opy01 Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 why dont you recommend sea grass to a beginner? Mine died real fast and released all the phosphates and crap back into the water causing a ciano outbreak. Caulerpa prolifera or cheato is the best one to start out with IMO. The cheato is easy and needs no maintenence while the caulerpa prolifera is fast frowing and easy but needs trimming from time to time. Just be careful because the caulerpa (any kind) will die off releasing the unwanted crap back into the water. If it looks like it is turning clear then pluck it imediately. Link to comment
MGDMIRAGE Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Mine died real fast and released all the phosphates and crap back into the water causing a ciano outbreak. Caulerpa prolifera or cheato is the best one to start out with IMO. The cheato is easy and needs no maintenence while the caulerpa prolifera is fast frowing and easy but needs trimming from time to time. Just be careful because the caulerpa (any kind) will die off releasing the unwanted crap back into the water. If it looks like it is turning clear then pluck it imediately. Cyano ya mean?.. Ciano just sounds like a spanish algae?. I have to admit, i always loved the look of your fuge although it looked overly complex and i totally didn't understand it, great werk! Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 Cyano ya mean?.. Ciano just sounds like a spanish algae?. I have to admit, i always loved the look of your fuge although it looked overly complex and i totally didn't understand it, great werk! Yea, my spanish is a bit rusty lol. It was great in the theory part but you are right, it is overly complicated for what I ended up with lol. The main advantage to it is the macro is in front to hide the pump and soon to be HOB skimmer. The theory of the bio-balls in one area and macro in another was sound, if it was a fresh water tank. But as alot of people mentioned the bio-balls are great for freshwater but are just a nitrate factoryt in SW. I need to take a current pic now that it is almost filled in with caulerpa. Link to comment
MGDMIRAGE Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Yea, my spanish is a bit rusty lol. It was great in the theory part but you are right, it is overly complicated for what I ended up with lol. The main advantage to it is the macro is in front to hide the pump and soon to be HOB skimmer. The theory of the bio-balls in one area and macro in another was sound, if it was a fresh water tank. But as alot of people mentioned the bio-balls are great for freshwater but are just a nitrate factoryt in SW. I need to take a current pic now that it is almost filled in with caulerpa. It's still an awesome concept and your pictures are great! Almost everything we as reefers do is a work in progress. live and learn. Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 Almost everything we as reefers do is a work in progress. live and learn. Isn't that the truth! Especialy when I am a DIYer and have to do everything over the top lol. Link to comment
MGDMIRAGE Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Isn't that the truth! Especialy when I am a DIYer and have to do everything over the top lol. True! everything on this sight is a competition, and don't forget it! Every new thread is a "I dare you to do better". Do something crazy and unique or be forgotten Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 True! everything on this sight is a competition, and don't forget it!Every new thread is a "I dare you to do better". Do something crazy and unique or be forgotten No wonder I have been forgotten . Other than my first SW tank being a 10G and my DIY fuge/sump I havent done much unique or crazy stuff. Well unless you count sitting up at work all night watching the same stupid screen locking up at "setup is starting windows". I am about to do something crazy! Link to comment
BlueAbyss Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I've read that seagrass needs a mature, deep sandbed (at least 6 months old, and 6" deep for Turtle grass, 3-4" for Oar and Star grass). Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 Well that would explain why my grass died and also confirm my warning about it not being a good beginner macro. Mine was put directly into fresh live sand about a week after the sand was added to the fuge. Link to comment
deepdvnarq Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Thanks! I had a blast and I take about 250-300 pics every time I go lol. The hardest part is going through and picking the good ones. The second to last turned out way better than I thought it would. That one was also to only one I edited and I only lightened it up some. The rest were only cropped and resized to make it easy to download. Now to pick out my birthday preasent from my wife. I am thinking about an onyx clown and couple of chalices or a ric. I havent seen many affordable chalices I like though. I am at work trying to restore a stupid server so while I wait for it to fail booting for a 10th time I was looking at this ric. What do you think? i like the orange ric. i wonder what it will morph into. the ric i currently have in the tank was a dark blue in my brother's tank. after a week, it color morphed into the lighter blue with the teal green skirt on the edges. same thing happened to my tri colored ric. (that reminds me, i have to grab it behind the flame algea and rock but it always seems to go back into that spot. do you know Mr coral has 14 rics for $99! i am thinking about getting that Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 As tempting as that is I dont have room for 14 rics lol. It is a heck of a deal though. Actually this site has a couple that I may order tomorrow... er, today http://coralmorphologic.com. They also have a good deal on shipping right now too. Link to comment
