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I wanted to get electric blue from marshall islands, but i couldent find them anywhere, So i ended up getting orange legged. They look almost identical to the elctric blue, but they're orange, with blue eyes.

What do you mean the tank look like it has a bow? its a gerular 180, not a bowfront.

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

tank looks as if its got a bow in the front pain of plans

What kind of hermits did you get? I'm partial to the zebras myself, though I guess just about everyone else is too.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Well, four hermit crabs i ordered are in today, im acclimating them as we speak, ill take pictures once they get settled in.

well that was easy! they've only been in five minutes and they're already eating algae!

Nick

Last edited by swiftshark88 at 05-Jan-2006 15:42

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

Ok, it won't let me edit it add the link (thats about the third time its done that?)

http://community.webshots.com/album/534724496WSJJpi

Nick

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

I did some tank work today, cleaned the glass, got rid of some algae.

All my parameters look good and the nitrate is lowering even more.
My SG is stable at about 1.025-1.026.

I tried to take some Macro shots of the Clams, but with the glass being so thick, it was hard to focus the lense.

Im uploading pictures now, ill edit with a link to them in a few minutes.

Nick

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

well uhh, i kinda lost some posts on my tank....
ill try and repost them...

and the date and time are goofy

nick

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

I would guess that as an acropora, and more likely a stag horn of some kind.

_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...

Well, i guess that the update of the site lost some posts, its still alittle quirky i guess.

Last time i posted i told everyone about the new fish i got.

I basically love tangs, so thats what i got first, but also because they eat algae and theres plenty of it.

So, i know that it seems like alot, but i did get four. One yellow and three blue hepatus. The thing is the blue heptus, are about ehh an inch long? so, they've got plenty of room. before they were lost and the night i put them in they all seemed as though they werent going to make it, but now they're all swimming around, but they're still staying at the top of the tank, generally in the same area. Once the lights finally start to turn of they get alittle more active, and once they're all the way out, the completly dissapear, and where to i dont know.

The yellow tang on the other hand has been doing fine since the first few hours it went in. Cruzing around the whole tank, eating, exploring. The yellow is a little large, I'd say about 2-2.5 inches.

I'll take some pictures eventally.

Today not much is new, except one of the crabs may or maynot have killed someone. that someone being another crab. There was a dead body, an empty shell about 2 feet away from it up on some rocks, and the largest crab (who has been picking on the others lately) standing over the body. so. not a big loss, but a mess, and some confusion.

Meanwhile all the tangs are out, the small blues are still in the corner, and the yellow is a little less active. It's tending to stay more on the left and side of the tank, i dont know why, maybe because there's more algae over there? Oh well.

Anybody have any ideas as to why the blues are still hanging around up top? Is it beacause they're so small and they're having trouble swimming? The yellow has not been territorial or bossy at all, they just seem to want to stay at the top corner by the overflow. all three of them?

thats all for now, ill try to get some pictures in soon.

Nick

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

I would watch putting any firefish in with the larger fish, as you may not see much of them. They will likely dive into the sand, and may even not come out to eat if you have large fish, and especially aggressive fish.

I would also suggest you watch your parameters closely, as it seems to me to be a lot of additions so quickly. Your tank has not been up very long (not sure of the exact date you started as the new site reset every post to Jan4), and thus you should be adding fish and other livestock very slowly so that the biological filter can catch up with the increased bioload. Even in a 180, it can spike quickly.

I tested my water for the first time today things look fairly good. Ph is 8.2, Ammonia is .25 ppm, Nitrite is .25 ppm and Nitrate is about 5-10 ppm. It needs some more time, but i think its coming along pretty good.

What are your parameters now? Again, not sure of the date of each post, as the Jan 4 thing, but the parameters above still show a cycle in the making, and not completed yet.

As for the crabs, well they do grow, and when they do, they require larger shells. My suggestion is to get some empty shells of all different sizes and put them in the tank so the hermies can have a selection of new homes to choose from. As they will also attack some snails in search of a new home as well.

