Do puffers bother corals?

Do puffers bother corals and anemones? My mom really likes them and so do I. My reef is mostly made up of softies and LPS with a few SPS. The fish I currently have are: 1 white cheek tang, 1 singapore angelfish, 1 male blue jaw trigger, 2 percula clowns, 1 sixline wrasse, and 1 yasha goby. My tank is 120 gallons. Thanks.

Is this working correctly?

Hi guys for the last month I have been wrestling with my protein skimmer and getting it to function correctly. For exactly 1 day I got it to work perfectly where it developed a nasty brown sludge before something happened and clear water flowed into it. I think I have come close, I do have a foam slowly flowing into the cup but I was curious if anyone can tell if this looks correct.

55 Gallon FOWLR Stocking

Hello everyone,



I have a 55 gallon display tank that is fully cycled and I compiled a Stocking list and would like input on what you guys (and girls) think?



Tank information:

Standard 55 gallon display (48" x 13" x 21")

About 40lbs of Live sand

About 60lbs of Live rock

Proflex Model 1 as the Sump: small refuge in middle chamber

Coralife Protein skimmer

TLF Phosphate Reactor

elive LED with 31 LED "pods"

Heater and Fan for temperature control



Stocking list: (in order of introduction)

-Blue Spotted Watchman Goby

-Misbar Blood Orange Clownfish

-Toby Puffer (probably Black Saddle)

-Queen Tiger Anthias

-Ambon Damsel

Its time to start planning.

Well my tank is gonna be a softy/fish tank and I need to start planning how im going to setup my sump. im still about 4 months away from having everything such as a ro/di system, skimmer, new stand and lighting system (lighting should be done within the next 2 weeks)



so basically what im askin for is is there a general guide floating around here for softies? what kindve water do they like, lighting ect. I know I will be looking up lighting and flow for each different type I will have so I can place them in the tank right the first time. high nutrient water, low nutrient water (I believe they like low nutrient water right)



thanks for your help and I do enjoy reading stuff on here so don't be afraid to post large threads on the subject.

New tank recently moved

Woot first post, lol



I picked up a 55g with about 30lbs LR -/+ and 4 inches of sand bout 2 months ago. It came with a fumanchu lion fish and a dog face puffer. 1 off brand PH with a foam block around the intake and 2 bio wheel'd HOB filters.



I was able to retain about 40g of the water but I noticed the ammonia was .02 when I tested the water at home(I didn't wanna test in front of the guy). So I ditched the charcoal bags, 2 of 4 bio wheels and the sand. :) ohh and filter on the power head. I have been blowing the live rock off with my WC's and I'm getting a lot of stuff accumulating on the glass that I syphon almost daily.. Literally 6 days a week.



I left the HOB filters for water movement At the moment.

I built a stand and have a 20l under it to house the skimmer(not yet purchased). Ro/di will be my first purchase.



My question is. I'm still unable to keep the ammonia n nitrates down.. Even with 15g changes every 7 days. Should I just keep to WC's and testing?



I suspect the tank was not cycled and just thrown together based on observations and the gecko I also bought also was suffering so needless to say 3 animals got rehoused that day.



Awesome site btw there isn't a question I have that isn't answered using the search.

Getting high calcium and low alkalinity

I would like to know what would be causing me to get consistent high calcium levels and low alkalinity levels? I stopped dosing purple up 2 months ago and my levels evened out. Now they are doing it again. I change out my GFO and carbon monthly. At the same time I also do water change. I have a 55 gallon changing 10 gallons during the change. I am a little over a couple of weeks on last water change. I noticed my co2 absorbent is spent and I am changing it out. Is that the cause or is it something else? I have 3 frags of LPS and some softies as well with an anemone.

New to salt water looking for some advice

I have a 25 gallon tank with a dome front. I have a Petsco filter for 50-75 gallon sized tanks. I have live sand and approx 8lbs of love rock and 2 clown fish. I'm eventually would like to get some coral and anemone for the tank. I will get the protein skimmer before I add coral. Is there any suggestions to help keep things in harmony. Tank cycled in a week had the water tested and was perfect.

hang on the back filters

Im settin up a 30g saltwater aquarium and just lookin for ideas on a relatively cheap hang on filter. I had a 55g in the past but had a sump setup and never really messed with the hang on filters. So just lookin for some in put.



Thanks

Tank 90 gallon and others for sale.

I have a 90 gallon tank, sump filter, light for sale in Chattanooga tn. Can post pics laterit's currently in storage . Asking $700 obo

Feather Duster "Smoking"!?!?!

http://ift.tt/1r7HbtY



I've never seen this before, I beleive it was releasing waste. Fortunately I have a very large skimmer. It did not damaged anything on the tank and the skimmer removed it, when I cleaned the skimmer collection cup it smelled horrible.

controllable pumps?

So besides the Tzune and Ecotech are there any other pumps that you can controll the amount of water that is pushed?



I have a reef angel plus controller and it seems like a waste to purchase the Tzune and Ecotechs when I don't need their built in controller to controll them.



I'm just looking for pumps I can hook up to my Reef angel and controll them myself.

