Avalon_Princess Posted June 16, 2008 Author Share Posted June 16, 2008 Uh Hamlets already full grown, he aint gonna get bigger.... He's four inches from nose to the tip of his tail , thats their max size... Link to comment
Thunil Posted June 16, 2008 Share Posted June 16, 2008 Awesome tank. I saw your post on the MASA forums about your dad making you sell your tanks, that really sucks. Is that MH the the $185 one from guppys aquarium products? if it is how do you like it? I've been thinking of getting one of those when (if) i get around to setting up my 10g Cheers, Daniel Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 16, 2008 Author Share Posted June 16, 2008 Yup $185 150w though it was more like $250 as I live so remotely postage costs a tonne, and I bought a spare bulb as well. I really like it compared to the SE DIY MH in my other tank this is just fantastic. It's well constructed and once every things tightened there's no chance of it falling into the tank. The clamp is also quite large so it easily fits over the lip of the aqua one, the only real problem I've found is part of it ends up in the water, as the Aqua One has quite a high water level. I'm not sure what bulb comes with it, but its either 10000K or 14000K its what I'm using at the moment. It arrived well packed, with a ballast then can easily be placed remotely in the stand, theres plenty of cord and it was easy to set up as well. I'm not sure how they'd go on a ten gallon though, their obviously meant to stretch out over a tank, but you can make the clamp go straight up like I have done, it just looks a tad strange, it just depends on the width of a ten gallon, if its only 20 cm wide you might have trouble getting the light to focus just on the tank. And I'd guess it might make the tank top heavy when it doesn't have anything in it. The only other complaint is that since its open top it sends reflections of the waters surface everywhere, so the tank is surrounded in a halo of light for like a metre around it. Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 18, 2008 Author Share Posted June 18, 2008 Hmmm getting rather a lot of alage growth now, just a fine flat green layer on the walls. Have cut down feeding for now to see what happens, I'm only cleaning the front wall though, Hamlets treating it like it's an all you can eat buffet, their a puffer suck marks all over the walls where he's been enjoying the algae, Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 22, 2008 Author Share Posted June 22, 2008 Slight scare yesterday, got a nitrite reading of 0.5 took ages of looking at the tank to realise the little coralline piece of rubble was actually a hitch hiker crab that Hamlet had murdered. The bodies been removed and a large water change done and the nitrites dropped back to 0 overnight. Still having algae troubles, and I was getting an aweful scum on the surface, so I dug out two more filter/powerheads to deal with it. Elite mini filters come with this little dohickey part for the output which makes the flow spread out, so I've put one of those in with doohickey pointing upwards to keep the surface moving, it adds another 220/lph an hour. The Torch also looked like it would prefer some extra flow, so have added in another powerhead aimed at a rock that had cyano and the rebound flow goes across the torch, it also adds another 200l/ph. I've got one last powerhead to stick in, but will have to wait until the corals in the big tank go, then I'll add in the 600l/ph powerhead to ensure theres plenty circulation which will take it to about 30 times turn over and hour, though I can turn down some pumps so its not a total whirlpool... Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 25, 2008 Author Share Posted June 25, 2008 Well I got some more corals earlier then expected. This weekend my fave LFS had a huge sale on, we didn't bother going as from what other reefers said the place was total chaos, but we went today and there were a heap of sales as they tried to move on the last of the livestock. The coral tanks were frag heaven, as bits of corals were everywhere, obviously broken off by some careless employee. So I picked up 4 blasto frags, each with a few polyps for $5, and some random thing which may be blasto, or may be something else, will see when it extends. I also got a brandhing pink sun coral frag with 8 or so small polyps for $5, and a decent sized open brain, 5 cm across for $15 marked down from $40. Plus we had a $5 voucher so $20 for 5 frags and a brain, pretty cool. Pics once their acclimated! Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 25, 2008 Author Share Posted June 25, 2008 FTS, the Blastos are dotted along the top rocks, tucked into holes so they look like they emerge from the rocks. The Sun coral is to the right of the large sun coral, tucked under the rocky overhand, and the open brain is in the bottom right Brain Blasto Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 27, 2008 Author Share Posted June 27, 2008 Well my Puffer decided he didn't like the brain and proceeded to try and eat it, I've moved it into a separate tank and will take it to a petstore on Monday, The other corals are doing fine though. Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 29, 2008 Author Share Posted June 29, 2008 I've done some more work on the nano, will post pics in a few minutes. Since hamlet obviously does need entertainment I'm going to dig up some small pieces of rubble for him to move around, as his favourite two things at the moment are covering the sun coral in sand and moving my frags, neither of which I really appreciate LOL. So anyway I've removed the two large shells, as now the tanks full of liverock it they just look kinda silly, I've also attached the blasto frags to a piece of rubble as it's Hamlet's interior decorating is getting irritating. I've also added a final powerhead a 450l/ph pump as theirs one last bit of cyano in an area I can't really aim a powerhead at, but we'll see how it goes. I've also syphoned off all the cyano and done another small water change. I'm still having trouble with algae and it doesn't help Hamlet keeps pruning the macro that's in there, but because of the sun corals that tank is fed fairly heavily, a cube of frozen food every two days, and i don't really want to use chemicals so I think I'm just gonna have to pt up with the algae, its definitely slowing down though, and there is a piece of aqua one phospad in there which seems to help. I've also been working out where things will go, so will post some more detailed pics in a few mins... Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 29, 2008 Author Share Posted June 29, 2008 FTS, I've kinda hemmed the Torch in to lessen the extent of its sweepers, though it hasn'ta actually put any sweepers out since I got it Torch coral Blasto Rock, It won't be staying on the sand, its just sitting there while the putty cures Branching Sun Coral Large Sun Coral Hamlet An enlarged version of the FTS, with my plan for corals 1. Torch Coral with 5 Heads 2. Large Sun Coral 3. Rock with Mushrooms on it 4. Blastomussa Wellsi 5, Small Branching Sun Coral 6. Rock with Blastomussa Frags on it 7. Candy Cane Coral with a few polyps 8. Small Bubble Coral or Small Frogspawn 9. Zoanthids 10. Ricordea or Zoanthids 11. Acropora 12. Closed Brain elevated on rock rubble Well that's the plan anyway, what do you think? Link to comment
Kraylen Posted June 29, 2008 Share Posted June 29, 2008 Looking awesome... puffers are so awesome. Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 30, 2008 Author Share Posted June 30, 2008 Just got back from the store, have to say having $100 credit I ahve to spend becayuse I'll never be at the store again is a real pleasure LOL. The people were great as well, gave me some fantastic deals and even gave me some free corals as well. So i came home with five corals in all, a black sun coral for free, yet another species of orange sun coral for free, a goniopora, reduced by 75%, unsure on species, a duncan with a good 30 polyps for $30, and a frogspawn with two heads for $35. I know gonis are hard to keep, but the guy gave it to me for $10 as the coral had some die off, so I'm gonna see what i can do for it. I'm really happy with what I got though, wasn't what i had planned on buying, but they were too nice to resist LOL. I also picked up a calcium and an alkalinity test kit, they didn't ahve any magnesium or phosphate ones for sale. pics a bit later when the corals settle in. Link to comment
Mr.Pickles Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 Just got back from the store, have to say having $100 credit I ahve to spend becayuse I'll never be at the store again is a real pleasure LOL. The people were great as well, gave me some fantastic deals and even gave me some free corals as well. So i came home with five corals in all, a black sun coral for free, yet another species of orange sun coral for free, a goniopora, reduced by 75%, unsure on species, a duncan with a good 30 polyps for $30, and a frogspawn with two heads for $35. I know gonis are hard to keep, but the guy gave it to me for $10 as the coral had some die off, so I'm gonna see what i can do for it. I'm really happy with what I got though, wasn't what i had planned on buying, but they were too nice to resist LOL. I also picked up a calcium and an alkalinity test kit, they didn't ahve any magnesium or phosphate ones for sale. pics a bit later when the corals settle in. Your so lucky, i never get deals! have fun feeding all your polyps too! Need more pics! Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 30, 2008 Author Share Posted June 30, 2008 Well I'm pretty sure the store owner is laughing his head off as well LOL. My parents wanted me to at least switch of the lights on my big tank hence why the corals went to the store, and they really are amazing corals, the toadstool alone stood over a foot tall with a cap over a foot in diameter, then there was a basketball sized hunk of rock covered in blastomussa merleti and a few other pieces. And I guess he's nicer then most people as he gave me some nice corals in return. I'm particularly pleased over the black sun coral, I've been searching for one for ages, and to just have it fall into my lap... It seems a really nice store they contacted me when I first posted ads trying rather desperately to rehome the coral, and their the first store keepers who haven't either a totally ignored me because I'm 16 or b sneared at me like my LFS staff do because I'm 16 so what should I know. Well i've finally tested the alkalinity and calcium in my tank and its a tad screwy. Calcium is at 480ppm which seems really high and alkalinity is really low at 80ppm. I'm gonna see if i can find how to dose with bicarb soda so I can at least bring the alk up and will be looking for some good supplements as well. I', surprised at the calcium though i don't use a premium salt brand, nor do I have anything in the tank that would produce calcium, oh well from what I've read high calcium won't hurt corals. So still on my shopping list are: Corals- zoanthids, ricordea, shrooms, blastomussa wellsi and a closed brain Equipment- magnesium test kit, high quality coral food for the goni, good additive, phosphate test kit Will take some pics in a few mins, though not all have opened... Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted June 30, 2008 Author Share Posted June 30, 2008 FTS with lots of annoyed corals. The new orange sun coral is the small sun coral to the left of the big colony Goni, it opened literally 20 seconds after being placed in the tank, I'd just cleaned the glass and it looks like its eating the algae that I cleaned off? the algaes some sort of microscopic green stuff that turns into puffs of green when its wiped off. I'm gonna try a few foods with it and see what it likes, I'd rather not buy more as I've read about people doing well feeding the juice from crushed brine shrimp etc, but think I might get some cyclopeeze as well. A very very very irritated Frosgpawn, it was fully extended at the store so I guess it just didn't like being bagged. My absolute treasure the black sun coral, it means I'll probably be staying up really late to feed it but hopefully i can get it happy and get the polyps to fill out a bit. The guy gave it to me because the sun corals just weren't selling and he didn't have time to feed them Duncan, I've never seen these guys before and from what i've read their pretty rare, and meant to be expensive? but then again they do come from here so obviously they'd be cheaper LOL. I got this for $30 though its not very extended at the moment. Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted July 1, 2008 Author Share Posted July 1, 2008 Okay so I've begun work on the two new sun corals. like most sun corals sold in my area they've both obviously been in the wholesalers tanks way to long without food. Although normally with my sun corals i just feed them in the tank, neither of these guys are extending so I've been removing them from the tank in a bowl of water and placing a mysis shrimp on each mouth. The first feeding they both ate small amounts but no extension but i just finished with the second feeding and both corals had small extensions on most polyps. So I'm going to keep up with two or three times daily feedings outside the tank until both are extending when in the tank, then will revert to my normal feeding regime. As for the other corals, heres some random pics of them extended or beginning to extend, no pics of the sun corals as the flash (its nightime) would certainly make them regurgitate. Duncan Frogspawn Goni Blasto FTS New plan for the tank . Torch Coral 2. Mushrooms 3. Blastomussa wellsi 4. Branching Sun Coral 5. Black Sun Coral 6. Blastomussa merleti 7. Goniopora 8. Zoanthids 9. Duncan 10. Frogspawn 11. Ricordea 12. Either Dendros or a closed brain elevated on a rock 13. Small Sun Coral 14. Large Sun Coral I'm fairly sure I'm talking to myself, but if I'm not what do you think of the tank currently? any opinions on my plan? Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 Just fed the two sun corals again, the black sun coral is definitely doing better its loosing its hollow look and rather then polyps being empty cylinders the mouth is coming back up to the top, hopefully with some more feedings we'll get some proper extension. The yellow coral is doing okay as well, it was worse then the black sun coral, alot of the polyps had receded to the point they were flat pieces of flesh on the skeleton but their eating and plumping out as well. Link to comment
