The 75g reef readys come with two wholes drilled in the bottom behind the overflow. The holes are different size one is for a 1" bulkhead and the other is for a 3/4" bulkhead (and as I found out the outside diameter ie the size of the hole doesn't equal the size of the bulkhead but the pet store should know what size you need). Then we used this to plumb it http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/prod...mp;pcatid=12078. Yes it says its for a corner overflow but it worked for out center overflow as well.

Drilling the bottom is much quieter than side drains.

Thanks for the info!



Aren't most tanks tempered on the bottom? Or is that just the smaller tanks? The LFS wouldn't drill my 29g for that reason.

Idk the 75g reef ready come predrilled on the bottom so I assumed the non-reef ready ones could be drilled on the bottom. I'm sure you could find some mention of it on a website somewhere as to whether this is the case or not.

Once I get it, I might be able to figure out who sold it.

Or, I just found an interesting site claiming to have a way of telling tempered vs. non-tempered: http://www.salt-city.org/showthread.php?t=9542

Update on Lt. Charlie, the chalk bass. He's still in QT, but today he was actually out cruising around, rather than staying within the rocks. He is looks awesome when he's out on the prowl. I'm now thinking that I may need a trio of them in the 75. I should thing that size of a tank could handle three.

42 DAYS UNTIL THE BAR RESULTS COME IN!!!

How's the bass?

It's a nice bass.


I was going to move him into the 29 last night, but I realized I still haven't built a canopy for it. That's on the agenda for this weekend, so hopefully I'll have new photos of him then! He's been getting more and more rambunctious. He only hides in the room when he's got a mouth-full of food he's trying to chomp down.

This place has been too quiet. Why hasn't anyone been pistol whipped in here?

Oh yeah, I've got a make shift canopy ready, which I should be putting into place tonight. It's not pretty, but it will be effective for keeping the chalk bass in the tank.

who needz a pistol whipping in hurr?

they had 3 big arse chalk bass at my LFS...at least 12"

Everyone!






Holy cow! I thought CB only got up to 3". Looks like LA needs to go check out those bigguns and update their site. What was the price tag on those monsters?

they looked straight crazy...$45 each
i was like WTF are those! then I realized they were chalk bass.

I want a liter of cola.

That's actually not too bad of a price, considering what some small tangs sell for. They must have been a cousin of chalk bass to get that large! You'd need, what, a 500g tank to keep something that large and active?



"I don't know what that is."


"Liter is French for give me some &@%$@*^ cola before I break both &@%$@*^ lips!"

I should have taken pix! next time I will
whoever bought them bought all 3 cause they were gone the next day.

Well heck ya! If I had a tank that could support them, and saw that opportunity, I probably would have too. The only down size is that if the fish is already that large, what kind of life span does it have left?

Oh, and yeah, pix would have been awesome!

Wouldn't you know it? Just when I'm least able to take on new fish, LA's Divers Den would have a pair of chalk bass for $50. Maybe they'll still have it in a month when the 75's cycle is over. Or maybe they'll be back in stock. I guess I'll just have to wait until then.

Arg... this makes things even more difficult in my need to resist getting the CB pair: I just got a $15 GC to LA in the mail!

Ok, for realz this time: I'm going to complete the topless canopy tonight, so that the chalk bass can be moved out of QT and into the 29.

shoulda bought that chalk bass pair

I know. The problem was that the pair would have been stuck in the 20L for several weeks, until the 75 cycles. I don't think it would have been pretty, since I've heard tales of aggression even in 55s.

bummer

Yup. They should eventually have them in stock again, so I'll pick up a pair then. I think my first order, though, will be a pair of clownfish, a multicolor wrasse, and a blenny. For a 75, that shouldn't be too much of an initial bio-load, would it?

shouldn't be, but I don't really know anything about big tanks, lol.

That's the same boat I'm in. The world of big tanks is so large! I actually might be able to get a fair amount of LR locally for about a buck a pound. I'm waiting until my dry rock from John arrives. Hopefully it gets in today, or there might be a tater gun waiting on the mail man come Monday.

Daniel's tater gun?

Nah, Daniel needs a cannon, something along the lines of this:



This was what I had in mind for the mail man if he didn't deliver today:

Poor paper boy...

Just wait until Halloween this year. I'm going to DIY some replica landmines for the front yard.

