Aquariums

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by gopack2104, Aug 7, 2012.

  1. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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  2. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    Seriously doubt it was either of those. What else do you have?
     
  3. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    That's really it for inverts. She did take over a cave that the pistol and watchman goby had made their home under.

    It's grown back already to the point you can't even tell it was there.
     
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  4. killrbee7

    killrbee7 EMAGin' and Swaggin'
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    Added a Blue Tang this weekend. Up to 9 fish total. Here’s a good pic of six of them.
    AE1BFE42-1625-4119-84E7-9A8714D2927A.jpeg
     
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  5. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    We were supposed to add a blonde naso this weekend but it's delayed right now due to the guy having to quarantine.

    We have to add something soon, our sailfin is starting to turn into a jerk. Might wanna keep an eye on yours for that as well.
     
  6. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    killrbee7 Owsley I managed to get the sailfin out without killing him or any other fish. Swapped him out for 3 yellows tangs. One thing I learned was I definitely had some dead spots with the way the rock was set up which was causing some detritus build up. Reworked the right side to open it up. After a couple weeks when the new guys have settled in more I'll rework the other side to open it up more. Here's some pics I took.
     
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  7. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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  8. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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  9. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Finally rearranged the rock work on both sides. It's more open with better water movement throughout the rocks but also created more caves and hiding spots. The smallest yellow didn't make it :tebow: But he got picked on pretty bad during QT so it wasn't really a surprise. The other two have basically divided the tank between them. They'll chase each other every now and then but that's it so far.
    Credit for the yellow that didn't make it went to a Lt Tang that got ordered Thursday. Can't wait to get that guy in! Lt Dan, you ain't go no legs Lt Dan! Yes we name all our fish.
    DSC00640.JPG DSC00645.JPG DSC00644.JPG DSC00641.JPG
     
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  10. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Owsley these "bubbles" are on the return line where our bonded Clown pair hang out 24/7. They were on there yesterday and when I brushed up against the line they didn't move. And they are all in the same spot today. Bubbles or eggs lol?
    DSC00643.JPG
     
  11. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    Is it bubble algae?
     
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  12. Andy Reocho

    Andy Reocho Please don't get lost in the sauce
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    I enjoy my tank but seeing your guys has me :lovelove:
     
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  13. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    That's a possibility I hadn't thought of. We just made up a fresh batch of saltwater. Probably drain enough water to get below that line tomorrow and scrub that stuff off just to make sure.

    Not like they would survive if it was eggs anyways.
     
  14. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Some of the ones on reef2reef have me questioning my life choices that have lead to not having a tank like those guys do.
     
  15. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    The inverts are some of my favorite things in the tank. The random snails, hermits, the pistol shrimp, etc.

    We hear our pistol shrimp go off for the first time a week or so ago. I thought the tank had busted it was so loud.
     
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  16. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    If possible, scrub out of the tank, because bubble algae will be spread by popping it. Could just be cyano too.
     
  17. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    I miss my goby and pistol shrimp more than anything.
     
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  18. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Yea im gonna rig something up to hang underneath it as well. Definitely don't wanna spread it.
     
  19. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    We hadn't seen our pair in weeks till I moved the rocks yesterday and both of them popped out. The goby has gotten big.
     
  20. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Added some new fish the last couple days but haven't gotten good pics yet, hopefully I can later today.
    Added a lieutenant tang, coral beauty angel, bicolor blenny and a scooter blenny.
     
  21. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Our golden head goby can be a little fucker sometimes. We caught him the other day just straight spitting sand into one of the caves that the marine betta was chilling in. Like you little shit.
     
  22. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    How's your tank doing killrbee7 ? We are still battling some high nitrates and algae but nothing too bad.
     
  23. killrbee7

    killrbee7 EMAGin' and Swaggin'
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    Having some algae issues. The room has a decent amount of ambient light, so the long days have caused a surge in algae. Doing a few things to try and combat it. Got two conchs and a dragon goby to clean the bottom (the conchs are stressful because the clown trigger wants to eat them lol, but they have made it a week). Got some additional ceramic media and 10-micron filter media yesterday and turned off my lights the past two days. Hoping for a much clearer water column by the end of the weekend.

