I had one in a tank that was 24x18x12Tall, it basically just followed the tangs around in circles, and went in and around rockwork looking for yummies. I would say your tank is fine for it. They are not shy amoungst other fish and may try to school with them. (Not sure if you can make out the 2 tangs and fairy wrasse swimming together in my sig, the fairy is the pink thing underneath the convict just infront of the monticap). They top out at 3" but I usually see them for sale around 2" - 2.5" and mine never got bigger then that in 7 months. So my guess is from 2.5" to 3" it's a long wait.

Hmmm. I'm even more interested. Considering I do change a large volume of water weekly, I would think it wouldn't impact water quality. What's the best way to obtain this fish? I'm a little leery about ordering one online. I'm thinking I could have my LFS order one especially for me.

Thats a safe way to do it. Let your LFS take the risk lol. Make sure you get a male if you want it to have that nice finage.

Thanks for the advice. What do you think of my new Long-Finned Fairy Wrasse? LOL

Had to see what it might look like.

I think he looks too dark in such a well lit tank. Maybe you should L2Photoshop! (L2 = Learn to) FYI.

Haha. Here you go.

Just don't ask me to add the finage, it was too hard to crop. hehe.

lol, much better!

Got mine from FilterDirect on Ebay with 100GPD and 2 Ro/DI for 125 with shipping (new).
Works great as far as I can tell.

FilterDirect RO/DI 100gpd unit

A 6-stage filter for less than $100? I'm always interested in saving money. How has it performed for you, Klarion? Have you tested your RO water with a TDS meter?

It is working very well. The build quality is solid and I can't tell much difference from the Kent unit I used to have except that it has a better GPD rate and 2 smaller DI units. I haven't tested TDS, but I'm getting a meter in the next week or two so I'll let you know how it does.

What I can tell you is that phosphate is undetectable (something that never happened with the Kent unit-probably because it had no DI). Also, I'm using it for drinking water and everyone in my family is very-very happy with the taste of filtered water. I'm very confident that It's a quality product and not much different than the units that are better marketed to the hobby.

This distributor is based in California, so it took a while to get here. I'm sure it will be faster for you. Their feedback on Ebay is also very good compared to other companies.

Edit: I went back to their feedback site and there are a few people who posted that their water is 0ppm TDS.

I got the same too. 110GPD 6 stage from Filterdirect on ebay. Great system and I bough a TDS and final product is 0 PPM after the double DI. Tap water in my home is reading 127 PPM and the reject water reads 150. I think that water just processed by the RO membrane ONLY should read about 10-15 PPM

Right, sorry, the unit I got is rated 110 GPD

Advice from fellow NR members carries so much weight with me, so unless anyone else cautions me against this even less expensive unit from FilterDirect, I'm bidding on one tonight! Thanks sammy/klarion. The TDS reading speaks for itself.

The are only three things that really matter in the design of an RO/DI unit, IMO:

- quality of the membrane
- quality/quantity of the DI resins
- quality of the pressure bleed valve or whatever its called (the little valve that maintains a certain pressure on the membrane, generally located just before where the line that carries purified water exits the machine)

Note that only one of the above is actually integral to the unit iself, the other two are replaceable/consumable items. Pressure bleed valves on RO/DI units are usually more than up to the task (its a pretty simple mechanism) and so, most RO/DI units do the job just fine. Almost all the "work" is being done by the membrane and the resins anyay, the unit itself is little more than a high-pressure container.

Get the one off ebay, and don't sweat it, IMO. Sounds like it will do a fine job.

DONE. It was so inexpensive, I bought the inline TDS meter for an extra $40. NO MORE 25 MILE TRIPS TO THE LFS (for water anyway).

NIce!!!! I bough a portable TDS "pen style" like for $15 but an inline is great so its reading automatically every time. That helps to know when you need to change your filters. Oh you bough the one with the water storage. Thats nice. i wonder why they made this one with two of the canisters white and not clear like the sediment membrane. Since mine does not have the faucet for the drinking water, it has two DI canisters and two carbons in the big ones. Well hope you enjoy your new OWN source of water

Thanks for all of your input!

Future Plans

Now that my water issues are solved, I can go back to what I enjoy the most: STOCKING CORAL. I've been slowly moving out softies to make room for the batch of SPS shipping in from bluebastion. Here's a list of the frags coming in soon:

Rose Millepora, Idaho Grape (purple Montipora), Delicate Coral, Tubbs Table, mini colony Green Slimer, and a Bonsai Coral.

These are angles you don't see very often of the right and rear, for a visual of where I intend to mount the new frags. Just relocated the hydnophora back to the BC14. The torch will be the last to go when the new stuff finally arrives, but for now it hides the MJ600 quite nicely.

