Anemone

Any update?

Cute. She's older now? Or is that another one? Thanks to all for the 'scope advice. Lots of good options available at reasonable prices. The Celestron 44104 looks particularly nice for the XY moveable stage. Can you get a decent picture by holding a cell phone camera up to the lens? Or is a camera kit pretty much mandatory. (Should I be surprised that not one person said, be honest with your wife?)

For future reference would you mind sharing the name of the vet that was willing to help you?

Is nannochloropsis viewed as more suited for fry, then? A fair amount of the articles I've seen are focused on that use. Seems to be because of the fatty acid profile, which might be less important for our filter feeders? Citation: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/8/breeder

... Is what I'm planning to say so I can get one for hobby use. Does anybody here use a 'scope regularly? What capabilities should it have? Do you mostly view slides, or use as a dissecting scope, or other?

Thanks everyone for chiming in and sharing your experiences. A related idea, doesn't anyone know whether nannochloropsis cultures can grow in chlorinated water? That might help cut down on contamination issues.

I think this is the reason it's recommended, it's assumed that there would be rancid live rock critters. Or decaying shrimp pieces, if that was the approach. I hope nobody minded the questions, these are just thought experiments. I like to know where the limits might be, and get a handle on what might go wrong if we try to break the rules.

Good point about the annual water system flush. Right now this is just a thought experiment for me, but it'd be important to know when that happens if anyone wants to try this. Back to the original question, it seems that most agree that adding (say) a few percent of the tank volume as dechlorinated, algae or plant conditioned tap water would probably be fine, though there was some concern about adding unknown trace metals (and we'd want to avoid the water system flush time). Whether we culture freshwater plants and then turned that into salt water, or made salt water and cultured macro or micro algae would be a matter of choice. Most of us, it seems, would be uncomfortable using that water for major water changes, and some would not want to add a drop. (Query what water the commercial liquid feeds use, I'm not sure they all say.) Besides being interested in short cuts, I was also asking because cost can be a big factor for people deciding whether they can get into the hobby. RO/DI systems can be a significant expense, and it could help some people if there was a way to get by without them, even if (say) that came with some stocking restrictions. How do people feel about fish less cycling using salt mixed with dechlorinated tap water? Generally we are told to do a 100% water change after cycling, and one could switch to RO/DI at that point. Setting up the RO/DI after the rest of the tank is set up helps spread out the costs and gives something to do besides waiting around trying not to convince one's self to be patient.

Good man. Patience is virtuous.

I'm new but really glad to be here. Imagine the reception one might get for bringing up an unconventional idea on some of the larger sites (maybe I'm imagining things). Thanks to all for being so welcoming and such a good group for bouncing ideas. For chlorine/chloramine, a dechlorinator should work. They are also supposed to chelate heavy metals. Variability in nutrients might occur. Whether this is a problem depends on how much and what, I suppose. Paul B, I'm surprised you used water and not, I don't know, supermodel sweat? (Seriously though, what kind of salt did you have? Is this all covered in your book?)

You don't have any animal life in the tank, do you? In that case no need to worry much about anything, just keep track of what happens and record your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrite levels so you know where you're at in the cycling.

I'll look for those, thanks!

Opinions may differ on algae but I'd suggest that algae alone is nothing to worry about. There is a natural progression and my own personal belief is that people cause more problems trying to "fix" algae etc. than if they just let things develop. (Other than major bacterial outbreaks that can deplete oxygen, of course, but that is not really algae.) And obviously any nitrite or ammonia needs to be addressed ASAP. Just my own $.02. Or whatever that is in bitcoin.

I'm fairly new here and slowly working through some of the old posts. This is pretty fantastic. How's it going with this setup?

Thanks for the move and the perspective. For a brief time I had considered making tank water (not just topoff) starting from tap water. The idea was to use fresh water plants to scrub out the N and P first (pretty quick with the right plants), then decant the water into a barrel and mix in the salt, and refill the plant tank with fresh tap water for next time. Then my better half approved the RO system expense, so it never got tried by me. Anyway, the nannochloropsis idea got me wondering what people thought about this concept. Mostly I think we would collectively fear the unknown. The constancy of RO certainly has strong appeal.

Mum's the word. Seriously though, that's pretty interesting. When topping off with tap, do you use a dechlorinator?

But I LOVE shortcuts. (mods, I meant this to be in General Discussion, apologies for the misfire and it'd be great if you could move the thread, thanks.)

How terrible would it be to give your various filter feeders nannochloropsis grown with TAP WATER (mixed with the appropriate amount of salt and fertilizer mix)? This seemed to be the suggestion on a website giving culture instructions, they suggested that tap water would have advantages over RO. The nanno would use the extra nutrients (N, P, trace), and any extra Mg and Ca in the water would be put to good use. Probably most of us wouldn't take the risk but it seemed like a provocative idea. My own tap water generally runs 5 ppm nitrate, 0.5 ppm phosphate, 10 degrees GH and 6 degrees KH. Anyone tempted?

Maybe get them signed up for WAMAS membership?

I commend you for the foresight to be starting this now. It might help to post your current feeding and maintenance routines so people can comment on how to simplify things for your parents.

Does this story have an end?

Got any sodium thiosulfate handy (Seachem Prime, etc.?) Besides being a standard dechlorinator in freshwater, it also is good for ammonia and nitrite in a crisis. At 5x dose it is supposed to bind up both nitrite and ammonia, making them non toxic to fish. Need to repeat dosing every 24 hrs or so according to package directions. Your water will still test the same, but it is just supposed to prevent toxic effects on fish. FWIW.

Break a piece? You've got a challenging enough fish as it is with the dietary needs, but you've got to address the bio filtration or the fish may die first. Consider suspending feeding until the water quality is more under control. A bigger container would be better, even if only in a big plastic tub. Then you could move rock without breaking it, and more volume would give better stability.

Agreed. Small grain of salt that they are selling the stuff, but mostly they seem honest about the pros and cons of a given product.

That early algae might be helpful for water quality, anyway, while the system is maturing. Aesthetics aside, algae sucks excess nutrients and CO2 out of the water and adds oxygen. What's not to like?