Mercuryne's 28G Algae Farm

[Mercuryne]

Grats Merc:) and to your ammusement Im starting to get green hair algae lol

 

 

Haaa.. damn dude.. I'm going to have to see a photo....

 

You wanna borrow my weed wacker?

 

Good luck.. dont let it get out of hand.. start plucking it now.

[Smurf]

WOW! That mantis looks awesome....

[Mercuryne]

WOW! That mantis looks awesome....

 

Smurf.. yes awesome until he started killing snails and shrimp etc. just couldnt leave him in there.. was afraind he would decimate my system. he's still living, in a five gallon bucket of SW...

trying to decide how im going to give him away.

and to who.

[Smurf]

Smurf.. yes awesome until he started killing snails and shrimp etc. just couldnt leave him in there.. was afraind he would decimate my system. he's still living, in a five gallon bucket of SW...

trying to decide how im going to give him away.

and to who.

 

Thats great you caught him. I didn't mean it was awesome to have him in the tank, I meant its awesome you got the kicker. Lol, I'm also glad you decided to actually "kick him the bucket" in a humane way. I'm sure someone will take him off your hands, just watch your hands as well

[Mercuryne]

Thats great you caught him. I didn't mean it was awesome to have him in the tank, I meant its awesome you got the kicker. Lol, I'm also glad you decided to actually "kick him the bucket" in a humane way. I'm sure someone will take him off your hands, just watch your hands as well

 

laughing.. yes.. hand as well for sure.. i'd hate to have him gig me with that arm of his.. he's so tiny that i dont think it could hurt too bad.. but then i think my little nassarius snails probably thought the same thing.

if he survived the trip from the bottom of the ocean in lord knows where to my tank in Nashville. then i'm guessing he deserves to live...I'll find him a good home.

[Mercuryne]

A few changes over the weekend.. as you read.. Mantis shrimp now lives in a two gallon bucket in my office..

i'm going to post in the classifieds SOON of a contest to GIVE HIM AWAY to someone that's really interested in keeping a mantis tank.

 

Added one more cool chunk of LR over the weekend. its sort of like a hand with fingers. I've had it for a while but never got it into my tank. When i placed it into the tank any color that was still there totally dissapeared in a matter of minutes. I'm sure that the Corraline will return at some point.

 

Also added a DIAMOND GOBY. very interesting fish. My sand was starting to look a little dingy as ive done water changes but hadnt really swept the sand in a couple of weeks.. the little goby instantly dug a huge hole under one of the base rocks for his house then he went to work on the rest of the sand.

 

i hadnt paid much attention to the diamond goby in other threads until now.. By this morning it looked like had filtered every grain of sand through his gills. all clean. amazing little fella.

 

Also bought small lR with one larger red shroom and about ten smaller greenish ones.

 

Photos coming soon.

 

and if your interested in a mantis i'm going to post now.

[Mercuryne]

almost forgot..

 

Went to LFS this past weekend.. picked up two containers of RO and bought a fresh sack of oceanic salt.

 

Came home mixed up five gallons and placed heater and power head in it.. 15 hours later it was STILL cloudy...

 

so based on some advice from a few i threw it out.. didnt want to take a chance .. no reason that it should still be cloudy..

 

so tonight i came home and tried it again. same water.. same salt bag.. SAME RESULT.. i actually spent a lot of time sprinkling the salt into the flow of the Power head. it was sort of clear to begin with . and thirty minutes later.. TOTALLY cloudy...

looks like im returning the salt and trying it again. dont trust CLOUDY salt water...cant be a good thing.

 

anyone else ever had experience with this?

very curious to me.

[Monkfish]

I did have the same issue with IO in my 10g before the switch. Now I use Oceanic and have had no problems and seems to mix alot faster as well.

 

Oceanic

 

Lol NVM you did use that kind

[Sexy Shrimp]

I've found some brands of salt don't dissolve very well in RT water. Have you tried adding a heater to the water for an hour? It will stay dissolved after it has cooled if you make too much.

 

Other option could be Ca precipitation by overdosing the water if you are dosing your new water...

[klarion]

almost forgot..

 

Went to LFS this past weekend.. picked up two containers of RO and bought a fresh sack of oceanic salt.

 

Came home mixed up five gallons and placed heater and power head in it.. 15 hours later it was STILL cloudy...

 

so based on some advice from a few i threw it out.. didnt want to take a chance .. no reason that it should still be cloudy..

