miggs76
-
Posts
1,516 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Events
Store
Posts posted by miggs76
-
-
I've never been to one of the meetings....just curious what goes on there
-
You can take a pair of scissors and trim your toadstool. Frag it into a bucket with some tank water after a water change. Then you can tie the pieces to rock and place them in a frag tank or your main display to sell or give away. I like fragging toadstool vertically but you can do it anyway you like. It will all grow.
I take bone cutters and cut away at the rock just under the mushroom. Try to detach the shroom with some of the rock or else you'll injure it and it may get brown jelly disease. It's easier to attach to other rock if it is alrady attached to rubble. If a shroom falls off by itself it's best to place it in a bowl with rubble rock or attach it to a piece of rock with some kind of netting until it attaches.
Wear gloves a goggles when fragging zoas! they release neurotoxins that are harmful even in small doses to humans. I take bone cutters to zoa rocks too. If the rock is thin I'll cut the rock into pieces with the zoas attached. Do not scrape zoanthids. Work with them in a container. Sometimes you can peel them off a rock but you really need to wear protective gear and work outside your tank with them.
Plating montipora can be chipped off with your hand or bone cutters. It's fragile. If you can get under it and chip away at the rock you may get larger pieces. It grows back fast.
This is just how I frag. Others may have other suggestions.
Thanks I appreciate your help!
-
I've never fragged anything as I am less than a year into this wonderful hobby but quite a few of my coral are getting too big for my tank. I need some advice about the following:
1) Toadstoal---from what I have read online I can just use scissors and cut off a piece...attach to a rock?
2) For mushrooms...should I just wait until they shrivel up in the evening and use a razor blade to slice it at where the stem meets the rock? I'll try using mesh to keep it on a frag plug or rock
3) For zoas --just use a razor blade to scrap it off the rock it is on? I will just glue to a new frag plug.
4) Finally...I have some encrusting montipora that has spread across a large rock....can I just pry a piece off of the rock?
Thanks in advance.....I must be doing something right if it's all growing!
-
Whoops...wrong photo..let me try again!
-
There two popped out of my live rock about a month ago. What are the long green/white worm looking things between the zoas and montipora and in back of the zoas?
-
Here is my first attempt at a pic from my Biocube 14......Buddy is popping his head up in hopes for a tasty shrimp treat!
-
on sale at 1saleaday.com, if i didnt already have one i would certainly purchase this one, seems like a nice one and reminds me of the smaller honda ones.
Just wondering if anyone has any experience with the battery operated generators. They have some that run about 150 bucks and for me at least would be enough power for a heater and pump.
-
The worm you named is a nasty, most people on here like bristle worms and think they are beneficial. There are some that are and some that aren't. ID it properly and decide if you want it to go or maybe just move it to a sump/fuge where it could potentially do a lot of good.
I cant find the site I found that listed them all, but there are thousands of species of bristleworms. Some are beneficial to our tanks and some are so not.
If it's definitely a bobbit (google image is scary!), get it out and maybe offer it to someone who would like to dedicate a tank to it and watch it grow. If it's a very fuzzy (blue or pink) worm I've heard of them licking corals for food but haven't seen any noticeable damage from the big guys in my tank.
If it's just a thin pink (may have a hint of purple or blue on it) and moderately fuzzy then it is a happy bristle worm and perfectly safe to stay in your dt.
If you feed just before lights out generally they will come out to scavenge soon after the lights go off and you can get a good look at them. If you can get a good picture of him more's the better. If not just try and get a good look and then research it to death.
Hope this helps,
It is definitely not a bristleworm......I search and found an exact picture of it...same color/markings/ect....and that would be a bobbit or eunicid worm. I am going to try and get it out this weekend using the carbonated water trick. If it comes out and survives I would be welcome to give it away to anyone who wants it. I am just concerned that I won't be able to put that live rock back in my tank after I mess with it and put soda water in it......
-
I suggest watching it grow. IT's not likely to hurt anything especially sps corals. It's more likely a detritivore that will consume uneaten foodstuffs.