Also, be very cautious with what you put near the hammer, torch, and/or frogspawn. As they guys are very dangerous to other corals. They can and will sting corals to death in a matter of seconds to minutes. Especially the SPS. The big worry is the sweeper tenticles as Liana has stated. They can extend these up to 8 times the length of the normal tenticles. Be sure that if you mount these guys above any other corals, that they are anchored very well, with no chance of tumbling over. So well in fact that even a snail cannot come along and push it over, which you will find happening in your new tank. Because if they fall on another coral, there is a good chance the other coral may not survive. The same goes for anemones if you get one for the clowns. The danger of the anemone is that they can move across your entire tank in one night if they take the notion to do so. All anemones posses different levels of poisons in their tenticles. So that is also a concern if you are looking for one of these.


Where in Cincy are you, as there are several nice places to find great corals. Also, Serdar is a great person, Phishybuisness. It's also a shame you were not set up a few months ago for the local frag swap. All the onliners in Ohio where there. As well as many others. There was a really nice selection to choose from. Several of the stores and such made big orders to bring in just for the occassion. Between Cincy and Columbus there are hundreds of reef keepers. So much so, that there is a small reef club in Cincy, and a big one in Columbus known as CORA. In Cincy there is a local aquarium club the GCAS, which has speakers come in, and Feb 19 Steven Pro will be here. Our club is all types of fish and aquatic things and plants. We also have an awards program from coral propagation. Thus preventing the corals from being taken from the oceans. I know of one person bringing in some candy cane corals frags and a frog spawn frag. And many stores that have great selections of corals and such. Aquarium Adventures off 71, has some, though usually high priced and not a huge selection. Aquatics & Exotics in Mt Healthy has a large selection of all kinds of corals, and some nice pieces of LR. As well as their 2200 gal FOWLR tank, and the 10,000 gal black tip shark tank. Monfort on Colrein Ave just down from Northgate Mall, has like 6 180gal tanks full of all kinds of corals to pick from. And you can see his really nice elegance coral that is over 20 inches in diameter. And his breeding O clowns that live in it, as well as the babies they sell from them. Then there is All About Pets on rt 42 just north of 275. Dave has a few corals and usually a nice selection of fish.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Im actaully in anderson, on salem, dont know if you know where that is. I'd be really excited if i could go to the next meeting, maybe meet you. that would be awesome, because as of now, i dont really have any local mentors in the means of aquarium hobby to look up to at the moment.

Yes, i got the SPS hammer and torch from aquatics and exotics, the torch and sps are doing wonderful, but the hammer im afraid to say has completly deminished.

No wirries on the situyation with time, the tank was started september/november. there was plenty of time and all the inhabitants are doing great minus the hammer.

And i made a huge discovery!, the other day i was looking really closesly at the sand, and i noticed...there were things moving in it, and once i saw one, i saw them everywhere! invasion!

There are copepods all over the place, and they're super small too. im yet to find any worms or anything in the sandbed, it is 6-7 inches deep in some places, so there very may well be something hiding that i havent seem yet.

everythings doing well right now, with the exception of the excess algae with i hope will start to diminish with the arrival of the tangs.

Nick

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

I dont know how I missed this.....but the sps is a browned out Birdsnest...Seriatopora

I thought about a birds nest as well, but it did not appear to be growing very much like one really, at least not to me. And, he is looking for a birdsnest, so I figured he already knew what one would look like, and as such would not ask for an ID on this coral.


As for the club meeting, the next one is this Sunday. The club's web addy is http://www.gcas.org/ from there you can find the map and directions to the meeting place. It is only a few miles south of CincyMills Mall, or what used to be Forest Fair Mall. I will definitely be there, have never missed a meeting in almost 7 years now. Hope to see you there.

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There is always a bigger fish...

now i feel kinda stupid, i thought it was a birdsnest, but it didnt really look like it.... and i didn't want to mis-id it and then have one of you correct me.

Oh well, either way.

