Our Tbs - Page 36

bobt2 · #**876** 04/13/2005, 07:32 PM

i wonder what i have now! i just saw 2 creatures! they were tiny [less than 1/8" ] i'll say light brown and for want of a better word" ants". many legs, running around, mostly backwards on top of a black sponge. only saw then because they were against a dark background. i'd guess some kind of baby shrimp?

H2OLUVSME · #**877** 04/13/2005, 08:15 PM

Brian, i agree with greenbean on the acclimation of the new lights. also, i have better luck with sick zoas under moderate to heavy flow to keep them clear of debris and to get the "white fungus" of of them.

running carbon wont hurt, but dont leave it in too long.

good luck!

April540 · #**878** 04/13/2005, 08:29 PM

Hi everyone, I have a big question for you, I would ask this elsewhere, but you all pretty much will answer in laymans terms, My 180 tank was bought as a used tank, and set up originally salt with the old bio ball wet dry, then the man didn't have the patience to wait for the salt to cycle and made it into freshwater, and this is the way I purchased it, Of course, I had to switch it to salt, my 29 salt tank was getting over crouded from all the corals, My question is, It was not Reef Ready, and all of your tanks are, I am not sure that when I get the new protein skimmer, if I need to get another overflo box for inside the tank and run it to a seperate sump for the protein skimmer? The sump is about maybe 12 gal. And I want to use this as a refugium, or get something larger for the fuge and use this sump for the protein skimmer. I dont think that the overflo I have will get enough water to both.Nor do I know if they make different sizes of them, maybe this one is too small for the tank. Can you understand what I mean?

dood68 · #**879** 04/13/2005, 09:22 PM

brian i would dip your zoas immediatly, mucho reef has the recipe under the zoanthid forum, basically 2 or 3 gallons r/o water with 2 drops of lugols per gallon then you dip them in there for 15 min. then you shake them around, i know it sounds violent, but when i did it with my zoas i had a small patch that were dying and it was spreading, right after the dip the whole clolny livened up and is growing

chrisnpa · #**880** 04/13/2005, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bobt2
i wonder what i have now! i just saw 2 creatures! they were tiny [less than 1/8" ] i'll say light brown and for want of a better word" ants". many legs, running around, mostly backwards on top of a black sponge. only saw then because they were against a dark background. i'd guess some kind of baby shrimp?

Hi Bob,

Do they look like this??

If so, they are called amphipods. They will eventually be fish food supplements and are in general, good for the tank. A search on Dr. Rons forum will turn up some good info on them.

Best,

Chris

April540 · #**881** 04/13/2005, 10:48 PM

Never mind, I found the problem, Should have checked further than the LFS, the one that came with the tank is only 300 gal flow, I found one that needs to go on this tank, it has 1400 gal, flow. They told me that the overflow was plenty big enough. I always had FO tamks other than the Anenomies and the Feather Dusters, what a difference in the reef tanks. And the older ways of doing thimgs compared to now, my protein skimmers before were the Lee's LOL what a big change. sorry

bobt2 · #**882** 04/14/2005, 05:34 AM

it's hard to tell, there so small and halfway back in the tank. there out with the lights on so i don't know if that helps. i'll just keep an eye on them

patsan · #**883** 04/14/2005, 05:36 AM

Bob, you've never seen them in any of your other SW tanks? Do you have LR in your other tanks?

bobt2 · #**884** 04/14/2005, 05:36 AM

looking at your picture again, mine seam flatter if that makes sence.

patsan · #**885** 04/14/2005, 05:38 AM

Could they possibly be the bad bugs?

bobt2 · #**886** 04/14/2005, 06:33 AM

don't think so pat, i see nothing at night with the flashlight and these don't seem to mind the bright light. they really look like tiny ants.

patsan · #**887** 04/14/2005, 07:39 AM

and you don't have them in any of your other salt water tanks? Do you have live rock in your other tanks?

I am going to order my lights and pump today from ReefGeek.
Hopefully I'll be able to move furniture around this weekend and get the tank into the house. Maybe once the tank's in the house, it will give me the incentive to figure out how to do the plumbing on it.

greenbean36191 · #**888** 04/14/2005, 07:41 AM

I would guess they are copepods.

patsan · #**889** 04/14/2005, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by greenbean36191
I would guess they are copepods.

They look like little ants?

bobt2 · #**890** 04/14/2005, 07:52 AM

my other tanks don't have live rock, yet! with what i've learned this year, i'll add some tbs later this year!

patsan · #**891** 04/14/2005, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bobt2
my other tanks don't have live rock, yet! with what i've learned this year, i'll add some tbs later this year!

