Illuiix Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 I see. Mmm good luck with the new sps also, I remember you saying you had a hard time with sps back when we were at rap. Link to comment
Felicia Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 I see. Mmm good luck with the new sps also, I remember you saying you had a hard time with sps back when we were at rap. I had a crazy alk drop and didn't realize it a few months back and I had a couple SPS colonies STN on me. I was very frustrated and decided not to buy more SPS to replace them. Otherwise, SPS corals do great in my tank. I didn't have enough of them in the past to need to dose very often, so I didn't think about alk issues. Then I got some new mini colonies and there were just too many SPS corals and they sucked up all the alk. I didn't even realize since I hadn't needed to dose in the past. Its funny because even with the crazy low alk that killed a bunch of my SPS corals, there are some really hardy ones that I've had for ages that still grow like weeds. Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Why did you miss last year? We will make it a point to attend 2014 for sure! Glad you saw no pico tanks at the show! Leaves us room to continue what we do best. Link to comment
Felicia Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 Why did you miss last year? We will make it a point to attend 2014 for sure! Glad you saw no pico tanks at the show! Leaves us room to continue what we do best. I didn't know about it last year. I'll definitely be going next year if I can though, and I also already bought my MACNA ticket for next year. Yep, you have a nice niche market that doesn't have many competitors. You should definitely set-up a booth at RAP next year and I bet you will sell a ton of little tanks Link to comment
Illuiix Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 You're going to Macna2014? How are you going to bring back the corals? Link to comment
gena Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Sorry about the gorgonian. Your clams sure look cute together. Link to comment
Red_Blenny Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 Nice pickup for RAP! Link to comment
Felicia Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 You're going to Macna2014? How are you going to bring back the corals? Yep! Its a 14 hour drive from the Bay Area over to Denver, so we'll just drive straight on the way back. There are three of us carpooling, so we can take shifts and bring things back in the amount of time it would take for overnight shipping. Sorry about the gorgonian. Your clams sure look cute together. Thanks Gena. I'm not going to dwell on it since I did what I could for it. Thanks! I decided to move the squamosa up by the maxima because it kept getting knocked over by hermits and one of the red brittle stars down on the sandbed. It seems to like its new spot and it does look cute right next to the maxima Nice pickup for RAP! Thanks! It was a lot of fun! Link to comment
zhuangcg Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 The new corals and clams look great, your aquarium continues to be lovely. Link to comment
Lawnman Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 http://www.reefgardener.net/products.php?product=Electric-Oompa-Loompa-Palythoa Link to comment
MarieH Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 One of the sweetest tanks on nanoreef, made sweeter by clam power. Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 1, 2013 Author Share Posted November 1, 2013 The new corals and clams look great, your aquarium continues to be lovely. Thank you so much! http://www.reefgardener.net/products.php?product=Electric-Oompa-Loompa-Palythoa I saw that! Don't tempt me! I can get them for $60 per polyp locally, which is cheaper than Reef Gardener since I wouldn't have to pay shipping. Unfortunately, that's still out of my zoa price range though. I refuse to pay more than $30 a polyp for zoas. Hopefully the oompas will come down in price like all the others have. I just have to be patient... Btw, did yours ever open? One of the sweetest tanks on nanoreef, made sweeter by clam power. Awww, why thank you! You're too kind! I do love the clams in this tank and so far they are doing well. I'm seeing growth on the maxima's shell!!! Link to comment
markalot Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Howdy, SPS are one of those things that can really drive you crazy. I honestly think my 40 is not as nice looking as my 46 due to the SPS and their consumption of Alk, which I struggle to keep up with. Now with all my acros in another tank I figured Alk consumption would drop, but so far it's been barely a blip. I think my purple stylo is turning entire caps of 2 part directly into rock. Any fast growing SPS coral is dangerous. My flatworm population had gotten so bad they were moving to the sandbed, so I spent an hour siphoning them out and now the ones in the sand have moved up to the rocks, so it looks like I made no progress. I'm working up to a full flatworm exit treatment, if I can manage to reduce the population enough. Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 Howdy, SPS are one of those things that can really drive you crazy. I honestly think my 40 is not as nice looking as my 46 due to the SPS and their consumption of Alk, which I struggle to keep up with. Now with all my acros in another tank I figured Alk consumption would drop, but so far it's been barely a blip. I think my purple stylo is turning entire caps of 2 part directly into rock. Any fast growing SPS coral is dangerous. My flatworm population had gotten so bad they were moving to the sandbed, so I spent an hour siphoning them out and now the ones in the sand have moved up to the rocks, so it looks like I made no progress. I'm working up to a full flatworm exit treatment, if I can manage to reduce the population enough. Sounds like we're definitely in the same boat! SPS corals can be such a pain and my tank did seem to suffer a bit once I got more of them because of how fast they drop the alk. I really should get a doser to try to keep it more stable but I just don't want to hook up more equipment to that tank and I don't want to spend the money. Not having a sump makes it hard to add those sorts of equipment neatly. Flatworms are awful! At least they're harmless, which is better than say AEFW or red bugs or zoa eating nudis. In the main tank, they just coat my rocks and aren't really on the sand. In the seahorse tank they're on the glass and the sand and don't really get on the rocks much. It's weird. I don't want to risk flatworm exit in the main tank because of how many flatworms are down in my macros that I can't siphon out. I'd probably nuke the tank even if I siphoned out all the flatworms on the rocks first. Then in the seahorse tank, I've got the big pieties and Christmas tree worm rock. I worry flatworm exit would kill my little Christmas tree worms. Link to comment
markalot Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Sounds like we're definitely in the same boat! SPS corals can be such a pain and my tank did seem to suffer a bit once I got more of them because of how fast they drop the alk. I really should get a doser to try to keep it more stable but I just don't want to hook up more equipment to that tank and I don't want to spend the money. Not having a sump makes it hard to add those sorts of equipment neatly. You already have an auto topoff, right? Since evaporation is fairly consistent you can start mixing Seachem Reef Builder with the topoff water, which will stabilize the alk swings, or eliminate them if you can find the perfect mix. I stopped this for a while and was up to dosing 40ml of 2 part a day to keep up. With 3 teaspoons of this stuff in 2 gallons of topoff I only need to dose 1 cap (10ml) a day to keep Alk steady. Reef Builder also has magnesium and some other trace elements. My evaporation is low, glass lids, so my mix is a lot stronger than it would be for someone with a higher evaporation rate. I agree with the risk of flatworm exit. Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 You already have an auto topoff, right? Since evaporation is fairly consistent you can start mixing Seachem Reef Builder with the topoff water, which will stabilize the alk swings, or eliminate them if you can find the perfect mix. I stopped this for a while and was up to dosing 40ml of 2 part a day to keep up. With 3 teaspoons of this stuff in 2 gallons of topoff I only need to dose 1 cap (10ml) a day to keep Alk steady. Reef Builder also has magnesium and some other trace elements. My evaporation is low, glass lids, so my mix is a lot stronger than it would be for someone with a higher evaporation rate. I agree with the risk of flatworm exit. I have thought about adding it to my top-off water. I should probably look more into that. You can't put both Ca and Alk in the top off water right? So which component is it that you put in the top off water? And then do I just hand dose the other component? And yeah, I have a screen lid, so I get quite a bit of evaporation. Link to comment
markalot Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 I have thought about adding it to my top-off water. I should probably look more into that. You can't put both Ca and Alk in the top off water right? So which component is it that you put in the top off water? And then do I just hand dose the other component? And yeah, I have a screen lid, so I get quite a bit of evaporation. Well .... Slowly falling calcium does not seem to bother anything as long as there is more than enough, so I use Kent reef salt, which has Calcium of 550, Alk around 9.5. I put Reef Builder in the topoff, which adds Alk and Mag and is supposed to have a calcium part to keep it from falling, but I have no idea how that would work and it doesn't. With Reef Builder in the topoff I dose 1 cap of alk in the morning and 1 cap of calcium (both 2 part) in the evening. Over a week my calcium will slowly drop from 550 to 450 and by then it's either water change time or start dosing some extra calcium to bring it up. I try and keep Alk around 8 because it seems the higher I target the faster it drops. Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 8, 2013 Author Share Posted November 8, 2013 Well .... Slowly falling calcium does not seem to bother anything as long as there is more than enough, so I use Kent reef salt, which has Calcium of 550, Alk around 9.5. I put Reef Builder in the topoff, which adds Alk and Mag and is supposed to have a calcium part to keep it from falling, but I have no idea how that would work and it doesn't. With Reef Builder in the topoff I dose 1 cap of alk in the morning and 1 cap of calcium (both 2 part) in the evening. Over a week my calcium will slowly drop from 550 to 450 and by then it's either water change time or start dosing some extra calcium to bring it up. I try and keep Alk around 8 because it seems the higher I target the faster it drops. Good info! I may have to look into adding some of that to my ATO water to help keep the alk more stable. Thanks! Link to comment
Zia Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Oooo Felicia This tank needs some <3 to. It's starting to sympathize with Lily over the seahorse tank I suggest a title change and fresh tank pics, please Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 12, 2013 Author Share Posted November 12, 2013 Oooo Felicia This tank needs some <3 to. It's starting to sympathize with Lily over the seahorse tank I suggest a title change and fresh tank pics, please Too true! Its long overdue. I want it to be super nice looking when I come back with lots of new photos, so I need to clean it first. The seahorse tank is getting cleaned tomorrow, so maybe Wednesday I can clean this tank and then get photos on Thursday. Soon! I will definitely get on this ASPA Link to comment
Zia Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Awesome, cant wait to see all the purdys! Keeping my sand bed free of coral clutter has been a constant battle for me. I always have the urge to buy more and feel it up. But ive been so good as of late and gotta say, i think i'm turning the corner. I have the most open sand bed ive ever had and it's been pretty enjoyable keeping it like that. I think i want a scoly down there and i'm done. Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 12, 2013 Author Share Posted November 12, 2013 Awesome, cant wait to see all the purdys! Keeping my sand bed free of coral clutter has been a constant battle for me. I always have the urge to buy more and feel it up. But ive been so good as of late and gotta say, i think i'm turning the corner. I have the most open sand bed ive ever had and it's been pretty enjoyable keeping it like that. I think i want a scoly down there and i'm done. Yeah, I decided sand bed was the perfect place to cram more corals when my tank got full. Now I've decided that its not aesthetically pleasing and looks cluttered. I'm trying to get stuff up off the sandbed and so buying a plate is not going to help me on that front. My goal is to get it down to just my two scolys, my ric garden, my pink lobo, and a couple small zoa colonies on the sandbed. Link to comment
andi.rahl Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 My new pink NPS gorgonian. Hopefully I don't kill it! Its not a species I've seen and so its always a risk since I don't know how hardy it will be. It was just too pretty to resist. Me and my friends from the Bay Area Reefers with Brett and Wayde of ATM/Tanked how'd the nudi's and gorg do?! also, I'm jealous *coughyouneedaplatecough* good luck clearing out the sandbed. Link to comment
Felicia Posted November 12, 2013 Author Share Posted November 12, 2013 how'd the nudi's and gorg do?! also, I'm jealous *coughyouneedaplatecough* good luck clearing out the sandbed. Unfortunately the nudibranch went MIA after I added it to the tank. I haven't seen it since the night I added it, so I assume it perished. It seems pretty common with those nudibranchs. They are not very long lived and they are very sensitive. The gorgonian was a risky purchase and I knew it since it wasn't a gorgonian you commonly see in the hobby. It started losing massive amounts of tissue after just a couple days and I ended up removing it to keep it from crashing the tank. It was one of those things that should probably never have been collected and shouldn't be in aquariums. I did some reading on it and the public aquariums can't even keep them alive. Oh well, I gave it a shot! Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Unfortunately the nudibranch went MIA after I added it to the tank. I haven't seen it since the night I added it, so I assume it perished. It seems pretty common with those nudibranchs. They are not very long lived and they are very sensitive. The gorgonian was a risky purchase and I knew it since it wasn't a gorgonian you commonly see in the hobby. It started losing massive amounts of tissue after just a couple days and I ended up removing it to keep it from crashing the tank. It was one of those things that should probably never have been collected and shouldn't be in aquariums. I did some reading on it and the public aquariums can't even keep them alive. Oh well, I gave it a shot! Awe. Sorry to hear about your losses. They were beautiful specimens. Link to comment
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