    Water tests were completely clear of nitrates/nitrites and phosphates. My LFS recommended to increase feeds to try and “dirty up” my water some to allow the bacteria to better compete against the algae.

    Hoping that all these things help!
     
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  24. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    We've added a ton to our cleaning crew lately. Lots of snails mainly. If you can get ahold of some Mexican turbos, ceriths and nassarius those can help a ton. I try and stay away from the snails that can't right themselves. I don't have the time or patience to look in the tank every day and flip snails over that have fallen before they die lol.
    We've went lights out for a day or two before to combat algae and it helped a lot. Of course if you have a bunch or corals that might not be a possibility.

    So far the coral beauty has not touched our Duncan. Fingers crossed we will be able to keep them both.
     
  25. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Majority opinion seems to be multiple types of algae (mainly cyano and hair) trapping air bubbles. Gonna do another partial water change today and hopefully the skimmer is finally dialed in to bring everything down.
     
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  26. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Finding that fine line between keeping everyone feed enough to not start fighting (mainly the tangs) and not over feeding is not fun.
     
  27. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    Yeah, when in doubt change water. I’d also check whatever water you’re using for phosphates.
     
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  28. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    I dont currently have a phosphate test. I need to get one asap.
    I did get some fresh macro algae and added it to the sump so hopefully that helps too.

    This reminds me that test kits are outrageously expensive for salt water.
    I have the temp, ph, and salinty probes for my apex but I need to get in the habit of testing for phosphates regularly.
     
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  29. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    When we buy a house and have to move this setup I'm gonna do my best to convince the wife that we need to set up an automatic water change system.
     
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  30. Owsley

    Owsley My friends call me Bear
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    I love caulerpa/macro algae
     
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  31. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Got just regular old cheeto and some red gracilliraia right now. Even that stuff is getting hard to find right now.
     
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  32. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    The Coral Beauty and Lt Tang have not been the easiest to photograph lol.
    DSC00654.JPG DSC00667.JPG DSC00670.JPG DSC00669.JPG
     
  33. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Couple pics I got that I thought showed off these guys pretty well. Owsley did you ever have a foxface? Ours may be one of my favorites. He's so chill and super colorful, especially when he's showing off the fins.
    DSC00664.JPG DSC00657.JPG DSC00655.JPG DSC00662.JPG
     
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  34. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Here's our current lineup as well.
    2 yellow tangs - working on getting a 3rd since it seems the popular opinion is 3 is safer than 2
    1 Lt Tang
    1 magnificent foxface
    1 coral beauty angel
    1 marine betta
    2 clowns
    1 blue/green chromi - working in getting a few more to make a school
    1 banggai cardinal - not sure if we want more or not
    1 Melanurus wrasse
    1 scooter blenny
    1 bicolor blenny
    1 sleeper gold head goby
    1 blue spot watchman goby (paired up with pistol shrimp)
    1 horseshoe crab
    1 sally lightfoot crab
    various snails and hermits
     
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  35. BP

    BP Bout to Regulate.
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    What's the up keep on a tank like that?
     
  36. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    I guess it depends on what you consider the normal up keep. We've done more water changes than normally required lately just because I caused a nitrate spike and have been working on lowering them to keep the fish healthy and help reduce the algae.
    Normally we have a company that comes out once a month and does tank cleaning, water changes, tops off any food we need, adds any chemicals or medicines needed, etc. But with covid and shit and the tank running pretty smoothly right now we've been trading our normal visit for livestock credit.
    The controller we use says the we spend about $8/month in power costs right now for what's plugged into the tank. We have an RO/DI filter to make our own top off water but I haven't been able to measure how much we are going though because of the frequent water changes. I think we have got to the point where I don't have to do them as often so I can actually see how much top off water we are going through. We also learned the lesson that if you invest in good equipment from the start you definitely help lower the cost of maintaining everything.
     
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  37. killrbee7

    killrbee7 EMAGin' and Swaggin'
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    Our emperor I noticed hasn't eaten in the past 24 hours. He has some really slight areas of discoloration, so I'm not sure if he has ich, a fluke, or if he just isn't happy that nitrates are detectable now...I don't know what to do. Every other fish is eating and seem to have no issues.

