hahah!!! ya seriously. I need one in there..

ya chaeto is in there now.

Are you using RO water???

good ? nosey...that is a lot of hair for 2 weeks...and how long are the lights on for again?

ya im using RO/DI water.. and for the lights i turn them on at 8:30 until about 9..

Maybe cut down on your light cycle too....1 hour a day until you get that stuff in check. If you don't have anything in there but your CUC, you don'realy need it for your cycling. Your going to have one fat CUC by the end.

Maybe test your RO water !

well there are some hitch hiker zoas in there i would like to keep.. u dont think cutting down on the light would kill them?

Not sure on that one!

DOH!! lol

well i scrubbed the glass and some of the rocks yesterday with a tooth brush it's looking a lot better this morning...me and my buddy are going to go and try to find some snails (banded trochus snails) today at the beach down the road.. you can usually find them in the tide pools. lol

I finally got a little clean up crew in my tank. I went down to the beach and picked them from the ocean lol.. But i think they are cerith snails... there are also some little hermit ones too.. heres some pics. I got about 20 or 25 of them.


In this pic below you can see the little white bugs on the glass.. are they copepods??

Question-

What do you use your LED's for? they barely give off a light? just for looks?

Well i put in my new media rack I built looks like it works great. But i did find out that I may need a new balast DOH!

I did get 17 red leg hermit crabs!

my led's & fug light turn on when my day light bulb goes off...then an hour later my atinics go off...

Nice DIY rack, is it four sided or only three? Looks familar

It's a 4 sided rack. when i first made it i measured it wrong so i had to build a new one.. But it's fun build them.

Does the 4th side go all the way down? It looks like it stops after the first shelve. If it goes all the way down, how do you change the media? Take out the egg crate?

i take the top egg crate off and reach my hand down inside.. 4th side?

http://shop.mediabaskets.com/main.sc;jsess...7D.qscstrfrnt04

ya that basically what i built

is the silicone holding up and giving you a good bond?

yep so far so good. My last one i made that didnt fit I used acetone and melted it together then i used silicone.

last night I made a order from marine depot

Black diamond carbon
Power head (hydor 1)
mag float (med)
ESV Bionic Calcium Buffer
Melafix


last week i got a small cuc (17 mexican red leg hermits) they seem to be eating a lot of the algae

did a 5g water change last week

and my 10k light doesn't work... Drs foster and smith sent me a new bulb but it didn't work. So monday I need to call them so I can get a new ballast.

....Im going to leave my actinics off for a few days (3) so most of my algae goes away.

thats it for now.. Maybe later I will post some pics but nothing new is really is going on.

Hey Ando, just starting my cycle (1 day) Do you have chaeto in there for your cycle? I was just wondering if I should go to the LFS and buy some.
Thanks, Bob

ya i had mine in there like the 2nd week. you should be fine putting it in now.

What are you using for your light?

Hear's the light that I'm using, it was almost a perfect fit for half the middle chamber. Half of the chamber has the media rack and the other half is i put this light on the back with velcro. I think I paid $23 at Pet Smart.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752557

that looks like it will work great!

What's the k (kelvin) rating on the bulb?

The bulb is 6500k, I got the bulb at Lowes. I was in the process of building a DIY light, but then came across this one. Maybe a couple of bucks more, but worth it to me.

Bob

Called Drs. Fosters today and now they have to contact Oceanic for a new ballast?


and i was looking at in my middle chamber and my cheato seems to be growing like CRAZY! It has tripled in size. Should I trim it to about the size of my fist?

I've had to call them a few times once my pump just died. They were very helpful and quick with their response.... Great service you could always try calling them yourself.

Good idea!

I'm going to do that tomorrow!

Did you contact them? Were they helpful?

No acutally Drs Fosters contacted them.. They are sending me a new ballast!

Alright well I wanted to make a cabinet for my fish tank my old one sits down to low..

The new cabinet will be 35"tall and 22" X 22".

Here are some pics of it so far. I will finish up tomorrow and post the finish of it!
All I need to do now is put a top piece on, corner molding, put doors on, and paint it!







OH my new ballast came from oceanic! She works once again!

looks good...going to put a shelf in as well?

yep. Cant wait to get it done!

Alright finally got my stand finished! Here she is!

What do you guys think?




....i still have the door knobs to put on lol. that's it!

Nice stand Ando, How did you get your tank on it

I had to take out all of the water and rock..

Then I lifted it on to the new stand. It was very fun! lol

good job, looks really good.

Thanks McDuff

Im thinking now about getting 2 fish.

Maybe a six line wrasse and a yellow watchman goby. or a clown fish?

I cant wait to get back in town and finally get some coral into my tank and some fish!!

kd's has 6line for 15 bucks...thats where i got mine on 11/23...still doing good...he has small cleaner shrimp for 15 as well...picked out any other fish yet?

Got back from NY today and went to the LFS and got some corals from a gift card I had from xmas!

This ric has about 2 or 3 heads I can't tell and it looks like it is about to split


I think these zoas are called Bahama Mama?





dang sounds like a deal..

I think I'm going to get a watchman goby and a clown.

what store had the rics?...they look good...

Coral Connections.. They just had a sale last week 30%off all corals and i missed out! i wasn't in town! I was bummed! But the guy gave me the zoas for $8.

Today I went back to the lfs and got a trumpet coral with 6 heads. I will post some pics tomorrow.

I ordered the Nova Extreme Pro T5 lighting for my tank last night! Should arrive on Wed I hope..

I am also thinking of getting a sea urchin to get rid of my algae.

Is this algae both hair algae?

Looks like a type of hair algae...not sure what will eat that kind..maybe an emerald crab?...


Big money ando ordered a light...lol...online or from coral conn?....I did the ghetto 70w hqi retro in my hood..getting good growth on zoos and my sps...I'm going to upgrade to a 150w in the hood in a month I hope...

I hear a urchin will do the trick!

As for the light I got it online. I found it for $234 with free shipping. I was going to go with the 150watt sunpod but I think it will be to hot for my tank. In the summer our house gets about 81 and I think I would have a hard time trying to keep my tank cool and not have a heat stroke. Thats why I went with the T5's.

Do you notice your tank hotter with MH?

yes it did get hotter...it went from a constant 77.5 to 80.4...i only open the back hatch when the lights kick on...loosing more water as well...i have an idea how to cool it...check these out;

http://www.peltech.com/lang-us/prodotti/ge...n/ocean150.html

these units are super expensive...i think i can make my own...it this works i am going to upgrade to a 150w in the stock hood...and try to close the top!..

looks like a good idea!

How the heck would you make one?