theclearblue's 20 long

[halmotors]

Looking nice! Keep up the good work! :-D

[theclearblue]

New SPS from ReefScience

 

Blue Tip Stag

 

 

 

Purple Tip Thin Branching Stag

 

 

 

Pink Pocillopora Damicronis

 

[theclearblue]

Older Frag Updated Pictures:

 

Yellow and Pink Acro with Fluorescent Green Polyps

 

 

 

Blue Tip Acro - completely encrusted around base after less than a month

 

 

 

Green Polyp and tips - also encrusted

 

 

 

Full Tank (4/24/04)

 

[halmotors]

What light is that over your 'fuge?

[Sardaukar]

Fat and Healthy do not necessarily go hand in hand.

 

I seriously hope you are enriching your brine shrimp with something like Selcon or Zoecon or even Phytoplankton. Brine shrimp are more or less nutirionaly worthless. Just because your mandarin has a full belly does not mean he is getting the nutrition he needs. Fish with full bellys starve to death all the time: ive seen in happen with mandarins, anthias and tangs, among others.

 

I hope he learns to accept flake or frozen food as well, or he will simply wither away since you dont have nearly enough established live rock to feed him. If you don't take some sort of action, he will be dead in 3 months.

[theclearblue]

Not to worry, he's been taking brine shrimp enriched with Kent Zoe twice a week, and cyclop-eeze twice a week, the other three days are just plain brine shrimp.

[Sardaukar]

I just want to make sure you know that those brine shrimp are the only food hes eating. Any pods in the tank are either long gone or will be shortly. A new tank doesn't have that many pods to begin with and there is not enough live rock for sufficent numbers to hide in. Basically your mandarin will eat your rock dry and the pod numbers won't rebound.

 

Skip feeding the non enriched brine shrimp - he isnt getting any value out of them. I will be suprised if this mandarin survives on Selcon soaked brine shrimp exclusively. Have you tried any other live/frozen foods?

[theclearblue]

Originally posted by Sardaukar

I just want to make sure you know that those brine shrimp are the only food hes eating.  Any pods in the tank are either long gone or will be shortly.  A new tank doesn't have that many pods to begin with and there is not enough live rock for sufficent numbers to hide in.  Basically your mandarin will eat your rock dry and the pod numbers won't rebound.

 

 

Look, I appreciate your concern, and not to be rude, but I'm not a complete moron. I knew what I was doing when I got a mandarin. I didn't just go out and decide to buy a mandarin and subject it to the 20 gallon nano test, I bought a mandarin only because I had found one that took prepared foods - not all that common. I've got a refugium going to keep a somewhat steady (albeit comparatively small) population of live pods for him to eat.

 

As for your recommendation of trying other frozen foods, he's starting to get to the point where he's lazy enough to feed almost from the tip of the baster rather than chasing anything down. I'll see if i can slip in some small pieces of formula one (only other thing I have on hand) and see if he'll take it without noticing it's not brine shrimp.

[Sardaukar]

I hope it works - I really do. Just don't count on that refugium too much. You would be better of going with the mindset that there are no pods and then when he does catch an occasional one, it will be gravy.

[theclearblue]

Well, after all the mandarin talk, here's an equipment update. I managed to acquire a XM 20K bulb from Premium Aquatics that was burned in and had been previously tested on a IceCap ballast. I wasn't really pleased with the color of the coralvue, it burned in to be a lot whiter than I had hoped (which may be good for some people), however I wanted to see some fluorescing under a 20K, which I wasn't getting. The XM seems to be running a little bluer, although I'm not seeing any of the violet that I had heard people mention when they described the bulb's color. I'll let in run for a few days and give a better opinion.

So far none of the SPS seem to have noticed a bulb change, polyps are all out and everything seems fine.

[Sardaukar]

The bluer bulbs tend to be less "bright" if you will so upgrading to one of those from a less blue, and consequently more bright bulb, would be ok

[theclearblue]

Each bulb has a unique spectrum though, even though they might be listed as 20K. If this bulb were to have a unique spike, it could cause problems.

[Sardaukar]

From what I understand, its usually the PAR or whatever measures intensity more than different color spikes causing bleaching and what have you.

[theclearblue]

Update time

My tank will be going through some major changes as I leave school for the summer in three weeks.

While I have to move livestock, I'm taking the opportunity to make some changes and correct some mistakes.

 

1. Upgrading to a 29 gallon tank - The 50% increase in volume will probably help somewhat with stability, as well as making my hood look more proportional to the size of my tank.

 

2. New Canopy - I'm in the process of building a new canopy designed for better cooling. Summer is coming, and I'm getitng nervous, so I'm aiming to be ahead of the power curve when the temp goes up this summer.

-Pendant will be rested on metal flashing in cutout on top of the canopy. This will help move a great deal of heat away from the water's surface.

- Adding 4 - 3 inch cooling fans.

 

3. External closed loop (undrilled) with SCWD and Mag 7. This will pull the powerheads out of the tank, also to help with heat.

 

4. Farewell to the mandarin - In all honesty even though he's doing well, at my current routine of feeding 2 time a day 7 days a week, it's just becoming too much.

