Our Tbs

[drk70]

Red lobo is high on the list. I hope he has some nice ones. I also want a frogspawn and some zoas.

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by patsan
Brian will be selling the nudis that will take care of them shortly. I can't wait....I'll be his first customer.

Hey Brian, how are the eggs doing?

HAHAHA. Well...um...who knows? First I need to see if they will eat aiptasia, I haven't even tried those yet. Right now all I know is they eat "tulip" anemones. I'm hoping to wait until I have babies before I try feeding the adults aiptasia. I wouldn't want an aiptasia to destroy my egg machines.

As far as an update, the adults seem pretty happy in their new blue bucket (I'm glad there was no toxic residue in the bucket) and laid their 5th egg mass last night. Here are a couple of pics, just to confuse me and greenbean they decided to lay a straight egg mass this time:



Overexposed a little to bring out more detail:


It looks like egg mass #1 never hatched (it has been at least 14 days since it was layed and it is turning a nasty brown color).
Egg masses two, three and four all appear to have hatched and there are no noticeable babies in the bucket right now. From what I've read it is 2-4 weeks before you can see them with the naked eye. There are 3 tulip anemones and 1 tiny aiptasia in there as a food source. The anemones appear a little stressed (withdrawn), but are not full closed. It could be water quality too, but who knows.

I tried convincing the wife to let me put a 10 gallon in our spare room to raise the anemones and a five gallon for the adults, but that idea was shot down, looks like I really am going to remain a 1 tank guy Although, she might eventually get tired of the three buckets in the living room and break

B.

[patsan]

Looks like planes doing the sky writing.


Phil, I have pistols that small. Lots of them that size or slightly larger. I really only have the one that is large...all the rest are under 1".

Dennis...and a colorful candycane colony!! lol

[greenbean36191]

Brian, excellent shot of the eggs. Unfortunately, it looks like they are extremely small, so changes aren't very good that the larvae will be direct developing. Of course it doesn't hurt to keep trying to raise them to find out for sure.

Hey greenbean, I think there is a gorilla crab. It's that blood-sucking tick that lives on lowland gorillas in the rain forest. I'll have to dig up that post from Dr. Ron with those pics.

You mean gorilla lice? http://darwin.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~vsm...orillae_lg.jpg

[BrianPlankis]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by greenbean36191
[B]Brian, excellent shot of the eggs. Unfortunately, it looks like they are extremely small, so changes aren't very good that the larvae will be direct developing. Of course it doesn't hurt to keep trying to raise them to find out for sure.

Thanks, the blue bucket helps take pictures. Yeah the eggs are small, so I'm not too confident, but I'm going to just keep as is for the next month and then if none develop from the first four egg masses then I'll try seeing if I can raise them in green water. Any tips on specific types of phyto that might help?

Of course these eggs are only 10-12 hours old, the eggs might get larger before they hatch. I'm going to try to take a photo every day or two to see if the eggs get bigger. It is impossible for me to see them with my eyes only so the egg mass in a nice position for photos is good.

Brian

[patsan]

The cleaner shrimp decided to come out in the open today.

[Stormtrker]

Well, I got a call from Richard at TBS this morning. My part 2 of Keys rock will be coming tomorrow. He said they had not dived their site in Gulf due to diver refusing. Seems last time he dived there he ended up with a bad lung infection. Don't blame him! Also said Liverock.com and Triton had lost all life on their sites. TBS site is closer in to shore so he is hopeful they were not affected as severely. Sure doesn't sound good for Gulf rock for a long time. He also said they had lot of dead dolphins and sea turtles washed ashore.

[dwculp]

I asked this earlier today but it got buried, should I get 420nm or 460nm actinic bulbs?

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by dwculp
I asked this earlier today but it got buried, should I get 420nm or 460nm actinic bulbs?

I don't really know How about that as an answer? All I've read online is that 450-460nm is more of a black light effect with less color popping in the corals.

I personally have the URI super actinics that peak at 420nm and I love the colors I get

220W of super actinics only pics:







These are all VERY close to the colors actually in my tank. I'm going to be running about 2-3 hours of actinics in the evening as I just love the colors.

