Barelycuda

Hi Reynaldo, I do have some if you need. I was at the meeting in salem & could have brought you some if I had known earlier. I saw that Brian had responded to your post in the live food thread & he has some also. Let me know if you still need some. Dave

Would you try to make the enclosure or did you have something in mind that could be modified?

That seems logical. Now to find a vessel that will hold that amount of media. Without having built one of these yet do you have any ideas on what size, type, material would be necessary? What would you use the dosing pump for? Would you use it to control the flow into the chamber? I might be interested in it. Sorry for all the questions, but it seems that the closer i come to understanding this the more questions i have I really do appreciate you thoughts & time. Dave

Ok on the next question. I am building a new fish room aka the "clown house". It is a 12x14 room where my existing 11 tanks are moving to plus 16 more. So there will be a total of 27 ten gallon tanks plus a 100-125g sump. For now there will only be fish in the 11 tanks but I will probably be bringing on a couple new tanks a month through summer until they are all running. The total system volume will be approximately 370-400g. Do you have any thoughts on size of a reactor to start this thing?? The one midwest has is 7" dia x 21" tall for a 250-500g system. I am not sure what size to start with as i am sure it will change (as all diy projects do.) My thought was that any reduction is going to help. Right now I have approx 1000 clowns in the system so there is a heavy bioload with lots of water changes to help keeps nitrates down. Any reduction is going to help. I will PM you for you number but would also like to keep the info in the thread also to help anyone else that is interested. Also feel free if you have any clown questions, I am not an expert by any means but would be happy to help. Thanks again, Dave

Thanks for all the info Nyles. I am looking into possibly adding(making) a nitrate reactor to the clownfish system to help control nitrates. I have a question though. Since this is a large fish only system I have no reason to supplement it with calcium. You had mentioned using the seachem matrix product instead of the arm media. Do you think this would function the same on a fish only system? I was thinking about purchasing a large phosban reactor, building a closed loop for it, & trying to make it work. Something like the midwest aquatics version. http://www.midwestaquatic.com/PRODUCTS/sulfur_denitrifier.htm My only concern is raising the ph back up going into the aquarium. I have read that simply dripping the effluent back into a chamber with an air stone will fix this problem. Maybe dripping back into the skimmer somehow or a chamber with an air stone? Are you coming to the meeting this sunday in salem? If so I would like to talk to you some more about this. Dave

Very nice looking Shannon. I was beginning to wonder if the electrical work we did was for nothing Cuda

Thanks for the compliment. Our boston's are very neglected(not) and love visitors. We just need some pics now... If I didn't have a pair of ocellaris in my reef tank I would do a school of clowns. I have seen a couple of tanks with a small school of clowns & think they look cool. Dave

I feel your pain on the QT issue but they are a must. A few months back I purchased 4 pairs of clownfish for broodstock pairs. I set up 4 QT tanks for the new fish with the plan to Quarantine them for 4 weeks before circulating their water into the breeder system. All fish appeared happy & healthy upon putting them in their tanks. A little over a week after that my cinnamon clowns starting showing signs of ich. If I had put them onto the system without quarantine they would have introduced the ich to approx. 1000 fish. Also if you are thinking about breeding fish ( at least clownfish in my case) freshwater dips or hyposalinity are the only way to rid the fish of parasites. Copper treatments are common for parasites but at least for clownfish can make them sterile. QT tanks are a pain but worth every bit of effort compared to a parasite outbreak. Cuda

I have some rotifers if you need a starter. Are you coming up to the x-mas party this weekend? If so I will bring you some. Let me know. Cuda

I have a 38 out in the saloon. Same dimensions as a 55 except only 36" long i think. I would have to measure it up tomorrow. Dave

First drawing looks good. I agree with DoughPat about considering a larger return pump section. If your sump is a 10g tank then the pump section will be 1/2-3/4 of a gallon. Miss your topoff or have any water fluctuations and your pump will run dry. Cuda