Upper Right Shot There's a huge frogspawn (not shown) resting on the sandbed beneath the torch. I'd like to replace that with one swirling monti or TWO.


Lower Rear Shot I want a 2nd clam to take place of the zoas on the sandbed. The zoas/palys don't do much for me there.

AH purple your no fun!!! Run this bad baby NAKED!!!!!!!! No need for a silly filter! Its easier than you think. Loving the look of this tank. ADAs are so nice! I doubt I will have a tank besides ADA again. The way you set it up as nice a clean and a compliment to this style of tanks. GREAT JOB

Cngrtats on the filter. I'm glad we could help.
B

LOLOLOL! It's great to have you back, Helfrich. Your ADA still is the best of all time. I think of your tank every time I stare at my eyesore pumps. Here's why I haven't done it: I'M SCARED.

Check this out.


If I didn't know any better, I'd say the brain swallowed my cleaner shrimp whole.


Only the clown knows what really went down. Somebody get me Dr. Doolittle.

Seems to me that has to be a molt. Is the shrimp itself missing? How in the hell could a coral catch a cleaner shrimp? Maybe if the shrimp was mid-molt, but I don't see how else.

Odd.

That looks like a molt to me.........

+1

That would be a hell of a feat if the brain actually caught the cleaner. Would certainly be the first time I ever heard of such a thing.

Ha. Finally found him hiding deep within the cave after molting. It was still a cool sight to see the brain snackin on his shell. I know shrimp shells are high in calcium, but is it safe for the brain to eat?

If the brain doesn't "like" it, it will spit it out. I am not sure if they can digest it or not.

Its not only safe, its good for the coral. The molt is high in calcium, and the coral will absorb that calcium directly. I have fed my peppermint shrimp molts to my LT plate, it swallows them whole. I just kind of crunch it up into a little ball and put it on its mouth.

So the shrimp is in the exact same position inside it's mouth as it was early this morning. I'm wondering if I should pull out the molt, but I'm concerned about damaging the brain during the extraction. Advice anyone?

If the brain needs to expel the molt, it will do it on its own. I wouldn't touch it at this point. Give the little coral some credit! If something this mild could hurt it, they would be extinct by now!

But it's not everyday you find a shrimp STUCK in it's mouth. Maybe every 100 years or so and those ones don't survive. LOL

lol...

I think saying a brain may try to eat an invert of that size once every 100 years is probably a little off If it still there in 48 hours maybe it will be time to worry.

Yea dont pull it out. And back to the filter, why scared? Its SOOOOO much easier If you ever decide to go "naked" LMK!

Your tank is beautiful! I've got one question what salt-mix do you use? I know this may have been answered earlier but i'm to lazy to look through 27pgs.

Thanks, Nick. Seachem Reef Salt and I'm extremely satisfied with the results. Ever since I switched, it's been much easier to keep up with calcium and alkalinity levels.

While I'm here, I might as well post a couple pics.

Looking for some input on the color change I've noticed in my Blue Roscoe, my favorite coral. Here's a pic taken on Dec. 3rd, 2007.


Here's a pic taken with flash last night to show polyp extension.


Here's a pic taken early this morning under the same 20K lighting.


There has been some noticeable growth, but I've also noticed a brighter hue. It's not appear as dark purple in person as it did when it was first purchased. You might think I'm crazy by comparing the photos, but I can definitely see the difference. I could just be paranoid.

The red chilli coral is much healthier now. At night it swells up so large that it's tips push up against the rock above it.

I'd love to be able to comment on the color, but my monitor at work is really bad so I won't be able to say anything regarding that until later tonight when I'm on my computer at home. Either way, it sure looks healthy! That Chilli is looking quite happy too! Keep up the good work.

P.s. Have you seen the vid I posted and heard that god-awful drain?

Thanks TJ. I hope I am doing the right things to keep my SPS happy, and I look first to growth, color, polyp extension to assess their level of happiness. Overall, they look great. However, I've noticed that some act quite differently to certain things in their environment, specifically light and flow. For example, one branch of my bird's nest, receded it's polyps completely on the one side where my Koralia1 was pushing water. The rest of it is perfectly fine. The roscoe hasn't extended it's polyps as far out since I added the extra burst of mid-day light. Could this mean too much light? or is this normal behavior?

I actually did watch your video this morning. Had to mute the sound b/c it interrupted my conference call! LOL.

