Hog Head

These pumps are awesome. I have them working together in Nutrient Transport Mode and there are no dead spots anymore. The Fish/coral are adjusting to the higher flow rate and at 40-50% level don't seem to mind it. After a couple of days I'll try raising it up a notch again. I sure am glad you all helped talk me into getting two of them.

How about EcoTech.

Get a Maristar 2 in a few months' date=' double the T5's[/quote']

 

The Maristar I have is less than a year old. My wife would kill me if I upgraded it already. It would also be way cheaper to just add some more T5's.

Earlier you mentioned "hand held" I hope that did not mean you are using a hydrometer for testing salinty-If you are you may want to look into a refractometer-Those hydrometers are known for being "better than nothing"-If it was fish only maybe no biggie but...

 

Anyway, just was not sure what you meant by "hand held"

Hydrometer, all I have ever had. Milwaukee PH tester and the normal test kits.

How can you clean that giant glass with that little magnet? lol

Nice tank! Do you have close ups of the right side?

Too funny its a feeding clip.

Here's the right side.

I guess you and Isaac were right, while me, Sprung, Thiel, Calfo and all the marine biologist who spent their life with tanks are wrong (laugh)(laugh)(laugh)

 

If you can wait, just wait. It is just gonna be better, believe me.

I had my first tank when I was 12. I'm 36 and I had tanks ever since: one think I've learned is to give time to the piece of nature we are borrowing.

I'm an egoist person, but I've learned how to be conscientious when animals and plants are involved.

 

You can decide to play dices with nature. I did it too. You can be lucky and start a tank and cycle and mature it quickly. It is possible and can be done successfully, especially if your knowledge and experience can match your ambitions.

Or you can go through problems, kill your livestock and have to start it again. Or deal with algae and bacteria for months.

 

Your game, your choice. I always tell people to wait a a few weeks.

What most people don't understand still it is the difference between a cycled tank and a mature tank and all seems to be about how you can zig-zag the cycle spikes.

No worries, I can wait. I was just trying to find out how sensitive the softies are when first setting up a new tank. This will be my first soft only tank except for a small piece of frogspawn.

I need to build a hood and I want more blue in my light. I really like the growth I am getting out of the 10k Ushios so I was thinking about building in some T5's or VHO's into the hood. I know alot of you guys like the 14k-20k range but the growth I have gotten out of my acro in the last 6 months blows me away unless that is normal and I am just new to sps. I don't know much about the VHO's except they are larger than the T5's. Ialso don't know much about the Pure Actinic except that it is more of a purple and it would be washed out a little by the MH's when they are on. Any recommendations or preferences?

Here are a couple of pics showing the growth with the 10k bulbs.

February, a few pieces of acro on the right plus a small BN you can hardly see.

August, same location and all growth. No new additions.

Is that normal growth pattern for acro?

Wait until everything looks good and test results are good too. Then add a couple of weeks and you can throw in something.

Cycling is the first step of maturing a tank )

when dealing with life its always best to be patient but if using precured rock a couple weeks should be adequate as long as your testing during this period to make sure nothing spike's

I know, the patience is a virtue stuff or something like that. The rock will go in tomorrow and the tangs will just have to wait for a little more swimming room just a while longer. The rock should be pre-cured, it will be coming out of Garrett's tanks.

I will definitely be doing a build thread' date=' i bought the tank, sump, pump and stand last week. got some of it at my place and the rest in storage. i'm remodeling the house first before i get to heavy into the tank. Its killing me staring at an empty tank but good things come to those who wait, i guess.(scratch)[/quote']

 

A 6' 300g is the biggest I could fit in the house unless I want to be a bachelor again. Anything bigger and it is out to the garage. Or buy a bigger house so I can have a bigger tank. I look forward to the thread.

thats funny' date=' you said dry live sand. [/quote']

 

I thought about that as I was typing. It is kind of funny. It was the sand from my first sw tank that had allowed to dry out.(scratch)DOH! I had hoped nobody would notice.(whistle)

the acro would probably win but just a guess as some BN can pack a wallop as well.

The acro has been removed and the BN has the large rock all to itself again. I thought the acro would be easy to remove but it had grown across the rock and had attached in 4-5 spots. It was a bear to remove.

oh and i don't disagree on the crazy part. (nutty)

Speaking of crazy. Have you started the 700g yet? Are you gonna do a build thread?

It's my birthday today, and my better half said "I'm getting you the new light you want, but you need to pick it out" (the benefits of being married for 10 + years).

 

I have a 40 gallon breeder, with 2 - 24" 2 bulb lights (Aquatic life with giesemann bulbs).It's my first tank and is doing well (I think) three months in. Would like a 4' light with 4 t5 HO bulbs. Would like to have the bulbs on two timers, and have some moonlights (maybe - sounds cool, open to opinions). Eventually I'd like to add an anemone, and a clam. Currently have a torch, a candy cane, a couple of zoa, a star polyp and a finger leather - plus a purple dart fish and a royal gramma.