Looks like I might be going in with some local folks to get rics for less than $10 per polyp (not per mouth). They are supposed to be all sorts of colors, so I think I'm going to get a few! I'll probably keep them in the 20L once I get them, until it's time to move the 20L to the 75. I don't think I have enough room in this tank.

Bah! I know what happened to the blue digi! There were monti eating nudis! I've spotted them on one of my red caps and on the green encrusting. I know I could do a lugols dip to kill the nudi, but that it doesn't kill the eggs. What should I do to rid this scourge for good?

Lugol's will not kill Monti Eating Nudis.
I think I remember hearing that Coral Revive will kill them.
See if you can research that one, I think there was a thread on here about that one.
I think that Pig Medicine that DHaut is using also kills them.

Ok, thanks for the heads up. Looks like I have to make a trip to the LFS tomorrow. What's weird is that the nudis went from the blue digi on the left side of the tank, skipped the green digi and a red cap in the middle, and hit an encrusting monti on the far right. I think one nudi might also have made it to another cap near the encrusting monti.

Here's another question: If I remove all montis, treat them, and then put them in a different tank, will any remaining nudis in the 29 die off of starvation?

DH: Are you using levamisole?

Here is an excerpt from wet web media.

Zoanthid Eating Nudibranch...Not Hydroids After all! - 01/25/07
Dear Crew,
<<Hello Russell>>
A couple of weeks ago I wrote to you that my four small Zoanthid rocks in my 11 month old tank were infested with hydroids. You offered good advice. Upon further observation, and research, these are actually small Nudibranchs.
<<Uh-oh...not the "better" option>>
They are about 2-6 mm in size, light brown, and very, very annoying.
<<Indeed>>
I dipped the four colonies in fairly concentrated Lugol’s with a SG of 1.014. Then I did a flash FW dip. I don't have a pH meter, so I just added a small amount of tank water to the FW; hoping to buffer as well as I could.
<<Not likely much of a factor here>>
It seemed to work. All zoo colonies opened up and did well.
<<Hardy little buggers those zoanthids>>
But now- really, based on my research, not much of a surprise- two have the little creeper's back on them.
<<Yep, a few adults/egg strings were probably still in the display while you were nuking the rocks>>
My next step is to remove all four rocks and place in my QT, with periodic dips.
<<A good move, though I would only perform the dips if/when the Nudibranchs are sighted>>
The nudi's only seem to be going after my zoo's, and not my softies or LPS.
<<They are likely "obligate" feeders on the Zoanthids>>
No SPS in my tank yet... and certainly not until I take care of these Nudi's. I have heard Nudi eggs are hard to kill (I am a family physician and have the same problem getting lice eggs out of my patients' hair)?
<<Usually more "resistant" to attempts to eradicate, yes...but I think your plan to remove the Zoanthids from the display will allow any remaining eggs to hatch and die out...not unlike leaving a tank fallow when treating an ich infestation>>
Besides Lugol’s (which, I swear, has to be the same Iodine I use to clean wounds in my office),
<<Ahh, but it is mate! Lugol's Solution (named after the French physician J.G.A. Lugol...and also called IKI (Iodine Potassium-Iodide); Iodine, Strong solution (Systemic); and Aqueous Iodine Solution BP) is a mixture of 5% iodine (I2) and 10% potassium iodide (KI) in distilled water with a total iodine content of 130 mg/mL>>
any medicated dips you can suggest?
<<I think the Lugol's is fine>>
I suspect the only thing I can do is QT, do freq dips and, essentially, use tweezers to pick them off for the next, say, three to five years...
<<Ha! At least you have a plan [grin]>>
It's ironic that hobbyists have the hardest time keeping the large, pretty Nudibranchs alive and, at the same time, can't seem kill off these prolific little buggers.... the Aiptasia of slugs.
<<All comes down to providing an adequate supply of the appropriate foodstuffs my friend>>
Thanks,
Russell in KY
<<Always a pleasure to assist. EricR in South Carolina>>

Oh yeah, have also heard good things about this.

http://coralrx.com/

yah mj, levimasole. pig dewormer. not sure if it kills nudis or not though.

Thanks for the info spanko! I guess I'll have to see if the LFS has any. If not, I think I'll just pull the frags and try to scrape off as many as I can see. That should set them back a bit.

DH: I've heard that levamisole works, so I might see if the vet has any I could use.