Really? From almost everything I have looked up online people have said before they found this little monster in their tanks they had zoas, sps, and small fish disappear........If it is good for the tank I would absolutely keep it---its very bizarre yet intriguing----but I think I want to be safe rather than sorry......
-
I have a BC14 and only 3 pieces of live rock in it. My biggest piece is about 7 pounds....unfortunately there is a worm living in it that needs out. It is definitely a bobbit/eunicid worm---it hasn't killed any YET...but I plan on adding some sps corals after I upgrade my lights so I am pretty sure this guy has to go. I've tried to trap it with no luck. I am going to do a stake-out this weekend and when it pops out to grab some food I am going to try and use my forceps to grab it. I know my chances are slim so........I really want to keep this piece of rock. It has coraline on it and it is a premium figi piece. It is extremely porous which I think is good for live rock. I actually tried to dip it in coral rx and the darn worm wouldn't come out after an hour! So what can I do? Should I try hypersalinity? Here are my choices:
1) Totally take it out and let it rot (don't wanna lose the rock)
2) Smash into pieces and get the worm (don't wanna ruin the rock)
3) Hypersalinity?
4) Try coral RX one more time?
5) Put the rock in a bucket of RO water for a few hours
Will choices #3 or #5 kill off all the good bacteria on the rock?
Any suggestions are very appreciated.
-
Sounds great so far. I didn't realize you were so far along. I was also using purigen, but have since switched to the chemipure and GFO from BRS. I find the purigen ok, but GFO really helps me with phosphates.
How much is that 5gal water? I buy gallons of distilled from grocery store at $1/ea and use Instant Ocean salt. RODI is the best value, but I haven't made that commitment on my small tank.
I would retro fit the hood with some of the panorama modules mentioned above. It will be MUCH easier than the rapidled kit, and is a more finished product. I don't think they are as powerful, so you won't need to worry about melting your LPS. You may be able to leave the stock lights in and fit it all, or may have to rip them out. Not really sure. Maybe check out nano-reef website to find more info.
Also, if you become a paid member you will have access to the classifieds. People sell corals on here for next to nothing, and lots of equipment as well. Surprised Tom (Origami) hasn't gotten to you.
The 5gal water is 11.99 at Petco----I know it is half the cost to buy my own salt and RO water from the grocery store, but for an extra few bucks all I have to do is pour it in the tank...for such a small tank it is worth it.....if I had a 40 or 50g tank then it wouldn't be cost effective. The coral love it. I believe that the fact it is real ocean water made them grow so fast. Which panorama lights were you thinking of? Are they something that would require me to scrap the biocube canopy? I like the look of the canopy and don't really want to get rid of it....and yes I am going to send in payment to become a paid member....i'll use my teacher discount!
-
Yea, ask me. I melted mushrooms and zoas under the led's and even bleached a bunch of sps. I do not even have optics on my led's. I made the mistake of non-dimmable, and couldn't avoid the problems of too much light. At full power out of water I get 1,400 par! I dim this way down still. The $200 you spend on led's can end up around $1,000 once you get everything else you need for sps. To give you an idea:
1 - 2 BRS doser pumps $180
2 - RKL - $160 (control the dosers)
3 - ATO - $100
4 - Skimmer - $145 stevie t cup - $30
5 - MP10 - $150(used) $230 new
6 - mediarack - $50
I am starting to depress myself...
I don't want to discourage you. I think if I was setting up a 14 gallon biocube I would get a rbta and a really fancy pair of designer clowns. People on here constantly sell rbta's for $30-$40, and they are usually hardy clones.
Add some supplemental led's, and you should be good. I am not sure if you are working on a budget or not. You may not care about any of this really.
Sorry to take this topic of course.
Just trying to give you an idea of what you can do with these tanks.
Well here is some background info on the tank..............I started it up in the summer....
I've spent a good deal on this set up already.....but I knew that coming in.....
