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ADA 60-F Shallow in Texas


chippwalters

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chippwalters
I love your new dendro. I have an orange sun coral and while it looks amazing when the whole colony comes out to feed (at night), nothing looks as cool as a few dendro heads fully open during the daytime hours.

 

FYI- I've noticed my sun coral has a faster feeding response when I add a little cyclopeeze to the mysis I feed. The little sucker pounds them down and then fully opens for another in a matter of minutes!

I've been feeding mine dry food. Some fish pellets mixed with coral frenzy and the little guy gobbles it all up-- and like you say, is back and ready to feed again in minutes. Not as messy or as difficult as going the frozen mysis route. I'll probably add some frozen later...

 

I'm currently feeding him once per day. More often?

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correct me if im wrong but i dont think that dendro is actually from japan its illegal to have any corals from there it is nice though

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Hmm, I've never heard of doing that but I assume the logic is sound if it's a pellet carnivore diet. Everything I've ready says small meaty items like mysis, table shrimp, and silver sides. Mine opens up within 10 or so minutes if I drizzle a little mysis juice over him after lights out, but he'll immediately come out to play when I add in a little cyclopeeze to the brew.

 

I feed mine 3 times a week and heavily (maybe 3 or 4 rounds if he'll still pound them down) on my water change day.

 

He was a tad sickly and malnourished when I first received him. I had to removed him from the tank and just surround him in mysis to get him to come out and even then for the first few months only 3 or 4 polyps would eat. This is what he looked like the first week.

 

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o524/p...current=005.jpg

 

Here he is now, alive and happy and feeding IN TANK

 

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o524/p...current=016.jpg

 

Not that it matters but tonight is the first night I've uploaded tank pics onto photobucket; and I'm excited to share. Here's a top down shot I took last night of my little 8 gallon set up (I know I'm a wee bit rock heavy but it adds good multi-level separation for all the numerous corals I've got as of now)

 

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o524/p...current=013.jpg

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correct me if im wrong but i dont think that dendro is actually from japan its illegal to have any corals from there it is nice though

 

 

The species originated from Japan. It's aqua cultured locally here in Austin

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chippwalters
correct me if im wrong but i dont think that dendro is actually from japan its illegal to have any corals from there it is nice though

See Derek's comment. I asked Matt, the owner of Austin Aquafarms the same question and he said he gets them from Hong Kong, where it's legal to sell them. He does sell them as "*AAF* LE Live Coral Japanese Jumbo Polyped Dendros RARE", FWIW.

 

Hmm, I've never heard of doing that but I assume the logic is sound if it's a pellet carnivore diet. Everything I've ready says small meaty items like mysis, table shrimp, and silver sides. Mine opens up within 10 or so minutes if I drizzle a little mysis juice over him after lights out, but he'll immediately come out to play when I add in a little cyclopeeze to the brew.

 

I feed mine 3 times a week and heavily (maybe 3 or 4 rounds if he'll still pound them down) on my water change day.

 

He was a tad sickly and malnourished when I first received him. I had to removed him from the tank and just surround him in mysis to get him to come out and even then for the first few months only 3 or 4 polyps would eat. This is what he looked like the first week.

 

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o524/p...current=005.jpg

 

Here he is now, alive and happy and feeding IN TANK

 

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o524/p...current=016.jpg

 

Not that it matters but tonight is the first night I've uploaded tank pics onto photobucket; and I'm excited to share. Here's a top down shot I took last night of my little 8 gallon set up (I know I'm a wee bit rock heavy but it adds good multi-level separation for all the numerous corals I've got as of now)

 

http://s1146.photobucket.com/albums/o524/p...current=013.jpg

 

 

The species originated from Japan. It's aqua cultured locally here in Austin

 

Thanks for sharing the pics! Are you in Austin? Part of ARC?

Have to say my little guy has doubled in size in 3 days eating the pellets and Coral Frenzy. Happily, I haven't had any of the problems. Typically, the corals I get from Matt at Austin Aquafarms are top grade. Never had any problems. And, being local, I can save on shipping which gives me a decided advantage over other eBay'ers. ;)

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I looked at their ebay listings after your post and they have beautiful looking coral! As of now I'm not part of ARC but I plan to join soon. My friend Clint (fishypets on ARC) has a stellar tank and he got me into this awesome yet addicting hobby. If you're ever looking for an AMAZING chalice piece or some great SPS he's a good local guy to buy from as well.

 

I have to get me some of that Coral Frenzy, I keep hearing great stuff about it. What pellets are you using for your dendro? I might give your method a try since i'm operating skimmer-less and constantly worry about build up of excess nutrients.

 

Oh, and yes I'm in Austin.

