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bues0022

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Posts posted by bues0022

    Bulb for Cheato?

    in General Discussion

    Here's the fixture I ended up getting:

     

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/142812898266

     

    Price just went down a few bucks - I bought it for $28 shipped. For 300W (equivalent) power, this price can't be beat. I now grow more cheato in a week than I did in a month with a CFL spiral bulb. I'm trimming a mini basketball size chunk every week - that's impressive when I only have about 5 gallons water space for it to grow!

    Leptastrea help

    in General Discussion

    Makes sens that stability is key - the first recession conincided with a big whoops on my part. I really should be testing my water more, but I get lazy. I hate to use a coral as an indicator because then I get frustrated that it’s not making good growth progress. I’ll tighten up and hope for the best.

    Moving plans , need help

    in General Discussion

    ^ probably mold release from the production floor.

     

    I'd second the recommendation on 5 gallon buckets - using larger containers means heavier containers. 8 lbs per gallon for water, rock is heavier, so a bucket filled with rocks and water could weigh 60 lbs pretty easily. 

     

    Also, I'd recommend making as much water as possible. Last time I moved a tank I was about 5 gallons short from filling up to where I could get the pumps circulating water. With livestock exposed to air it was nerve wracking finding a local awake at midnight to top me off (my RO wasn't working at the time). I moved my tank a 6 hour drive with tank, stand, water, livestock, sand all in my car. Basically used it like a giant cleaning opportunity.

     

     

    1) I transported corals by going to the grocery store and asking for as many of those plastic deli containers as possible - poked holes in them, and one coral per container into a 5 gallon bucket, topped off with water. It kept corals safe from each other, and from banging around too much.

     

    2) Fish went into their own 5 gallon bucket together. Fish were removed as I pulled rocks.

     

    3) as much water as possible was siphoned into the buckets described above before disturbing too much rock/sand. When rocks started coming out, I used that nastier water ONLY in the rock buckets (to keep the rocks healthy in the move). I dumped this water when setting up the tank again.

     

    4) brought as much fresh made SW as possible to refill.

     

    5) setup tank - doesn't need to be perfect right now. It'll be a long day by this point. I was frustrated as H-E-double hockey sticks by setup time, so I basically chucked stuff in the tank in approximate locations, rock a jumbled mess, but I came back to it a few days later when I was refreshed and motivated again.

     

    Then, definitely beers!

    Leptastrea help

    in General Discussion

    I've got a maroon and gold leptastrea that I just cannot seem to keep happy. At least, I am pretty sure it's Leptastrea - I got it from Capital Aquariums a few months back. It has ebbed and flowed with receding/regrowing several times and I'm sick of the cycle and just want it to grow.

     

    Has anyone else kept this coral and had success? I've kept it low in the tank (30 cube, so it's pretty tall, Radion LED's running at 75%, but my program looks like a bell curve), and in what I'd consider medium flow. Other corals in the tank are doing well - besides the zoas, but that's self-inflected poor dipping technique. I keep reading how this coral is supposed to be easy, medium flow/medium light (even low light) and it grows like mad. What gives?

     

    My coral looks like this, or rather it looks like this when it's happy:

    https://vividaquariums.com/collections/beginner-coral-and-inverts/products/golden-leptastrea

     

    more cheato or more rocks in sump?

    in General Discussion

    In the display I probably have between 20-30 pounds of LR. I started with all dry, and I kept mixing/matching pieces to get it to look like how I wanted, so I didn't pay attention to how much weight actually ended up in the tank.

     

    My new light came - yowzers holy bright! I picked up a 300W UFO LED grow light from ebay for $29! Same one that sells for double that on amazon. Hope the algae likes it, I almost need sunglasses to even look in the sump now.

     

    In the sump I have a skimmer, heater, ATO float, return pump, and a bubble tower (basically just a vertical tube with holes in the bottom where my return dumps into - helps reduce bubbles in the display a little).

    today's meeting, anemones

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by bues0022

    I wasn't able to make the meeting - can someone do a quick cliff notes of what I missed? I'm bummed because I'm quite interested in anemones.

