Jersey's Macro tank

[jersey]

Just a couple of pictures.... The dino is still there, but not nearly as bad as it was..

 

I have a few things coming in from GCE after the 7th. Can't wait. I also moved a bunch of things around.

 

FTS

 

Some nice growth on some of the reds and the Blue O.

 

My little Cherub (thinking about going with a trio of these down the road in a larger tank. they seem to be easy to breed)

 

The pink line A-hole and a scarlet

 

My orange spotted goby guarding his pistol shrimp's hole

 

I have about 10-12 new shoots coming up from the mermaids fans... Awesome! The originals aren't looking so hot, but they looked like that when they came in too..

 

I need to get a shot of that hermit.. I have 2 that I recently picked up.. They are like traffic cone orange.. really cool little guys.

http://s1062.beta.photobucket.com/user/robjersey/media/Tanks%20Dec%202012/IMG_8408.jpg.html?sort=3&o=17

 

I forget the name of these things.. They don't look too good in this shot, but in person they are awesome.. stingy reish brown with hairy stems. ALmost like thinner red codium.. It seems to be growing fairly well also.

 

I think this might be an older shot.. But Cleaner shrimp are always fun to look at anway.

[Bubba30]

Hey if you even need to trim back your blue ochtodes let me know

[Belac]

Is that a molly in the background?

[jersey]

Yes, it is a molly. I have a breeding pair in that tank babies get eaten by the other fish, and scooped out to be fed to my mandarin.. Any leftovers go into my turtle tank to be converted back to fresh water.

 

When the Blue ochtodes is ready for a trim I will let ya know. I am not trading / giving anything in that tank until I get the dino issue eradicated.

[Belac]

I cannot seem to keep mollys alive in mine. I have come to the conclusion that the dottyback kills them. I am going to try it one more time, after that I am done murdering them.

I like the rescape.

[reefman225gal]

Very nice!

[jersey]

I cannot seem to keep mollys alive in mine. I have come to the conclusion that the dottyback kills them. I am going to try it one more time, after that I am done murdering them.

 

I like the rescape.

How are you acclimating them? I've had the best results with a 4 hours drip. just make sure to have an air stone going in their bucket and a heater if you have one. I think sailfin mollies (gold) do best and from a reputable LFS not petco.. I tried petco and petsmart ones because I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on them, but the 2 in that tank are higher cost and much larger then the ones at chain stores.. I put them in after lights out with power heads off also.. I only have hob filters in this tank so I just turned down the flow on them to lowest setting, and turned off all powerheads. I also kept the moonlights off for the first night so it was total dark.

 

The strange thing is the babies that go into the turtle tank almost have a 100% acclimation success back to fresh.. and I just toss them in expecting them to be food for whatever wants to eat them.. They swim right into the roots of my plants and I have about 6 in there now as well as about 50 swords and platties that are popping out babies regularly. The turtles don't seem to eat them often enough to wipe out the population.. I'm not sure they eat any of them unless they die of natural causes.. lol

[Belac]

I have had three that were already acclimated for weeks before I bought them and one large one that I just dropped in. I know for a fact the last big one that I dropped in was killed from the stress of the dotty back beating the tar out of him. For some reason the petsmart here had massive mollies whe I bought the last one, compaired to what you normally see any way he was nearly 3 inches long and fat as a pig.

I think the dotty back just doesn't like them he is a big bully. I am going to keep the next one in an breeder net for 2 days so the dotty back can get used to it being in the tank with out being able to beat him up.

Oh and happy new year.

[jersey]

Happy new year to you as well. The breeder net might be a good idea. I was worried about my domino with them when i relocated him out of the reef tank because he was a bully in there, but so far no issue.

[snowflake ell]

Dude sweet tank! I the mollies look sick. I live in toms river 2

[jersey]

Thanks for the compliments. Are you a member of the NJ reef club? Check it out if you're not.. lots of benifits to being a member and some really good peeps.

[snowflake ell]

Thanks for the compliments. Are you a member of the NJ reef club? Check it out if you're not.. lots of benifits to being a member and some really good peeps.

yes im a member theres a ton of very nice people on that site,

[jersey]

Cool.. if you ever need a hand with anything don't hesitate to give me a shout.

[Mr. Microscope]

Gobie leading him out of the cave..

Lolz! Looks like a goby drawn chariot! Fun tank!

[jersey]

Lolz! Looks like a goby drawn chariot! Fun tank!

HAHA, yea I loved that picture.. I took a rapid fire of about 20 shots (pistols are so hard to shoot) and that one just made me laugh. I am shocked at the growth on both the goby and the pistol.. When I got him about maybe 3-4 months ago he was about the size of a macaroni noodle and now he's about the size of a ziti noodle.. Sorry for the food comparisons, but it's all I could think of that would be about that size.. lol

 

The goby was about 1 inch when he went in, (the previous 2 gobies jumped when they where in the old tank) and they are both about the same size.

[Mr. Microscope]

Wow. They're that small?! All the more impressive of a shot! It would seem they are a benefit to one another.

[SeahawkReefer]

Great tank! Love the macro, but caulerpa scares me!

[jersey]

I haven't had an issue with it. I have grape and prolifa. Both are fine.. I look at the tank every day so if I notice it going sexual I can always pull it. I am planning on adding a very feather verities once they come into season.