Acid i will try to make it, its at 7:30, i have a hockey game on sunday, so i dont know if i can make it this sunday.

Nick

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

No worries, if you miss this one, Feb 19 is when Steven Pro will be here for a SW talk.

_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...

Time for an update.

Everything is going well in the tank, with the exception of the death of a clam about a week and a half ago. The other is doing just fine.

All three tangs have done nothing but eat and swim constantly since they were put into the the tank, and now all the algae that was in the tank, is now completely gone, so its time to start supplimenting their diet w/ seaweed sheets.

Finally the new editions:

A quite large Heteractis crispa or Sebae Anemone, cream in color, about 7" at the base and a little larger than 1' when compeltely open. It was drip acclimated earlier today and has already opened up, but has moeved about 4-5 inches from where it was originally placed. I belive that the staple diet for it will be whole shrimp and some other meats (squid?), as for how often I have not decided, I will probably start with once a week, and vary from there.
For those of you who know what my tank looks like and how it is set up, the anemone was placed on the far right near the overflow on the large flat rock.

The other addition is a goldstripe maroon clown. When the lights were dimmed it was out above the rocks, but has retreated to the caves for the meantime. I was planning on purchasing a small specimine (1"-2", which i thought was a good size, and they sent me an even large one which is about 3 1/2". Hopefully when it becomes comfortable in the tank, it will explore and possibly host with the anemone ( i can only hope), and yes i do understand that it may very well not.

thats about it.

Well the only other thing/ problem ive been having is that i seem to be tripping the circut in the room that the tank is in. Im running all three lights, one of the two pumps (which provides plenty of flow) and my protein skimmer. I dont know why it happens, but it happened twice tonight very randomly.

I promised pictures last time i added fish and i never took them, and now i have plenty, so i guarentee by saturday night there will be some up. Its a busy week this week, and last night i got to bed at 5am and woke up at 7am, so even if i did take pictures, you wouldn't be able to tell what they were of.

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

wow, i havent posted in a long time, not much has changed, except for the fact the the tank is almost always spotless.

Lately, these small white things have been appearing on the glass, and i dont know what they are. They dont seem to have any effect. anyone know what they are?

Ill post some pictures, i havent had time with all my schoolwork lately.

Nick

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

I'd have to see a picture, but I get white things on the glass where I don't clean. I think they are small sponges. Without a picture it could be anything.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Im betting that the small white things on the glass are tiny feather dusters

Actually you are right DRO, I never noticed. I took a closer look at the white things, and while some are sponges(especially in the fuge), some of them are actually little feather dusters. Cool.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Sorry i haven't been posting lately, lots of schoolwork and ive been kinda sick lately, so im a bit under the weather.

Good news, about three days after the clown was intoduced he began hosting, so i have a hosting clown, bad news is he was sick for the first few days, but everything has been ship shape since then, everyone's happy.

unfortunatly, just before the clown was added, the smallest blue tang got very stressed and hid for about four days and wouldn't eat , and eventually died.

The only other problem with livestock that ive had, is my crabs have suddenely gone nuts, and started attacking eachother. They have extra shells in case they grow out, but im not sure why they keep going after eachother.

The rest of the livestock is doing fine, the birdnest is growing and the torch had to be moved due to lighting, which brings me to my next problem.

We came home one evening to find the room that the tank was in filled with this strange smell, like that of plastic melting or burning, and my middle MH was out. I took a peak inside the ballast, and somthing is definatly fried, im not sure which part it is, but the other lights work on the middle lamp (those of you who read way at the beggining know that i have three seperate fixtures.) ALl of the other compnents work, except for the MH. So the middle light is down and my torch had to be moved to the far lef to the tank, where its not getting as much flow. As soon as the light gets fixed its going to be moved back.

Last of all, im thinking of what to add next. Im looking for somthing thats quite active, lately my tang's have been people shy, straying to the back of the tank and hiding when there is any movement in the room, in general, they tend to stay partially hidden.

Any suggestions?

Last of all, ill post some pictures of new growth's in my tank. As i mentioned earlier, the small white dots are appearing on the glass, ill get some pictures of those.

