delphinus

Wow that is some growth happening! What kind of lights are you running? Are you fertilizing or anything? Wish I could say I had half that amount of growth in my planted tank, and it's been setup over a month! Teach me o wise one!!! :bow:

Would an airpump introduce some of the pesticide-laden air into the water though? I wonder if a powerhead would be a safer bet.

If moving them was an option I'd probably consider that. But, I would assume it's probably not so easy as that. This may sound like an odd suggestion but you may want to ask your question on an American board, because dollars to donuts this is probably a more common problem for our friends down south than it is for us (our winters are good for something). Surely others have had to deal with this. My guess is seal off the tanks as best you can and probably run copious amounts of carbon when restarting the pumps. I'd be leery of having all pumps shut off though.

They're "simultanous hermaphrodites" (meaning each is both male and female, but they cannot self-fertilize) so you only need 2, any two, to breed. I don't think skunk cleaners have been raised to adulthood yet, but I believe peppermints (another species under Lysmata genus) have been commercially raised (O.R.A. ? not sure who). They only have a brief window of opportunity for mating, when one is about to molt you'll notice they all (if you have several that is) get excited, as soon as the molt occurs the others literally descend on the moltee and it looks like they're about to devour the moltee but they don't. Next day you'll notice that moltee will be carrying eggs.

So I have some kind of mysterious critter in my new FW tank ... some kind of hydroid I guess. It looks like a miniature anemone (about 1mm in size). Anyone seen anything like this before? Should I remove them or let them be?

Oh Ok. That's good to know, thanks. As an update on the substrate, I gave up on waiting for the vendors to get their acts in gear and bring in some more Eco-Complete, as I want to see this tank start to cycle sometime in my lifetime. I went instead with 3 bags of the "Volcanit" from Colby at the bottom of the tank and then the 2 bags of Eco-Complete that I did have, on top of that. So 5 bags in all of subtrate (15 lbs per bag of the Volcanit, 20 lbs per bag of the Eco-Complete, so a grand total of about 85lbs of substrate), in the 65g with the 36x18 footprint this worked out to barely 3" of substrate. I haven't finished filling the tank yet, as this tank is upstairs I have to fill it using the bucket brigade and I got about 1/3 way filling it yesterday. Hope to get it finished today and maybe I can get some pictures of it. With the Eco-Complete being a fine (fine-"ish") black substrate with a black background on the tank it looks really sharp so far. Can't wait to start planning out the plant 'scaping now.

I picked up a 100W Hydor cable from Pisces. Only thing is I'm a little concerned that it's just a heater so I sprung for a heater controller (Won Bros, $40!). "MTS" = Malaysian Trumpet Snails? How adept are they at evading clown loaches? Is that basically a no-no or could it be made to work? Where can you even find them, I've never seen them at a LFS? Murray - yeah I know, no salt? What gives eh!! I just have the 1 FW tank but the loaches have outgrown their 30g so hopefully the 65g will suit them for a few years. One more question guys - how deep should the fine sand be for the benefit of the Cory cats? Werner, when you say 1-3mm is that for the benefit of the cories or should I be using a finer grit for those? Sorry for all the questions...

Cool thanks Jason and Connie! I do already have a bristlenose plec. Had a pair actually at one point for a few years but lost the female a few months ago. I'm not sure what happened, she never really grew right, quite short and wide, almost like a tadpole in shape. Where's a good place to find Sil 9? Can you get it at Home Depot? Would this make a better bottom layer, or top layer, or mixed in? I'd like to try Cory cats as well although I was hoping for some of the less-itty-bitty ones (I tried some really small ones a few years back but I think I had a bad gravel size for them). You need a really fine substrate to do right by them, is that correct? Ie. the Eco-Complete is going to be too large?

Thanks! Dumb question - what's "Sil 9" ? If I run into a store for gravel will it be marked on the bags? Colby @ Elite has his planted tanks with .. I think it's some kind volcanic gravel? It's fairly coarse, I'm guessing 3-4mm sized granules, but I was thinking maybe a bag of that under the Eco-Complete? What would you think of that idea? Sorry - I'm a complete n00b when it comes to a good planted FW tank. (Been doing it for years, just not particularly well.) Since I'm right now in the process of upgrading my tank anyhow, now's a good time to "get the foundation right." Only thing is this is a tank for clown loaches so snails don't last longer than a day or two. I do have a bit of hesitation about going full-planted on this tank because snails for algae cleanup can never be a realistic option. I don't know if there are reasonable alternatives such as algae eaters, otocats, algae-eating shrimp etc. This is a bit of an educational journey to see if I can acheive both goals. If not, I guess just having a few basic plants is OK. I don't want to get rid of the loaches, I've had them a very long time.

