Jon Lazar

Can you use the large diameter vinyl tubing from HD or Lowes? Some will cut pieces from a spool so you can get them as long as you want. They also make it with an integrated nylon webbing for reinforcement. Jon

Your initial choices look good so far. I would add a $40 refractometer to the "must-buy" list. Those crappy swing arm hydrometers are unreliable. Refractometers are faster, too, which means you use it more frequently. What sort of critters do you plan to keep in your tank? This will help determine which water qualities are important, and therefore require additional testing. If you don't plan on keeping any corals with hard skeletons, you can forego the Ca and Mg test kits until later. Jon

I lump frequent water changes into the same category as good lighting, good filtration, and good water movement, and consider all of them "necessary." Could I have a successful reef with crappy lighting? Probably; others have. But I think the long-term benefits of all of these factors, including water changes, makes them necessary. Jon

Stevil, It's pretty common for fish to vanish in a reef. They die for whatever reason, and the other fish, crabs, starfish, etc. quickly eat the dead fish. The tiny bits of cartilige left over get lost in the sand. How big was your clown? Big starfish have a reputation for eating small fish. Whether they got that reputation by killing and eating live fish, or by eating already dead fish, is not well demonstrated. I've seen green brittle stars spend a lot of time with their central disk raised up above the substrate on its legs, presumably to drop down and snare any small fish that ventures under it. I don't know if that's really what it's doing or not though. Anyway, I think that most of the time when we see something eating a dead fish, it's scavenging. The brittle stars however might be one of the few critters that prey on larger fish in our reefs.

Frogspawn and torches do better in medium to high light in my experience, but most anemones only do well in high light. That's a pretty broad generalization, but mostly true. Your best bet is to get a leather coral with long branches, like a colt or finger leather. These corals require the least light, and are the most tolerant of poor water quality. And you have a good chance of your clown hosting in it.

Alex, If you tend to have higher nitrates and only moderate lighting, you may not want to get an anemone for your reef. They generally need lots of light and need to be fed frequently, potentially adding significantly to your bioburden (and nitrates). Another thing to consider is what type of clown you have. Some clowns are very particular as to what kind of anemone it will host in. If you get the wrong combination of clown and anemone, they might as well be in different tanks. You might do better to get a hardy coral that clowns typically nest in. For example, any of the branching euphyllias are a good choice for oscellaris clowns (hammer, fragspawn, or torch). Also, some oscellaris clowns will host in leathers with long branches, like colts and finger leathers. Happy reefing, Jon

Zero chance of survival, but they're still cool to watch. Well, they'll hatch ok, but they'll be eaten or in a filter or overflow within a day or so. Unless you remove them and feed them fortified rotifers, they'll all die when their yolk sac is depleted anyway. It looks like they're being laid on the same rock your anemone is on. Is this correct? Is the rock easily removeable? If it is, you could pull them out just before they hatch and put them in a very small larvae tank, and feed them rotifers until they're big enough to eat baby brine shrimp. Wilkerson's book is excellent.

I had a RIO powerhead literally burn itself up underwater. It let out a steady stream of bubbles that released smoke when they hit the surface. Judging by the large number of others' posts, it's not uncommon for them to fail spectacularly early on. I've had several maxi-jet powerheads for years, and they all continue to work well. I would not use a RIO powerhead again in my tank if it were free. Maybe as a backup for mixing water or something. Jon

I've found that hair algea can live a very long time with no light at all. I once put a rock with a small patch of had hair algae in my unlit sump. After a few weeks, the HA was still there, albeit thinner and yellower. So while reducing light is part of the solution, it's not a total solution by itself. The only way I've been able to eliminate it is to - Reduce lighting and feeding somewhat, but not enough to hurt the corals or fish. - Continue frequent water changes. - Manually remove as much as possible. - Have sufficient herbivores that like to eat it. Jon

Rob, Don't count the clowns out. I have two oscellaris clowns in a corner of my tank, and in the few months I've noticed hundreds of little scratches on the side panel near where they live. I've had the clowns for almost two years, and never had a problem with it before. They're between 2-4mm long, and most are oriented vertically (the scratches, not the clowns ). Jon

Are you sure it was the bucket of old water you were smelling? When I'm doing a water change and my water level drops in the display tank, sometimes corals and rocks get partially uncovered. Combine uncovered corals and rock with the cooling fans in my hood blowing air over them, and it can stink. I've never noticed a bad smell to the water itself though. If it was the siphoned-off water that smelled bad, was it particularly dirty? Were you overdue for a water change, been feeding a lot, etc? Jon

Stevil, Great choice on getting those corals. It's good to see folks starting out with corals that are likely to bring them success.