deepdvnarq Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 yeah they have some really nice zoas on there i want to get. i'm waiting on atlantis reef to get back to me for compesation of a prior deal that has gone south. hope he comes through. i hope you dont get the ones i want! Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 Nope, there is one WYSIWYG ric and one ric that they have 19 of so chances are I shouldnt get the one you want. I do emphasize the word shouldnt though lol. The coolest thing just happened. I am up here at work, because I am an idiot, working on this stupid server and I looked ofer and saw my pep shrimp on the rock. The only thing is he didnt look right. He looked... invisible. He was swaying back and forth as usual so I didnt think much of it but the more I looke the less he looked, well, alive. The closer I got the more I could see that there were no guts until I saw where the skin was split and there was nothing inside. Sure enough he was below the rock and his skin was on the side of the rock swaying in the current lol. Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Edit - nevermind I should learn to read the pages... I guess you figured out your mystery "snail" - . nice setup for a FW guy. Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 19, 2009 Author Share Posted August 19, 2009 Thanks. I read your post right before you edit it lol. I have done the same thing lol. I just got 4 rics in from Coral Morphologic, 2 for this tank and 2 for my office tank, and they all look 100% awesome! I need to get FTS today and some pics of the rics. Those will have to wait till my new macro lense gets here though. My other one was slow and had external focus so every time I tried to focus on something in the tank and I was too close it would jit the glass. The new one has internal focus and its super fast too. I also have the skimmer, overflow and refractometer coming in this week so I will be super busy on my tank. Link to comment
deepdvnarq Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 happy belated birthday dude! Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 20, 2009 Author Share Posted August 20, 2009 Thanks dude! I am waiting till this weekend to get my last birthday preasent. My wife is buying me an onyx clown. I should have my new overflow and skimmer installed so there will be more room and cleaner water before he get in. I've already put in 43+ hours this week so i am going to try to take off Friday, or at least most of the day, and get everything set up. It's going to be another all-nighter I think so no pics of the new rics yet. Tomorrow hopefully I can get some. Worst case I will bring my small camera to work and get the two in the office tank. Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 24, 2009 Author Share Posted August 24, 2009 Well after last week I needed a long weekend so I didnt do anything at all from Friday at noon to last night... except play with my tanks lol. I went and got another rock with some orange zoas and a couple of shrooms on it and I finaly got my fish. I got one fish on Saturday and went back for a second on Sunday because the first looked lonely. Everyone thought I would name the first one Nemo since I love that movie but it just didnt fit. I decided since he was black to call him Emo. My wife then named the second one Evo. They are eating alot of the pods floating around but havent eaten anything else I have added. These are two of my rics I got last week from Coral Morphologic. The other two are in my office tank that I need to get good pics of. These pics just dont do them justice. I need my new lens in to get some really good shots. Link to comment
ribbie Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 nice onyx's i love the rics man that'll be my next coral aquisition. Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 24, 2009 Author Share Posted August 24, 2009 Thanks. Those rics are fricken awesome! I have one on a piece of large rubble that I want to glue to my center rock on the front but the rest either aren't attached to anything or the rubble is extremely tiny. Those seem to be content on the sand. This weekend I decided to do some much needed renovations with a couple of my coral up at my office. The main thing was the anthelia rock in the hatchery. I was tired of looking at it in the back of my tank and explaining to people why it was in there so I took it out and was going to chissle some of the rock off with anthelia on it. It was a little easier than I though, I just stuck the crewdriver in one spot and an entire chunk popped off with most of the anthelia. It must have been some old dead coral or something. I now have two small pieces of rock with anthelia on them in the hatchery floating at the top waiting for them to spread to other rubble. I also wanted help my brittle star out of the rock I it was in, I think it outgrew the hole but you never know, so this morning I used a dremel to cut a slit in the rock then I popped the top off. The hole went alot further down than I thought so I started cutting another slot to break a little more off and the star came on out. It is now in the hatchery with some other rubble and the anthelia where it took residence in a much larger hole. I am bringing the camera up here this week so hopefully I will get pics on Wednesday. Link to comment