Radion XR15w Pro: Programmable LED Lighting for Nano Reef Aquariums

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Introducing The Ecotech XR15W Pro

Ecotech Marine has announced the XR30W Pro's new little brother, the XR15W Pro.



Read more about it on our blog!

http://ift.tt/1r6HHs9



To pre order, please follow the link below.

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They are expected to start shipping in Mid July.

Chalices vs NONreefsafe fish

What are the chances I can successfully keep around 10 or so chalices in a 6ft 180g tank with NON-reefsafe fish like Angelfish, Butterflies, Triggerfish and Puffer??

*onday all day!

Good mawnin', TRT!



Coffee is ready. Let's have breakfast sammiches: Your choice of biscuit or English muffin, scrambled egg, cheese, and meat choices cooked by ..let's see who I'll volunteer.. Perry. Fresh fruit cup, too.



This week my brother from OK is coming for a visit. Can't wait!



Lots of love and hugs and peace to everyone.

Soon to be starting up a 60 Gallon Reef Tank!

I have just acquired a 60 gallons acrylic tank setup with stand, canopy, and a API Filstar 2 canister filter. I am preparing to get this tank started as soon as I can and am looking for any and all suggestions, tips, and advice I can get. I am planning on keeping soft corals and some LPS and I am hoping to have a good variety of fish and inverts.



I do have a 14 gallon Biocube setup as a soft coral reef tank and will be transferring all to the new setup once established. This setup contains:



2 O. Clowns

1 Royal Gramma

1 Green Clown Goby

1 Sand Sifting Star



I am very interested in getting any of the following for the new 60 gallon setup:



Coral Beauty Angel

Yellow Tang

6 Line Wrasse

Copperband or Klein Butterfly

Several Blue or Green Chromis



Here is the lighting I am considering:



EVOLUTION Quad 48" 64 x 3W LED

http://ift.tt/1x37eml



Give me your thoughts and ideas!

How Would You Stock These New Tanks? (Equipment Wise)

So I'm pretty interested in making a salt tank thats FOWLR. Although I'm really interested in Coral Frags as well so not really sure what route to do. The fish that I REALLY would love to have would be the Fire Fish Goby



But anyways, to the main point - I'm thinking of making a 29g Biocube or 40gb into a Salt tank or even maybe a 55g with the whole Petco Sale



If you were on a budget of ~$1,000 - $1,500, what kind of equipment would you buy for the tanks?



I've heard that BioCubes are the "good tanks" for starters considering it comes with built-in sump and you can easily replace materials, but the downfall would be spending the same amount of $ on buying new equipment/replacement parts for the biocube in which can be the same amount of $ for equipments for a 40gb.



So what are your thoughts and stock equipment you would use if you got these brand new tanks?



Thanks for your time, and hope to hear from all of you!



Edit: Please list how many lbs of Rock/Sand (brand) you would buy as well!

stocking my ten gallon.

Hello trt i currently have 10 gallon nano saltwater tank with 1 red legged crab and one yellow tail damsel. My questionis what outher type of fish can i have in the tank or corals and im not using reef crystals for im using instant ocean. I just started saltwaterand im ready to take any advice from the experts :)!!!!

Tempature too high help!

I was gone out of town for the weekend and no one was staying in my house so my dad did not keep the air conditioning on and when I arrived home tonight the temp of my tank was 85 and a clown fish had jumped out also I'm guessing because of the temp all of the corals seem to be fine and the fish it is slowly dropping will everything be okay?

Newbie - Green Algae issue

First reef tank - 30 gallons

Hey guys!



I have an algae issue and I'd like your advice, but let me first tell you about my tank. (Question/pictures at the bottom)



I had a friend that kinda walked me through the setup and got me started with live sand and live rock, along with some RO/DI water that he makes with a machine of some sort at his house. Here are the specs (as best as I know how to give them). If there is irrelevant information, please bare with me!

• 30Gallons


• 25 pounds of live rock


• 8 pounds of base rock


• 40 pounds of live sand


• A 10 gallon sump tank


• Hang on the back overflow (eshopps 300, I think)


• Rio10 Hyperflow pump


• 240gph powerhead - Hydor Koralia


• 24" Current Orbit Marine LED - 23W


• About 9 snails


• 5 hermit crabs


• 2 emeralds crabs


• 1 cleaner shrimp


• 1 clownfish -happy, active, well-adjusted, eats well


• 1 6 line wrasse - super active, eats very well, well-adjusted


• Some pods that my boss gave me when he had ordered too many. I roughly put like 300 in my tank, but I rarely see them.


• Water changes of 5 gallon/once a week


• Feed fish every other day


• My tank cycled quickly, thanks to my friend giving me a head start and my nitrite, ammonia, and salinity levels are all immaculate. My nitrates are very low, right around 5, I think. On my color chart, when I do the test, it is very nearly perfectly yellow.

So I've been having a problem with green algae recently. It seems pretty bad and I'd like to get rid of it. Maybe, I'm overreacting. What're your thoughts? I also have these weird little tubular things growing. Check it out and please give me your input! Ahead of time, I'd like to say thank you very much and I am OBSESSED with this new hobby!



PS The forum isn't showing the pictures I try to post. I also have a little frogspawn coral that is doing well and a Green Star Polyp that hasn't been coming out for a couple weeks. What's up with that?

