tbittner

The powder blue beat up the powder brown for the first two weeks and I added them both at the same time. Neither of them bothered the other tangs and the other tangs pretty much ignored them. They acted like two kids. I buy the bulk supply of Julian Sprungs Seaweed Select from marinedepot and there are something like 60 sheets per bag. Saves money that way. They get a sheet of green and a sheet of purple every morning. I don't know if that is what keeps the peace or it's the 10 foot long tank. I suspect it has more to do with the available food. They really don't have a reason to be fighting for space or to protect an area. There are plenty of sleeping spots for all of them too. I also only use one clip and everyone seems content with that.

Just don't put two rabbitfish in a tank. I have two 1 spots in our 450 and the one tries to chase the other one out of the tank. I have a Powder blue, powder brown, hippo, yellow, purple, naso, and an achilles in the 450. The purple and yellow get into it once in a great while but other than that, they all take turns eating from the seaweed clip. I feed two whole sheets a day though and they're just finishing it off towards the evening. I think that is what keeps the aggression down to a minimum.

If you have a place for it, think about moving the PB into a QT tank or something like that for a couple of weeks. That will give the other fish a chance to get settled and claim a spot as theirs. It would reset the environment. PB's are notoriously snippy. They pretty much rule the tank. That in of itself isn't a problem IF they don't start chasing other fish for no reason. Are you clipping in a sheet of seaweed, each and every day? It also might be trying to protect an algae patch because it's not getting enough to eat. That's just something else you could try.

Taking care of Dougs tanks, including his seahorse tank, is what convinced us to learn more about them and get a SH tank up and running. They're truly amazing animals.

Great! I'm also glad you responded because it reminded me that we still have your key! We keep forgetting to stop by to give it back. Patti grabbed it one time she was over because, and she had a good point, she didn't know if we could get in if there was a power failure.

A good friend of mine from NJ is an expert at keeping them. He raises and sells the fry all the time. He helped us get it setup with all the right equipment. They're not difficult to keep, but they do require cooler water. They eat mysis like it's going out of style. We haven't named them yet. We'll give them a few days or a a week just to be sure everything is good. Another really good place to read up on them is seahorse.org. Seahorsesource.com is a really good place to buy CAPTIVE bred seahorses too. The lady who owns that business is very willing to talk about them. Buying wild caught seahorses is a gamble. A lot of times they won't eat frozen and you'll have to provide live brine or some kind of live food. One other thing. I see Kudas being sold as captive raised. There aren't any captive raised kudas, unless you know the hobbiest that raised them. Almost all of them come from pens in Vietnam. You just don't know what you're going to get with Kudas. Ours are Reidis. Raising the fry of Reidis is not an easy task. If you're interested in raising the fry, try Kellogiis. Or give the lady at seahorsesource.com a shout and talk to her about it. They are truly amazing animals.

Oh jeez! Sorry! I thought I had posted the seahorse tank info here. OK! We took an old 29g tank, drilled it about mid way up for two 3/4" bulkheads, hooked in a Mag 5 pump and our Teco TR20 chiller which has a heater and UV built into it. We're just running the stock filter that came with the tank but running just carbon in it. The tank is beside the kitchen counter, between the dining room and the kitchen so it's easy to siphon water right down the drain for WC's. Then I'll carry three gallons up from the 150g mixing tub to refill the tank. We have the water chilled down to 74, the chiller maintains it between 73.5 and 75 and it does a good job at that too. I moved about 20 lbs of LR from the sump on the big system into this tank. We did find some aiptasia on these rocks though so we need to zap those with aitpasia X. That is some truly amazing stuff. I highly recommend it. Here is the tank a few days ago. The water is crystal clear now.

Something to be said for owning 4 acres....

