Mariel's Reef Tank

[LadyQuorra]

Yes the 40 breeder is a excellent idea. I think we have all been there with die off . If you make sure you learn something it was not a waste. The black clown is great as likely captive bread. No diseases form the wild, already eating prepared, adjusted and raised in captivity, shorter supply chain for less abuse.

If you go w a larger. You could keep your current tank as a quarnteene. Just a powerhead on a sponge. Some pipes or similar inert objects to hide in and some dr Tim's for a cycle when you get a fish to put in quarnteene.

True. Thanks for the reply, I always enjoy getting feedback ^_^

[LadyQuorra]

Last Sunday I got a Pom Pom Crab from Sea in the City. Everything in the tank seems to be doing fine except for the last Turbo Snail, things aren't looking so good for him. I was able to take some pics the last couple days, none of the Pom Pom or Clown though. I took a few video clips but it will be a while until I edit them together, cause I'm a bit slow when it comes to those things


DSCN3074 (418x640).jpg DSCN3072 (480x640).jpg DSCN3041 (640x480).jpg DSCN3047 (640x480).jpg DSCN3034 (480x640).jpg

[Michael]

What is that substrate? Looks unusual

[SaltWater]

looking good. Give the turbo snail an algae leaf

[LadyQuorra]

What is that substrate? Looks unusual

http://www.thatpetplace.com/bio-acti...reef-sand-20lb

I actually bought it at the PETCO on Bumby on sale for like $18.

[LadyQuorra]

looking good. Give the turbo snail an algae leaf

Uh what's an algae leaf?? o.O

[Michael]

Probably means those sheets of nori or something that they sell at stores?

Ok it is sand, looked like gravel almost. If it is large grain might be a good idea to vacuum it from time to time.

[SaltWater]

yes those nori sheets. if your tank doesn't have algae it will starve

[WingoLED]

Avoid ANY tank that a width / height ratio that makes tank maintenance and aqua-scaping difficult. This little inconvenience will ultimately show up in the health of the corals. SO 55G is a not a good reef tank choice. You cannot easily reach the bottom of the tank and the width limits the placement of rocks and corals, creating very steep light intensity issue.

Please post your parameters and other abnormal sightings in your tank, may be they provide hints for other reefers to find out why your tank cannot hold life too well.
My first impression is temperature(may be it's too hot at a certain period of the day) and/or disease in your tank.

Not sure what experience level you have with reef tank and SW, so I will highlight some important factors assuming you are a newbie(please don't mind my assumption). For transferring a SW fish to any system, SG is a very important issue. You must check the SG of the old water and the new water. For most SW fish to go from lower SG to higher SG, it's a dangerous process. When you do 3 hours drip acclimation most SG difference issue(along with pH issue) will be eliminated if they are transferring between commercial settings such as the fish comes in a bag of water from an online vendor. If the fish come from a LFS, you should check the SG as well, don't rely on the info given by the store worker-they may not know the parameter themselves. Most likely, they just guess it when you asked. Clownfish is very resilient and thus your initial dying of the "Nemo" is odd and may indicate something about your system. I have a Onyx Picasso in my 10G with almost no flow and and temperature control in my bar and it is growing OK. Temperature swings drastically in my bar from 85f(no AC) to 78f(AC on). So clownfish dying in a system without a bully could indicate poor acclimation and/or disease in the new system. Hope it helps

[LadyQuorra]

Probably means those sheets of nori or something that they sell at stores?

Ok it is sand, looked like gravel almost. If it is large grain might be a good idea to vacuum it from time to time.

Ah. Yeah I vaccum it when I do my PWCs. The grain size varies quite a bit, it seems what ends up being on the top is the bigger stuff.

[LadyQuorra]

yes those nori sheets. if your tank doesn't have algae it will starve

Makes sense, I never thought of buying algae... V.V Going to try that, thanks

[LadyQuorra]

Avoid ANY tank that a width / height ratio that makes tank maintenance and aqua-scaping difficult. This little inconvenience will ultimately show up in the health of the corals. SO 55G is a not a good reef tank choice. You cannot easily reach the bottom of the tank and the width limits the placement of rocks and corals, creating very steep light intensity issue.

Please post your parameters and other abnormal sightings in your tank, may be they provide hints for other reefers to find out why your tank cannot hold life too well.
My first impression is temperature(may be it's too hot at a certain period of the day) and/or disease in your tank.

Not sure what experience level you have with reef tank and SW, so I will highlight some important factors assuming you are a newbie(please don't mind my assumption). For transferring a SW fish to any system, SG is a very important issue. You must check the SG of the old water and the new water. For most SW fish to go from lower SG to higher SG, it's a dangerous process. When you do 3 hours drip acclimation most SG difference issue(along with pH issue) will be eliminated if they are transferring between commercial settings such as the fish comes in a bag of water from an online vendor. If the fish come from a LFS, you should check the SG as well, don't rely on the info given by the store worker-they may not know the parameter themselves. Most likely, they just guess it when you asked. Clownfish is very resilient and thus your initial dying of the "Nemo" is odd and may indicate something about your system. I have a Onyx Picasso in my 10G with almost no flow and and temperature control in my bar and it is growing OK. Temperature swings drastically in my bar from 85f(no AC) to 78f(AC on). So clownfish dying in a system without a bully could indicate poor acclimation and/or disease in the new system. Hope it helps

I already abandoned the idea of the 55g and sold it.

I would post the parameters if they were relevant, but the die off in my tank was 90% my fault if not all. Late March and April were pretty busy for me so I skimped on maintenance and taking the proper precautions. It's definitely not a mystery to me why I had 2 fish and one nem die.

But thanks for advice. The people at the LFS usually say acclimate for 45 min. But to be safe with my newest batch of stock and transfers i took about 3 hours to acclimate each (simultaneously of course). I'm for sure now more weary of LFS advice than from when I started.

[WingoLED]

See, I am not too paranoid in the acclimation after you heard Tony's presentation last night, right. LOL

[LadyQuorra]

See, I am not too paranoid in the acclimation after you heard Tony's presentation last night, right. LOL

His presentation was very good, though I don't remember him mentioning acclimation (I have really bad memory LOL) But I remember him talking about how important QT and special care for new additions is. I don't have a QT so I think I need to be on my A game when purchasing livestock and putting it into my tank.

[LadyQuorra]

So looks like Jeff was on the right track. As I was moving out of my apartment today I found my dartfish all dried up on the carpet... :/ I guess 1cm slits are big enough for a dartfish to jump out of.

My black clown has been MIA since Saturday afternoon. When I got back from the meeting I didn't see him anywhere, so i figured he maybe finally found a little cave to sleep in. This morning I still didn't see him so I lifted up all the rocks to see if I could find him, no luck. Could he die and decompose that quickly?? Can clowns jump out of tanks?

I'm going to do a PWC tomorrow and vacuum the sand just in case... :/

[SaltWater]

check in the filter

[philip_r5]

Clean up crew might have helped.

[LadyQuorra]

I checked and I didn't see a fish but it looks pretty dirty in there... Oh wells :/ going to do PWC and vacuum the sand in a bit.

[LadyQuorra]

Clean up crew might have helped.

Maybe, I have 7-9 Hermits and a Pom Pom crab... Now I feel like performing an experiment with table shrimp to see what happens, maybe when I get back from my trip.

[LadyQuorra]

Hey everyone,

Since I've been out of town a lot this summer, I decided it would be best for my 20g tank to be broken down. Livestock and LR has already been re-homed. Think I might start up a 10g cube towards the end of the year. I'll still be coming out to meetings of course! See everyone in a couple weeks