StevieT's Red Sea Max Experience

[StevieT]

do you think your fauna will be enough to satisfy your Manderain or you'll have to feed him like others ?

 

If I get a slop free in mine I may really consider to add one, one of the most if not the most beautiful fish imo

 

have a nice week end all

 

 

I don't think I have enough natural pods to keep her fat and happy. I am going to train it to eat frozen. I did add about 2000-4000 trigger pods yesterday, that should hold her over until she will eat frozen.

 

Great additions, and looking good! Wish you much luck!

 

So, will the clown logo be replaced with the mandarin now?

 

No, the clown is still my favorite fish in the tank just becuase she has been there so long now. But a new logo is always fun to create, it may become part of the mix.

[TonyV]

Steve your tank is beautiful. How do you keep your corals from taking over each other? My LFS is trying to convince me that I shouldn't mix.

[Phullbrick]

didn't know pods could be bought, I have to look after it

[StevieT]

Steve your tank is beautiful. How do you keep your corals from taking over each other? My LFS is trying to convince me that I shouldn't mix.

 

 

Smart placement. Just give everything room to grow. I have had to frag one that was getting eaten by my frogspawn.

[Lizzie1324]

Wow, it's been a long time since I have stopped by.

I saw the mandarin in your sig and had to come check it out. I love mandarins, and have been looking up ways to train them onto frozen food(like see dem tails method) because I reaallllllyyyyyy want one. What method are you going to use? I have a lfs that sells pods until I can train one.

Your tank has helped me out so much. Whenever a lfs tells me I can't put in hard corals unless I have MH, I just laugh and refer back to your tank.

So I am thinking after Christmas I am going to go on a spending spree.

Your tank looks amazing as always.

[StevieT]

Hey Lizzie, Merry Christmas.

 

Right now I am using a tube to feed the Mandarin live brine and some trigger pods. Then I will slowly change that into frozen, still using the tube. I hope it goes well, this is my first try. I have read over a lot of what SDT has written, I am basically going off of that method. After Christmas when I am back in the office more, I can give it some more attention, right now she is pounding all of the bugs that grow in my tank.

[Greenstar]

For converting mandarins place them in a small container, that is bare bottom with a piece of LR or two. Place plenty of frozen food on the bottom of the container. The mandarin through his daily pickings will learn to target the white areas (mysis) within a week they generally will start to feed on the mysis out of the water column. After that move them into the display and they should do just fine. I would say this method has about a 80-85% success rate, with the 10% being those fish that were wasted by the time they got to the store.

[StevieT]

Nice. So doing this in another tank? I happen to have quite a few. I would imagine to set it up like a QT tank, using water changes to manage the ammonia etc?

[Nick's Reef]

Stevie, you and SDT are making me want a mandarin bad, they're so pretty and if I can't get him to eat he can go live with my dad's feamle that's eating frozen in his 75.

[Greenstar]

Its usually done in the main tank just in one of those breeder style nets (less floor space, less food you have to put in within reason). I am sure it could be accomplished in a small QT tank with good filtration. I rely on a strong skimmer and WC on a more regular interval 2-3 times a week to keep excessive nutrients and decay at bay. But this method has proven highly effective, less involved than the manual hand feeding, generally works quickly, and allows the mandarins to fatten much more quickly. Which ever way you choose I am sure you will be successful

[StevieT]

 

Something like this?

 

I can make something pretty quickly out of acrylic. I could suspend it with suction on a wall to get away from the floor since I have no space there.

 

This seems like a much better idea than a tube and keeps my other fish from eating/stealing the food

 

Do you know how long they can last without eating? Are they like other fish that do not need to be fed every day or are they daily eaters? The reason is while training, I can see them going without food for a few days or up to a week.

[Greenstar]

they can go without food for at least a couple weeks, I believe, though signs of decline can be evident within a few day. They are definitely a fish I would consider as a browser constantly feeding much like tangs.

 

Something like that made out of acrylic, would work quite well.

[StevieT]

Picture Update

 

Wednesday was a pretty slow day. I stuck my hand in to pick out 5-6 zoas that had come loose from new growth. Well 1 hour later I had a reorganized tank and it was much cleaner.

 

I picked out dead pieces of everything, rock, junk shells, SPS coral break offs everything went in the trash. Frags were made and moved around, sand bed was fully cleaned of debris that was accumulating from the past 15 months.