You may want to check out with the manufacturer of the bulb to see if there is a burn in time for the bulb before you dim it. Flourescent lamps for example need to be burned in for 100 hours min without being turned off before dimming or it drastically shortens the life of the lamp. Cuda

Tuesday was the nite that they probably hatched. They usually hatch about an hour after the lights go out. The larvae are either eaten or sucked up in the filtration. It is pretty uncommon for a predator ( your wrasse) to eat them if the male is attending to them. He is probably very protective. If you want to try to raise a batch let me know & I could try to help you. Cuda

Thanks for sharing. I was just reading an article about this aquarium & now I want to go see it even more. Cuda

Thanks for all the compliments. This has really become a labor of love. I find that I spend most of my evenings doing something related to these tanks (but sometimes maybe a little too much time if you ask the wife.)(whistle). It was fun hosting the meeting here and sharing this part of the hobby that so few people have experienced. The questions & feedback were cool. I have a bunch of photo's that I need to put together for a thread from day 1 of a hatch through at least the first 6 weeks so that you can see the transformation especially metamorphasis. Cuda

Keep an eye on the eggs. From what you described they probably laid the eggs on monday night. Watch the color of the eggs. Around day 6ish the eggs will change to a grey color & you should probably notice that you can start to see the eyes. At thay point they are approximately 2 days from hatching. I will do some checking but the eggs should hatch on day 7 or 8 ish. Very exciting keep us updated. Cuda

Ron, Do you have a single maroon now? Just like dsoz said above that if you have a single clown for any period of time it is probably a female. If you have a single the best thing to do is get a small juvenille that is stiil with a group of others & has not started to change sex or get a known pair. Cuda

Yes I would say that temp flutuations could have been the cause especially the 87 deg. temp. The 71 deg temp is not good either but when fish are shipped the temps can drop depending on how long the fish have been in the box's. Sorry to hear of your losses. Cuda

Do you have two seperate tanks to put these in? The one single female could go with your male but you'll need a second tank for the second pair. The two females will either fight to the death or until one goes carpet surfing. Cuda

Hi sorry it took me so long to respond. You have a smoking deal. I think that I am going to let Garrett have this one. After talking to the wife tank space is a premium right now especially after bring home 4 new pairs of clowns last weekend . Thanks Cuda

I would say she is healthy. The Guy I got her from had her for a coulple of years in a 200g sump full of live rock. She hid for the first day or two & then started eating so I think she is in good shape. Just needs a better home. Are you coming up to the meeting tomorrow? If so you could take him home with you or maybe someone coming up from the south could take her back down with them & meet you somewhere. Cuda

FREE TO A GOOD HOME ALSO. In the process of picking up my new clownfish pairs last weekeng the guy I bought them from gave me a single female Gold Stripe Maroon for free since he needed to tear the tank down that it was in. She is approx 2.5" long & looking for a boyfriend . I'll get a pic up soon. Cuda

FREE TO A GOOD HOME..... I have a pair of Maroon clowns that I will give away to someone if they want them. The female is a Gold Stripe maroon approx. 2.5-3" & the male is still a juvenille 1-1.5". I got these from Holly to possibly keep as a breeding pair but aquired another spawing pair of Gold Stripe maroons last weekeng so I need the tank space. I will get some pics up shortly. Let me know if interested. Cuda.

Chewie's advice is right on. I did the same thing in my garage for my RODI unit. Works perfectly. The only thing I did differently is I added a small utility room sink & tied the drain in so that I could fill the water jugs in the sink in case I forgot to turn off the water (which my wife will attest that I do all the time ) Cuda

I had to remove my six line wrasse. I could not add any new fish regardless of size or type. So now all the tank mates are happy & the six line is living somewhere else. Your clark's should lay eggs again. It is not uncommon for the first few clutches to not make it to hatching. Cuda