What are some options for a planted tank substrate? I'm going to use 2 bags of "Eco Complete" gravel in my 65g (been sitting on these since Big Als shutdown) but I'm not sure if it's going to be enough to get 3". Should I look at a layer of laterite underneath? Or would I even need laterite because there's supposed to be enough Iron in the Eco-Complete? I want to use the Eco-Complete on top because of the black gravel, I think it will look really sharp. I'm reading about potentially putting down a layer of peat under the gravel? Think that would be OK idea? Only thing is I'm going to be using a cable substrate heater on this tank so I'm not sure if it's a good idea to put that in peat (maybe it's OK, not sure)?

No pics yet?

Ah Ok. I know the store. I wonder if it may have been traded-in rock. Well, either way it's a nice score for you. Good luck with your tank.

Sure looks like a purple mushroom to me. Just curious where did you pick up the rock, at a store or from a hobbyist? Very unusual to get hitchhikers like that on newly imported rock. You may wish to keep an eye out on that mushroom. Under certain conditions they can spread quite rapidly. While this will seem cool at first, it will become a problem down the road if you intend to keep other corals as they will prevent other corals from doing well.

Thanks for the suggestions

Hi Finaddict, So are you just doing the bucket brigade for topping up your 90g cichlid tank? I have a few anubias, java fern and one other plant I can't rember the name of (more like a sword leaf something or other) in my 30g. The plants grow well, but so does the algae. I remove sheets and sheets of algae when I clean the tank at water change time. I'm not sure if it's cyano, it's far more tough than cyanobacteria, but it is sort of like cyano (or like a compressed hair algae). It completely chokes the plants, grows over equipment, etc. I'm not sure how to deal with this. I don't know if I want to do away with a planted tank and go to less light as I do like the plants, but there has to be a better way to keeping a tank clean. I tried upping the filtration on my 30g, so I run an Eheim 2213 on it as well as a Rena Filterstar (something or other). I had a Fluval 303 on it previously but it didn't hold up to time very well. It seems to me there's always an air bubble in a cannister so it's always making some kind of slurping noise anyhow. I imagine a sump would be worse but again I just wonder if I'm not using the best equipment or something. How noisy is your 90g with the sump? Could you use a Durso style overflow to handle the gurgling or is it the bioballs itself that is the problem?

Hi guys, I'm a SW guy and I'm next to useless with my FW tank knowledge. All my thoughts and opinions on how a tank should be set up and ran come from my reef tank experience. So here's the scoop. I have a FW tank that has been set up in one way shape or form for about 10 years. It started off as a 10g, then became a 30g as fish naturally outgrew that, and now the current inhabitants are outgrowing their 30g. Coupled with that my 30g is on an iron stand with the electrical and filters underneath, and that I have a 1 year old son who's totally into flipping switches, there's a safety issue at play ... so the end result is that I'm swapping out my 30g for a 65g that I have (that uses a cabinet style stand that I can, theoretically, toddler proof a little bit). Here's what I want to do: Like I said, I'm a SW guy. I've always run tanks with sumps in SW so that I can hide my heaters and skimmers and so on. Plus I put a float valve down there for topping up water lost to evaporation. I'd love to do the same for my FW tank. I'm tired of hauling buckets to top up evap so I'd love to put a float valve and automate that a bit (since that's what I do for my SW anyhow, to me it's a no-brainer). But, and here's the thing. If I have a sump then I might have trouble fitting my cannister filter in the cabinet. Should I use a sump that can accomodate bioballs? What are the advantages of a sump with bioballs over a cannister filter? Are there any? Is the cannister filter better? It seems to me I can put the bioballs under some filter floss, so I'd have my mechanical filtration and my biological filtration all set. I haven't ruled out making this a planted tank although that's up in the air, since I find keeping plants clean of algae to be a major chore (I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong on that one..) The tank inhabitants are two clown loaches, a butterfly loach and a plec. When the 65g is operating I might like to add a few more inhabitants that may school out in the middle water section since these are all bottom dwellers. Are bioballs in a sump tower preferable in any way to cannister filters?