Adding Salt back to a tank.

So i had an ick out break and i lowered my salinity and it helped and the fish are looking healthy again. But now i need to bring the salinity back up to the right levels, how do i calculate how much salt to put in to bring it to normal? I am fine doing the math if someone just gives me a formula. I don't want to mix really salty mixes throw it in the tank test and repeat. I would like to with some accuracy know how much i need to put in. Also my salt mix and my 1/2 cup container raises 1 gallon of water to 1.023.

Best substarates for a reef tank?

I'm going to be upgrading from my 45G reef tank to a 220 latter this summer, God willing, and am curious if there's a growing consensus on the best substrate for a larger reef tank? I have course crushed coral/shell in my 45 and it's an absolute magnet for holding nitrates, so shant be going that route again. There's not enough siphoning in the world to remove dirt from this stuff......that's one check against my LFS for talking me out of my sand bottom! Am concidering all options at the moment, including Paul b's incredible success with a 'reverse under gravel filtration system'.....come on, 40 years....that's saying something! I'm an incurable optimist, and am hoping once up and running, I'll be running on the right track. But sand, different grade or kinds, a BB tank.....gulp.......even a finer crushed coral even. Thanks for any help or suggestions....I'm sure there's passionate debates on the subject, and I won't be feeding any arguments, am just interested in honest opinions. Oh, and I am keeping only 'softies' and small reef fish, and can't forsee that ever changing.

Dave

:help:

Easier sps suggestions

Hi I've had my 90 gallon tank set up for about 10 months I have an eshopps protein skimmer rated for a 120 and run carbon my bipolar consist of a yellow tang magnificent foxface 2 clown fish a yellow sleeper head goby and a flame angel which I'm trying to get rid of many diffrent snails and hermits also a cleaner shrimp for coral I have some polyps a frogspawn montipora candy canes bubble coral and a birdsnest I am just starting to dose with the eshopps doser I am dosing calcium and alkalinity and I dose nopax also I was wondering what some of the easier sps would be my montipora is doing fine and my birdsnest was bleaching but I moved that down I also have a small acropora frag too that is doing well I do a 10 percent water change every other week and use oceanic some suggestions on easier sps coral would be appreciated thanks

First reef tank - 30 gallons

Hey guys!



I have an algae issue and I'd like your advice, but let me first tell you about my tank. (Question/pictures at the bottom)



I had a friend that kinda walked me through the setup and got me started with live sand and live rock, along with some RO/DI water that he makes with a machine of some sort at his house. Here are the specs (as best as I know how to give them). If there is irrelevant information, please bare with me!

• 30Gallons


• 25 pounds of live rock


• 8 pounds of base rock


• 40 pounds of live sand


• A 10 gallon sump tank


• Hang on the back overflow (eshopps 300, I think)


• Rio10 Hyperflow pump


• 240gph powerhead - Hydor Koralia


• 24" Current Orbit Marine LED - 23W


• About 9 snails


• 5 hermit crabs


• 2 emeralds crabs


• 1 cleaner shrimp


• 1 clownfish -happy, active, well-adjusted, eats well


• 1 6 line wrasse - super active, eats very well, well-adjusted


• Some pods that my boss gave me when he had ordered too many. I roughly put like 300 in my tank, but I rarely see them.


• Water changes of 5 gallon/once a week


• Feed fish every other day


• My tank cycled quickly, thanks to my friend giving me a head start and my nitrite, ammonia, and salinity levels are all immaculate. My nitrates are very low, right around 5, I think. On my color chart, when I do the test, it is very nearly perfectly yellow.

So I've been having a problem with green algae recently. I have put pictures below. It seems pretty bad and I'd like to get rid of it. Maybe, I'm overreacting. What're your thoughts? I also have these weird little tubular things growing. More pictures below. Check it out and please give me your input! Ahead of time, I'd like to say thank you very much and I am OBSESSED with this new hobby!

Sand questions.

I know everyone has their own opinions about live vs dead sand. But recently I had heard about collecting your own sand. What are everyone's thoughts on this. And if you have done so do you use as is or clean it with vinegar and or bleach.

algae issue I haven't seen before

When moving from the 175g to the new 210g, I reused the same LR. I had blown out the detrius with a maxijet 1200, rinsed it thoroughly in a bucket of salt water, let sit in a tupperware ccontainer with a heater and powerhead for five days and repeated on the way into the new tank. The 175g had also been running without lights for about a month. Some of the really bad rocks were soaked over the course of three days in fresh water to make sure there wasn't any aptasia, etc left alive.

I put everything into the new 210g and ran without lights for the first two weeks. I am now running Three 3w LED units above the tank (running at 2w). I have had it running for about two weeks with the lights, a few days of which I was out of town.



I am measuring zero for nitrates and phosphates, but have seen an algae I haven't seen before. It is almost like hair algae, but very fine and a very light yellowish green color. It is very fast growing and is so fine that it floats rather than sicks, meaning it gets into the powerheads very easily. It is fine enough that it goes right through the filter screens and wraps around the innerworkings. It was wrapped enough to shut down two maxijets (a 1200 and a 600). I pulled the other three for precautionary reasons and took a toothpick to them all to clean them.