What do you use for filtration on those tanks? Do you have a skimmer for your TBS tank?

drk70 · #**892** 04/14/2005, 08:41 AM

I have a question for everyone. How small can a refugium be in your sump before it's not worth having?

phil519 · #**893** 04/14/2005, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by drk70
I have a question for everyone. How small can a refugium be in your sump before it's not worth having?

well a fug serves two purposes afaik. 1) the macro in the fug to help export nutrients and 2) for a safe haven for amphipods, copepods, worms to re-populate.

I think any size will serve #2 but obviously a larger sized one will produce more.

On the first one - if its too small, then nitrates will eventually creep up and you'll need to skimm (in addition to the fug) and make water changes. FWIW - even if you have a large fug it's not a bad idea to make water changes anyway.

jnb · #**894** 04/14/2005, 09:11 AM

If it is to house critters you don't want up top? small as those critters can take.

If it is too grow, house tiny critters that you do not want to be subject to immediate preditors - it could be real small and still accomplish that - it would be cool to have a real small one, with a light, some macro algaes, some sand, and some critters

If it is for the above but just as importantly to grow macro algae to help with nitrites (or nitrates I always get the names mixed up) then I would say as long as it is big enough to house as much algae as possible - the smallest being lets say 4 by 8 inches (or whatever the deminsions are for the hanging fuges - the ones they put mud in I think made by ecosystems is 4.5 by 10inch by 9 in water volumn made for a 40 gallon - smaller than that water volumn starts getting questionable - maybe - anything would help if one depends for fuges for help

Quote:

Originally posted by drk70
I have a question for everyone. How small can a refugium be in your sump before it's not worth having?

drk70 · #**895** 04/14/2005, 09:17 AM

Thanks Phil. I guess I should really say what I'm trying to do. I'm looking at setting up the sump with the skimmer and fuge on the ends and return in the middle. I will tee the drain to go into the skimmer area and fuge. they will both flow to the center where the return pump is. I want my return area as big as I can get it which cuts my fuge down to no more that 6". My sump is a 29g tank (30x12x18). It will be 12" deep in the fuge also.

BTW I think I'm going to TFP on Friday.

bobt2 · #**896** 04/14/2005, 09:26 AM

pat, my 55 has a wet/dry with skimmer, my tbs has a remora hang on. i'm running the rock/skimmer system, no sump. the kiss method

greenbean36191 · #**897** 04/14/2005, 09:36 AM

Quote:

They look like little ants?

Not all copepods look like ants, but the kind that crawl around on your glass do. There are others that look like dots with long antennae which are the type that are in cyclop-eeze. Then the fish lice look like isopods without the big eyes and sometimes with long egg streamers coming out the back.

lossman · #**898** 04/14/2005, 09:46 AM

Hi Pat, I'm going to hitchike on your thread as this one is so active and there are so many knowledgeable folks here. (did I lay it on too thick??) I am having a problem with noise from the overflows in our tank. The pipe where the water returns to the tank has a siphon break on the underside of the pipe in the overflow. Water is coming out of there and creating a loud waterfall noise. Does anyone have a solution for this? This is not the flushing noise from the pipes going into the sump, it's a waterfall noise from the pipes caring the water back into the tank. The waterfall is just inside the overflow. Any help would be greatly appreciated as we will be putting the canopy on this weekend. Once that goes on, it will be next to impossible to reach the overflows except for cleaning the teeth. I need to resolve this now. Thanks so much for your help!! Sally

patsan · #**899** 04/14/2005, 09:57 AM

Do you have the durso or stockman pipes in the overflow? We did the hoffer gurgle buster method and it worked great for us. ....and can I say, it was simple to make? (that's not usually the way things go around here). The durso's didn't fit in our overflow and Bob couldn't get all the parts for the stockman....so we tried the gurgle buster and are very happy with it.
The only noise we really have now is from the external skimmer pump. When I unplug the skimmer, all we hear is a gentle flow of water...nothing very loud or annoying.

About once a month, Bob removes the pipes (very easy to so)cleans them out and washes all the junk off of them. Takes all of about 10 minutes to do.

lossman · #**900** 04/14/2005, 10:06 AM

We have the durso pipes, and, as I said, the noise is not coming from the pipes going down into the sump, it's coming from the return pipe that leads out into the tank. I'm sure once the canopy goes on, it will stifle some of that waterfall noise, but if there was any way to get rid of it now, when the canopy goes on the tank will be fairly quiet except for the slight whooshing noise from the durso and the noise of the water dropping down into the prefilter bags (which I may attempt to fix later on). Here is a picture of the pipe that is causing the problem. This may help everyone to understand exactly where the noise originates.

This pipe leads directly to the black pipes shooting water into the tank. Where the colored circle is (flashlight attempting to shed light on the subject) is where there is a siphone break - hole - on the bottom side of this pipe. That's where the water is coming out of causing the noise.

This is the inside of the overflow. The pipe in question is the one on the left side of the overflow. We have the same problem in both overflows.