Our ponies came in! They're in the new seahorse tank and eat like horses. :D

Here is the procedure for a WC. Turn switches 1 and 2 off. That turns off the return pumps. Turn switch 3 on to pump the sump dry. Turn it off when it's dry. Turn switch 4 on to refill the sump. Turn switches 1 and 2 back on when the water level in the sump reaches 1/4 full. This fills up the aquariums and gets everything running full again. Turn switch 4 off once the sump level reaches the normal running level. Open the valve to refill the mixing tub. Dump in 3/4 of a bucket of salt. Turn on switch 5 to start the mixing pumps (two Rio 36 HF pumps). Measure the salinity 12 hours later and adjust. After a salinity of between 1.026 and 1.0265 is obtained, turn off switch 5 to turn off the mixing pumps. It's really not complicated. You can see my wifes notes written on the wall. I guess she is hoping that I don't dry wall the junction boxes into the wall. A 125g WC takes a little less than 5 minutes. And yeah, I know, I'm missing a face plate. I was two short. Beside/behind the reef are these: The switch turns off the return pump for feeding time. The outlet supplies power to the CL pump and the lights. Everything is now on GFCI circuits.

WOW!!! That is truly a work of art! I can't get over the growth on your favia either. Everything looks so clean, happy, and healthy. Congrats for getting everything back up and running! I'm really impressed with the quality and appearence of the display. It's beautiful! I see a TOTM in the making.

That goes for us too. Please feel free to stop in if you are ever out this way. For instance, you're making a trip from BRK to Mr. Coral. We're right in the middle of the two.

*UPDATE* 450g reef 360g predator 100g skimmer tub with 90g in it. 100g fuge with 90g in it. 150g sump with 80g in it. 150g fresh water collection tub 150g saltwater mixing tub 55g rock curing tank 29g seahorse tank Total: 1,454

ummmm, not that I'm aware of. Who knows what Patti is thinking of though. Maybe Doug will be doing that at his house? BTW, Doug is ALSO having a tank tour that day. So not only do you get to see our two big tanks, but then you can stop by Dougs and see all of his tanks. His tanks are what I'm aspiring to do with ours. Including getting up and running, a seahorse tank.

Hi Ron! We would love to have you and your family attend! The more, the merrier! There will be a good many children here, including three of our own, so I'm sure he'll have a good time too. We look forward to seeing you and everyone else! Terry No doubt! We're trying to spread the word throughout the schools how cool WAMAS is!

I saw mentioned somewhere that you had some seahorses. Do you still have any? If so, what kind are they?

We have a regal and a queen in the predator tank and we've been experimenting with different coral frags in that tank. Zoas disappear within an hour. They BOTH eat them like they're desert.

If I need them today, I'll run up to Winchester to Solenbergers. I believe that BRK sells them too. Otherwise, I order from Savko. They sell pretty good gate valves too. They're a whole lot less expensive than Solenbergers. http://www.solenbergers.com/ http://www.savko.com/

Congratulations, James! That is an incredible achievement! That is something I couldn't possibly do. Heck, I have enough trouble with ENGLISH let alone whatever language it is that medical profession people speak in.

"Regular" bulkheads are made with "cheap" plastic and the heavy duty are Schedule 80. Much thicker pieces and much better threads. You won't strip the threads on a heavy duty bulkhead like you can on regular bulkheads. But then again, you shouldn't tighten them down with a wrench anyway. Hand tighten, and then 1/8th turn with a wrench if it dribbles a bit.

When planning on water movement, no matter what you use, try to plan it so it takes the water from the bottom and moves it towards the top and the overflow(s). This keeps stuff from settling on the bottom and keeps the water clean. Both of our tanks has the water moving in a circular pattern from the bottom back to the middle front, then bounces back towards the top back.

Heavy duty bulkheads require a bigger hole. I HIGHLY recommend using heavy duty bulkheads.

OMG!!! What happened to it? Patti and I feel HORRIBLE!!! :(

Congrats on a successful move! Absolutely INCREDIBLE that you didn't lose anything! Excellent work!

It was great meeting many of you at frag fest. My family and I are really looking forward to the meeting at the NADC. Hopefully everyone can come out for our tank tour on the 24th of Aug. Please let either Patti or I know if your coming and how many are coming with you, so we make sure we have enough food!