I did a 25% water change today and the skimmer was going nuts when I restarted it (SRO3000). I have never seen algae like this and never seen algae grow so fast. My trochus and cerith snails won't touch the stuff. Any idea what it is? It was too fine to get in a picture. Hoping that with standard water changes, it will eventually disappear on its own? I never saw it in the last tank (4 years) and used the same LR, so am confused. It was present before I got the snails, so didn't come with them.

Help me out with low CA numbers...

I have a 200g (est.) total system mixed reef. A small amount of LPS/SPS, and a bunch of softies. I'm still doing Reef Fusion 1/2, 25 mL every other day. I dosed last night. Numbers are:



CA- 365 (low)

MG- 1440

KH- 10.2

CA looks low and KH looks high. Any suggestions here?

NH - 0.0

PO - 1.0 (not good)

PH - 8.2

NO3- 0.0

NO2- 0.0





I don't have a auto doser, but I'm sure I will get one some day. I do have a tunze osmolater ATO, and a 10g ATO tank. I've heard kalk dosed into the ATO would be a possibility to get that CA number up.





As a temp fix I bought some IO Calcium Booster, dosed the prescribed amount and checked my CA again. It came up to 440.





Can anyone help me out in what direction to go to get some balance back in the system?

Bought some fish for my b-day

Well the river was a bust, so my friend and I took to the streets visiting random fish stores in the greater st.louis area. sad to say only one offers as much as the LFS that is closest to me.. well I guess its good because its near me ha! anyways I picked up a azure damsel from that place and went to my favorite LFS to see what they had. of course they also have sales too! a cardinalfish was on sale so I got one of those and 2 other blue devil damsels, priced for 9.95 but the kid workin there gave me them for the blue damsel pricing AND only charged me for one hehe. I would post a pic right now but I cant. everyone seems well tempered and there has only been a poke or two thrown around. my bandit shrimp doesn't seem interested and no one seems to care about the cardinalfish either.. however my tang, azure damsel and the other 2 blue devils just kindve cruise around the tank. my tang goes higher into the water column now as well instead of just cruising around the LR. my cali blackworms should get here tomorrow so that will be a treat! even hours after I finished acclimating everyone, everyone ate with passion! my bandit even took another piece of frozen Wal-Mart shrimp which isn't like him, he usually just takes a piece everyother day & I fed him last night.



welp that's it for now! time to play with my r/c truck

Baby Brine Shrimp Hatchery Tutorial (video)

I've discovered a unique cap that allows me to more efficiently hatch baby brine shrimp. It is also capable of potentially being used for phytoplankton and zooplankton culturing. I created a turtorial to show how it can be used for a brine shrimp hatchery. I'm going to convert my phytoplankton and rotifer setup to the new approach. have a look....

New 29 Gallon Biocube

I am planning on getting a 29 gallon Biocube as a beginner project, any thoughts on what livestock to... stock?:needpics: DONT FORGET PICS I a not doing the hqi version, instead I am getting more lights. I wont forget to get heater and skimmer with the tank. Any thoughts? mistakes? Free equipment?

Juice dosing ?

Hello. Has anybody tried to dose fruit or vegetable juices for carotine and other pigments ?



I was just squeezing some fresh juice and added about a milliliter of the mix of carrot and pomegranate juice to my 90G (110G total system volume) reef tank. Let's see what happens...

Dual membrane flow restrictor question

I currently have a 75 GPD system and am planning on adding a second membrane to increase production and reduce waste water.



My question is, will I need a new flow restrictor based on the 150 GPD production or will my current 75 GPD restrictor be able to be used? It seems like the kits I have seen don't include a new flow restrictor, which makes me think that you don't need to replace it.



Thanks for any input!!

Post your FOWLR tank pics to help others with aquascaping ideas

Post your FOWLR tank pics to help others with aquascaping ideas

Lighting help for fluval chi 5 gallon pico

i want a bluer look while looking to grow softies and maybe 1 or 2 lps. looking for something as cheap as i can get while still getting good growth.

any recommendations? what about this?

http://ift.tt/1qHylAz

RO/DI filter DI resin short life.

Hello Everyone,



I have a doubt about my RO/DI system, I hope you might help me.



Two months ago I bought a Coralife Pure-Flo II - 50 GPD 3 Canister RO System w/ Pum with an additional DI canister. After the 10 gallon discarded water the TDS was 0 ppm. After aprox. 80 gallon of water produced the TDS raised at 3 ppm, now after 160 gallon remains at 3 ppm. I was told the TDS should be zero all time, and if not, it is time to change the filters. But just two months? I guess I have to change the DI filter, but in such short time?



Here the results of measurements of DKH, PH and TDS from tap water, RO output and DI output to see if this data can give you some idea of my problem.





Tap: PH: 6.7, TDS: 190, DKH: 4

RO: PH: 5.4, TDS: 6, DKH: 0

DI: PH: 5.3, TDS: 3, DKH: 0



I measure this with an Milwaukee pH 600, HM Digital TDS EZ and a Sera KH test. The PH tester was calibrated using the Milwaukee PH 7.01 and PH 10.01 solutions.





Any idea?



Thanks.