     

    I did a write-up a number of years ago on my thoughts on why BTA's move around in our tanks - I'll have to see if I can dig it up from reefcentral.....

     

     

     

    I found what I'd written - how does it compare with the expert?

     

    On the topic of a BTA moving "all the time" as some say...I would argue strongly against this statement. In my experience, from reading, and discussions with other people with far more expertise than me, a BTA will remain in its spot if all of its living conditions are being met satisfactorily. There is no benefit to the anemone (risk of being stung/sliced by corals, risk of not finding another rock in the ocean, predatory animals, etc) to "just move around" IF all conditions are appropriate. 

    Water quality, light, food, flow, and foot - the five conditions that must be satisfactorily met for all anemones. 

    Water quality: In the ocean, if local currents drastically change after storms, rivers dump crap into the ocean etc, the nem may want to move to conditions which better suit its liking. In our tanks, however, there are no other areas which have better water - but the anemone doesn't know that. This is my #1 pick for why anemones move without apparent reason. It may even be something in your water which you do not test for - or it may be BECAUSE you just did a water change and didn't match tank water close enough. The anemone is searching for something it just can not find inside a glass box, hence the so called "anemone's just sometimes walk around for no reason". We can't see the reason - so we assume there isn't one.

    Light: Lighting in the ocean is quite strong. Far more than our little electrical lights we use. Even on a cloudy day the par is very high - ever had a sunburn on a cloudy day? When you introduce a BTA, you may have a spot picked out that you really want it to go, but it may decide it is too bright or too dim and promptly move. As it gets light-acclimated to your tank, it may move to a spot that is "just right" for its health in the long term. This acclimating and moving to a new home may also cause confusion to BTA's "moving a lot".

    Food: Yikes! There is a lot of misconceptions about the "proper" diet for anemones. I did a write-up a while back about the topic: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1835320 A basic summary of that thread is.....assuming a healthy nem, food is likely unnecessary. If you would like to feed, feed small (pencil eraser max) meaty, raw, SW-found foods. Unhealthy nems need more food to gain energy and should be fed more. Feeding leads to faster growth. Feeding can also in some cases overcome less-than-ideal lighting because the food is supplementing the light source. More in-depth information can be found at that link.

    Flow: You need to determine the flow requirements of the species of nem you want, and make it match in order to decrease the likelihood of movement. BTA's will like moderate flow, but not too high or too low. Either of those may cause it to move around. Some can be very picky. I know someone who's Haddoni moved across the sandbed after he cleaned a powerhead and he thought replaced it in the exact same spot (Todd). Apparently it wasn't quite exact. Haddoni's like low flow - if their oral disk is being moved by the current, it's too much and will cause it to move. 

    Foot: This is my #2 reason why BTA's apparently move without known cause. The foot of most anemones also requires special concern. Some anemones like to bury in the sand, some at the sand/rock interface, and some directly onto rocks. BTA's like to have their foot in a deep crevice, hole, or cave. Basically, it's a safe zone for them to hide in if they need to retract. It's also a way for them to regulate the amount of sun it gets. These deep holes are key to keeping a BTA happy with it's current spot. They like their foot shaded, and head out in the sun.

    more cheato or more rocks in sump?

    in General Discussion

    I'm not minimalist in the display, but not packed full either. My sump is packed for room - no way to do an eggcrate divider. Right now rock is on the bottom and cheato on top. I'm considering removing a couple softball sized rocks and using that room to grow cheato instead.

    more cheato or more rocks in sump?

    in General Discussion

    I've got a new fuge light on its way - but I've now started thinking about my potential upcoming problem: what's better in the sump, more cheato or more rocks? I have a small sump (10 gallon tank, roughly 2/3 full of water) on a 30 gallon tank. I have it mostly packed with a lot of live rock, and a small chunk of cheato. I trim it often because it will grow down into the rocks and just get unmanageable. My new light should grow the cheato even faster, but do I trim more or remove some rock?

     

    I have had a bit of cyano I've been battling lately, so I've been thinking about the other thread talking about the Redfield ratio (http://wamas.org/forums/topic/87363-tank-failing-need-help/). Would removing some rock and growing more cheato alter my N:P ratio thereby eliminating my cyano? 

