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Shallow 60F - Edge of the Ocean


etane

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thanks for the tip on the tds range, guys.

 

You don't measure TDS of saltwater. If your RO system is producing 150ppm water after your membrane, then your membrane is bad. Your membrane should be 95% rejection or higher or something is wrong, 220ppm tap and 150ppm post-RO is 31% rejection.

And if you are keeping coral, you need to add salt to your water from the LFS or tell them that they're not mixing to reef standards. Needs to be 35-38ppt.

 

my RO is producing 6ppm. reef standard sw should be at 35-38ppm or ppt? haha i can't make the conversion... but yah the lfs sw doesn't seem very good

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CatfishSoupFTW

Asterina. its a type of starfish. no harm. Most, if not all tank has those. Imagine those as the mystery snails you get in FW plants. A snail here and there isnt to bonkers, and it does fine in the system. its when they multiply in the masses where things get annoying. But there is live stock too that would take care of these. :D a moderate amount is fine. Youll see more for sure.

 

Mild word of caution, sometimes if they are large enough (and they dont really get that big, maybe a dime size) sometimes they cover a zoa head on a frag, and just suffocate it from light. lots some corals like that before. not cool. You wont be able to get rid of them, but you will be able to control them. atm, keeping it is no harm.

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jedimasterben

my RO is producing 6ppm. reef standard sw should be at 35-38ppm or ppt? haha i can't make the conversion... but yah the lfs sw doesn't seem very good

Yes, salinity is at 35-38ppt (parts per thousand), but this is not TDS, that is salinity.

Mild word of caution, sometimes if they are large enough (and they dont really get that big, maybe a dime size) sometimes they cover a zoa head on a frag, and just suffocate it from light. lots some corals like that before. not cool. You wont be able to get rid of them, but you will be able to control them. atm, keeping it is no harm.

Uh, what? So you're saying the starfish will stay in the same place for a week or two at a time?

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CatfishSoupFTW

less than that - but I lost a few zoas because it casually goes on top of the head, then said head closes, and it just chills on top for a few days. By then, since its only one head, and no light for lets say 50 plus hours = death .0__0 that and maybe it was eating it. cant say if they eat them. But i know first hand they do cover them. Worst part of my luck was id pry one off the frag, and then a day or two later it was back on top. -__-

 

I would call it a semi rare occasion. Some people experience it , others dont. If you google Asterina kills corals, you actually somewhat get limited pop ups. I had no issues with Asterinas up until I had too many. The tank it occurred in was a 6 month old 10 gallon that turned into a 21 with sump, and ever since I did the upgrade a few weeks ago, I havent seen any since. Im sure they are around, but I havent seen them yet. haha

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received a new toy today. well, i am receiving new toys everyday for the past week but this one is kinda interesting.

 

12-29-14-2.jpg

 

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Got an Altum nano pump to power this. Instructions are in japanese but you really only need to follow the diagrams. Took me about 15 minutes to put it together. Probably another 15 minutes to get it up and running.

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jedimasterben

and no light for lets say 50 plus hours = death

Yeah, that's not how that works, otherwise all of the corals in the Caribbean would be ####ed when a hurricane passes over and they wouldn't get light for a couple of days.

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Wiring up my tank today and experiencing some "teething" issues.

 

1) jebao wp10's controller doesn't work. powers up fine but doesn't change modes or speeds. back to amazon it goes.

 

2) mame skimmer is set up but the air bubbles doesn't reach all the way to the top of the beaker. i first used the altum nano pump and the bubble rises like an inch or two above water level. a tetra 10 gallon air pump took over and got maybe 3 or 4 inches above water level. might need a 20 gallon air pump or whatever spec is used to measure air power.

 

3) jebao's only merit is kicking up some sand. re-inserted the aqueoun internal filter to polish the water.

 

http://s458.photobucket.com/user/etane1/media/DSC_5202.jpg.html'>DSC_5202.jpg

 

on a side issue, the lfs where i bought my dead coral/live rock from, they chiseled it down a few inches for me. the bottom part are in many small pieces so probably can't salvage that for a frag island.

 

so, need more wire wraps, a more powerful air pump and a better wave maker solution.

 

I did order a hydor evo pico 180 pump for my freshwater. might try that out with the salt water first.

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CatfishSoupFTW

Yeah, that's not how that works, otherwise all of the corals in the Caribbean would be ####ed when a hurricane passes over and they wouldn't get light for a couple of days.

 

Well I dont know what to tell you :S Im no scientist, but I assure you they covered them for a very long time, which equated to their death. Saw it happen with me own two eeeyyyyeees. Maybe little light after a hurricane, plus flow and nutrients is better than straight up engulfed. As when it covered the zoa head, you didnt even know there was coral underneath it practically.