Sump level staying below minimum level

I have a Oceanic 90g bow-front tank. It has a Durso set-up. I have a 1 1/2" drain and a 3/4" return. I have a 2 baffle sump consisting of a wet/dry filteration system and a holding chamber (not sure if that's the right teminology) I have a coral life skimmer mounting externally on my sump which btw is working like a champ). I am using a Danner Mag-Drive Supreme 9.5 950 GPH Water Pump for the return. I'm having two issues. #1 it sounds like a washer draining (worse actually)Sounds like I AM INSIDE a dishwasher. I already had a vent hole on the top of elbow in overflow (internal). I drilled it to make it larger, but that hasn't worked.When the water drains into the 1 1/2" hose you can actally see a 1/4"-1/2" inch gap of air to each side of the flow coming down the hose! There is no siphon obviously because it goes in my w/d filtration sump. The 2nd issue is that my sump level is running below minimum level. It's still covering both pumps (protein skim. and return). I originally had floss in there for polishing, the water looked incredible, problem is I had read that some sponges and floss can slow water to return pump. So I removed it (water quality reflects the change!) I have tried adding water to both the DT and the sump without effect. My water in my DT is right up to the black trim! As soon as I add water to sump it goes into DT. I bought the stuff for a ball valve on return line, but I keep reading that pump will try working harder and may burn out? I have read about gate vale either on return or drainage, but there seems to be debate with this to? I welcome any feedback that any of you may have. I would really like to add my anxious fish and stock to their upgraded home! Sorry this was so long, but I tried to give you the info you all would ask. LOL:)

Recommendation for good led strip

I'm looking for a decent priced led strip that can change colors. Wanting it to be around 6ft and bright enough to reach down 30 in tank. Just wanting it for accent lights so they have to be able to be next to 250w mh and stand the heat.



Thanks

Pump for 200 Gallon Calculations

I plan to have my sump in the stand for my 200g tank. I would like 2 return pumps in case one fails.

By what I've read, I want 3x to 5x tank volume going through the sump per hour. So on the high end, that would be 1000gph, so each pump should ideally be doing 500gph by the time it gets back to the tank?

Obviously loss of flow has to be taken into consideration, so using calculations I found on this page, I would be losing about 350 gph from all the various plumbing on one of the return lines.

So using the charts I found for the various pumps, if I found one that could pump around 850-1000 gallons at 5 feet of head would that work for the one pump?

I just want to make sure my calculations are correct before I buy anything.

The lost fish to anemone club, How did it happen

Well it a somber day for me i lost my first fish to my nem today. A brush with death it was nematocyst got the best of him while i was gone for a few hours. My newly aquired clowns may have had a "hand" in this as they are known to coerce other fish into a trap, notice the nem's mantel , very high upon the glass .







One bad turn, and its touchdown. I took a few hours for him to die, he first lied on his side and try to swim it off but in the end . The other fishes seem to know he was dying they were swiming close and very slowly, very creepy. i had to pick him up this morning behing the rockwork, i finally gave him to the nem , her prize...saved me a few frozen fish for the week because feeding her every other day i decided not to feed her this week, she got her lot for the week now.









Picture before the lights on, natural light, Purple Saddleback , Stichodactyla haddoni below with white lights only and Amphiprion clarkii;







So the question is how many fish did you loose so far with you nem and how did it happened?



Do you feed your dead fish to your nem too?

Need help editing my profile

Hi guys! Happy sunny Sunday. I need some help. How do I add a picture to my profile so I can have a profile pic? And how do I make a signature? Thanks- Tim.

Leaking Pump

I put my Skimmer back together and I can not get the pump to stop leaking. I thought about rubbing silicone on the oring? What do you think? Will it seal it so tight I will not be able to separate it in the future?



If I do that, how long should I let it dry before testing it?



My pump is an Oceanrunner 3500 with a needle wheel.

flow rate in reactor

can any one tell me what the flow rate through a reactor should be i want to set up one with carbon plus seachem de-nitrate in and am not sure what the flow rate should be going thru the reactor i have googled it some have the flow just dripping one drip every second some seam to have it faster so acn any one plz put me straight thank you its a aqua medic reactor one inlet at the bottom one on the top its about 14 inches in lengh







plus what does gfo stand for

Happy birthday to RazgreenOAFC on 6/29!

And here's the Official TRT Chorus® to sing.......



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!

Soon to be sunny Sunday

Morning all:thumbup:



Oatmeat and coffee here if anyone is in need .

Dunno if it's the day or just cuz I mighta hit the right proportions , but the coffee is extra good tasting today:agree:.



Have done driving up north to do later, first with the truck to get the big stuff from yesterday 'auction, at my buddy's place. Then back in the car for further north to deliver the ham radio equipt. to my ex-work buddy from the same auction .



Sunny with rain clouds zipping by to the south forecasted to deliver moisture inna hr. then partly cloudy for the remainder of the day.



Coffee's hot, reach those cups over !





Hope everyone has a great day!

Advice on a dottyback

Hi I need some advice on my tank and a new addition im looking to add. I have a 4x2x2 reef tank with about 40kg of live rock. I have a sale fin tang, blue tang, 2x clown fish, a pair of coral banded shrimp and a few peppermint's would adding a strawberry dottyback be a good option or would he be to aggressive?? Would he be compatible with the shrimps?

