Newms118

The tank is just finishing up its cycle so pretty much brand new. Only reason i thought at least the purple algae may be coralline was that it came on the TBS rock.

sorry about the pic, my iPhone is giving it a much more bluish color than it really is. I have one 14,000K reef spectrum light from Buildmyled. Here is some pics using just a flashlight. Heres a smaller one on another rock from TBS

Just a simple ID question. Here are two pics of whats in my tank right now: Bluish Algae? Purple Algae? I think the purple algae is really coralline algae because its more hard in appearance, and when Ive left my LEDs on for too long, it became a little lighter which seemed like a bleaching event. The bluish algae is more like a mucus in appearance, and I have other rocks where the mucus is more white/opaque with little color. What you guys think?

Btw, for the first image, the TBS live rock is in the front. The dry rock (pukani, fiji, and tonga complex branch) is in the back. The big purple live rock on the top is from tropical lagoon aquarium in silver spring.

So I went through the first phase of the package, and picking up the boxes wasn't bad at all. I placed my order on last Wednesday and picked them up Saturday morning at the warehouse location. Heres the link for those interested:http://www.deltacargo.com/WorldwideFacilities/DCA.aspx . I ended up going to the DASH office first but was told to pick up the packages at the warehouse. The warehouse actually called me to tell me the package was there for pick up. If you know where the economy parking is at Reagan national, the warehouse is pretty close to that, and there are signs that say economy parking and air cargo to help direct you. For the boxes, they handled the trip pretty well. Only the box that had the live sand was leaking a bit so bringing a tarp to protect the inside of my SUV was a good idea. After opening it all up I can say I am beyond pleased with the first shipment. The live sand came with a small pincushion sea urchin, a large brittle star, some sort of shrimp that loves to hide, some type of sea slug that has since begun burrowing into on my pukani rocks, and a few snails. The rocks themselves were covered with purple coralline algae, a few sponges ( i think), lots of filter feeders (little barnacles and tube worms). I love watching these guys go and I've since bought some microvert to begin feeding them in about a week. On the down side i didn't find at least 3 gorilla crabs that i managed to get off the rocks by doing a high salinity dip before putting the rocks in the tank. I think two porcelain crabs came too so i put those back, but I've seen at least two gorilla crabs in the tank now. So now begins the trapping phase! Ive also heard popping sounds which I'm assuming can be either a mantis or pistol shrimp, but this guy didn't come out from the high salinity dips, so hopefully the traps will get him too. Currently the rocks is covered in some sort of brown algae which may be diatoms, but I'm hoping will cleanup in a few days. Before i added the TBS live rock i had the tank cycling (by ammonia dosing) and was in the high nitrite phase (5+ ppm). After adding the live rock, my ammonia is holding steady at about 0.2 ppm, with nitrite at around 0.1 ppm and nitrates up to 80 ppm. I went ahead and did some water changes to try dropping the nitrate levels so that the critters that came with the first shipment didn't die. Looking forward to getting my second batch with all the other critters. Heres some picks of the tank and the TBS live rock:

Wow, didn't think i would get this big of a response on this topic. Ill be sure to post picks of what i get and about the whole shipping procedure from Reagan national. Thanks, the tank is a 65 gallon with a 30 gallon sump. So far I've gotten some dry fiji, pukani, and complex tonga from BFS. Ive also gone around and picked up a small live rock from congressional aquariums and tropical lagoon aquariums, with tropical being far superior. darn shame aquarium one still isn't open other wise i would have gone their to get a few pieces of live rock. Im only getting a small amount of live rock from TBS, say the package for about a 25 gallon tank, that way to minimize the unwanted hitch hikers and add more variety to the tank when its fully started.

I plan on ordering some live rock from tampa bay saltwater. I understand that you have to pick it up from the airport, and I plan on having it delivered to Reagan National. Does anyone have any experience ordering from TBS and picking it up from this airport? Im not sure where the freight pick up is and want to know a bit more before i go through with the order.

So you suggest tying the stand to the wall, what are some common ways if doing that? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After filling up my 65 gallon with fresh water, I'm trying to check and make sure its structurally stable in its location. The tank sits in the corner of a kitchen which is the corner of the building, and i am on the third floor. I tried to determine the orientation of the floor joists by determining their direction in the ceiling. I couldn't use a stud finder on the ground, but the metal detecting feature was able to find repeating studs running the length of the ceiling, and this orientation was found in the living room adjacent to the kitchen. So based on this i put the stand perpendicular to the floor joists and filled it up. Now if i go next to the stand and jump in front of it, i notice a slight wobble from from to back, which to me makes sense if the stand is on multiple joists and my jumping is adding a bending motion to them. Now if i go to the side of the tank and jump, i don't see any movement on the tank, which to me says that I'm on an independent joist not under the tank and so my jumping doesn't add any weight to flex the joist. So basically my question is, if you jump next to the tank and it moves, does that reflect that you are on the same joists as the tank, or does the tank dampen the effects of your jumping and so if you then jump and don't see movement, you are on the same joist as the tank.

Never heard of this, sounds like it would be a good idea since I'm at the beginning also. H-E-double hockey sticks just turning on the pump had be nervous the first time since I've never plumbed anything in my life and am pretty paranoid about busting a leak.

never thought about leveling feet on the four corners, ill have to look into that. Given the tank and sump (30 gallon Trigger) will put up to 800+ pounds on these feet, would they be able to support this or would eventually be crushed.

the way the tank sits is that its trim is supported along the sides of the stand. The top of the stand is not a big piece of wood, just open. I feel that this is fine since the tank has support on its four corners. And without any foam or something under the tank, there is nothing providing positive pressure to the bottom piece of glass.

So the tank is manufactured by Perfecto, and the stand is a Marineland Majesty as seen here http://www.marineland.com/Products/aquarium-fish-tank-stands-canopies/majesty-wood-aquarium-stands-canopies.aspx?utm_campaign=bazaarvoice&utm_medium=SearchVoice&utm_source=AskAndAnswer&utm_content=Default#technical Because of weight concerns (I live in a condo on the third floor) i have the tank in the corner of the kitchen which is also the corner of the building, thinking it should be the most sturdy spot. The tank stand has also been placed on a slightly larger piece of plywood thats been coated with spar urethane to make it water resistant. I didn't place any soft styrofoam or other material under the tank because I've read about the bad effects it has on the tank. I think the unevenness comes from the fact that the floor itself is slightly uneven, and I had to use composite shims to get the tank level to the point shown in the pictures. I placed the shims between the aquarium stand and the plywood, because i have vinyl flooring and if i put them between the plywood and the actual floor, it will likely leave indentations. Ill end up having to drain the tank again because now it just has fresh water to test the plumbing, so perhaps i can go around and place a shim in the corner that ill be able to adjust later. Only part thats hard is being able to hammer it in given the small space in the corner.

Trying to level my 65 gallon tank and it's a bit tricky since I have the tank in the corner of the kitchen Here is the level going the length of the tank Now going the width of the tank on the right side As you can see, it's not perfectly level, but I'm wondering if this is good enough considering the difficulty in raising the back corner Any thoughts? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk