jaddc

I think above all the number 1 piece of advice is that the cycle will happen no matter what. One doesn't have to do anything but have patience. It can take days to months, but it will happen. Everyone does it differently -- the end result is the same. I think cycling is pretty cool. It is one of the first experiences that everyone has with the hobby and you can test daily to monitor the first breaths of life in your tank. The Zen of Cycling.

One tip I can offer is that if you add food and table shrimp to the tank, put it in a filter sock or netting (like old school wedding favors). That way it is easy to remove it when the ammonia gets to zero.

The precipitation won't cause any harm, but it does decrease the total salts in solution, obviously. Some goes back into solution, most does not and will settle out to the sides and bottom. Any smell, is probably algae or bacteria munching away (this doesn't appear to be harmful). My guess is that the algae/bacteria are attached to the sides, so most of it does not get into our tanks. To minimize the precipitation when making saltwater: 1) Make sure your RODI water is at least room temp (>70 degrees) (since fresh RODI comes from the cold water tap) 2) Start agitating your RODI water with a power head just before you add salt, not after. 3) Add salt slowly and distribute it over the entire surface. You don't have to wait until it dissolves, but wait at least 10 secs between additions to let it distribute. I add my salt in thirds. This minimizes local saturation. Think of cooking -- when baking, one does not add all of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients at once. Once precipitation starts, it will continue to some degree (like rock candy). So keep it agitated and at least 70 degrees until you use it. That all said, many people just dump in their salt, precipitation be darned, mix it up, and have beautiful tanks.

Also, you have some nice encrusting sponges on your rock, so its not surprising that another one is growing. If you ever take your rockwork apart you will most likely find more of those guys. J

It is amazing how many eggs/cysts sit dormant on rock for a long time and then start growing when the conditions are right.

I agree with your thinking. And bacteria flora in our tanks is something that we have the least knowledge about and control over. We also do a transplant when we add livestock to our tanks. A new strain of bacteria can easily come into our tanks. Hmmmm... I will shortly be in possession of genome sequencer at work...side project??

That sucks! Sorry for your loss. It sounds like your acclimation was fine. Jan's last post was right on. These fish undergo tremendous stress before they hit our tanks. They are caught. Held in an exporter's tank. Shipping overseas to a US wholesaler's tank. Shipping to a retailer. It's all a black box for the consumer. And if the fish is highly prized, like your trigger, then the rest time between stresses is minimal at best. A fish is not making anyone any money for the time it sits in holding tanks so they move fish along the supply chain as fast as possible. The fish could have had an internal parasite or pathology that you could never diagnose by looking at it -- you'd need to do a fish necropsy. A QT tank is nice to have. Not only for the obvious stuff like Ich, but also to give the fish to chill out and recover before introducing to the DT. If the fish dies in the QT you can rule out that aggressive and hungry crab/anemone/snail/coral/worm/MP40. It doesn't help the loss, but at least the mystery is gone.

The corals would be OK. Many of them can last a week without lights. The idea is that the fast growers require a lot more light energy to keep up their fast pace. IME, the lights out trick only works if you pull out the algae aggressively (re: my earlier post). Having the lights outs in the DT for a period, but on in the refugium with Chaeto gives the Chaeto a chance to ramp up growth while giving you a chance to pull as much nuisance algae as you can.

I thought I misread that in your earlier post. Really? What do you feed when you actually do feed? How many fish do you have?

I'd also recommend a more diverse CUC as well.

Just my $0.02. I think that nuisance algae can outcompete chaeto for nutrients (hence the name nuisance). Chaeto is great to maintain already low nutrient levels, but it seems like people have mixed results when using chaeto to bring down high nutrients. I think (though it is a huge pain in the butt) one has to make every effort to siphon or pull the nuisance algae out. When you have a clump of hair algae or cyano in the toilet -- that is nutrient export. I cannot see your CUC in the pic. If you want to feed a lot, then have a large diverse CUC -- snails, hermits, a brittle star, shrimp and maybe a cucumber. Also, buy some amphipods which are great detritovours and get deep into the sand (pods don't usually exist in new setups). Once your nitrates are down, then worry about GFO for phosphates. The tank looks good BTW. When the algae disappears it is gonna look fantastic.

It looks like Lionfish are susceptible to ciguatera according to recent work (http://www.greenantilles.com/2011/11/22/more-data-emerges-about-ciguatera-toxin-in-lionfish/). That would make them not good eats for wide scale production and it would be marginalized to a delicacy like the barracuda or puffer fish. Plus, I'd worry about net catching the fish. The spines can poke into the meat of another fish and poison the flesh. Definitely a spear or hook and line type catch.

Note to self -- call Jan whenever a fish needs to be caught.

Oh! That's not good. I'd move it out of the DT into a sump or QT tank.

Do you mean it will not physically stay attached to a rock or it is moving where you don't want it?

Just be patient and try not to do too much. Give it a couple of days and the conditioner will dissipate.

Ben and his crew do a great job..especially considering that Petland is a chain petstore. I hope Corporate recognizes how good that crew is.

My bulk reef supply gel glue works fine under water.

Just leave the skimmer off for a day or two.

If the link does not work then search YouTube for "giant clams at low tide". Pretty cool actually!

Should be fine. All bivalves have the ability to hold water inside their shell and survive out of water for a period. Anyone who has shucked clams before can attest to their water retention abilities. However, air in the shell does mess up their gills, so don't shuck your clam or let it dry out. In my opinion, all sea life can survive out of water for some period. In the hobby I consider two things: tides are gradual (so I make sure anything coming out is closed up tight) and being out of the water causes stress (which I want to minimize). All that said, it can't hurt to burb them to be safe -- but put a towel on your shoulder.

Wow!

Oh great point! But that would suggest that the salinity goes down over time since the top off is fresh water.

When one is thrivin' then it is survivin'

From a water chemistry perspective, the bigger and more established the system, the less the need to do a water change. If one has efficient means of export of the waste, and the trace element needs are satisfied by food choice, then I can see how one wouldn't need a water change. In the end, it becomes a survive versus thrive argument.