ChrisQ

And to try and answer your original question.

If you have a 20g tank (less because of rock/sand displacement) and you buy your purigen in the little bags that treat 100 gallons, net weight of 60 grams. 60 divided by 5 gives you 12 grams so i figure that gives you 5 refills of 10-12 gram bags. Just have to figure out how to measure it out.

Man that a weird thought for me, i stick 2 100g bags in my reactor in a 125g system 

1 hour ago, Rp.McMurphy said:

Yep- I know algae is inevitable and even encouraged as a sign as a maturing tank but that doesn't make it any easier. Fear of the unknown and all that...

One per tank of the lawn mowers? Or do you mean the lawnmower and the goby will fight? Been looking forward to getting a lawnmower but that means I'd have to have algae for him, quite a catch 22. 

No, i mean't 2 blennies will fight. You'll have algae soon enough, pick one up and start a QT. Be ready at the same time maybe, also try and buy one that eats frozen, just ask the owner if he'll see if he'll eat.

22 minutes ago, spectra said:

 

Text me pics you have my number...……..prices to.

I'll just give you one, but if you want to trade for a FF frag that would be cool too 

Lights are off, but they are the same ones as the last entry on the nem pic contest. Gel filter was used to cut the blues so you know.

Are you okay with a baby rainbow?

Just keep in mind that you WILL get some algae growing on your rock work, but it's only temporary as long as you keep good husbandry. Maybe trade your goby for a lawnmower blenny but only one per tank that size or it's war! and a few sand sifting snails since it's kinda tough to put a couple tangs in a 20 for algae control. Good call on the Salifert.

Also don't worry, at the stage that your at, we ALL go through it. Also might consider a few more snails as your 2 hermits will be trying to kill them, sometimes they succeed. 

Look for any dead spots "low/no flow" for detritus build up and remove it and fix flow issue if any.

Your rock is very young yet and that's where all the beneficial bacteria is, as that grows it will help.

Take a turkey baster and blast the detritus out of all the little pockets in the rock work from time to time.

Purigen basically helps control and trap organics, and helps the nitrate to not keep climbing.

A 25% water change every other week will lower the nitrate faster and do more then the purigen for nitrate reduction. 

What is your nitrate level?

What is that tank size? oh sorry, missed it was a nuvo20

7 hours ago, Taylorhardy1 said:

I hear ya man. I can regularly be caught yelling profanities at the aefw while dipping on Saturday's. Theyve taken out a $2500 frag pack now, Im on the verge of literally setting my tank on fire. I had 2 weeks of not finding a single one, but last week there were tons when I dipped.👿

Man that's an investment . Was my suggestion that far out of the question in a severe loss like that? Literally cutting every colony and scraping/killing away ANY remaining encrustment in the rock work and starving and siphoning them out until eradicated? Continuing your dipping routine in QT.

Then sadly start over with what you've saved. They shall encrust again!

When the time comes when it should be ready again a couple $15 sacrificial lambs should do.

(Can't believe i just said that) 

I've never seen a FTS of your tank so i can only imagine if it's a really mature tank i can understand it would be really hard to make that call.

Vicious little monsters.

7 hours ago, Taylorhardy1 said:

I hear ya man. I can regularly be caught yelling profanities at the aefw while dipping on Saturday's. Theyve taken out a $2500 frag pack now, Im on the verge of literally setting my tank on fire. I had 2 weeks of not finding a single one, but last week there were tons when I dipped.👿

Keep your hammers swingin and don't let your meatloaf 

An old Hawaiian retaliative said that to me as i was leaving one day and somehow i knew what he mean't by it.

You can do this with adding a manifold to your main return or even a simple MJ1200 sitting in the sump much like a GFO/Carbon reactor works.

 I'm going to steal your idea   J/K

12 hours ago, NateDawg said:

I was thinking that but the way I'd have to set it up, there'd have to be two pumps working and I'm tryna get away with one right now

Hmmm, the way i saw it in my head at the time was the "main" being slightly higher then the second and maybe a little offset if necessary, cutting and welding small pieces for a water channel and let gravity do it's job, one pump, one valve. Heck i even have a 1'' gate valve. Well maybe a small ball valve pump side to tune the flow better.

Mangroves on top and the flow from the gravity feed will keep a zoa garden perfectly happy i would think. 

But if you want to go the nem route, i have about 29 Rainbow bubble tips some very small, with your clown question, they are a fish that never goes very far from their nem/home so the don't require a lot of space but i think that is a bit small even for a clown long term.

Do you ever disappoint with your photos? I've yet to see one.

1 hour ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

Good points. I would even say you cut plugs off even if you have a fine tooth comb. Those planaria are very thin and they can lay eggs underneath the frag if there is a little crack.

