JoelRHale Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 I like the Mandy in the beginning of the video Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 The mandarin is always . He's so skittish that I just get little glimpses of his as he hovers around the back of the tank. Link to comment
gena Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 I finally was able to watch the videos. Loved them!!!!!! Everything looks great. Your frogspawn sure looks happy! How many heads does it have? It's huge! Towards the end of the first video, I thought I got a text. Then I realized it was coming from the video Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 5, 2011 Author Share Posted December 5, 2011 I finally was able to watch the videos. Loved them!!!!!! Everything looks great. Your frogspawn sure looks happy! How many heads does it have? It's huge! Towards the end of the first video, I thought I got a text. Then I realized it was coming from the video Thanks!!! The frogspawn is always very happy and yes its HUGE. I asked the local guy I got the papaya cloves from for 2 heads, which was probably overzealous to begin with and he brought me 3 because he always gives me freebies. Its great except that in a 10 gallon, my 3 heads of frogspawn take up way to much space. And the thing just keeps spreading out. I keep having to move things further away from it...like right now its getting into it with some of my zoas so I'll have to move them soon. I'm upgrading really soon though, so that should make things less crammed. My cichlids have completely outgrown their tank and are constantly having territory fights and knocking all the decorations around in the tank, so its always a stressful mess. 11, 3-4 inch cichlids and an 8 inch pleco are just way to much for a 37 gallon tank, haha. I bought them all at about an inch in size a year ago and they've been growing like crazy. So anyway, the LFS they came from said they'd give me $4-$6 in store credit for each of them, so I'm going to return them and use the credit on saltwater supplies. The 10 gallon reef in my bedroom is going to get upgraded into either a 20L or a 29/30 gallon (since those sizes fit on the cichlid tank stand) which will be in my living room where the cichlids were. I also think I'm going to get a DIY LED kit for the upgrade Now that I know how much of a difference aquascaping makes (versus just tossing the rocks in the tank like I originally did being clueless), I can make the tank look really nice I hope. The only issue will be what to do with my current live rock since some of it now has coral actually growing on it. I'd like to break it down since its huge chunks that are hard to scape, but I don't know how to do that with coral on it. Luckily most of my coral is still just growing on frag plugs or little rocks just glued to the big rocks and I can just pop them off, but there are several corals that have grown off their plugs and are now growing on the big rocks. Any ideas are of course appreciated Link to comment
gena Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 The only two tools you will need. Hammer and screwdriver. I've broken plenty of coral encrusted rocks very easily with these (place the screwdriver where you want to break the rock, and tap it with the hammer). Then you can glue the small coral pieces, attached to the rock, to your new scape. Works like a charm Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 Ideas for my Secret Santa (I'm posting again since we now have our secret santas) 1) A clip on or submersible light for my AC70 fuge 2) Live pods for my mandarin 3) Any good coral food 4) Instant Ocean Reef Crystals 5) A good pellet fish food like Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 or 2 6) Something to spot feed corals and fish with 7) Anything you can think I might need for my upgrade to a 20L (100 watt heater, a second powerhead, bigger magnetic glass cleaner, a gift certificate to BRS for dry rock, etc.) 8) A fragging kit 9) Instant Ocean HF-1 HoldFast Epoxy Stick The order really isn't how badly I want them, its just the order I thought of things in. And of course I'd appreciate anything you think I'd need from reading my thread. Or anything fun Link to comment
scoobahSAM Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 woah your tank is lookin craaaaaaaaazy Link to comment
metrokat Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 The scoly and rainbow acan are gorgeous. Goby/pistol pair look cute, my fav pics are with Lily. Link to comment