The other thing i noticed while i was doing some tank mantinence, is that the rock which the birdsnest is on, has started to change color. I took a closer look and there is somthing growing, ill get a picture, but it almost looks like there are hundreds small of mushroom polyps growing on the rock? they're awfully hard to get a good look at because of the tank depth and the width of the glass.

ill post some pictures in a day or two, and any suggestions for livestock would be greatly appreciated.



Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

Well, my lfs is fixing the ballast for free. Turns out it was a faulty capacitor, which will be switched out in the next day or so, so it should not be a long wait .

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

Wow, i havent posted in a really long time. We'll not much has happened lately. I have some strange growths, which is expected, and im going to be posting some pictures of them.

New creatures are popping up everywhere, theres a nudibranch that just appeared one night and has been around every now and then for about the past five weeks.

I've bought some new coral, a nice sized brain and some zoo's.

Earlier i bought two filamented flasher wrasse's, but they died because a blizzard hit cincinnati on their delivery day and the seller did not pack them with enoguh heat packs.

I nearly coaxed life back into them about five hours of quarentining and acclimation, but one hid and the other swam directly into the mouth of the anemone. Needless to say, they anemone did not mind, and promptly ate a $35 lunch. I am yet to find the remains of the other, but i have reason to belive that the hermits devoured the body.

Suprisingly, there were no changes in the water quality, just lots of dissapointment.

My ballast was replaced for free by my LFS, it had a faulty capaciter. But unfortunatly, another one crapped out, so i took that to get fixed today.

I also bought two new fish, both gobies.

The first, a diamond goby, has been activly building a burrow since he went in about two hours ago. Hes quite amusing to watch.

The other is a Valencienna strigata, but he is compeltly pearly white, with a yellow head and a blue line on the side, no dark fins. When put into the tank he immediatly hid and i have seen nothing of him since.

i just took about 90 macro shots, ill see how they came out, its very difficult to get the picture perfect detail shot as you all know.

Nick



Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

Earlier i bought two filamented flasher wrasse's, but they died because a blizzard hit cincinnati on their delivery day and the seller did not pack them with enoguh heat packs.

Ugh...times are rough for you it sounds. Sorry about the losses, I keep realizing how lucky I've been on occasions, but always buying livestock that I can watch for a week or two helps a lot.

Is the LFS going to replace this ballast too? Sounds a bit sheisty to me. I might ask them to try and get a different brand or something.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Yeah they're replacing it for free. The first one had a fualty capaciter on it and competly fried, as in smoking reef tank. They replaced it free of charge.

I dropped the second one off on thursday, they said they would let me know when it was redy. This one didnt have the smoking problem, so it might be somthing a little less buggy. If so, they're doing it for free.

this seems like such a pain in the butt, but having three lights and ballasts was alot cheaper lighting for a 180 then the full length strip. I got these lights for around 700 i think. at the time, the full length fixture with 3 MH and ace. and moonlights was 1,200 or more.

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

Alright, just got back from the LFS, and i saw a coral that i just fell in love with.

It's a large elegance coral, orange with green.

Im acclimating it as we speak, so it needs some time to open up, then ill attempt to take some pictures of it. It was about 10" across when it was open in the store tank.



Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

A lot of people have trouble with those corals just up and dying. I think they start with white around the diameter and continue inward. Keep an eye on it and treat it well with spot feedings at least once a week.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Will do, thanks for the heads up

the guy at the LFS said that he has been spot feeding it with phytoplankton and its been doing very well.

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

Elegance corals wouldn't use phyto very much. I'd feed something meatier. Say cyclopeeze and mysis, or even chunks of krill.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

two years since i have been logged in. thats a long time.

after being away from the tank at school for a year i decided to make some changes upon my return.

i've sold some coral, added more rock, changed my filtration (slowly).

i can post some pictures later on this week of how its looking after 2 years of growth.

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

I'd like to see the changes, please do put up some pics, or links at least.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients