craigofva Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Going today to get the eggcrate shelving and the live rock rubble. I'm always interested in what I can get in terms of hitchhikers from the rubble. Hope u get some cool hatchhickers. Take pics. Link to comment
yeast Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 I picked up the eggcrate, PVC legs and some tools today. Assembled it and glued a little fence around the shelf to keep most things on it. I've done this before and it worked out very well as I had very few rocks/corals knocked over by the hermits/snails. The LFS was closed, so I will go tomorrow after the Vancouver Aquarium. Crooked DFTS (dual fts). Lower flow halide tank. Higher flow, higher light T5HO tank. Should have some biota in there tomorrow afternoon. Link to comment
craigofva Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 Is the only filter ur running live rock with flow and clean up crew? Link to comment
yeast Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 The only filter I am running is the koralia pump. The barebottom makes cleaning a breeze so I'm not worried about particulates. Coral and other filter feeders will catch quite a bit of waterborne debris. Picked up some live rock today. I got some rubble and others I had to use a hammer and chisel to break apart a larger rock. These should be good for most soft corals. SPS and LPS will go onto frag plugs. Rubble in left tank. Rubble in right tank. I got the rock from two different sources. It was cured, so I shouldn't have much of a cycle if anything at all. I'm expecting a package of coral on Tuesday. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 How was the vancouver aquarium? I haven't been in years however in a few weeks I will be in vancouver for a couple days and will have a look. Expecting it to be disappointing but still going to go. Last time I was there they just had purple mushrooms and palythora grandis in the reef. Some cool local stuff but nothing interesting tropical. Is there a reason you have not drilled these tanks? Without some form of filtration they likely will fail long term. I don't run a skimmer on my frag tank but I do have tons of macro growing about 100 mangroves and a fair bit of live rock. I strongly suggest you drill these tanks and setup at least simple sumps with live rock and or a skimmer and for sure a refugeium. Link to comment
yeast Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 Hi Andrew, Thanks for the interest. I have run barebottom, sumpless tanks with limited rock for several years (3+) now and I've never had them fail or had them decline as they aged. I plan to do 50% water changes once weekly and this has worked well for me in the past to reduce nutrients and replenish elements. As for the aquarium, there is renewed interest in switching the tropical saltwater sections to more live coral and with an expansion in the works, there will be some new projects along the way. However, due to the age of the aquarium and the facilities, especially in the tropical saltwater section, there are some hurdles to jump. It is quite a way away from what you remember it, and it continues to get better. There is a very large mixed reef that would interest you. It will become SPS dominate over the coming years, but it has an extensive number of coral species and more are expected to be added/removed as the aquarium matures. The clownfish exhibit is also quite nice with several species of anemones. It's well-worth it to check it out, especially the coldwater section. I'm not much into the whales and dolphins, but they are nice to look at as well. Link to comment
craigofva Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Im really liking ur set up. Is there any issues with running barebottem? Link to comment
yeast Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Yes, there are several issues that I have noticed over the years: 1) Decreased microfauna count (no sand = less space for small animals to live) 2) Easier to clean 3) Saves me the $$ on buying sand. I don't buy the 'sand acts as a calcium buffer' argument. If my pH is low enough for my sand to start dissolving, I have bigger issues. I like the look of sand, but I find in the past my frag tanks have been more like personal display aquariums with shelves than real frag tanks. What I mean by that is accessibility (I had wooden hoods), rock (I had a pile of rocks under the shelves), I had a collection of fish that I would not put in a frag tank again (didn't eat coral, just didn't do any functional role). After awhile, I have come to the realization that less is more in these aquariums. Link to comment
msjboy Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Hi there, Welcome to yvr... Place of over priced real-estate. Just curiuos, where were you intending to get all you FRAGS.? Nice set and will follow your thread. Pm me if you have any questions. Best regs Msjboy Link to comment
hexbasher Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 cool...someone whos local... what stores have you been hitting up... Link to comment
yeast Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Ive been getting my equipment online and at local stores. I cant say just one as I have been making the rounds. Coral will be local stores and mostly local hobbiests. There is a wet coast aquarium society meeting tonight at UBC. The club is growing and there will be frag swaps and other events in the future. You guys should check it out. Link to comment
yeast Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 Received an order of coral and it is in my desktop aquarium at work. I didn't want to rush these tanks just yet, so I will transfer some cycled material to this aquarium sometime next week and test out a few pieces of coral. If all goes well, we should be in business quite soon. Link to comment
