L8 2 RISE
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Posts posted by L8 2 RISE
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All depends on the source you're getting the fish from. Keep in mind that virtually every fish and coral in our tanks has been shipped AT LEAST once, more likely at least 3 times. Any good online retailer should have survivability well into the 90%'s. If they don't, they are not shipping healthy animals.
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Phenomenal as always! I missed this caliber of pictures on the board while you were gone!
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I just found out I have to be back up in NOVA this weekend, which means I can make the meet and I can't wait! I've always wanted to meet Karen.
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Warren said exactly what I was thinking...
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How big have your water changes been- time to start doing very large 30-50% changes. How much are you feeding? Should be a very small amount for just a pair of clowns.
Do you have a TDS meter? This measures the Total Dissolved Solids in the fresh water that comes out of the RO/DI. You want it to read zero. Old filters typically won't shoot your Nitrates up that high, but they can definitely have an impact on your water quality. Do you know if you have color changing DI resin? If so has the color changed? How long has it been/how much water have you produced since you changed the filters, and what type of unit is it?
Ultimately, with what you have in the tank, I don't think high Nitrates will impact you too much, but you want to get to the bottom of what's causing it.
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Good/indifferent. Beneficial scavenger
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Sounds like she is just fat and happy! IME a qt type set up like that (a very artificial environment) often makes fish behave differently than they would in their usual habitat. I would bet that if they were put into a reef tank with coral, other fish, etc their relationship towards one another would change but then again maybe not.
............On searching- maybe this isn't so unusual:
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I find the relationship you describe very interesting. Are you sure the fish you believe is a true perc isn't a juvi b/w occi? They're orange when they're young.
Do the fish "host "anything? Anemone/coral? Or even a certain patch of rock or side of the tank? I have never seen them breed without hosting "something" (one pair really liked a patch on the overflow).
Clownfish don't really show pregnancy (at least I've never noticed it) because they lay their eggs so small. The things to look for are the fish "polishing" a piece of rock to serve as a place for their eggs, and then one day you'll see eggs on the rock. No need to do anything unless the clowns are polishing a piece of coral. In which case you can place a tile next to whatever they are hosting and they will switch over to that pretty quickly
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It went well, I was able to go back to work today so that's good! Thanks for asking.
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Thanks for the suggestions. I've played with the air tube on the Maggie's Muffler and while it is considerably quieter it's not quiet enough yet. I don't want to use 2 lines for return (not the least of whih is because everything is plumbed to the basement the other way) but I'll look into it if I can't get this quieter.
Has anyone looked at the Hofer Gurgle Buster (http://home.everestkc.net/jrobertson57268/HGB/HGB_construction.html)? It's a variation on the Stockton. I'm thinking of trying to swap my standpipe for one of these and see if it's better.
Not sure I understand why you don't want to use two lines for overflow? If you need more lines for return, you could run one over the back of the tank or drill a hole in the back at the top and run through there. The BeanAnimal Siphon Overflow really is awesome if you can go with that. Never tried the one in your link though.
all you need is a vent on the horizontal runs that goes vertical.
You'd need a ball valve on the vertical for the siphon to work, but this is a good idea!
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Thanks! The time lapse allows you to do up to one photo every 60 seconds.
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Cool tank and I like your fish selection! How is the hamlet? Do you ever hear it grunt? Nice DIY stand too!
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Cool to see you back! Looking forward to see what you do with this. If you're thinking of changing the overflow style, can I suggest doing the siphon style? I decided to go with that on my 57 gallon and I LOVE it! WAY quieter than the Durso, and no microbubbles=no salt creep! You would have to use two of the pipes for overflow and only one for return, but it's well worth it (it looks like you have three holes in your overflow box- maybe I'm wrong).
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They were at it again last night! I had to head out around lights out, so I left the gopro running in the tank this time and got about 20-30 min of footage of them doing the mating dance (short clip below). This time they kept rising up directly into the flow of the vortech, so maybe I should move that or they'll have to figure it out... I'm going to have to figure out a way to get better footage even when the lights are so dim, but this is better than last time at least!
