Magik's Macro Cube

[keydiver]

Wow, you have a nice little collection of unusual reds. Would you be willing to trade? I have a few unusual ones, and i'd love to get my palms on some of that red spot.

 

The tank looks great!

[Magiksurfman]

Wow, you have a nice little collection of unusual reds. Would you be willing to trade? I have a few unusual ones, and i'd love to get my palms on some of that red spot.

 

The tank looks great!

 

id love to trade, though the red spot might have to wait its about the size of a quarter right now . the only reds i have are couple of are the halymenia the short bushy ones. so you like red spot eh, check out my latest find i got shot down when i asked for some but ill try again in a couple of days.

[keydiver]

id love to trade, though the red spot might have to wait its about the size of a quarter right now . the only reds i have are couple of are the halymenia the short bushy ones. so you like red spot eh, check out my latest find i got shot down when i asked for some but ill try again in a couple of days.

 

 

 

JEEEZ, that macro is crazy!

[Builder Anthony]

Ya i like your selection also.I never seen that stuff in the link.Looks like it would be hard to the touch.Maybe show them a picture of your tank and they will see thats what your tank is built for.It ticks me off when petsotres dont want to sell things.they should keep there tanks in the back instead of teasing people

 

Whats that goby do.Ive never really heard much about them.

[Magiksurfman]

Ya i like your selection also.I never seen that stuff in the link.Looks like it would be hard to the touch.Maybe show them a picture of your tank and they will see thats what your tank is built for.It ticks me off when petsotres dont want to sell things.they should keep there tanks in the back instead of teasing people

 

yeah i kinda agree with you but they might have their reasons. Maybe they dont know if theres a chance it can kill me i dont know what it is it glows orange could be redspotted reacting to high light, maybe its the boss' tank and they don't want to mess with it while he's away.... but ill just take it as a sign to cool my jets. They'll have to trim it someday. Its already kinda big and in a coral focused tank and plus i've been flying through this build. Its pretty well stocked for how young it is. This will give me a chance to work on the sump and the auto top off. They're almost complete, its just that i kinda got crappy tools. Not the right tools i should say working with a cordless circular saw isn't the best to cut straight lines in acrylic. Too bad my cuts are already made, only after did i think to trim with my router, whateva its my first acrylic project thought i might have to make it smaller i have a feeling the gaps are going to be big. The auto topoff has been put together i just got to strap the switches to the holder and put them on my imaginary sump. Maybe ill get a chance to go surfing havn't gone this year yet, i bet my ladies miss me.........but that doesnt mean i wont jump on the opportunity to pick up a macro

[Magiksurfman]

 

Whooo! got it! Pet Kingdom comes through again .... so stoked.

 

 

-got my sump built

 

-finished my ato

 

all i need is to add the one supplement fixture so my corals will do a little better and maybe go back to frys and add that uv led strip and the tank set ...

 

... though i was thinking about rearranging the rock-work all those reds make "burning mountain" look like "flaming pile of poo" lately... any suggestions?

need to work on those blues and greens, hope that blue scroll comes around ....

[Builder Anthony]

Glad you got it.I just got something as well i was wondering if you have the same thing i have listed in my Tank forum on page 2.I listed my picture as unknown macro.Could you compare yours with mine and see if they are the same.I notice my edges being a little different.If they are not the same maybe you would want to trade?

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=267313

[Magiksurfman]

i think my red spotted is the same as your unkown only mines about the size of a quarter ... thats the only thing i don't like about ebay .... hopefully when it grows up it will look like yours . The new macro doesnt look the same, i think, ill take a pic and try and post it up later today .

 

My tank is kinda broken down since i added the sump to the tank i cant figure out how to get the tank to drain fast enough to match the return ... pretty much worked for a couple of hours then later that night while watchin Tron with the fam i hear water spilling.... yeah no bueno. So right now i have all my macros and fish and shrimp sans pistol shrimp hes lost in the garage in a 29 i was supposed to build a new sump out of this week. i had to build frag racks for all the corals to put em back in my 90. the tank is running but all of the ball valves are almost closed on the return.

so hopefully when the wife gets home today i can tear the tank down and see if i have to either redo the plumbing on the overflow.

since i cant change much for the overflow box if the original return isnt clogged with some crazy sponge ( i pulled two huge pineapple sponges out both a little smaller than marbles , or maybe thats where all my blue macros are going they just keep dissapearing out of my tank, its doomed to be red forever ) im probably going to make the overflow tubing thicker and maybe drill and add another overflow to the box as an emergency but im kinda worried if i do that the holes will be to close together and possibly crack the tank.

idk this tank plumbing is my experimental one first time ive ever messed with plumbing on a tank and i wanted to figure out all the kinks because plans are to drill the 90 and put internal overflows on it and then build the new sump in order for all of it to fit inside the stand and still have room for me to partially close the back. all to just reduce noise, cut down on light coming from the back of the stand and to get rid of the hang on overflows so i can close the back of the canopy so i can stop losing these doggone flasher wrasses in the morning when the lights come on.

