Sikryd

Well I figured I would start a thread about our new upgrade since the corner started precipitating salt out of it. Bob and I picked the tank up from Waterworld for a song! Brought it home in my Harley trailer. Since then I have painted the stand, the back of the tank, the back of the sump, added screens like Bob has on top of his, made a plenum and painted it all black, and used all black hoses for everything. I routed a piece of wood for the ceiling and painted it black since the light is an Aqua-medic 3x250mh 4x34w T-5 (w/ all new bulbs) and hangs from the ceiling. I built a little stand for the huge ballast and painted it...you guess it - black. I also have 1" and 3/4" hangers to house the hoses and plenum real nice under the thank. I also found a 6ft. powerstrip that I bolted to the top rear of the stand after I cut a 2" piece of wood for it to bolt to. I figured if my wife was going to spend the money to upgrade to a nice tank, I might as well make it a show piece since it is in our living room. And to show her how grateful I am, especially when people are having to get out of the hobby right now. We also now have a new skimmer MSX200, a JBJ, and I will be running my RODI in the basement straight up to a tank under the stand with a mechanical float valve - with a "Y" for when I want to use another container to make salt water for water changes. Hopefully it turns out like I hope. I really appreciate Bobs help with plumbing since that is an area that I am deficient in. I am not sure when I am going to do the tank transfer, but I'll post it online and if a couple people want to come over, have pizza, and hang out that would be cool. Here are some pics so far... ________________

I QT if possible. If not, 10min freshwater dip. Just what I do.

yeah, that would be cat5, lmao. I just woke up and hadn't had my coffee yet

Not sure where I read it, but mandarin don't get ich, and the medicine will kill it due to its thin skin and slime coat. Not sure if they get Oodinium or not though, or how to treat. Good luck.

I hardwired it with cat10. Sort of a pain to run it through the walls and stuff, but it sure is nice once you are done.

I bought Krylon fusion at Lowe's. For the back of my tank I painted it with a roller and paint that I painted my stand with. If you have the ability to spray paint it inside where it will dry you can paint the back of the tank with it as well I guess.

Beautiful fish. I NEED to get a copy of that soundtrack!!! I lived in Tokyo for 5 years and never heard something so bad!

Do you have two of them? I only buy my fish in pairs.

I have a marroon in my basement tank with no anenome that lets me hold it, pet it, the whole nine yards. I knew it would let me pet it, but blew me away when I was showing my neighbor this and it let me take it up to the surface and pet it with my other hand while it was on his side. Cool fish! I like em' But when him and his mate were in my main tank with an anenome before the clarkii's killed his mate, they would bite me. So go figure...

Should be encrusting.

WOW! I want one. They look about pinki sie, is that about right? Other than chillin' in your fuge, do you have to do anything special to keep them - food, ec t .

Cyano - I thnk - need help -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well. The title says it all. I thnk I have cyano, and I need help trying to get rid of it. Below are 2 pictures of the different types that I have. The Red is pretty limited to that rock, and I found it since I am sort if re-aquascaping. The green is sort of all over the tank and brushes off pretty easy with my fingers when I wipe the rock. It also is sort of flowing off the rocks in some places, yet more pulled to the rock in others. I assume it has to due with more and less flow in that area of the tank, respectively. I have Chemiclean Red Slime remover, but not sure if I should use it. Some of my own thoughts are my phosphates are high - don't have a test kit since I sold it when I thought things were done with the wife and I (still up in the air there). I need to be more consistent on H20 changes, which I haven't been. Need to change the rock work to get better flow to all areas of the tank. I am going to be pulling out some of the rock and scrubbing it off when I do a big water change here in the next day or two and finish up the re-aquascaping. If after talking with the wife, and we are still semi-solid staying together - I am going to pick up some more cleaning crew, as my is pretty sparse at the moment. 2,3,4 I am going to be working on. But for now I need suggestions on getting rid of it. Right now I don't have carbon running in my reactor, and won't till after I decide on how to proceed with this cyano deal since I shouldn't use carbon if I am going to use the chemiclean. And I also want to wait and hear about the idea of using GFO or whatever it is called (I don't really know what it is, or where to get it, I remember reading it helps remove phosphates. Thanks for your help... The green cyano is above the red thing I put in the picture This is red Cyano that I found behind another rock and never got any light __________________

I finally picked up a Watchman Goby that I have wanted for a while. I am sure he will be a character. I also want to pick him up a pistol shrimp buddy to watch the symbiotic relationship they have together.

