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Kat's badass BC14, retired


metrokat

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Builder Anthony

That black stuff is most likely cyno that isnt getting enough light.Dont stir it into the bed or it will be harder to rid yourself of it,It doesnt sound like your sandbed developed yet.What i did for mine in the begining is let it develop into a sheet and suck it out with all the sand it was attached to,.Never had a problem since.Id really recomend doing that.That stuff can be a real big problem if it gets out of hand.Vacum sand out........do whatever.

 

I wouldnt even worry about the brown diatoms on the glass.It should turn green.

 

I had a emerald crab that im 90 percent sure ate that green long algae.

 

Think thats about it.

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I've been reading up about your tank with a lot of interest - It looks fabulous.

 

I'm in NYC as well and I'm wondering who you go to for a LFS? I'm starting up a 14Gallon BioCube also and have run into the issue of where to get my live rock. Were you happy with what you received from Gulf View?

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I've been reading up about your tank with a lot of interest - It looks fabulous.

 

I'm in NYC as well and I'm wondering who you go to for a LFS? I'm starting up a 14Gallon BioCube also and have run into the issue of where to get my live rock. Were you happy with what you received from Gulf View?

 

Thank you! I actually go to Absolutely Fish in Clifton and highly recommend them, manhattan aquarium is popular but I have not been there. There is also live aqua, but never been there either.

 

I suggest Dans rocks to everyone, gulfliverock.com, you can get pests but if you are like me where the pleasure of each new discovery is important, then go for it. I asked Dan to make sure I didn't have a mantis but in retrospect if it was there I would be happy. If you're going to get worried easily then go for base rock with some seeded rock.

 

I got a rare rose coral, and so many great things on my rock. Good luck let me know if you need more help.

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Thank you! I actually go to Absolutely Fish in Clifton and highly recommend them, manhattan aquarium is popular but I have not been there. There is also live aqua, but never been there either.

 

I suggest Dans rocks to everyone, gulfliverock.com, you can get pests but if you are like me where the pleasure of each new discovery is important, then go for it. I asked Dan to make sure I didn't have a mantis but in retrospect if it was there I would be happy. If you're going to get worried easily then go for base rock with some seeded rock.

 

I got a rare rose coral, and so many great things on my rock. Good luck let me know if you need more help.

 

 

I just ordered the nano special from Dan this morning. I told him I want stuff with lots of life. :D

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Thank you! I actually go to Absolutely Fish in Clifton and highly recommend them, manhattan aquarium is popular but I have not been there. There is also live aqua, but never been there either.

 

I liked the guys at manhattan aquarium, it really exists as an adjunct to their installation and maintenance service, so it's very low key - but very, very far west. Live aqua was a let down for me. It's the tiniest space you can imagine in the semi-below ground level of a residential building - all about fish, not much of anything else - esp. coral, inverts, etc.

 

I'll have to take a look at Absolutely Fish, but I'm car-less, so I'm hoping to find an LFS within mass transit striking distance.

 

I'll be following along - it's nice to find other chicks with 'cubes ;)

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I just ordered the nano special from Dan this morning. I told him I want stuff with lots of life. :D

 

ooh! can't wait for your surprises! You could potentially get an octopus. I had a crab and urchin in mine who did not make it. So the pest aiptasia (according to Dan) does not come on Gulf rock, but you will see some similar looking anemones. I have 3. They are banded aiptasia and not that invasive. So keep me posted. Monochrome5 on this forum will be getting one of my 3 anemones just as soon as I can bear to part with them.

 

Live aqua was a let down for me. It's the tiniest space you can imagine in the semi-below ground level of a residential building - all about fish, not much of anything else - esp. coral, inverts, etc.

 

I'll have to take a look at Absolutely Fish, but I'm car-less, so I'm hoping to find an LFS within mass transit striking distance.

 

I'll be following along - it's nice to find other chicks with 'cubes ;)

 

I thought yes live aqua was mostly fish, at least do they have healthy good quality ones?

IF you call Absolutely Fish, ask them which NJ transit from port authority goes to them. It is worth a visit! Find them on facebook, they have pictures every day.

 

EDIT: WOOT! I reached page 3 on this thread. lol.

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You gals need to bite the LIRR bullet and come out onto the Island. Those little Manhattan stores are blah at best.

 

Edit- And congrats on your page 3, kat. :happy:

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yeah! page 3.

yeah! page 3.

 

You gals need to bite the LIRR bullet and come out onto the Island. Those little Manhattan stores are blah at best.

 

Edit- And congrats on your page 3, kat. :happy:

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Nice looking tank. I ordered rock from tbsaltwater.com in the past, and it is amazing all the stuff that comes on the rocks. I was very impressed.

 

This should get you one post closer to page 4

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Was just checking out your tank -- wow! Wish I'd seen this thread before putting mine together ;) -- would've been good inspiration. Didn't occur to me to use stuff other than LR -- I stacked my 5 pieces to get the caves look, but am thinking that adding a few more pieces coral will be tough since I'm not sure where to put it! Lovely work on yours :) .

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The internet Gods are smiling on me today, by some miracle I have full internet access to the forum!