1) Premium Figi Live rock (most of it is already coraline encrusted)
2) Took out the bioballs, put in InTank media basket with filter floss, chemi-pure elite, and purigen
3) Got the InTank fish saver (to save fish from jumping to sump)
4) UV sterilzer is running
5) Took the stock pump out and put in MaxiJet 900
6) Put in Hydor Koralia Nano
So far I have a yellow watchman goby, along with 2 frogspawns, 1 hammer, 1 candy cane frag, 2 favia frags, and a chalice frag...........all of the coral are doing great.in fact the frogspawns and hammer have almost doubled in size in the last 6 weeks..the goby is cool...he waits all day for food, then sleeps in his cave at night.
I do my own testing buy brought a sample to my LFS last week and he said in fact everything was perfect......I even use the natural seawater that you can buy in a 5 gallon container from petco.......every Sunday I change out about 15-20% of the water.
The only real mod I haven't done is the lighting........I think if I mod the lighting I would really have a perfect little reef.......
I do want to get a designer clownfish (know a good place to get one????), but only one to share the tank with my YWG.......however, I want to put as many coral as possible inside.
-
I'd really like to get some SPS, especially a Clam. I really want to keep the BC14 canopy too instead of ripping it off and putting on a whole new piece, which is why I think the retrofit RapidLED would work best???????
-
I have done several LED builds from scratch. No retrofits exactly, but I have adapted for different canopies and such.
Where are you located? I recommend trying to find someone close so if there is a problem they can look at it. I had one LED go bad in one fixture that I built after about 6 months. Still don't understand it, but it does happen.
In Rockville
-
http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-229/Plug-dsh-and-dsh-Play-Biocube-14-Retrofit/Detail
I started a thread a few weeks ago asking if anyone would be willing to install upgraded lighting for a BC 14. Quite a few offered help and I really appreciate that.......I think I found out that the link above would be the easiest to install....is there anyone who has done a Rapid LED retrofit kit???
-
I will not accept your money but I would be glad to help you out with the install. I did lots of upgrades to my old bc29. I'm in Alexandria though.
What kind of lighting upgrade did you do?
-
Welcome to the forums! What upgrade were you thinking of doing? What general area are you located at?
Located in Rockville......I don't know which exact type of lighting upgrade....but the PC stock bulbs are pretty week. Any suggestions are quite welcome.....
-
So I have a Biocube 14 and I am looking to upgrade the lights.......I am pretty sure after looking at the directions for many of the Biobuce upgrade lights that I will end up burning my house down. If I do decide to go ahead and order something, I was wondering if anyone out there would be willing to install it for me. I would pay you of course a negotiated rate......and I would only want someone who has done it before. Thanks!
Eunicid (bobbit worm) finally removed
in General Discussion
So a few months ago I saw this extremely creepy looking worm in my tank. It was bright orange and red and would just barely poke its head out of a rock hole to scavenge but as soon as it detected me moving near the tank it would quickly dart back into the hole. I tried using a bristle worm trap but it never worked. I researched online and found it to be a eunicid or bobbit worm. It was clearly not a bristle worm. I read about how they can be really bad for the tank so I debated whether or not to just remove the piece of rock but I left it in there............then over the last few weeks I noticed in the morning some of my coral frags were pressed up against the rock instead of in the sand bed where they were the night before. At first I thought it was just some snail moving them around or my mp10 was blowing them around. Then yesterday I literally saw that worm going after a zoa. Needless to say I was livid. I took the rock out and put a new one in---it was a pain because I had coral attached to the rock so I had to do a lot of work taking it off and attaching it to a new piece but I guess I had too. One thing that I noticed right away was that my fire shrimp is now out of hiding. I don't know if that is a coincide. Could it be possible he was scared of this worm? The fire shrimp would literally hid behind another piece of rock all day long unless I fed the tank. Now he is out and about all day. Strange, eh? So I guess the moral of the story for me is this.....I plan on getting a big tank up and running this summer.....I will be buying dry eco rock because I couldn't imagine having to break down a large tank to get a bad hitchhiker.