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Tom9

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Posts posted by Tom9

    DIY food for fish & corals

    in General Discussion

    I used to buy food from Scott 711 for a couple of years and now make my own.  It is really easy.  I buy most of the ingredients from the local Asian market.  I use a cheap blender.  I blend the ingredients with rodi water in the blender and blend to slightly chunky.  Then mix all the blended stuff in a bucket then put in sandwich bags and freeze.  I make about 6-8 months worth at a time and takes me about an hour or two from start to finish.  Lots of info on the web and WAMAS.   

    My basic ingredients follow:

     

    From Asian store:

    -Frozen Seafood Medley (contains: shrimp, squid, cuttlefish, mussel, and octopus)

    -Frozen Oyster

    -Frozen Smelt (same as silversides)

    -Nori (seaweed)

     

    Bought elsewhere

    -Reef Roids powder

    -Spirulina powder

    -Kent Marine Zoecon

    -Frozen Mysis shrimp

    -Frozen Calanus from Piscine Energetics

     

     

    Aiptasia and problem solving

    in General Discussion

    I have a 180 that got overrun by aiptasia.  I controlled it with ap-x, but every couple of weeks they would be back. If I used ap-x weekly, I had great results but I'm lazy and never kept up.  I tried a file fish but he ended up in my sump and unfortunately died in my skimmer pump before I could find him.  I then followed zygote2ks recommendation and put about 50 peppermint shrimp in my 180.  I have not seen an aiptasia in the 6 months since I've added the peppermint shrimp.  I never see any of the shrimp, but they must be around since I still have no aiptasia.  I got the peppermint shrimp from reeftopia.com in bulk for $1.95 each

     

    I also have a 46 with 3 peppermint shrimp. I know at least one is still alive but I must not have enough of them because every couple of months I use ap-x on a random aiptasia.  In this tank I never saw more then 10 aiptasia, so much more manageable with ap-x.

    Transporting Water

    in General Discussion

    I recently moved a 180 gal tank and did the following. The night before the move I premixed about 50gal of saltwater at the new location. I bought 15 of the 18-gallon Rubbermaid totes and some large ziplock bags from Home depot and rented a U-Haul for the move. I Filled 4 of the totes with rock. I put all the fish individually in large ziplocks and put them in a cooler. Then I filled another 9 totes with water. The sand fit in 2 totes. All totes were about 3/4 full and the sand and rock were submerged in water. All the equipment I put in some boxes which ended up getting soaked so I would recommend extra totes. Everything fit in a moving truck stacking the totes 2 high on one side and the tank and equipment on the other. The stand and canopy went on top of the tank and totes. I did not use trash bags in the totes so I did lose some water; the floor of the moving truck was soaked. After the 3 hour drive to the new location, I put all the fish in one of the totes filled with water and put a power head in the water. Now it was time to setup the tank. I was tired and it was getting late so I got lazy and did not rinse anything. I did take the time to level the tank and then just set everything back up as quickly as I could and filled the tank. After the water cleared the next morning I put the fish in the tank. I had no livestock loses but did end up with a slight cyanobacteria outbreak and a very dirty tank. If I were to do this again I would have used bags in the totes to hold the water better and not have been in such a rush to setup the tank. I should have taken 1 day for the breakdown, move and cleaning and a second day for setup.

     

     

    Coralife

    in Vendor Experience

    This weekend I noticed the glass covering my 250w HQI MH on my Coralife Aqualight Pro was shattered. I noticed on RC that somebody mentioned Coralife sent them a new one for free. I gave Coralife a call and they are shipping me a replacement for free. Wow, was a impressed, and glad I didn't have to figure out what type of glass to buy. The tech person even kept me on the phone to see how I liked my light and asked about my tank. The tech also mentioned that Coralife is getting out of MHs and now have an LED it just released. So I give Coralife an A+ for customer support on a product they no long make. Tom

     

     

    Frag Fest Thank Yous

    in General Discussion

    WOW Frag Fest was a really neat experience, I'm still speechless. I really wanted to thank all the vendors, organizers and speaker for such a fantastic event. I know a lot of time went into this event and want you to know that it is very much appreciated. It was something else watching all the coral being cut and bagged in record time. It was also neat finally putting faces to names. I had a really great time and on top of that I came home with some great corals. I can't wait to attend many more. Thanks again for a great afternoon. Tom

     

     

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