 

so yeah busy lately

 

this was supposed to be my surf week

 

 

[mastahluong]

 

Whooo! got it! Pet Kingdom comes through again .... so stoked.

 

 

Man that thing looks awesome... what can I do to get a frag of it from you? I'll pay for overnight shipping too! I'm completely serious about it, what do you want for a frag?

[Magiksurfman]

finally got the tank plumbing done and redid the rock-work, added leds bars for moonlights, switched out the loud fan inside the light fixture, added the sump and finished the ato ... and i made it out surfing twice pretty good week i guess.

 

since my wife cant make out which guy in a wetsuit i am she takes pictures of the horizon i guess we need a better camera iphone cam doesnt cut it here.

 

[yoshii]

Nice! What is the light pink one on the left? I found a small piece on some LR, very nice macro

[mastahluong]

Nice! What is the light pink one on the left? I found a small piece on some LR, very nice macro

 

I think that was his blue octhodes that didn't make it... thats what mine ended up looking like.

[Magiksurfman]

yep the ochtodes , i guess if it comes in white in a bag full of colored water the macro pretty much is gone and no saving it. Every macro that i've gotten in like this, has completely disintegrated and melted away. i guess i have to pay attention to the weather before i order things online. I think all times i lost macros the weather got really cold and for a 2-3 day transit time i guess spells no bueno for some macros. Bummer

 

at the same time i got this new macro in from the lfs i found someone that had it growing in thier tank, did a trade and it showed up like this(thinking i was going to keep getting shot down by the lfs)

 

 

its gone now cant find one piece.

[Magiksurfman]

i might have to mess up my little monthly update thing .... finally got the tank with everyone back in. Im happy .

 

Panda i think didnt make it. iI cant find him anywhere in that tang food tank . I think an aptaisia might-ve got him ... i got a rock with some cool xenia in for my 90 but also had some gnarly aptasia so i fragged off as much of the xenia as i could and threw the rock in the tank... yeah ... no bueno it exploded with aptaisia... im contemplating ordering a pair of berghia's and have them go forth an multiply. So i can get rid of the ones in my 90 ... ive tried peppermints and they do the job but i've had a bad experience with one mowing down a hammer coral so bergia nudis might be a go.... after i shell out 200 clams for renewing my registration on my truck of course I hope cali uses my money to at least fix the dang pot holes at the bottom of hill and to get someone to shut-up the hippies to put in a mag lev train ............

wait ... oh yeah panda didnt is gone unless he has super ninja powers and is hiding somewhere in the macro.

 

but i hate reading stories and much more like pictures so stand by pictures coming down the pipe

 

First off heres the pics i was supposed to post for Builder Anthony, my bad Tony. Since being in the holding tank while i redid my plumbing it has lost some of its red and orange color and see the green thats what the macro that i got shipped in looked like before it fell apart so im worried this one might not make it maybe it has to be attached and a part of it out of the picture is already the translucent white but hopefully i just didn't pay attention and its normally that way

 

 

then as far as panda heres the tang food tank kinda funny i only have an air stone and lights and topoff with treated tap water in this tank and it has the most pods of any of the 3 salt tanks i have running. So if panda starved its cuz he's the only carnivore that doesn't eat pods or some one messed up and he definitely eats corals , or he was just flat out lazy, he mighve been too far gone when i noticed him not eating though dont know.

 

here's the rock that introduced all that aptaisia

 

then a big momma one in the back that probably got him

or he could be lost somewhere in the jungle that is the tang food tank.- had to make a rack to keep the gracilaria off the floor turns out bristle worms love the stuff then i had to make a basket for the ulva and random macro cuz aptaisia likes to hitch a ride on the stuff. theres little baby mollys in there some where in there i see them dart in and out of stuff yeah theyre wild they totally have to hunt down thier food and survive the aptaisia gauntlet.

 

here the new rockscape i think looks way better must've forgot to take the last side off my wifes phone ... oops i think i can forgive my self though.

 

[Magiksurfman]

*Early May Updates

FTS

 

]

LEFT

RIGHT

New Adds

kinda confused at this point ill have to look at my previous posts to see what came and went.

Mermaids fan

Maybe Shaving brush

Spotted orange mystery macro

Shrooms

 

New equipment

ill try not to double post if ive already put up pictures

sump

new drain pipe

retrofit led bars

auto top off

 

Extra pics

 

 

[yoshii]

I really like the new scape

 

You have a lot of reds, tank is looking good!