Brian

[patsan]

Carla, your tank looks so clean! It's immaculate! Glad you're getting your rock tomorrow. I'm sure you're happy you'll be getting the rest of your order. The lighting looks great in the tank.


dw....I don't know anything about the lights, or else I would have answered you this morning. I use the T-5's (and still don't know much about them either)

Brian, I am still amazed when I see the colors of your corals.

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by patsan
Carla, your tank looks so clean! It's immaculate! Glad you're getting your rock tomorrow.

Brian, I am still amazed when I see the colors of your corals.

Carla, keep in mind you are required to post pictures as soon as you can! Looking forward to seeing more TBS rock pictures on here

Pat,

Yeah, the colors are wonderful. I'm excited to get some LPS and SPS that are larger and should pop as well if I'm lucky Sometimes the zoas are so small unless you have a large colony you don't really notice the colors that much.

Brian

[patsan]

Originally posted by garagebrian
Carla, keep in mind you are required to post pictures as soon as you can! Looking forward to seeing more TBS rock pictures on here
Brian

That's right...we don't want to hear from you unless you post pictures every now and then. You've been doing good so far!

I know what you mean Brian. The first zoas I got was a small frag in the selling forum that I swear I couldn't see. I was really disappointed. But now they're doing very well and have multiplied already. Still nothing like a colony though....unless I call it a mini colony.

[Stormtrker]

Originally posted by phil519
Give the skimmer time. Mine is disgusting. The stuff that accumulates in the neck is enough to make the squeamish turn colors.

As skimmate builds in the neck, the skimmer slowly starts to lose efficiency until it really needs a cleaning. Immediately after cleaning though be careful as the frothing may shoot quickly into the cup and therefore you create a soupy, messy skimmate that is clear rather than the dark nasty stuff you want.

Also I've noticed the skimmer works into overdrive when water changes are done. I typically dial-down the skimmer air valve when making water changes. Then after a few days turn it back to "full".

Please note the following "assumptions": I run my sump water flow significantly slower than yours (mag 9.5). I don't even know the exact gph but it's likely on the scale of a mag 3 maybe less with the head loss.

The above is not necessarily an endorsement - just sharing that it does work with some degree of "patience". That said on my next tank I'd like to try a euro-reef and see if there's a big difference.

edit: hey hey, i'm moving up up up!

phil519 8 posts

Phil, not sure I understand above. Does rate of flow through sump affect insump skimmer performance? How deep does your EV120 sit in the water or rather how highup on outside of skimmer does your water come. Does that make any sense? I just don't think I have this skimmer working at full potential. Getting only about 1/4cup of dark green watery skimmate every 2-3 days. Of course I don't have any fish yet and only about 90 lbs liverock. Thanks for any help with this.
Carla

[drk70]

Originally posted by carlab
Phil, not sure I understand above. Does rate of flow through sump affect insump skimmer performance? How deep does your EV120 sit in the water or rather how highup on outside of skimmer does your water come. Does that make any sense? I just don't think I have this skimmer working at full potential. Getting only about 1/4cup of dark green watery skimmate every 2-3 days. Of course I don't have any fish yet and only about 90 lbs liverock. Thanks for any help with this.
Carla

Carla, I have a EV180 with a Mag7. I'm not happy with mine. It is the noisiest part of my tank. When I shut it off to feed DT's my tank is silent. I have a whislte noise that comes out of the air valve that I have never been able to fix. AquaC even sent me a new valve to no avail. Same noise. I get the same as you although occasionally I will get about 1/2" of the wet nasty stuff. I do get alot of crud on the riser. I forget what Phil called it before. I raised my skimmer to sit in the eaxct amount of water the instructions call for. I have closed the outlet valve a half a turn but it doesn't seem to make a difference. If I turn it too much the water level goes too high per the instructions. I can tell you one thing and that is I won't put this brand of skimmer on my next tank.

BTW, I have roughly the same set-up as you, but I have a 70g tank with a Mag 9.5 for a return pump.

[dazld]

Hello Again! I'm gonna have to make this as short as possible because it's late and I'm exhausted. But I wanted to let you guys know that I cleaned the skimmer and 24 hours later I started to see skim, it white and foamy, like bubble bath. Don't know whether thats good or bad. but I am happy as its steady and its something.

