Vitaminz

Welcome to the Forum, need to see some photos of your current setup....300g eh...tempted by saltwater??? lol Jeff

Ideal tank perimeters are needed with these shrimp they are more susceptible to perimeter swings. A pH of 8.1-8.4 should be establish and very stable to support these invertebrates. A temperature ranging from 72-78 is the best temperature to keep the shrimp thriving. A salinity of 1.023 -1.025 will be ideal and little to no nitrates should be present in the tank. Acceptable nitrate levels in a marine tank with fish should never be higher than 5-10 ppm. How did you put the shrimp in? (dropped him in, or acclimated him) What are your water perimeters? Do you use a skimmer? Do you add extra chemicles? Your hermit crab is a scavenger, so it will look for anything that not moving for an easy meal. Did you ever consider that maybe he molted, and what the hermit was eating was it's old shell? Hope this helps, Jeff

I am glad they got to their new home safely!! Yahhh!!!

I have moved lots of fish and pleco's in a plastic tupperware bin from walmart, they work great. Moving a glass tank around with water is just not a good idea, all that sloshing around...plus it add stress to the seals. Trust me, a bin is the way to go, cause knowing drivers....lol I was moving a 120g tank once, and some guy cut me off and I had to slam on my brakes, if I didn't have the fish in the bin with a lid, those fish wouldn't have survived.

You do have to re-acclimatize the corals, yesterday, today and friday, i will leave the lights on for only 4 hours. Over the long weekend, I will leave them on for 6 hours. Then after that back to the 8 hour schedule.

Tank Update 9-1-2010 Thought it about time to update tank pictures, just replaced my 150w 20k MH bulb, that one hurt the pocket book.....You know what I will have to admit that I was always a fan of never replacing a bulb unless it was burnt out....But after today, I was proven wrong....what a difference.... And of course I had to do the smart thing and take down the light to replace the bulb and had to test to make sure it worked, before putting it all back together.......yeah we can all guess what happened....it worked!!! Still seeing spots.... Atleast I marked the date I changed it on the box with the old bulb, that way I don't second guess when I changed it. Yeah I have my moments, but who doesn't??? lol

Welcome Kyle, Saltwater is more addicting than fresh....Just as an FYI for you, as you read those books, you will find there is conflicting information... I find the best way is just to dive in, and learn as you go, cause what might work for somebody else, might not work for you. Jeff

I am going there!!! can't wait!!!! Jeff

No Worries buddy, any time.

Here is a summary of the information I found across alot of sites: Duncan Corals are usually found in deeper water near sandy substrate, it is very adaptable to lighting conditions. It is a fast grower given the right conditions, and usually develops new polyps directly adjacent to an existing one. As with all other LPS, maintaining calcium and alkalinity levels is necessary, while excess phosphates and nitrates can slow growth. Propagation is as easy as cutting the 'stem' of the coral to separate polyps, although as this coral grows upwards it will not attach itself to reef structures, it is best attached via the use of an aquarium-safe putty, or super glue. While possessing zooxanthella and being capable of photosynthesis, this coral appreciates regular feeding with any meaty marine foods able to fit into the expanded polyp's mouth. Feed occasionally with chunks of prawn or mysis, which is very easy due to the adhesiveness and reactivity of the tentacles. They relatively unaggressive coral, incapable of producing sweeper tentacles, and generally comes out underneath when competing with other stony corals. It is best left with plenty of space to grow, as well as relatively unaggressive neighbours.

The point I was trying to make, was people in this hobby seem to have their own way to raise their fish, and you know what, who are we to say if they are wrong or right, as long as the fish are happy and healthy. This hobby isn't an exact science, everybody has there own way of doing this. It is just like raising kids, everybody give advice, but ultimatly you will have to live with the concequences of your actions. Take what you want from this, doesn't really matter, my fish are health and fine with salt, end of story...

