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Pickle010

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Always something, isn't it?

 

 

Yeah... now the waiting game begins.... 4 boxes of salt standing by while I'm waiting on parts to arrive. I was hoping to have it running this weekend but it looks like next weekend is the soonest I'll be able to get it going.

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So I think I won the battle with my Reeflo last night. I just couldn't figure out one of the bushings that was included with the seal kit - threw me for a loop since there wasn't one on the pump when I pulled it apart and none of the instructions / diagrams or video I could find had any detail on the direction it needed to be installed. Anyhow, I got it all back together and plumbed back in to the sump - couldn't beleive the difference in flow the new impeller gave me. At first I didn't see much difference in the dart impeller versus the snapper impeller except for some slightly larger intake blades. I guess they make all the difference in the world because it is throwing out some serious water volume right now.

 

Now to drain the test water out of the sump and start loading up with some fresh wet salty water so I can get this beast cycling. The parts to finish my fluidized sand filter will be in tomorrow - I got my 6 foot of 6" PVC no problem but muy local irragation supply had to special order the caps and T-fitting that will supply water to the ATS system. I guess not many people need 6" PVC fittings.

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LOL! I can imagine their faces when you told them what you are doing with it!

 

 

You have no idea - I live smack in the middle of farm country california - I'm surrounded by groves of fruit and nuts as well as acre after acre of dairy and farm land - So I just keep it really simple and say it's a really big fish tank. Anything else just doesn't compute to them.

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IMG_1418.jpg

 

IMG_1419.jpg

 

Pickles.....

is there any reason why you didnt go with plastic conduit?

that way you dont have rust running down your walls in a year from the moisture/humidity in the room rusting away at your pipes and boxes?

Plastic isnt much more except maybe the junction boxes...... and it would be more sealed and less prone to rust/decay

 

Any new update?

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Pickles.....

is there any reason why you didnt go with plastic conduit?

that way you dont have rust running down your walls in a year from the moisture/humidity in the room rusting away at your pipes and boxes?

Plastic isnt much more except maybe the junction boxes...... and it would be more sealed and less prone to rust/decay

 

Any new update?

 

 

Actually cost difference was significant - by the time you factor in the cost of each box and cover - I opted to go with the standard stuff and treat it - I know maintenance will be more down the road but I'm on a budget. I also sealed each box so the hope is that it holds up for a few years until I can get to the next phase of my grow out.

 

Currently I'm just water testing my pump... painted all the bottoms of my tubs white with krylon and just have the pump running back into my sump. Tonight I hope to have water running into the tubs and leak test my returns and overflows so that by this weekend I can drain and then start refilling the system with clean water.

Edited by Pickle010
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Congrats! How did the painting of the bottom of the tubs go?

 

 

Wish I had done it before I plumbed them - that's for sure - luckily I had a respirataor and could knock them out. I would of been better off doing them outside before I brought them into the fish room. But it was an after thought and I wasn't about to break them down now to paint them. The krylon fusion looks like it's going to the job though.

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Great conversation today with the pool supply guy as I was picking up sand for my fluidized sand bed.

 

Pool Guy - How big is your pool? Bring in your water we'll test it.

Me - It's a fish tank.

Pool Guy - How big? We can test your water.

Me - 600g

Pool Guy - so it's a pond - bring in your water we'll test it.

Me - No... it's a fish tank.

Pool Guy - what kind of fish tank? Bring in your water we'll test it.

Me. It's Salt water

Pool Guy - What do you keep in salt water?

Me - Sharks

Pool Guy - Bring in your water we'll test it.

Me - no.

 

I don't think he ever got it - but I wasn't wanting to get into either.

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baileybum1234

Hi guys,

 

Just reading the great thread (im upto page 113). I have had to jump ahead and ask some questions. I have a dozen GSM fry at 2 day old. Its my 4th batch so still learning what works and not winning at the moment.

 

Normally I can keep the fry for a few days buy just cant get them to strike the food.

 

Im limited to what foods are available here in the UK but use roti-ritch to raise rottifers and consentrated nano to spike fry tank.

 

I have tried a million ways to angle the light and tried 4 different lights. I have made a 10g tank with black sides and white bottom.

 

Bangi were easy compared to this.

 

Cracking thread and full of gread info thankyou.

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Hey Bailey - Welcome to the madness... I have a shorter cliffs notes version of a lot of what I do sticky'd at the top of this aquaculture forum as well.

 

As for lighting - I use a standard PC tank light that stretches across the entire tank. I just keep my water tinted dark and it works fine.

