newbie2014

What a coincidence.......I was gonna chime in on the quality of your (fish) babies on the For Sale thread. They’re fabulous. ?? And the price is more than fair. Too bad I can only have one pair at this time. When I’m in of a second pair, I will definitely check with you.

Yeah, that’s the concensus I’ve been getting; that none will make it on its own. No big deal, I never intended to breed them anyway. I was actually shocked that, given the nature of my tank (KISS), they even spawned. Thank you for your feedback and a wonderful article.

Sounds ironic, but it's true. I guess it comes down predatory and food source availability. And that's why it boggled my mind the first time I saw the juvenile A. panduro hiding in the bushes of Java fern in my community tank. I hope I can keep providing the right environment for my clown to continue to spawn. And one day I would be pleasantly surprised by the present of a baby clown hiding in an anemone. Wishful thinking, perhaps................... Thank you and Eric (epleeds) for the feedback.

From what I read online says the same things that baby clown fish need a lot of TLC to get them to survive. So, what happens in nature......what do they do to survive? Hiding in the anemone??? When I had my Australian Rainbow fish tank, I had a pair of A. Panduro. They spawned, and one of the fries survive to adulthood on its own even though there were a LOT of other fish in that same tank. It would be sooooo cool to have at least one makes it...............

Here’s a few pics....

So 3 days ago I discovered that my pair of Clarkii had spawned. I got them from Petco about a year ago. I don't know if they've done it before, but I had noticed that sometimes they stayed behind the rock for a few days at a time. I just rearranged the rocks 2 days earlier. The eggs are between two RBTAs and facing the front. I never really expect to see eggs because my tank is low maintenance; no sump, skimmer, GFO, nor GAC. I haven't changed water for 2 months, but I dose 20ml BRS 2-part every two days. I feed once a day, twice on weekend, with frozen mysis, clam and LRS reef frenzy. Now my question to those who have clownfish spawning often, what are the chances of having one or two babies surviving in a community reef tank?

As others had pointed out, as long as it’s in good shape and not melting, you have nothing to worry about. It will open when it feels like it. Toadstools are finicky, but adaptable. I have mine about 2 inches below a direct flow from an MP10. Its placed in the middle of tank and about 5 inches higher than my RBTAs. It’s grown from a quarter-size to about six inches diameter. It goes into close mode frequently for 2-3 days at a time. Ive never feed it directly, so I’m not sure if rubbing food on it would help.

When I switched from FW to SW, I kinda knew the simple bases. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and tank cycle. I knew how to monitor and check those elements using API kit. But I failed with salinity. I used a refractometer to check it, but that refractometer was calibrated for a different type of solution. My salinity was about 1.045 for the first 6 months or so, as I watched almost all corals and cleanup crew melted. Only the fish and one polyp of eagle eye zoa survived. I have my share of milky water too, using soda ash container instead of kalk, but nothing died.

At their price point, they'd better be a lot better than just "fancier" CBBs. My $150 Marsaqua unit has been fine for my noob tank. I only wish for dimming/timing controls. But I won't pay $600 extra just for that feature.

I have 2 MP10s on my 40B. They're only 25-30% on reefcrest mode. Love them. But since you can't angle them, you have play with their position a bit so that you can have surface agitation and bottom flow at the same time. They are quiet, but NOT silent. I've been tempted to try the shear flow of the gyre pump. Check For Sale forum here and other saltwater sites often. I got a BNIB MP10wqd for $200 shipped. Doubt Black Friday deal can beat that.

It might help with prices listed....................and location.

Understood. These are Coralife salt parameters off DFS website: Specific Gravity: 1.021-1.023 pH: 8.2 to 8.3 Calcium: 390 to 410 ppm Magnesium: 1,110 to 1.250 ppm With weekly 10 gallon WC on my ~44 gallon system; SG: 35ppt Alk~ 8.6ppm Cal~380ppm Mg~1250ppm Tested w/ Salifert kits a few hours after WC. So, right away I have to lock in the Mg and Cal, then add Alk every two days to keep it at 8.0-8.6. Would be nice to have Cal and Mg a little higher for the base line.

Yep. I, too, just read that post this morning. Also I've been trying to decide b/w IO and RC to minimize dosing. Right now I use Coralife, and I have to dose 2-part to keep up.

$100 more than the a360W-E is a tough to swallow. The ad says it’s 25% brighter (not PAR), but it consumes the same 90W max? They should at least include a built-in programming and WiFi. Less wires to look at, and I can program it to turn on and off without needing another accessory. Doesn’t white spectrum have red and green as well? I would prefer they take out the red and green diodes instead.

Directly under the (LED) light would result in more PAR vs off to the side, even at the same height.

I started with BRS kalk in my ATO reservoir. Didn't work too well. Maybe it was the way I implemented it. So, I switched to BRS 2-part. It has worked much better. My system consumes ~ 0.3dKh/day, so I just manually dose 10ml/day of Soda ash solution to bring it back up. My daily Calcium consumption is negligible.

Yeah, it can be tricky to get BTA to host regular ocellaris or perculas. It's not their natural host. Mine were the same way. But once I switched to Clarkii, no problem. They dived right in within five second I introduced the RBTA. Some suggested starting feeding the clown very close to BTA to entice them to go in.

From what I’ve read, the included tunze pump is a dc pump. You can wire any dc pump ( like litremeter) directly. But for any ac pump, then you’ll need the osmolator switch socket. At the socket price of $80, you can buy 4 replacement pumps.

I don't have any of these fancy LED's. But, I've read/heard similar praises about the Kessils. It's virtually plug-and-play. It's nice to be able to play and adjust the LED spectrums. But, unless you really know what you're doing, you may end up causing more harms than goods. I'm waiting for a good sale on the AP700. ​

I see. It shows how little I know about this camera. However, the Olympus website warns that using tele and fish-eye converters with render the camera less “tough”???

I have the TG-4 also. It's a compact with built-in zoom lenses, not interchangeable lenses. So, I don't know what you meant by "using other lenses...."

FWIW, I've had better luck with fish bought from Petco vs wamas members. I think the difference is I can observe the fish at the store before buying vs getting one that had already been bagged by the previous owner.

You’re quite welcome. Wish I can help you out but I don’t live in the city of Fairfax any more. On top of that, the last time I checked my RODI had a tds of 9. And that was three months ago.....

Centreville aquarium sells RODI and premix saltwater. Never bought from them, so can’t vouch for it’s quality. If you can’t find anybody close, you can always buy distilled water from Walgreens off Arlington Blvd. and mix it yourself. It’s doable for small tank. For big ones, it can get expensive, but at least you don’t have to drive far.

Sorry your lose. I guess the lack of the return flow in combination of other unknown factors broke that straw. I guess I should be mindful of my tank too. It's a 40B with five small-medium size fish. I don't have a sump, so no return flow. I stopped using HOB skimmer about a year ago, and I don't use any "bubbler". At night my Vortech is put in Night mode for 8hrs at the lowest speed. When we had that wind storm the other month, we lost power for about six hours at night. The tank temp dropped to 76F, according to Finnex HMX-200 display. No lost, yet.