Melanurus Wrasse - Worried about it moving old sand and causing death from gas?

So I have always wanted a Melanurus Wrasse and was talking to people at my LFS.



I know that they like to bury themselves in the Sand when they sleep or get stressed out.



But then again I have a Lot of Coral (Favia and Chalices) that cover my Sand Bed.



The person at the LFS said do not worry they won't bury themselves where there is a lot of Coral around.



He said they would just bury themselves behind my Live Rock.



At first I said OK Great.



Then I got scarred because I talked to somebody before that was moving his Rock Around and Re-Aquascaping.



Right after he did that everything got sick and some stuff died.



The LFS told him it was because some kind of Gas gets trapped in the Live Sand that you do not Vacuum on a Regular Basis and he stirred it up.



I only Vacuum My Sand in the Front and Sides of the Tank.



So then I thought oh God the same disaster will happen to me if I get this Wrasse.



But I really want one.



What are the odds that the same thing will happen to me that happened to the person I talked to?

Any ideas what this little guy is?

Fast mover, transparent body, 2 BIG eyes, fish shape no curve body, otherwise I would guess amphipod:

Some new macro pictures

both of these are about the size of the tip of a ball point pen. I think the top one is a big isopod. The bottom pic looks like some sort of snail egg, but I have never seen one like it before

I just learned how to post picures

BTA Thin Tentacles?

I have a Lemon Drop (pink, yellow, and green) BTA that has been acting a little strange the past week.



Unfortunately it chose the back corner of my tank to make its home for the last year and a half, and so I have a hard time getting a good look at it, but its tentacles have been sort of stringy and thin this last week, and it hasn't been as out in the open as it usually is.

It has been eating, so that's a good sign - I feed it a meaty blender mush of brine shrimp, mysis, blood worms, plankton, cyclopeeze, prawn eggs, garlic guard, marine algae, and aminomega which is produced by my lfs.

It also hasn't lost any color.



I do think I may have seen its stomach (a white bubble looking thing) coming from its mouth a few minutes ago, but now it is back to normal. I don't know if this is normal for expelling waste? I've never seen it expel waste before since it faces away from me most of the time.



One thing I did start doing recently was dosing with kalk, which acts as a drip into the sump and comes through the return, which is basically right on top of the anemone - I'm concerned this might be causing it problems?



Can someone give me some advice on what might be happening?



Parameters:

Salinity: 1.024

Ph: 8.1

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 1

Ca: 415

Alk: 7.1



These images were taken through to top of the tank with all power heads turned off so I could get as clear of a picture as possible:





This is how it normally looks:

Leave sponge or not in biocube?

Hi all! One more super quick and (hopefully) easy question. All I need is a simple yes or no answer, more is fine though! So i just ordered my media basket for my biocube 29. There is a sponge that the water goes through when it goes into chamber 3 (with the pump). Do i take out or leave this sponge in the tank when i put in the media basket?

What can i collect?

im goin the Mississippi river tomorrow for my b-day, if I see something cool can I keep it for my saltwater tank? we have islands and sand barges and stuff like that so whatever I find will be in sand & water.. I also have a fw tank and I know I could put it in there, but something rustic and modernized pollution type will add a nice touch to the tank

Sharks???

So i am considering upgrading my 120 reef to a 300 gallon reef. That is, if i can get my parents in on it too ;-) I have always wanted a small species of shark. With a 300 gallon i could. I have a few questions though before i say i decide on a shark.



1. I have heard sharks don't bother corals, nems, clams, and the like. Does anybody know for sure about this? I know they aren't considered "reef safe", but if they don't bother the things mentioned above then i don't care.



2. What is the smallest fish inch wise you would keep with a shark? I have a tang, angelfish, and trigger that get about 8 inches full grown. They would be the smallest fish i would keep with the shark, bit i am hoping their activity level and good feeding of the shark will keep them safe.



3. The 300 gallon i am looking at is 2ft wide. Would this work? If i by everything seperate and not on craigslist i could get a wider 300g.



4. What shark would you recommend? I prefer a tank raised one if possible. The coral cat? The banded cat shark? The white spotted bamboo shark?



Thanks :)

Ahoy! Gotta love it when things go well.

Well, every since I broke apart this rock 2 months ago and put it in my tank, I have had one helluva time getting my nitrates back down. and I tested my water Monday after I did my routine maintenance they were at 30ppm which is decent for what I have. on my break from work today I tested my water and since Monday it has gone down to 5ppm! they actually went down haha!

Help with LED lamp

So after running a 20g saltwater tank successfully for a year now i decided to buy an fluvial spec 5g tank as a little summer distraction. Due to various reasons with my 20g i could never get the lighting quite right to get decent coral growth or successful sps growth.



The 5g i think would be a great tank to give sps a blast since the lighting should be within my low endish budget. I was thinking of using an LED lamp to light the tank but i want to make sure i get really decent growth without spending more than about £100. My knowledge of LEDs is sketchy at best so some advice would be great. Would the following be okay for good/impressive sps growth:



http://ift.tt/1qXFTS4



http://ift.tt/1qXFTS4



Obviously the cheaper bulb would be better but do you guys think splashing out on the stronger bulb would be a better plan or would i just bleach the corals?



p.s. well aware of the difficulties with keeping a 5g and fully prepared for the challenge.