I love it, I have been also looking for a female to mate them
I've been following your thread, I hope you find one and I look forward to seeing yours mate too!
They are very cool to watch. (FYI, BZA has moyeris on sale for only 29.98)
Thanks! I assume you mean this link?
If so, this is a textbook case of how this genus are always mis-labeled. That picture is of a Ruby Red Dragonet (which as of now is still of unknown classification/undescribed), Moyeri is described and looks like this:
Or this:
- note this looks almost exactly like the Ruby's (and why it fooled me with the first one I purchased), however the biggest distinguishing feature on Ruby's is the eyespot above their pectoral fins (seen in the BZA picture) along with a different pattern.
Sorry to get side tracked, but thank you for the link! I think I'll wait until I can see one in person either WYSIWYG or preferably wait to support one of our LFS's
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You could do an anthias group, a group of dartfish (I like blue gudgeons) or tilefish, or a group of cardinals like red dots.
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Sorry for the lack of updates to this. I'm home for break now and had knee surgery last week so it's given me a lot of time to do stuff around the house/with the fish tank. So here's an update:
I tried the time lapse feature on the gopro, one photo every 60 seconds for one light cycle. Here's what I got: Time Lapse Video. I'm not too happy with the location of the camera as it doesn't show a lot of my corals in the back, but still pretty cool. I got some sweet stills out of this, still going through them, but will post that later.
I posted a thread/novel yesterday here about my Ruby Red Dragonets. Finally picked up a female this week, and 72 hours later they did their first mating dance! It's hard to see, but they rise up behind the birdsnest.
The tank has been doing well in general. SPS doesn't grow too fast because conditions aren't perfect (no filtration, water changes only once every 3ish weeks, and I don't want my Mom to have to deal with dosing, so nothing is really tested). I have noticed the my LPS has been growing fairly quickly, especially my elegance coral which is now relegated to a corner because I have no room for it.
I decided to ditch the domino clowns and go with regular ocellaris for a while instead- Just wanted a change. The male ended up dying this last semester from what I think was a bacteria infection, so I just added a juvi a couple weeks ago and the pair are doing incredibly together- hosting my elegance and RBTA.
There have been some aptasia issues so I added three peppermint shrimp over Thanksgiving. It seems to have helped and now two of the peppermints are bearing eggs along with both of my cleaner shrimp. The cleaners release babies about every two weeks and shed about once a month. They are huge and love stealing food from everyone.
I added a trio of female Lyretail Anthias over this break too. The problem is they are ALL showing the extended first dorsal spine which makes me wonder what will end up happening and if any of them will turn male. Thoughts?
Current fish/invert list is:
-Clown Pair and RBTA (Female and juvi)
-Flameback Angelfish
-White Tail Tang
-Goby/pistol shrimp pair
-Lyretail Anthias Trio (3 females all showing extended 1st dorsal spines)
-Ruby Red Dragonet Pair (mating dances, no eggs yet)
-Cleaner Shrimp Pair (both bearing eggs)
-3x Peppermint Shrimp (two bearing eggs)
-Various CUC
In QT now, to add in a couple weeks:
-yellow banded possum wrasse
-orange spotted blenny
-yellow candy hog
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Thanks, I didn't know about those options. A pair would be cool, sure a 65 is big enough?
It would be on the small side so do what you're comfortable with. I personally would be comfortable putting a bellus (and the similar size ones, swallowtail, etc, I just think bellus is prettiest) in that size tank, maybe a pair would be too much.
How about a Trio of Assessors?
I like this idea more- groups of these fish are really cool.
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Alright, Here is some video that I cut down and edited. The best I could get.
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For the last year and a half or so I've been absolutely fascinated with Ruby Red Dragonets and their cousins (tudorjonesi, morrisoni, and moyeri). Most of which have been showing up in spurts and are often extremely unhealthy and mis-labeled. For some reason (I have theories, but I'm not sure why), healthy females seem harder to come by than males. Add their scarcity to the fact that I'm usually either at school or traveling, I have very limited opportunities to successfully acquire one of them, put it through quarantine, and add it to my tank at home.
