newbie2014

For those who wouldn’t mind getting fish from Petco, they have special 50% off on some marine fish with free shipping (?). I want flame angel, but it’s out of stock.

I have the Vectra S1 and S2, and they are very quiet. With the (stand) door closed, I can't hear it. The skimmer and MP10s make more hum. Being this is my first foray into a tank/sump setup, I find that having a DC return pump helps me tremendously in finetuning my overflow. I prefer to reduce the flow by lowering the pump power, rather than constricting the gate valve. It's safer and much much easier. Good luck with your search.

Just a heads up. I ordered 2 bags along with 1 bag of dry sand. Only the dry one arrived. The day before the delivery date, I got email saying the the item (live sand) could not be delivered. The transaction was cancelled and refunded. This happened TWICE in a row. Maybe it was just me................. Good luck

My 2 newer (3yrs) MP10s are silent at 60% reefcrest mode. The oldest one (6yrs) has a faint whine when seating close to the tank. Another brand I would go with would be Tunze. I've never had their powerheads, but from what I've heard their reliability is unmatched. They come with cords, but at least you only have to clean them once, or maybe twice a year. Good luck with your search.

+1 for the vortech. Besides from not having cords in the tank, the ease of maintenance is mind boggling. Less than a minute to swap out the dirty head with a clean one. I clean mine every 3-6 months. Of course, as pointed out, that convenience comes with a price.

Have you checked with Petco? If you do repeat delivery (free), you'll get 35% off the first one, and 5% off subsequent ones. Their bucket price is the same as Amazon. Do one every six months, or once a year. And you can cancel any time. Good luck.

I'm afraid I'm not that experienced to take on the task. I'll let the more seasoned player do the "harvesting".

Thank you, Aaron. Those are scramble eggs zoas that you gave me. I would love nothing more than to have them go back to you. But I have a brave member lined up to take the lot. I’ll get back to you, if things don’t work out. Thanks again, Donald

Thanks all for your responses. My idea was to offer the tank (with those zoas) as a free curb side pickup. Would that be a viable option? Or will it be just another good intention, but fails from the start?

I broke down my 40B a few weeks ago, and I don’t know what to with the zoa colonies that’s been growing on the bare bottom. I know the easiest way is to just toss the whole thing. But that just seems so wasteful. Is there a way to pass them on to the next reefer? Thanks in advance.

For those who use Reef Crystal salt, the price on a 160 gal mix bucket is back to below $35 with free shipping. Enjoy

How about get a new 40B on Petco sale, drill it and use it as the display? Make a sump out of the old display. That way; you'll solve the overflow issues, can keep using all current equipment, and have larger water volume for more (not bigger) livestock and better stability.

Nice job. I use a coupon to buy a couple of peppermint shrimps from the Dale city petco two weeks ago. Was gonna do a slow drip acclimation, but when I checked the salinity it was right on the spot at 1.026. So I just swapped water a few times and toss them in.

I personally chose no sand for a 2 reasons. 1. Sand is for my livestocks, and none of them cares or needs it. 2. Easier detritus control which can lead to easy maintenance and better water quality. BRSTV also confirmed that while sand bottom allow faster cycle and stabilization, long term upkeep is much more tedious (and unpredictable?) compared to no sand; which gets better over time.

Definitely on an expert on this.........but I had a planted tank for a short time. For filtration, I like to the Eheim Classic canister. Dirty water comes in at the bottom, gets filtered through different layers of biomedia, then (clean) water leaves at the top. There are no bypass. However, this design makes it a bit messy during cleanup. Newer filters compartmentalize the media to make maintenance easier. The downside is there are gaps where the water doesn't come in contact with the media at all. For substrate, I used regular pool sand with plant fertilizer tabs embedded in it. You can make those fertilizer tabs yourself for cheap, or get them from ebay and craigslist.There are other fancy substrates enriched with nutrients that you can buy, but I'm too cheap for that. I also chose low-light plants like moss, anubias and fern for low maintenance. I also added fast-growing floaters like Amazon frogbits and small water lettuce for nutrient absorption and oxygenation. For livestock, I'd look for bottom, middle and top feeder types of fish. Algae eater like the true siamese (not chinese) algae eaters, pleco, snails and shrimps.

BRS also did a video comparing different ALK test kits. It helped me a great deal on deciding to go with Salifert. In term of Kalkwasser in ATO, for some reasons it never really works on my puny system. If I want to stabilize Alk, I have to dose 2-part.

Another thing I've read is that even though BIOTA mandarin can take frozen, it's still best to feed them constantly due to the biology of their digestive system. The availability of pods for them to graze on is highly recommended for good health and longevity.

I believe Algaebarn sells captive bred BIOTA mandarin. They claim their mandarin have been trained to eat frozen. They’re expensive and sold out very fast. I got notified a few times, but never followed through with a purchase.

I typically don't feed pellets. My fish are OK for about one week without feeding. But if I plan to be away for longer than a week, then I set up the Eheim auto feeder. 10-15 small pellets twice a day for five adult fish is better than nothing.

Thank you. I would like to think so, too. This is just one of my hobbies, so I try to set it up to be as hassle-free as possible. With three small kids running around the house, the fish tank is pretty low on my priority list. But I guess if I had spent thousands on a setup and hundreds to thousands more on live stocks, then I would feel obligated to spend more money and time to keep it looking pristine. Big boat, big sail; small boat, small sail. On a side note: I suspect my royal gramma (a fish) is about to croak. I thought it died when t disappeared suddenly for about a month. Then, out of the blue, it reappeared. It comes out only during feeding time for a bite or two, then crawls back under the rock. It's kinda sad. I've had it since the beginning.

Your posts are always insightful and entertaining, Paul. Ever since I started feeding my fish clams, they have been spawning like rabbits. Even without sump, skimmer, nor reactors; I don't do WC as often anymore. My Clarkii still spawn every week or two. My zoas, LPS and RBTA are also growing just fine, and I don't directly feed them. I just need to find some white worm colony locally.........

Wow, that looks awesome. Ive seen videos of them on National Geographic. Didn’t know you can keep them. Need more info and videos.

I’m neither a light expert nor familiar with those Current USA led. But if the retro fit package costs more than $100 without the bulbs, I would rather ditch the whole thing and switch to a more capable led. Even an el cheapo Marsaqua unit like mine has no problem satisfying BTA at only 30-40% blues and 10-15% white. Is there a RAZOR unit for sale here? That’s even better than mine.

Check out BRSTV on Youtube. They tested Kessil 360WE a couple of times. They showed that Kessil Logic allowes you to vary the overall color of the light, but the core spectrum changes very little. Like madweazl alluded to, our eyes are a lot more perceptive to "whiter" colors.

Thank you for the tips. I may make that (raising clownfish) a future project, when my kids are all grown. The more pressing concern at the moment is to move that neon green toadstool away from the RBTA. It has retracted for about 10 days now. I think it may have been harassed by the RBTA.