 

Again, not 100 percent sure on light etc, but I do know they killed my corals. After they were gone, my corals are fine. :D

 

 

 

Wiring up my tank today and experiencing some "teething" issues.

 

1) jebao wp10's controller doesn't work. powers up fine but doesn't change modes or speeds. back to amazon it goes.

You and I may be the only person in the world that had a controller issue with the wp10 powerhead. Mine gave out after a few months, and just did that. No matter what mode I changed it in, nothing happened aside from one speed. And oddly enough, when I googled it, nothing showed up. Thankfully I got the controller replaced for 10 bucks or so, if not less cant remember.

 

Once it was fixed though, the powerhead performs great.

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You and I may be the only person in the world that had a controller issue with the wp10 powerhead. Mine gave out after a few months, and just did that. No matter what mode I changed it in, nothing happened aside from one speed. And oddly enough, when I googled it, nothing showed up. Thankfully I got the controller replaced for 10 bucks or so, if not less cant remember.

 

Once it was fixed though, the powerhead performs great.

 

is your impeller white or blue? mine is white and it isn't "completely" quiet. i read on amazon review that the blue impeller is of better quality - quieter and more powerful.

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Just purchased a couple of clownfishes. a wyoming white percula and a (premium, i think) picasso percula. the lfs just received them yesterday. keeping it there for now because my tank is a white blizzard atm.

 

planning to pick up a bubble tip anemone in a few weeks after the "tank's ph has stabilized" (lfs' owner's words). and, talked about a trade in program with him regarding swapping large anemone for a small one and some store credit down the road.

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CatfishSoupFTW

Never heard of the different impeller performance differences. ( also havent searched, but will now out of curiosity) And mine is the white impeller build. At first install, it was silent no matter what the mode. After a few months and no maintenance on it, under wave mode I can hear a mild buzz as it goes on and off. Im sure a quick clean would silence it up again.

 

I have an RBTA as well, which go for about 60 bucks. the LFS i bought it from also does trade ins, 50 percent of its store value, so 30 bucks. which is great imo.

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the jebao wp10's controller was dead since day 1. the propeller died this morning. at least it was good at kicking up a good dust storm while using another filter to soak up the dust particles. now it's getting ready to be packed up after it's dry.

 

the hydor pico 180 arrived today. it's circulating the water somewhat adequately. it doesn't do much at all except kick up sand with the flow water defelctor attachment on. not only that, it's monstrous big for a nano device with the flo attached.

 

so, looking for a better solution. contemplating between the mp10 and the new maxspect gyre 130. the gyre seems to be a better device for shallow tank but it's a wider footprint on the glass and seems to require more periodic cleaning/maintenance. in comparison, mp10 seems to be just another wave maker. also, the maxspect's controller seems to be much better built. both the jebao and ecotech's controllers seem like they are from the 90s.

 

have to wait another month for the gyre.

 

on the lighting front, still using the truelumen pro and wondering whether i should stick with it. reason i am contemplating on different light is because:

 

1) truelumen pro has a lot of wiring. rather have a cleaner set up.

2) only 12k and acitinic. rather have fuller spectrum - more comfy on eyes and probably better for fauna.

3) would like more advanced features like timer/ramp/color control built in - again, for a cleaner set up.

 

other choices i am looking at are nanobox mini tide and flare with whatever controller and the aqua illumination prime which is not out until next month or two. both problems are that their dispersion might not be wide enough for my tanks. however, i don't need deep penetration, so perhaps i can get away with these lights.

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Well I dont know what to tell you :S Im no scientist, but I assure you they covered them for a very long time, which equated to their death. Saw it happen with me own two eeeyyyyeees. Maybe little light after a hurricane, plus flow and nutrients is better than straight up engulfed. As when it covered the zoa head, you didnt even know there was coral underneath it practically.

 

Again, not 100 percent sure on light etc, but I do know they killed my corals. After they were gone, my corals are fine. :D

 

 

 

You and I may be the only person in the world that had a controller issue with the wp10 powerhead. Mine gave out after a few months, and just did that. No matter what mode I changed it in, nothing happened aside from one speed. And oddly enough, when I googled it, nothing showed up. Thankfully I got the controller replaced for 10 bucks or so, if not less cant remember.

 

Once it was fixed though, the powerhead performs great.

Likely dying because a small percentage of those starfish feast on corals, especially zoas and softies.

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so i brought home the pair of clownfishes today. have them in a 2 gallon tupperware. drip acclimating from my tank water.