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chippwalters
I looked at their ebay listings after your post and they have beautiful looking coral! As of now I'm not part of ARC but I plan to join soon. My friend Clint (fishypets on ARC) has a stellar tank and he got me into this awesome yet addicting hobby. If you're ever looking for an AMAZING chalice piece or some great SPS he's a good local guy to buy from as well.

 

I have to get me some of that Coral Frenzy, I keep hearing great stuff about it. What pellets are you using for your dendro? I might give your method a try since i'm operating skimmer-less and constantly worry about build up of excess nutrients.

 

Oh, and yes I'm in Austin.

You should join. They have a pretty cool field trip in June to Sea World where they get discounted day passes and a 'behind the scenes' tour of the facility-- then we all go down to the coast in July to visit the Aquarium down there and do a little fishing for corals and peppermint shrimp (and other crustaceans). A really fine group of folks. I, too, just joined and picked up some excellent stuff from the frag swap, including for free a really nice large green polyp and a small frogspan-- both which are doing great.

 

I'm using New Life Spectrum Marine Fish Formula (from Aquatek I believe) for pellets. I think I also got the Coral Frenzy either there or up the road at Fishy Business. The pellets are nice because you can put them in a cup mixed with the frenzy, then suck them up carefully with a turkey baster and feed each polyp one at a time. Then I go back through the tank and 'vaccuum' up the extra pellets with the baster and refeed (or remove). Keeps things pretty clean.

 

The zoas and other smaller polyp corals also really like a squirt of just the Coral Frenzy.

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Cool, I use those same pellets for my clown and purple firefish! I didnt realize ARC was so involved, the trips sound great and I'm sure the time with other reefers leads to a wealth of knowledge. Fishy business is an interesting place, I would love to get an ADA like yours or a 20 long rimless and have that guy drill it. I want a sump for build #2.

 

Do you frequent Aqua dome much? I find they have much more livestock than the other local stores, but I do find Bruce and the gang at Aquatek to me more technical and hardware savy when it comes to building a system.

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Tank is looking good Chip!

 

Let us know how that dendro does. I'm looking into getting some NPS myself for my Mantis Tank.

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chippwalters
Tank is looking good Chip!

 

Let us know how that dendro does. I'm looking into getting some NPS myself for my Mantis Tank.

So far, so good. Dendro is doing niceley. I'll post a pic this weekend.

 

Just placed a bid on a Japanese Dendro myself, wish me luck!

Good luck. Don't forget, you can also 'walk-in' on Sat between 1 and 4. I noticed last time he had some single Dendros for $30 ea.

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He looks fat and happy, I'm going to have to give your pellet diet a try if I win that ebay listing. I'm still the highest bidder thus far.

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Dude, if you decide on a 60F then I predict you won't be disappointed. Mine is rocking. It's SO EASY to clean.

 

I have a 90 degree PVC elbow coming out of my overflow pointing straight up. I can adjust the height of the water in the tank by tilting the elbow (it's only press fit in the overflow) and I can turn it completely upside down for a full siphon cleaning. This is great-- especially when starting the tank and getting all the algae out. I just 'stir' things up, scrub and blow off the algae, turn up my MP10, and WHOOSH!! All the sediment, algae, detritus, etc which clouds the water column gets sucked out fast to my sump where it's caught in the filter sock. Really fast way to clean things.

Chipp, I picked this up from Peters pico thread. Can you take a video of this elbow and adjusting the height business and the cleaning bit too? I'm totally intrigued.

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chippwalters
Howdy from Dallas! Dendros are little pigs, bottomless pits really. Feed it well and it will sprout more mouths to feed!

What the F are you doing in Dallas (please don't say "shoe shopping.")? I'm headed to Dallas now on a plane, connecting to Austin, returning from a funeral. The wife was pressed into emergency care duty for the Dendros and the other critters-- which shouldn't be too bad as we have around 20 horses, 4 dogs, a cat and now a tankful of corals (not to mention our own 16 year old cheerleader with a new drivers license).

 

Chipp, I picked this up from Peters pico thread. Can you take a video of this elbow and adjusting the height business and the cleaning bit too? I'm totally intrigued.

Sure, I'll try and get to it this weekend. Just drilled my smaller tank and want to set it up as a lagune.

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chippwalters

Since I'm stuck at the airport, here's a sketch which explains it all.

 

Siphonq.png

 

The left pic shows the elbow acting as the overflow, skimming the water as it goes over the lip and down the overflow. note the height of the water. Typically, even if detritus is in the water column, it might just get skimmed off by the elbow lip.

 

The right pic shows a turn of the elbow creates a full (and louder) siphon of the tank, sucking with it all debris in the water column. So, first I clean the glass, then I take a chopstick and stir up the sand bed and use a turkey baster to blow off the LR until the water column is good and cloudy with junk, then I turn up my powerhead and turn down the elbow (after removing my snail guard) and the water column is sucked down by the siphon created.