Well the wife decided she wants to pick up a Red Seas Max 130D I like supporting LFS's just because I know they are hurting in this economy as much as we are, but I can't afford to pay more because of that. So I was wondering where you guys suggest looking for the best price, or if you know of any sales or promotions that will help bring the price down. Thanks

Thanks guys. Here is my solution. Cleanup crew ordered - old one lost too many along the way Taking all the live rock out to clean it, blow detritus off, and re-aquascape so I can see all my little critters. Big Water change Running lights a little less - checking par would be good if I can get my hands on the CMAS one Overall - doing the rock work where there will be more flow and open spaces. I run a little (okay a lot) more than average live rock for a 72g bow HAVE BETTER HUSBANDRY - more water changes on time (weekly) We'll see what happens from there. As far as questions. Its only about 3-4 months old, but the live rock, sand, and original water was transferred from a very well established tank. I feed mysis, some pellets, coral frenzy, cyclopeeze, oyster eggs, and some red seaweed for the foxface. I am sure it will all clear up when I do this. If not I will try some GFO instead of carbon in my reactor.

I need some help. For a while now I have had this dark green to brown like algae stuff that is growing and I can't figure out why or how to get rid of it besides rubbing the rocks and getting it off that way. My parameters have been good. I got rid of my tests since I was going to sell my tank due to a divorce, that ended up not going through and we are staying together now and working things through. Good news, except for all the stuff I got rid of for the tank. I used an Air water and ice rodi, regular water changes, and added a phos 150 reactor with carbon in it. This stuff has grown regardless of what I have done. It is sort of a dark green and brownish looking algae that is very easy to brush off the rocks or frags that it has grown on. It is mainly annoying, and isn't too bad, but I want to get a handle on it. I will admit, my cleanup crew has dwindled since I set the tank up. So I do need to get some snails and stuff. My Kole tang, and Rabbitfish won't eat whatever it is. Rigth now I am in the process of a complete re-aquascape soon, and taking all the rocks out and getting this stuff scrubbed off to start it fresh with a new layout. WHAT A PAIN WHEN YOU HAVE ALL YOUR CORALS already attachted to rocks. But I am just not thrilled with the aquascaping and never seeing some of the inverts since they hide behind the rock I have up against the back. Anyway, without pics, does anybody have any idea on how to control/get rid of this stuff. I have a great fuge, with DSB, Cheato, Good skimmer that is always pulling out great stuff. And all my corals are growing really well (all sps mainly). The only thing that doesn't grow like weeds are my softies which mainly consist of Zoanthids. Any help would be appreciated.

When I was your age I was doing most of the jobs people already listed. From walking up and down the streets with lawn mower in tow, which turned out to be a full time job with accounts and regular houses and days to do them, to washing cars, ect. I made some pretty good money at that age. I wish some kids in my neighborhood would do that. I seem to pay them quite a bit more than if I was to get a lawn mowing service to do it, just because of their age and tenacity for trying to make money.

Frogspawn has to FART too you know!!! lmao :D

My zoa's have never really opened up all nice like these. Does anybody know what would cause this? My parameters are all good and my corals are growing like crazy, all SPS. They do spread, just not real fast, except for my blue ones. What do zoa's like as far as parameters, water flow and light? Thanks for any suggestions/help

That and pom poms grow so fast in my tank I took it out. It was covering up corals and stuff. I couldn't believe how long the pom poms got too. Not only did it spread out horizontally, it grew about 3 inches vertically within the first three weeks. I didn't realize that stuff grows like weeds. It was getting out of hand, growing on the grass, the back of a snail that must have been stuck or chillin'. pretty much on anything that is in the vacinity. NOT TO MENTION I didn't realize that it would spread UP too. Somehow it attatched to a rock that was above it once it started growing the 3inches vertically. I thought it had to be next to something on the BASE and then it would "scoot" over. I didn't reallize it could spready via the pom pom thing to. I guess all in all it was fun to watch since this is our first salt water and we got to see first hand how fast thing grow, move, ect. vs. freshwater. It STILL amazes me how fast my little starfish buddy can cruise across the tank!!!!!!!!!! They don't seem like they move at all, let alone a couple minutes to get across the tank and back. I guess your doing something right, especially with the powerhead blowing on it like that and it is growing towards the current. I have a lot of flow in my tank too. (Think that is what took out 2 Picasso offspring - they just weren't strong enough yet - SURVIVAL OF THE FITEST. - AND THE CHECKBOOK)

Thanks, I'll pm you if I need the help.