Dadgum gorrilla crabs! I'm very upset. Found remains of two day ago and was happy. Hmmm, what have I got that offed a gorrilla crab? The next day I see that one of my serpant stars has lost two arms but is still living. OH I WAS MAD AT GORRILLA CRABS THEN, but deduced that they had engaged and ultimately serpant star won...and after all it was still living. And even...that maybe that was the last one. I really don't even know if a serpant star can kill a gorrilla crab, but something did.

The bad news and the good news is that early this evening I spotted another one. A Big One. NO WAY. I still had my bucket sitting across the room, and at this point, I didn't care if the little SOB lived or not. I pulled that bucket over and got that rock out and poked him right off. The rock went back into the tank with no harm done and gorrilla is out. I feel good!!! And I really, really want to believe I've got them all. But, this tank was started in 2/03.
What do you think? Could they have bred?

About the mini-brittle stars...I think I have some. Until catching up tonight I had thought I had baby serpant stars, but maybe not.

April, I am very interested in the garlic thing. Any advice about feeding is appreciated.

Actually, any advice about anything at all is appreciated.

I have noticed that now that my creatures have settled in that my clown fish (oscellaris according to the seller) is routinely rubbing aginst some of my mushrooms corals, as though they were an anemone. Any thoughts on this? I really do want an anemone, but I trying to get older and wiser before I do something stupid.

Besides which, I do not have my water parameters where I would like them to be, and truthfully, am really struggling to understand the math and chemistry part of it all. That is not one of my talents.

I have ordered a refractometer and hope it will arrive tomorrow.

I have also looked all over town for a 'red flashlight' so would somebody please tell me more.

Thanks for any help and also, if there is anything I am forgetting, feel free to speak up.

[Fred_J]

The dead gorilla you found was most likely his molt. Every time I see what looks like a dead crab I forget about them molting.
Fred

[bobt2]

carla, your pictures will help me deceide on keys rock or not.

[patsan]

Patsy, you can usually find a red flashlight in Wal-Mart. I think Bob found ours in the sporting goods section. When you use it to look into the tank at night when the lights are out, you're able to see lots of critters and creatures running around. They don't react to the red light like they do with a normal flashlight.

My clown fish decided it wanted one of the brains to host it....so he rubs on the brain all day long. He's just about killed the brain, but he's having a great time and evidently doesn't know it's almost dead.

Phil, when did you get your new clown? Is the skunk new too? Have you been holding out on us?

[drk70]

I would just back-up what was already said. Gorilla is probably a molt and go to Wal*Mart, sporting goods section for a red flashlight. The one I have has 3 interchangabe color filters, red blue and yellow or you take it off and its white.

[bkelley02]

Originally posted by dazld

I have also looked all over town for a 'red flashlight' so would somebody please tell me more.

Thanks for any help and also, if there is anything I am forgetting, feel free to speak up.

I got my flashlight at Walmart. Works great.

[bobt2]

carla, is that the sand bed from tbs or did you add to it?

[dazld]

I just nabbed another gorilla! That makes four.

[Stormtrker]

Originally posted by bobt2
carla, is that the sand bed from tbs or did you add to it?

I wanted a deeper sand bed so I put down a couple of inches prior to getting the TBS sand. It ranges 2 1/2 to 3 inches deep total. It didn't take but a day after putting the TBS sand on top to find worm/critter tracks extending to bottom of sand bed. The original sand is slightly darker than the TBS.

Dennis, I do get a thick crud in the skimmer riser tube. I had skimmer sitting in depth AquaC recommended then last night lowered it about 2 inches to see if that would help but didn't notice a difference. The air intake does make a slight whistling noise but not that noticeable or else I am use to it. I had researched skimmers here on RC prior to purchase and knew they were very touchy to use but it was only one that would fit my sump. Really wanted an ASM 2 but couldn't figure way to fit it in.

My part 2 should arrive here about 4:30PM. Will take more photos this time and post.
Carla

[MyMonkey]

I hate to ask a silly question. But, what is TBS? And, how do I start a tank like this one. Very nice.

[patsan]

Originally posted by MyMonkey
I hate to ask a silly question. But, what is TBS? And, how do I start a tank like this one. Very nice.

TBS is aquacultured live rock. It's different from other live rock you would buy because it's shipped in water, so it comes with all kind of life on/in it. Here is their web site:
TBS