I do the things you listed then give them a week or two in a qt tank where i look at them with a magnifying glass.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

 The comb, it was kind of a metaphor  If i ever buy a piece again it gets chopped at the base of the "trunk" even slightly above it. This is and was the sacrifice when i joked about chopping and tossing the rest over your shoulder, hard for some people to see and have all that growth and just throw it in the garbage. I know i did when i first started buying them and not doing it and then................  

That was an absolutely beautiful teal piece too

Nasty buggers, and yes, look how small and hard to see they can be.

2 hours ago, Taylorhardy1 said:

My favorite fish store I've found in Oregon is @CuttleFishandCoral by far. They have a very nice, clean, organized store, full of extremely nice corals and fish at great prices. They're in Portland, so a bit of a drive, but they're worth checking out for sure! 

Yep, grab yourself a few small Styrofoam containers or a small cooler and make a road trip out of it. I say a few few small Styrofoam containers cause you go see Jeff and Cuttlefish you'll more than likely leave with more then one item. I have a rule, i only walk in with my ONE main little Styrofoam.  

Or you can find yourself in a situation like this just a few miles down the road visiting Rudy at Golden basket reef. 

Yep, good places here in the Portland area but i believe you also have The Premium Aquarium down your way which is also a great shop and owner

8 minutes ago, stylaster said:

More of an SPS fan myself i enjoy the challenge of keeping them and watching them grow into large colonies in a relatively fast amount of time

But you're the epitome of the "special bred of person" i spoke of earlier in a post 

23 minutes ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

It is hard to qt stuff. Not because of the work involved, but because you want to pull them out and put them in your tank.

There are only two rules that coral people need to abide by:

1. Don't shag hookers in Haiti without a condom.
2. Trust nobodys frags.



Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

Haha! i wish i can "like and laugh" at the same time, i guess i just did! 

Whether it's my best friend that taught me reefing or my most trusted and well respected local vendors (2), it still goes through a very vigorous Bayer dipping routine. The routine got even more vigorous when i had a short but very nice chat at the May meeting Bert that explained to me that when dipping some LPS in Bayer such as a trachy for instance the rinsing routine becomes that much more important because corals such as this can fill themselves up with new water and expel the old fairly quickly, during it's time in the Bayer it's doing this and it becomes extremely important to add a couple more rinsing vessels and just go ahead and let him sit in the rinse for 15-20 mins at a time to give him the time to expel as much as possible or you WILL have dead shrimp if you don't take some extra simple steps. My acro dipping routine was easy 10ml of Bayer to 1 cup of tank water, 2 dedicated rinsing containers. The Acro gets blasted with a Bayer turkey baster for 10 mins straight nearly then it goes to the first of 2 rinsing containers containing twice the amount of tank water as the dip. They spend just a few minutes in there being basted the whole time with a separate dedicated rinsing baster then to the third and final with around the same time and process. Then it's mounted to a fresh plug and receives it's immigration papers and placed in the tank. I do my LPS much differently now.

Never put a mounted acro in your tank from anyone, i know it's a bit heartbreaking to take your bone cutters and cut the "nub" off an encrusted plug and remount it on a fresh plug and literally tossing the encrusted plug over your shoulder, but it must be done unless you're going to take a fine toothed comb to it under strong magnification. It's simply not worth the risk.

I haven't had an acro in so long i'm surprised i remembered the process  With my parameters in much better shape these days i kinda want to try a  Spongodes Montipora again.

40 minutes ago, Taylorhardy1 said:

Your entire comment was spot on. But this definitely impacts me the most considering the losses Ive had over the last 6 weeks. There's plenty of "cheap" ($10-20) sps out there to get you into that world a bit. However cheap sps usually means bland, boring colors, and much less interesting growth patterns. I added a lot of cheaper sps. Never qt'd, dip processes varied, and I was quite honestly setting myself up for failure. Then after I had all those cheap pieces growing like weeds, I figured it was time to dive into the really high end stuff, $200+ acro nubs. Lost almost every named piece in my system now. My highest value acros would be tough to sell frags off of for more than $20. If you ever plan on keeping a coral or fish worth more than $30, I'd definitely say quarantine EVERYTHING. It's the most heartbreaking thing in the world to see corals you spent months working towards, and countless hours looking for, just get devoured by a pest. Knowing how little you can actually do to save it. After this whole ordeal I've actually begun building dedicated quarantine systems for my new house. Never ever gonna let another pest get into my main system. 

After i lost that special OBT i still have that skeleton and will never throw it out, it serves as a constant reminder. What is really upsetting it it was probably one of those 15-20 frags that brought the egg clusters and worms in.

An old adage comes to mind.........

"If i only knew then what i know now"

Firstly, don't let anything i type/say in this post discourage you!!

Currently, after about 6 years

I can probably fill a moderate size calcium reactor with SPS skeletons 

Inexperience(chemistry and stability), buying from people without checking in on their past tank history, not dipping new arrivals (on trust) or improper dipping, not replacing the plug the frag is currently on, and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, there are some "variables" right there.