Spirofucci Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Ideas for my Secret Santa (I'm posting again since we now have our secret santas)1) A clip on or submersible light for my AC70 fuge 2) Live pods for my mandarin 3) Any good coral food 4) Instant Ocean Reef Crystals 5) A good pellet fish food like Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 or 2 6) Something to spot feed corals and fish with 7) Anything you can think I might need for my upgrade to a 20L (100 watt heater, a second powerhead, bigger magnetic glass cleaner, a gift certificate to BRS for dry rock, etc.) 8) A fragging kit The order really isn't how badly I want them, its just the order I thought of things in. And of course I'd appreciate anything you think I'd need from reading my thread. Or anything fun Nice list! At least you didn't ask for an MP 40! Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 woah your tank is lookin craaaaaaaaazy Thanks! (I assume you meant that in a good way ) The scoly and rainbow acan are gorgeous. Goby/pistol pair look cute, my fav pics are with Lily. Thanks! I'm really happy with the scoly and acan, especially for the price. Btw, I've been meaning to post on your thread that all the new corals you got are awesome! Wow! And yep, the cutest pics are always the ones with Lily. She seems to know to pose for the camera too, because if I get it out and start taking pictures she makes sure to get in front of it and look cute. haha Nice list! At least you didn't ask for an MP 40! I was trying to make a list of things that were all in the recommended price range. I figured my secret santa could pick one or two things, or of course come up with something on their own. Just ideas Link to comment
gena Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 When you get a chance, can you post more pictures of your lavender lace duncan? I think it's so pretty and want to see more of it I also think Lily takes the prize for cutest cat on n-r!!!!! Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 When you get a chance, can you post more pictures of your lavender lace duncan? I think it's so pretty and want to see more of it Will do! The way I have it oriented in the tank, its hard to get a good shot of it through the front glass, but I'll use my underwater camera to get a good picture of it tonight. The three heads are still really tiny, so they don't look nearly as pretty as the full grown heads with the long tentacles. I could either buy one of the large heads for $30 or get the three little heads for $12. I figured I'd save the money and wait for them to grow out. Here's what the colony they were cut from at the LFS looks like. I also think Lily takes the prize for cutest cat on n-r!!!!! Awww, thanks! I'll let her know you said that Link to comment
surgicalsense Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 . My gosh these are pretty! Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 My gosh these are pretty! I know! I can't wait until the tiny ones I bought grow out to look like that! Link to comment
gena Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 See...now if I were to add duncans to a tank, it would definitely be that variety!!!! They are gorgeous. Thanks for posting a picture. Yours will be like that before you know it Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 See...now if I were to add duncans to a tank, it would definitely be that variety!!!! They are gorgeous. Thanks for posting a picture. Yours will be like that before you know it I know. I absolutely loved them at the store. I was tempted to buy the the colony since it was only $60 plus 25% off for the after Thanksgiving sale, but I just didn't have the space and I was already buying the scoly and rainbow acan. $12 for the 3 little heads was a great deal and it shouldn't take too long for them to grow big enough to look really nice. I already noticed a tiny 4th head sprouting at the base, yay! I was going to try to take a better picture of the ones in my tank last night, but I poured in some live brine shrimp before I got around to it and all three heads caught some and closed up to eat. I'll get a photo this evening. haha I did Haha, I figured. Just had to check Hopefully it'll continue to look as crazy after I move everything around for this upgrade. And in exciting news... The upgrade is definitely happening soon! I've already started by returning my cichlids for store credit last night. Now I'm just going to take my time figuring out the rest of the build. I'm definitely going to stick to the stand that I used for the cichlid tank since it fits perfectly in my living room. That limits me to either a 20L (30"X12"X12") or a 30 gallon (36"X12"X16"). If I wait until the $1/gallon sale at Petco to buy the 20L that would be the cheapest approach and probably the easier tank to light. The benefit of the 30 gallon is that it would fill my stand out better and probably look a bit more impressive, but its not a standard size sold at Petsmart or Petco so it would be ~$80 at my LFS. Also, I don't know if the 24 LED strip kit from aquastyleonline.com I'm considering would be sufficient, but I could always buy the 36 individual LED kit and try my hand at soldering. Let me know which option for tank you think is best. Besides lighting I plan to just use my AC70 fuge mod and not go with a sump at this point. I'll also be using the 13 lbs of live rock in my 10 gallon and adding some dry rock from bulk reef supply. Should be a relatively simple upgrade. Other news: My mandarin definitely ate last night! Apparently live brine shrimp is the key. He's been getting skinny so I've been trying different foods. I've added live pods to the tank twice but that doesn't seem to be helping. I was at the LFS last night returning my cichlids, so I got 1/4 ounce of live brine for $1 and figured I'd try that. I dumped the shrimp in and he ate! Looks like I've found a solution. Wouldn't be that big of a deal to dump in $1 worth of live brine shrimp once a week. My fuzzy mushroom has been thriving every since I got it but yesterday I noticed its got this growing white patch around its mouth that looks like the tissue is going away. The parameters are all good and I just did a water change yesterday to try to fix any issues that could be causing that. As of this morning the white area looks much bigger and the mushroom doesn't look so good. Everything else in the tank looks fine, so I'm not sure what's going on. I'll try to post a photo of what I'm talking about this evening. Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 on the upgrade! What kind of store credit are you getting? Link to comment
