achu Posted August 30, 2002 Share Posted August 30, 2002 Ok, I'm embarrassed... Somewhere along the way during the registration, I must have clicked on the "I'm 13 or younger" box... Sigh, I was staring at the "parent or guardian" authorization form wondering what the heck to do with it. Sigh, if my parents only realized just how much I've spent on my reef tank in the past... LOL!!! Ok, well, I'm now verifiably old enough to post!!! Thanks webmaster for fixing that!!! So, here's the story, I had my bijillion gallon reef in my backyard for a year and a half. I up and left the states to live in Cozumel, Mexico... BUT, I'm back now... I"m in an apartment for a year and don't want to set up my larger tank, just to have to move it...SO... NANOREEF!!! I set up my 6 gallon eclipse. It use to be my emergency tank.. already retrofitted with 2 PC bulbs. Had it running with the standard eclipse filter (with just the foam...) and a little live sand for 2 weeks... Finally had the chance to get to the fish store for some live rock. WOA!! Apparently it was a wise choice to look in the cheaper "base rock" section of the tanks... Their base rocks sit with the hard coral, soft coral and on the live sand in their tanks. As soon as I dropped the rocks into my tank.. loads of copepods (??) fly out into the salt water and into the sand. A few hours later, I notice some polyps that look like brown stars... I've never had brown star polyps, jsut the flourescent green type. So, they look like the flourescent green type except they don't flouresce... That evening when the PCs turned off and the actinic was still on... I noticed some brittle stars crawling out of the rocks! A week later, I started to notice baby shrimp??? They look like little teeny tiny versions of a normal shrimp. Baby shrimp? They grow more every day. They run out from under a rock, make a small circle, and then run back under... I don't know how many are there, but every rock seems to have a bunch running around!!! What the HECK are they? What else? I noticed a mushroom growing... looks to be flourescent green and red. Last weekend, I was hoping to get some button polyps, but it was more like christmas! I had the fish store guy scavenge the bottom of their reef tank for little things... he uncovered a colt coral dying... he offered to give it to me. Sigh, NOW I'm in trouble!!! I've got a 6 gallon NANO that is still unstable... He also fished out small pieces of orange gorgonian with blue polyps. Really pretty! Only I can't find an ID anywhere. So, I don't know if it eats or photosynthesizes... Any ideas? Anyone? So, frantically trying to save the colt. I dug out my CPR bakpak skimmer. WOW that thing is big compared to my 6 gallon@! In anycase, it seems to be working. I've been doing 1/3 water changes when I notice the colt doing worse...(every 2-3 days) and skimming every night. (and for those of you wondering, yes, the skimmer barely fits on the side of my tank. I only use it at night as not to overskim l...overskim??? haha, a cpr bakpack on a 6 gallon and I don't want to overskim? in anycase, the entire top of the eclipse has to be removed to skim... ) I was rushing home every day after work just to check and see if the colt crashed! The base of the colt was infected... the colt is now 3 separate pieces of colt. The infection is now gone *cross my fingers* Hopefully it will be uphill from now on. Ok, that is about where I am up to. Interested in knowing if anyone has any ideas for me... achu Link to comment
Mnesarchus Posted August 30, 2002 Share Posted August 30, 2002 Why didn't you just get a new name? Link to comment
lizbeth Posted August 30, 2002 Share Posted August 30, 2002 Welcome! Sounds like you have a good start on your nano! Link to comment
Sahin Posted August 30, 2002 Share Posted August 30, 2002 Welcome to the board. It sounds like its all going well. I have a bunch of the brown star polpys, at least they are different from the ordinary green ones. The baby shrimp things you mention are most likely amphipods. I have loads of these guys in my tank too, and the description you gave for thier movement is exactly same here. Well, good luck, hopefully the coral will pull through. Link to comment
leslr Posted August 30, 2002 Share Posted August 30, 2002 Hi achu you said 2 pc bulbs ? What size/wat ? Got any pics of your lighting setup ! I've also got a eclipse 6 and still in the stages of deciding which way to go for lighting. Any help/ideas would sure help. thks. leslr Link to comment
achu Posted August 31, 2002 Author Share Posted August 31, 2002 leslr: I have 2 13w Compact Flourescent bulbs. I tried to put in a 3rd one, but just couldn't get it to fit... I went to my local lighting suppliers (for construction companies, developers...) I bought 2 ballasts, 2 sockets and 2 bulbs. The bulbs run around $4 each, I can't remember exactly, but I think the sockets were around $5 each and the ballasts were probably around the same. So, around $30 total. I unscrewed the eclipse 6 lighting unit and took out the button for it. I went to Home Depot, found some cheap scraps of plexiglass. Had them cut some small rectangles and then this odd shaped long piece to put on the aquarium between the water and the lights. (I'll give you the dimensions if you'd like...) The small rectangles, I covered with aluminum foil. Then I screwed the two sockets on one for each rectangle. I connected the wires to the wires from the ballast. Don't forget to get a tube of aquarium silicone. I used small wire nuts to connect the wires and filled the wire nuts with silicone to cover bare wire... I think I hot glue gunned the rectangles onto the hood. Either that, or I probably reused the holes from the hood to screw the rectangles in place. Don't forget, you also need to buy a plug! (shouldn't cost you much). Then I have a cheap little table fan sitting on the ledge behind the tank to cool things down. Ok, let me recap the costs again 2 sockets $5 2 ballasts $5 2 bulbs $4 plug $2 plexi-glass $3 (depends on if your hardware store has scraps...get them to cut it to size for you.) fan $8 wire nuts 10 cents each silicone $5 So, areound $50 total. You might be able to find a prebuilt one for around that. Let everyone know if you do. My 2 13W bulbs and the 18w actinic NO I have just sitting behind the tank, all of my little scraps seem to be doing great. Of course, it has only been a few weeks. Also, the fact that I'm skimming the life out of the tank probably helps the water quality. Let me know if you need more details... Achu Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted August 31, 2002 Share Posted August 31, 2002 Congrats... U sucessfully posted yer first thread and I dont have to call U a moron ! ( Quite an achievement here ... LOL) sounds good, take some pics and post in Members area ! ttyl. Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted August 31, 2002 Share Posted August 31, 2002 The orange gorgonia sp you mentioned probably feeds... I haven't seen a orange sp that photos.... NOT to say that there isn't one by any means, only that it/they probably isn't/aren't very common... Link to comment
Bocephous Posted August 31, 2002 Share Posted August 31, 2002 I have a yellow/orange gorgonia too. It's a carnivor so you will need to feed it. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.