The care requirements between SPS and LPS are quite staggering IMO as you can probably see from the poll, again IMO, it takes a special bred of person to care for and understand the chemistry that comes with SPS, not alone be a spectrum genius to not only keep it alive but make it thrive. When it comes to the chemistry of caring for SPS there also comes added special equipment such as controllers and calcium reactors. With SPS it's all about stability, lighting and nutrient export much like most all coral, but think of it at maybe a 10 fold situation, but i still look at it like a Mosquito can fly over my tank and fart as i'm feeding the fish and kill half my SPS colony and all my LPS are yelling, hey! Hurry up and get some of that meaty goodness over here!  

SPS/arcos are also very susceptible to rapid changes in water parameters such as alk, lighting changes and a rapid drop in phosphate. Meanwhile, most of the LPS are sayin' what's going on here? Did something happen? I'm confused. Sadly i can still fill about half the reactor with some rare LPS skeletons as well, it happens. Most of my personal box of shame has mostly come from equipment failures but a great deal of them were through my own negligence, ignorance and life inevitably getting in the way sometimes. 

Don't get me wrong though, you or anyone can achieve stability with the "low tech" approach of dosing 2-part and grow huge colonies It's about just how much of your time and "hands on" you prefer. 

At the end of the day with whatever it is it's all about stability anyway i guess.

And at the same time like others have said, build around what appeals to you.

Do you prefer Cactus like structures that don't move but can be VERY vibrant in colors and fluorescence? Or would you rather prefer to view your tank/achievement with the flowing movement of corals that sway with the current? (Torches/Anemones/Elegance? It's all personal preference.

Like Manny said "both" it's very possible to have a mixed reef. The trick is, different corals want different things.  

I have no idea if you're new to the hobby or not but nevertheless, welcome to the PNWMAS! Any questions just ask away, lots of very friendly and knowledgeable people here ready to help.

Okay, so i went and read your "introduce yourself" thread.

Lots of truth there, if you don't know patience, this hobby will help teach you that, others have said nothing good happens fast in this hobby. Very true. But the payoff is unreal in the end. Just wait until you learn to frag your corals! Very fun and rewarding.

To help us help you better can you share some of your current tank details?

Tank size?

Equipment?

Parameters?

Age/cycled-not cycled?

Current inhabitants?

Rock?

Test kits?

DISCLAIMER! 

I'm in no way a expert in any fashion in SPS/LPS   Just sharing.

Haha! 5-6 cups of morning Joe will create post's like these 

2 hours ago, Taylorhardy1 said:

Its by far the most pe I've ever seen on any acro. The only way I really see base tissue is while I'm blowing off corals to help try to keep fighting my ongoing aefw battle.

Yeah that OBT was a special one, i got it from Danik and it shined and as you can see in the other acros in the background that was during my battle with AEFW ( was not aware at the time) too and sadly they finally got the tort 

I have a pretty intense dislike for them. 

So hard to pick just one !

Of course, our beloved OBT (dead)

trachyphyllia geoffroyi/radiata That's a whole piece of krill btw 3/4 the size of my little finger in it's mouth!

Dragon Soul Favia (Dead) Need replacement 

Make another one! 

Might even be able to create a nice little waterfall effect as well.

I would really appreciate a chunk too 

I was going through my box of shame today looking for some plugs i could use and seen all my multicolored colonies in there that i grew from tiny pieces and vowed to not open back up that box for a good while.

I'd like to get in line for the 

Apogee SQ-520 Full Spectrum Smart Quantum LED PAR Sensor

but just need it for about 48hrs 

2 hours ago, Oregonic said:

Glad you had a good experience. Hopefully I had just caught them on a bad day and my experience was not the norm. Being the son of a pipe fitter I had remembered going in there many times as a kid, thats why I had given them a shot. 

I hear ya there, i actually remember having to remind myself that, wait a minute, these guys aren't aquarist. They tried to tell me about the ones made of metal that'll do the same thing as well.  

Enjoyed my mourning coffee with having my brain melted.

Thought maybe some of you might enjoy these. 

Coral Coloration Glossary: This one was great! My Google bar is a mile long! Ahh, so much to do and so little time. 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/coral-coloration-glossary.314800/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/if-youre-serious-about-lighting-know-this.312587/

We should post one that excites us and make us want to learn more about it.

Mine is, but a ton of others....

"Yellow Fluorescent Proteins (YFP) - An unusual type of fluorescent protein with maximum emission in the yellow portion of the spectrum. Rare in its biological distribution, YFP is found in a zoanthid and some specimens of the stony coral Agaricia. Personally, I've noted yellow fluorescence in a very few stony corals (Porites specimens) here in Hawaii while on night dives using specialized equipment to observe such coloration's"