Planeden Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 this tank looks nice. i like your aquascaping. i will be very happy if my tank looks this nice in 6 months. Thank you!! Do you have a new build? I admit I was a bit OCD about the aquascaping. its been rearranged a few times. I'm happy with it for now, but I eventually want to replace the base landscaping rock with all live rock. I think I'd miss the crevices they make at the bottom, and the shelves too, and its also easy to catch fish. The fish love swimming in and out of those crevices. They almost never bother with the live rock unless there's a cave in one.Also, another good thing about the landscaping rock is its 10 cents per pound, so its good for beginners until you can afford/ slowly collect oceanic rock. I do have a thread going, but it may not be too exciting yet. Hopefully I will have some updates tonight. http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/26847-first-time-build/ Minor point, though. Your landscaping rock will become live rock in time. If it is porous, has nice crevices, and a good shape then leave it. It will collect the bacteria and critters that your live rock has. The only concern you may have is if it leaching things into your system. Phosphates is one of the concerns I know about. Perhaps point out your rock in your emergency thread to see if it is a concern for the coral issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 this tank looks nice. i like your aquascaping. i will be very happy if my tank looks this nice in 6 months. Thank you!! Do you have a new build? I admit I was a bit OCD about the aquascaping. its been rearranged a few times. I'm happy with it for now, but I eventually want to replace the base landscaping rock with all live rock. I think I'd miss the crevices they make at the bottom, and the shelves too, and its also easy to catch fish. The fish love swimming in and out of those crevices. They almost never bother with the live rock unless there's a cave in one.Also, another good thing about the landscaping rock is its 10 cents per pound, so its good for beginners until you can afford/ slowly collect oceanic rock. I do have a thread going, but it may not be too exciting yet. Hopefully I will have some updates tonight. http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/26847-first-time-build/ Minor point, though. Your landscaping rock will become live rock in time. If it is porous, has nice crevices, and a good shape then leave it. It will collect the bacteria and critters that your live rock has. The only concern you may have is if it leaching things into your system. Phosphates is one of the concerns I know about. Perhaps point out your rock in your emergency thread to see if it is a concern for the coral issue. That's a good idea. Someone did tell me it might leech phosphates and other undesireables into the water. However, its surely live rock already. The stuffs been in there for 6 months and went through my cycle, when I dropped cultures of live bacteria in there and live sand. I'm buying a phosphate test kit tomorrow. We'll see if the rock/high phosphates are the cause for the coral rot. Like I said, it has been in there for 6 months, so I'm not sure how likely it is that it would start being a problem now. I'm leaning toward blaming the nitrate spike. Nitrates and phosphates go hand in hand.. I did a 30% water change yesterday, a 50% water change two days ago... I keep logs for when I did a water change and what the parameters were like before and after. I'm actually in the middle of a nitrate test right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 You're right, it should be well cultured by now. I also don't know how long leaching could be a problem. But if you like the way your aquascape looks you should consider leaving it. If you have any left over you can put a piece in water for a while. Test phosphates before and after putting it in. I think 3 days is enough. I'm not sure how good this source is (wet web media), but here is an artical on phosphates. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_5/volume_5_3/phosphates.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 You're right, it should be well cultured by now. I also don't know how long leaching could be a problem. But if you like the way your aquascape looks you should consider leaving it. If you have any left over you can put a piece in water for a while. Test phosphates before and after putting it in. I think 3 days is enough. I'm not sure how good this source is (wet web media), but here is an artical on phosphates. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_5/volume_5_3/phosphates.htm Thanks a bunch! I read the whole article and it looks like I'll be wanting a phosban reactor + my skimmer to kill nitrates and phosphates most efficiently. I'm impressed that her/his skimmer had 100 times the amount of nitrates in the cup than in the tank. That's very efficient removal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 (edited) Okay so, last night I noticed some coral growth I hadn't seen before. First of all, the long GSP I put on the back wall is twice as big since I got it maybe a month ago. Last night I saw baby polyps coming out of the new growth area. Cute! 2nd, the short GSP is really picky. It seemed to like high flow, but there were parts that hadn't opened, and plus its rock was blocking the powerhead's flow to the rest of the tank. I moved it a bit and moved the powerhead too, keeping it along the line of flow, and now its all closed again! I can't seem to please it. I don't know if it doesn't like being so close to the lights or what. The good news is the zoas on the same rock are now very happy. 