BlueAbyss Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Looking great man, those are some nice clowns and rics! I love the color of those rics! I looked at some in the city but they were too expensive for my current taste. Link to comment
opy01 Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 Hello all. I've been AFK for about a week due to work getting in the way of my posting time so now for some catchup posting and reading. The clowns and rics all seem to be happy. The clowns are eating like crazy and they love the mysis shrimp. I thought the shrimp would be too big but each guy can eat 2 per feeding then the emerald, nassarius and hermits get the rest of the mysis, brine and cyclop-eeze that the clowns miss. The eat 2-3 times a day. I was curious to see what the feeding would do to my nitrates but they only went from 10 up to 20 so that isnt too bad. I am still adjusting my skimmer so hopefully by the end of the week to will be dialed in pretty good and romove more skim than water. After installing the skimmer the GHA seemed to go away pretty quick although I get some ciano in my fuge from time to time. The GSP is starting to spread in both tanks and my shrooms are growing pretty fast also. One that I tried to move onto another rock ended up leaving a small part on the rock it was on and now I have a baby shroom there, good thing I like that color of it lol. The most impressive is the monti is actually growing. I was kind of nervous about it with the LED setup but it seems to be spreading out to the edges of the plug it's on so in another month it should be completely covered. As far as my office tank goes, I lost my pep shrimp to my CPR HOB fuge/skimmer sometime between Thursday and Friday. Thats my second pep shrimp I lost to stupidity on their part. I dont think I will get another one of those shrimp. He did kind of bother my rics though so maybe this was no accident. I brought my camera up to work this weekend to get some good fts of it but I then got inspired to move most of my shrooms onto the big rock and spread them out some. I spent the entire time working on that and by the time I was done there was so much crap floating around I didnt get to take pics. I will try to remember to bring the camera in the morning. No new coral since the rics but I did get a new overflow and skimmer so I had fun putting those in. The overflow I got for the house tank is the S90 Siphon Aquarium Overflow Box 600g. It does a great job but it sucks alot of air bubble into the siphon part and eventually you end up slowing your flow down with a huge air pocket. I chose to buy the one without the pump and I am just now ordering the dosing pump used with it after a near miss with a flooding insident this weekend. I am impressed with the Bak-pak 2+ but I did have to buy the bubble traps for it. The internal bubble trap had to be modded to fit since it was not made for the one I got but it helps some. The external one is the one that does most of the work. I put the sock that came with the skimmer on the outlet and then put that in the external bubble trap and there are hardly any bubble now. The bubbles I have are just from a design flaw in my home made sump/fuge. Working with the Bak-pak 2+ actually inspired me to upgrade the powerhead of my CPR HOB fuge/Bak-pak I got for my office tank. It sat all weekend and I only had about 1/4" of skim to wash out and my nitrates are between 10-20 so I am getting the CPR Accela pump in hopes to increase the crap I skim out. Well that about sums up my past week or so of reefing, now off to troll the forums . Link to comment
opy01 Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 ok time for some quick pics FTS of my home tank FTS of my office tank The rock on the left is my shroom rock and the one on the right is my zoa rock. Not sure what to do in the middle. Rics in my office some random sps that survived the anthelia destruction with my red mithrix crap annoying it and one of my first shrooms to split... and it survived! Suprisingly it now has a shroom that split off of it. Link to comment
got2envy Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Nice pix and update! The LED's are really kewl...I need to learn to DIY Link to comment
opy01 Posted September 2, 2009 Author Share Posted September 2, 2009 Nice pix and update! The LED's are really kewl...I need to learn to DIY Thanks. Maybe we can work a trade, you buy the LED parts and I will build it for you in trade for some nice frags . There are times that my wife wishes I didn't DIY, sometimes it costs more than just buying it ... but thats just not near as fun . I do have a blast building things though, it's just that sometimes it takes me a loooooong time. Here is Cornelious before the cabinet was done. I will have to look for a pic of Caspian, he was the sickly one and now he is an amputee (missing one back leg and no tail ). Link to comment
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