago. aside from CUC and macro, that's all that's there. four corals and the royal gramma will go in at the end of the month. unless any of the pests show back up before then.

[Planeden]

Here are some shots of the algae on the rocks. the glass is pretty much cleaned by the snails. i don't think i have cleaned it in months. i'm not sure what kind of algae this is. but the hermits and snails are both picking at it, but haven't really slowed it down any. but, it's not really ugly, so i guess it is not a nuesance at this point, technically.

[Bpb]

Don't discount the value of a toadstool leather for clown hosting. They get irritated at first but they eventually accept the clown. I have a big clumsy aggressive clarkii clown who loves to lay in the polyps of his toadstool every bit as much as his bubble tip nem. It's pretty cool to see. Almost like fields of wheat blowing in the breeze. I can't imagine a clown hosting any other types of leather though

[Planeden]

Don't discount the value of a toadstool leather for clown hosting. They get irritated at first but they eventually accept the clown. I have a big clumsy aggressive clarkii clown who loves to lay in the polyps of his toadstool every bit as much as his bubble tip nem. It's pretty cool to see. Almost like fields of wheat blowing in the breeze. I can't imagine a clown hosting any other types of leather though

my leather is round like a chia-pet on a stick not the big flat ones. but we'll see. i ran some of esacjack's information by the committee and she is pretty intested in getting a nem. i'm not sure about it. we sort of fell out of planning stages while we are waiting for the stuff we have in the OT now to be ready for the main tank.

on another note, i think my peppermint shrimp is a drunk. he just kinda sways and staggers side to side all the time.

[Bpb]

Lol that's what they do. Looks odd. Very rhythmic. If your leather is a toadstool that's how they start off. It'll flatten out eventually as it grows.

[Planeden]

Lol that's what they do. Looks odd. Very rhythmic. If your leather is a toadstool that's how they start off. It'll flatten out eventually as it grows.

really? i had no idea he'd flatten out. well then his name, sea-a-pet, is going to be pretty goofy when he grows up.

so, all peppermints are sots. good to know.

[esacjack]

yah youre still a bit young on your tank age, that type of algae starts to clear up as the coralline and other algaes begin to adhere to the rock. Whats your current tank age?

[esacjack]

oh crap.. wait.. you have a peppermint shrimp? yah,, better not get a flower nem for a while.. pepps are known to pick at other nems of smaller stature.. ive never personally witnessed it, maybe someone else can chime in?

[(Bio)³]

oh crap.. wait.. you have a peppermint shrimp? yah,, better not get a flower nem for a while.. pepps are known to pick at other nems of smaller stature.. ive never personally witnessed it, maybe someone else can chime in?

I have had peps kill a flower nem/rock nem and also a MMC. I know another guy (I can't think of Jon's screen name.) who had a red MMC get killed by peps.

[bige]

I've had peps eat coral. Some go rogue. When that happens I go see hunter for a feeding.

[Planeden]

yah youre still a bit young on your tank age, that type of algae starts to clear up as the coralline and other algaes begin to adhere to the rock. Whats your current tank age?

6 weeks? It seems longer, but right around June 1st.

Ps: I tried to tell you it wasn't ready. If my girlfriend is ginna yell at someone, I'm sending her to you.

[Planeden]

My peppermint shrimp is not in the main tank. I put him in the OT to eat aiptasia, hopefully avoiding getting any in my main tank. I'm not sure if a nem will need to be quarentined.

So far it hasn't gone after my corals. But I just got him Sunday.

[Planeden]

just feed my dendro and that sobered up my peppermint shrimp real quick. he ran straight for it. i knew it was a risk so i poked at him a few times. determined little bugger climbed up my finger and then ran off. he snuck back in and took a shrimp right out of the dendro's mouth. it seemed that one was enough for him though. he just ran back home and ate it.

[(Bio)³]

careful, if he learns food can be found there he will go anytime he is hungry and search the dendros stomachs. I've had one that would rip out my duncans food a day later and if there was no food he sometimes ripped at the duncan itseld

[subsea]

careful, if he learns food can be found there he will go anytime he is hungry and search the dendros stomachs. I've had one that would rip out my duncans food a day later and if there was no food he sometimes ripped at the duncan itseld

If they can eat Aptasia, they can eat most anything that they want to eat.

Patrick

[Planeden]

careful, if he learns food can be found there he will go anytime he is hungry and search the dendros stomachs. I've had one that would rip out my duncans food a day later and if there was no food he sometimes ripped at the duncan itseld

well, it's not like i left him a little trail of shrimp clubs to follow . a day later, though? my oh my. hard to keep an eye out for that.

i feed my coral with the shimps every other day. so, hopefully even if he loses a shrimp every once in a while he'll be fine. i'd hope, there'd also be enough food floating around he wont have to go to such extreme measures. either way, the dendro will only be with the peppermint a couple of more weeks, so as long as the shrimp doesn't do damage, the coral should be fine.

careful, if he learns food can be found there he will go anytime he is hungry and search the dendros stomachs. I've had one that would rip out my duncans food a day later and if there was no food he sometimes ripped at the duncan itseld

If they can eat Aptasia, they can eat most anything that they want to eat.

Patrick

i'm hoping that he is stealing food because there is no more aptaisa in the tank. but who knows, stealing shrimp from a defenseless coral may just be easier than hunting the elusive pests.

[Planeden]

Powerhead Question I've been wanting to ask. I have two Tunze powerheads that run 24 hours a day. Many people with Apex controlers and the like seem to turn off, or down, their powerheads at night. Is this helpful enough to worry about. I have recently put my powerheads on a seperate power strip so i can turn them off for feeding and leave the return pump on. It's be simple enough to set a timer to one or both of them to have them shut off at night. i think i even have an extra timer lying around.

what do you think?

[Bpb]

Never quite understood the concept of lower flow at night, considering I see the best polyp extension when the lights go out. Wouldn't you want the MOST flow then?

[(Bio)³]

I wouldn't turn them off but if you have the ability to slow them down I would do that.

[Planeden]

Wouldn't you want the MOST flow then?

how should i know? hahaha.

seriously, though. with my limited experience, i see most of the extension in the day period. my frgospawn and zoas shut down when the sun goes down. my leather, palys, and dendro are out almost all of the time. but that's the end of my experience.

i'm thinking that the seas are typically calmer at night. so, i think that may be the reason behind it. more like nature.

which is also why i have my lights set to storm 5X a day. i read somewhere that natural corals are not used to the unending pounding of the sun for long photoperiods because of clouds passing by. my lights don't have the cloud control, but the storms dim the lights for half an hour or so (and flicker). i'm not sure if it helps, but it was either that or set up a fan on a timer that would occasonally block the light .

[Planeden]

I wouldn't turn them off but if you have the ability to slow them down I would do that.

didn't buy the thing that will slow them down and do the waves. but i thought with the two returns and two powerheads shutting some of it down would be a similar effect to slowing them down. i'm guessing that pump start/stop is part of the concern?

i have an alternating light cycle on my sump and have never noticed a change in PH between night and day. but, i have never checked that without the power heads.

[Planeden]

careful, if he learns food can be found there he will go anytime he is hungry and search the dendros stomachs. I've had one that would rip out my duncans food a day later and if there was no food he sometimes ripped at the duncan itseld

you don't think...this is not what it looks like, is it? did he?

if so, i'm selling the movie rights to SciFi.

edit - if it is hard to tell from the picture, that is a shrimp body (maybe molted, i don't know) face first and quite dead in my dendro's mouth. and, the dendro looks a little fat. hahahaha, in fact, he has a bit of a pot belly hanging down over his skeleton.