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Any soft corals are good starters. As mentioned above, zoas along with GSP, xenia, Kenya tree and leathers are easy to keep. I would let your tank cycle for at least 2 more weeks before adding anything, with salt water it's extremely important not to rush things.

Any kind of plants actually. The more plants you put in the clearer the water will get. Plants compete with algae for nutrients and will eventually starve it out.

If I could start all over again....Absolutly no blue clove polyps!!!

Agitation will cool the entire pond by quite a bit.

At -50C I am pretty sure it would freeze over, no matter what agitation is available. It has been quite a few years since I have seen it hit -60C, but I have seen it happen. Some years the ice on the lakes and rivers gets almost 4 feet thick, our ice auger almost wasn't long enough.

I would make some plans for a greenhouse dome-like cover to help keep the air above the pond warmer.

I thought I read somewhere that supercooled water (from extreme agitation in cold weather) could cause ice crystals in the fishes blood or flesh... I have no idea if it is true or not.

My fish get to overwinter in a 6' round UFA poly tank in the basement (a cattle trough).

It's called frazil ice. They are needle shaped ice crystals caused by supercooled water that sometmes can get lodged in the fishes gills. Caused by extremely cold air temperature that cools the water below 32 degrees F. This usually happens in high altitude trout streams--where I've heard of it before. I guess it could possibly happen in a pond but probably not very likely.

I keep my fish in my pond year round with my 4280gph dual head pump blasting to the surface to keep a hole open. Even with that amount of flow agitating the surface and in the dead of winter last year (-30 and lower) it did totally freeze over a couple of times.

Moving water sure can freeze.

Coralife skimmers are more trouble than they're worth. If you're going to be using it as a HOB skimmer it will flood your floor in no time. Get yourself a higher quality unit that comes with a pump.

Picked up a new Torch coral this weekend. Can their base be placed directly in the sand on the bottom or should I keep it above the sand on the live rock? Had it up on the live rock about half way up in the tank but it was just below the power head. Too much current. We are running 4 T5 HO bulbs, 2 regular and 2 Actinic.

Thanks,

Hal

How did it come when you bought it? I'd glue it to a piece of live rock rubble.They need something solid to attach to rather than a loose sand bottom.

I'd think twice about using tap water unless you're absolutly positive it doesn't contain any phosphates. I tried this experiment about 4 years ago and just about nuked my tank with a red algae bloom.

For ease of use you can't beat the Hanna electronic checkers. Also no guesswork, what the instrument reads is what you've got. Now if they would only make one for magnesium. Elos is pretty reliable too but a bit more invloved with several different bottles of reagents/powders to mix.

Didn't want to mention any names but I'm sure everyone knows who I was talking about.

I know this is an older thread but if you decide to go with Bow Valley, BE VERY CAREFUL!!!. If you can get past the poor attitude towards his customers I guess he does do good work. The only thing I didn't like about my tank was that there was a 2" long scratch on the front panel that was undetectable until I had it home and water in it. Didn't bother going back to complain because earlier I had so much trouble convincing him that he gave me the wrong size bulkheads (which he did) that he'd probably say that I put the scratch in it.

When I started SW over 4 years ago with a 20 gallon tank I stocked it with 12 blue legged hermits. Believe it or not I still have one of the origials left.

there is a place out in bearberry that is suppose to be good, i have'nt had the chance to go yet.

You'll have to download their catalog and mail order if you deal with Bearberry Creek. They don't open their doors to the public until May.

Any more on this? Did the guy reply yet?

Are you limited to a 33-40gal tank? If you haven't bought one already consider going a big as you can. The bigger the tank, the more stable the water conditions. Make you sure you get a non-tempered glass tank so it can be drilled. Sump filtration is the only way to go. I'm also on Canreef, same user name if you need any more help.

You should do what's known as "cooking" your rock. Get a rubbermaid tub, add salt water, a heater and powerheads. Do regular water changes and test regularly. It will eventually cycle and you can re-seed it with a few pieces of cured live rock.

Sounds like you have your hands full. Obviously the "owners" of the tank didn't have a clue about keeping SW fish. Where's the live rock? You'd better look at getting at least 40-50lbs of CURED rock to act as your bio filter. Also gut your cannister filter and fill it with live rock rubble and a bag of carbon. What kind of water are you using? If you can, start doing your water changes with RO water. Tap water usually contains loads of phosphates which contribute to algae growth. Throw the food away and get some new stuff. Pull anything out that has the bubble algae on it and scrub it off, that's some real bad stuff. How old are the tank lights? Old dim bulbs will grow algae because of the swing into the red spectrum. Things will probably get worse before the start to get better, it's going to take alot of work to get it back into shape. Good luck.