LoL, sorry about that

Different sps have different requirements; placement is key for all sps. Your birdsnest may prefer less flow and is being bothered by the powerhead, moving it even slightly could fix this type of problem. The roscoe may just be acting normally to the change. Unless it starts losing color or begins to have retracted its polyps completely for an extended period of time, I would not be too concerned about it. Sps in the wild retract their polyps during the day to avoid predation. Something as simple as feeding rotifers can coax an sps to extend it's polyps during daylight hours.

Also, I find it easier to tell if a coral is gaining more color under 10K lighing. Take a pic today if you can of your roscoe under the 20K+10K lighting (from different angles/sides etc.) and follow up with shots in a week or two from the same positions. 20L lights look great but tend to make small improvements hard to see as it washes them out with blue.

That sounds like a very good way of telling the difference. I would only add that you should choose manual 'white balance' settings on your camera, not auto, because most cameras on auto mode will adjust for color differences to produce a pre-set result. Kind of defeats the purpose of trying to see the difference. I would set the camera white balance to 'neutral' or whatever setting comes close to that on your cam.

Good luck.
B

+1

I am not too camera handy yet, so thanks for pointing that out! I tried dicking with settings last night with no prevail. I want a new camera

I do use manual settings most of the time for taking tank photos, but within these manual settings I have it set as follows:

AE: -0.3
WB: AUTO! (options include: "halogen, cloud, fine, MWB") *"fine" seems to most closely match "auto."
APR: F1.9
S.SP: AUTO (options include: 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, etc)
P.AE: OFF

Should I make any changes?
Are you familiar with these settings?

Here's a new pic with WB set to "fine." Not a good comparison photo b/c now the 150W 14K lamp is on too!


Perhaps I'll snap another with the WB on cloud and auto.

Ok, this one was taken with WB set to "cloud." This I like better, but it may be due to a steadier hand and not the setting. Thanks for the tip.

Get an SLR!

There are two types of Marine Photographers. Ones that start with tanks and become photographers. And those that start as photographers and unwittingly get a still subject for life.

I'm the second type.

Yes, for WB chose "manual" or "MWB". Then, you have to set white balance yourself. How you do it depends on what the options are. What is your camera again?

I would say that most cameras will give you a choice of "color" to choose in Manual mode, usually measured in Kelvin degrees. Here you have to experiment (because you have mixed lighting) and take pictures at different settings to see what looks more like the real thing.
To compare future color changes of your corals, choose that manual setting because you will know that the camera is not playing "editor" with you.

As for the other settings, it depends. If you're shooting Macro on a tri-pod, I would suggest choosing a different aperture setting. Yours is wide open at F1.9. I would suggest closing it down to F5 and higher. That will give you sharper pictures but you do have to use a tripod because the shutter speed will be too slow and cause images to motion-blur.

Keep your Speed settings because all the options I see aside from Auto are too slow for hand-held shots.

thanks for asking me.
Boris

I am thinking of a Nikon D80, but I won't buy anything until I speak with my girlfreind's, best friend's father who is a professional photographer. Hopefully he will give me some basic lessons as well.

Not sure but THIS seems like an alright deal to me

A camera like that deserves more than just one tank to shoot. I'd be serious fun snapping one zoa polyp a thousand different ways. Curious to know which one you ultimately go with.

If you're doing any post-processing, you're really over-saturating. Dial it down.

If it's the camera... well try to turn down any of the color vibrance adjustments.

Nope, no post processing photoshop work. You're probably referring to the shots taken under the solo 20k lamp. The color does look saturated. Camera doesn't seem to have any color vibrance adjustments and I can't set it to take clear shots under the intense blue light. It didn't do too well either with photos taken under the actinics of my BC14.

Hey PurpleUP, did you already purchase the 5-stage RO/DI filter? I bought that same unit from the filterguys, but don't use it. It's actually easier for me to just grab 5gal jugs from my LFS to perform water changes.

If you're in the area, you can swing by my place and just buy mine? I'm in Walnut, CA (91789), between Anahiem/San Dimas/Pomona/La Puente. Lemme know.

Also, I know some major camera companies who purposely set their auto settings to over-saturate people's pictures. The pictures look nicer and more vibrant--better for sales.
I personally like over-saturated pics, but when I'm taking my own photos, I'd like to know that what I get initially is what I intended and that includes natural looking colors.

In post-processing, I make whatever adjustments that suit my fancy. Hope you'll do the same.

It's easier? Really? If you would've hit me up on Monday, I would have swung by your pad. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. I actually bought one from filterdirect on eBay. Thanks for the offer though.

Hey,

Do you have a recent pic of your Blue Tubs? I would love to see them!

Not a prob. These pics help me monitor growth. Taken just now under 20k lights.


See if you can find em.

*FYI, from now on I'll always keep an updated FTS on the 1st page of this thread.