clownfish1124 Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 That's a lot of LPS! i love them all, but i cant get lps because of sweepers and feeding requirements. Good luck with the puffer, i've always wanted a valentini! Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 Sweepers arent that much of a problem. I've found if theirs no corals near enough for the LPS with its normal corals to sense, then it aint gonna send out sweepers. Most LPS don't ahve sweepers either, mainly just the Euphyllias and bubble corals. My sun corals, blasto and duncan all don't have sweepers and can be kept fairly close together as long as their polyps don't touch. Feeding aint hard either, granted I do more then most because of the sun corals but pouring a cube of frozen food into the tank once a week will easily give all the corals something to eat. Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 Just ed the sun corals once again. tried a new mix this time. I buy a bag of mixed seafood for hamlet and I turned some of into a lumpy paste, seemed to get a much quicker feeding response when I mixed it into the mysis. So the corals have had two feedings yesterday and three today, obviously outside the tank so the nitrates don't go sky high. So far still no extensions but their obviously hungry so maybe after a few more feedings they'll have the energy to extend their polyps and make this whole feeding think way easier LOL. Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 Just went down to have a look with a torch, as the lighst went out about four hours ago and the orange sun has extended all its polyps. its not very far just a ringe of stubbly tentacles on each polyp but its a start. the Black coral had a few rings of tnetacles as well. Oh and are valentini puffers meant to sucker themselves upside down under ledges and turn blue when they sleep? Hamlets normally black stripes are nearly turquoise blue and he's totally upside down in the sun coral cave, attached to the ceiling. Tis very strange LOL. Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted July 3, 2008 Author Share Posted July 3, 2008 Just added some more LR taking the total up to 11.5 kg or 25 lbs. Just thought I'd update my lists. Equipment 150w HQI Clip on Metal Halide 950l/ph filter, only used for things like phospad and when waters murky 450l/ph powerhead 200l/ph powerhead 250l/ph powerhead Which gives 28 times turn over per hour Skimmer rated for a 350l tank, pulls a fair amount of gunk out 2 x 25w heaters, just in case one stops working 11.5 Kg of rock or 25lbs Gutted Aqua one 500 65l/17g tank Fish 1 x Valentini Puffer Canthigaster valentini Corals 1 x Small Sun Coral, maybe T. faulkneri 1 x Branching Sun Coral, probably T. coccinea 1 x Large Sun Coral, probably T. faulkneri 1 x Small Black Sun Coral T. micrantha 4 x Blastomussa merleti Frags 1 x Duncan Coral Duncanopsammia axifuga 1 x Torch Coral Euphyllia glabrescens 1 x Frogspawn Coral Euphyllia divisa 1 x Goniopora Probably Goniopora lobata I'd still like to add five or so more corals and the ones I'm thinking of are ricordea, mushrooms, zoanthids, closed brain, dendros, hammer, maze, favia or maybe a moon coral. The frogspawn also isn't doing well, there's still virtually no extension, its getting good light and I've tried feeding it but not sure if it'll make it, as it has been a few days now and its still not coming out. The sun corals are doing well though and hopefully if they keep feeding well, even though its a PITA to do they should be extending soon so i can feed them normally. Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 Pics, I'm sorry about the FTS's I just can't get the shutter speed/exposure right so that all the corals are seen, its either the Duncan and Torch are white blurs or the sun corals are invisible. Fluorescent corals are annoying to photograph LOL. FTS Duncan from the side Duncan from the top Black sun coral feeding Black sun coral in the tank Goni from the top Torch from the top Hamlet Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 Well had a busy morning, went back to check the sun corals and found that Hamlet was in the middle of cutting the polyps in half to access the food in the stomach, he'd also removed three Duncan polyps. So i spent the morning rearranging tanks and Hamlet will now be residing in very simple 32g tank with an AquaClear 50, a 100w heater and all the tacky fake marine decorations people keep giving me. I'll be running it as a Fish Only and just have him in it, I can't afford more LR my parent would kill me, the only reason they won't freak over this is I already had this particular tank set up and running, as an apple snail breeding tank but the apple snails and eggs have moved to my tropical 55 and Hamlet will be getting the tank. It's all set yup but i had to use my emergency saltwater so it's nowhere near the right temp, until it is Hamlets in a plastic box in the reef that he can't get out of. I won't be getting any more fish for a while, will just run the tank with corals, as my parents want me to stop spending for a while, but I think I'll just get a clown goby or something small next time. Link to comment
Avalon_Princess Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 Well heres Hamlets new tank, since he isn't able to behave. And yes its tacky and yes I'll be making it tackier LOL. The decorations are mainly from second hand tanks I've picked up, though a few of the worse ones have been presents from friends LOL. hamlet managed to wreck his acclimatisation by jumping out of the container he was in, into the tank so I'll be keeping an eye on him. Link to comment
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