I've tried 5 fish (and seen many others that I decided were too far gone). Initially I bought a "ruby red" that turned out to be a moyeri. It ended up being one of my favorites for various reasons, even more so than the true ruby reds. I then got a pair of ruby reds that were very skinny, so I decided to forego any kind of quarantine and take a gambel. That ended as could have been predicted- with the loss of both of them, the morrisoni, and other fish that I was very attached to. A few weeks later I found a healthy male that I was able to get through something of a quarantine (10 days with prophylactic treatments) with copepods/brine, and then put into my display. That was a year ago. Since then he has at least doubled in size and is FAT.
I FINALLY found a healthy female- at the right time for me- on LA Divers Den. It was priced extremely high, but given the source, I decided it was for good reason and pulled the trigger right as it was posted. She arrived Tuesday and looked extremely healthy. I didn't want to stress her through a long quarantine, and I know the treatments she already went through at LADD, so I acclimated her, did a 7 hour prazi bath followed by a 10 min fresh water dip. I found no parasites after each one, so I added her straight to the display.
Tonight, 72 hours after I added her to the tank, I observed the pair doing a mating dance for 15-20 min! I am having trouble containing my excitement, as I know there's still a chance that things could go south, but I had to share!
I happened to have the gopro running on a time lapse (something I thought I'd try- I'll post that later if it came out well), so quickly changed it over to video when the dancing started. I'm not sure it will have come out too well given how dim it was. I'm about to go through the footage, but I'll be sure to have it ready for the next few nights in case.
Sorry for the novel, but I had to share!
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Many people say, and based on my experience I agree, that cherub and/or flameback angels are the safest. I currently have a flameback in my tank and he is a model citizen- thinking about it, I've never even heard about either of these fish picking (though given the nature of centropyge I wouldn't be surprised if someone chimed in with the opposite). I also believe that if you get dwarf angels when they are very small and young, you have a much better chance of them avoiding coral. When they're young they either haven't learned to eat coral, or (if you feed often) they quickly learn that it's much easier to eat prepared food than pick at coral. You could always just try again with another species of centropyge that you like- chances are that you'll get lucky this time since you were unluckly last time
Genicanthus are considered the safest angels. With a 65 gal, you could get away with some of the smaller species of genicanthus and I think a pair would be awesome as "centerpiece" fish. I personally would go with bellus or watanabei.
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This will be cool! I've always liked "display" refugiums. Is the sand necessary for the slugs? If not, would it make sense to just skip it? In such a low flow sand, it's bound to become full of detritus and gunk. If you just went bare bottom with a decent amount of rubble to make it look good, it would be easier to maintain IMO.
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It all depends on the size of the eel. If it's a larger eel, egg crate will be ok, however I would weigh it down. Typically they won't try to push it out of the way, they'll just turn away when they touch it, but egg crate is light, and bigger eels can get leverage to push it out of the way. Not worth the risk- so weigh it down. Your best bet is glass tops, but I understand that's not always possible.
The other thing you want to proof is the overflow- gutter guard from HD/Lowes works really well for that (as long as it's a larger eel).
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Good to hear a happy ending! Strange... But glad he got better.
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Good info! Number 2 concerns me. Your salinity should not be dropping. Salt will not evaporate, the only way it's going to leave the tank is through a leak or if you're actively removing water (i.e. Skimmer, bagging up frags, etc). How much water is your skimmer removing? Are you sure there's no leaks?
My tank is on an ATO and I do not test salinity between water changes (4-5 weeks). In this time frame it typically does not change more than a half a point.
Are you calibrating your refractometer? That could be your problem.
Copepod farm in refugium??
in General Discussion
IMHO people think way too hard about mandarins...
Let your tank establish itself with LIVE rock for at least a year or two, then add a healthy mandarin. It will do fine.
IME ~30 lbs of porous LR is the minimum per mandarin. If the rock you added was live, and you can look at night and see amphipods/copepods, then just let it be for around a year, then add your mandarin.
It wouldn't hurt to add some live copepods every once in a while, but not necessary at all.