gena Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 How exciting...upgrade time I think you should go with the 30. If you do the 20, I bet you'll always wish you did the 30. My other reasoning is that you would be able to have more fish in the bigger tank Someday, maybe you can send me a frag of your lavender lace duncan? I would love to have that variety!!!!! 20s are a great looking tank/size too so, whichever tank you choose will be awesome Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 on the upgrade! What kind of store credit are you getting? I'm excited! And I got $50 total for my 11 cichlids and one standard pleco. Not too bad. He gave me 40% of what he'll sell them for. I bought them all when they were tiny and only paid like $5-$6 each, so I almost made back what I originally paid. How exciting...upgrade time I think you should go with the 30. If you do the 20, I bet you'll always wish you did the 30. My other reasoning is that you would be able to have more fish in the bigger tank Someday, maybe you can send me a frag of your lavender lace duncan? I would love to have that variety!!!!! 20s are a great looking tank/size too so, whichever tank you choose will be awesome I'm kind of leaning towards the 30 as well, but I'm just not sure if I'm brave enough to tackle soldering all the LEDs. I plan to order from Aquastyle and they have a 24 LED kit that is on strips so you just glue them to the heatsink, attach all the wires, and plug them in. I think that kit might be pushing it on the 30 gallon though so I'd need to get the 36 LED kit. Unfortunately, that one is only sold as individual LEDs to I'd have to solder all the connections and I've never soldered before. I think I could manage it though and it might be a fun project. Do you guys definitely think 24 3 watt LEDs wouldn't be enough for a 30 gallon? I plan on keeping a mixed reef like I have now including a couple easy SPS's. And yes, I would like more fish. I'm excited about the upgrade because I want to replace my clownfish pair to have some fish that are a little more out and about. That would put me at 5 fish and then I'd like to get a blenny potentially. Or an angel is tempting as well. As soon as that duncan grows a good number of full sized heads, I will definitely send you a frag. I just need to learn how to frag things, which I haven't looked into yet since all of my stuff is still small and it'll be a while before I can start fragging. Link to comment
Spirofucci Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Congrats on the upgrade! Can't wait to see what you'll do with 20-30 gal. (BTW, do the 30!) Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 Congrats on the upgrade! Can't wait to see what you'll do with 20-30 gal. (BTW, do the 30!) Thanks! I'll start posting updates and photos of the whole build once I really get started, so you guys can follow along. Link to comment
gena Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Thanks! I'll start posting updates and photos of the whole build once I really get started, so you guys can follow along. Looking forward to it...a lot Does the base of a duncan look like a frogspawn? If it does, you can just break the heads off at the stems making sure not to break too close to the head. I've done that with FS in the past. They are really super easy to frag. Link to comment
Felicia Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 Looking forward to it...a lot Does the base of a duncan look like a frogspawn? If it does, you can just break the heads off at the stems making sure not to break too close to the head. I've done that with FS in the past. They are really super easy to frag. At least at the size mine is now the heads don't really have a stem like the frogspawn. They may be more distinct as they get bigger, but right now they look like a fleshy head growing off of one stem. They don't seem to have a separate stem I could easily break. The LFS employee fragged it in front of me using their frag saw. When they came out of the water the heads pulled in and he was able to cut the main stem to frag it. I'm sure once it gets bigger it will be easier to distinguish the heads and figure out a way to frag it. Link to comment
-erin- Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 I can help you solder!! I do a good bit of it in lab and own my own iron . The tank looks awesome!! Can't wait to see how the upgrade goes. Link to comment
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