zondebok

I guess I should see some examples in person... Still seems hard to compare, as every setup is different, and it takes some time (it seems) to acclimate things to new lighting anyhow if you want to compare the same tank...

I would certainly be willing to go T5, but they are almost as expensive, and I personally haven't seen many people that find them to be better than LED aside from SPS/Clams (and some people still think LED are better there too). I am hoping to find some used lights to get started, and then look at upgrading later when I really know what I want, or when I get a bigger setup (I feel like I bought a boat here, always need a bigger one...)

Of course I have tons of pictures, but here is 1 from somewhat recently. Fish were somewhat skiddish and hiding. The tang in particular seems to think that anything new (e.g. the camera) is out to hunt him down and murder him. Obviously I am far from an aquascaping expert, but I really don't know how to re-do it at this point, especially with the goby that will dig around under whatever is there, and even then I don't know that I would do any better job doing it over... I would love to go see some other tanks, but the only people that I know that have any are the LFS, and they are not the least biased people I know...

Mine had a spot that looked almost identical to that, but he seems healthy and it seems to be fading some as he grows.

Prefer LED, but willing to go with whatever I can. Want to start keeping corals at some point, so I need to get this sorted out. Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk

Oh, I forgot my 2 little hermit crabs!

It was definitely not dead when it first started, since I could see the conch jumping, but he very well may have been dying for all I know. I may wait a month or two and pick up another one.

I know it sounds a bit crazy, but the conch seemed fairly active, was wandering the tank as usual, burying himself randomly, and then I heard him hitting the glass. Looked in and found a peppermint shrimp going for a conch ride, stabbing into any opening he could find while the conch was jumping trying to get him off. I chased him off and buried the conch a little, and the next morning the conch was rested vertically against the glass, with his underside showing. I thought he was dead, but started moving once I tried to pick him up, so I buried him a little and tried to see if he would pull through. Alas, no. I don't think the shrimp was hungry, I feed them fairly well (and neither of them was that interested in eating the conch, once it was dead). I also didn't see any reason to think the conch was dying, he had cleared most of my diatoms from my sand, but there were still plenty of areas with diatoms, at least. Perhaps I should have been adding algae wafers or something to supplement him? LFS said he has never heard of a pep killing a conch, and it seems reasonable to me also, as they are scavengers rather than predators, really. I am hesitant to put another one in if the shrimp may decide to attack it again. Hoping maybe some of you with more experience can put me at ease (or not, I suppose).

Bought a 55g tank with every intention of setting up a FW tank, did hours and hours of research, took my wife to the fish store, and she says "hmm, why don't we do saltwater, the fish are so much better"... Well, here I am 2.5 months later with a successful FOWLR setup (currently figuring out lighting, then will consider corals, etc. in the next couple of months). Current stock list: 3 turbo snails 4 astrea snails 3 cerith snails 1 margarita snail 2 peppermint shrimp 1 cleaner shrimp 3 blue/green chromis 2 black ice snowflake clowns 2 firefish 1 diamond goby 1 tomini tang Future stock plans: 3 bengai cardinals 1 potter's angel corals/anemones (probably avoiding SPS, at least for now)