Plan B is to take all of the uninfected pieces, and put them in the 20L for now. That way, I could at least save my one larger cap and the green digi. Unfortunately, I can't use the 75 even if I wanted to, because the flow is WAY to low until I get the MP40 this week.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

Well, the LFS didn't have coralrx, or any other chemical/drug that would do the trick. So, after talking to the marine biologist manager, he suggested that I try to get my hands on some levamisole. Short of that, he suggested a corris wrasse (they didn't have any left for sale) or a sixline. I was rather disappointed, because a corris wrasse would have been cool. So.... I got a commando sixline.

First Sergeant Vega (who can tell me where the name comes from? Hint: It's from a book whose title shares something in common with sixlines) is presently in the 20L in quarantine. What I'm going to do is move the montiporas to the 20L for the Sgt. Vega to do his work. Since I can have him in the tank alone, I can feed him less, so that he'll go after the nudis. The guy at the LFS said that nudis can survive in a tank, between the adults and eggs, for a very long time, even without montiporas. So, I think the 29g will have to be montipora free for quite some time. The upside is that once I can get my hands on some levamisole, I can remove the montis from the 20L and treat them much more readily. After the bulk of the 20L is transferred into the 75, I can treat the entire 20L with levamisole and nail the buggers once and for all.


Since the sixline is going into QT, the chalk bass needed to come out. So he has! He's currently dripping in the sump of the 29, and will be going into the DT shortly. I doubt he'll pose for pictures, but if he does, I'll have the camera ready.

mj, read this thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...32#post16855932

looks like levimasole is toxic to the coral when used at levels that would kill monti nudis. do lots of research.

Hm.... after reading that, the whole tank method doesn't seem feasible, especially since I intend to use the 20L as a sump. So, that's going to leave me with only the option of finding a large bucket and doing one big dip. That ought to be less stressful on the corals.


So, is there anything that can be done to prevent these little bastages from making it into the tank in the first place? It kind of seems like they are a plague that can't be killed or prevented.

chalk bass! want!

I would love to see what kind of photos you could take of one. It was a pita trying to take those two with my P&S, because he was so darn fast!

Could you imagine a pair of them cruising my 75?

you need to get a DSLR to even come close to getting good pics of really active fish, unfortunately.

Yup.

Maybe once my 75 is stocked, I'll start saving up for a good reefing camera.

you could get a good used canon rebel and decent lens for just a few hundred these days. much better than the $1200 I dropped initially.

Oh wow! That's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. In that case, I might snag one sooner rather than later. After I get my license, I'll be able to take a few cases on the side.... that money will be slush fund money. In fact, today I had a $45/hour project, that took me about 2 hours. That's going to be the money for my first LA order to stock the 75.

Update on the plans for nudibranch genocide:

I had nearly given up all hope for treating the montipora I already have. While the sixline would help, I don't think it could provide complete redemption. Then, I found a Reef Keeping article that outlined the Nudi solution. Turns out, a solution of potassium permanganate is fatal not only to the adult, but to the eggs as well! According to the article, a solution of 50mg/1000ml tank water for 90 minutes (or less, the test results weren't clear) will kill the adults, the eggs, and NOT the coral.

Now, I just need to find some KMnO₄. It looks like I'll need to make a trip to a pool supply shop.

EDIT: For my own sanity's sake, I'll post here that Borneman has more recently suggested 35mg/1000ml for 60 minutes.

Good News!!!

Indeed! This is yet another time I wish I had a DSLR macro camera, so that I could properly document this treatment. From the things I've read, this stuff is the true nuclear option. Potassium permanganate is an oxider that will eat through anything organic. The 5% solution is low enough that it wreaks havoc on the parasites, but not the coral. It's still rough on the coral, and I guess they'll look like hell for a little while. However, they survive. A 20% solution results in the fatality of everything. The downside to potassium permanganate is that it can NOT be used in a reef tank. A tale of an "accidental dosing" result in large fatalities among the fish and critters in that tank. So, it sounds like I'll be doing a 1 liter dosing dip, and probably two separate tank water dips just to reduce the chance of any of it making it into the tank.

You know what.... this whole thing with the monti eating nudis has me really angry, and it sounds like while I could remove them from the corals with a dip, I'll never get rid of them from the rock. So I've decided just to tear down the 29 and start from scratch with only the 75.