Great pond! Wish we'll have one like it when we have our own place. Is it in a low location in your yard? It may flood in the future if all your rain water is running into it and mucking it up, also might cause issues if you fertalize your lawn. Making a system to use the run off from your house is a great idea. Seen one house in St Albert that used a huge above ground pool (not stocked) to collect run off for their eleborate and beautiful garden. ...... Want some guppies to though in there too once it's warm??

Yes it is a low location but flooding is not an issue. It has a slight slope so that any high water will run off into the bog (wasn't planned that way but I got a bit lucky there). Absolutly no fertilizer is used back there. Don't really want any guppies, they'll end up being fish food for my koi and if they do survive that they'll die in the winter. I keep my fish outside year round.

160lbs of sand total? How big of a tank is it?

I used Instant Ocean for almost 3 years with good results. It's probably one of the cheapest salts but it's good quality. I switched over to H2Ocean last year when I added SPS coral to my tank. I experienced great growth and colors just by changing to this salt. The only downside is the price--about $70 a bucket. It costs a small fortune initially starting up a SW tank, save yourself a few bucks and go with Instant Ocean.

I noticed you have a goby and no lid. Most online literature says you need a lid or cover.

I want to get one, but I got no lid and a while I can do a crappy mesh cover I don't really want to.

Have you had any problems with carpet surfers?

I actually have 3 gobies and none of them have jumped. The smaller (male) clown went carpet surfing about a month ago and a couple of years back another male clown jumped out of my 20 gallon. That female must be a real b*tch to live with causing her 2 husbands to commit suicide. Although the tank's in the basement it still can get warm down there so I'll continue to go topless.

I started my journey into SW about 4 years ago with a 20 gallon. After setting up my 100g, my 20 sat there for a quarantine tank. DiDn't do anything with it and it kinda got away from me. Cleaned it out last weekend, new water, rock into my 100gallon sump to re-seed it and starting to cycle it again in hopes of selling it. If this is something that interest you let me know, I'm in Innisfail, an hour away from C-town.

ChefFish - Sounds like you're well on the way between the set-up you bought and the advice you've been given. One thing I would like to re-inforce is what bosshog told you, the lights you have should be OK for the tank and livestock you have now, if the tank is only 24" deep, and you have a substrate layed down bringing everything even closer to the lights, and the softies are sitting on rocks even closer to the lights, then you should have no problems at all. It's not necessary for you to put out the big bucks for more extravagant lighting. If you decide to get in to hard corals you may want to change to something brighter like MH. At the same time, whether necessary or not, the shimmer provided in the water by MH lighting is just the greatest.

As to the old line about sponges etc. being "nitrate factories", I'm tired of hearing that, and in my opinion it's bull. If not regularly cleaned any type of filtration is going to produce nitrates. If you want to keep your tank and water clean and sparkling you have to remove the solids, and whatever material you choose to remove the solids with has to be cleaned or replaced itself - or yeah - it's going to produce nitrates. Likewise, if you leave the solids in the tank and water, guess what, they'll just settle somewhere else and produce the same by-products there. Any filter that adds too the problem just isn't being kept clean enough, period, and I'd rather clean and replace the cloth and foam filters in my sump than than the sump itself and the tank. And as to nitrates, with a live sand bed and live rock you really won't find it to be of much concern once it has settled in, they really are remarkable at keeping the water clean - but you are still going to have solid waste.

You may find in the future that your protein skimmer may be a bit too little for your tank, a really good protein skimmer is abbout the best investment you can make. Oh and a good clean up crew like sand sifter stars and gobies, and sand dollars to stir up the sand and keep it clean.

Have fun.

On the other hand, you might want to get a good light right away. I remember saying when I first started that all I wanted was soft corals. Now that I'm over 4 years in, I've moved up into alot of SPS. You don't need a MH for them, I think people like them for the shimmer effect but they do throw alot of heat. I run an 8 bulb T5 on mine but even a 6 bulb would have worked. One thing you should stay away from is the sand sifting stars though. They never seem to get enough food and always end up dieing.