    D0345A02-8E27-4BA5-B3DB-7F125428F4EE.jpeg
     
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  38. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Ich would be noticeable as white spots. I don't really have experience with big angels. Possible someone picked on him? Maybe try some live food? I know angels can be finicky eaters.
    I got some Marine Pure Angel frozen cubes from Marine Depot for our coral beauty. They have sponge mixed in. The fish absolutely love them.
    Our nitrates are like 20 and have been for awhile.
     
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  39. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Any update killrbee7 ? Hope that magnificent fellow is doing better.
     
  40. killrbee7

    killrbee7 EMAGin' and Swaggin'
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    He started eating again today, but he is itching and rubbing against some of the rocks (which is why he is a bit discolored). Had a guy from LFS come by today to look at them, and he thinks that he looks pretty good. Thinks that it may be a parasite but isn’t ich. He recommended some type of salt treatment thing that he just gave me to use twice a day for the next 10 days or so. Noticed that another fish seemed to be rubbing against the rock, too, so definitely think something is in the tank.

    If this treatment doesn’t work, he recommended doing a copper treatment or possibly installing a UV sanitizer. While that option is obviously more expensive, it could prevent this from ever happening again, so I’m considering it.
     
  41. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Copper will more than likely kill any inverts and corals you have. That's if you don't have a separate hospital/QT tank set up.

    Look up treatments like Prazipro. There are some pretty good all around anti parasite meds out there. I used GreenX to treat what I assume was Ich and it worked great to suppress it (going for ich management vs iridication as I don't want to go fallow for 76 days).
     
  42. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    I'm gonna eventually add a UV sterilizer. But since a water test confirmed ich, I'm just letting the fish be like they would be in the ocean basically and just work to keep them stress free and suppress any outbreaks that happen.
    I've seen a couple of ours flash but after a day or two it stops. Keeping them well fed with nutritious food and supplementing it with Nori sheets helps a lot as well.
     
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  43. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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  44. —

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    I kind of want an aquarium, but I’ve got a stubborn and inquisitive cat. I’m worried about what he would do to the thing. Like he is an expert at causing havoc, knocking over potted plants, TVs, etc.

    Any cat and aquarium owners itt?
     
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  45. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    We have a cat but she's pretty chill and older. Doesn't really pay any attention to the fish unless we pick her up and hold her next to it.
    As long as you have well fitting lids I would think you'd be fine.
     
  46. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Everyone seems to be growing nicely right now. Have a little red algae growing but nothing worrisome yet. It happened last summer too when we constantly had the house closed up running the AC non stop.
    20200625_111833.jpg 20200625_111847.jpg 20200625_111859.jpg
     
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  47. killrbee7

    killrbee7 EMAGin' and Swaggin'
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    Fish are all doing better, eating well. Went ahead and purchased a pentair 25 watt uv sterilizer and set it up Friday night. Holy shit, this thing has made a night and day difference in the clarity of the tank. Still notice a couple areas of discoloration on a few fish, but know that will take another couple days but should subside soon, especially as long as they eat well.

    Pretty sure that our addition of a blonde naso tang a few back is what introduced whatever parasite into the tank. The UV definitely makes me feel better and will prevent this from occurring in the future.

    74AC4845-3240-43CF-96EB-491C3DEE447D.jpeg
     

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  48. Napoleon Bonerfart

    Napoleon Bonerfart Well-Known Member
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    It’s been a while since I’ve had a tank. Dove headfirst into saltwater without knowing anything and it was a disaster. Put a snowflake eel and clown in the same tank and woke up maybe 2 days later and wondered what happened to the clown.

    I really want to get back into it but I live in an apartment and don’t have any interest in moving the tank when I move. May just grab a water box or red sea nano and go from there.
     
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  49. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    When we buy a house we will probably set up a nano tank a second tank and make it coral heavy. We like too many fish that are not coral friendly for the 180.
     
  50. Jax Teller

    Jax Teller Well-Known Member
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    Fucking Aipstasia starting to break out. That shit is the bane of my existence. It spreads and multiplies so easily.
    If nothing bad happens before Tuesday we will be adding a large Australian Copperband Butterfly and a Aipstasia eating filefish that day so we should get at stuff under control.
     
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