After reading this, I did some research on google and found the main nuisance about them is to Sea Horses, and Sea Horse tanks. It didn't look good as far as options to get rid of it, which was either to run your tank @ 92 degrees or above for a couple weeks, with all fish/inverts and corals out or use some dog dewormer - passpur-something like that-forget the name though. The dewormer kills different stuff though so you will have to read up on it. The problem is getting rid of all of tthem in all the equiptment, such as the sump, skimmer, filter, ect. so you have to leave everything attached and pretty much "sterilize" everything as they put it, to get rid of them for good. Worse than aiptasia, yep, at least with aiptasia you can use kalk, peppermint shrimp ect. to get rid of it. Good luck...

It is what it is. If the person wants to go through paypal and try and screw me that way, its on them. I will do what paypal suggests and resell the item here, and post who was involved to warn others. I just got annoyed when they demanded their money back, like I had done something wrong, then threatened paypal when I suggested we work through this. Its not like it was something real expensive. On top of that, the same item just sold for 35% more on here recently, and it a year old - mine is new. So getting my money back is no problem. To me its the principle of the whole thing. If I didn't sell things for so cheap, or work hard at getting this item to the person without them having to burn gas and time, I probably wouldn't be so bumbed. But when someone does that to you when you go out of your way it just sucks. Thanks for all your thoughts, and confirmations on this.

I was wondering if you guys can let me in on your thoughts on a situation that came up recently after I sold something. I put something up for sale, and it sold in the FS thread. After contacting the person and discussing the distance and stuff, we tried to work out something where we could meet up in the middle or sometwhere along that lines. The first time it didn't work out since someone backed out on another item. The second time the person couldn't make it due to it being short notice. So instead of keeping the item 1.5hr away, I dropped it off to someone who lives 20-30 minutes away that agreed they would hold it and pass it on to the buyer. It was agreed that would be fine, and I was paid via paypal. The person holding it couldn't meet up the first time they agreed, and then the buyer decides that he just wants to back out of the deal and me to refund his money asap. I feel like I went out of my way to save the buyer time/money/gas by getting their purchase to them, instead of just saying come pick it up. The item is in the same town now, but the buyer doesn't want it anymore and is threatening to file a claim with paypal if I don't refund their money. Does this seem right? Am I missing something? I thought a deal is a deal, especially when I have gone out of my way to make it easier on the buyer to get the item since we live so far apart. What would you do?

That is definetely where your noob experience shows. A fish isn't suffering because the glass hasn't been cleaned on the tanks, and aptasia is growing. And if we as consumers go to our local fish store to see what is available out there and then buy it online because it is cheaper, we'll end up having to buy EVERYTHING online, with no local fish stores since they can't compete with online shipping wareshouse with no overhead. Case in point - I have a tank in my basement that I never cleaned the glass on, because I just haven't gotten around to it. It looked like nothing would grow in there, or the fish should be dead. Due to the glass being dirty with algae and stuff, it made the water look YELLOW. I took a scraper to it a couple days ago and the tank is CRYSTAL CLEAR and looks better than my display tank since there is only a pair of clowns in it with live rock. BTW - the water has better parameters than my display tank, and my display is just about 0/0 no3, no4. When you go to Roozens, it might help to remember that water quality has nothing to do with aiptasia or the glass not being clear. The devil advocates side - With that being said, I LOVE Roozens, it is by far my favorite store to go to, to hunt for different, unusual or rare stuff. The really cool thing about it is you NEVER know what they are going to have. Sure Jos could use a little introduction to proper customer service and stuff, but oh well, its his store and they do a pretty good amount of business and have a phenomenal amount of turn-around for what it is. And I really HATE that you have to ask the price on everything knowing that the next guy might get it cheaper or for more depending on how Jos feels. He might bump the price just cause he doesn't want you to buy it, who knows, oh well - once again its his place and he can run how he wants. As for it being "strange" that their tanks are outside in a green house. Not at all, and compared to all the LFS, they should get the "going green" and conservation award. Using the greenhouse and the earth for lighting and constant temperature regulation is ingenous. Not only does it cut down on overhead, it is the most natural way to go. And in my humble opinion, more stores should try to go that route. I know of a few coral farmers that do this as well, and it works GREAT, if you can get the bugs worked out, such as over-heating in the summer, and cooling in the winter. Granted, Roozens is a different experience. With that in mind though, that is what is going for it. The prices aren't marked and labeled on the tanks because they have such a high turn-over, diversity of livestock from week to week, and not a lot of employees, so they just don't bother with it. I agree it is more of an experienced or seasoned enthusiast to shop there, but it can be for the noob as well if they are a little educated/informed on what can/can't be done in the hobby and still make things work. Plus, then a noob can see what kind of World Class aptasia can be grown if you don't have the best husbandry! For all that Roozens is lacking, in my personal experience they make up for in their diversity and "diamonds in the rough" that you can find there. Other local fish stores just don't offer that type of shopping experience.