[Magiksurfman]

Thanks Yoshi , i looked through tons of pictures to try and get and idea of how to redo it and this ended up being the best thing to do without going out and buying more rock.

 

Now something that has nothing to do with my macro tank but i thought its cool enough to share. This is what i found in my 90 today....

 

 

 

.....pretty spiffy. Now i got to surf the forums to see if i can find someone who has experience raising these little guys. I know this batch is pretty much doomed to be snacks for the rest of my reef since im unprepared and don't know of any locals with rotifer culters, though i do have a phytoplankton hookup and an extra 30gal i was going to use to rebuild a sump for my 90. Yet the only other fish ive ever raised were guppies and they're pretty much indestructible compared to these guys i think. I might have to see if i can scoop up a couple to see if they survive that aiptaisia guantlet i call the tang food tank.

[Magiksurfman]

So the other day my kid comes into the garage to find me, "daddy look a horsie!" i look up and there in her little hand is my seahorse squirming for life in her little hands.... put him back in the tank he went back to swimming around and later that night i tried feeding him and he ate his mysis but today ... sorry to say hes up in horsie heaven now

[yoshii]

Cool Jawfish!

 

 

Oh no! sorry to hear will you get a replacement?

[Magiksurfman]

Thanks , the eggs didnt make it past day 3 i think the jawfish said screw it and ate em. but the kinda weird thing is is that the female has since been shacked up with him in the same burrow, don't know what to expect from these guys this is pretty much new to me. Kinda starting to get worried cuz she doesn't come out to eat. But since their burrow is pressed up against the glass i can spot her every now and then.

 

Another seahorse most likely not, i did have plans to once i got the tank all macro'ed out to house maybe a pair of kudas or mustangs but the wife put in for overseas orders and Uncle Sam might be giving us the boot here pretty soon so i figure ill throttle down on my aquarium addiction and maybe go surf more to make the most of "Sunny San Diego" while i still got the chance.

[fote03]

Very cool tank i love jawfish! I think im going to setup a 20L marco tank when petco has there next tank sale!

[Magiksurfman]

NOOOOOO!

 

So the many of the macros in my tank have slowly been deteriorating. I though it was due to water quality or maybe light and i had an idea of what it might be but its to obvious for me to deny now that its - bristle worms.

 

I had a feeling it was them but never really caught them in the act but i finally got around to sneaking around the tank at night with a flash light and you can actually see them stuffing their faces. i always thought it was weird to see bristle worms out in this macro tank in broad daylight when they are nowhere to be seen in my 90 untill night time or feeding time.

 

so i get to looking in my tang food tank and i see that it is infested! no wonder my gracilaria wasnt growing ... it was because the bristle worm population was growing faster than my macros could.

 

and heres the story of the EPIC FAIL i did, i can finally laugh at it so i can post it up but im kinda glad i didnt take any pictures.

 

so since i now need to find a way to get rid of them in both the food tank and in the cube , so i got this brilliant idea to kill everything not algea in the tang food tank. i spotted a few flatworms i knew now i had a big pop of bristle worms and aiptaisia the pods im afraid were going to have to be collateral damage.

 

So in reading i found out that there are a couple of ways to kill fauna one is to have an ammonia spike many of us know this from waiting for the nitrogen cycle to do its thing, and a ph swing which many im sure know now is one of the reasons to acclimate livestock properly also going from low to high ph increases the toxicity of ammonia and salinity swings, these were my weapons of mass distruction.

So in the tang food tank i did just that i removed 75% of the water and replaced it with fresh water for a salinity shock then mega dosed it with vinegar do drop the ph for ph shock then mega dosed the tank with ammonia and surprisingly the bristle worms and aptaisia did not seem to be phased until i dosed the ammonia well.... at the same time i was working on a project for my engineering class .... well i forgot completely about the tank and did not come back in the planned 30 mins for the planned series of water changes but instead came back maybe 12hrs later ....yeah everything died, i didnt even need to raise the ph back up with baking soda. It killed the bristle worms ,it killed the pods , it killed the flatworms and the aiptaisia , and i'm sure all the nitrate cycle bacteria....but.. it killed every single one of the macros in that tank and i had enough macros from my cube in there to stock maybe two more 30gal tanks the same way my cube is stocked right now..... Weak Sauce.

 

OOOPs.

 

so now im kinda looking for bristle-worm eradication alternatives before i nuke my cube.

[SbCaes]

NOOOOOO!

 

So the many of the macros in my tank have slowly been deteriorating. I though it was due to water quality or maybe light and i had an idea of what it might be but its to obvious for me to deny now that its - bristle worms.