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/cichlids-south-america/4934-oscar.html "SALINITY - Freshwater. Likes a little aquarium salt in the tank. No more then 1 tsp per 5 gal" Seems to be mixed information, seems to be constant with this fish keeping hobby. You will read a book or an article on something, and you will always find somebody with the opposite view. Reading more into it, I do admit I used the term Brackish wrong, I assumed anything between fresh water and marine tank, was considered brackish. My 120 gallon tank that is dominated by africans, I DO add aquarium salt to it, that is just my preference and my opinion..... My Ice Blue Zebras spawn in the tank all the time, so my Oscar seems to fancy that as a snack. Jeff

Hey Wayne, Let me know how your Red Sea Prism works out for you, I read about them online and got mixed reviews on it. Currently I am running a Coralife Skimmer, and not happy with it at all. Jeff

I would love to stop by and pick up some snails for my 120 Gallon. PM your addy and contact information, can pick up tomorrow after work. Thanks, Jeff

last i read oscars are purely a freshwater fish, not brackish at all. where did you get your information? "Keeping a salt level in the water seems to be essential part of Oscar keeping. The addition of salt when a pair of Oscars has a spawning seems to ensure a greater hatch rate for the eggs" http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/Taylor_Oscars.html

I feed my Oscar some tilapia and cod from the freezer, I just defrost chunks from the freezer and feed it to him using a chop stick. Never thought of the imitation crab meat, but wouldn't be worried about the salt content in it, because they like to be in brakish water. It really depends on your oscar and how tempermental he or she is, just like kids I swear! lol

I have a 9 Watt UV filter from Aquagiant the JUP-01, filters about 800 liters per hour. I first bought it when I had a huge outbreak of green algea and it took care of the problem and haven't had an issue since. My tank is 120 gallon.

Welcome Dianna to the site, hope you enjoy it here. What are you keeping for fish and tanks these days?

I got these LED from http://www.leddna.com/ Kind of want to but a couple more....When I have the money of course....2 of them came to $29.00 US, with free shipping. I am glad you finally decided to get your feet wet, so to speak...lol And because my little nano is doing so well, my wife is jealous and wants me to convert over my home tanks to salt water....*evil grin* my plan finally worked..... And yes that is cyano-algae....my clean up crew all died....came into my office one day, and one of the seals on my canister filter broke, lost about 10 gallons of water...grrrr. In the process of procuring some new clean up crew that will take care of that for me. As for the contacting in the future, I have no issues with that, I will help out when ever I can.

So my Ultrabright CREE Q5 LED's came in the other day....yahhhhh.... So my first task was finding an enclosure for this....spend alot of time looking for this, but found it at Princess Auto: So I placed some foam in the bottom and place the LED and Heat sink in, just barely fit.... This one is the bottom view with the diffusor in: All Done with the connectors, now to place everything inside: Now connected all my lead to a 12v power source and viloa, we have light! Placed some glass that I had kicking around, on top of my existing light: Now Placing the boxes on top of the glass: So here is what the tank looks light with only the LED's on: Not to shabby with just 2 LED's...hehehehe Here is a pics with all the lights turned on:

7-28-2010 I Thought it was about time for an update, frags are doing amazing and growing nicely! Had a little bit of a hair algea from leaving the blinds open over the weekend....stupid sun light.....lol Got that under control, just reduced my lighting period from 12 hours to 8 hours, and pick up some mexican turbo snails. I have some Cree Q5 LED's on order and going to continue with the DIY light, by adding those to the light with the drivers of course...just had an itch for a DIY project.....Will update onces those come in. And now for the pictures:

The Zoa's are the ones I picked up on a live rock, so that isn't growth of the original frag. The light was only $100, I really can't complain about it....lol I still go in on weekends to feed them, as for the water changes, not so much, with the MH and the skimmer, it takes out about 10% of the water for me, so just have to add water.... I still do a vacuum of the sand every month. Everybody in the office loves the tank, I get daily visitors that come in and check on the tank, and the progress. The boss just rolls his eyes, as another employee has a bigger fresh water tank in his office. As for the amount of time it takes up in my day, I work alot of overtime, so nothing has been said...yet...lol As for the background, I am still on the fence about that.....Since it is against the wall, I don't see very much point, and the live rock hides most of the equipement....

Welcome Back!

Tank Update 7/6/2010 Picked up a new light, as I found the dual T5 weren't cutting it. Is it just me, or do you spend alot of this hobby, searching for better equipment?? lol So the new light, I don't know who manufactures it, or if it was somebodies DIY project... But it is a 14k 150 watt MH with dual T8, so much better than just the T5. The clam is doing very well, had to move him down after I installed this light.... Re-arranged the rocks...never ending aqua scapping....lol Here is a pic of the new light... Picked up some new frags as well 1 small colony rock with the golden eye, green, and some green button paly's and Green Star Polyps. Here are some new pics of the frags:

Update 6-16-2010 Got some new live rock today, now up to about 35lbs of live rock..... Also got some hitch hikers along with the rock, some star fish. Had my anemone split as well, now I have 2 of them....YAHHHH.... Now for the pictures: