Kat's Ol' Max

[metrokat]

The secret to reef keeping, according to this n00b, is under 'tips and tricks' in my TOTM profile essay.

 

[Veng]

Go to the tank index on my thread in the first post. Item #6.

:omg::omg::omg:

Yeah, I think after this new tank starts to fill in, I'll let the yellow polyp rock go and the red mushroom rock w/ the unknown favia go to get replaced with other things. As soon as I get the sump up and running, I'll take everything but the left GSP rock and it'll go to the sump for a couple weeks, then get pulled one a week to get the biofilter all on the display rocks.

[shaner014]

Having read through your TOTM write up again, I noticed the tip about uncured live rock. I assumed rock from the ocean with all that life was "cured" since it was ready to handle a bio load. I recently purchased "premium live rock" from my LFS, it came covered in coralline and halimeda and has bristle worms, a starfish, and even a small brain coral. I thought it was cured. Just trying to learn , what are the differences?

 

Another thing, maybe answered somewhere in the hundreds of pages, what got you started in reef keeping?

[Veng]

Honestly, there are a lot of names for a lot of rock, and none of it is universally used. However, the most common usage (at least as far as I've seen)

 

Dry rock: Random rock picked up from the ground.

Dead rock: Once live rock, has been dried since.

Cured rock: Rock that has been left in a bit of water and so anything nasty has leached off the surface and into the water.

Live rock: Has been in some sort of aquarium for some length of time. Will have hitch hikers, but the size of the bioload is random. Could be almost none (1,000,000 lbs of rock for 1 fish or 1 lb of rock for 1,000,000 fish yields very differnt bioloads).

[jedimasterben]

Congrads on the tank making one year!

 

I am concerned about the refractometer calibration issues though. Did you figure it out?

I always used freshwater to calibrate mine and held my reef at 1.025 SG

By freshwater I mean tap water and sometimes the RO/DI that I made. i think both of them had the same readings.

I did have that 35ppt calibration fluid in a bottle from when i bought my refracto, but i almost never used it. My question to you is does it stay at 35ppt always? As in it doesnt evaporate and cause an inaccuracy when you calibrate? I am talking about the liquid inside the bottle itself.

 

Also how off was your reef's SG after you calibrated your refracto with the fluid?

 

Also idk how relevant this is but I remember that if my calibration water and my testing water were two different temperatures, the calibration was off.

 

Let me know what the salinity was and how you fixed it

 

Most importantly though: where are the fuge pics? Can't seem to find them.

Found it. That photo made me laugh. It looks excellent and I can see exactly how all the macros form a landscape. It's the house that made me laugh lol!

As long as you keep the bottle sealed when not in use, you'll have a ludicrously low evaporation rate, to the point where it will still read 3.5%.

 

Do the more expensive ones do that? Because I had (still have it) a cheap $50 one.

Even cheapo knockoff ones do ATC. Mine cost me $22 and has ATC and is just as accurate as a $100 unit, they all work the same.

 

I have a cheap refractometer, it says that it compensates for temperature but I suppose I could test it out. It also turned out that I was calibrating wiht the 35ppt solution incorrectly so I believe my salinity was a little on the low side, not the high side and I did end up making it lower. It is at 1.022 now and I'm slowly getting it up.

How were you calibrating incorrectly?

 

It seems most compensate for temperature now. I have a $40 one and it advertises it does. I notice that it reads differently right after I put the water on and then about 30 seconds later. I always go with the 30 second sample.

+1

 

Is it possible that, with all these crustaceans, the demand for iodine exceeds supply? I know the CW is that all needed iodine comes from food, but I've personally seen lugol's iodine added to the tank immediately help a shrimp having trouble molting.. Just a thought.

AFAIK, no crabs or shrimp use iodine from the water column, only uber trace amounts from their food. Most food that is geared towards shrimpies has a high iodine content.

 

Getting back to the temperature calibration question, all refractometers will read correctly as long as the sample and the refractometer are the same temp. This generally means waiting 10 seconds or so for the temperature to equalize between the sample and the glass as it equalizes. Longer if you've kept your refractometer in the freezer or something silly.

[metrokat]

Having read through your TOTM write up again, I noticed the tip about uncured live rock. I assumed rock from the ocean with all that life was "cured" since it was ready to handle a bio load. I recently purchased "premium live rock" from my LFS, it came covered in coralline and halimeda and has bristle worms, a starfish, and even a small brain coral. I thought it was cured. Just trying to learn , what are the differences?