 

5. Going barebottom - more flow... can't ever get enough with SPS.

 

6. Being traded/sold - plate coral, torch, some zoo's, skunk cleaner shrimp.

 

 

To be added at the end of the summer (currently saving):

29 Gallon Sump

2 - 24" VHO 75w Actinics

MRC Nano Calcium Reactor

Chiller

[MrKrispy]

wow you're gonna be busy!

 

If you need someone to baby sit those acros..... :0

[Seanano]

how's your manderin doing? if he's eating live brine theres a good chance you can get him on to blood worms, and please do that asap.... despite a lot of belief pods arent the sole source of a manderins diet, its flat worms. worms are EXTREMELY high in protein and thats what it needs, also contains a nice bit of b-12. start dumping 6-9 frozen bloodworms in your brine tank a day. 3, 3x a day. before you goto bed remove em. after 3-4days drop in a worm or two w/ the brine. and see if the manderin takes to it.... as stated above, fat doesnt always equal healthy. hope this is of help. if you goto the fish forum i made a post about weening them the best way possible atleast that i've seen the highest success rate. again, imo pods are only a small part of a manderins diet and need the worms much more. and since flat worms in a tank is a pita, stick w/ blood worms. as far as feed blooding worms if you can get a straw/tube and dump them down it and let em float to the bottom of a spot your manderin likes to hang out, it'll become a "feeding" area for him and make life on you easier instead of dumping them in and forcing him to decide whether or not he wants to chase em... as peaceful as they are. they are f'n LAZY when it comes to feeding.

[theclearblue]

Guess you didn't read the part about me trading/selling him. It was fun while it lasted.

[Seanano]

lol opps, my apologies... i kinda just jumped on it. i honestly see no reason to not be able to keep these fish, honestly. they are going to be brought in regardless of anything.... there will always be someone who buys them so i figure why not people that atleast have an idea on their needs. if you ever decide to get another one dont hesitate, dont let people scare of you off from the fish as i promise, someone else worse will end up w/ it.

[theclearblue]

So I've finalized plans for my upgrade as I move next weekend.

 

- AGA 29 Gallon

- New and Improved DIY Canopy

- 2 3" Computer Cooling fans w/ two extra holes drilled on lid if it's necessary to blow directly on the surface if things get really bad this summer.

- Mag 7 w/ SCWD and non-drilled closed loop

- Rio SEIO 620 mounted on center of back glass right near the bottom

- Barebottom w/ white starboard

- AquaC Remora HOB Skimmer

 

I'm in the process of painting the back of my 29 gallon as I type this, and I went with the black/blue blend method (courtesy of chyendra).

 

I'm building the closed loop this week and the SEIO and Mag 7 come in on Thursday. I'm estimating with head/SCWD loss that I'll be pushing out around 500-550 GPH with the Mag 7 and with the SEIO putting out around 600 GPH, I'll be moving around 1,100 GPH for a tank turnover rate of ~38x. I'm sure the SPS will love it.

[matt the fiddler]

clear- you got some great goals. i am doign a similiar upgrade in a few months hopefully- closed loop, SCWD, mabye up to a 55, new hood, etc. so i will be watching what happens to you closely...

 

for the fans, you shoudl check out the 80CFM tornado 8cm computer fans.. i jsut found

 

 

oh for barebottom? do you have plans for a fuge or sump.? the sand bed does a lot in keeping the sps alive and healty. if you could put it in a sump out of sight- mabye it would be worth the add on... and still leave the benefits of a glass bottom that you are looking for..

[theclearblue]

Thanks mattie,

I'll see if I can get my hands on one of those tornados. I have a Radioshack fan that puts out 27 CFM - what a piece of junk.

 

In regard to the sandbed, I'm going barebottom for two reasons. The first being that I don't think any sandbed would stay in place with the amount of flow that's going to be going through this tank. I may even add on an aquaclear 500 just to run carbon. Second, I've done a fair amount of research, and I've seen quite a few impressive tanks that went completely barebottom in sump and display with powerful skimmers in the sump. I don't think I'll need a fuge since I'm trading the mandarin, and with heavy skimming, frequent water changes, siphoning of deitrus, and some ripping current, I don't think I'll be running into nitrate/phosphate problems (hopefully!).

 

Now I'm just wondering how my two clowns will like being in a 29 gallon blender.

[theclearblue]

The tank and canopy. Back of tank is painted, and I'm getting ready to stain the canopy, add some edging and install hinges.

 

[matt the fiddler]

let me find that link to those fans and get back to you- in eed it for myself anywasy.. hoping to get 2 of them

 

 

btw its not abotu how much- it is abotu where you use it.. wiht that flow- well positioned .. you could easily have the sand in place.. but you have other reasons.. so lookgin forward ot seeing wha thappens on your tank! especially with the lesser traveled path of BB

[OxInYourBox]

Good luck on your move and upgrade. Sounds almost like my 29G minus the closed loop and canopy. I didn't have enough time to plan out a closed loop (or space) so I went with powerheads.

[Sardaukar]

Starboard is great. I know several reefers who have used it in the high flow SPS tanks to great success.