So while I am away my tank is steadily developing a black cyno problem. I've ordered an army from John at reefcleaners.org which should arrive this week.

IMG_20110906_125817.jpg

 

That picture makes me mad. Anyway, my tank sitter tells me the cyno has reached up to the soap dish holding the chaeto in the DT. Told him to wash out the chaeto so let's see if that fixes the problem. I can't wait to get my hands in the tank and scrub this evil off. Then I need to get a phos test kit. The tank has been fed nothing in 2 weeks (helps that I don't have any fish). Lights are on for 7 hours.

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Tank looks really nice ;) maybe try to get some more flow to that area after you vacuum it out....

I didn't kno you don't have any fishys in their.... girl that tank screams Frogfish all day! :D

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That clump of green algae looks to be bryopsis. It would need to be a closer shot to get a proper ID but that's my guess...

 

Google bryopsis and compare some pics to what you've got in there. If it is that there are a few ways to get rid of it, the most popular being boosting your magnesium level.

 

Other than that the tank is looking good. Has a natural feel to it with all the macro.

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i was worried it might be so I emailed a picture to John at reefcleaners a while back. he suggested it is turf algae. it has not spread in 8 weeks, only gotten taller and bushier in the one spot. it collects detritus, is infested with pods and my tank sitter says cyno is on it too. When i get back home i will have to prune it, will need to read up on it before i cause it to spread.

 

my scape is going to be edited, will be removing the pieces that sit on the sand to make room for corals. i have very littl rock by weight already so i am concerned about not having enough filteration. this is a 14 gallon and i haveabout 10 lbs of rock. i need to get creative.

 

thanks for following.

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I came back from a 3 week trip to a 14Gallon house of horrors.

 

The turf algae had grown to be about 6 inches in diameter like an effin chia-pet afro!

Although still growing from the same one spot on top of the clam, it was basically covering my front view to the point where all you saw was this massive ball of green.

 

The sand was sparkling! Thanks to the army from reef cleaners. Go John!

There is no sign of cyno on the rocks or sand but there were large strings of it floating upwards from the tips of the macro algae, halamida, chaeto etc.

 

All corals are alive, sublunary's palys are actually multiplying! The pink zoa branch was eaten clean, I guess the dead polyps became a meal for the CUC. My large zoa branch looked sparse and I was very worried about that, I took it out to examine it, I might have to look at it closely again later as there may be some pox. I am also expecting some iodine in the mail shortly so that dip will help.

 

The first thing I did was remove Humpty the clam with his chia-pet of turf algae. I was pulling it out of the water by pulling up on the turf algae. The clam separated from the LR. This is good because I was going to separate them anyway and because my epoxy holding the clam to the rock was wobbly from the start.

 

I took Humpty with his afro in some tank water and removed the tuft manually by hand. I was surprised at the ease with which it came right off. I lost a large pod population, I could see the larger amphipods in the bottom of the container too but those critters have been bothering my zoas anyway.

 

Took a paper towel, dampened with tank water, and put some hydrogen peroxide on the towel too. Dabbed the towel on top of Humpty's shell where the afro was growing. I don't know if it will help but I have read threads on here where someone was able to retard even bryopsis growth with it. So hopefully it does not come back with a vengeance.

 

The most bizarre discovery was that my baseball sized clump of chaeto in the DT was totally gone. Without a trace. Did the army eat it? Most puzzling. No it is not in the back chamber, it was a dense ball and I had rocks around it holding it in place preventing it from flying around the tank.

 

The other clump of chaeto in the soap dish, also in the DT was very sparse and had cyno on it. I cleaned that up as best as I could and put it back.

 

Did a 20% water change. All params are perfect. The other argh moment was when I broke the powerhead from its base. Luckily the koralia nano is already in the mail with some test kits so I should be good soon. I had the brilliant idea to super glue the powerhead to the back wall (yeah real bright Kat), and now am left to deal with trying to remove the base from the back wall. Ideas? I did not use a box cutter yet afraid of damaging the chamber walls.

 

That's my update.

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if you returned after 3 weeks and still had a tank, count yourself very lucky. :P

 

there are more nightmare stories than happy endings.

 

tank looks great and nice pics.

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I've got a koralia nano working along with the broken oceanic powerhead now. Looks like a tornado in the cube. :)

The 20% WC yesterday has made all the corals super happy, they are enormous today, the palys from sublunary are about the size of a quarter not including skirts!

 

Got a calcium and dkh test kit.

Calcium 440ppm

dKH 7

KH 8.75

 

Reading up on water chemistry.

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I somehow managed to add one large piece of rock to the 'scape! Now, there is one piece of rock that I don't have the heart to throw out but it doesn't really have a place. Take a look at these 3 pics (still cloudy water)

 

(1) Rock in the center front of tank

IMG_20110925_104534.jpg

 

(2) Rock totally removed

IMG_20110925_104440.jpg

 

(3) Rock under the left ledge. Makes the left side look like boulders piled up, you can't make out there is actually a ledge

IMG_20110925_115226.jpg

 

What do you think, 1, 2 or 3?

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Pretty tank you have here. I personally prefer number 1. Breaks up the almost identical looking shelves. Plus it has nice macro on it :) My second choice would be #3.

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