 

so tonight i came home and tried it again. same water.. same salt bag.. SAME RESULT.. i actually spent a lot of time sprinkling the salt into the flow of the Power head. it was sort of clear to begin with . and thirty minutes later.. TOTALLY cloudy...

looks like im returning the salt and trying it again. dont trust CLOUDY salt water...cant be a good thing.

 

anyone else ever had experience with this?

very curious to me.

 

I'm guessing it's over concentration of carbonate-bicarbonate and calcium in some salts that causes the cloudiness. In the attempt to provide "enough" of these minerals some manufacturers go overboard and those levels are beyond what would easily dissolve in water. Another possibility is that Calcium is out of balance with Carbonate/Bicarbonate and when they're mixed, it causes precipitation (like people have mentioned).

 

Congratulations on the Mantis Shrimp trap. I wonder how you will determine in a free give away contest who is more dedicated to keeping the mantis......I'm going over to classifieds now to check it out.

[klarion]

I went to see your add and I'm already torn. Don't envy you the job of deciding. Already three qualified candidates. what to do........what to do........

 

 

Edit: Welcome to your new page!!! #9

[Mercuryne]

Yay, success at last!!!

You'd probably get more responses on the free mantis if you just posted a thread on it in the livestock classified forum.

Hey, how far is Clarksville from you?

 

weety, i never answered you about Clarksville..about forty minutesfrom me.. not far.. why? whats up? that where the dog is? need me to make a run for you?

 

P.S. thre new frags are resting quietly in bottom of the algae farm and chaeto releasing pods (maybe) in back of tank.cant wait to see what they look like.

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I'm happy to have "spawn of Weety" behind my glass.... photos coming once they come out to say hey.

[Mercuryne]

I'm guessing it's over concentration of carbonate-bicarbonate and calcium in some salts that causes the cloudiness. In the attempt to provide "enough" of these minerals some manufacturers go overboard and those levels are beyond what would easily dissolve in water. Another possibility is that Calcium is out of balance with Carbonate/Bicarbonate and when they're mixed, it causes precipitation (like people have mentioned).

 

Congratulations on the Mantis Shrimp trap. I wonder how you will determine in a free give away contest who is more dedicated to keeping the mantis......I'm going over to classifieds now to check it out.

 

Klarion good to see you again.

Thanks for the info on the cloudy mix.. you are the first with a scientific explanation. I'm not using it. period.

hoping LFS will take back the faulty salt....

 

my wc is just a few days delayed this week.

Hope you are well...and that your tonga tank is thriving?

[Weetabix7]

weety, i never answered you about Clarksville..about forty minutesfrom me.. not far.. why? whats up? that where the dog is? need me to make a run for you?

 

P.S. thre new frags are resting quietly in bottom of the algae farm and chaeto releasing pods (maybe) in back of tank.cant wait to see what they look like.

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I'm happy to have "spawn of Weety" behind my glass.... photos coming once they come out to say hey.

 

Yeah, that's where the dog is. I was hoping to be able to get him this weekend since I'm gonna be an hour closer to your location in Crossville, but hubby says no doggie for right now.

Glad everything got to you okay, and looking forward to pics.

I'm getting some stuff in myself today, including my new Mighty Mite RO/DI. No more distilled for me!

[Weetabix7]

Spawn of Weety =

 

 

(I just couldn't help myself! )

[Mercuryne]

Yeah, that's where the dog is. I was hoping to be able to get him this weekend since I'm gonna be an hour closer to your location in Crossville, but hubby says no doggie for right now.

Glad everything got to you okay, and looking forward to pics.

I'm getting some stuff in myself today, including my new Mighty Mite RO/DI. No more distilled for me!

 

Ohhhhhhhhh i have clean water envy.. i need to do it just havent researched enough to know what to buy..

you mind me asking how much?

i have an exposed water line in the wall of my garage. i'm thinkin i want to mount the unit on the wall of the garage, out of the way. and put a big 55 gallon container below it with a lid and a put the cleaned water tube down through the lid as to keep dust and stuff out. Just a thought.

 

How and where are you putting your mighty might?

p.s. sorry bout the dog

[Weetabix7]

The Mighty Mite was $113 including shipping charges.

It's a portable countertop unit, so I'll just store it in my "Fishy Cupboard" until I need it, then pull it out and hook it up to the faucet.

See this thread for more info:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=151262&hl=

[Sexy Shrimp]

Damn!! They don't do international orders and you can't get hold of them in the UK! And P&P was $135 on ebay-more than the price of the item!!!!!!!! This is the same seller offering free P&P in the US...Care to do a deal with me

[Weetabix7]

Damn!! They don't do international orders and you can't get hold of them in the UK! And P&P was $135 on ebay-more than the price of the item!!!!!!!! This is the same seller offering free P&P in the US...Care to do a deal with me

 

Actually, I will if you like.