 

Nutrition is a major factor - I'd research the roti-rich and also the diet you are feeding your pair. A well fed pair makes raising fry much easier.

 

Now... You are raising GSM's correct? How many are you starting with in how big of a tank? I never had luck with the GSM's until I split the hatches. The water quality was just too hard to control with a full hatch in a small tank.

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baileybum1234
Hey Bailey - Welcome to the madness... I have a shorter cliffs notes version of a lot of what I do sticky'd at the top of this aquaculture forum as well.

 

As for lighting - I use a standard PC tank light that stretches across the entire tank. I just keep my water tinted dark and it works fine.

 

Nutrition is a major factor - I'd research the roti-rich and also the diet you are feeding your pair. A well fed pair makes raising fry much easier.

 

Now... You are raising GSM's correct? How many are you starting with in how big of a tank? I never had luck with the GSM's until I split the hatches. The water quality was just too hard to control with a full hatch in a small tank.

 

Hi Pickle, thanks for getting back to me god only knows what the time is there. I have a Gold Stripe Maroon pair. I feed them, meety pellets alternate days and thawed mussel, squid and prawn the other day. The roti-ritch is probably the best we can get over here, I am joining a group that are planning to get a bulk order togeather of the rotigrow and rotigreen omega. Im getting 200ml of roti grow and 100ml of roti green not alot but a start.

 

I am using a larval snagger in my mixed reef and last hatch only managed about 12-20 I wanted to just try to raise them to learn. I have a 10 gallon tank like has been suggested on here. Its about 2 inches full of perent water tinted green. Im just planning to dose some fresh mixed salt water at .20

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Right off the lower amount of water you keep in the larvae tank stands out. With Rots and Larvae it may be difficult to balance your oxygen levels. Anytime you have a small number of fry keeping the rotifer count in the larvae tank in balance becomes more of a struggle - limited fry = growing rotifer counts which winds up being competition for the fry for air.

 

I'd start with more water, about half the tank and run the air flow higher. Then be ready to do water changes to remove rots if the density gets too high.

 

Also - I don't know if it has affected your hatches but feeding too much shrimp in your brood stock diet can make the eggs harder and make it more difficult for the fry to hatch. Many could be expending too much energy breaking out of the eggs and getting off to a rough start.

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baileybum1234
Right off the lower amount of water you keep in the larvae tank stands out. With Rots and Larvae it may be difficult to balance your oxygen levels. Anytime you have a small number of fry keeping the rotifer count in the larvae tank in balance becomes more of a struggle - limited fry = growing rotifer counts which winds up being competition for the fry for air.

 

I'd start with more water, about half the tank and run the air flow higher. Then be ready to do water changes to remove rots if the density gets too high.

 

Also - I don't know if it has affected your hatches but feeding too much shrimp in your brood stock diet can make the eggs harder and make it more difficult for the fry to hatch. Many could be expending too much energy breaking out of the eggs and getting off to a rough start.

 

Whole batch lost day 3.

 

Ok my hatch always goes over 2 nights and makes it aukward.

 

I am careful with prawn I have read that too.

 

Things I did wrong:

 

I removed water thinking it would improve lighting and they started swimming funny and perished over night, I would assume this was due to Oxygen like you have said Pickle.

 

I have been adjusting the temperature from 23oC to 26oC.

 

I was doing a water change constant drip with fresh mixed salt water and RO over night.

 

gutted, I spent ages getting ready for this hatch.

 

What do people do with the rotty cultures while there waiting for the next hatch?

 

Loving this place already just some where I can get some answers. Thankyou.

 

Jarrett

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Jarret -

 

As you've been reading this thread I'm sure you noticed I'm no stranger to mistakes. It's a part of the learning process.

 

I've noticed that my fry do develop faster in the higher temp ranges. The temps along with nutrition make a major differnce in development. One of my first hatch went over 2 weeks before hitting meta and it wasn't until I raised my temps a bit and introduced a quality fry food that they actually started to show stripes at all. My current hatches hit meta within 6 - 7 days.

 

As for your lighting - keep in mind that having bright and dark spots in the water is beneficial - if you pull too much water the fry have no place to hide or find refuge if they are intimidated by the light and may only add to the stress. As I mentioned I light the entire width of the tank but the depth of the water and tinting helps the fry find refuge from the light if they want it. That combined with the competition for oxygen would sure be a dangerous combination.

 

I'd have you take a good look at your brood stock water quality. It really needs to be pristine - remember that the water quality will quickly deteriorate in the larvae tanks and that will only happen faster if the water you are starting with isn't the best you can start with.