[VeganBrian]

I haven't had an issue with it. I have grape and prolifa. Both are fine.. I look at the tank every day so if I notice it going sexual I can always pull it. I am planning on adding a very feather verities once they come into season.

 

 

GCE has 3 different feather caulerpas atm! i want some myself once i downsize on my macros,

[jersey]

GCE has 3 different feather caulerpas atm! i want some myself once i downsize on my macros,

They are out of stock.

 

So, I put a quick video of the tank up on youtube. I don't know how to embed the video here, but here is the link.

 

 

great.. I say that and it just worked.. lol

[Belac]

They changed the embed code to be auto on the new upgrade. Tank looks great.

I have a macro I got out of the live rock bin the other day. I may have to try and get you to give me a second opnion on what it is. I looked through that id thread you sent a while back. Nothing jumps out at me to much. It sort of looks like one on there but its the wrong color. (honestly the one I have looks dead,but it doesn't smell so its just chilling out seeing if it bounces back or not.) I also got some sort of caulerpa (don't want to bother figureing out which right now. I put that in the prison jar for the time being. I think I have decided to do a planted marine nano to go with my planted fresh nano. I just need to find me one more pice of glass I can cut so I can build the same size tank.

Collecting macros may be a bit tricky here, I only know one local person who keeps them regularly. Oh well a chalange that shall be fun.

Got any tips on macro tanks? I always have liked yours.

[jersey]

awesome.. yea, post a pick and I'm sure one of us could figure it out. There are others who would be much more qualified to give advise, but what works for me is lots of light (6500k) and make sure you suppliment at least iron.. I just switched to a freshwater type 2 part micro / macro dose. If you do fresh water planted you should know what I mean. It sounds silly but I try to keep my water dirty in that tank, but I just cant.. lol I over feed the fish every day.. I still do weekly water changes.. but my levels are as good or better then my reef tank.. just too much life sucking the bad stuff out.

 

I run just a hob filter setup, and a heater.. I was skimming but it didn't pull anything out, so I just pulled it off. If you can keep a reef you should have no trouble with macro. You will learn what works and what doesn't for your tank. That's the main part.

 

I don't have many traders in my area either.. I do most of my purchasing on ebay, gulf coast ecosystems (almost exclusively now they are awesome) and on forums.

 

Just get a good iron test kit and watch those levels weekly I find my tank sucks iron out quickly. that's why I tried to switch to the 2 part dosing to see if it helps with plant growth anymore then just iron and regular kent reef 2 part.

 

I get more comments on the macro tank then any of my other tanks.. lol I don't know if it's because planted salt tanks are almost non existant (other then our little group of devotees here) or if my others just arent as cool.. haha.

 

Start a thread when you start building it.. I'd love to check it out from the start and watch it grow.

[Belac]

Which fresh water mix do you dose? Just curious I use Excell on my 20 didn't start seeing much impact tell I doubled reccomended dose and hooked up the doseing pump a few months ago. Then started running CO2 in a homeade reactor. Growth shot through the roof. It is to the point on the rikia things that I rip out a 32oz cup every couple of weeks and give it away.

I can imagen that the tank stays pretty much devoid of 'bad'. I don't even bother with water changes in the planted, maybe once every 2 months if I remember. They stay fine. I haven't done a water change in the newest nano since I put fish in over 3 months ago.

Yeah marine planteds are not that common, which is why I like them. I know one place locally that has one, but its more of an over grown mess that they rip stuff out of for sumps. It is neat though.

Wish there were more pico sized fish that I could get hold of. I like pico sized fish in nano planted tanks. Just makes the tank seem much larger.

I will try and get a picture of that blob tomorrow. I really don't expect it to make it. But hey it was basicly free. I think it is S-complanata (cept it is brown and the one in that ID guide is pink.)

So random thoughts I have had today. 1. Can you dose CO2 in a marine planted with out causeing havoc and death. 2. Do you think dropping a single lump of steel/iron (think nail) in could solve a lot of the iron issues? Think root tabs for swords but to dose the whole tank in smaller quantities.

[jersey]

I am using the last of my rootmedic stuff up.. I believe the company folded so I am unsure about what I will move to.. probably seachem products. This is just an experiment, so I'm not sure that it will add any benifits of growth. I believe someone on here (possibly keydiver?) uses CO2 on a macroalgae tank.

 

For the iron, I just had a dosing pump suck out kent iron + magnese and it kept the levels good after dialing in the right dose for my tank.

[Belac]

I may experement with Miracle Gro. (Yes I know I might be crazy so hush you naysayers before you say any thing.) I have been growing phyto with like crazy. It really isn't that much different then Excell other then a few traces in the excell that is not in this. The only down side is its kind of high in phospates.

Excell is pretty good stuff for the planted in my limited experence, just a tad pricy if you get small bottles. Bigger ones are cheaper for what you get. The only thing is it kind of chafes me to know that +95% of what I am buying is water.....

I suppose a doseing pump would work but this isn't going to be big enough for me to want to go through the hassel of a doseing pump.
Oh and I found a pice of glass, I think it may be big enough. I just need to clean all of the bits and make some cuts. I will start a thread when I get started.