absolon Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 The setup looks great and i'm sure the colors realy show under those T5 but i was doing some reading recently about coral grow out and MH bulb temps and it seems like you get the most growth with warmer 10K bulbs but you loose alot of color that can sometimes take months to come back. The reason i bring this up is because you t5 rack has all very blue bulbs and i'm not sure that you will get the most growth from those bulbs. I'm a noob and not sure just something to look at. otherwise i think the setup is awesome. Another suggestion is make a sump out of your 3rd tank and fill that with some LR rubble. i have made PVC overflows that DO NOT loose siphon when the power goes out and cost is under 10$. I know the bio load for frags will not be much and this might be over kill but on the flip side it will let you play fast and loose with the top offs and water changes might even pay for itself is less salt used. Link to comment
Paigee Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Very interesting! Are you going to be making a business out of selling frags, or is this just for personal enjoyment? If you are going to be selling, I would be interested! Always looking for fellow hobbyists in the lower mainland area! Link to comment
yeast Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 Hi all, A couple updates. I ordered a new camera so I should be able to take nicer photos than what my cellphone has been providing so far. Absolon: the useable light produced by the phosphors in these particular t5 bulbs is very similar to 10k bulbs. This is why t5s are so popular, because you can swap in and out these bluer bulbs without losing much par. The cycle is done, I have diatoms everywhere so its a sign. I will probably move my corals tomorrow. This is mostly for personal enjoyment but I will be selling what I can grow in these aquariums to fund my hobby. Link to comment
yeast Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 I finally brought the corals to these aquariums. I have fragged most of them already and they are in the process of healing. Photos were taken maybe an hour after they first entered the aquarium, so they are still somewhat closed. I will have some photos of the opened corals another of these days. Enjoy! Pocillopora - Nice green and pinkish colour Hydnophora - Nice shaggy green with polyps extended Green Montipora capricornis Link to comment
yeast Posted August 7, 2011 Author Share Posted August 7, 2011 Hi all, The aquariums have not been doing very well under my tutelage. I tested the water and everything seemed to check out. Salinity is at 1.025, temperature is at 78F in both aquariums. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate all check out at 0. KH was 11 dkh, Ca around 400 ppm. Phosphates 0 and pH at 8.2. Seems ideal, but it was not to be. I filled the aquarium with the corals and overnight they started to RTN. The next day, nearly half of them had lost most of their tissue and the remaining corals were in bad shape. I transported some of the corals I thought may live to my aquarium at work. I added a snail and hermit crab to each as mine canaries but they have not done well. The snails have died and the hermits do very little except sit on the bottom of the aquarium. I'm at a loss as to what has happened. I added more live rock and did several water changes, but nothing is really doing very well. I also added a satchel of carbon to each aquarium. There was a diatom bloom quite early, which is indicative of the cycle completing, but I'm not sure. Anyways, I have attached some photos of corals that may be surviving and of the aquaria. I am going to let it sit for awhile and see how it goes in maybe September. If anyone has any ideas, let me know as I am at a loss. Link to comment
tyborbogdan Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Hey, I'm in the vancouver area too, well just east of it (maple ridge) and well, once you get everything ready and you start fragging stuff, let me know looking to purchase some small frags for my 15 gallon. Really hard to find stuff around here :S Link to comment
yeast Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 Stability is a bit of an issue at the moment but I think things are back on the upswing. Link to comment
doppelganger Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I would also be interested in purchasing frags too! Link to comment
ericm1205 Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 i had a 40b frag tank and it went to crap on me too. i never could keep sps or lps. only zoas grew like mad. did you do a water change after you got the corals? did you use a fresh batch of saltwater? if so that might hurt them too. you should let the saltwater age for 24 ours or longer. my lfs guy actually drips his frags from ora and oculus and other places. also an iodide dip would help too. i always dip my frags with the lugols iodide. Link to comment
yeast Posted November 19, 2011 Author Share Posted November 19, 2011 Hey all, I put in about 14 lbs of caribsea aragonite select sand into each aquarium. I have also added 2 cerith, 2 astrea, 1 margarita and 2 nassarius snails to each, as well as 2 damsels. I feel like if the aquarium is more complete of an ecosystem, my success with the corals will increase. So far everything is doing well. Link to comment
yeast Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 Some updates from today: Link to comment
16bio Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 I would totally take a torch coral from you if you ship! I have been having troubles finding one locally. Link to comment
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