Alex, cyano, or cyanobacteria, is a red-slime looking algae that usually crops up on the sand in areas of low water flow. It can also grow on rocks or anything else though, and often has large bubbles trapped in it. You can siphon cyano up pretty easily. Red hair algae is a generic term for any red fimamentous algae. RHA attaches to your rock or sand, or even bare coral skeleton, and is a PITA to eliminate. Happy reefing, Jon

I stop by Roozens every couple of months. I've found a couple of gems there in the past, by not so much lately. Jon

Rob, Is the crazing along a seam, or somewhere else? Jon

Do you have any corals in your tank right now?

Like Dave said, they grow very rapidly, they sting the crap out of everything (except other aiptasia), and they are very difficult to eradicate once they really take hold. Jon

Stevil, There's a couple of clownfish diseases that list "low appetite" as a symptom, but they have other, more serious (and more noticeable) symptoms. Popeye, brooklynella, and amyloodinium all may cause a clown to lose appetite. But just the stress of having a new QT-mate could affect the clown as well. Did you give the clowns a freshwater dip when you brought them home? A 15 minute freshwater dip will cause the parasites responsible for brook and amyloodinium to drop off, and won't hurt the fish if you do it correctly. Jon

John, Hair algae sucks. If that's what you have, I recommend you fight it full strength now before it gets worse. 1. If you don't need your lights on, keep them off. 2. If you don't have to feed the tank, don't. 3. Get the algae off your rocks. One way is to take the rocks out of the tank, put them in a bucket of SW, and scrub them with a toothbrush. Another is to siphon water out of the tank with a ~1/2" hose. Use your thumb to pinch the HA against the inside of the hose, then pull it off the rock. The siphon then pulls all the nasty HA out of the tank. Once you get the hang of this, you can put a huge dent into the HA, and it gets it out of the tank. 4. Get a fish that eats HA. I've had a foxface that loved HA, and another that wouldn't touch it, so I think different individual fish of the same species have different tastes. This won't cure the excess nutrient problem, but it still works. My old tank had terrible HA even though I almost starved the very few fish in the tank, skimmed heavily, only used RO/DI, had new bulbs, and complied with all the conventional wisdom and common techniques for combatting HA. Good luck!

Tim, I don't think two days of possibly insufficient light is enough to cause your corals to RTN like they've been doing. If you didn't have enough light, I would expect them to slowly turn brown. Jon

Yeah, what Garrett said When it's time to start adding a coral or two, you'll do well to get small specimens, or even "frags" from other reefers. If you put a big coral in a little tank, you're going to run out of room before you know it. (Heck, people with big tanks have the same problem, it just takes a couple thousand dollars more to get there.) Corals like the bubble (and many others) will extend their stinging tentacles out a few inches around itself and sting the bejeesus out of anything nearby, so they take up more real estate than you'd think. Jon

Stevil, Is the orange fish presenting any other symptoms besides low appetite? Jon

Tim, YGPM

You could buy a smaller rubbermaid tub and use it as a hospital tank. I use a bunch of 4 gal tubs for fish breeding, rotifers, etc. You could also just use the 5g bucket, or maybe use two different ones if your fish are too large. I'd be concerned about contamination if you treat the fish with copper, though. Hyposalinity is an outstanding treatment for ick. There's a write-up at http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-j...posalinity.html Lower the salinity to 12-14ppt or 1.010 over a 72 hr period, and keep it there for 4-6 weeks. I treat my new fish for ick before adding to my display tank whether they show symptoms or not. Good luck, Jon