A brush with death? Does anybody know?

My yellow tang is dying i think. No apparent reasons(parameters are fine). He's at the bottom resting on a rock. I took a look with a mag glass, and no leasions, the convict tang and him had been frisky lately, showing OFF, but at one point he turned and i was able to see his other side. Clear , no scar, or leasion either, good color too. He look exhausted. Could it be fight exhaustion?? This morning he was fine and ate, good stamina. I Did some feeding dose my supplement as usual, the only thing i added was iron since it was at 0.0ppm and it was the ordinary dosage like usual.













Nope he's upside down now (3h later), my theory now is he might of been cornered by the clowns and hit the nem with his belly, see how high her mantel was this morning ....he was too active this morning to come down so fast , to be symptomatic , and environmental....all the other fish seem fine, The only thing i don't know is; does a brush with a nem's mantel leaves traces or scars on a fish, or if its even possible that a fish can escape that.

Swe

Stopped off at SWE while I was in the cities today. Picked up a couple of frags and the largest occellaris I've ever seen in person. She has to be 3.5"-4" in length.

Clowdy Water

I have had my tank for 2 months now, I have a 75 gallon reef tank, with right now 55lbs of live rock, 2 inch sand bed. no sand is suspended but my tank is still clowdy, when the lights are out I can see through the back clearly but the long ways is still a little clowdy, I can see through when the lights are on but its still to clowdy for my liking, I am running carbon, a protein skimmer, some filter media for bigger chunks, I am new and I have probably to big of a bio load, I have 2 clownfish, yellow tang, salfin tang, powder blue tang, snowflake eel, royal gamma, purple pseudochromis, and one damsel. they are all healthy all my levels are where they need to be, salinity is at 1.023-24. pleaseeee help I also have a frag of zoas. and snails and 1 urchin and a shroom

Spray Bar - one way of doing it

Several folks have inquired about the spray bar I'm using

so I decided to start a thread specific to it.



I don't consider it a CLS but I'm just that way.

The entire tank is a CLS if it's not hooked up to NSW feed.



None of it is cemented in place and if you can go over the back

with a return, you can preserve precious flow from your pump

based on typical fittings in a RR tank.



I've tried both the downward facing ports (4 in a 36" tank)

and holes drilled in a bottom length of the tank spray bar.

I have much much better success with the spray bar which

well over 2 years with no cleaning, does not seem to have lost flow.



Here's a couple videos on how I installed mine, test firing it

and its abilities. I've never had any back siphon issues and my

power as many of you know goes off quite frequently.

6 times one day last week.







more to follow

Seachem stability. Does it work?

Hi TRT! it's a nice day here in LA. I was wondering... Does sea Chem stability really work? My 20 gallon is fairly new and I would like to add it to my tank.

Need new RO/DI Filters

I am in need of getting all new RO/DI filters and a flow restrictor. My setup has not been funning for years so I am sure the filters are shot.



Which filters do you recommend? I know a lot of people like the spectra pure, but their filters seem a little expensive... Looking for advice. The system I have is like the one pictured below.



I usually run

1. sediment filter


2. carbon


3. carbon plus 1 (whatever that is)


4. Dual RO Membrane


5. DI Resin.

Is that the best setup? I see there are silica filters...

Torx's NEW 120 gallon peninsula tank

So long after purchasing the tank, I finally had a chance to hammer this project out. Here is my standard 120gallon 4x2x2 peninsula tank. Keeping this one for a while, promise. DIY overflow with external drain mirroring Reef Savvy’s Ghost Overflow



Starting with the stand.



















More bracing was added to the stand before the tank was added. It will be seen later.



Drilled the tank myself. Thank you pulp for the bits.











Drilled the external overflow box. Going to use a 1" full siphon and 1" trickle and 1" emergency.







And assembled







I did not get pics of the overflow box that I made, but it works great. Installed the overflow box, internal and external











Covered and painted.











Tank in place







Time to start transferring the new water. I added about 50 gallons of fresh salt water and the rest was old tank water. Once my old tank started to be drained, it made it really easy to catch the fish when there was only a small amount of water in the tank. Also I did use 2 different substrates which looks awesome now.







Just a little cloudy in the beginning.







Everything transferred. Still lots of rock work and gluing frags to go. Also, just a temp hood to hide the light until I finish (start) the one to match the stand.











Sump is in my storage room. My house is all on one level, the plumbing runs beneath the house (crawl space, no it does not freeze down there, pipes will be insulated before fall as a precaution anyways) and back to the sump. I am using a Jebao DC12000 for my return. I am using the stock controller ATM. Too many other touches to be completed to hook up one of my cables to it today. Apex is a wicked mess of wires. Apex head unit, DIY BOB and an EB8 are in the fish room. There is a 50' Apex usb cable that runs under the house to connect an EB8 that will be installed in the hood (currently in the cabinet) as well as 2 VSP's.











I actually did the move last weekend. Everything survived by the looks of it. No fish or frag loss. More pics to come once I get all my frags glued and rid of those egg crate racks.

