Cirolanid Hunter's 75g New Tank Journal, Research, Pics and Hunting Tips

[patsan]

That's too bad you found another one Brian.
Hard to recommend a fish that would be easy to remove a critter from if one attached.
My initial suggestion was going to be a royal gramma, but then saw you planned on some dottybacks, and I don't think they're compatible.
Then I was trying to think of something that would be relatively easy to catch, and I drew a blank.

[BrianPlankis]

Thats OK Pat, I know i have a lot of criteria Thanks for the reply!

B.

[ratherbediving]

Sorry you found another isopod

I read in the TBS thread that you had captured one, and were going to be trying something out... are you going to figure out what it is eating? I thought that if those guys didn't have a host, they would starve to death after 6 months, max. Obviously not!

As far as fish go-- that is a tough one.... how about a chromis? I have a Vanderbilt chromis in my quarantine-- one more week to go before it goes in the main tank. It's stunning IMO. I don't know what it will be like when it is older, perhaps it will be much blander... but you could always go with a green chromis for a little splash of color.

Catching it will be tough, but maybe you could dip your net in the tank when you feed. Perhaps you can get the fish used to the net, so that when it is time to grab the fish (if it gets an isopod) then it might be easier to net it then.

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by ratherbediving
Sorry you found another isopod

I read in the TBS thread that you had captured one, and were going to be trying something out... are you going to figure out what it is eating? I thought that if those guys didn't have a host, they would starve to death after 6 months, max. Obviously not!

As far as fish go-- that is a tough one.... how about a chromis? I have a Vanderbilt chromis in my quarantine-- one more week to go before it goes in the main tank. It's stunning IMO. I don't know what it will be like when it is older, perhaps it will be much blander... but you could always go with a green chromis for a little splash of color.

Catching it will be tough, but maybe you could dip your net in the tank when you feed. Perhaps you can get the fish used to the net, so that when it is time to grab the fish (if it gets an isopod) then it might be easier to net it then.

Hey Thanks for the input! Oh, I've done PLENTY of testing on what these things eat and they will pretty much eat anything dead. This isn't that common for cirolanids, I guess you could say I got lucky and got the scavenger kind! I will overcome these and the baited trap hasn't yielded any more bad guys the last two nights

I just googled the venderbilt chromis...very pretty fish. Are chromis the kind of fish you are supposed to feed multiple times a day?

Brian

[melev]

How about Dispar Anthias? You'll need a few so they'll school out in the open, but they are gorgeous.

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by melev
How about Dispar Anthias? You'll need a few so they'll school out in the open, but they are gorgeous.

Good suggestion Marc, very pretty fish. But I'm limited to 6 fish for this tank, with 2 clowns that means 4 and I was dead set on 2 sunrise dottybacks, but now I'm wondering if maybe those are optional at the moment So many pretty fish.

This got me to thinking about compatibility and I searched for some sources:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/c...lity_chart.cfm
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/marin...patibility.GIF
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/SWCompatibility.php
http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/saltwa...lity_chart.php


A great article on Fairy Wrasses:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hcs3/index.php
Wrasses:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hcs3/index.php
Gobies:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hcs3/index.php
Chromis:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hcs3/index.php

Dottybacks:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hcs3/index.php

After reading that article, it goes to show that research is important. Dottybacks are known to attack ornamental shrimp and I plan on having one or two cleaner shrimp, so I might need to rethink my dottyback choice.

Brian

[ratherbediving]

Originally posted by CirolanidHunter
....

I just googled the venderbilt chromis...very pretty fish. Are chromis the kind of fish you are supposed to feed multiple times a day?

Brian

I hope not! I only have been feeding mine once a day, 2 x day on the weekends. I have read that anthias need more frequent feedings, Marc could probably confirm or deny that though.

Fairy wrasses are really nice. The six line wrasse is a more affordable option; the fairy wrasses I have seen start at $60 and go up from there (sometimes WAY up!) whereas the 6 line can be had for around $20. I really liked my six line, but it jumped out of the tank. I now have eggcrate over all openings of the tank, and hope to get another one someday soon.

[melev]

The Dispars need feeding 2x a day or more. I reduced it to once a day, and all three of mine died within days of each other. Oops.

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by melev
The Dispars need feeding 2x a day or more. I reduced it to once a day, and all three of mine died within days of each other. Oops.

Sorry to hear that Marc! OK, anthias are out then, I know myself and I will not keep up with twice a day feedings and I make weekend trips that result in no Saturday feedings. Of course I have one of those automated feeders somewhere.....