 

I had a feeling it was them but never really caught them in the act but i finally got around to sneaking around the tank at night with a flash light and you can actually see them stuffing their faces. i always thought it was weird to see bristle worms out in this macro tank in broad daylight when they are nowhere to be seen in my 90 untill night time or feeding time.

 

so i get to looking in my tang food tank and i see that it is infested! no wonder my gracilaria wasnt growing ... it was because the bristle worm population was growing faster than my macros could.

 

and heres the story of the EPIC FAIL i did, i can finally laugh at it so i can post it up but im kinda glad i didnt take any pictures.

 

so since i now need to find a way to get rid of them in both the food tank and in the cube , so i got this brilliant idea to kill everything not algea in the tang food tank. i spotted a few flatworms i knew now i had a big pop of bristle worms and aiptaisia the pods im afraid were going to have to be collateral damage.

 

So in reading i found out that there are a couple of ways to kill fauna one is to have an ammonia spike many of us know this from waiting for the nitrogen cycle to do its thing, and a ph swing which many im sure know now is one of the reasons to acclimate livestock properly also going from low to high ph increases the toxicity of ammonia and salinity swings, these were my weapons of mass distruction.

So in the tang food tank i did just that i removed 75% of the water and replaced it with fresh water for a salinity shock then mega dosed it with vinegar do drop the ph for ph shock then mega dosed the tank with ammonia and surprisingly the bristle worms and aptaisia did not seem to be phased until i dosed the ammonia well.... at the same time i was working on a project for my engineering class .... well i forgot completely about the tank and did not come back in the planned 30 mins for the planned series of water changes but instead came back maybe 12hrs later ....yeah everything died, i didnt even need to raise the ph back up with baking soda. It killed the bristle worms ,it killed the pods , it killed the flatworms and the aiptaisia , and i'm sure all the nitrate cycle bacteria....but.. it killed every single one of the macros in that tank and i had enough macros from my cube in there to stock maybe two more 30gal tanks the same way my cube is stocked right now..... Weak Sauce.

 

OOOPs.

 

so now im kinda looking for bristle-worm eradication alternatives before i nuke my cube.

 

yeah thats something ive kept putting off to share with the community. bristle worms = destruction of our macro tanks. its what happened to my bc29. i had a lush forest. then wham they all started dying but i had bristleworms out the ass and eventually theyd even sttack fish after they got to a certain size. (think they figured out the tank was their domain)

 

yeah thats something ive kept putting off to share with the community. bristle worms = destruction of our macro tanks. its what happened to my bc29. i had a lush forest. then wham they all started dying but i had bristleworms out the ass and eventually theyd even sttack fish after they got to a certain size. (think they figured out the tank was their domain)

 

also a bunch of arrow crabs are your good friend along with a arab. psuedo

[tako]

So in reading i found out that there are a couple of ways to kill fauna one is to have an ammonia spike many of us know this from waiting for the nitrogen cycle to do its thing, and a ph swing which many im sure know now is one of the reasons to acclimate livestock properly also going from low to high ph increases the toxicity of ammonia and salinity swings, these were my weapons of mass distruction.

So in the tang food tank i did just that i removed 75% of the water and replaced it with fresh water for a salinity shock then mega dosed it with vinegar do drop the ph for ph shock then mega dosed the tank with ammonia and surprisingly the bristle worms and aptaisia did not seem to be phased until i dosed the ammonia

Even if you didn't leave it for 12 hours, it never dawned on you that the things you're doing to kill the fauna in your tank might also damage/kill your living macro? They're pretty hardy, but not invincible.

 

I'm still doubting the worms were eating healthy macros, but I guess it's possible. If the worms are actually living in the macro, just take the whole clump out and give it a coral dip. I've dipped several of my macros in Revive before introducing them to the tank and had no ill effects. Shake it up and you'll see creatures come shooting out of it in pain. This and manual removal should help cut down on the population.

[Magiksurfman]

Even if you didn't leave it for 12 hours, it never dawned on you that the things you're doing to kill the fauna in your tank might also damage/kill your living macro? They're pretty hardy, but not invincible.

 

This crazy experiment was only supposed to run at its longest 30 min but like i said i got carried away with building a stupid little project bridge in the garage for engineering class.... but before i make myself sound all hardcore and devoted to class the bridge only took the 30 mins i was supposed to wait what took up the +12 hours the tank stood cooking in ammonia was due to the wife calling me outside cuz all the neighbors were out .... which then led to me beer ponging it out, grillin up good food and jammin out .... then i slept in and woke up with a hangover (not only am i a lightweight but i pretty much suck at beer-pong) walk go to do feed the fish their brunch and remember about my still ongoing experiment.

 

i don't take that serious for one because its an algae grow out tank which im surprised works at all with just an air stone and some light-bulbs on it, and because i still have all the macros that i lost ... i just have maybe 3/4 less