Apex to Jebao Harness WP/DC pumps

Thought I would share this here as well.



Best update I made to my Apex with amazing control. I use the cable on 2 WP-40 pumps on my 120gal. Not sure if more information is needed by anyone, or if it explanatory enough on its own, but here is how I did it.



Yes, an Apex uses 0-10v from the variable speed ports. This cable splits the voltage to 0-5v that is used by the Jebao WP and DC pumps.



***Keep in mind that different venders have different color wires for the 3 pin waterproof connection, so if you do one yourself, but sure to test the pin outs on it before or you risk dropping 24v into your VSP.***



***On other threads that I found to help me build this, they all said that any 2 resistors will work for this. NOT any 2 will work. I use 1/4w 2.7k Ohms and have used 1/4w 1k ohm with no issues. I recently reviewed a build someone did that was not working. They had used 10 Ohm resistors...they did not work! I do not know the minimum size required, but just thought I would add that. ***



***I also suggest getting a harness assembled without dismantling your current controller. 2 reasons mostly. One, IF something ever happens to your Apex, you will have no way of controlling your pumps until you get it fixed. Two, if you ever are looking to sell them, upgrade your tank etc, then they will be worthless without a controller.***



I use the following for the pins on the ethernet patch cable. Info is in the Apex guide as well though.







This is the orange and orange/white ethernet cable wires as noted above, controlled by the V2 or V4 depending which port you are plugged into. Do not mind the bad soldering, I have gotten 100x better and quicker now that I have made dozens of double cables and waiting on parts for more.







If you purchase a cable off Aliexpress, (search Ali or eBay for 3x0.75 SQMM LED Light Strips 3 Pin Waterproof Connector Cable)typically the Blue will be your +DC, brown will be ground and Yellow/Green will be 0-5v variable signal. Here is a pic to get an idea of what wire goes where.







Double check the continuity and be sure that the cable you bought matches. If not, it is okay, just be sure to adjust your project according to your cable.







Here we go...



http://ift.tt/1mrAATg



Questions, comments, concerns?

Identify this crab!

I knew this guy was in my tank but I hadnt been able to get a picture of him until last night. He's been in there a long time and doesn't seem to have ever harmed any of my coral or anything.







He's got big hairy legs and black claws. I had put a couple emeralds in my tank but they disappeared.. I'm sure this isn't one.. so what is he?

black onyx clownfish?

Hello, two days ago I got bogo black onyx clownfish due to the fact that they had been in the store for around three months. I go in all the time and these guys have definitely flourished since they had first arrived at the store. The female seems to have taken a liking to my heater and even sleeps on top of it at night. The first morning I thought she was dead and I was so upset, but she started moving once I turned the light on. I am so worried about them because they are such expensive fish. Is hosting a heater dangerous? Should I get them a coral to host sooner rather than later?

Help getting rid of green water!

Hey guys, it's me again I've now had a completely green tank for 6-7 weeks and nothing I've tried seems to help. At this point I'm considering giving my anemones back as they are both really bleached and I think my green bubble tip might be too far gone. Of all things this started after I switched from a hang on back filter to a protein skimmer and when I started using RO water. I've tried doing many water changes, one day I even changed 36 of 55 gallons, but it always just goes right back to being super dark green. Someone suggested I use chemipure elite which has now been in my skimmers return for 1 day. I think I should get a uv sterilizer, but haven't yet for a couple reasons: 1 I heard it will kill off my pod population which has for the past 8 months been flourishing 2. I heard that it isn't a good idea on a newer tank like mine and 3. While a uv sterilizer will kill the green water it won't fix the underlying issue. I currently don't have a test kit but hope to get my water in to my lfs for testing maybe sometime this week. So, if the chemipure helps eliminate phosphates how long should it take the green water to die?

ID this little orange guy

Recently changed the aquarium lights and this little orange guy opened up. Have tried to ID it but haven't had much luck. It's only a few mm very small.

Reef tank update

I am continuing my reef tank build, 55 gallons. So far I have my external overflow, Rodi media reactor, return pump, feed pump for media reactor. My sump is a 14 gallon (20x10x20?) so I have limited space. For a skimmer I'm looking at the reef octopus nwb 110. And for lighting ebay reef lights with bridgelux 3watt LEDs. In tank circulation will be handled by 2 1150 gph hydor koralia. Sand is going to be dry aragonite sand by sea him or live sand by Carib sea. Rock is going to be BRS reef saver. And I'm going to cycle with dr tims on and only and going to use a eihm heater 200 watt. I'm waiting for pectoral to have a 1$ gallon sale so I can buy a 29 gallon tank so I can make a sump and maybe incorporate a refugium



What do you think. Especially for my skimmer choice and lighting choice.

Is It SATURDAY, Yet?

Good Morning, Everybody! :)



Where is everyone? Having to eat my cereal and nanners by myself? :confused:



It's Saturday but looks just like yesterday, overcast with a good chance of t-storms all day. Grass hasn't dried out enough to mow and it's getting serious. :(



Mr. Buck has been doing his Yoga and it shows with his flexibility.







Have a Satisfactory Saturday!



Dick:)