Brian

[BrianPlankis]

Hey all,

Boy...this weekend was frustrating. One of my brain corals I got on my TBS rock started looking ill and by sheer luck I was watching the tank and I saw a Eunicid species of worm on a nearby rock slowly crawl out, extend about 4", and then attack the brain coral! It removed a small piece of flesh and moved back into its hole in the rock.

So I immediately removed that rock (luckily small with nothing important on it) and did a 15 minute freshwater dip on the rock. The worm tried to come out and as soon as I started trying to remove it it snapped in half. So I hope the other half is dead?

I also caught 3 more cirolanids this weekend...2 babies...apparently the baited trap I am trying is feeding the cirolanids and they were able to reproduce. THIS IS FRUSTRATING!!!!

I am now seriously considering removing my DSB and freshwater dipping most of my rocks that don't have important life on them.

I also forgot to turn of my RO/DI unit and flooded the house again. Luckily it was only tile and only damaged one pair of shoes that was on the floor.

Brian

[melev]

I think those worms continue to live, not unlike an earthworm.

I've flooded my laundry room so often that water just seeps out the bricks now. In the past, water would gather. Now it just goes outside to the top soil, as if it knows that's the next best place.

[Psyire]

Sorry to hear about your cirolanid problem. I seen something in my tank that may resemble them and was wondering if you have a picture of yours?

[patsan]

Originally posted by Psyire
Sorry to hear about your cirolanid problem. I seen something in my tank that may resemble them and was wondering if you have a picture of yours?

Here's a picture of one I found in my tank.


Brian, so sorry to hear you keep finding them. It seems like you're never going to get rid of them. Getting rid of the sand sounds good, but what if they're living in the rock too?

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by patsan
Here's a picture of one I found in my tank.


Brian, so sorry to hear you keep finding them. It seems like you're never going to get rid of them. Getting rid of the sand sounds good, but what if they're living in the rock too?

Hey Pat, never say never please I can't bear the thought of never having fish in my FISHTANK. I'm sure they are living in the rock too, and I've backed off my idea of removing the DSB, I know that would cause another cycle in the tank.

My wife wants the Nemos in the big tank, but stops asking when I say the bugs would kill them.

Psyire,

I've been having conversations with Dr Ron about my pests and he thinks I actually have TWO different species of cirolanids in my tank...LUCKY ME. Here are the two very different looking bugs:





Brian

[patsan]

Sorry. You're right. I never should say never. It just seems like you've had them forever already.

[BrianPlankis]

Hey all,

I've had many requests explaining how I do auto top-off, so I thought I would put this together. This is not rocket science, but I thought this might help out a few people.

I'm paranoid about float switches sticking on and flooding the floor or dropping the salinity and killing everything in the tank, and don't like using electricity for something as simple as water top-off. So I created the following auto top-off device that uses zero electricity and only has one possible failure, loss of the air tight seal.

Here is a picture of me testing the device:



Here are some diagrams explaining how it works:




Some Important points to remember:

1. Point C should not be covered by water in the top-off container, so barely insert it into the hole in the rubber stopper.

2. Point D should always be higher than point B to keep water from going into the top-off container or loss of suction into the tank. If point D is lower than B, the gravity feed won't work.

3. Point D should be as low as possible in the top-off container to minimize how often you need to refill it.

4. Your top-off container can be placed anywhere above or to the side of your tank, just remember that any water in the top-off container below the water line and point A in the tank will not empty.

5. An air tight seal is critical. I drilled two holes through my stopper for the air line tubing and the device would not work until I siliconed the tubes into the stopper on both sides. Without the air tight seal the top-off container will empty into your tank (at either a rapid or slow speed depending on diameter of the tubing and how big of an air leak you have).

6. To stop the device from flowing into the tank. Lift the water line out of the water in the top-off device (so point D is above the water level of the top-off container).

To start the device again:

1. Refill the top-off device to just below point C.
2. Wet the stopper and push firmly into the neck of the bottle.
3. Take the Air Line out of the tank and blow into the Air Line until water starts flowing through the water line into the tank.
4. Replace the Air Line into your holding clamp and the tank will equalize.

My top-off glass bottle holds 3.1 gallons and I have to fill it 2-3 times a week depending on evaporation. I've got it down to a science and can refill and restart it in under 2 minutes.

Another benefit is that it only empties about 2.8 gallons into my tank (due to the last 1.5 inches being below my tank water line). Even if the air tight seal fails (it has once on my backup top-off device that has a quirky stopper) my salinity drops from 1.027 to 1.025 and nothing overflows. Peace of mind and zero electricity

Brian

PS In order to make one of these, you need a rigid walled container. Glass bottles are great, I've heard some of the really thick water bottles can work. If it flexes too much it won't work properly.