What sort of changes does it do to your browser? Can you uninstall it later? I'd be sort of game to try it but your comments make me nervous enough to think twice before committing to trying it out. I'm one of the unlucky 95% who can't access the board at all. There was a brief window around Friday morning where it worked for me but after lunch and since then I can't get there at all. I thought about it a bit... No I'm not going to do that. Installing the proxy tool I used changes the way browser works. I would rather not asume any resposibilty for it screwing something up. You can get a free trial of it here if you feel brave. http://www.xk72.com/charles/

90 gallon huh, not bad. Well in answer to your lighting question .. the answer is "it depends." It depends on what kind of corals you would like to eventually keep. Because some are more tolerant of lower light levels, others are not so. The typical 90g is 48x18x24. 24" high is a little bit tall so you may wish to be steered towards a little more intensity. Personally I'd probably go 2x250W, maybe with a little actinic supplementation (2x110W probably) for the dusk and dawn effect. It's really a hard question to answer easily though because there are myriads of choices out there, light colour temperature, and ballast choices, and wattages and so on. Double-ended or mogul socket. Etc. Etc. Etc. Probably the best thing to do is look at other examples and see what sort of things you like best. Just a couple things to remember - the bluer the light, the less intense the light overall. The higher the wattage, the more heat you have to deal with (as well as electical bill at the end of the month). In general, colours tend to "pop" more under bluer light. Some people like a blue tank, some people like a white tank. 14000K can be a suitable compromise however. Another thing to consider, a reflector choice can make a HUGE difference. PFO makes a nice reflector, as does Sunlight Supply which have a parabolic shape to bounce more light downwards into the tank. If you really want the shiznit though, look at the Diamond Lumenarcs from Pacific Garden Supply (as far as I know you can only get them via mail-order from their store in California). But their multi-faceted design is capturing a lot of attention in the reefing world. A little more pricey but probably well worth it. I know, I know. So .. many ... choices!!

Hi, I have some bad news for you, this stuff will never die on you, short of boiling your live rock. Resist the temptation to put the rock in your main tank where you may not want this stuff. I put some in my main display some 5 years ago and today, two tank moves later, I still find the occasional stand of it creeping out of a crevasse. Everytime I prune it I think I've got it all, and I may go months without seeing some, then poof! It's back. Caulerpa has some advantages as a nutrient export tool but it really does require very careful management. My own personal suggestion to anyone is to keep it in a refugium separated from main tank, and be very judicious about pruning it regularly. You can prune this stuff 95%, don't worry, it will come back. But even separated from the main display, there will always be that chance it will spread. In the tank I told you of, I have a satellite 20g (i.e., a small reef tank run off the same sump), and it too has the occasional stand of caulerpa despite my never having put any in that tank. The biggest problem with caulerpa, other than its propensity to occasionally sporulate (aka "go sexual", where a sprig of the stuff will explode and release spores. as well as any toxins such as nitrate, phosphate, etc., that it had been up-to-that-moment been absorbing, into the tank in a big smelly white mess), is that it can be a nasty player of what's called allelopathy. Allelopathy, or chemical warfare, is the process by which an organism can impede the growth of neighbouring organisms via biochemical processes. SPS can be very much affected by the presence of nearby caulerpa. So this stuff does require some careful thought as to whether it belongs in a system or not. Chaetomorpha makes an excellent alternative to caulerpa. Grows quickly under bright light, doesn't sporulate, and as far as I know, does not impede the growth of SPS just by being in the same tank. It also appears to taste better, as my tang just adores the stuff, eats it like crazy. He won't, however, touch the caulerpa in the tank. Ironically, I purchased the tang because he was a likely candidate to help me rid my tank of the caulerpa. He has refused to ever touch the stuff. Rabbitfish, as Albert suggested, are a better bet to take caulerpa, however they get large (they are not for a small tank, to be sure, unless juvenile -- but in THAT case you have to either upgrade the tank or sell the fish as the fish grows) ............ and then even then it's not 100% that they will eat caulerpa either (I know people who have tried them and they did nothing for the caulerpa). Sorry for the novel of a reply .. but I hope some of this helps. BTW since I think this may be my first post, for those of you who don't know me, Hi, I'm Tony and I'm a reefaholic.