 

Any suggestions for lights I could look at? Thanks!

The Sunlight Supply 48" Tek light fixtures are nice. They come in 4,6 & 8 bulb models.

Just be prepared to lose em.....or don't get mad if you do is what I mean. I didn't throw no red hornet in there

 

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

The shrooms are all a fuzzy green/reddish brown, maybe 2 "superman" shrooms and one super hairy metalic green shroom. I decided to hold off on the Zoas and polyps. They have had a hard enough of a time in the big tank already.

Guy named Aaron open the Nautilus. Another guy named Jay (I think) works there. It's between 8th and 9th on Main. I've been in there a few times' date=' bought two zoa frags, a 5 head candy cane and a one head torch. All are alive and thriving in my tank. Very conversational - much more personal than the store on 11th in Eugene. I'll post back with the number in a bit, have it written down somewhere....[/quote']

 

Thanks.

 

Same phone # 541 344 fish. Aaron is the owner of " The Nautilus" and he has many years of pond and freshwater fish. His employee' date=' Jay, used to work at Liquid Sunshine and shares a ton of saltwater history. They are at 727 main st. And now open 7 days a week. Weekdays until 630. They are a great team and are willing to find what you need. Its like Upscales meets Rose city meets Garrets. Hope that helps![/quote']

 

Wow, I definately need to go in and check it out.

 

Here's their Craiglist posting from May. I e-mailed it to myself at work so I'd remember to call them!

 

New Store open in downtown Springfield. The Nautilus Tropical Fish is specializing in aquatic treasures from around the globe. We have Old World and New World exotics and a beautiful selection of high quality corals and inverts. Aquariums, powerheads, skimmers, filters, you name it we should have it. Mon-Sat 10:30-6:30, Sundays 12:30-5. OPEN LATE FRIDAYS DURING THE SPRINGFIELD FARMERS MARKET 3-7, WE'LL BE HERE TILL 8PM FRIDAYS. COME ON DOWN BRING. 541-344-FISH(3474).

 

Thanks, LS was my favorite haunt. Are you going to become a Sponsor?

 

The number is is the same as Liquid Sunshine (541-344-3474). They've got all of the stuff from LS plus things like a 240 (I think) cube show tank. Aaron also took that huge 10 or 12 foot reef tank from LS and turned it into a FW with sump. It's got like 100+ community fish' date=' cichlids, and a FW sting ray. I think it's a pretty sweet store, but I look at it from a FW point of view. He takes care of the fish better than other places that shall remain unnamed. **cough**pet time**cough**[/quote']

 

Thats too bad about the big reef tank. It was pretty cool.

If the sand isn't blowing around you should be good on flow

 

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

It is lightly but nothing that can't be adjusted.

I always throw a frag of zoas and xenia into a new tank immediately after filling with water. Haven't lost one of those yet....but I could just be lucky

 

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

Good, I have some LR with shrooms and zoas next.

did your tank cycle? how are you testing it?

Hand helds and test kits. Water was just added last night.

As my 37g thread shows, it is up and running with live sand up top and mud in the refugium. I am going to make a trip north to see Garrett or Jay about some rock. It is all cured and ready to go. How soon can I add Zoas, polyps, mushrooms and frogspawn?

The refugium is built and has the mud in place. Everything is plumbed and I filled it with water last night.

20H refugium, mud, Mag 7 and 100w cf light.

Filled up with Super Skimmer running.

Dry live sand in and filled up with 2 K4's. Might be too much flow. We'll see.

An MP10W ES would look good in there. LR coming next.

Does someone have the info for the store in Springfield that bought out Liquid Sunshine? Thanks.

I had a supposedly ORA Birdsnest that looked just like that. Although it didn't have the cool growth pattern. Nice colony!

Thanks. I need to remove the acro next to it to give it some growing room. The rock was supposed to be just for the BN but a piece of acro fell there and attached. Who would burn who?

defiantly birdnest as flow and position can change growth pattern as far as ORA goes if its neon green then I would say yes.

It is neon green. I guess I wasn't questioning if it was ORA but if it was BN or something else.

Beautiful coral. I like the unusual shape. I have mine even deeper with a similar light setup and mine has a more standard 'personality'

I think the shape it is mostly for the flow in your case.

Well with the flow pattern soon to change it will be interesting to see what it does.

Definately a BN though weather it is an ORA is totally up to the originator of the colony or orinial colony. I would say that it looks pretty dang similar in polyp extension/branch structure. That is some definate, "reach for the sky" growth though. I like it. Makes it look like a mid water, out of the ocean colony to me. good stuff. Wouldn't mind growing a few frags out at different levels/spectrums myself to see what it does.

 

Shweet!

Its very sweet. It has probably doubled in size since February and the color is awesome.