[BrianPlankis]

Hey all,

I'm always thinking of ways to cut costs and one thing you can do is choose your lighting carefully.

About 5 years in the future I should have a new home that will allow a fish room and 2-3 propagation tanks tied into my large tank. I'm going to be messing around with the cheapest, yet effectively lighting. So I came up with the calculation below.

Before I get into it, just a quick summary for those that don't want to read the whole thing: If you are trying to keep your long term lighting costs low, do NOT buy PC lights. Sure you might find a cheap used PC light set out there, but in the long run you'll spend more money with having to replace bulbs every 6-8 months. Spend a little more up front on lights and you'll have more money later on since you won't be replacing expensive PC bulbs!

Here is the little calculation I did:
Lets assume a 30 or 40 gallon breeder as your prop tank, so you need either two MH fixtures or 36� long PC, T5 or VHO lights. I used several online places for prices…I know you can get cheaper sets for any combo listed here.

384W PC lights (should replace bulbs every 6 months, lets stretch that to 8 months):
Retro Kit: 4 x 96W + (4 – 10,000K bulbs included): $380
Replace bulbs every 8 months for 3 years: ($30/bulb x 4 bulbs/8 months x 12 mon/year x 3 years) = $540

Total: $920 for 3 years + 8 months (original bulbs) = $20.91/month
Total: $1280 for 5 years + 8 months (original bulbs) = $18.82/month

156W T5 lights (supposedly 18 months before bulbs need replaced):
Retro Kit: 4 x 39W (4 german bulbs and individual reflectors included) - $329
Replacement bulbs: ($27/bulb x 4 bulbs/18 months x 12 x 3) = $216

Total: $545 for three years + 18 months (original bulbs) = $10.09/ month
Total: $689 for five years + 18 months (original bulbs) = $8.83/month

I realize this is less watts than PC, VHO, but couldn’t find 54W for 36�. You could argue 39W T5s are more powerful than 96W PCs…but I won’t go there, so this isn’t the best comparison.

380W VHO lights (12 months for white light):
PFO Retro Kit: $180 + 4 95W 36� bulbs ($80)
Replacement bulbs: ($20/bulb x 4 bulbs/ 12 months x 12 x 3) = 240

Total: $500 for three years + 12 months (original bulbs) = $10.42/month
Total: $660 for five years + 12 months (original bulbs) = $9.17/month

350W SE MH lights (12 months for 10K bulb):
2 – 175W MH retro kit: (2 – ballasts: $160, 2 spider reflectors: $100, 2 XM 10K bulbs: $120): 380
Replacement bulbs: ($59/bulb x 2 bulbs/12 x 12 x 3) = $354

Total: $734 for three years + 12 months (original bulbs) = $15.29/month
Total: $970 for five years + 12 months (original bulbs) = $13.47/month

225 W HD 6500K light bulb (Replace every 6 months):
3 clip on light fixtures with aluminum reflector: $15
3 bulbs to start: $18
Replacement bulbs: ($6/bulb x 3 bulbs/6months x 12 x 3) = $108

Total: $141 for three years + 6 months (original bulbs) = $3.36/month
Total: $213 for five years + 6 months (original bulbs) = 3.23$/month

These calculations don’t include electricity costs as I’m not familiar with how much each one uses. I know MH uses the most. In my experience my PC lights in the past got a LOT hotter than my VHO, so I would think they are using more(generating more heat than VHO), but I simply don’t know!

PC lights can be bought for a steal used, but I think you would be hard pressed to save money over time compared to VHO or T5 with the replacement bulb costs alone. Of course the growth from the different lights really impacts profits, but using PC lights has yielded the slowest growth in my tanks.

I just thought this was interesting, anyone care to point out flaws in my calculations? I’d like to fix them if I made a mistake. Any other comments are welcome as well

I threw in the Home Depot lights as a joke, but I am going to try propagating mushrooms under them just to see what happens.

B.

[melev]

Too much math - making ... head .. explode...

[ratherbediving]

Brian--

Thanks for posting this! I am going away for a couple of weeks, and was VERY worried about topping off while I was gone... wondering how to explain to the neighbors and friends that would be looking after the tank about topping off the tank....

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by melev
Too much math - making ... head .. explode...

Marc,

Thanks for stopping in...sorry to explode your head

Is this better for you:

Estimated 5 year cost of 40 gal breeder lighting:

PC lights: $1280
MH lights: $970
T5 lights: $689
VHO: $660



ratherbediving:

Your welcome! Always happy to supply info that turns out to be useful instead of my usual drivel

Brian

[melev]

You forgot one:

Cutting a hole in your roof for sunshine: PRICELESS!