3rd, I noticed a new polyp from one of my palys that is at least half the size of the adults. There were only 3 polyps on the fragment, so it was easy to notice a 4th. They've been in there for a couple months and hadn't grown at all til now. I'm guessing the new lights caused it... that's more logical than thinking the nitrate spike did, anyway. 4th, I've also noticed a great improvement of color on my dragoneye?/watermelon? polyps in the last couple weeks. Especially on the ones that face the light. Before, the entire thing was brownish green, no GFP to be seen. Now the skirt is becoming radioactive green. I guess that is one answer to my question on how to make the color better--better lights! Also other good news: the water hose trick seemed to work, and I didn't see any harm from those weird white specks floating in the bucket after I mixed it. The nitrates are 0-10 ppm (I'm really not good at reading the color, seems to change a lot depending on what light you look at it in). I did see that the clove polyps are not rotting after all, but I'm not sure if the remaining pulsing xenia got worse/better. The original xenia is still not looking pretty. I will have to observe longer to see if its getting worse or if its stable. A lot of the stalks fell off. I also adjusted my AC110 so it filters more efficiently. I bought some Crystal Clear water clarifier to clump up the fine particles in the water. Then I pushed the AC110 filter to try to get some corals out of its flow, and BAM the clumps of dirt came rushing out of the filter. I saw a gap where water was escaping the filter without actually going through the filter pad. I rinsed the filter pad really well, replaced it, then wedged a household sponge in the gap and dropped a bag of activated carbon on top for good measure. All the dust I kicked up by messing with the filter was filtered out of the water in minutes!! The water that comes out of it is now crystal clear even if I disturb the filter. I may buy a new bag of activated carbon today, since that one is a couple months old. I'll also re-rinse the sponge today since it had a lot of cleaning to do last night.. Also on the list: pantyhose socks to use as filter socks for the overflow box. Every time I do a water change, I'm amazed at how much gunk has collected on the bottom of the sump. Then again, maybe I should stop feeding the fish near the overflow box.....Either way, this will help. I'm getting my reef octopus skimmer next weekend, and if I have money after that, I'll pick up a phosban reactor. Edited May 29, 2013 by ChaosFyre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Great news on most of the corals. BRS has some quality GAC that is pretty cheap. Watch the BRS YouTube videos on the carbons. I'm not ashamed to admit I watched a bunch of their videos one night. That guy that does them...well...he's entertaining in his own little awkward way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 dont rinse your sponge, as it contains some of your good bacterias (denitrifying). If you absolutely must rinse it, use salt water from your water change. Also, kill your pumps when you're feeding, and only feed as much as they can consume in 2 minutes. (some argue 30 seconds if you lack hermits or omnivorous clean-up verts) Oh and if you want to save money on carbon, get in on the group buys we do at BRS (Bulk Reef Supply) every so often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted June 1, 2013 Share Posted June 1, 2013 Your pictures are very nice. I do like the lacy feather look to the waving hand Athenia. I suggest you keep it on one rock that can be removed if required. Out of all the fast growing soft corals, waving hand is the most invasive. Patrick Its on its own removable fragment, but if it spreads to the little live rock its on, that will be fine too. Nothing is glued down so if it spreads I can isolate that rock. So far it hasn't spread outwards, just gotten denser. Actually, if you check the emergency thread, you may see that my anthelia and xenias are in danger of death from something...Maybe I can culture it and pass it on to people who need xenia/anthelia control hopefully its not deadly to other corals! In my 11 year old Jaubert Plenum 75G tank, I can not keep Xenia alive. Be aware that softies are well known for chemical warfare. You should regularly use activated carbon and replace small amounts each week. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted June 1, 2013 Author Share Posted June 1, 2013 Your pictures are very nice. I do like the lacy feather look to the waving hand Athenia. I suggest you keep it on one rock that can be removed if required. Out of all the fast growing soft corals, waving hand is the most invasive. Patrick Its on its own removable fragment, but if it spreads to the little live rock its on, that will be fine too. Nothing is glued down so if it spreads I can isolate that rock. So far it hasn't spread outwards, just gotten denser. Actually, if you check the emergency thread, you may see that my anthelia and xenias are in danger of death from something...Maybe I can culture it and pass it on to people who need xenia/anthelia control hopefully its not deadly to other corals! In my 11 year old Jaubert Plenum 75G tank, I can not keep Xenia alive. Be aware that softies are well known for chemical warfare. You should regularly use activated carbon and replace small amounts each week. Patrick Your pictures are very nice. I do like the lacy feather look to the waving hand Athenia. I suggest you keep it on one rock that can be removed if required. Out of all the fast growing soft corals, waving hand is the most invasive. Patrick Its on its own removable fragment, but if it spreads to the little live rock its on, that will be fine too. Nothing is glued down so if it spreads I can isolate that rock. So far it hasn't spread outwards, just gotten denser. Actually, if you check the emergency thread, you may see that my anthelia and xenias are