fleshgear

well, now i am thinking about going with my 46 gallon bowfront after having some issues with the 33 gallon. lol. that still gives me 4wpg of light. now i have to find a new home for some more fish and plants.

So I tore down my 33 gal tank and found the silicone to be in very bad shape. So bad that on the bottom there was roots form the big ozelot growing under the silicone. I think it was a miracle that the tank was not already leaking. Some of the silicone on the sides I took off with my fingers. I didn't need a razor. So I went to walmart to pick up some silicone at 930 pm. Now the tank is resealed and curing.

I've got a 20 gal that has been running for 30 months. The equipment list is 20 gal tank, heater, aquaclear 110, 48 watts t5ho, around 10 pounds of LR. For nutrient export I use macroalgae, and filter floss. The only thing in the aquaclear is a bunch of LR rubble and the heater. I have had plans to light the AC and put the macro in it, but it hasn't been done yet. The light on this tank is just borderline adequate for the animals in the tank. The original plan was to get it rolling with the t5 and then move upto leds, I havent' done it yet but still intend to.

Corals in the tank include mushrooms, ricordea, paly's, zoa,s, a couple of tiny SPS frags about 2 inches under the light. There is 1 maroon clown, 1 peppermint shrimp, 6 snails, 6 hermits, 1 porcelain crab.

This tank has given me the least trouble of the 4 I have.

The small hob skimmers generally aren't worth their weight in turds. The best small skimmer I've used is a Tunze 9002. I've heard good things about the sapphire nano skimmer.

Do tons of research and go really slow on your build, and it will work out well.

What about water changes. What do you do for that? How much? How often?

Now I was thinkin about using a 33 gal tank cause I have an extra 3ft light. Do you think 6wpg is too much light?

i was talking to another guy at a store, i mentioned that i had quite a few fresh water tanks and i wanted a 20 gallon sw tank. and he said why do you want a protien skimmer, just use an extra canister filter. that would get me by till i realize that i want a much bigger tank. and then the skimmer would just sit in my garage.

i like that idea a lot cause it is free.

Crap- that was a good presentation, wasn't it? I want one too.

it was very good, but what about setting up tanks smaller than 150 gallons.

i like the part about driving a Cadillac on a beer budget.

when i only had 3 tanks, i had to take down and sell my 33 to get a 46 bowfront. that didnt really last. mts happened pretty fast. and i have another 33 as well. and i still want bigger tanks. but i am at the point where i have to start removing furniture to put more tanks in.

i think a salt water tank would look much better than the couch

could i just get one of those hob skimmers? instead of the hob filter? is the hob skimmer the same as a filter?

what else do i need as far as equipment goes?

tank

cover

heater? does it need to be a special one?

skimmer

light

power head

what else?

what about heaters? or what should the temp be?

I have been thinking about doing a 20 gallon SW for a while now...and this is what i've come up with.

Any filter will work, but take out the carbon and just leave the sponge part.

A power head will help keep things moving, which is good.

If you end up doing hard corals, you need like 2-4 wpg, but if just zoas then 1-2 wpg is fine.

The protein skimmer is a must if you don't want to be doing water changes every day or two, otherwise the ammonia build up is too much and kills everything.

For water changes, I read that 20-25% is sufficient every week or two, depending on what you've got in the tank. Same principle as FW.

I've come to the conclusion that it's going to be wayyyyy cheaper for me to just buy a set up off of a dis-enchanted member or person off kijiji, 'cause some of this stuff is getting to be very expensive. :boxed:

i was taking with a few fish store people and one said for my nano cube i just need to put carbon in and some sort of a sponge.

the nano cubes dont have protein skimmers. and the edge tanks that i have seen only have the small ac filter

the protien skimmer is the part i want to avoid. unless i could get a cheap one, but then i guess you would get what you pay for.

where does the amonia come from? the live rock will take it, wont it?

i need to do some reading about protein skimmers.

why do corals need more water changes than the fish do?

i was thinking of using my 8 gallon cube tank, but then i thought maybe 10 gallon, but i think i might go for a 20 gallon.

i dont want to spend a lot of money.

i want to have corals, and only a few fish.

i was thinking of using a glass top, i have some good lights that i can use. how much light would be ideal and what would the minimum be?

can i use an aquaclear hang on back filter? or a fluval 204 or 304? or would that be too much? and what would go in the filter?

would i need an internal power head?

what is the point of a protein skimmer? that sounds expensive and like a lot of work, and i would like to avoid that.

how big of a tank could you go with before you would need a protine skimmer and a sump tank? i also have a 30 gallon tank that i am not using

when you do a water change how much do you change?

what do you have to test for? and how often? i dont test anything for my fresh water tanks, but i have most of the fresh water test kits

i went and checked some of the lfs and there was so much stuff there, it was kind of over whelming.

it was very interesting, but now i have so many more questions. and i want to setup a saltwater tank.

Wisteria?

i use the kind for bread that has the yellow label. i have used others as well. the only kind i havent tried is the quick rise kind. i dont think that would work as well for what we want it for. the wine yeast would probably last the longest, but it costs too much

i use 2 liter pop bottles and 1 cup of sugar per liter of water and 1/2 tsp of any kind of baking yeast and add water i normally keep it 2 or 3 inches from the top.

when you add the yeast the water cant be higher than 27 Celsius or it will kill the yeast. this lasts about 3 to 4 weeks. i dont use baking soda

Did it come with the tfd order? If so and even if not. it could be Egeria densa.

It should grow fine with your light

it doesnt dry out. the tank is sealed as best as i can. i did this a few months ago. had too much humidity in the house. and this was one of the tanks that was loosing a lot of water ever week. now that i sealed it better i dont have water loss. so the humidity is high inside the tank. there is a lot of condensation on the top.

how long does it take to open? i see lots of pics where the tanks have no lids at all and the spike just grows past the light and opens.

my flowers look ready to open, they always look ready to open but then never do.

i use pps pro, however i do think it does have a nutrient deficiency because of all of the holes in the leaves. or it is the clown loach.

it has two spike now. and the second spike branched so it has three on it

yes it is above the water

i just noticed some of this stuff in one of my tanks. never seen it before. where did it some from? what causes it? what is it? its hydra, but what is it? i can see it pretty easily with just my eyes. they are about 2mm long

i have a large echinodorus rose that has put out many runners and it puts out the flowers and they extend about an inch off of the stem. but they have never opened for me.

i have 5 full size angels in a 46 gallon tank, they are with bloodfin tetras, cories, swords, neons, platies, and some other small tetra. they are all fine. the angels have bred several times in that tank. the angels fight amongst them selves and during breeding they will chase any other fish away.

i have some florite in some of my tanks and mulm and crud in others and i cant tell the difference between them. i do regularly fertilize.

i would also put a lot of plants in the tank from the start. go for the crypts and anubias and swords but also put a few fast growing stem plants in to start with. i think this helps keep the algae down till the slower growing plants get settled in. you can fase out the fast growing plants after a while so you dont have to do as much trimming. for a planted tank i dont really like the play sand. i would use sil 9 it is $20 for 40 kgs and has a natural look.

as for the inch per gallon rule. in most of my planted tanks i go way over an inch per gallon. i also have good filters. that might make the difference.

you can go to hunting stores and buy all different kinds of gun powder. all you have to do is write down a name on there list. they didnt ask for id, so you could write down any name.

you would be better off to take the weights off of the crypts so they dont get disturbed later on. you could also spread out the crypts a little more if you wanted to. but it wont hurt them to leave them bunch up like that either. your gravel is a little bigger than the ideal size. and it might be hard to keep some of the plants rooted, but it can be done.