 

Note the water level is adjustable with this technique as well. FWIW, I might suggest a second overflow with exit a bit higher as a failsafe, 'just in case.'

 

HTH!

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I'm routinely in Dallas for trade shows.

A new driver, good luck with that.

The elbow idea is fantastic! How is it kept loose without it being unscrewed a little bit and being leaky?

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albertthiel

Nice but they develop an insatiable appetite if you feed them regularly and a little too much :)

 

Albert

 

 

Just fed. The Japanese Dendro is full.

 

dendro.jpg

 

 

Nicely done indeed ... just worried that while you give it the turn that small fish and other animalcules end up being sucked down the PVC ... how do you prevent that if you remove the snail guard ... ? A mesh net in front of the opening may help but not too fine of course so it lets small and medium pieces through but not fish etc .. just a thought ...

 

Albert

 

 

Since I'm stuck at the airport, here's a sketch which explains it all.

 

Siphonq.png

 

The left pic shows the elbow acting as the overflow, skimming the water as it goes over the lip and down the overflow. note the height of the water. Typically, even if detritus is in the water column, it might just get skimmed off by the elbow lip.

 

The right pic shows a turn of the elbow creates a full (and louder) siphon of the tank, sucking with it all debris in the water column. So, first I clean the glass, then I take a chopstick and stir up the sand bed and use a turkey baster to blow off the LR until the water column is good and cloudy with junk, then I turn up my powerhead and turn down the elbow (after removing my snail guard) and the water column is sucked down by the siphon created.

 

Note the water level is adjustable with this technique as well. FWIW, I might suggest a second overflow with exit a bit higher as a failsafe, 'just in case.'

 

HTH!

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chippwalters
I'm routinely in Dallas for trade shows.

A new driver, good luck with that.

The elbow idea is fantastic! How is it kept loose without it being unscrewed a little bit and being leaky?

Ugh. Just got stuck on a plane to Dallas for 8.5 hours-- including sat on the tarmac for 3 hours. Ended up renting a car and driving home to Austin. The wife did a splendid job while I was gone– glad the tank didn't act up (powerhead stuck, overflow, clogged, ATO off, etc..)

 

It's a 1" bulkhead which use's 3/4" street elbox fixture. I use the high pressure piping because it's gray. It's a pressure fit, and if you think about it, it really doesn't matter if it leaks, as the water just goes back into the tank or down the outlet anyway.

 

Looking really good. I added a sump and cheato a couple of months ago and it is amazing how much it helps the tank.

Yup, I found out the same.

 

Nice but they develop an insatiable appetite if you feed them regularly and a little too much :)

 

Albert

 

 

 

 

 

Nicely done indeed ... just worried that while you give it the turn that small fish and other animalcules end up being sucked down the PVC ... how do you prevent that if you remove the snail guard ... ? A mesh net in front of the opening may help but not too fine of course so it lets small and medium pieces through but not fish etc .. just a thought ...

 

Albert

Yeah, the little monster begs for food all the time. Sounds like Audrey, "Feed Me!"

 

I only have one fish and the flow isn't strong enough for the little guy to go up there. I did once suck up a Sexy shrimp, but was able to recover her. And, I only leave it in the down position for at most 15 minutes as it clears the water column. So far, no issues.

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albertthiel

Yes that is the nice thing about schedule 80 PVC it's grey ... but more $$$ but you are right easier to hide so no one sees any white spots in between rocks from Schedule 40 whitish one.

 

Sorry to read about your airplane problems .. what happened? Bad weather ?

 

Albert

 

 

 

 

Ugh. Just got stuck on a plane to Dallas for 8.5 hours-- including sat on the tarmac for 3 hours. Ended up renting a car and driving home to Austin. The wife did a splendid job while I was gone– glad the tank didn't act up (powerhead stuck, overflow, clogged, ATO off, etc..)

 

It's a 1" bulkhead which use's 3/4" street elbox fixture. I use the high pressure piping because it's gray. It's a pressure fit, and if you think about it, it really doesn't matter if it leaks, as the water just goes back into the tank or down the outlet anyway.

 

 

Yup, I found out the same.

 

 

Yeah, the little monster begs for food all the time. Sounds like Audrey, "Feed Me!"

 

I only have one fish and the flow isn't strong enough for the little guy to go up there. I did once suck up a Sexy shrimp, but was able to recover her. And, I only leave it in the down position for at most 15 minutes as it clears the water column. So far, no issues.

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chippwalters
Yes that is the nice thing about schedule 80 PVC it's grey ... but more $$$ but you are right easier to hide so no one sees any white spots in between rocks from Schedule 40 whitish one.

 

Sorry to read about your airplane problems .. what happened? Bad weather ?

 

Albert

http://chippwalters.posterous.com/private/uolIagmtCv

 

Not supposed to do this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/business/22passengers.html

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