 

the fishes got a bit uptight in the evening. they wouldn't touch the thera A. and, they were just leaning against the tupperware wall. they were swimming around quite actively just a few hours ago... until it dawned on me to turn the damn lights off. had a desk lamp over it to light the free frag i got from coral collection's grand opening. the second i turned the desk lamp off, they perked up and started swimming around again.

 

the wyoming percula is sort of pushing the picasso percula around. this is normal when moving to a new tank and need to establish pecking order? or is the tupperware too small....

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I wouldn't stress about the fish too much, just normal behaviour figuring out who is the boss. If it gets out of hand then you can make a plan. Any reason they're in the tupperware and not in the tank?

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I wouldn't stress about the fish too much, just normal behaviour figuring out who is the boss. If it gets out of hand then you can make a plan. Any reason they're in the tupperware and not in the tank?

 

 

just drip acclimating. something about getting salinity and ph to slowly match the lfs water to the tank water i've read. i drip acclimate all my fw fish. mainly to get the tds to match.

 

oh, i was just looking at your tank yesterday. bad azz.

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01-04-15-0.jpg

 

So, I finally am sort of done with the tank.

 

fish: drop acclimated them overnight and have put them in the tank. they seem to be doing fine in terms of behavior. swimming around merrily with each other. still haven't touched the thera A though.

 

coral: put the pink and gold in tank, they opened up pretty good. found some wormy stuff on them when they were still in the bag. i put it in freshwater for about 30 seconds. worms fell off and almost died immediately. then, put it in tupperware overnight.

 

flow: the Hydor pico 180 creates pretty good flow in the tank. I couldn't tell how strong the flow is at first until after I put some fish food onto the water. The food moved around quite rapidly. I had ordered a Jebao RW4. I cancelled it. Don't think I need it now.

 

filter/cloudy: was cloudy until last night. I got some aquatop flocculant into the tank and the water cleared up overnight. but, there's still some haziness. looks like a winter scene in the tank now with some powder here and there. got the aqueon filter in the tank to polish up the water some more. the glass lid takes away from the tank's vividness a bit.

 

skimmer: a fluval q2 will arrive today to power the mame skimmer. the altum is underpowered. update: q2 is going back. vibrates a lot and found the whisper 10 to provide enough air pressure. don't know why it wasn't up to task the last time I used it.

 

lighting: i had a heck of a time deciding on lights. i decided to save some bucks and stick with the truelumen pro. 12k on the planted side and 12k/acitinic marine fusion on the nemo side. got a dual ramp controller for both tanks. sw tank on channel 1 and fw tank on channel 2. i had wanted a fuller spectrum light for the sw tank but will wait on that a bit.

 

live rock: dead coral is live rock. had it chiseled at the base to shorten it by a couple of inches. using the broken off pieces in the tank too. but, still think the lr is too tall. ideally, i'd like to lower it by another couple of inches but probably won't do anything about it and keep it as is for now.

 

drawers: ikea discontinued the expedit so had to get kalax drawers. they don't come in gloss white so had to get birch. all the other colors are ugly.

 

01-04-15-1.jpg

 

future:

 

1) bubble tip anemone

 

2) clean up the wiring

 

3) maxi mini

 

4) snowflake pipe orgran

 

5) blue ridge coral

 

6) cuc - i hate snails. in fw, i avoid it like the plague. but, might need a few in sw. thinking spiny astrea.

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some shots at night:

 

01-04-15-3.jpg

 

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01-04-15-2.jpg

 

keeping the aqueon internal filter in the sw tank for a few more days of water polishing. afterwards, i might move the large live rock to the right side of the tank. the big fin on the right side of the live rock will be good for blocking the view of the heater and water pump.

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Some updates:

Lights: Finalized decision on lighting and decided to stay with Truelumen Pro. The technology seems a bit dated to what's available in the market these days but the look is the most minimalist on my tank and has even spread with no hot spots. Got two bars on each tank. On the SW tank a marine fusion and an actinic. One the FW tank two 12k day light. The actinic and a single 12k is connected to channel 1 of the Dual Ramp timer and the marine fusion and a 12k is hooked up to channel 2.

Channel 1: 7am to 10pm at 5% power with 15 minute ramp up and down
Channel 2: 9am to 8pm at 30% power with 15 minute ramp up and down

All four lights are powered by a single 24v psu. Each psu is supposed to power up only 3 24" light bars but I am getting away with 4 I guess because my light level is very low due to having very shallow tanks.

Water:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate less than .25
PH 8.2-8.4 tested both at 7am and at 5pm and readings are the same.
Salinity: 1.022 slightly low due to lfs not mixing their salt correctly.