in danger of death from something...Maybe I can culture it and pass it on to people who need xenia/anthelia control hopefully its not deadly to other corals! In my 11 year old Jaubert Plenum 75G tank, I can not keep Xenia alive. Be aware that softies are well known for chemical warfare. You should regularly use activated carbon and replace small amounts each week. Patrick Thanks, that's good info. I only had a 3 small fragments in a 90 gallon tank... really really small fragments. I don't think that is the problem, but I do have activated carbon (its probably bad by now). However, were you the one who mentioned to check the salinity as a cause for wilting soft corals!? I found something really scary today. I spoke to my friends about calibrating a hydrometer against one of their refractometers, and we haven't gotten to test it yet but we estimate my hydrometer was reading about 1 1/2 points higher. For example, if mine read 1.025 exactly, its actually at 1.0265 which is not horribly bad...but still not good. I cleaned my hydrometer with vinegar and let it sit for a day. Then I rinsed it out with water, left tap water in it and let it sit for a day. Today I checked my salinity and it read 1.030!!!! Did I break my hydrometer by leaving the vinegar in it too long, or did I just clean it so well that now its reading true again!? It did seem to take a lot more salt that usual to get my water to what I thought was 1.025. By now my xenias are gone, and my anthelia is hanging on, with some white burns starting at its tips and slowly spreading down. I keep adding freshwater every couple days to bring the salinity down slowly, and even after doing that, the meter read 1.030 today and its really scaring me. Should I assume that its now reading true and being lowering the salinity even more!? Well, but straight fresh water is reading at about 1.080. I think I'm going to order a refractometer, but for now I need advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Okay, so if I'm not seeing algae blooms then don't worry about phosphates. And don't worry about alk/ca unless I get finicky SPS corals. And I kind of agree with the 20-40 being too high. Right now my nitrates are between 0-5 ppm and I like it there. Everything seems happy. Also, I have decided it was the lights causing the growth. In the past few days I have noticed baby everythings, everywhere. I think I was worrying prematurely about the growth. I had a frag of 3 paly polyps that has doubled, the GSP has double and it was already a palm-size fragment, and my eye of rah already filled in the piece I fragged off a couple weeks ago, and some of my other 1 or 2 head fragments of palys or zoas have also doubled. Also, I am seeing a huge size increase in zoas that were miniature in someone elses tank and had been miniature in my tank... until now. I'm getting MONSTROUS size zoa heads, and the stalks are at least a good inch long on my eye of rah. Also, the anthelia has lots of babies in density, but isn't really spreading out yet (but thats not really surprising, I guess). The only thing left to worry about is that bit of "rot" showing up on the anthelia. Even after the massive water changes, it wasn't defeated. I'm thinking its the salinity, and I just bought a D-D saltwater refractometer for $22 off of ebay. Its brand new, comes with a hard case and all the parts. You can read about why its a bit special here: http://reefbuilders....ater-saltwater/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 (edited) Btw, what just happened? I spilled something on my mouse last night and its acting up. I tried to edit a post, and now suddenly instead of 6 pages, the thread has 2 and the post I was editing is gone lol. Luckily I copy-pasted it and reposted it above. Edited June 2, 2013 by ChaosFyre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Btw, what just happened? I spilled something on my mouse last night and its acting up. I tried to edit a post, and now suddenly instead of 6 pages, the thread has 2 and the post I was editing is gone lol. Luckily I copy-pasted it and reposted it above. It's in your water change thread . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Btw, what just happened? I spilled something on my mouse last night and its acting up. I tried to edit a post, and now suddenly instead of 6 pages, the thread has 2 and the post I was editing is gone lol. Luckily I copy-pasted it and reposted it above. It's in your water change thread . Ah okay thanks. My mouse must have jumped me back a page or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted June 8, 2013 Author Share Posted June 8, 2013 (edited) 6/8/13 Update: I did it again.. can't help it. Picked up a few frags from a friend for $15 (new mushroom (not pictured here because its in the shot glass) and a couple zoa frags and frogspawn). Check out the new look! I also got some replacement pulsing xenias, and some macro algae (halimeda) which accounts for most of the green you see on the bottom of the tank. Also got some great shots of my snowflake clown. I don't know if she is ORA lineage or what (got her from PETCO) but I'd guess she's a Premium Snowflake by their ratings... Or even Black Ice. Neither ORA or SA have snowflake clowns with those bold lines, only ORA's or SA's Black Ice looks like that! I love her bold black lines. There is a lot of blue and you can tell its not just the camera because in the clearest picture the blue is only on the side where white scales overlap the bold black lines (not where black scales overlap white). I know one of the fragments I got is fire and ice zoa. I got some hybrid frogspawn of some kind... doesn't look anything like the other frogspawn I have, its almost like a hammer coral. The last stuff is tiny micro zoa with this amazing day-glo orange or pink eyes, its a bit mottled too. As they respond to