You can buy and have shipped to me, and I'll ship to you for the actual cost of shipping.

I've shipped books internationally before, so I'm not intimidated by that. Just LMK.

[Monkfish]

that looks like a good deal Weetie I might order one.

[Weetabix7]

that looks like a good deal Weetie I might order one.

 

If you give me about 5 days, I'll let you know how mine works. It just got here, but I haven't hooked it up yet.

[Mercuryne]

Good evening everybody...

Just back from a couple of days on the road. Was in atlanta at a show for one of our bands.

Glad to be home.

 

when i arrived this afternoon i found a box on my front step. My 2.18 actinic lighting upgrade for the hood of my 28G nano. As you've read i have the Meal Halide bulb.. 14k and that's obviously great for the coral.

But i felt as thought the tank was a little WHITE with just the MH.

 

So this afternoon I performed the first real Modification of my tank.

 

It took me about an hour and a half as ive never done anything like that before.

Unfortunately my camera battery needed charging so i didnt get pics, but i'll post some of the tank under the new Actinic bulbs later. Unfortunately, as i was drilling the for the power cord of the ballast to go into the canopy i busted one of the little LED moon lights. so i'll have to see if i can find a replacement for it from JBJ unless anybody else knows were to score them?

 

 

I do love the way the coral and LR looks under the Actinic Bulbs.. very blue and all the coral seems to really jump and anything with any neon color at all really stand out. The tips of my branching frog spawn are glowing, and the neon green Candy cane coral are as bright as they can be. I know the Actinic doesnt do anything for growth, but it sure adds to the viewing pleaure of the tank.

Im not sure if JBJ is now selling the nanocube with the Metal Halide AND the Actinic PC bulbs in the hood, but they SHOULD BE. for around 56 bucks and a little elbow grease.. this is a fantastic Mod.

 

Photos coming soon.

[Mercuryne]

SPAWN OF WEETY

 

I made my first online purchase of frags last week. Weetabix was kind enough to allow me to purchase a few small frags from her Prop tank. She sent me three small plugs of Zoa's. the first for my tank and the beginning of my garden.

 

One plug with two polyps of evilMels Green skirts

 

One plug with a single ashley's angel food polyp

 

and

 

One plug with maybe 9 or ten polys of Katara Blue's

 

a nice ball of Chaeto as well.

 

I floated them and slowly acclimated them all and then got them glued down just before going out of town.

None of them were open when i left, but i came home to all three having opened up. really great.. I have two locations for zoas for now. i recently added a new chuck of LR. ok sort of dead now.. i had it and couldnt decide how to fit it into the scape.. it sat out dry for a while so it will have to reseed. It looks sort of like a hand with five or six fingers braching upwards. I placed the angelfood polyp on the highest finger. I will eventually have a different Zoa on each of the fingers up top. should make for an interesting design.

 

Then, towards the bottom of the tank on a large flat rock i placed the other two frags.

This small frag are the Katara Blues that I got from Weetabix.... about 10 tiny bulbs (sorry blurry picture)

I REALLY have to buy the Macro Lens for my SONY cyber shot.

EDIT: (If you look just to the left of the mushroom you will see one single bubble of "bubble Algae" CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW TO GET IT OUT?)

 

 

Evil Mels Green skirts.. these are located on the lower base rock. Essentially the larger garden spot for zoa's

 

 

Anyone know how long it takes them to multiply? and do you know how large they eventually get? they are so small now but i'm guessing they get bigger.

 

THANKS WEETY.. the package was packed well and all arrived very healthy.

Cant wait to get more from you down the road.

[Weetabix7]

Yay, I can't wait to see pics!!!

Actually, all of them are pretty fast growers.

I guess the EvilMel's are probably the fastest, bet their skirts look COOL under your new light mod!!

[Mercuryne]

Yay, I can't wait to see pics!!!

Actually, all of them are pretty fast growers.

I guess the EvilMel's are probably the fastest, bet their skirts look COOL under your new light mod!!

 

Ha.... now how'd you know that?

 

Funny you mention it because i actually had the actinics on for a sunset period after the big MH went out, while i was rocking my son to bed. and although very small, i could see the evil mels glowing from across the room.

 

now .. to decide which zoa's to get for the other Fingers what i'm calling "Zoa finger mountain"