 

Another thing, maybe answered somewhere in the hundreds of pages, what got you started in reef keeping?

 

Hey Shane. Unless rock is dry, it is all live rock if it has been kept wet. Uncured rock is straight from the ocean. It hasn't had time to be in an artificial reef so the starfish and sometimes mantis and the lovely brain corals (most likely mancina) are all hitchhikers. The difference between cured live rock and uncured live rock Is where they are harvested from. Some are seeded in tubs in aquaculture facilities, those are cured rocks. The other like yours and mine are basically rocks dumped into the ocean for years, then when harvested, they have the HH, guaranteed. That is uncured rock.

 

My brother had a college friend whose husband had a 30g hex tank with one clownfish in it. When we visited their home, her husband answered all my questions about his tank, it was surprising for me to learn that he never did huge water changes like I was doing in my goldfish tank and beta bowl. Plus his little clownfish was so utterly captivating that I wanted to have a salty tank just to have that adorable fish. Even though I didn't jump into reef keeping till well over a decade or so later, it was never far from my mind. I just didn't keep up with the hobby at all or know any saltwater stores to know that it was possible to keep a successful saltwater tank in less than 50G.

 

2 years ago, while helping a buddy select a tank for his thanksgiving present to himself, we chanced upon the Biocube at petsmart. The salesman briefly mentioned it was for saltwater and both my buddy and I were like zombies. That was the point of no return.

[Looselyhuman]

AFAIK, no crabs or shrimp use iodine from the water column, only uber trace amounts from their food. Most food that is geared towards shrimpies has a high iodine content.

 

Yep, have seen you say it. Have also seen evidence to the contrary.

[metrokat]

I'm bored with my sun polyps. Sigh.

[jedimasterben]

Why?

[metrokat]

I bought them for Placement under an overhang. Which happens to be a little awkward of a place to get a pipette to. So when I feed them and the tank they play dead. When I'm done feeding the tank they decide to open up. By then I've already dumped enough food for a whale into the tank and it is gently circulating with one MP10 on the lowest setting. so they're eating but not like my black suns did, those guys were champs.

[jedimasterben]

Do you not 'excite' them first?

[Veng]

I understand foreplay is very important...

[tailes]

I understand foreplay is very important...

 

>.> Not that you would know. *Badump ching* Hahahahahaaha!!

[Kfmmartin19]

lol

[Veng]

 

>.> Not that you would know. *Badump ching* Hahahahahaaha!!

burn.....

 

After an hour I get tired, sorry.

[tailes]

burn.....

 

After an hour I get tired, sorry.

 

This is why you rely on toys!

[Veng]

Some how I think Kat is going to ban us from her thread soon....

[Kfmmartin19]

Some how I think Kat is going to ban us from her thread soon....

Nah, I'm pretty sure she enjoys this. If she didn't allow this kind of thing her thread would not be 281 pages haha

[metrokat]

WHERE IS MY BEATING STICK?

[xerophyte_nyc]

I'm bored with my sun polyps. Sigh.

 

Get some fathead Dendros - they are almost always open and ready for food day and night, and polyps are way bigger than Tubastrea - although not quite as brightly colored.

 

[Veng]

WHERE IS MY BEATING STICK?

[metrokat]

Get some fathead Dendros - they are almost always open and ready for food day and night, and polyps are way bigger than Tubastrea - although not quite as brightly colored.

I will have to try a fathead then. Thank you.

 

WHERE IS MY BEATING STICK?

Cute.

[mpsti05]

Do try some dendro's, awesome hungry coral!

[ZephNYC]

I bought them for Placement under an overhang. Which happens to be a little awkward of a place to get a pipette to. So when I feed them and the tank they play dead. When I'm done feeding the tank they decide to open up. By then I've already dumped enough food for a whale into the tank and it is gently circulating with one MP10 on the lowest setting. so they're eating but not like my black suns did, those guys were champs.

 

You have to target feed them the same time every day. Early evening works best. Mine open off and on all day long from feeding other corals, but in the early evening they all open %100 because they know that is when they get target fed.

[tailes]

I GOTZ NEW CORALZZZZZZZZZ

WHAT?

 

Pics NOW!!