my lights they may improve in color and look like something else entirely, but as they are, I've never seen anything like it! ID, anyone? Its hard to see with the coloring of my camera, but they're right behind and to the right of the fire and ice zoas. I also have some zoas fighting with short GSP for space, and I'm not sure if they're dragon eyes or watermelon zoas. ID? Edited June 8, 2013 by ChaosFyre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Looks like a bi-color frogspawn. A mix of green and purple tips. Those are cool. Good to see the Xenia has attached and looks healthy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 Looks like a bi-color frogspawn. A mix of green and purple tips. Those are cool. Good to see the Xenia has attached and looks healthy Thanks for it, by the way. If you have more you want to give away, those new friends of mine, Kyleigh and Taylor, need corals to fill up their tank. I gave them a tiny frag of kenya tree, a single polyp of eye of rah that had escaped the colony, and some of your halimeda algae to put in their refugium. I didn't give them much, just stuff that was easy to pick up cause I'm not confident about fragging yet lol. There's a guy at petco I don't know his name yet, but he said he has a lot of waving hand anthelia to give away. I suggested they talk to him. They're a really nice couple, we've met a few times now. They're bringing me a great powerhead that can double as a sump pump for free on Tuesday. They got me into the salt-water molly thing.. I fell in love with their baby dalmation mollies. Both cameron and they have monstrous salt-water mollies that just breed in tank. Mine are acclimating now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 (edited) Okay, so I traded my 48" T5NO lights for a 38 gallon breeder with a marine-land biowheel filter, 40 lbs or so of aragonite, a T5NO light fixture to fit the smaller tank, and a stand (and now also the powerhead). It was a great deal so I'm trying to pay them back with coral frags whenever possible. We put the breeder in our bedroom at the foot of our bed and it looks amazing. I kept some of their old water and a teensy bit of their live sand to help cycle the tank. I used a dinner plate to break up the water flow when I poured the water into the tank, so the substrate wouldn't get stirred up. The tank cleared within hours. I'm getting 40 lbs of purple fiji live rock for $3 per pound from Cameron on Monday. Here are some pictures right after I got it set up: Edited June 10, 2013 by ChaosFyre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 The dog couldn't hep but be part of he photo op. nice new tank. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Pedretti Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Looks like she's got the bug lol Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted August 24, 2013 Author Share Posted August 24, 2013 The 38 gallon breeder tank now has 11 molly fry and two proud molly parents. They are all living happily in 1.025 salt water and the babies were born after about a month in the tank. The male is a dark dalmation, and the female is a creamsicle+light dalmation. The fry are probably a week or two old by now, and have definitive color differences. They are quite easy to feed and I haven't lost a single one since I first spotted them. The molly parents leave them alone. Other tank inhabitants are bristle worms, an odd sort of feather duster thing with tentacles instead of feathers, micro tube worms, a micro/mini six-armed starfish, and a hermit crab. The tank is too scratched for me to want to keep in my bedroom, though I did get the entire setup for a good deal. I didn't want to start breeding clownfish in it because that would make the ugly tank "permanent". When I'm confident at raising the molly fry, I'll move them to a 20 gallon tank and hopefully switch my 38 gallon to a non-scratched breeder tank so I can begin breeding clowns. In other news, my black clown has turned out to be the dominant female. I noticed recently that she is now noticeably bigger than the snowflake. Also, my display tank is overrun with corals... corals everywhere!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted August 24, 2013 Share Posted August 24, 2013 It sounds like this tank has well established bio diversity. More than likely, the thing with tentacles is a cucumber that feeds on particulates that comprise what is collectively called zooplankton in the water colum. Considering your rush to get a new, unblemished tank for your bedroom; you might be an addicted reefer. Laissez la bonne temps roulee, Patrick 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosFyre Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 It sounds like this tank has well established bio diversity. More than likely, the thing with tentacles is a cucumber that feeds on particulates that comprise what is collectively called zooplankton in the water colum. Considering your rush to get a new, unblemished tank for your bedroom; you might be an addicted reefer. Laissez la bonne temps roulee, Patrick I would have to agree on all points! After seeing one worm across the sand, they are definitely some sort of tiny cucumber. Also my addiction has gotten worse in the time I've been away from the forum. I bought a new unscratched 38 gallon and a bunch of rock for both tanks, as well as some new livestock and a new reef radiance lumintek pro 240 led fixture. It should arrive in a week or so. I'll post updated pictures of both tanks then. My next purchase will probably be an rodi filter and an led fixture for my breeder if I like the one that comes in. Meanwhile my 48 inch T5HO fixture is for sale. I'm asking $250 negotiable and will consider trades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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