 

The tank looks so much clearer now, I was took out some rock and got access to coralline on the glass, scrapped that crap off. Removed two SPS corals that were being picked apart from the crabs, meaning they were going down hill. Moved a few things around to make room for growth.

 

 

 

Found this worm thing on ricordea island:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made this with zoas that were found on the sand bed

 

 

 

Started with 3 from Petco, now they are all over the place

 

 

I removed most of the orange monti Cap. It had gone downhill the past few months from the purple one overpowering it's light. They may have been fighting as well, either way this will fill it it's place

 

 

 

With Flash

 

[mrnugget]

Looks great, as usual!

[StevieT]

LOL

 

The mandarin eats frozen food. Mysis and Rods.

[got2envy]

Looks great! I wantz your mandarin

 

I like the in tank decal too

[StevieT]

Team Mandarin eating out of feeding tube.

 

Well mostly around it for now but it is a good step, she has been pounding food all day. Plus check out the crazy Mr. Evil crab that is still in my tank. He just man-handles a blue leg hermit.

 

I think the tube has to be shorter, luckily I have plenty of these materials around

 

[Nick's Reef]

Looks very nice Stevie

[Alicia]

Wow Stevie...looks beautiiiful! Love the Mandarin! Good luck with him. I love them too...maybe when my tank matures.

 

I did finally post pics on my RSM thread. My camera isn't that great though...just a digital Canon...so the quality isn't that fab, but thought I'd let you know so you could check out my stand.

 

Also, I sent BlueSky a msg to be added to the RSM tank list.

Have a great night!

[StevieT]

Wow Stevie...looks beautiiiful! Love the Mandarin! Good luck with him. I love them too...maybe when my tank matures.

 

I did finally post pics on my RSM thread. My camera isn't that great though...just a digital Canon...so the quality isn't that fab, but thought I'd let you know so you could check out my stand.

 

Also, I sent BlueSky a msg to be added to the RSM tank list.

Have a great night!

 

 

I did see your updates, just didn't comment, Lanai was doing enough of that

 

I haven't herd from BlueSky for a long time. I don't think that thread has been updated for sometime. I may take it over when I get a chance so we can keep it going on N-R

[Lalani]

I did see your updates, just didn't comment, Lanai was doing enough of that

 

Great pics, Mr. T.

[Khayman]

Stevie

 

Your tank looks amazing. Nice cleaning job. I bet it took alot of time.

[StevieT]

So I get this email last night when I was at a customer's Christmas party. Apparently this Mark guy had nothing to do on his Saturday night but do a post history and pick out the few posts of mine that were helping customers of my products. They also went through all my PMs even though I delete them, and found people asking me info on the products and how to buy. They were asking me, not the other way around.

 

We all know it, they suck, but it finally hit home how much they try to dominate everything you do. I did bring this up on myself, I am sure they didn't like this for an AV

 

 

Reef Central was established for the exchange of information between hobbyists. Unfortunately I had to remove several of your posts because of their commercial content. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the user agreement you agreed to when opening your account on Reef Central. You have a commercial interest in the hobby, and need to refrain from conducting business via Reef Central. This would include posting links, references, pictures, schilling or otherwise posting for personal gain. It is apparent you are utilizing the resources of RC to conduct business via PM. Because of this your account has been placed in a restricted status. This means your email and PM functions have been disabled and you also no longer have access to the selling forums. In addition I noticed your avatar contains a url. This is also not permitted on RC so it has been removed.

 

 

 

Thank you for your understanding,

 

 

 

 

 

Mark

 

RC Moderator

 

I don't konw if a response is wise, but I have a few strategic things I would like to say, one being I will never sponsor on their site after receiving that junk. This does make me appreciate this site even more and the work of CM to keep it open and free to share information.

 

[nckwrn]

Wow, how could they be so meen? I guess displaying a fish tank would be personal gain, because you would gain positive comments, lol.

[mrnugget]

I've never signed up for RC, and now I'm sorta glad I haven't.

 

I think there is a big difference between spam attack ads and someone who has a peripheral product / service reference somewhere in their sig or avatar. As a matter of fact, I'd prefer to see someone have their affilliation clearly laid out - helps to know who you are dealing with, whether they have a personal stake on one hand, but also if they might know what they are talking about.

 

Methinks someone over at RC spent NYE alone this year....