Happyfeet

I meant Specific Gravity, sorry

On the bright side all my Chromis are now accounted for.. he was evidently just being an artard.

It also appears my feather duster is giving off a web like substance, maybe mucus?

Since it will probably be asked, I drip acclimated over the course of 3 hours on everything in the tank.

Ok I had my first death(s) I came in today and saw my Emerald crab on top of a rock doing what us best described as standing on its tip toes. In a matter of 30 or 40 seconds it crumpled into a ball rolled onto its back much like a spider and died. Then I noticed when I was feeding my Chromis that one was missing, and did not come out during feeding (he has always been a loner, but he always comes out during feeding) I haven't found his body so he may actually be alive. Then I notice my feather duster is retracted and has been retracted, It's still alive because it pokes out a little bit and then withdraws completely back into its tube. Params are Ammonia - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - .5 Phosphate - .25 Ph - 8.2 Salinity - 1.024 Temp - 79 (everything has been consistant over the week with these readings, I test daily) I'm confused because the feather duster has been happy until I added the pistol shrimp and I was forced to move the feather duster because the pistol shrimp was digging around him and making the duster pretty unhappy. The Emerald Crabs have been fine moving about and eating constantly since I put them in. Emerald Crabs have been in for 2 days and the feather duster has been in for 5 days. Chromis have been in for a week and a half. Any ideas on whats wrong?

Cool, I plan on pciking some Picasso's up so if they start laying eggs I'll keep you guys in mind.

They are obviously Happy Feet Zoas

Some new additions: So far no deaths and everyone seems really happy! I added 3 more Hermit Crabs, Blue Legged. 5 Cearith Snails 2 Emerald Crabs 1 Pistol Shrimp 1 Yellow Goby So far the Pistol Shrimp and the Goby haven't paired up, though they decided to live 4 inches from each other. Hopefully they will warm up to each other. I also finalized where I wanted my rocks to be.

A whole tank of Clowns, thats adorable. Are you guys supplying stores or are you just doing it for fun and passing them out to forum members? Been thinking about getting a pair of clowns in the future.

While I was cycling my tank I was running my fuge lights 24/7 and I got almost no algae growth and almost no chaeto growth. I decided to switch things up a little and turned my lights on the fuge off for 2-4 hours per day. It was an explosion of growth and literally dropped all of my params to 0 over night mid cycle. I've read about people's cycles taking 3-8 weeks and mine took only 1 week 2 days for every param to be 0. This may have happened anyway if I kept the lights on 24/7, I can't know for sure if changing the lighting spiked the growth or if conditions were just perfect in the tank. I'll continue to keep my fuge lights off for 4 hours a day though.

Doh, Wish I checked this thread out sooner, I was in Manor Oaks on Saturday, woulda helped out! Looks good can't wait to see it with water!

I'm with your wife, I like the long tanks too!! I have to admit though your new one is REALLY nice! Good work!!

Jan, Love the tank! Hopefully mine will look like yours one day!

Girlfriend called me just now and said the ich appears to be gone, which leads me to believe that it may have just been tiny bubbles since they were playing in the current my Mag drive was making. Which does have a lot of micro bubbles coming from it.

They were hiding this morning so I didn't get a chance to look at them. Last night they had them all over their caudal fins, I just found it surprising because I've never seen the cyst form in a matter of hours, I'm guessing it's different than the Freshwater Ich.

Ok so my question is can fish get microbubbles stuck to them? specifically their fins. I bought my first fish for my tank the other morning , 4 Blue Green Chromis from Pristine Aquariums. I inspected all the Chromis in the tank and they all looked really healthy. I get them home and inspected the ones I had again just to make sure, but the light was off. So once they were acclimated and left in the tank for a couple hours I turned back on the lights and they were swiming around happily. My girlfriend noticed that they had white dots on their fins. I'm thinking ah crap they have Ich, but that doesn't make sense because they didn't have dots only 4 hours earlier. So my question is, do they have ich? or is it more likely they have microbubbles stuck to their fins? At least 3 of the 4 had white dots along the edges of their fins.

Microbubbles drive me crazy, at least yours are coming from your skimmer and should get better though! Great looking tank!

Right after I posted I got the bright idea to bend my fishnet and put a mysis shrimp in it. Worked Perfectly!

Ok, How does one get a fish out of the overflow box? It's a tiny little Chromis and the net is just too big to maneuver to be able to catch him. Any ideas?

MY Ammonia and Nitrates reached 0 so I decided to do a water change and added my first inhabitants. I decided to go with Chromis because I've read they are fairly hardy fish and I know being new I'll probably make mistakes. I want a fish that will be a little more forgiving =) I wanted to wait an extra week before I added anything, but we are having a house warming party this weekend and we both decided we needed something moving in our tank for it. I got 4 Blue Green Chromis So far they have been doing well, I spent the extra time and acclimated them for four hours, just to make sure they didn't get shocked. lights have been off for the entire time of acclimation and 3 hours afterwards. They stuck mostly to the rocks and hid the entire time the lights were out, I turned on the lights and they came right out and were swimming around and having a great time. There is one however that is pretty shy and has stayed in the rockwork. He comes out every so often, but heads back to the safety of the rocks quickly. I fed them some mysis shrimp and they readily accepted and gobbled up every piece offered. It seems like they are doing pretty good. *edit I thought I would mention they have been schooling really nicely, though once they settle in and feel more comfortable that behavior might stop.

I'm not an expert on the subject, but I've done a good amount of reading. From what I understand a DSB doesn't reduce nitrates or anything, it just absorbs more. The problem is, and after my reading I haven't found anyone that didn't escape this fate, the DSB reaches critical mass can't hold anymore and starts to release back into the water. Granted it's only a little bit that

Thanks! I'm trying to do it right the first time around.

Some updates, I've been noticing the Coraline algae on my liverocks is coming back pretty vibrantly, not as vibrant as when I first got it and let it sit out, but it is coming back. Something a little unexpected is happening, I have base rock that used to be liverock, but was left to sit for almost a year untouched. It seems like the Coraline algae that used to cover it is coming back. (I may be off my rocker and its just spreading from the liverock to the baserock) I can see faint outlines of what looks like old deposits of Coraline Algae starting to pink up and purple up. I also have a very small hitch hiker of some sort. It's a clear and has tentacles with blueish tips that will stretch out and shrink up depending on the time of the day. I noticed it was out, and I turned on the lights to get a picture but it retracted all the way up into a crack in the rock. I'm going to try and get a shot of and post it up here tonight.

I've read that Anthias need immaculate water conditions to do well. I think I may try Chromis, since they are cheap, while my tank matures.

This makes me feel a lot better, I'd been trying to get my water to remain a constant temperature. Problem is depending on what my neighbors have their AC or heater set at influences my apartment. My apartment lately has been an oven during the day and a fridge at night. The aquarium temp goes between 81-82 as a high during the day and 78-79 as a low during the night (recorded when I wake up at 6am) I think I need a better heater to try and keep things a little more constant.