    Zoanthid disease/pest - cutting off at base???

    in General Discussion

    Zoas are the only thing affected. Actually, only 2 of my 3 frags. The two that are affected actually started as 1 frag, then a big chunk "let go" so I glued it down to a new plug. The zoas in question were from a reputable source, but bugs happen. 

     

    They seem to have stopped "being cut off" as I described it. But it's been a while and they still aren't opening much. My assessment at this point is that I went too long with the HP. There is at least one polyp open per frag, so they should pull through eventually, but I'm not going to dip again until they look recovered, and then I'll do a much shorter HP dip if things still look rough.

     

    The spider I had definitely looked exactly like the one Jon posted, and hopefully it didn't lay eggs inside :( Looks like I'll postpone gluing the frags onto my base rock for a good while so I can pull and dip/tend as necessary.

    Zoanthid disease/pest - cutting off at base???

    in General Discussion

    I checked the water after the dip - nothing visible on the bottom of the bowl besides pods. Maybe it's a bacterial/fungal infection? That would explain why I'm not seeing anything crawling on it, but seeing them shrivel up and pop off. They looked REALLY pissed last night - hopefully I didn't nuke them by trying to fix them!

    Zoanthid disease/pest - cutting off at base???

    in General Discussion

    I didn't even think to take pics - it wasn't very exciting to look at shriveling up zoas. I ended up finding some instructions on R2R, and I did a 10% HP/RO dip for 15 minutes, followed with a swish in dliute SW/Lugols solution. Back in the tank for a day of recovery, then repeat again tomorrow. They all look pretty pissed off this morning, but hopefully they pull through.

    Zoanthid disease/pest - cutting off at base???

    in General Discussion

    I have a mystery pest/disease with some of my zoanthids. They start to shrink/not open as much, then it looks like they are cut off at the base. By the time I find them there's some brown goop coming out of the bottom, but I think that's an effect and not a cause. Any ideas? I did pull a zoanthid spider off of them a couple weeks ago and did a FW dip of all zoas at that time, but this has sped up since then. Any ideas? What should I do?

    Thoughts on sand sifters

    in General Discussion

    I want something to stir up my sand to keep it looking all nice and clean. There are many who recommend Just doing it manually, but I don’t want to. First, I won’t be able to get to about 1/2 of my sand, and I also don’t have that kind of diligence. So, what to get?

     

    I have a 30 gallon cube, which means I have the footprint of two 10 gallon tanks side-by-side (not a huge amount of sandbed). I have a pretty good CUC with nassarius and cerinth snails, but they don’t “really” sift the sand fantastic - just a little as they come in/out of the sand to feed when I feed the fish.

     

    I’m thinking some of the “standard” sifting fish like diamond watchman are not great for my tank. Not enough sand (I.e. critters in the sand) to keep them longterm. Thoughts on that topic? So, I’d need a fish that likes to sift sand but doesn’t actually need to in order to eat (and hopefully not make a sandstorm).

     

    Inverts: cucumber, sand sifting star, sand dollar etc I don’t think sill survive longterm in the tank either. Again, not enough for them to eat, although the cucumber is likely a better detrivore than the other two which are looking for critters. What about a small Florida conch though? Keep it for a while, trade it in when it gets too big? There are some of the Florida ones that stay much smaller (only a couple inches max) so I’d aim at that rather than the huge ones.

     

    Any other ideas that I should consider?

    Bulb for Cheato?

    in General Discussion

    Thanks for the tip! I looked more closely at the listing for the bulb. It appears as though if I had the bottom of the bulb 1.6 feet from the water surface, I would have a 1.5 foot diameter circle of “hot spot”. Using some simple trig, with the bottom of the bulb roughly 6” from the water, I’d have a “hot spot” roughly 5.5 inches in diameter. So yeah, too focused.

     

    Would the UFO light be too intense at that close range and 200W? Looks like amazon has the same light (probably newer) at 150W but more expensive than the 200W eBay version.

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