thegrandpoohbah

Hi everyone. I am making a trek from Fort Nelson, BC down to Pincher Creek next week for a friend's wedding. Will be going through Grande Prairie, Edmonton and Calgary. I am looking for a 90G acrylic tank with lids and preferably with blue back and bottom panels, 48"x18"x24". Are there any stores in Alberta that stock acrylic tanks? I've sent an email to Tenecor for a quote but would rather deal local if at all possible. Thanks!

No, the actually shelf measures 47" x 17". A 48" x 18" tank won't fit because of the corner posts of the stand.

[quote name='thegrandpoohbah' date='Aug 27 2008, 11:29 PM' post='2161579'

96W of flourescent light will only be enough for softies and mushrooms. If you want LPS, SPS or clams then be prepared to shell out a whole lot more moolah for better lights.

Says you. I run a New Wave T5HO 24" 4 bulb fixture over my 24" deep tank and I keep SPS, LPS, and there is even a crocea Clam on the bottom.

SPS are kept near the top but my open brain, blasto, Hammer and gonipora are at the bottom.

For a 24 gallon (I assume its 16" high) I would use 4 T5 High Output Bulbs and you could keep whatever you wanted. More bulbs will give you more colour choices in the bulbs. I run 1 11K, 1 Blue+ and 2 Fiji Purple but its up to you what kind of overall colour you like.

Umm... did you even read my entire post? I suggested either 150W MH or 4 x 24W T5HO for SPS, LPS and clams.

Beautiful! Tenecor?

I use the Red Sea system and I use 1 litre of water, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp of yeast and 1/2 tsp of baking soda. The Nutrafin canister is half the size so adjust accordingly.

Also, have a look at this article: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm. The type of algae you have there is most often caused by low or fluctuating CO2 levels.

Get some CO2 going, even if it's just a DIY yeast reactor. And lose the air bubbler, it's de-gassing what little CO2 is naturally present in the water.

Easy way to prime a canister filter: drop a powerhead in the tank, plug it in and use it to force water up the filter intake until the filter is primed.

Oops, just read the rest of your post. I guess returning it isn't an option since it was a going out of business sale?

That Candy Cane is a large polyp stony (LPS) coral and will require moderate to high lighting. On a tank that size I'd be going with a 4x 24W T5HO fixture with 2 10,000K white bulbs and 2 actinic blue bulbs. With that light set-up the ends of the tank will be a little darker because even a 30" T5 fixture still uses the same bulbs as a 24" fixture. If you don't mind a bit of overhang then get a 36" fixture with 4x 39W bulbs. The other thing to consider with T5HO fixtures is the quality of the reflectors. A high quality unit will come with indvidual parabolic reflectors which put more of the light into the tank versus a cheaper fixture with the same number of bulbs but cheap reflectors.

I kept a school of 12 when I was in Vancouver. I found them to be reasonably hardy once acclimated (they were wild caught). They were peaceful as far as I could tell and didn't take long to wean them onto flake food from frozen BBS. As far as I could tell I had all males. Here's a couple of bad pictures which, sadly, do them no justice. They were much more beautiful than these pics can convey.

Pomacea bridgesii applesnails do NOT eat healthy plants. As a bonus, they also come in a wide variety of nice colours and do an excellent job of cleaning algae and leftover food.

Wireless is always good, if you don't mind spending the extra money.

I'm assuming you have an off camera flash unit like one of the Canon Speedlites? The easiest way I know of would be to purchase an off camera shoe cord: http://www.thecamerastore.com/products/cat...amera-shoe-cord.

2 or 3, males only unless you have lots of other tanks to raise fry in. Even if you get females only, chances are good that they're already pregnant.

I used to breed hi-fin lyretail swords and even the 33G I used for breeding seemed small. A 20G may not be enough swimming space for them as they are very active fish and can get to about 4".

Can't go wrong with Koralias. A couple of # 2's or 3's would do the trick. What do you plant to stock the tank with? SPS require a lot more flow than softies and zoas.

Looks really good. A question though: will there be enough water flow around the heater to circulate the heat?

This time of year you'll probably still need a heat pack. Not sure if they make any that will last over a week though...

I sooo need a macro lens... and a flash... and better photography skills.

Thanks for the info Patrick!

Very nice! What camera/lens set-up are you using and what settings?

Put the old media from your existing filter into the new filter if possible. As long as you don't increase your stocking levels too drastically, you should be fine.

The best would probably be ADA though I have no experience with it. I use Flourite by Seachem which I got at Pisces. One bag will be more than enough.

There's a couple other plants in the Dracaena genus that are often sold as aquarium plants. None of them will survive very long when fully immersed in water.

I assume that an elite mini would be sufficient because of the filtration from all the plants?

Exactly. As a bonus, it doesn't agitate the surface like a HOB filter will, thus helping your CO2 levels. You can also run your CO2 tubing into the filter itself and use it to disperse the bubbles.

Planted tanks and sumps don't work very well together. The increased surface agitation from the overflow will drive off precious CO2. If you are going to have the 10G heavily planted then a small internal filter like an Elite Mini would be more than sufficient.