 

As for the air flow - most reading I've done states to use a slow air flow for the fry - I've found that my fry do better with moderate or even higher flow of air.

 

And to the question about Rots - I keep them going year round. Although I'm hatching constantly as well. You could be better off restarting your cultures prior to hatches if you only plan to attempt to hatch occassionaly - but that would depend on cost and availability. I'd consider how often I plan on hatching and the cost / time associated with maintaining the culture versus ordering new rots when you are ready to go again.

 

It sounds like you are on the right track - I'll be looking forward to hearing about your progress on future attempts!

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hooligan_78

Bailey, for rot cultures between hatches, I just them them out by straining them and taking aout a gallon of bad water and adding new water about once a week. Everyone does something different, but I'm lazy!

 

As Pickle pointed out, less water and more air. I was having the same thing happen where all my fry would be doing great, then all but a few would just drop dead by day 3. I basically started tinting the water, very dark. Almost could not see through it at all, and I cranked the air flow up quite a bit. I also started feeding less rots. Since then, I haven't lost any fry.

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baileybum1234

I thought I got it too green on the last batch with the consentrated nano paste but from what you say its no big deal.

 

So 10g tank filled half with perent tank water (Perent tank water is good and water changed weekly, SPS and LPS thrive). I just need to work out getting the 2nd days hatch into the same fry tank with limited resources. How fast I can start to raise the temperature and I also did experiement with lowering the Sg. Also need to be working out when the best way to water change and with what.

 

I know alot of this stuff I have read before its just getting all the information in my head and in practice.

 

Air line is one of those air wand foam things with lots of tiny holes. I fit it under heater that is wrapped in black tape to direct fry away from it.

 

Funny that my best batch was the first. The tank sat at 15oC with no water changes for 10 days. Needless to say none of the fish hit meta. They all perished eventually.

 

Thanks pickle I will keep you all posted its amazin to be able to share this stuff.

 

Jarrett

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It's funny my first hatch was one of my best for a while and in the end it turned out that I was killing the fry with the bleach I was using to clean the tank for the next hatches. Took me a long time to figure that one out. I simply was not neutralizing the tanks well enough after cleaning.

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baileybum1234
It's funny my first hatch was one of my best for a while and in the end it turned out that I was killing the fry with the bleach I was using to clean the tank for the next hatches. Took me a long time to figure that one out. I simply was not neutralizing the tanks well enough after cleaning.

 

I have been cleaning the tanks and other equipment with those tablets you use to sterilise baby bottles? Then rince in cold water.

 

I saw you were using vinegar?

 

Jarrett

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I don't even do that anymore - I just wash them out with hot water then use a paper towel to make sure I got everything - when the paper towels come out white I'm done.

 

But yes... vinegar worked great as well.

Edited by Pickle010
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Hey Pickle ive been stalking this thread for a about a week now. From what ive gathered, in order to get my clownfish to spawn I need

 

1. Time

2. Raise Temp

3. Lower Salinity

4. Increase "daylight" in the tank aka slowly move my lighting up to a 16hr daylight cycle.

5. Feed 3 times a day

 

The purpose of these steps is to mimic summer time, when they spawn? And an abundance of food will make them feel more comfortable to begin breeding.

 

Once they start spawning im going to let them carry on until they are on a specific cycle, then try to place a small slab of rock where they spawn ( they are in my main display with corals and such) so I can remove it easily.

 

From there I am going to get another tank gowing and start making the neccesary preperations to feed the fry and their food. is a 10g enough to raise the babies in? I just ask this because I have an unused one lying around. Thanks

 

What do you think?

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It sounds like you are on the right track -

 

Take your time introducing the changes to your pair - make them gradually over time if they are used to 1.026 / 8 hours of light and 78 degrees you don't want to shock them. Make the changes over a couple of weeks and let them adjust to each step.

 

And yes - what you are doing is creating the conditions by which clown fish naturally spawn in the wild. Some green algae growth in the tank doesn't hurt either - most of my clowns had started spawning round the time the walls got some algae on them. It may be coinsidence or it may help trigger the instinct that there will be food for the fry.

 

It's funny because while this will help them trigger the spawning instinct there are plently of recorded cases of clowns spawning in reef systems without making any adjustments what so ever.

 

I'd go ahead and start giving them something to host right away - like a clay pot or tile near their favorite hang out. It would be more of a struggle later getting the pair to accept something like pot or tile if they've already selected another place for the eggs. My female used to toss the tile aside when I covered her favorite spot on the rocks.

 

And the 10g is perfect but only for about the first 3 weeks. You'll need to be able to move the juvi's into something larger with much better filtration that will be able to sustain them.

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