[BrianPlankis]

Hey all,

When I first started this hobby I was one of those hobbyists running back and forth to the store to get RO water. The whole concept of Reverse Osmosis and DeIonization(RO/DI) was rather daunting to me. If you are not familiar with RO/DI, I would suggest reading the following link:

Melev's Reef RO/DI page that gives you more information on why you should switch to RO/DI. I'm not trying to plug for Marc, just that a lot of his Q and A are good information.
http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html

I purchased my replacement filters from http://buckeyefieldsupply.com and they have an excellent FAQ on MARSH:
http://www.marshreef.com/modules.php...ewtopic&t=1799

I also suggest reading:

Randy Holmes-Farley: What is TDS?
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

I finally took the plunge and purchased an RO/DI unit when I setup my 75 gallon tank back in January. However, I learned an important lesson this weekend and thought I would share. CHANGE YOUR FILTERS!!!! I finally ordered a TDS meter and tested the TDS reading on my RO/DI water. It was 80...it should be in the 0-2 range, ideally zero. Why was it so high? because I had not replaced the filters and my water is not the best here. Here are a few readings I took on Friday:

Galveston Island unfiltered: 689ppm
Galveston Island run through Brita filter: 621ppm
Dasani Bottled Water: 15ppm

My Home water unfiltered: 315ppm
My Home water run through our fridge filter: 294ppm
My 30 gallon rubbermaid RO/DI water: 80ppm (YIKES!!)

RO/DI waste water: 490ppm
RO/DI when first turned on: 110ppm
RO/DI after 2 minutes: 90ppm
RO/DI after 20 mins: 75ppm

After changing my RO/DI filters:
RO/DI after 2 minutes: 21ppm
RO/DI after 10 minutes: 0ppm

Here was my RO/DI unit before changing the filters:


This is a pretty standard configuration. The labels are:
A - Sediment Filter - Removes large particulate matter
B - Carbon Filter - Removes organics and clorine
C - RO Filter - Removes the majority of dissolved solids and contaminants
D - DI Filter - Removes the remainder of dissolved solids measured by most TDS meters.

Things are a bit dirty! Here is my sediment filter on the left and the new one on the right! Yikes!



Here it is after all the filters were changed:


Before I started the unit again, I decided to flush my RO membrane. Some people will say flushing an RO membrane is useless, some will say it is critical. Well, I removed my flow restrictor and let water flow through for 15 minutes before it was clear. Here is the water in a white bucket after about 2 minutes:



If I had not flushed the RO membrane, all of that junk would have gone through my DI filter. No thank you!

Finally, here is my TDS meter:


I like it so far, but we'll see how it is doing a year later. Anyway, my TDS is back to zero and hopefully that helps me with my current cyano problem.

Brian

[melev]

You know, I've yet to even try to figure out how to install a bypass flush on my RO unit, and it has been running for 3 years. Seeing your bucket of sludge sure makes me want to at least try it to see if I can report a bucket of clear liquid.

One more link you should include: RO/DI FAQ

Also, filters should be changed at 6 months, or more often if you use a lot of water. I know, that's a random statement. When I only needed water for my 29g, filters could go about 10 or 11 months, but now that I'm runnning a 280g, a 29g, a 28g, and a 3g, plus drinking water, filters changed out at 5 months works for us.

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by melev
You know, I've yet to even try to figure out how to install a bypass flush on my RO unit, and it has been running for 3 years. Seeing your bucket of sludge sure makes me want to at least try it to see if I can report a bucket of clear liquid.

One more link you should include: RO/DI FAQ

Also, filters should be changed at 6 months, or more often if you use a lot of water. I know, that's a random statement. When I only needed water for my 29g, filters could go about 10 or 11 months, but now that I'm runnning a 280g, a 29g, a 28g, and a 3g, plus drinking water, filters changed out at 5 months works for us.

Marc,

Thanks for the extra link, I've never seen that one! I probably had sludge because my sediment filter was full. But, thanks for the segway(spelling?) into my next topic. I bought a RO flush valve for my unit, but left it at work. DOH!! I will be installing it this week and will detail all the steps with pretty pictures!

Brian

[melev]

Great. After you post the pictures, I'll decide if I want to go to that trouble. It is easier to just slip in a new membrane, which I have on the shelf. But i do want to know how long this one will last.

Wait a minute. You stated above you flushed it and ended up with sludge, but then your next post states you forgot, need to bring it home and install it. What am I missing here?