Fauna:
Clownfishes - Wyoming died less than 36 hrs in my tank. My pics show it contracted ich. Hard to tell without scrutinizing the pic because most of the fish's body is white.

wyomingich.jpg

Fish store said my tank gave it ich then said it's not ich it's my Ph. wuteva. he didn't even test my water for ph.

The Picasso was hanging by a thread. It didn't get ich or maybe it did but it went away I don't know. It didn't have any appetite. It's tank bred but doesn't touch NSI Thera A 1mm nor the .5mm small fish formula. Fish store gave me some mysis and some frozen stuff. It didn't touch the mysis but did eat the frozen stuff. I forgot what the frozen stuff is called think it's brine shrimp. It's liquidy and miniscule once it's thawed.

http://vimeo.com/116317895

Anemone: Got a bubble tip anemone. Or, is it a rose bulb? The morphology is so similar yet different that I can't tell the diff. It was listed as a rose tip at the lfs but looks diff than ones I see on internet. I chose this one because it has a tight structure instead of noodlely or boobish plus like the honeydew coloration. It survived one day and night thus far. I was told what is most dangerous to an anemone in a new tank is ph swings, but if the anemone can handle it thus far then I should be ok.

01-08-15-3.jpg

Gobe: Tangaroa. Usually I don't buy something until I've researched it but I never saw this one before until I saw it at the lfs. It's tiny, it's got an alien looking antenna. It's cute. I like it and bought it. Only bad part about it is the goby's body really blends in too well with the Fiji pink sand so it's hard to spot the fish most of the time. Want to get a Randall shrimp to pair it up with.

01-08-15-4.jpg

Full tank shot: Moved the large LR to the right and didn't like it so moved it back to the left and arranged the small pieces a bit to suit where I wanted the anemone to be situated.

01-08-15-1.jpg

Not liking the freebie pink and gold paly. doesn't look like it belongs. not sure what coral looks like it belongs though. do want a blue maxi mini.

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Tank is looking great!

 

I know it's early doors, but how are you finding that mame skimmer?

 

well, hard to tell. my first sw tank. my first skimmer. tank is new. currently experiencing brown diatoms.

 

i like the form factor. feels like i am doing one of those live rock only tanks which is what i originally wanted to do. now i got the look of a live rock only tank but with the assurance that a protein skimmer is cleaning the tank up.

 

so far it's a trial and error with air pumps. altum not enough power. aqualighter not enough pressure. fluval q1 more than enough pressure but too loud. fluval q2 but too loud and uneven flow. tetra whisper 10 was quiet at first but has since become a bit loud. got a jw fusion coming.

 

it's a new tank so not too much protein is skimmed but did see some scum bubbles move up the glass and into the tube. so, it's definitely working.

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got an astrea and a nassarius snail over the weekend to deal with diatoms. i found a ton of poop pellets on the sand bed this evening. i siphoned some out but there's just too much. i researched and found that astrea does poop a lot and nassarius actually is a net negative since it eats detritus. so, i banished the astrea into the vase that is currently housing the starfish. yes, the starfish is still alive.

 

i went to a lot of fish stores over the weekend, and it seems a lot of fish stores are low on stock. must be seasonality. or, tons of people buying up all the fishes.

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my picasso clownfish is such a joy to own now. he eats voraciously and appears to always be happy to see me and willing to eat pellets off my hand or mysis off the pipette. even my goby is eating pellets which the lfs said wasn't likely to happen. now, i need to keep them alive. if you recall, my wyoming died of ich awhile ago. and, miraculously, my picasso survived. it was swimming sideways and wasn't eating. and, i am reading that ich can live in my tank for up to 8 weeks before it strikes again.

 

got a spare 2 gallon tank that i am going to move the picasso and goby into tomorrow. bare tank. half old tank water half new tank water. a pump and nothing else. going to keep it in there for 2 months. maybe a drop or two of paragard to be on the safe side?

 

should i dose the main tank with paragard too? i am thinking no.

 

really frustrated that i have to deal with this the very first time i bring saltwater fish home. and, sucks that i have to hold off on buying new fish/coral for awhile. got diatom and probably will get gha after that so probably should wait awhile anyways. but, them the breaks.

 

any comments on whether I am doing right or wrong?

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picasso and tangaroa are in qt now. 2 gallon aquatop with an aqueon filter and an aquatop 25w heater preset to 78f. put two drops of paragard. t minus 60 days before i put them back into display tank which the anemone is still in. ordered a 100ml bag of purigen that will go into the aqueon filter to soak up ammonia and whatever and maybe some foam fine filter pad.

 

http://s458.photobucket.com/user/etane1/media/01-15-15-0.jpg.html'>01-15-15-0.jpg

 

sucks i have to do this...

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