Vitaminz

So it comes with a heavy heart, that due to recent circumstances, I will be leaving this hobby. I will be taking an inventory tonight and posting stuff on the buy sell forums.

To everybody that I have meet in this hobby it has been great, learned alot and hope to be back one day soon!

Jeff

Tank Update 3-13-2013

The ideal reef tank temperature is between 76° and 78° Fahrenheit .You will have to be very watchful, if the corals are not happy and start going south, they could start a chemical warfare. Never a pretty sight. Have to make sure your quality of water is bang on for that small of a tank.

Jeff

Tank Update- 12-18-2012

After battling a tank crash due to a heater sticking on all the time, it is finally back on the road to recovery. Here are some new Panoramic pictures taken with my phone:

Looks like Majano to me...

I would just take a syringe full of Joe's Juice / Lemon Juice / Kalkwasser and inject it!

IMHO, Because it is a nano tank, you want your parameters to be spot on... You have so little room for error and even less time to fix any issues once you get going and avoid a complete crash.

Bio balls I wouldn't do to be honest, been their done that...ripped them out...

Unless you are going to put a light on in the sump, wouldn't do live rock or rubble their.

The problem with getting live sand from another tank, is if they have issues you are just inheriting them as well...

I have always been a big fan of starting out on your own, that way you know exactly what is in it and no hitch hikers or any surprises. If it was me, I would add a light to your sump and put the live rock and or rubble their. Maybe even a bit of Chateo...

just my 2 cents worth...

Jeff

Hahaha, no I wish...

With that small of a tank, I would do a Ricordea garden!!!

The Xenia has melted away into nothing. According to a few other forums, they favor high nitrite/nitrate levels in the water

Xenia are one of those temperamental corals that some tanks can either grow like weeds, or no matter how many times you try, you always kill it. I have tried for years to grow it in my tanks, and finally have been able to keep it alive...for now... lol

Jeff

I attribute the growth to my two 250w MH 24k lights...Then switched to LED...man I miss my MH....

The light I am using is an industrial 4 'bulb' led set up that I dismantled and set up on a flat board. Its more of a temporary thing until the tank cycles. The sand was from petsmart, they sell live Caribbean sand in a moist vacume sealed bag. And yeah I've been using conditioned tap water for now as well as 10 gal from my exsisting tank, that also uses tap water...

How effective are the ro devices that you can buy for your home?

Do you know the color temperature of the LED's? Normally for a salt water tank you was atleast 14k or above... Also what was your lighting schedule?

What lights do you have over the tank and how old are the bulbs? Where did you get the live sand from? Did you use R/O water, or conditioned tap water?

Almost looks like a massive die out of something...I would remove the canister filter, black out the tank for a few days... and do some water changes.

Jeff

How old are your bulbs? What what is the color temperature of them?

Pervagor aspricaudus, also called the yellow-Tail Filefish

What is your lighting specs? What is your lighting schedule? Also do you dose any additional chemicals? Do you use tap water or RO?

Have you tested your water parameters, and if so what are they?

Jeff

http://answers.tetra-fish.com/answers/0596-en_us/product/4267/tetra-waterwonders-aquarium-cube-questions-answers/questions.htm

Question

WaterWonder light power cord

Where can I get a power cord for the LED light? Is it 12v DC? If so finding a replacement is not an issue.

1 answer

It is not sold as a spare part. I am sorry.

Thanks.

I have looked Everywhere for a replacement without any luck. It looks like a simple 12v DC transformer...Might be able to find a universal adapter, or open it up and wire it directly. Or just buy a new LED pod off Ebay...

Jeff

Awesome, that was a good idea with the air hose! Got to watch out for bubble algae...once is spreads, it is hard to contain. I known a few people that had and outbreak and had to black out their tanks for a week, even had one friend tear down their whole setup and start over.

Jeff

I added my ATO after I had my sump installed. But I wished I added it sooner, let me tell you. For the cost of the simple ATO is like $40 and the cost of running the water line. It gets more expensive if you went the route of RO water...Some people swear by it, but I have been running with tap water for the last 2 years without an issue.

Also have you considered just taking the plunge and just buying a sump, time saved just putting it in, than jerry rigging it?

Jeff

So your adding in the sump after the tank is already filled an cycled? Also do you have all your plumbing run?

I ran a dual media chamber outside the sump, so that I can run Carbon and GFO. You can also run filter floss in one of your baffles or run filter socks.

Make sure you also plan on putting a light in for the Refuge. Or if you want to put in Chateo, I put mine in the first chamber.

Jeff

Im not sure if this is bubble algea or a Corel that came out of the live rock but any id would be helpfull

http://instagr.am/p/Pp7dxUPw9O/

Botryocladia skottsbergii has been dubbed by some as 'Red Valonia', though the implied comparison is apt only when a specimen is very young, and the grapelike bladders appear to be directly attached to the substrate. DO NOT bust the bubbles in the water! Best to take the live rock out of the tank and remove them in a pail.

Jeff

I'm in the proces of setting up a new 120 sw tank and am looking for ideas for a good 40 gal sump. I was thinking half would be bio balls, skimmer and baffle plates and the other would have lots of live sand and rock.

And that is the key part of this equation...SW...

I will assume here that the other responses thought you were talking about a fresh water sump instead of a salt water.

40g sump...does it already have chambers, or is it just a 40 gallon tank that you want to convert over to a sump?

Ok here is are my thoughts...ditch the bio balls...just my experience...Had them...hated them.

Do you have your skimmer already picked out?

Are you adding in a ATO system?

Unless you are going to add a refuge into your system for the pod population, I would ditch the live sand. I have no live sand in my system at all. All crushed coral.

Here is a pic of when I first setup my sump to give you and idea:

Hope this gives you a good start, and if you have any more questions, just let me know.

Jeff

I don't really know lots about saltwater/reef systems but aren't starfish voracious eaters of Copepods and Amphipods which are supposed to be beneficial for those systems?

The Asterina species found in some reef tanks, has the reputation of being risky or just plain unsafe in the reef. This is interesting because for many years prior to that, they were not only regarded as harmless, but beneficial! What happened? Did they all change their voter registrations overnight? No, the answer really is quite simple. While they favor one type of prey that is convenient or popular to us, like sand bed worms, brown diatoms or bubble algae, they will adapt to eating other food items following the reduction or absence of a preferred food item. Thus, a persistent growth of microalgae will likely have less trouble with misbehaving omnivores than another aquarist with an aggressively skimmed and scrubbed tank that supports little growth of the matter. In a phrase, the hungrier that a so-called reef-safe creature gets, the less reef-safe that creature becomes.

Jeff

Any time I find starfish in the main display, I take them out and banish them to the sump. They really do a good job of cleaning up, but had to many bad experiences with them eating corals. Once they get a taste for it, it can turn out bad.

Jeff

Do you get annoyed when you get home and the your place is re-arranged??? lol

The only time I move things around with the rock work it when I introduce a new fish, and the territory fights happen.

In all my time in this hobby, I have never once had the rock work fall against the glass, I usually leave enough room from the rock work and the front of the glass. Mostly because I like to clean the glass with a magnetic cleaner and also it leaves enough room that I can acclimate my frags to the LED lights at the bottom.

Jeff